Fourth Christian in Less than Two Months Killed in India

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Maoists in Maharashtra state killed a church pastor on Friday (July 10), the fourth death of a Christian for their faith in India since late May, sources said.

In Bhatpar village, Gadchiroli District in the western peninsular state, pastor Munshi Devu Tado was leading a worship service on his property for about 15 village families from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. when three armed men and three women escorted him away, said his wife, Jaini Munshi Tado.

“They shook hands with him at first, then took him by his hand and, after few steps, they tied his hands at his back with a rope,” she told Morning Star News. 

“I, my father-in-law and brother-in-law followed after them, pleading and enquiring as to why they are taking him. They said they just want to talk to him and that we need not worry, they will send him back in a little while.”

Family members continued to follow until the Maoists forcibly stopped them and pushed them away, throwing them to the ground, Jaini Munshi Tado said.

“Hardly five to seven minutes later, we heard a gunshot,” she said, weeping. “We immediately ran in the direction only to find the body of my husband in the pool of his blood, and the Maoists had gone. I wept bitterly, my husband was gone.”

Pastor Tado was estimated to be in his mid-thirties. He leaves behind four children, ages 6, 5, 4 and 1.

Villagers upset with the growth of the church and the number of converts to Christianity from their native tribal religion incited Maoists to kill the pastor, though the assailants tried to give the impression that they killed him for being an informer, sources said.

The body of pastor Munshi Devu Tado in Gadchiroli District, Maharashtra, India. (Morning Star News)

The Maoists left a note in Pastor Tado’s pocket saying that he earned large amounts of money as a police informer against the militant insurgents, Jaini Munshi Tado said.

When police arrived to investigate, they told Christians that Pastor Tado was not an informer for them, and that they did not even know him, said pastor Vijay Kumar Vachami, a mentor and close associate of Pastor Tado.

Villagers had sent three letters to Maoists at different times spreading false information about Pastor Tado to instigate them against him, Pastor Vachami said.

“The Maoists once sent back a message saying, ‘We do not want to kill Tado, make him understand, and he will understand,’ but the villagers did not stop at that,” Pastor Vachami told Morning Star News. “They pestered the Maoists to the point that they actually executed the horrendous killing.”

The pastor and his family began to suffer persecution after the couple put their faith in Christ seven years ago, he said. A Christian from a nearby village had told them the gospel, and Tado’s family was the first family to convert from their tribal religion in the village of about 100 families, he said.

“They were persecuted in every way,” Pastor Vachami said. “Then one day, their house was attacked and brought down by the villagers. They were told to leave the village or else they would be killed.”

Three years ago, Pastor Tado left his village and made a temporary shelter for his family a mile from the village on his farmland, he said. Pastor Tado began to lead regular worship services at his new place, and people began receiving Christ, said Pastor Vachami, who lives in a neighboring village.

“There were only three Christian families in the past, but this year due to the hard work of Tado, the number of families increased to 18,” he said.

Contributions from church members helped Pastor Tado erect a separate worship place on his farmland, which the Christians inaugurated two weeks ago, he said.

“He was a very simple man and a very faithful servant of God,” Pastor Vachami said. “Please pray for his family that is left behind.”

Former Maoists

Pastor Tado and his wife were once Maoists, Jaini Munshi Tado said.

They joined the Maoist Naxalite movement in 2005, and police arrested them in 2007 from their home in Bhatpur village for participation in the communist insurgency. They were convicted and spent 18 months in prison, she said.

Upon their release, they returned to their village and began to make a living working their farmland. Their former Maoist contacts visited and even encouraged them to continue with the fresh start in their lives, she said.

“Since that day till only now, the Maoists never visited us or troubled us, nor called us back,” Jaini Munshi Tado said.

A First Information Report was registered at the Bhamragarh police station, but the family has not received a copy as investigations continue. Police declined to take calls from Morning Star News.

Pastor Tado’s body was scheduled for autopsy at the government hospital of Bhamragarh on Sunday (July 12).

“We earned our living by serving the Lord and by working in the agriculture fields,” Jaini Munshi Tado said. “Now that my husband is gone, I will ask God for His grace for me to bring up the four children.”

Including the death under mysterious circumstances of a Christian woman in Chhattisgarh state the last week of May, Pastor Tado’s killing would be the fourth religiously motivated slaying of a Christian in less than two months. In Bari village, Jharkhand state, followers of tribal religion on June 7 abducted and killed Kande Munda. On the night of June 4 in Odisha state, followers of tribal religion abducted 16-year-old Sambaru Madkami for his faith before stabbing and stoning him to death.

In the case in Chhattisgarh state, tribal Hindus persecuted a widowed, Christian mother of four before her body was found severely mutilated in the wilderness near her village, sources said. The body of 40-year-old Bajjo Bai Mandavi appeared to have been eaten by wild animals when it was found two miles into the wilderness near her native Kumud village, Kuye Mari, on May 29, but local Christians suspect villagers upset by her conversion killed her. She was last seen going into the wilderness of Kondagaon District to collect firewood on May 25.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on April 28 urged the U.S. State Department to add India as a “Country of Particular Concern” to its list of nations with poor records of protecting religious freedom.

India is ranked 10^th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country was 31st in 2013, but its position has worsened since Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014.

