a tribal area of Western India, amid fears it could spark forcible conversions to Hinduism, and reignite violence against the Christian minority.
The three-day ‘Shabari Kumbh Mela’ festival in Dangs district of Gujarat state, which began Saturday, February 11, aims to spread the message of Hinduism in the predominantly animist tribal area.
However Christian groups fear the event could attract 500,000 Hindus chanting the slogan, "Arise Oh Hindus! Throw out the Christians!"
"The concern is that the gathering could unleash a wave of violence against tribal Christians," explained K.P. Yohannan, president of the mission group Gospel for Asia (GFA).
Organizers of the event, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and their affiliates — all sister groups of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party — said they hoped to highlight the Hindu mythological significance of Dangs.
CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE
Hindu groups are concerned by the growing Christian influence in the district located in southern Gujarat and, they say, this could be checked by "reconverting" the tribal Christians.
"Dangs has a history of Hindu tribal lords and we will not allow Christian missionaries to continue their program of converting illiterate, unemployed tribals," organizer Virendra Solanki told reporters.
He and other organizers have denied the festival will "force" people to reconvert, but Christian
residents are not convinced.
"Hindu homes are being marked with yellow flags," stressed Yohannan of GFA, which supports native missionaries in the area. The flags are "leaving the small population of Christians extremely vulnerable to attack — as many already have been," he added.
"The anti-Christian extremists are doing it to make a statement to the rest of India that this pattern of re-conversion can be used across the nation. This is the pattern they used for the persecution of Muslims a few years ago," Yohannan said.
GUJARAT "DANGEROUS"
Hindus account for about 80 percent of India’s nearly 1.1 billion people and Christians just over two percent. However in Gajarat Christians comprise about 15 percent of the Dang population, according to estimates.
Persecution of Christians is not uncommon across India, but it is "especially dangerous in Gujarat," where there is a history of "mass murder," including the killing of women and children, according to GFA. "This is done by the most aggressive, extreme Hindu elements, who believe in killing those who oppose them," the group said recently.
Gujarat has had a questionable record when it comes to protecting minority rights, but administration officials say this time police and paramilitary forces will protect Christian households. The festival comes shortly after fresh reports of Hindu pressure on Christians in other states.
In Kerala, a state on the southwestern tropical Malabar Coast of India, three American missionaries were deported from the capital Thrivananthapuram for allegedly "violating visa norms" by evangelizing in the area, India media said.
HINDU COMPAINTS
Evangelists Terrel Davis Heze, Van Meter Carl Micheal and Taylor David Lee-had come to India on business and tourists visas. They were reportedly deported February 3 from Thiruvananthapuram following complaints from several Hindu groups, but the missionaries were quoted by some media as saying they left "voluntarily" to the US.
Elsewhere in the north-central state of Madhya Pradesh, the miniscule Christian community is
fearing more violence after reports of four attacks this month and arson attempts on at least two churches on January 31, said human rights watchdog International Christian Concern (ICC) with website persecution.org.
A group of unidentified persons allegedly burned the main gate of a 150-year-old Mitra Church, which belongs to the Church of North India, January 31, while other men apparently tried to burn down a church belonging to the Pentecostal Church of India (PCI). The action was to protest "conversions" in the Sadar area of the state’s Betul district, said ICC which investigates religious persecution.
Earlier on January 28, activists of the radical Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) reportedly stormed a Christian seminar in Bhopal and assaulted Christians, seriously injuring six Christians and lightly wounding at least a dozen others. On January 27, unidentified men launched an attack on three pastors and 20 others while they were attending a prayer meeting in a Christian’s house at Govindpur district, several news reports said.
CONVERSION CHARGES
A day earlier local police arrested three elders of the Church of the Nazarene on charges of forced conversion of 23 tribal villagers from Dindori in Jabalpur, Christians claimed. On January 25, local police barged into the house of a Christian at Chapri village in Jhabua and allegedly beat up two pastors.
Indian Hindu militants also attacked a Christian orphanage of Hopegivers International (HI), one of India’s leading mission organizations, injuring orphans and three pastors, BosNewsLife reported Thursday, February 2.
Bishop Samuel Thomas, who leads HI, told BosNewsLife he is concerned about "increased Christian persecution" across India, following the attack on his organization’s Hope Home in the town of Tindole in Rajasthan, India’s largest state. (With reports from India, BosNewsLife News Center and BosNewsLife Research).
