January 10, 2008

NEW DELHI – With more than 800 attacks around Christmas time in Orissa state, the number of attacks on Christians in 2007 crossed 1,000 for the first time since India’s Independence in 1947.

At least 200 incidents of anti-Christian attacks, including four murders, had been recorded before violence erupted in Orissa’s Kandhamal district that killed at least four Christians and burned 730 houses and 95 churches, according to a report of a fact-finding team released by Christian leaders yesterday (January 8).

The report, released by the All India Christian Council (AICC) in conjunction with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) and the Christian Legal Association, says that while four Christians were confirmed dead, at least six were seriously injured and numerous others are missing who are presumed killed by Hindu extremists in the rampage that began in Kandhamal on Christmas Eve.

“It is a matter of serious concern to the country that violence has been widespread in different parts of the country in general and against the Christians in particular,” said Dr. Babu Joseph, the CBCI spokesperson.

The report notes that the violence could have been averted if authorities had enforced the law.

“In all the villages we have visited, people testify that the attacks, destruction and looting was done in the presence of the police,” the report says.

It states that Hindu extremists from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) attacked members of the minority community with guns, knives, tridents, bombs and other weapons.

The AICC report charged there was “conspiracy to hide the bodies of Christians killed by VHP cadre to destroy evidence . . . Many are missing – both adults and children – in every village.”

The worst hit area was Barakhama village, about 12 kilometers (seven miles) from Baliguda, where 415 of the 450 houses belonging to tribal Christians were burned down, and six of the seven churches were vandalized, said the report.

The AICC report notes the first killing of a Christian, describing how 50-year-old Bhogra Naik of Barakhama was “cut into three pieces” after his house was destroyed.

Violence Up in 2007

Joseph of the CBCI told Compass that 2007 saw no improvement in security despite the efforts of the federal government to address issues concerning minorities by creating a separate ministry of minority affairs – there were more cases of physical intimidation, murder, destruction of property, arson, looting and other heinous crimes against Christians than in the previous year.

According to the figures of India’s home ministry, between 1950 and 1998 there were only 50 recorded anti-Christian attacks. The number shot to 100 in the year 2000, and from 2001 to 2005 at least 200 incidents of anti-Christian attacks were reported every year. The number of anti-Christian attack stood at 128 in 2006, according to the AICC and CLA.

“What is most distressing is the regularity at which these attacks are meticulously planned and almost clinically executed in order to hurt the Christians in the country,” Joseph said. “In all these instances of atrocities against Christians, it proved beyond doubt that some right-wing Hindu organizations were behind them; they indulge in unhindered hate campaigns creating bad blood between communities of different faiths, and that has caused immense social rupture in India.”

Dr. Sajan K. George, national president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), attributed the rise in the incidence of anti-Christian attacks to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) endeavors to bring more states under its power.

“The BJP, which does not believe in the constitutional value of a secular democracy, hopes to come to power in many more states riding on divisive Hindu nationalism, its basic ideology,” George told Compass. “It has retained Gujarat state, taken Himachal Pradesh state, and is waiting to come to power in Karnataka state in south India.”

The BJP won elections in four states in 2007. While it came into power for the third consecutive term in Gujarat state, it defeated the Congress Party in Uttarakhand, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh states.

In Punjab, the BJP formed government in coalition with a local party, Akali Dal.

“Fundamentalism of the BJP and groups associated with it threaten the plural and secular fabric of India like never before,” George added. “Saffron clouds appear to be gathering on the horizon.”

The color saffron is associated with the Hindu nationalist ideology, known as Hindutva. According to Hindutva, India belongs to the Hindu majority community, and religious minorities, mainly Christians and Muslims, are outsiders.