In vast and diverse India, Christians often live freely.
Yet India
ranks among the 50 countries where life as a Christian is most
difficult, according to Open Doors International, a global ministry that
serves Christians who are pressured because of their faith.
The country
is No. 31 on Open Doors' 2013 World Watch List, largely because of a
streak of Hindu nationalism, or Hindutva, that envisions India as a
purely Hindu state.
Each month, numerous reports surface of provincial Hindutva militants
breaking up prayer meetings, intimidating pastors, assaulting
worshippers, and chasing Christian families from their homes and
villages.
The dates, locations and names change, but many of the
elements remain: Christians are accused of forcing Hindus to convert;
Church buildings are damaged; area church leaders intervene; police
often provide little protection. The incidents reported here, for May
and June, contain more of the same.
Hindutva has a political base in India's right-wing, nationalist
Bharatiya Janta Party, or BJP. It is the No. 2 party in the national
assembly and holds or shares power in seven of India's 28 states,
comprising about 15 percent of India's population. "This ideology ...
has firm root and strong support in many government structures as in the
police," the World Watch List says.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom, an advisory
body to the U.S. Congress, notes the Indian government has created
programs intended to prevent religious intimidation. But it also says
the country's overburdened courts, rife with "political corruption, and
religious bias, particularly at the state and local levels," rarely
punish Hindutva aggression.
The result, the commission says, is a "climate of impunity",
especially in states with anti-conversion laws. Five Indian states,
three of them BJP-controlled, have passed laws placing restrictions on
religious conversions.
"While intended to reduce forced conversions and decrease communal
violence, states with these laws have higher incidents of intimidation,
harassment, and violence against religious minorities, particularly
Christians, than states that do not," the commission's 2013 annual
report claims.
Incidents in May and June, listed by state:
Karnataka
May 15: Hindu nationalists rally in Pakshirajapura, accusing Pastor
Steven Suresh of forcefully converting members of the nomadic Hikki
Pikki Adivasi tribe to Christianity and insulting Hindu gods. Police
arrest Suresh and 11 other Christians. Pastor Shiibu of Indian
Evangelical Church tells World Watch Monitor the new converts were
forbidden to draw water from the town well, and denied
government-subsidized staples such as rice and sugar.
June 26: In Narasipura, a crowd burns Zion Church, beats the pastor
and five church members, following repeated calls to stop holding
worship services, according to the pastor, named Annaiah. Three days
later, the temporary shed built to replace the church also is burned.
Police tell Hindus to stop disturbing the church, and tell Christians to
stop holding meetings and to pray at home.
Odisha
May 21: Hindutva extremists attack Kati Singh in Bhalukasai village
after he refuses to contribute to the local Hindu festivals. Singh is
injured and admitted to Nilgiri Government Hospital. According to the
All India Christian Council, Singh files a complaint with police, who
turn aside his petition and ask Singh to make a festival donation.
June 12: The third day of a three-day meeting of pastors and church
leaders conducted by Independent Pentecostal Church in Canalpada is
disrupted when a crowd barges in, accusing organizers of forceful
conversion, according to one of the guest speakers, Rev. Suratmahat
Samal. Some of the intruders use motorcycles to chase several meeting
participants as they leave the session in an auto-rickshaw. The rickshaw
overturns, injuring eight.
Uttar Pradesh
June 10: Returning home from a visit to a church member in Sonari,
Pastor Ram Prakash from the Prakash Healing Society's Church is stopped
by a group, which threatens to kill him if he doesn't stop holding
worship meetings in the area, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of
India.
Prakash tells World Watch Monitor that the church member, named
Raghu, "has been visiting our church for the past two years and I went
to his house as he invited me to pray for him and his family."
The
militants threaten to burn Raghu's house.
Prakash files a complaint with
police, with no response.
Manipur
June 10: Some residents of Kongpal assault Pastor A. Shyam and damage
the newly built Victory Church of India, according to the Evangelical
Fellowship of India. They complain the church, completed in May, is an
insult because it is built adjacent to a historic site.
