India: The Christians are in danger

India, a "sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic Republic", is composed of 29 States and 7 territories. Each State has a legislative assembly elected for a five-year term, and a head minister, head of the government, nominated with the members of the government by the Governor, who is nominated by the President of India, whose role is more representative than political. The Indian Parliament has two Houses: the Council of States (Rajva Sabha, the upper house) and the House of the People (Lok Sabha, the lower house). The president of the leading party of the Lok Sabha is named Prime Minister, head of the Government of India. Ever since the nomination of Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi as Prime Minister on May 26, 2014, his ministers have several times pronounced themselves in favor of taking measures "to protect the Hindu religion," that is threatened by the rise of Muslim and Christian religious minorities, they declare. In keeping with an ideology supported by the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party, the Indian People's Party) in favor of a purely Hindu Indian nation.

So far seven States have voted in an anti-conversion law [Hindu to Christian]: Gujarat, Aranuchal Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarth, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. Tamil Nadu, in southern India, where there are many Christians had also adopted the anti-conversion law, but it was quickly abrogated. Each time, these anti-conversion laws, that punish conversions obtained by "force" or by "fraud", used the notion of defense of "public order" that falls under the jurisdiction of each State and not of the federal government.

In an article published on January 20, 2016, the information agency of the Foreign Missions of Paris, Eglises d'Asie (EDA), announced that the annual report of the Indian Christian organization the Catholic-Christian Secular Forum (CSF) on the persecution of Christians in India, published on January 18, counted over 365 anti-Christian assaults in 2015. Joseph Dias, president of the organization, believes the number is an underestimation, since it cannot include the anti-Christian assaults that were not reported. Indeed, "some Christians do not wish to declare the violence they have suffered, for fear of turning the political leaders against them or inviting a retaliation."

Thus the anti-Christian attacks - rapes, profanation of churches, interruption of offices and murders - have increased by 20 to 25% every year for the past five years. "The murders have practically doubled in one year and the most alarming part is the geographical extent of this sphere of violence. In 2014, we counted violence in 18 Indian States. In 2015, 23 of the 29 States were involved," explained Joseph Dias.

On January 12, EDA questioned John Dayal, former president of the organization All India Catholic Union (AICU), whose stances against Narendra Modi's government earned him death threats from the nationalist Hindus of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). "I am worried about the position of the Indian Church that is under constant pressure from the government," he confided. "In the context of numerous incidents against the Christian community, the Church is afraid and divided. She is composed of small parishes that must answer to various debates and concerns." On September 28, in the State of Uttar Pradesh, Muslim Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched by his Hindu neighbors for eating beef; "when the population has become radical enough to find the massacre of a Muslim acceptable, it will be our turn," explained John Dayal. The Indian government promotes the program of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), "National Patriotic Organization", that is the ideological matrix of the BJP, he pointed out, and this latter makes no secret of its intentions. This government's strategy is to turn India into a culturally homogenous theocracy.

On October 19, sociologist Deepak Metha, professor at the university of Shiv Nadar (New Delhi) declared to EDA: "Before the end of the term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is directing India under the flag of the nationalist Hindu party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, community violence is likely to have intensified in the country."

(sources: eda/cath.ch-apic – DICIno. 329 dated Jan. 29, 2016)

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