Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) confirmed Monday, June 6, it is training already at least hundreds of Hindu militants, including a dozen nationals from Sri Lanka and Malaysia, to fight Christians.
A representative from its partner, the militant group Viswa Hindu Parishad(VHP), suggested to BosNewsLife he is already using his training to attack Christians. The VHP activist, Parsuram Das, said he was "involved in at least four incidents of destroying churches and beating nuns in Keonjhar districts of Orissa," India’s tense eastern coastal state.
He declined to give details about these incidents but defended his actions saying that "Christian nuns are converting Hindu youth to [the] Christian religion by offering sex to them." He denied the RSS and VHP supporters are "militants" as described by foreign media. "But we are not worried about the media tactics," he added in an interview.
TRAINING ACTIVISTS
In another statement obtained by the BosNewsLife Orissa Bureau, the RSS said it is training
activists in special training camps in India’s southern state of Tamilnadu and Orissa. "All the activists of RSS have to complete three year training courses in three training camps," the organization said.
The first-year training camps of Orissa were organized at two places in which a total of 622 trainees participated while 137 activists participated at a second-year camp, RSS officials said.
Hundreds more are trained in India’s southern state Tamilnadu, ccording to RSS’s official publication ‘Organiser’, including 12 trainees from nearby Sri Lanka who are participating in the first-year camp there. 72 others, including one trainee from Malaysia, are taking part in the second-year camp, the ‘Organiser’ said.
THOUSANDS MORE?
There are unconfirmed reports however that over 5000 militants are participating in different training camps in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Trainees from Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir are now in training camp Kurukshetra in Haryana state, BosNewsLife learned.
News of the massive training of Hindu militants and distribution of weapons have led to fear among churches and Christian organizations. They say missionaries find it increasingly difficult to preach the Gospel in India.
To "encourage" them and potential converts, US-based Gospel for Asia (GFA) began broadcasting radio programs in 92 languages, the organization said in a statement to BosNewsLife News Center.
RADIO "ENCOURAGEMENT"
"For thousands of GFA missionaries and pastors…GFA Radio provides encouragement to press on another day so more thirsty souls can hear the Good News of abundant life offered in Jesus," the organization said. One of them, identified as Pastor Cherian, had recently been warned by militants not to go back to a rural village where he had preached.
"Tuning in the following morning to a GFA Athmik Yathra (Spiritual Journey) broadcast, Pastor Cherian heard about how the apostle Paul continued to proclaim the name of Christ, even when he suffered persecution. By the end of the broadcast, Pastor Cherian felt renewed in the passion God had given him for the lost. He rededicated himself to continue sharing Christ in the very village where he had encountered such opposition."
Several missionaries and church leaders have been killed in recent years, human rights groups say, and this year a Christian delegation urged the Indian government to end what they see as spreading Hindu violence across the country. (Stefan J. Bos at BosNewsLife News Center contributed to this story. Satya Sundar Mishrais BosNewsLife India Reporter based in Orissa. Mishra, 26, is a Development Journalist of Orissa working on social and religious issues that are not yet on the radar screen of media and politicians. He has been working for a variety of key publications and is currently also active as Sub-editor and Senior Reporter with Odisha Bhaskar, a regional daily newspaper. He can be reached via e-mail satya_mishra11@rediffmail.com ).