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Maharashtra: Christian gathering attacked during prayer meet, 12 injured

A congregation attending Sunday Mass in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district was attacked by a group of masked men armed with swords and iron rods, police said on Tuesday. Around 25 people had gathered for their weekly Sunday prayer at the residence of one Bhimsen Chavan in Kowad village, which borders Karnataka, when the incident happened.

The incident comes on the back of a debate on intolerance against minorities in the country. A group of 10 to 15 masked men armed with swords, iron rods and glass bottles reached the event venue on motorcycles around noon and tried to barge into the house, PTI quoted police as saying.

The masked men also threw stones at the congregation, injuring 12 people in the process. However, a group of women, who were part of the prayer meeting, thwarted their attempt to enter the house by throwing chilly powder. The injured have been admitted to hospital and their condition is stated to be stable.

Senior police officials said the situation was now under control but they were keeping a close watch in the area. A police official said even though they were yet to come to a conclusion on the motive behind the attack, prima facie it seemed the intention was to disturb the prayer meeting.

Police have registered a case of rioting and attempt to murder against unidentified people. Kolhapur Superintendent of Police Abhinav Deshmukh visited the spot on Tuesday and is supervising the investigation. The attackers most probably had come from Belagavi in Karnataka.

Police have already recorded the statements of people who had seen the attackers. The CCTV footage of the area was also being scanned, the official said and expressed hope that the attackers would be nabbed soon.

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Christians played no role in India's freedom struggle: BJP MP Gopal Shetty

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Mumbai North Gopal Shetty has stoked a controversy recently stating Christians did not contribute to the freedom struggle and also called them 'angrez' (foreigners).

The BJP MP also claimed that it was only the Hindus and the Muslims who played a role in India's freedom struggle.

"Christians were British, hence they didn't participate in India's freedom struggle. India was not freed by Hindus or Muslims, we fought as one for our independence," he can be heard as saying in the video.

Shetty made the controversial remark while addressing a gathering during the Eid-e-Milad organized by the Shia Kabrastan Committee at Malad's Malvani here on Sunday. 

When asked about the controversial remark he said that his statement has been misinterpreted. But has offered his resignation to the state party president Raosaheb Patil Danve. 

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Nun detained in India, in latest anti-Christian incident

MUMBAI, India - A religious sister in India has been charged with human trafficking after she accompanied four young women on a train in central India on June 13.

The Railway Police and Hindu nationalists stopped the women in the state of Madhya Pradesh as they were travelling to Bhopal.

Hindu nationalists accused the nun of trying to convert the others to Christianity.

The police said one of the girls was a minor, although Sister Bina Joseph maintains all were over the age of 20.

Madhya Pradesh state, which is over 90 percent Hindu and less than 1 percent Christian, is ruled by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also controls the national government.

The BJP has strong links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a militant Hindu nationalist organization. Groups affiliated with the RSS participated in the detention of Joseph and the women accompanying her to Bhopal.

In two separate incidents in May, groups of Christians in the same state were taken into custody, charged with trying to convert Hindus to Christianity, after being stopped on trains.

“I strongly condemn this harassment by rogue elements who profess their political allegiance-alliance with the ruling party,” said Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal.

He told Crux the detention of the nun was “absolutely wrong,” and violated her rights as a citizen of India.

“The Catholic nun was travelling in a public transport, and was subjected to harassment, intimidation and humiliation by the police,” the archbishop continued.

“This behaviour of the police is strongly condemned, the minority community, is being targeted by fringe elements of the ruling party and in any devious manner, the ‘conversion’ allegations are levied against the minority Christian community, even in the case of travelling, as in this case,” Cornelio said. 

He told Crux the Government is not doing enough to curb “these fringe elements,” who he says are taking advantage of the fact that the BJP is in power. 

“Scores of poor students from remote rural areas study in our schools and reside in our hostels and they need to travel,” he said.

The Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, passed in 1968 and amended in 2013, makes it mandatory to seek government permission before conversion. The law imposes jail time for alleged “forced” conversions.

Cornelio said it seems that in the present time, even travelling by public transport is being linked to conversion.

“I strongly condemn this harassment of the minority,” the archbishop said.

Sister Tripti, the vice provincial of the Carmelite Sisters of St. Teresa, the order in which Joseph belongs, told Crux the religious sister was detained until midnight after spending nearly 12 hours at the railway police station, together with the three young women.

The one determined by the authorities to be a minor was turned over to a child services agency.

Charges were filed after the young woman’s relatives filed a complaint, which Father Stephen Maria, a local priest, told Crux was made under pressure from “right wing extremists.”

Tripti said despite the harassment, the order will continue in its mission.

“These girls hail from impoverished families from remote rural areas, and were enroute to Bhopal for their own empowerment,” Tripti said. “This incident, however, does not deter us. We will continue to serve the poor.”

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Bill seeking anti-conversion law tabled in Maharashtra assembly

The Maharashtra assembly on Friday admitted a private member bill by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Atul Bhatkhalkar, seeking an anti-conversion law in the state.

The bill was tabled amidst pandemonium by ruling party and Opposition members, exchanging allegations and slogans.

Bhatkhalkar, who moved the bill, said, "There are various states including Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat where such a law has been enacted and court rulings in such cases have said that the state is within its rights to make such laws.”

