Hindu Extremists Beat Christian Pastor With Clubs, Leave Him Unconscious in Pool of Blood

A pastor in Madhya Pradesh state is recovering after Hindu extremists last month beat him unconscious and left him in a pool of blood, sources said.
About 20 Hindu extremists in Fattiguda, Jhabua on Sept. 10 kicked, punched and beat with a club pastor Ajmer Singh Damor of Shalom Church, after storming into a prayer meeting at the home of Tihiya Vasunia, church leaders said.
"Pastor Ajmer remained unconscious for about five hours, and the local doctors transferred him to the district hospital due to the severity of his injuries," area Christian leader Amiya Jal told Morning Star News. "He was treated in the hospital for more than a week."
Most of the Christians at the gathering scattered and escaped harm, but the Hindu extremists also abducted church member Dilu Katara and beat him before releasing him later that evening. Katara received hospital treatment for abrasions and internal injuries. The assailants also beat Pastor Damor's wife, Runita Damor, but she was able to flee with her 18-month-old baby, said the Rev. Sam Francis, an area Christian leader.
Yelling that all Christian worship meetings must cease, the assailants destroyed household items and slaughtered one of Vasunia's goats, church leaders said.
"They killed the goat of Vasunia that was tied outside as they continued to shout that no such prayer should take place in the village in future," Jal said. "It was a male goat worth about 6,000 rupees [US$92]. Vasunia is only a poor farmer, and he also lost most of his household items."

Police registered a First Information Report against the attackers after the intervention of area Christian leaders, but it does not include the damage to Vasunia's house and the killing of his goat, church leaders said.

Christians Attacked, Arrested
Christians in Madhya Pradesh have grown increasingly alarmed over recent violence and false charges against them.
Authorities in Barkhat village, Bagh block, Dhar, on Sept. 6 arrested 14 Christians after the village head, Chetan Singh, summoned a meeting and threatened to kill Pastor Dayal Davar of Gram Barkhat Church (GBC).
"At 9 a.m. on Sept. 5, the village head along with the Hindu extremists threatened to beat up Pastor Davar if he continued to conduct any kind of Christian meetings, told him that they will not allow him to stay in the village and threatened to kill him if he did not renounce Christ," GBC pastor Suresh Mandloi told Morning Star News.
Later that day at about 6 p.m., Pastor Davar and other area church leaders reported the matter to officers and sought police protection. Two hours later, police summoned Pastor Davar and ordered him to stop leading prayer meetings in the village; he was compelled to sign a paper stating that only he and his family would pray in his house.
The next day, however, before the pastor was able to notify the congregation not to gather forSunday worship, about 100 Christians arrived. Hindu extremists showed up and began beating the Christians.
"They beat up the congregation with their hands, clubs and footwear, including a woman, Sagar Bai, 50 years old, and tore up the clothes of one teenage girl, Bhawanti, and claimed that no Christian meetings should take place in the area," Pastor Mandloi said.
Officers took 14 Christians to the Tanda police station, including an 11-year-old boy who was later released without charges. The other 13 were charged under Section 151 of the Indian Penal Code for disturbing the peace.
The Christians also submitted a complaint against the attackers, but police have not filed First Information Report against them.
On the same day (Sept. 6) in Kesla Kala village, Seoni, police arrested Christians Sunny Oman and John Alexander after a villager filed a police complaint against them of forceful conversion.
"Oman and Alexander were visiting a friend in Kesla Kala when a mob surrounded them and took them to the police station and falsely accused them of forceful conversion," area church leader Rev. Jaykar Christy told Morning Star News. "The two were just visiting the village on the invitation of Chand Gedam, and there was no case of forceful conversion."
The Christians were charged under the state's "anti-conversion" law, the so-called Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, which prohibits forcible or fraudulent conversion. They were released on bail later that evening.
The previous day in Amjhera, Dhar, police arrested Pastor Paras Bilwal and two Christians after a Hindu extremist mob harassed them for their faith in Christ.
"Pastor Bilwal and two Christians, Raju and Roop Singh, were visiting some church members in the Nankhodara area when the anti-Christian people manhandled them, threatened them with dire consequences if they visited the village again and filed a police complaint against them of forceful conversion," said the Rev. Paul Munia, an area church leader.
The Christians were arrested under Section 295 of the Indian Penal Code for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of others, and under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act. They were released on bail after four days.
Area church leaders said the Christians had engaged in no forceful conversion.

