- Feb 5, 2002
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On Easter Indian prime minister Narendra Modi did something unexpected. He visited the Catholic cathedral of New Delhi. Welcomed by the archbishop, he lit a candle in front of a statue of the risen Christ, visited with the faithful, planted a tree in the garden, and called for “harmony in our society.”
A few days earlier Modi had also met with the head of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. And on Easter other leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, the Hindu party in power, visited churches in Kerala, the Indian state where Catholics have the strongest presence.
Cardinal George Alencherry, major archbishop of the Catholics of the Syro-Malabar rite, enthusiastically commented on Modi’s gesture. “A good leader,” he said, “really open and welcoming.” With him and with his party, Christians “do not have any insecurity.”
But is that the case? Not by the look of it. During the same days of Holy Week and Easter, the diocese of Jhabua, in Madhya Pradesh, was forced to ask for police protection against attacks by Hindu extremists, who do not tolerate the Catholic schools set up by the diocese for outcaste and tribal children, which according to them are places of forced conversions.
In another diocese of Madhya Pradesh, that of Jabalpur, Bishop Gerald Almeida is under threat of arrest for a similar reason. And these are only the latest episodes of a widespread hostility against religious minorities, on the part of the most fanatical sectors of Hinduism and of the support given to them by the institutions. The president of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Priyank Kanoongo, relentless in keeping Catholic schools under fire, came up through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, RSS, a historical ideological hotbed of Hindu nationalism.
The “offense” of Catholics in India, where caste discrimination, although abolished by law, is still an important factor, is above all that for the most part they belong to the lower castes, to the outcastes, to the tribals, and that they work on behalf of precisely these humbler classes. Even the bishops come ever more often from these ranks.
But what unleashes the intolerance is above all conversions, although these are very small in number. Hindu fundamentalists look on them as the plague, and for several years they have received support from “anti-conversion” laws, already approved in a dozen states. What are supposed to be punished are conversions carried out by force or deception, but the vague terms allow for very extensive charges and sentences. Even the Missionaries of Charity, the meek nuns of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, have been hit repeatedly with this ruthless law. Which is instead very magnanimous with those who take the opposite path and reconvert, who are awarded certain benefits.
There are 27 million Christians in India, 2 percent of the whole population of 1.4 billion, a third them Catholic. And in spite of the peaceful image generally associated with the Hindu religion, Christians there are even among the most persecuted in the world. With violence of all kinds, schools attacked, churches vandalized, villages set on fire, which the latest report by Aid to the Church in Need has quantified as 279 cases in 2020, 505 cases in 2021, and 302 cases in the first seven months of the 2022, and so continuously on the rise.
Continued below.
magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it
A few days earlier Modi had also met with the head of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. And on Easter other leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, the Hindu party in power, visited churches in Kerala, the Indian state where Catholics have the strongest presence.
Cardinal George Alencherry, major archbishop of the Catholics of the Syro-Malabar rite, enthusiastically commented on Modi’s gesture. “A good leader,” he said, “really open and welcoming.” With him and with his party, Christians “do not have any insecurity.”
But is that the case? Not by the look of it. During the same days of Holy Week and Easter, the diocese of Jhabua, in Madhya Pradesh, was forced to ask for police protection against attacks by Hindu extremists, who do not tolerate the Catholic schools set up by the diocese for outcaste and tribal children, which according to them are places of forced conversions.
In another diocese of Madhya Pradesh, that of Jabalpur, Bishop Gerald Almeida is under threat of arrest for a similar reason. And these are only the latest episodes of a widespread hostility against religious minorities, on the part of the most fanatical sectors of Hinduism and of the support given to them by the institutions. The president of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Priyank Kanoongo, relentless in keeping Catholic schools under fire, came up through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, RSS, a historical ideological hotbed of Hindu nationalism.
The “offense” of Catholics in India, where caste discrimination, although abolished by law, is still an important factor, is above all that for the most part they belong to the lower castes, to the outcastes, to the tribals, and that they work on behalf of precisely these humbler classes. Even the bishops come ever more often from these ranks.
But what unleashes the intolerance is above all conversions, although these are very small in number. Hindu fundamentalists look on them as the plague, and for several years they have received support from “anti-conversion” laws, already approved in a dozen states. What are supposed to be punished are conversions carried out by force or deception, but the vague terms allow for very extensive charges and sentences. Even the Missionaries of Charity, the meek nuns of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, have been hit repeatedly with this ruthless law. Which is instead very magnanimous with those who take the opposite path and reconvert, who are awarded certain benefits.
There are 27 million Christians in India, 2 percent of the whole population of 1.4 billion, a third them Catholic. And in spite of the peaceful image generally associated with the Hindu religion, Christians there are even among the most persecuted in the world. With violence of all kinds, schools attacked, churches vandalized, villages set on fire, which the latest report by Aid to the Church in Need has quantified as 279 cases in 2020, 505 cases in 2021, and 302 cases in the first seven months of the 2022, and so continuously on the rise.
Continued below.
It’s Not Just the Hindu Extremists. In India It Is the State That Persecutes Christians
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