Church
releases data to show that anti Christian violence in
India this year has been the highest ever in the history
of
independent India
Indian
Christians plan National Protest Day on 4th December to
focus national parliament's attention on continuing
violations of the rights of religious minorities, and
acts of violence by right wing fundamentalist forces
The Church In India
released data to the press Tuesday, 24th November 1998
proving that the violence in 1998 so far is more than the
total incidents of crime against the Christian community
from 1964 to 1997.
The data was released at a press conference by the United
Christian Forum for Human Rights to announce the National
Protest Day on 4th December 1998 to focus attention on
the continuing violence against the Christian community.
The press conference was addressed by Catholic Archbishop
Alan de Lastic, chairman of the Forum which has the
participation of the Catholic, Protest and Evangelical
Church groups. Others who addressed the media today were
Church of North India's Bishop of Delhi Karam Masih,
Evangelical Fellowship of India general secretary Dr
Richard Howell and All India catholic Union national
secretary John Dayal, who is also the convenor of the
Forum.
The leaders of the Christian community said the protest
had the support of all denominations, and had also been
supported by several human rights groups and leaders of
India's other minorities, including Muslims.
De Lastic, Masih, Howell and Dayal stressed that the
Christian response to the violence would be peaceful
protest. The church and its institutions would also
continue with their humanitarian and educational
activities.
Christian educational and developmental organisations are
victims of the violence, together with priests and
preachers. De Lastic said these institutions were being
targeted because they were sensitising the empowering the
people, particularly those who had been exploited and
subjugated.
The speakers said the propaganda by certain elements that
the Church was busy with converting India's Hindu
population was being deliberately created to divert
attention from the fundamentalist programme of foisting a
mono cultural system on pluralistic India. "Everyone
knows who these forces are, every one knows what this
conspiracy is," Karam Masih said. De Lastic said
while conversions by force or inducement were against the
Indian laws, faith and conversion from one religion to
another were a matter for an individual, a decision which
he took of his free will and which was his right under
the Constitution of India.
The forum said a memorandum will be presented to India's
parliament and its prime minister urging the
representatives to take urgent action to stop the assault
on India's traditions of democracy, pluralism and
religious tolerance.
The forum said the government had not taken the action it
should have to curb the increasing violence against all
minorities, not just the Christians. The forum also
released the text of an Open Letter to the people of
India which identifies the conspiracy against the
minorities, and the inaction of the government.
The following is the text of the Press statement
issued by the Forum.
The Christian community in India is observing 4th of
December 1998 as a National Protest Day to focus the
attention of the Government and the people of India on
the spate of violence against Christians this year, and
continuing efforts by a some fanatical elements to
demolish the secular character of the state. Schools,
colleges and other Christian institutions run by various
denominations and congregations will remain closed for
the day on 4th December 1998. Those working in Hospitals
and essential services will wear black badges. Christians
in service are being urged to take a day's leave to
participate fully in the various protest programmes
planned at state headquarters, diocese and parishes of
all denominations of churches in India.
In Delhi, the protest includes a relay Prayer and fast at
Raj Ghat, the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of
the nation, a Rally at Parliament House (at Jantar
Mantar) and a Memorandum to Parliament (to the Speaker of
the Lok Sabha, the Deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha
and the Prime Minister of India, the Leader of the
House). A number of Bishops and large numbers of Priests,
Nuns, Lay leaders and Human rights activists are expected
to be part of the Rally.
At the national level, the protest is being coordinated
by the national organising committee of the United
Christian Forum for Human Rights, which was set up last
month. The Forum has a presidium consisting of all
Bishops resident in Delhi, with the executive panel
including heads of churches and communities representing
the member-churches of the National Council of Churches
in India, the Salvation Army, the Methodist Church in
India, the Baptist church and the Evangelical Fellowship
of India, CRI, All India Catholic Union, apart from
Christian NGOs, the YMCAs and YWCAs. Church of North
India's Bishop Karam Masih of Delhi and Catholic Bishop
Vincent Concessao, are the coordinators, and Fr.
Devadhas, director of Chetnalaya the co-convenor with
Convenor John Dayal.
The Organising Committee of the Forum has received
heart-warming messages of solidarity and support by Human
Rights activists belong to various communities, NGOs and
community leaders who share our deep concern at the
threat that fanatical fundamentalist and communal
elements pose to the unity and integrity of India, to its
ancient pluralistic culture, and to its democratic and
secular polity.
The issues : This years has seen more violence against
the Christian community in India than ever before in the
first Fifty years of Independence. This has been admitted
in Parliament by the Indian Minister for Welfare, Mrs.
Maneka Gandhi in July this year. Mrs. Maneka Gandhi
singled out Maharashtra and Gujarat for largest number of
violent incidents against the Christian Community. Since
July, the violence has escalated even more sharply,
culminating the gang-rape of four nuns in the Jhabua
district of Madhya Pradesh. The violence has not ended.
Especially disturbing are the following aspects of the
violence and the pressure on the community :
- The severity of
violence
- The geographic spread
of the violence
- The connivance of
political elements and the backing of political
groups in power, and
- The complicity of the
state machinery, particularly that of the police,
in many cases.
In addition, the pressure
on the community has taken other forms too in, many of
which it is a co-victim with the Muslim and other
minority communities. These include :
- Dilution of special
encouragement given to charitable work, by the
attempt made in taxation laws
- Delay in extending
Equal rights to Dalit Christians.
- Delay in the
formation of the Supreme Court bench to consider
the question of minorities.