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3 Christian preachers arrested for conversions in Satna district

BHOPAL: Three people were arrested in Satna district late on Saturday under state's anti-conversion law. The trio reportedly told police they work for Gospel Echoing Missionary Society (GEMS), an NGO which preaches Christianity and has a presence in northern states for more than four decades, police said.
Of three, one accused Stephan Rajkumar, 40, is a resident of Chennai, other accused Harilal, 20, is a resident of Rewa and the third, Anil Kumar is resident of Azamgarh, said Majhgawan police station in charge Khem Singh.
"The trio has been booked under sections 3 and 4 of Madhya Pradesh Dharm Swatantrya Adhiniyam, besides Section 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), Section 506 (criminal intimidation). They did not inform the collector before converting locals," he said.

"They converted two people by offering Rs 5,000. One of them complained to us. Subsequently, all three were arrested from a local school while they were holding preaching sessions on Saturday night. CDs, projectors and other material used to propagate Christianity were recovered."
"They converted more than 10 people in Satna district. We have recorded statements of the two, who were converted. We are tracking 10 others, who were allegedly converted. Their statements will also be recorded," Singh said.
Madhya Pradesh Dharma Swatantrya Adhiniyam, 1968, bans conversions by force, allurement or fraud and there is a provision of imprisonment up to three years and a fine of Rs 50,000 as per recent amendments in the Act.

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Christian Tribals targeted in Jharkhand’s Singhbhum

In Jharkhand's Singhbhum, religion census deepens divide among tribals – Scroll.in

On August 25, the Modi government in Delhi released census data on population by religion. The same day, in Lupungpi village in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district, Rega Gagrai and her family spent their first day under a social boycott imposed on them because they had converted to Christianity.

The previous Monday, hundreds of Ho tribal villagers from five villages had gathered in Lupungpi. The community leaders, the manki-munda, sat at the centre of the village on red plastic chairs surrounded by fields of paddy. They asked Rega Gagrai and 14 other families that had converted to Christianity about five years ago to return to their original animistic religion called Sarna, or face a social boycott.
In Singhbhum's forest villages, Ho tribal villagers collect wood and grass from shared forest patches and pastures, and grow paddy on small plots of land. The families were told they would be blocked from accessing all resources in the village if they did not give up Christianity. “They told us we could no longer take grass from the pastures, or even walk on the common lands,” recounted Gagrai. “'Stop using the water from the pond,' they said.”
All villagers were ordered to stop talking to the Christian families.
Religious conversions have long been an issue of contention in the state, but the conflicts have been mostly limited mostly to the Chotanagpur region in Jharkhand's west, which first came in contact with Christian missionaries. The German Protestant mission arrived here in 1845, followed by the Catholics.
In contrast, the mineral-rich Kolhan region in the South, which borders Odisha, has been largely free of religious tensions. West Singhbhum district, which is part of the Kolhan region, has often been in the news on account of the Maoist insurgency. But as the recent social boycotts showed, the conflict over conversions has arrived here as well.
Sarna resurgence
Under the British, “Tribal religion”, or animism, was counted as a distinct religion in the census till 1941. The practice was discontinued in Independent India. This has been a source of anger among Jharkhand’s adivasis. They believe the removal of this category undermines tribal identity.
The week when the social boycott was enforced in Lupungpi village, about 130 kilometres away, in Jharkhand's capital Ranchi, the release of the census data on religion triggered a renewed demand for the recognition of Sarna, the worship of ancestors and nature.
According to the new census, of Jharkhand's 3.2 crore population, 67.8% or 2.2 crore are Hindu and 4.3% or 14.1 lakh are Christian. “Other religions”, which Sarna leaders say is approximate of the Sarna population, constitute 12.8% or 42.3 lakh.
Dharamguru Bandhan Tigga, who claims to lead 25 Sarna religious organisations, accompanied by Dr Karma Oraon, an anthropologist at Ranchi University, compared this to the population of Jains in India, which is about 45 lakh. If Jains get enumerated as a separate religion, why should Sarna not be recognised as a minority religion with all the attendant benefits, he asked. Tigga has announced that he will lead a protest rally of Sarna tribals from all over India at Delhi's Ramlila grounds in November next year.
The tribal intellectuals take a different view of the religious census data. Following the release of the census numbers, they have raised the question of missing tribals. Tribals, numbering 86.4 lakh, make up 26.2% of Jharkhand's population. Together, the two categories of Christians at 14.1 lakh and “other religions”, which includes Sarna, at 42.3 lakh add up to 56.3 lakh. Where are the remaining 30 lakh tribals, they ask. Were tribals in interior villages not counted, and how many have been assimilated into Hinduism?
Spreading hostilities
Tribal leaders have spoken out against assimilation by Hinduism and have asked leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Jata Party to ensure that the census has a distinct listing for Sarna. They distinguish tribal religion from Hinduism by pointing to the absence of the caste system and idol worship. Yet, Hindus have been able to claim some common ground with Sarna because of the prevalence of nature worship in both the religions.
On the ground, it is Christian missionaries who are under attack for their real and perceived proselytising activities. The most visible manifestation of this was in 2013, when thousands of Sarna tribals marched to a new church on the outskirts of Ranchi. They threatened to remove the statue of Mary depicted in a white sari with red border with an infant in a sling. The indigenisation of Mary, they argued, was part of the Church’s attempts to convert local tribals.
A common perception is that despite their small numbers, Christian tribals have had better access to higher education and jobs. With economic disparities, the chasm between Sarna and Christian tribals has widened.

