Madhya Pradesh where Hindu militants attacked a Christian school and burnt the image of a Catholic leader in response to remarks attributed to him by a local newspaper, BosNewsLife established.
The incident happened late Tuesday, April 5, when supporters of apparently the Hindu nationalist movement Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), raided the Carmel Convent School in Gwalior, a city in the northern part of Madhya Pradesh, and "burnt the effigy of Dr. John Dayal, President of the All India Catholic Union (AICU)", Catholic officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
"The [attackers] also made an attempt to vandalize the school property, but the timely intervention of the local police prevented the…incident," the AICU added in a statement to the BosNewsLife New Delhi Bureau. They held a meeting later in the evening and demanded "an apology from the Church" for the perceived anti Hindu article "and warned Christians that they would extend their agitation to other institutions and schools in the city," the AICU stressed.
However the local Hindi newspaper, Dainik Bhaskar, "misquoted Dr. John Dayal as saying that the church in India was against the Hindu religion," during an April 4 press conference, said Fr. Anand Muttungal, Public Relations Officer and Spokesperson of the Catholic Church in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, in an interview with BosNewsLife.
"HINDUNESS"
"On the contrary, Dr. Dayal had merely said that Christians in India were against the ideology of Hindutva," on which the RSS is based, Muttungal explained. Hindutva or "Hinduness" is a word to describe movements advocating Hindu nationalism. The term "Hindutva" was coined in 1923 by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar a Hindu nationalist whose book, Hindutva, serves as an inspiration for the modern Hindu Nationalistic Movements, according to historians.
But "we want to tell everyone here that we propagate peace," said Muttungal. The AICU urged the Madhya Pradesh government to end the violence and to "restore the confidence and security of the small Christian community in the city."
"They have a right to burn my effigy if they will, but they no right to wreak vengeance on innocent nuns and priests and common Christian men and women," said Dayal in a statement. "In all the last ten years or so, I have never attacked religions. [The AICU] campaign has been against fundamentalism, bigotry and violence…We have always made a difference between the Hindu faith, which we honor and respect, and Hindutva…"said Dayal, who was in the region for a public meeting to pay homage to Pope John Paul II who died Saturday, April 2.
CONCERN
There is concern among church leaders that the latest attack is part of a new wave of violence against Christians in the area. This year a Christian prayer meeting was reportedly attacked in the presence of police by members of the RSS and the Bajrang Dal group in the village of Dhanora in Madhya Pradesh’s Seoni district on February 23, reported the Christian news agency Compass Direct.
Last year on January 11, the Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh witnessed a spate of anti-Christian violence after the body of a 10-year old girl, who had been raped, was found in a Catholic School.
Hindu militants, who alleged the girl had been raped by Christians, attacked churches and Christian institutions as well as houses and other properties of Christians. Police later established that the crime was perpetrated by a Hindu.
The state government of Madhya Pradesh is ruled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Christians make up less than one percent of the state’s total population of over 60 million, according to government estimates. (Based in New Delhi, Journalist Vishal Arora, 32, has covered persecution and other hard hitting news stories for a variety of international and national publications. He has traveled around the country on invitation by NGOs for seminars and talks on human rights, communalism, and religious persecution. Vishal Arora can be contacted at e-mail address vishalarora_in@hotmail.com or visit his website http://www40.brinkster.com/vishalarora/ )
