India update 10-28-08

Monday, October 27, 2008

The Samaja: 42,000 Hindus converted to Christianity in the last decade
Breaking News! Orissa's oldest independent newspaper without any political affiliation, The Samaja reported that Christian population in Kandhamal has grown by 66% in the last decade. The Samaja quoted the data of the district administration in Kandhamal to publish the report.
According to the data, around 42,353 Hindus have illegally converted to Christianity between 1991 - 2001. However, the official records put the conversion figure at just 2. That clearly indicates that the Church officials are violating the 1989 Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, which makes it mandatory for the converted people to register themselves with the district administration.
In 1991, the number of Christians in Kandhamal was 75,597. However, the figure reached 117,950 in 2001. There is no doubt that the number of Christians in Kandhamal may have grown to more than 150,000 in the past 7 years. In that case, Christians can no longer be considered as a minority in Kandhamal.
According to The Samaja, District Collector Krishan Kumar has confirmed the report. The surge in violence in Kandhamal and growing bitterness between Hindus and Christians has been attributed to the rampant conversion activities prevailing in the district.



India: Political, religious tensions fuel anti-Christian violence

GURINDER OSAN / Associated Press Dubiga, a Christian woman, stands amid the damaged remains of her house in Bujulimendi, India, on Oct. 14.
By TIM SULLIVAN Associated Press 10/26/2008
TIKKABALLI, India — They still worship in what remains of the little Baptist church not far from this forest town. The church is empty except for the rubble swept neatly into the corners. The sun comes through ragged holes where the mob smashed in the window frames.Here, prayers are said in secret. “We do it without making any noise,” said Subhash Digal, holding his 4-month-old son on his hip as he stood outside the church, where the smell of burned timber lingered on a warm autumn afternoon. “We don’t want these people to know we are inside.”In this corner of the eastern state of Orissa, it’s hard to find a Christian who isn’t afraid.Bloody anti-Christian riots broke out here in late August, rampages by Hindu hard-liners that since then have left at least 38 people dead, as many as 30,000 homeless and dozen of churches destroyed.The worst of the violence ended after a week or so, when authorities finally deployed soldiers to set up checkpoints and relief camps.But nearly every day since then, the trouble has continued: a house burned, a carload of people beaten, a soldier hacked to death. Repeatedly, Christian villagers say, they have been told they must convert to
Hinduism. The anti-Christian violence has also flickered across other parts of India, with churches vandalized and Christians attacked in the high-tech hub of Bangalore, the city of Mangalore and the coastal state of Kerala.In a country desperate to be seen as a stable, democratic world power, the violence is a window into India’s hidden fragility, its sometimes dangerous political climate and the fierce historical divisions buried in its vast diversity.India is more than 80 percent Hindu, but its 1.1 billion people include all of the world’s major religions, a caste system of near impossible complexity, colossal divides of wealth and poverty, and, by some estimates, more than 2,000 ethnic groups.Trouble can seem inevitable. In just the past couple of weeks, violence has ranged from the northeastern state of Assam, where at least 50 people have died in ethnic clashes, to the central state of Madhya Pradesh state, where three people were killed in religious riots after a Hindu procession passed through a Muslim neighborhood.Then there is Orissa’s Kandhamal district, where widespread trouble began after the Aug. 24 killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a hard-line Hindu leader who rose to prominence in the area by advocating that Christian converts return to Hinduism.Police blamed Maoists for the killing, though it’s unclear why they would have targeted him.But Hindu militants quickly turned on local Christians, setting fire to a Christian orphanage and attacking churches and Christianowned shops and homes. A nun, who accused a Hindu mob of raping her, said local police later stood by as she was paraded naked, accompanied by a priest. At least 32 people have been killed, tens of thousands have fled their homes and thousands are believed still to be hiding in Orissa’s thick forests. Kandhamal has long been a battleground over Christian missionary work among low-caste Hindus and the indigenous people known in India as “tribals.” While Christians account for just 2.5 percent of India, their population in Kandhamal has risen sharply in recent decades, reaching nearly 20 percent by the last census in 2001.Hindu militants say the reason for this is obvious: Missionaries are forcing or bribing people to convert.“This is a kind of cultural invasion,” said Gauri Shankar Rath, a top o.cial in the Orissa state VHP, the umbrella organization of Hindu nationalists. “Our culture is being attacked.”Missionaries dismiss such accusations. Many of the attacks, victims say, were carried out by the Bajrang Dal, a militant group closely allied to the Bharatiya Janata Party, a Hindu nationalist political party that is part of Orissa’s coalition government. The Hindu rightwing has long stirred up religious resentments as a way to shore up its voter base.
By TIM SULLIVAN Associated Press