Thousands of Sarna tribals marched to Singpur church when a statue of "tribal Mary" was unveiled in 2013.

Divided families
Rega Gagrai said she had converted to Christianty five years ago, soon after a local pastor helped in her son’s medical treatment. Her son Jonga had epilepsy since he was seven. “He would fall down anywhere,” said Gagrai, recalling her struggle in getting treatment for her son. The closest primary health centre at Kumhardunga is 14 kilometres away. A private clinic opened recently but Gagrai's family cannot afford its treatment.
When the family heard that a pastor living in Dipasahi could help, they approached him. He took them to a doctor in Chaibasa, said Rega's son Jonga, in his late teens.
Illness and lack of access to health services was a common leitmotif in the stories of the Christian converts. Siri Devi, holding a few days' old infant in her arms, said her family converted to Christianity after her husband, a driver in Jodhapahad, remained ill for two years. The local pastor took him to a doctor. But Devi sees the recovery as the result of their new faith more than modern medicine. “After we started believing, my husband got better,” she said.
In Rega Gagrai's instance, the issue of conversions has divided the family. When hundreds of villagers came to Lupungpi for the community meeting in August, it was Rega's nephew Roshan, a first year BA student at Tata College in Chaibasa, who led the charge against his own family. “Roshan taunted his cousin Jonga in front of the entire village," said Subani Gagrai, whose family was among the converts facing the social boycott. "‘Pray, and let's see if your epilepsy is cured. What is the need for medicines,’ he said, attacking his family."

Subani Gagrai and her children face a social boycott in Lupungpi.

Curiously, the villagers were aware that several families had converted to Christianity but they enforced a boycott only several years later after the conversion. A leading role was played by the cadres of the Adivasi Ho Samaj Yuva Mahasabha, the youth wing of a political and cultural organisation of the Ho tribals. Active since 2007, the organisation boasts of cadres in three districts in the Kolhan region. In the census, 62% of West Singhbhum's 15 lakh population said they followed “Other Religions”, the highest among all regions in Jharkhand. The Mahasabha took credit for this saying it was a result of their work to raise tribal consciousness on Sarna religion.

