forcing tribals there to convert to Christianity, amid growing tensions in the region, church officials confirmed Wednesday, July 27. In a statement obtained by BosNewsLife News Center, the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India (CBCI) said that Fr. Thomas P. T., parish priest of St Michael’s church in Jhapadra district of Jhabua Diocese was arrested on July 21. He was released on bail soon after, CBCI said.
His arrest followed an official complaint from a supporter of the hard-line Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) group. It backs the Hindutva ideology according to which religious minorities can only exist in subordination to the Hindu majority community.
In addition RSS supporters also stormed a pastor’s retreat in Gandhi Nagar, Ratlam district, on July 23, Christian news agency Compass Direct established.
TRIBALS ATTACKED
The attackers reportedly entered the Gujarati hall and asked tribal participants why they were attending the meeting. Police and media representatives soon learned of the meeting, and authorities accused the conference organizers "of encouraging forced conversions."
On July 20, Hindu militants also entered a house in Jeet Nagar village while Jagdish Naik and his wife Grace, both independent Christian workers, were conducting a prayer meeting. The couple was dragged to the police station, charged with attempted conversion, and released on bail within 24 hours, Compass Direct reported.
The arrest and reported violence comes at a time when the Madya Pradesh government prepares to amend anti-conversion legislation to check the conversion of tribal people, news reports said.
MISSIONARIES BLAMED
Compass Direct claimed the decision was made after Narendra Prasad, a retired director-general of police, suggested that "missionaries were forcibly converting large numbers of people."
In a report he allegedly also blamed them and government laxity for the УhugeФ numbers of conversions saying that data shows the Christian population in Jhabua had increased by 80 percent from 1991 to 2001. There was no independent confirmation of that data.
Prasad stressed that Christian missionaries were responsible for last yearТs confrontation between Christians and groups opposing conversions in the district of Jhabua.
GIRL RAPED
In one of the worst incidents on February 2004, the Hindu community blamed Christians for the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl identified only as Sujata.
SujataТs body was found in a toilet on the grounds of a missionary school in early January 2004, Compass Direct reported. Jhabua reportedly erupted in violent protest, with Hindu mobs destroying homes and possessions of Christians even after police arrested a non-Christian on January 15 in connection with the incident.
Church groups say hard-line Hindu organizations fear the spread of Christianity and have denied any involvement in "forced conversions" as this would be against the Bible. They have urged authorities to end what they see as the discrimination of Christians and new believers.
