India: Four years after the anti-Christian massacres, the atmosphere remains “explosive”

Four and a half years after the massacre of Christians by Hindu fanatics in the Indian state on Odisha (in the northeast of the country), the atmosphere is still “explosive”. According to a press release published by Open Doors International, an organization that defends Christians, on March 22, 2013, the majority of the Christians who have returned after fleeing the violence of 2008 have not been able to reclaim their belongings. Those who have succeeded in taking back their land are unable to cultivate it because of the ongoing Hindu threat. In addition to expropriating the personal belongings of Christians who fled, the Hindus demanded that they convert to Hinduism if they wished to return.

The association also condemns the fact that Christians are discriminated against when food is supplied; often the cards used to claim the food cannot be renewed. And Christian families are at a similar disadvantage when they wish to put their children in school, according to Open Doors.

In August 2008, the rural state of Odisha experienced the worst anti-Christian riots ever since Indian independence in 1947. Official counts indicate 54,000 people who abandoned their homes, 120 dead and 315 villages entirely destroyed.

(Sources: kipa-apic.ch – eda – DICI no. 273, 12/04/13)

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