In Lupungpi, villagers said the immediate trigger for the enforcement of the boycott was the death of a young man in one of the converted families in Kuida village nearby. “Roya's son died and his brother Sachin, a Christian, wanted to bury him in the burial ground with Christian rites," said Jogu Gagrai, a Sarna tribal. "The villagers did not allow them to bury the body for three days. Finally, Sachin had to bury the body in his own aangan" or courtyard. Gagrai added that the village had long had complaints against the new converts' methods of praying. “They pray loudly, we can hear them in our huts, chanting that Desavli whom we pray to is Satan. They refer to our prayer spaces as uncivilised.”
While Jogu Gagrai and other Sarna villagers were chatting, Rega's nephew, Roshan Gagrai, a cadre of the Adivasi Ho Samaj Yuva Mahasabha, arrived on a motorcycle. He said the boycott was an apt punishment for those who had refused to return to the fold, including his family. “They have stopped listening to our samaj, it seems they want to follow the Constitution. So, we will let them,” he said.
'Homecoming' rituals
Lupungi is not the only village where the Mahasabha has organised meetings in the name of protecting religion. Three weeks later, on September 9, a similar sequence of events unfolded in Sagarkanta village in Tonto block, 30 km from Lupungpi. Ho tribals from ten villages gathered with the manki-munda community leaders and issued a threat to nine families that had converted to Christianity years ago. Return to the Sarna fold, or face a social boycott, they were told.
In two other villages, Kuida and Beechaburu, five families asked to be spared the social boycott and agreed to leave Christianity. For them, the Adivasi Ho Samaj Yuva Mahasabha central committee organised a “jatey”, a purification ceremony to allow them to return to Sarna religion. Roshan Gagrai described the ceremony, which sounded similar to the ghar-waapsi (homecoming) ceremonies conducted by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dilip Singh Judeo in Chhattisgarh in the mid-2000s. Judeo used to wash the feet of tribals before declaring that they were Hindu again. In Lupungpi, the bonga-buru priest, prayed to the Sarna Desavli, and washed the hands and feet of people and declared them Sarna.
Deepening divide
Thirty kilometres away, the head of the youth wing, the Adivasi Ho Samaj Yuva Mahasabha, Bhushan Pat Pingua, a muscular man in his early 30s, described the work they have done since 2007 to stop religious conversions. “We halted the construction of churches in Kumandlia, Noamundi, Jamshedpur,” he said calmly. “In April, we got information that a Believers' Church was being built in Hesalbaral in Manjhgaon. We went and asked them to stop construction. When they did not comply, we tied the pastor to a tree and hit him."
A First Information Report registered in Manjhgaon police station on April 7 this year recorded a complaint by Sugni Hembrom who owned the land on which the church was being built. “A pentecostal group was building the church on Sugni's land with her consent. The foundation had already been laid when Pat Pingua and his men arrived in the village and threatened us,” said Marcel Hembrom, a local resident who helped her register the FIR. “They tore Sungi's clothes and beat the pastor Vijay Saivayan mercilessly with sticks." No arrests have been made yet in the case, he added.
Pat Pingua boasted that the attack in Manjhgaon was not the only instance when his cadre turned violent against the missionaries, narrating similar incidents from previous years from Tantanagar nearby. “They build churches, schools on our land, and yet the Christian tribals get the benefit of reservation,” he said. He said he will not allow Christian tribals to celebrate tribal festivals, parab, inside the church. “All over India, the missionaries convert 10,000 persons to Christianity every hour. We have to do what we can to save our religion.”
Pat Pingua was surrounded by other young leaders of the Mahasabha, most in their late 20s, fresh graduates from college. The group sat in the sparsely furnished Ho Samaj library in Chaibasa built two months ago with a Rs 25 lakh donation from former chief minister Madhu Koda, who is also a Ho tribal. Madhu Koda was in the BJP till 2005, and has since floated his own political party.
An interdependence
The Mahasabha leaders insist they act autonomously. But unlike the Christian missionaries, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the BJP, has not been the target of any hostilities by Pat Pingua and his group for religious and cultural activities aimed at assimilating tribals into Hinduism in the region. In fact, the Mahasabha maintains fraternal links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. For instance, Inderjeet Samand, the block president of Adivasi Ho Samaj Mahasabha, is also the district president of RSS' farmers organisation, the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh.
It is a symbiotic relationship. RSS leaders say they consider it best that tribals themselves resist the conversion efforts of Christian missionaries. For Sarna tribal leaders, the connections with RSS are useful in getting access to the leaders of the BJP. The party is in power both at the Centre and in the state.
Samand claimed the Mahasabha's youth wing led by Pat Pingua is simply enforcing the policy outlined by the Mahasabha. He blamed the spike in conversions to Christianity on Jairam Ramesh's initiation of a developmental plan in Saranda. Three years ago, the thick forest in Saranda witnessed pitched battles between the CPI (Maoist) rebels and the paramilitary, followed by a central programme for development assistance led by then union minister Jairam Ramesh. “The Congress minister brought NGOs from the South as self help groups," said Samand. "They started preaching and converting in the most interior villages, of which we are seeing the results now.”
In Ranchi, Vijay Ghosh who heads the RSS' Dharam Jagran wing, which is focussed on stopping religious conversions, described himself as the “prerna-strot” (inspiration) for what has been happening in West Singhbhum over the last few weeks. “We are in regular touch with Pat Pingua and Samand,” he said. “But boycott is not the best way, I told them. They have to do ghar-waapsi and bring back those who have left the fold.”
In Lupungpi and other villages nearby, 20 of the 29 families facing social boycott, including that of Rega Gagrai, have decided to stick to Christianity. They said they cannot go back to being Sarna.

Families in Lupungpi that are unwilling to return to the Sarna religion continue to face social boycott.

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Indian police mishandled investigation into nun's rape

India’s National Human Rights Commission has accused police and government officials of mishandling the investigation into the rape of a Catholic nun.

The commission found several deficiencies in the official investigation, including failing to secure the crime scene and failing to examine possible physical evidence that could have helped identify the assailants.

The commission also said that the Chhattisgarh state government failed to offer the victim compensation, legal aid or psychological counseling as required under Indian law. The commission said in an Aug. 20 statement that it was seeking an explanation within six weeks from police and the state government about alleged missteps in the investigation.