Bhatkhalkar said there were several places even in Maharashtra, where conversions were being carried out forcibly or by offering bribes and so it was essential for the state to enact an anti-conversion law. The bill calls for imprisonment and a penalty against those who convert forcibly. The amount of penalty and the term of the imprisonment had not been specified.

After Bhatkhalkar mooted the bill, fellow legislator and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) city chief Ashish Shelar moved a note of dissent. He said he does not think there are instances in the state where conversion is carried out forcibly.

The bill was, however, taken on record. The BJP, while in the Opposition, was keen on getting an anti-conversion law enacted.

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Congress and BJP: United in Targeting the Church

BJP and Congress governments play politics with conversion bogey

By John Dayal

India’s microscopic Christian community and its clergy may become “collateral damage” of an unspoken but very palpable competitive wooing of the majority Hindu community, specially in central India, in the run up to the General Elections in 2014, and elections to State legislative assemblies even earlier.

Three significant recent developments show the political trend. The State of Madhya Pradesh, which was among the first [with Orissa and Arunachal Pradesh] to seek a curb on conversions to Christianity through its ironically named Freedom of Religion Act in 1968, is now adding some more draconian provisions to the notorious law. Neighbouring Maharashtra is understood to be planning a similar law to criminalize conversions. And up in the Himalayan north, the Himachal Pradesh government is planning to seek the Supreme court’s help to reverse a High court judgment which had struck down some of the more vicious components of the state’s anti conversion law, including one which required government’s permission before change of faith.

Madhya Pradesh is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata party, now gone entirely overboard with the Hindutva agenda of its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh whose chosen Prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has made it clear where his priorities lie. His lieutenants have called for a building of a Temple to Lord Rama on the ruins of the Babri mosque the RSS groups demolished in 1992. Modi himself has lost no opportunity to stress his support to the Hindu heartland.

But it is the Congress that governs Himachal Pradesh. The current chief minister had enacted this law, and he now wants all its “teeth” restored by the Supreme Court. Maharashtra is also ruled by the Congress in a coalition with the Nationalist Congress Party of Union Agriculture minister Mr. Sharad Pawar, who too professes a vey “secular” ideology to woo the large Muslim population of his home State.

The mainstay of the Congress political platform has been its traditional non-partisan ideology – and its affirmative action for the poor, the marginalised, the religious minorities, Tribals and Dalits. But it has been an open secret from the days of Mahatma Gandhi and the illustrious leadership of the Freedom Struggle, that Congress also harbours majoritarian elements who surface every time the party has to seek votes in the face of a direct challenges by the BJP and other Hindutva groups such as the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

The Maharashtra government has been secretive on its reason for contemplating a law to curb conversions. It has no data to show the number of conversions done through fraud or coercion – the two reasons given as grounds for vitiating a change of faith by a citizen even in the states of Arunachal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Himachal which do have these laws on the statute books.

What complicates the politics of such moves against conversions -- and the phrase is generally understood to mean conversion to Christianity, and not to Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism -- is the focus on Christian preachers and evangelists. Islam has since Independence not really been involved in proselytizing with its numbers growing only through birth. There have been many instances of Hindus converting to Sikhism, a practice that was common before the Army assault on the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984 at the height of the separatist Khalistani militancy, but still takes place in the Punjab and New Delhi. Conversions to Buddhism take place on a mass scale from the ranks of the Dalits, who are then called Ambedkarites or Neo-Buddhists. Five hundred thousand of them were converted to Buddhism in Nagpur by the late Dr. B R Ambedkar, the chair of the committee that wrote India’s Constitution. A recent celebrated mass conversion took place in recent years in Mumbai where 50,000 Dalits changed faith at a popular public grounds in the heart of the city under police protection.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Council of Hindus) and the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (Jungle Dwellers Welfare Association), frontal organisations of the RSS working in the tribal areas, routinely convert animistic and Christian tribals to Hinduism under what they call a Ghar Wapsi programme, “home-coming” to their faith. There has been no legal action ever against the VHP, or the RSS.

So far the Himachal law was the most draconian as it forced citizens and their pastors to give a month’s notice to the state authorities and then await their decision before they could formally profess the faith. The Evangelical Fellowship of Indian, and a secular NGO, ANHAD led by celebrated civil rights activist Shabnam Hashmi, moved the high court which struck down these obnoxious clauses.

It is these very sections that Madhya Pradesh now wants to incorporate into its old law. It in fact goes a step further and wants the police to launch mandatory enquires into why the person wants to change his faith – in effect why he wants to leave Hindu fold. Pastors can be jailed for four years and fined a hundred thousand rupees if they break the law.

In states where the police force and the subordinate bureaucracy is known to be bigoted sand partisan, such laws can become extremely punitive. Human Rights activists have often pointed out that such laws also encourage the persecution and victimization of the Christian community, especially of the clergy.

The Church does not seem to have anticipated this. It also has no thesis for a united pre-emptive challenge to such laws. Individual groups go to court, but it is not an easy process. Some sections of the church, in fact, are quick to blame Pentecostal groups as inviting such laws by their provocative evangelisation. Others seem ready to sue for peace, and are already making overtures to the BJP as was seen in the YMCA feting Mr. Narendra Modi at a function in Ahmedabad last month.

The last time the Church voiced its anger was when the then Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, called for a “national debate on conversions”, and the Catholic Bishops Conference president, Archbishop Alan de Lastic, challenged him, pointing out that such talk encouraged violence against hapless Christians in the country. It remains to be seen how the church will respond now.

