New Delhi, India – With the arrest of 22 Christians after false accusations of fraudulent conversion last week in Dharwad district in Karnataka, the number of incidents of persecution of Christians in the state reached 16 in the first three months of this year.
The March 20 arrests were made in Baad village after local residents claimed the distribution of Christian literature was accompanied by insults to Hinduism and offering money for conversion.
The Karnataka-based Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that the Christians, most of whom were from neighboring Andhra Pradesh state, were guests of a church in Sriramanagar. They arrived by bus to Baad village and began to distribute and sell tracts door-to-door.
Villagers complained to police, according to the GCIC, that the Christians told them that their gods were only made of paper and had no power. The complainants also claimed that the Christians offered money for conversion and that they had already converted three families in the village.
The police promptly arrested the 22 Christians under Sections 298, 448 and 504 of the Indian Penal Code for wounding religious feelings, house trespass and disturbing the peace, respectively.
All of the accused were later released on bail. The GCIC said the complaints were “false” and “baseless.”
Police told the GCIC that Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bajrang Dal, youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council), had a strong presence in the village.
Increased Attacks
On February 26, the Dharwad District Minority Christian Welfare Association staged a protest against increased anti-Christian violence in the region.
Dr. Sajan K. George, national president of the GCIC, submitted a memorandum to the National Commission for Minorities on March 1 stating that at least 28 anti-Christian attacks took place in the state in 2006.
With 16 attacks thus far this year, George said he fears the number of attacks in the state could cross 60 by the end of 2007 without the intervention of government and other agencies.
There are a little over 1 million Christians in Karnataka, which has a population of more than 52.8 million. Of the 1 million Christians, 680,754 live in urban settings.
Karnataka previously has been in the news also for a high incidence of Christian persecution, but believers say the attacks suddenly increased – after relative calm in 2004 and 2005 – after the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) party, in coalition with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), took power from the Congress Party in February 2006.
Karnataka has long been a stronghold of the Congress Party, which ruled the state from October 1947 to January 1983. The party came back to power in October 1999, ruling until it lost to the JD-S coalition with the BJP in February 2006.
The BJP, political wing of the Hindu extremist RSS, has gradually managed to increase its vote share in Karnataka from 2.55 percent in 1989 to 28.78 percent in 1991. In the 2004 state elections, it won 79 assembly seats. Hindu extremists also have been steadily growing in strength in Karnataka.
The rise of persecution in Karnataka has run almost parallel to Hindu extremist targeting of Christians after the entry of the BJP at the federal level in 1998. For instance, VHP activists raided at least 11 Christian-run schools in Bangalore, Mysore, Mandya and Mangalore regions in Karnataka on July 17, 1998 and disrupted their functioning, reported the fortnightly Frontline of February 12, 1999.
Between June and July 2000 – during the Congress Party rule – a series of anti-Christian attacks allegedly led by Hindu extremists took place in Karnataka, according to the Frontline of August 4, 2000. From September 2002 to May 2003, at least 50 anti-Christian attacks were reported in the state, the All India Christian Council (AICC) stated in June 2003.
The Hindu nationalist tendencies of the state political machinery are clear. In the November 12, 2006 issue of the People’s Democracy, a weekly of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), author Tanrja Nalini noted: “While the JD-S continues to maintain that it remains secular, even as it partners with the BJP, the Sangh Parivar [the family of organizations linked with the RSS] has been carrying on as if it alone decides the political agenda in the state.”
As a front page editorial in the March 12 issue of People’s Democracy notes, incidents of religious violence in certain states, including Karnataka, are part of an “RSS-BJP design to revive its political base through a sharpened political polarization.”
Dr. John Dayal, member of the National Integration Council of the Government of India, told Compass that it was a “myth” that because of the Christian history of the cities of Bangalore and Mangalore (in Dakshina Kannada district), ordinary Christians were safe in the state.
“The myth has been well and truly shattered after the Janata Dal-Secular formed an alliance of convenience with the BJP,” he said.