The nun, a Salesian, was raped early June 20 by two masked men who broke into her room, drugged her and tied her up.

The incident in Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, spurred a series of protests across the state demanding swift action by police in arresting the culprits. Outrage among the Christian community spread to the nation's capital of Delhi.

However, two months after the incident, police are no closer to an arrest.

Raipur police superintendent Badrinarayan Meena told ucanews.com that police have interrogated “some 200 people” but have not made an arrest.

Meena said he had not seen the commission's statement and declined to respond directly to the allegations.

Father Sebastian Poomattam, vicar general of the Raipur diocese, said the rights group's statement confirms “all that we have been saying about" the poor police investigation.

Father Poomattam told ucanews.com that the Church will continue to press the issue until the victim receives justice. Church leaders plan on meeting with the state’s chief minister to put pressure on the administration for results.

"Our plan of action will depend on the response of the chief minister. But in any case, there will be action from the Church in the coming days," the vicar general said.

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Proof of impunity seen in church robbery, Indian Christian leaders say

A parish church in India's Madhya Pradesh state has been robbed, prompting Church leaders to accuse state authorities of allowing criminals to commit crimes against Christians with impunity.

Thieves used the cover of darkness to break into St. Joseph Church in Ganj Basoda in Sagar diocese Aug. 13 and steal an unspecified amount of cash from the collection box, parish officials said.

“This is the third theft or attempted theft from this church” in less than a year, parish priest Nitish Jacob told ucanews.com on Aug. 16.

The first was on Dec. 3 when thieves entered the presbytery and stole about 100,000 rupees (US$1,500).

A second attempt took place on Feb. 15, but was foiled when people inside presbytery woke up, he said.

Bishop Anthony Chirayath of Sagar bemoaned what he said was a complete lack of police action in trying to stop attacks on Christians in the state, which encourages criminals to commit further acts.

"They [the police] are inactive, and don’t take any action when churches are attacked. They don’t take seriously our complaints. What can we do? It is the duty of the police to investigate and take action against the culprits," he told ucanews.com.

Christians have faced a series of attacks since the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in the state in December 2003, Church leaders say.

Local police chief R K Bansaldenied denied accusations that the police were doing nothing. He told ucanews.com that his men were investigating the latest case with the help of CCTV footage.

The footage shows the suspect stayed on the premises for almost one hour, he said.
Although the images are unclear, police believe “the robber is a local person who is aware of the workings of the Church," the officer said.

Bishop Chirayath and other Christian leaders say there have been at least 100 attacks on Christians since the BJP came to power 12 years ago, with more than 20 occurring in the last six months.

Not one prosecution has taken place, they say.

"The Church has been continuously denied justice even after proper complaints to the authorities about assaults, attacks and other illegal cases leveled against it and its members, but to date there isn’t a single example in which the administration has acted properly to boost the trust and confidence of the people," State Bishops' Council spokesperson Father Maria Stephen said.

"Since we believe in the rule of law, we are going to meet the district collector [the highest government authority in the district]. We will also approach the courts for protection and safety, if need be," he said.

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‘Kandhamal’ tells the whole story of anti-Christian persecution - CRUX Coverage

 

 

BHUBANESWAR, India – Because of the dramatic events that unfolded there, certain places have come to symbolize entire movements or chapters of history. “Gettysburg,” for instance, immediately evokes the American Civil War, just as “Tiananmen Square” is now universal shorthand for non-violent protest.

In similar fashion, in terms of contemporary anti-Christian persecution, “Kandhamal” may be the single word that best captures the whole story.

Kandhamal is a district of the eastern Indian state of Odisha, formerly known as Orissa, where an orgy of violence descended upon the impoverished Christian minority in August, 2008. A series of riots led by radical Hindus left roughly 100 people dead, thousands injured, 300 churches and 6,000 homes destroyed, and 50,000 people displaced, many forced to hide in nearby forests where more died of hunger and snakebites.

The violence was carried out by mobs adorned with saffron headbands, a sign of right-wing Hindu militancy, and shouting slogans such as Jai shri ram! — victory to the Hindu god Ram — and Jai bajrang bali! — a tribute to another Hindu deity. Attackers wielded rods, tridents, swords, firearms, kerosene, and even acid.

The seven-year anniversary of the outbreak of the carnage falls next month.

To be sure, the 2008 pogrom was hardly an isolated incident. Violence against Christians in Kandhamal continues routinely today, although on a smaller scale.

Two days ago, there were unconfirmed reports that two Christians were shot to death by local police in a border area of the district, near a hilltop where they had gone to try to get a mobile phone signal to call their children, who had moved to a southern state in search of work.