Anti Conversion bill proposed in Maharashtra

Around 50 Catholic organisations from across Mumbai have written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan asking him to withdraw an anti-conversion bill, which they say will be introduced in the monsoon session of the Assembly. The letter reads, "It has been brought to our attention through reliable sources that there is move to introduce an Anti-Conversion Bill by your government. First it was a total disbelief and then a shocking surprise if this is true, that a secular government in the state of Maharashtra would ever think of introducing such a Bill which is anti-minority and against the constitutional rights of a minority. This Anti-Conversion Bill should be confined to the dustbin of history."

"The Home Department has already prepared the bill. But introducing such legislation will not only be an anti-minority act but will increase the persecution of the minorities," said Dolphy Dsouza, former vice-president of the All India Catholic Union and president of the Bombay Catholic Sabha. He said that Catholics would protest in a big way if the Bill is tabled.

This is the fourth attempt to table the controversial bill in the Assembly. In 1996, BJP MLA from Mumbai, Mangal Prabhat Lodha had introduced it as a private member's bill under the name of Maharashtra Dharma Swantantrya Adhiniyam (Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Act), but it failed to gain any support. In April 2005, an anti-conversion bill was proposed by the then Home Minister Siddharam Mhetre of the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine, but the proposal was struck down by the then Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. The late CM reasoned that there was no need for an anti-conversion legislation as existing laws had enough provisions to tackle the "problem".

In 2012, BJP MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar voiced the need to introduce such a bill, but in the long run the bill did not materialise. According to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Nawab Malik, he was the only MLA to protest against Mungantiwar. Incidentally the NCP handles the Home Department portfolio.

Malik who is also the spokesperson of NCP, told this newspaper that if the bill is introduced by their ally the Congress, they will oppose it. "The RSS agenda will not be tolerated. Every person has a right to choose one's own religion. It is a fundamental right. We will put a stop to the bill in case this happens," he said.

When contacted, Congress leader and MLC Sanjay Dutt said that there was no cause for concern as the bill would be debated in the Assembly and only then passed. "Every draft of legislation introduced in the Assembly becomes the property of the House and it is debated and discussed upon in great detail. The government will take a stand only after appropriate discussion on the bill," he said, adding that this is not an ordinance that it should require such immediate concern.

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Maharashtra home department proposes anti-conversion law.

After several failed attempts, including the one in 1996 when a proposal was put forth by BJP legislator Mangal Prabhat Lodha, the state is contemplating an anti-conversion bill yet again.

A senior state government official said that the bill was proposed by the home department a few months ago and was being examined by the departments concerned.

“It started as a private member bill, but was proposed by the home department about five months ago. We are currently examining it,” said a senior official from the minorities development department, on condition of anonymity.

“In a recent meeting, the Christian groups were against the bill,” the official added.

Dolphy D’souza, a Catholic activist and former vice-president of the All India Catholic Union, on Thursday, sent a letter to the chief minister, urging him to ensure the bill does not get passed.

“I learned from a highlevel source in the bureaucracy about two weeks ago that the bill was being looked at again. So, I sent a letter to the chief minister and the additional chief secretary of the minorities development department, asking them to ensure that the bill is discarded. Minorities such as Christians are already being harassed by authorities on false accusations of forceful conversions. This will become another tool for harassment,” he said, adding that he would ask other groups to start a campaign against the bill soon

Munaf Hakim, chairman of the state minorities commission, said that he was not in favour of the bill.

“After reading the bill, it is clear that it could be a source of harassment. The minorities commission will never support it,” said Hakim.

The bill would make official permission from district level authorities necessary for religious conversion.

Activists said it could be used to harass religious groups through false allegations.

The additional chief secretary of the state home department was unavailable for comment.

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Priest attacked and beaten in Pune

Father Wilson Patole seeks police protection to avoid future attacks.

A priest and several people gathered for prayers were beaten up by a mob of 20-25 people on the premises of a church in Pimprigaon on Sunday. Protesting against the church that has recently come up in the area, the mob allegedly asked the priest to close down the place and move elsewhere with immediate effect. The priest has demanded police security to counter any future attack.

The incident occurred around 6 pm on Sunday and a complaint was lodged by the priest late in the evening with Pimpri police chowky.

Father Wilson Patole, 48, was left with a swollen eye after a man punched him on the face "several times". He also suffered bruises on his shoulders. After targeting Patole, the mob attacked the rest of the around 40-50 people who had gathered at the church for evening prayers. The mob reportedly left after the priest called up the police, who arrived 15 minutes later.

"Around 6 pm, the mob barged into the church premises and smashed the banners put up inside. At that time, prayers were going on. The mob then stood outside the church premises," said Father Patole, adding: "They called us at the gate of the church for discussion. As soon as we reached there, they started beating us up. They were not carrying sticks or arms."

Father Patole said the mob was demanding that the prayer be stopped and the church closed down. "They did not give us any notice. If they do not want us here, they should have told us. We would have moved out," he said.

Father Patole alleged that though there were 20-25 people who attacked them, the Pimpri police lodged complaint against only two. "First they refused to lodge a complaint. Then they lodged a complaint against only two persons," he said.