Dayal, also secretary general of the AICC, also noted that anti-Christian violence in the state started when the Congress Party was in power.
“Despite lip service to secularism, the governments of the two previous Congress Party chief ministers did little to curb the Sangh Parivar activists who were at their violent worst in almost every district across the important southern state,” he said.
Evidence recently collected by the AICC in conjunction with others shows how the RSS has spread its tentacles in the state with a well-honed objective of “bringing into its fold officials of all ranks, especially in the elite administrative and police services,” he said. “With the tacit support of the government, the RSS is now actually operating training institutions to tutor bright young men and women to take the civil services examination.”
Karnataka has also seen a renewed spurt of anti-Muslim violence preceded by a vicious hate campaign against all religious minorities, Dayal added.
The intensity of persecution of religious minorities in Karnataka, however, has been lower than in some other states such as Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Uttar Pradesh, March 28 (Compass Direct News) – Pastor Rajendra Chauhan and church leader Subash Patel were arrested after a Sunday service in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh on March 25 for allegedly hurting religious sentiments, said Dr. Sajan K George, national president of the Global Council of Indian Christians. Shortly after the arrests, sources said, gangs of men including Hindu extremists beat members of the congregation, who are mainly women. Chauhan and Patel have not been heard of since. Police Inspector Ram Singh of Line Bazar police station told Compass that Tarun Shukla of the Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh had lodged a complaint, resulting in charges against the two leaders for “uttering words with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person.” Eyewitnesses report that police have beaten the pastors.
Rajasthan – Police arrested Pastor Philip Abraham from Noida, near Delhi, and Pastor Jacob Kunjumon from Mumbai in Ganga Nagar, Rajasthan on March 23 for alleged forced conversion and insulting Hindu gods, said Dr. Sajan K. George, national president of the Global Council of Indian Christians. Both pastors went to Ganga Nagar to attend a prayer meeting and were arrested and taken to the Jawahar Nagar police station while they were returning to Delhi, George told Compass. Local police told the All India Christian Council that a Hindu extremist of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh filed the complaint. Both the pastors were released on bail on March 24.
Maharashtra – A Hindu mob of 15 to 17 people on March 20 assaulted 49-year-old Ganesh Pawar for allegedly engaging in “forcible conversion” when a depressed university student seeking spiritual guidance sought his counsel, according to Dr. Sajan K. George, national president of the Global Council of Indian Christian. A faculty member referred Kundan Yadav, a student of Pillai’s College in New Panvel, Navi Mumbai district, Maharashtra, to Pawar for counseling. On March 15, Pawar, who worships at Gateway Ministries International, spoke to the suicidal Yadav about the peace he found in the Jesus of the Bible, and the student asked where he went to church. Yadav attended the Sunday service of the church on March 18 and requested another appointment with Pawar, arriving at his house on March 20 followed by a mob of nearly 20 Hindu youths. The mob poured black ink on Pawar’s head and face and began hitting him while cursing him for “conversion” activities. Two of the Hindu youths filmed the assault. The mob also manhandled Pawar ‘s wife, Varsha, and his three daughters. Police officers arrived and took Pawar to the local police station, followed by the mob. Assistant Commissioner of Police Suresh Madane arrested seven of the Hindu youths for trespass and assault.
Andhra Pradesh – Hindu extremists allegedly belonging to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) set fire to an independent church in the wee hours of March 14 in Tadipatri, about 13 kilometers (eight miles) from Kakinada, East Godavari district, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, said Dr. Sajan K George, national president of the Global Council of Indian Christians. “The RSS threatened me, saying not to preach and proclaim Christ, and warned me of dire consequences if I did not heed their warning,” Pastor G. Premanadam told Compass. Some 15 to 17 RSS extremists came to his house at 9:30 p.m. on March 13, intimidating him for nearly an hour before leaving. They returned at 2:30 a.m. and set fire to the church building, reducing the thatched roof to embers and charring the walls. Two weeks prior, another church was also burned down in Tadipatri. Premanadam filed a First Information Report at a local police station, but at press time no arrests had been made.