Tamil Nadu
June 9: Pastor Ram Chandra is beaten by Hindu attackers after he
prays for a sick man, according to Pastor C.V Chacko of the Indian
Pentecostal Church. Chacko tells World Watch Monitor that the man's wife
and children asked Chandra to pray with them, and that protesters
massed at the family's home, setting upon Chandra as he left the house.
Maharashtra
May 5: A mob of about 20 enters Maranatha Worship Centre in Pimpri
village during services, menaces the 50 assembled parishioners assembled
for evening prayer, and orders the priest to leave town and close the
church, according to the Catholic Christian Secular Forum. The priest,
Fr. Wilson Patole, suffers a swollen eye and other bruises.
May 23: Intruders barge into the Sarfabad house of Gyaneshwar Kurwade
as they are gathered for an evening family prayer. The intruders
assault Kurwade and his son, Shrikrishana, saying they don't want
Christian activity in the area. The victims report the assault to
police, but no action is taken.
June 6: State police in Pandherwani file a First Information Report
against local Christians after Hindus accuse them of forceful
conversion. Sudharkar Mavli, field coordinator for Indian Evangelical
Mission, tells World Watch Monitor that some of Hindus in the town have
assaulted Christians, destroyed a house, seized farmland, and have
ordered Christians to leave the village.
Andhra Pradesh
June 4: In Thukkuguda, Hindu extremists attack a Telegu pastors
meeting, hurl verbal abuse at their faith and caste, and beat them with
sticks, according to Pastor Bhagati Timothy. Four pastors suffer
significant injuries and are taken to the hospital. Police register a
First Information Report against the attackers. No arrests have yet been
made.
June 10: A Hindu mob, assisted by Dhanjiy Reddy, a local government
official, demolishes Christ Church in Gutta Begumpet, making good on a
year of insistence that Pastor Paul Viswas stop church services. At the
intervention of area church elders, Reddy is transferred to a different
area.
Tripura
April 28: Angry Hindus in Twirisa interrupt worship meetings April
14, 21 and 28, threatening "dire consequence" if the meetings don't
stop, Nabin Zamatia tells World Watch Monitor. On April 28, the meetings
stop. "There are about 40 church members and some are very fearful of
the extremists' threats now," Zamatia says. "My family and few families
went to another village to worship Christ."
May 23: Tapas Bin, 35, is murdered in Twirisa village. Area church
leader T. Honathan tells World Watch Monitor that after Bin had married a
local woman, his Hindu father had been pressuring him to abandon
Christianity. Church officials claim the killing was religiously
motivated. Police disagree, though at times have provided conflicting
assessments.
Kerala
June 5: Eight Hindutva extremists attack Church of God Full Gospel
India Pastor Vijayan M. and his wife in Edathar, as they return home
from a visit to a believer who had fallen sick, according to the All
India Christian Council. The couple is knocked off their scooter, and in
the ensuing assault suffer injuries that require care at Palakkad
District Hospital. Local Christian leaders file a police complaint.
Gujarat
May 14: Rajubhai R. Bhuriyaand and his family, assembled in their
Bilwani village home for the evening family devotion, are assaulted by a
group of about 20 drunken villagers who accuse the family of forceful
conversion. Five injured members of the family are admitted in Dahod
Government Hospital.
Chhattisgarh
May 3: Police arrest four pastors in Bhelwa Baddhara after they are
accused of forceful conversion. The Evangelical Fellowship of India
reports that pastors Mani Munda, Vishnu Kerketta, Ashok Idaigo, and
Rajgopal Munda, from the Power of Saviour Ministry in Sundargarh,
Odisha, were visiting the house of a believer when police arrived and
took them to the police station for questioning.
Ten local Christians
tell police they became believers of their own free will.
Police charge
the pastors with continuing an assembly that has been ordered to
disperse, and release the men on bail.