Father Patole said: "We are seeking action in the matter so that such attacks do not occur in future. We do not want revenge. We are peace-loving people. The police should not arrest the persons involved, but only take deterrent action."

When contacted, DCP Shahaji Umap said: "A non-cognisable offence against two persons has been registered with the Pimpri police. We have not arrested them, but have taken preventive action."

As for providing security, Umap said: "If the priest approaches us, we will take appropriate step in the matter. There is nothing political in this...the local people were objecting to the church coming up in their area."

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Tribal Christians attacked in Maharashtra

MUMBAI: A group of unidentified men barged into the homes of Christian tribals at Dasturipada in Palghar during Easter celebrations late on Sunday and attacked them with sticks. One of the tribals sustained a fracture in his hand, said an eyewitness. The Palghar police have registered a case.

The attack comes three days after a mob disrupted Maundy Thursday prayer service at Devkuppada in Palghar. No arrests have been made in both the cases. Following Thursday's incident, police forces have been deployed in large numbers at Devkuppada, which is only 2 km from Dasturipada.

Abraham Mathai, vice-chairman of the Maharashtra state minorities commission, said, "Ever since a newspaper carried a report on mass conversions, tribals are being assaulted."

Said one of the tribals, "I have not stepped out of my house since the attack on Maundy Thursday. We are living in fear."

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15,000 Christians Protest on Good Friday in India

Around 15,000 Christians walked, many barefoot, for six hours in the streets of Mumbai, India, on Good Friday enacting Jesus’ walk to the Cross and condemning growing attacks on the minority community.

This 24th Annual Lenten Walking Pilgrimage was held especially to give hope to and express solidarity with the persecuted Christians, the event’s chief organizer Joseph Dias told The Christian Post.

The gathering comprised of Christians from evangelical as well as mainline Protestant churches “apart from the Catholics, who formed the majority,” said Dias, who leads the organization behind the rally, Christian Revival Oriented Social Service.

“The mammoth serpentine procession of devotees wended its way through the city fasting and praying, some walking bare-foot and thereby embracing pain, to commemorate the first and final walk Jesus undertook over 2000 years ago,” said Fatima Corriea, the media assistant of CROSS.

Dias said around 10,000 Christians joined the march as it began from Sacred Heart Church in Khar in the suburb of Mumbai, India’s financial capital and the base of India’s film industry Bollywood, at 10.30 a.m. (local time). “Christians kept joining along the way and the numbers swelled to around 15,000 at the end.”

The Christians marched acting out the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and finally His passion at the cross. “The likes of such a penance which normally happens in the Philippines or Latin America, came alive as the Passion Play of Christ was dramatized.”

“However, no one inflicted pain on their bodies; they just fasted and walked barefoot,” Dias clarified. The objective was to highlight the “increasing and continued attacks on Christians, including their organizations, institutions, property and businesses, and especially the plight of women and children who suffer more than the direct victims in the aftermath of persecution.”

Dias, who also heads the Catholic Secular Forum, a group which fights Christian persecution in India, pointed out that the incidence of anti-Christian violence was high mainly in the states of Karnataka, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, whose capital is Mumbai.

In these states, Christians also face false charges under anti-conversion legislation and other laws, Dias complained. Freedom of religion acts, known as anti-conversion laws, are in force in five Indian states. Vaguely defined, some of these laws require prior permission from authorities for any religious conversion.

Christians, around 2.3 percent of the country’s population of over 1.2 billion, came under attack after the Rightwing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party won the 1998 general election. The attacks were part of a BJP’s strategy to compel the people to vote along communal lines and thereby gain an edge over the Grand Old Party, the Indian National Congress, which has traditionally seen religious minorities as their vote-bank.

Although the BJP lost the following elections in 2004 and 2009, Christians do not seem too happy with the Congress party either. The Good Friday rally was also to protest the ruling government’s “apathy” towards Dalit Christians, Dias said.

The Indian constitution gives affirmative action rights to the millions of people who are “low caste” as per the caste hierarchy in the Hindu society. However, if a Dalit converts to Christianity or Islam, she or he loses those rights.

India has over 17 million Dalit Christians and they have been demanding restoration of their rights, but the incumbent government led by the Congress party remains non-committal.

Dias also pointed out that a Dutch missionary, Father Jim Borst, had been asked to leave India, “after almost 50 years of selfless service” in Indian Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region. He added that southern and north-eastern parts of the country which had been peaceful vis-à-vis Christian persecution until recent years had also become hostile to the Christian minority.

Since 2008, India has witnessed between 100 and 200 attacks on Christians, including rape, arson, murders and mass killings, every year.

But the persecution needed to be fought prayerfully and peacefully in line with the spirit of the Lenten season, Dias stressed. “Our rally offers thousands of Christians, who partake in the procession, an opportunity to deny one’s self of daily comforts and do penance on an auspicious day.”

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Maharashtra government orders inquiry into tribal conversions

After the state government last week asked police to inquire into reports of large scale conversions of tribals to Christianity in Thane district, Christian groups have asked the state home minister to take action against those who made the allegations.

The findings of the inquiry are expected to be placed before the state assembly, which is in session, this week. The inquiry was ordered after a front page report in a Marathi daily said that in the last 10 years, lured by gifts of cash or fear of god, a large number of tribals have converted to Christianity.

