Wednesday, January 18, over plans by Hindu nationalist groups to organize major meetings to discuss "conversions by missionaries" amid a new wave of violence against Christian believers.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad or ‘World Hindu Council’ announced that thousands of supporters from Orissa and the states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Sikkim would participate in the deliberations. VHP state secretary Gouri Prasad Rath told reporters that among the "conclaves" planned was a gathering in Orissa’s coastal town of Puri next month and similar meetings in other states.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), another hard-line Hindu organization, will hold a three-day religious festival starting from February 11 in tribal areas of Gujarat state to "identify who is Hindu and who is Christian," officials said.
SAFFRON FLAGS
Villagers have been told that Hindus will be given saffron flags and lockets and should put them outside their houses, BosNewsLife learned. The plan has sparked tensions in the area. "There is fear among Christians following the recent happenings," said a Christian villager on condition of anonymity.
In 1998, there were a spate of attacks on Christian churches, homes and priests in the area. The district administration insists there "is complete peace in the area as the All India Christian Council asked the governor to ensure security for Christians."
However the All Indian Christian Council has urged the Indian Home Minister to prevent the Hindu festival from taking place saying it could lead to a serous outbreak of violence.
The slogan "Hindu Jago, Christi Bhagao" ("Arise Hindus, throw out the Christians") has been used by the festival organizers to stir up religious tensions and to give the Dangs people a Hindu sense of identity the advocacy organization said in a statement released by religious rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
500,000 EXPECTED
Some 185,000 people, mostly tribal Indians, live in the area, but the event is aiming to attract 500,000 participants. The majority of tribals practise animism, however the festival has been organised to encourage them to "re-convert" to Hinduism.
Tensions are already rising in some areas of India. Villagers in Matiapada Village of Bari area, about 220 Kilometers (137.5 miles) from Orissa’s capital Bhubaneswar reported that one Christian home was burned Tuesday, January 17, by angry Hindu villagers.
It was unclear who was behind the attack, but human rights group Voice Of the Maryrs (VOMC) suggested Wednesday the incident was part of a series of violent incidents carried out by Hindu extremists.
For instance "on January 14, approximately forty Hindu militants opposed to a children’s home and school being constructed in the northeastern Indan village of Tikri in Uttaranchal state came to the construction site and threatened to kill the workers who were building the new facility," VOMC said in a statement to BosNewsLife.
WORKERS FLEE
The workers all fled for their lives while Ashish Massey, the head of the North India Evangelistic Association (NIEA) who is funding the project, was allegedly been threatened with death by the militants. The militants came after local villagers complained that the Christians had come to their village to convert them, added VOMC.
In a separate incident in West Bengal, the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority reportedly demolished a church building and orphanage on January 16, despite on-going legal proceedings. The development authority claimed that the buildings were impeding a planned road expansion, BosNewsLife reported earlier.
VOMC individuals have also been attacked in recent days. It said Pastor Aharon, a Pentecostal pastor from the city of Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh state was attacked by Hindu militants wile distributing Christian literature at a bus stop on January 13. "They claimed he was using money to lure people into converting to Christianity," VOMC said. It was not immediately clear whether he was seriously injured in the attack.
Human rights groups have linked concern among Hindu groups over spreading Christianity in India to the violence. However Christians still comprise a minority of just over 2 percent in this mainly Hindu nation of nearly 1.1 billion people. (With additional reporting by BosNewsLife Chief International Correspondent Stefan J. Bos at BosNewsLife News Center)
