INDIA -- A report documenting the high rate of religiously-motivated violence against Christians in India during 2007 has been released by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). The report was released as the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief concluded her 17-day visit to India.

At a press conference in New Delhi last week, UN Rapporteur, Asma Jahangir, warned that communal divisions seem to have increased in India during the past decade and called on the Indian government to address this growing problem.

CSW’s report provides details of 142 religiously-motivated attacks on Christian targets in 2007, although it acknowledges that the real total may be much higher. It also provides a summary and analysis of the outbreak of severe communal violence, predominantly against Christians, in Orissa over the Christmas period. This episode was described by CSW partners, the All India Christian Council (AICC) as "the largest attack on the Christian community in the history of democratic India." The highest recorded rate of separate incidents was in Karnataka state.

The report links the anti-Christian violence to an "anti-conversion culture," rooted in the extremist Hindu nationalist ideology of Hindutva. This culture is also reflected in anti-conversion laws, currently in force in four states and on the statute books in three states. A new anti-conversion bill is due to be discussed in the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly today.

The report criticizes pervasive police inaction or complicity with regard to anti-Christian violence, especially in the states of Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. In some cases, police arrested the Christian victims of attacks instead of their assailants, and a number of attacks on Christians by police officers were also recorded.

The report also highlights that religious freedom for Dalits is damaged by the religious conditionality attached to eligibility for the affirmative action-style system of ‘reservations’ designed to address the social exclusion of Dalits. Those who adopt Christianity or Islam lose their eligibility for these rights.

A copy of the report can be found at: http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.asp?t=report&id=91&rnd=0.6810877  

CSW Chief Executive, Mervyn Thomas, said: “India has one of the worst rates of anti-Christian violence anywhere in the world. We urge the Indian government to take seriously the warning of the UN Special Rapporteur and to address both the activities of Hindu extremists in attacking and inciting hatred against Christians, and the prevailing culture of impunity for the perpetrators of these attacks. We further call for the repeal of all anti-conversion laws and for the extension of equal rights to Dalit Christians and Muslims.”

CSW is a human rights organization which specializes in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.

For more information, please contact Penny Hollings, Campaigns and Media Manager at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0)20 8329 0045, email pennyhollings@csw.org.uk  or visit www.csw.org.uk

© 2008 ASSIST News Service, used with permission