The Maharashtra State Minorities Commission has written to state home minister RR Patil to take action against people responsible for the allegations if the inquiry fails to confirm the report. The inquiry was initiated to inquire into allegations about conversion centres, the holy pilgrimage, prayers meetings and sale of property to finance the pilgrimage. The investigation was to be done by the superintendent of police, Thane (rural).

The report pointed at villages that form part of the constituency of minister of state for tribal development Rajendra Gavit as places where the maximum religious conversions have taken place. It said that the main centres for religious conversions were two healing centres where cash was offered as reward for changing the religion.

Dr Abraham Mathai, vice president of the State Minorities Commission said, “I have met some of the people who are supposed to be travelling to Israel. None of them have a passport.”

Protestant groups working in the area denied there were mass religious conversions. They also denied that conversions were carried out in places advertised as centres of healing.

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1130 Christian families took up Hinduism

THANE: In a major setback to the Christian missionaries, involved in conversion of Hindus in the country since decades, about 1130 Christian families adopted Hinduism during a function at Kalyan in the district recently.

The conversion was solemnised in the presence of Jagadguru Narendra Maharaj and thousands of people admist chanting of hymns and sounds of the conch shells.

Talking to reporters durint the event on Saturday last, the spiritual guru said the government should work towards giving reservations to people with poor socio-economic status instead on basis of cast, creed and religion.

He also lambasted all the political parties saying that none worked for the interest of the Hindus but tried to appease them only during the elections.

Jagadguru also appealed to all the Hindus to keep aside their political affiliation and vote for the party that worked for the community.

He also expressed serious concern over the rapid conversion of Hindus to Christianity after being 'bribed' by the missionaries, he said if this continued then the day is not far away when the Hindus would become minorities in their own land.

He also urged all the spiritual gurus to come out of their Ashram's and take up mass awakening programme for the Hindus to stop them from adopting any other religion and work towards the spreading Hinduism.

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1,793 Christians reconverted to Hinduism

New Delhi (AsiaNews) - Yesterday, 1,793 tribal Christians reconverted to Hinduism in a ceremony in Borivli (Mumbai), presided over by Hindu leader Swami Narendra Maharaj. Maharaj, who led the ritual of shuddikaran (purification), said that 42,200 people have been reconverted, above all in the tribal areas of Maharashtra and Gujarat.  He accused Christians of using "luring and misleading" methods to convert Hindus, and said that "an anti-conversion law is needed," because "nobody should be converted, whatsoever be his religion".  He criticised the political parties that "have refused to take a firm stand on the government’s conversion bill", and expressed his hopes for the creation of a "pressure group" that would protect Hindu "interests". He also blamed the Hindu fundamentalist parties Bharathiya Janata and Shiv Sena for not being decisive enough.

There are laws in various Indian states punishing the activity of proselytism.  In general, these are interpreted in the sense that it is not prohibited to convince someone to renounce other religions in order to return to Hinduism, which is considered the "natural" religion for Indians.

On April 14, in the city of Tirunelveli (Tamil Nadu), over one thousand Christian Dalits reverted to Hinduism, and the organisers of the ceremony announced their intentions to reconvert another 20,000 Christians in Villupuram in upcoming months.

The auxiliary bishop of Mumbai, Percival Fernandez, told AsiaNews yesterday that "two points must be clarified: 1) no adult can receive or be given the sacrament of baptism without his or her free consent.  Baptism given by coercive methods is totally invalid, hence the person so baptised cannot be numbered among Catholics. 2) We have been asking persons who are shouting from the house-tops that we are converting people to Christianity by force or other coercive methods, that they should produce before us persons who have been thus baptised and received into the Catholic Church: so far not a single person has been produced.  If they feel shy to do so before us Catholics, let them produce such persons before the courts of law in our country".

On the state anti-conversion laws, Bishop Percival, who is also the chairman of the St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences, maintains that it is more important that "legislators spend their precious time in the legislatures to plan and execute  projects that get drinking water, decent housing, daily affordable bread and  primary education to the millions who are deprived of these basic requirements for which they have a right. Instead of wasting precious time in working out anti-conversion laws, it would be much more profitable if they appointed a high level commission consisting of excellent judges that we have in plenty in the country, identify the persons converted by the Catholics by force and allurements and identify the person who did such a condemnable deed, and punish both concerned with laws that are already available in the constitution of our beloved country".

Source: www.asianews.it

1700 convert to Hinduism

The muddy Gavdevi ground at Shimpoli in Borivli (West) was sprinkled with saffron and green on Sunday.

In the presence of Narendra Maharaj, chief of the Ramanandcharya Peeth of Nanij in the Konkan, hundreds of men and women, most of them tribals, converted to Hinduism.

This is the first such event in the city, and part of the peeth’s massive re-conversion movement started two years ago.

Women were clad in green and men wore white dhotis, while the volunteers donned saffron.

Those who converted included recently married couples and families from the tribal interiors of Thane and Nashik district.

Many men had their heads shaved for the ceremony. Items for the mass ceremony were placed on banana leaves. A four-hour long sacred ritual was carried out to “purify” them, after which they were accepted as Hindus.

The rituals included the panch gagan snan, bhasma snan and amrut snan. They then took an oath never to abandon Hinduism.

Narendra Maharaj alleged Christian missionaries ventured into rural areas and lured them with financial help and other benefits to convert them.