The Rev. Ajaya Kumar Singh, a Catholic priest who heads the Odisha Forum for Social Action, said such violence is common in a place where the social elites are upper-caste Hindus and the Christians are largely lower-class “untouchables” and members of indigenous tribes.

“There’s a double hatred,” Singh said. “Because Christians are from the lowest caste, they’re untouchable, and because they’re Christians they’re seen as anti-national … they’re treated worse than dogs.”

Certainly that was the story of the 2008 riots that rocked the district.

It began with the Aug. 23, 2008, assassination of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, a local Hindu leader who was regarded as a messiah figure by many lower-class Hindu tribal people. Although the full truth about his murder remains elusive, it was initially blamed on Christians, which seemed plausible given that he had explicitly vowed to eliminate the Christian presence in the area.

Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, where Kandhamal is located, said that in some cases, tribals were convinced to assault Christians on the basis of myths deliberately circulated by radical Hindus to stoke anxiety.

In some cases, he said, locals were told that Christians would force them to eat beef, considered a grave sin in Hinduism, given the cow’s status as a sacred animal. Two brothers he met in a remote village, Barwa said, told him they took part in the violence because they’d been persuaded that if they didn’t kill Christians, they’d turn into bats.

Whatever its roots, what happened to Kandhamal’s Christians almost defies belief. Here are six of their stories.

Kanaka Rekha Nayak is a Dalit Christian who watched her husband Parikhit die at the hands of an angry mob shouting praise to Hindu gods. Both she and her husband were converts to Protestantism in a largely Hindu village.

Nayak’s fellow villagers, erstwhile friends and neighbors, burned his body with acid, sliced off his genitals, and then cut open his stomach and ripped out his intestines to wear them around their necks like a trophy.

There’s Rajesh Digal, a Pentecostal pastor who was asked to recant his faith. When he refused, he was beaten severely. He was then asked again if he would renounce his Christianity; when he said no, he was buried in a pit up to his neck for two days. When he asked for water, his tormentors urinated in his mouth.

Given a final chance to repudiate his faith, Digal declined for a third time. At that point, he was beaten to death with clubs, axes, and sticks. To this day, his body has never been found.

Or take the case of Sister Meena Lalita Barwa, a Catholic nun of the Servite order who was in Kandhamal when she and a local priest, the Rev. Thomas Chellen, were dragged into the streets by frenzied attackers shouting “Kill Christians!”

Sister Barwa, the niece of Archbishop Barwa, said her sari blouse was ripped off. She was raped by one of the men in the mob, and then paraded through the streets of the village semi-naked while the mob continued to howl.

At one stage, the attackers insisted that Chellen, the priest, also rape her. He refused and was severely beaten as a result. Both survived the ordeal, and Sister Barwa, now 37, is pursuing a law degree in order to fight for justice for other victims of similar violence.

The Rev. Edward Sequeira is a Catholic priest who had been working in the area for 10 years.

Around lunchtime on Aug. 25, 2008, an angry mob of roughly 500 people showed up at his residence, brandishing axes, shovels, spades, and iron rods. They demanded that he come outside, shouting slogans such as “Kill Jesus Christ!”

Sequeira, a member of the Society of the Divine Word religious order, was assaulted and then tossed back inside his house, which the mob set on fire. Sequeira hid in the bathroom, using toilet water to douse the flames. As he prayed for help, he could hear the screams of Rajni Majh, an orphan girl he had rescued, who was raped and then tied up and burned to death.

He was eventually rescued by police and airlifted to Mumbai for medical treatment. Today he still carries the pain of the ordeal, having gone through several surgeries to treat damage to his throat and lungs.

The Rev. Dushmonth Nayak is a priest from Kandhamal who was in Bhubenswar, the capital city of Odisha, at the time the violence erupted. At one point he received a phone call from his sister, who informed him that she was speaking to him with a knife to her throat.

Hindu assailants, she said, had burst into the home and demanded that she renounce her Christianity, and she had pleaded with them for permission to phone her brother to ask for advice.

“If you live, you will live with Christ,” Nayak recalls saying to her, “and if you die, you will die with Christ.”

Nayak’s sister managed to escape, and today she leads a women’s council in the area.

The Rev. Mrutyunjaya Digal was in Bhubenswar when he caught a glimpse of his brother, Pratap, on television from Kandhamal.

Pratap was one of eight Christian men in his village forced to undergo a Hindu “reconversion” ceremony, which involved having his head shaved, drinking water mixed with cow feces (a Hindu devotion expressing reverence for the cow), and reciting a prayer to the god Ram.

