Sunday’s prayers came amid fresh reports that Christians in Orissa villages are forced to renounce their faith and "reconvert" to Hinduism, said the All India Christian Council (AICC), a nation-wide alliance of Christian denominations, mission agencies, institutions, federations and Christian lay leaders.
"In the villages it is still the same [problem]…If you want to be in the village you have to reconvert back to Hinduism," said AICC National Secretary Sam Paul in an interview. "It is a severe problem and many pastors are suffering. Some 25 or 30 pastors who I personally know are in hiding," he added.
Earlier reports said tens of thousands of Christians, including church leaders, fled to the jungles of Orissa, after Hindu militants began burning Christian homes, churches, prayer halls and even missionary-run orphanages and kindergartens.
NO IMPROVEMENT
"On the villages there is no real improvement, only in the towns there is some improvement," said Paul. The clashes began Saturday, August 23, after suspected Maoist rebels killed a Hindu leader who had been associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), or World Hindu Council, and who was leading a drive to wean local villagers from Christianity.
The Hindu leader who was killed, Laxmanananda Saraswati, was among five people slain by armed men who stormed a Hindu school in the district of Kandhamal, police said. Hard-line Hindu groups Hindu groups like the VHP, are vehemently opposed to conversions to Christianity, which has spread especially among downtrodden ‘lower-caste’ and indigenous groups.
Hindu militants have lately taken to conducting mass ceremonies to “convert them back” to Hinduism.
Last week Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to use force to put down the wave of anti-Christian incidents. He said in a published letter to Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity that New Delhi would act to end the attacks, which officials claim have forced 13,000 people, mostly Christians, to seek shelter in guarded camps in the eastern state of Orissa.
CHARITY EFFORTS
Singh told the charity that the central government had "made available all the forces required by Orissa." However some rights groups have expressed concerns that not enough has been done to help Christians.
The prime minister reportedly told Orissa Chief Minister Navin Patnaik that "every possible step must be taken to bring back normalcy, to provide protection to all communities and to bring the culprits to book." Around 200 people are said to have been arrested in connection with the riots.
The Orissa government has reportedly banned radical Hindus from entering areas where the anti-Christian violence first erupted following the August 23 murder of popular Hindu leader Saraswati. Authorities also announced they would not permit a Hindu right wing leader to stage a funeral march on Sunday, September 7, in memory of the slain man amid fears it could re-kindle tensions.
New Delhi has promised financial aid to the victims of the anti-Christian clashes, India’s deadliest in recent years. Orissa also saw deadly clashes targeting Christians during Christmas and in 1999 Australian missionary Graham Staines was burnt to death along with his two small sons Philip and Timothy while sleeping in his station wagon at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district in Orissa Christians make up 2.3 percent of India’s billion-plus population, according to estimates, but missionaries say the number of Christians is rising in this predominantly Hindu nation of over one billion people.