As the tribals were mostly illiterate, they got converted easily, he said. The Sadguru Narendra Maharaj Sansthan claims to have brought 42,220 people back into the Hindu fold till date, including Sunday’s 1,793 people.

According to Narendra Maharaj, Hindus are declining in number and sooner or later will be rendered a minority.

“There is no other nation that embraces Hinduism; we have no place to go, unlike Christians and Muslims,” he said. “Nepal was the only country that supported Hinduism, but now the Maoists have taken over and declared it a non-religious country.”

He said he opposed votebank politics and condemned the state’s move to take over temples.

He also alleged the state’s anti-superstition law adversely affected Hindus the most.

Asked how the Sansthan ensured a better life for poor tribals, he said: “We are not a rich institution but we do our best by providing them with domestic flour mills, LPG burners and cylinders, some utensils and even employment. We assist them in realising that Hinduism is the greatest religion and induce pride and self respect within them.”

Christian leader and vice-president of the state Minority Commission Abraham Mathai had earlier called the charges of forced conversion baseless and said there was not a single incident that proved any Christian missionary had converted anybody by force or inducement.

“If the Hindu fundamentalists are true in their claims how does the official Christian population of the country remain stagnant at 2.5 per cent — the figure registered in the 1947 census and thereafter,” Mathai said.

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1,800 Christian tribals convert to Hinduism in Mumbai

Mumbai, April 27: Around 1,800 Christian tribals on Sunday re-converted to Hinduism in the presence of spiritual leader Swami Narendracharya at suburban Borivali.
Talking to the media on the occasion, Narendracharya, popularly known as Narendra Maharaj, claimed so far he had reconverted 42,220 people, mostly from tribal areas of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Maharashtra, into Hinduism. It includes 1793 people who underwent reconversion rituals today.
About his drive, Maharaj said it was deplorable that Hindus had to be reconverted to Hinduism. He said he was not opposed to anybody practising any other religion, but the missionaries were "luring and misleading" the ordinary Hindus to convert them.
"An anti-conversion law is needed.....Nobody should be converted, whatsoever be his religion."
He said Hindus were being "marginalised" because they don't have any patrons. "We need to build a pressure group so that our interests are guarded."
Maharaj was critical of the BJP and Shiv Sena. "BJP and Shiv Sena talk about Hindutva, but once they get votes they don't do anything."
He, however, hailed Sena chief Bal Thackeray and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for their pro-Hindu stance.
He criticised the saffron parties for not opposing the proposed anti-superstition bill (in Maharashtra) and the bill which contemplates government taking over the administration of Hindu temples, in the assembly.
Saying it had become fashionable to abuse Hinduism, he criticised the Sethusamudram Project. "Where is the need to demolish the Ram Setu? It is being done to take revenge for demolition of Babri Masjid," he said.
Bureau Report

Nuns and Teenage girls attacked by Hindu Extremists

MUMBAI, India (CNA) - A Hindu radical group on Saturday attacked two Catholic nuns and three teenage girls in a western Indian village as they prepared to hold a women’s educational program, UCA News reports.

Sister Merciana Tuscano, one of the Carmelite nuns attacked, told UCA News that radical Hindu men and women attacked the nuns and girls in the village of Sanghoti in the state of Maharashtra.

The mob shouted at the nuns, accusing them of “converting tribal people to Christianity.” According to Sister Tuscano, the mob “told us to leave the village at once and never to come back or else they would break our legs.”

The Catholic group was in Sanghoti, a village about 75 miles south of Mumbai, to conduct programs for tribal women. The group’s activities include running adult literacy classes, encouraging self-help groups, and popularizing the government’s AIDS program.

The Saturday program was to begin at noon, but at about 10:30 a group of about twenty men and twenty women arrived and began to throw away chairs and tables. Sister Tuscano said that when she confronted the group, “the women caught hold of me, pulled my hair and punched me hard all over my body.”

She said that though she cried for help, the group dragged her out of the venue. The three teenage girls tried to rescue her, but Sister Tuscano said they were “hammered” by the mob.

The second nun, Sister Philomena D’Mello, then arrived with other women for the program. Sister Tuscano told UCA News that Sister D’Mello was also attacked. "The mob rushed at her, caught hold of her, punched her all over. When she fell down in pain, a man stamped (on) her stomach twice," she said.

The mob also attacked the nun’s driver, a Catholic, who tried to intervene.

The injured group was rushed to a government hospital in Albag, but were discharged on Sunday.

Sister Floripe D'Silva, vice-provincial of the nuns’ Carmelite congregation, said she would take the sisters to a private hospital for further evaluation. She said all six victims were traumatized by the incident.

Sister D’Silva said the mob also destroyed a grinding machine donated by a non-governmental organization to help tribal women generate income. She said a Hindu social worker who had come on behalf of the government to talk about AIDS was shocked by the attack.

According to a local police official, 13 Hindu men and women had been arrested for the attack, but were granted bail. The official said the attackers, who were followers of a local guru, accused the nuns of “converting the local tribal people to Christianity.”

Sister D’Silva denied the accusation. “It is a humbug charge. We have not converted a single tribal,” she said. She said that the tribal people themselves have told police that the nuns do not preach religion but only train them to lead a decent life.