Police look the other way

Local police generally stood by during these rampages, rarely intervening until after the damage was done.

“The police were there when the attacks were happening, and they did nothing,” said Archbishop Raphael Cheenath, now retired, who was in charge of the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese at the time.

“I have no doubt that [the police] were in alliance” with the Hindu radicals who instigated the attacks, Cheenath said.

After the fact, some 90 percent of cases filed against the perpetrators never result in convictions, in part because of a lack of police protection for witnesses and in part because of failures in recording the complaints accurately. As a result, most of those who carried out the violence are still walking around their villages as free men, with Christians who survived running into them on a routine basis.

“I feel sad that the legal system of my country has not been able to do its duty,” said Sister Barwa, whose rapist is still at large.

Why Christians?

Although simple hatred of Christians is the main force fueling the violence, it’s not the only one. Singh, the priest who directs a social forum in the area, ticked off at least six others:

• Class prejudice: Christians in the area come from the lower castes, while the Hindus are upper caste.
• Nationalism: Christians are often falsely seen as “Western”.
• Economics: Many Hindus in the area are traders with an interest in maintaining a supply of cheap and exploitable labor, and resist Christian activists inspiring the lower classes to assert their rights.
• Politics: Hindu-backed parties want to control the region and find that spreading propaganda against the Christian minority delivers votes.
• Media coverage: Christians have little capacity to project their own voice.
• Christian churches: They have largely “kept quiet,” according to Singh, and failed to take legal recourse in defense of Christian rights.

Although some observers say things have improved in the past seven years, many Christians are far from confident that all is well.

“There is silence, but no serenity,” said Suranjan Nayak, a local Christian activist.

“The extremists are still holding underground meetings, and they still mutter threats when they pass people in the streets,” he said. “There is no peace in the remote villages. We are not free, [because] I never trust my neighbor like I did before. It’s always in my mind that he can do anything to me at any time.”

Christians also express frustration about the failure of the legal system to hold their attackers accountable. Of the 100 people murdered in August, 2008, there have been only 30 prosecutions and just two convictions.

Meanwhile, seven Christians widely believed by their co-religionists to be innocent languish in prison for the 2008 murder of the swami. Coincidentally, those Christians come from the same Kanhamal village as the two people reportedly shot to death July 26.

Cheenath said he believes Christian churches must be more outspoken in defending minority rights.

“When the RSS can tell 30 lies beautifully,” he said, referring to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the principal organization in India for Hindu radicals, “I don’t see why we can’t speak one truth strongly.”

For her part, Sister Barwa said she hopes the anniversary of Kandhamal’s tragedy next month will be a time for Indians to resolve that religious violence will never happen again.

“Every person in this country should respect the religion of others and the humanity of others,” she said. “Otherwise, what was my suffering, and the suffering of so many other people, really for?”

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Our Comments:

We are grateful that John Allen Jr and his colleagues at CRUX are covering these events especially when Christians even in India seem to have forgotten the tragedy and travesty of justice in Kandhamal. Many have moved on and now speak a language of development while the victims are still denied justice. Hoping that this coverage will encourage Christians to take up the fight for justice more seriously. We appreciate the many who are already involved in it.

Widows tell the tale of India’s new Christian martyrs - CRUX coverage

BHUBANESWAR, India — In the galaxy of contemporary anti-Christian persecution, the martyrs of Kandhamal in India hold a special place, and not just because statistically they died amid the worst outbreak of violence specifically directed at Christians so far in the 21st century.

The manner in which many of these Christians lost their lives, almost all of whom come from the Indian caste once considered “untouchable,” was almost unimaginably grotesque – violence more at home in the Bible or early Christian martyrology, seemingly, than the here-and-now.

On Monday, Crux sat down with five Christian widows who lost their husbands amid the mayhem that broke out in August, 2008, when the assassination of a local Hindu leader was blamed on the Christian minority.

By all accounts, the pogroms were instigated by radical Hindu activists seeking to eliminate the Christian presence from the area.

The interview with the widows took place in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha state (formerly known as Orissa), where the killing occurred, and was organized by the Global Council of Indian Christians, an advocacy and relief group for Christian victims of religious persecution.

These are their stories about their husbands’ murders.

Kanaka Rekha Nayak (Crux Staff Photo/John L. Allen Jr.)

Parikhit Nayak

Parikhit Nayak was killed on Aug. 27, 2008, after spending two days hiding with his wife and their two children in a forest near their village of Tiangia Budedipade. He was a Baptist, and his tribal neighbors wanted to force him to deny his faith and embrace Hinduism.