- Abuse of official
media to manipulate news, and denial of equal
media opportunity to minorities.
- Lack of action on
minority finance Development Corporation
- Continued ignoring of
the National Minority Commission and its orders
- Continuing delays in
central, state and municipal authorities on
issues such as new land and clearances for
cemeteries, churches and schools, clearing of
encroachments and alienation of properties.
- Attempted
Hindutva-isation and brahmanisation of the
national education and youth programs which
subverts the education system and erodes the
plural and democratic edifice of country. Anatomy
of Violence : The violence is aggressive and its
scale, magnitude and severity it is bestial. The
forcible disrobing of Fr. Christudas in Dumka,
the murder of two priests in Bihar and the North
East assault on priests, nuns and preachers in
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,
Orissa and other states, inexorably culminates in
the rape of the nuns. The body of a Methodist old
man, a Dalit, was exhumed from its grave in
Kapadwanj, Gujarat, by a group of fanatics.
Hundreds of bibles were burnt by hoodlums
belonging to a particular group who raided a
hundred year old school run by the P. Mission in
Rajkot in the same State...In Gujarat again, a
statue of the Blessed Virgin was shattered. In
Khatima, in UP a church was broken into, and
various statues of installed in the altar.
In Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat,
Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab and Rajasthan many prayer
meetings have been violently disrupted and old and young,
men and women, priests and worshippers assaulted
mercilessly. Scores of people have been injured in these
incidents so far, some of them critically.
Many of these incidents have been investigated by the
National Commission for Minorities. Many others have been
probed by unbiased Human Rights groups, who have all
confirmed the severity of violence. They have identified
the assailants and killers as belonging to a group of
organisations who believe in a communal philosophy. The
Chairman of the National Commission of Minorities have
repeatedly called on the National and State governments
to act and bring the culprits to book and to ensure there
is an end to violence against the Christian communities.
The reports have also exposed the insidious and criminal
conspiracy of intolerance and hate. The directions of the
Chairman of the National Minorities Commission have
fallen on deaf years.
The conspiracy begins by fanning hatred, creating a
Mythology of Hate through disinformation and by repeating
falsehoods. The conspiracy is to brand the Christian
community, and in fact all minority communities, as
aliens. By propounding a thesis of "One People, One
Nation, One Culture," the effort of this group is to
denounce the pluralistic traditions of Indian culture,
the richness of its diversity and the spiritual
contribution of its varied faiths. Anyone who is
different is branded as an enemy, and attacked, coerced,
assaulted.
The intolerance and violence was exposed sharply by
Justice Venugopal in the 1982 Report of the Enquiry
commission investigating the Kanykumari riots against
Christians. He said this group "adopts a militant
attitude sets itself up as the champion of what it
considers to be the rights of the Hindus against
minorities. It has taken upon itself to teach the
minorities their place, and if they are not willing to
learn their place, then to teach them a lesson."
(Report of the Justice Venugopal Commission of Enquiry)
Justice Sri Krishna who this year submitted his report on
the Mumbai riots has described in more graphic terms the
genesis of communal hatred and the strategy used by these
fanatical groups to subjugate the minority communities.
In the recent attacks on the Christian community, the
dimensions of the violence becomes chillingly clear.
Firstly, the attack is on the physical symbols of the
church, specially on personnel involved in grass roots
empowerment, including priests, nuns,. The attempt is to
scare, coerce, limit. The second pressure is on
institutions, again with the apparent objective to ensure
that Christian social outreach is curtailed, its
developmental contribution to nation building is
minimized. The final attack is on Christian witness. It
is designed not just to break our spirit, but to weaken
our very faith.
This all is targeted against the minorities. And what
happens when the minority communities complain? In
Gujarat, the chief minister gave a commitment of peace to
the Christian community. This commitment was made to the
national commission for minorities. Despite the chief
minister's personal pledges, attacks on Christians
continue in major Gujarat cities, including Ahmedabad,
Gandhinagar and the industrial capital Baroda. In Orissa,
no one is punished. In Rajasthan, no one has been brought
for saying that Banswara will be cleansed of all
Christian presence by 2000 AD.
Several Memorand a have gone to the President of India,
and the Prime Minster. Our leaders met the Union Home
Minister. He made polite statements and promised to pull
up those who were defending the rape of the nuns. The
government is yet to apologize for the incident. The
government is yet to condemn fundamentalism and
communalism.
Jhabua Incident: Not only is there no attempt at
applying balm to the wounds, there is an attempt to shift
blame. This is apparent in the three stages of the
official and political reaction on the shocking case of
the gang-rapes in Jhabua. First, the efforts was to try
to prove that no one was raped, and that it was
'ordinary' crime, a mere molestation. Secondly, the
endeavour was to try to say that it was not a communal
issue. And finally now, the seems to be to try to prove
that Christians were the rapists. The trauma of a the
nuns is the final violence in a long chain of violence.
The total cases involving Gujarat, Maharashtra,
Rajasthan, MP, Bihar, UP, Punjab, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and
even Kerala, are now reaching a hundred.
What has happened to the Constitution of India, to
Articles 19 to 30, including the important Article 25,
and to the very guiding principles, the fundamental
rights of guaranteed to each one of us as children of
this land? What has happened to Article 18 of the UN
charter on Human Rights, dealing with the Freedom of
Faith, and the Special UN Resolution on Minorities? The
nation seeks an answer from the governments at the Centre
and in the states, and from the political leadership of
the country.Back to Index Page
This report is provided by
the National Christian Forum for Human Rights
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