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Christians March in Pune, Maharashtra

Pune, February 18 Christian leaders from different denominations will take out a silent protest rally on Monday from YMCA, Quarter Gate, to condemn the attacks on Christian institutions in Orissa and Gujarat. They have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take steps to ensure the safety of the community.

Disrupting church services and burning churches is deplorable, especially during the festive time, and the community fears a repeat of an infamous spate of violence in Gujarat's Dangs district in 1998.

Dangs witnessed violence for ten days in December 1998.

More than 14 churches, four convents, three houses of priests and eight hostels were fully or partially destroyed besides injuries sustained by Christians in Kandhamal district's Baliguda sub-division, Orissa, they said.

Shocked at the violent incidents during Christmas, Christians in Pune will meet on Monday to take out a silent protest rally, Father Sebastian Mony of St. Patrick's Church said. There are at least 1.5 lakh Christians residing in Pune.

The rally is being organised by the Catholic Association of Pune and the Indian Christian Movement to condemn the violent attack on churches in Orissa and Gujarat, Father Mony said. The rally will begin from YMCA at 3.30 pm and wind its way via Hotel Shantai, Narpatgir Chowk, Pudumjee park, Babajan Chowk and culminate at City Church. Bishop of Pune Valerian D'Souza and Bishop of the Church of North India Vijay Sathe will participate and hand over the memorandum of their demands to Suresh Kalmadi MP and district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh at the City Church.

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Newly baptised believers and Pastors threatened and thrashed in Maharashtra

On Sunday 7th May , Pastor Ramesh D. Gopargode (34) and Pastor Ajit Belavi (35) of the "Friends Mission Church", Bangalore had set a church in Shahapur village , Maharashtra for the past 6 months. They had a small congregation of regular believers who attended the prayer meeting regularily.

7 believers expressed a great desire to embrace Jesus as Savior out of their own freewill.

The pastors of Friends Mission Church arranged the baptism of the 7 believers while returning after the baptism in the local river; they were waylaid by a mob of 65 RSS extremists.

The extremists questioned the believers and pastors of their activities. The terrified and poor newly baptized feigned ignorant about the pastors.

They abused the pastors in filthy language and also Christianity.After thrashing the pastors they dragged them to the nearby police station and lodged a false complaint of forcible conversion.

Pastor Ramesh and Pastor Ajit have been arrested filed under section 295A of the Indian Penal code.

Source: persecution.in

Radicals Disrupt Prayer and Peace Festival

A three day prayer-cum healing meeting 5th March - 7th March was organised by Believers Church in Panvel near Mumbai, in Maharashtra was disrupted by Hindu activists who claimed that the Believers Church was trying to lure people to convert to Christianity through the prayer meeting.

A Prayer & Healing Festival was organised by the Believers Church wasat, Panvel from 5th to 7th March.

5th March, the first day of the 'Prayer &Healing Festival' was without any incident.

However the next day March 6th around 100 Right wing Hindu Activistswent to the venue of the meeting on 6th March. As the preaching was going on, some of the radical activists walked towards the dais, grabbed the microphone and said: "Christians have come here to give the message of peace; but all the world wars have started from the European countries. These people are telling you all that, Jesus will cure you of AIDS; but their Pope died suffering from a disease named Parkinsons, why did Jesus not save the Pope's life then? Practise the rituals as prescribed by Hindu Dharmaand you shall be showered by God's blessings."

After these statements the fundamentalists began shouting Hindu slogans: such as 'Jay Bhavani, Jay Shivaji', 'Victory to Hindu Dharma'.

The radicals also lodged the complaint with Kalamboli Police against theorganization for spreading superstition and misinformation.

Source: www.persecution.in

Bible College students attacked and beaten in Maharashtra

GFA founder concerned about "increased beatings" against Christians in India.

NEW DELHI, INDIA — Five young men studying at a Bible college run by mission group Gospel for Asia (GFA) in the Indian state of Maharashtra were reportedly recovering from "severe injuries" Tuesday, February 20, after they were beaten by an angry anti-Christian crowd.

The beatings happened late Sunday, February 18, while they evangelized on the streets of a local village, GFA said in a statement. Two of the students were listed in "critical condition."

The incident allegedly happened after the men, who were not identified apparently for security reasons, departed from their Bible college campus late Sunday for what GFA described as "their usual evening outreach." They "walked about three miles (4.8 kilometers) to a nearby village to give out Gospel tracts entitled ’How to Know God’ and witness to the people," GFA said.

Suddenly, the young men reportedly saw five "angry militants" running towards them. "We’re going to kill you!" the militants were quoted as shouting at the students. "As the extremists began beating the Christians, others joined until 40 anti-Christians were participating in the attack. The beatings continued until all five students were severely injured," GFA claimed.

STUDENTS HOSPITALIZED

The students were rushed to the hospital, but doctors initially refused to treat them saying police should first write a report about the attack, GFA reported. "Finally, after the report was written, the hospital admitted all five of the young men. Two of the men are in critical condition with serious head injuries and bleeding," GFA said.

GFA President K.P. Yohannan said the latest attack was part of a wider crackdown on devoted Christians in India. "Unfortunately, attacks like these are becoming an almost daily occurrence." He said his group had urged supporters to "pray that these young Bible college students will heal quickly and will be encouraged," to continue their activities. He also said GFA still hopes that those who beat the students will become Christians.

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