Weeping as she spoke, his wife, Kanaka Rekha Nayak, 35, recounted the desperation she felt when she saw her husband dragged for almost a mile with a bicycle chain around his neck, as she tried to both be with him and to protect their two-year-old son, Bennie.

“The mob gave him a warning: ‘Convert or be killed,’” Kanaka said. “But he told them that he’d accepted Jesus, and that he would save him.”

The enraged group of Hindus continued hitting and beating him until they saw he wasn’t going to budge. Then, in a scene straight out of a horror film, Kanaka’s tormentors sliced off his genitals, cut open his belly to remove his intestines, and wore them around their necks as a badge of honor.

In the coup de grâce, Kanaka said, “They cut my husband into pieces in front of me, covered him in kerosene, and set him on fire.”

After finishing with Parikhit, she said, the mob turned on her, intending to rape her. She escaped by running to a nearby forest, and eventually found herself in the house of people she didn’t know some 10 miles from her husband’s remains.

The next morning, the owners of the house took her to a relief camp called Raika, one of several created during the several violent months that followed the Aug. 23 killing of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati.

It wasn’t until three days later that the police acknowledged the murder and accompanied Kanaka to the place where her husband’s remains had been abandoned. She was allowed to bury him in an already occupied tomb in the cemetery of a nearby Catholic convent, but everyone was so afraid that no priest presided over the interment.

Thanks to the testimony of their daughter, who’s now 12 but was five when her father was murdered, 25 men were identified as responsible for Rekha’s death. Eighteen were criminally charged, but only one is in jail; the others move freely in their village.

Although Kanaka had to leave town after their house was burned, she sometimes returns to the village and runs into the very men who committed the atrocities that claimed her husband’s life.

“Some run away when they see me, some greet me, hoping I’ll dismiss the case against them, and some threaten to kill me or my daughter, so she can’t be used as a witness in the Supreme Court,” she said.

In less than a month, she’ll return yet again, to visit her husband’s grave. She remembered his final words, spoken to his assailants: “Do whatever you want to me, but spare my family!”

Despite the hardship, she’s proud of her husband’s courage to not to deny his faith to save himself.

“My husband is no longer with me, but the Lord has given me the opportunity to share my testimony with others, so that hopefully this doesn’t happen again.”

* * * * *

Asmita Digal (Crux Staff Photo/John L. Allen Jr.)

Rajesh Digal

Rajesh Digal, a pastor of the Free Methodist Church, was intercepted on the night of Aug. 26, 2008 as he was returning home in a truck. He and a younger man had hitched a ride, trying to get home as soon as possible after hearing of the violence taking place in their village of Bokinga.

When the mob searched Digal’s bag, they found his Bible, and as with Parikhit Nayak — and most of the Kandhamal martyrs — they offered to spare his life if he accepted Hinduism.

After he refused, they buried him in a muddy pit up to his neck for two full days, leaving only his head exposed. At one point Digal asked for water, and one of his captors urinated into his mouth.

On the third day, they took him out, but he still refused to repudiate Christianity.

“They kept asking ‘Are you willing to convert?’ and every time he said no,” his 29-year old widow, Asmita Digal, said. “In response, they cut off each of his limbs, one by one.”

Although Asmita managed to escape before the end came, the young man traveling with Digal joined her later that day in a camp and informed her that the Hindu assailants had beaten her husband to death and disposed of his body.

That young man, however, refused to provide testimony to the police out of fear.

Since Digal’s remains were never found – because of what witnesses told her, she believes they burned his body and threw the ashes to a nearby river –the police won’t file murder charges against any of his attackers, permitting only a “missing person” report.

As a result, Asmita hasn’t been able to request the $1,000 compensation the government has agreed to give to the families of people officially recognized as having been murdered during the violence. The money would help her pay rent for a small house where she moved with her two young children.

Asmita said are no Christians in her new village, so the only place of worship she has is a Catholic church in a nearby town.

“My husband gave his life for the Lord,” she said. “It’s caused me great problems for my earthly life, but in spite of everything, I won’t deny Jesus Christ, and my children will grow up knowing him.”

* * * * *

Runima Digal (Crux Staff Photo/John L. Allen Jr.)

Iswar Digal

Iswar Digal was killed Sept. 20, 2008. Together with his wife, Runima, 40, and their four children, they were traveling from a relief camp in Gudyar to the town of Mole Para because Iswar’s father had fallen ill.

They arrived at the family home at night, hoping to avoid being seen. Their efforts, however, were fruitless: Someone had alerted the village of their arrival, and a mob caring machetes, swords, and axes came looking for them.

The family managed to hide in a nearby forest, but when morning came, a group of 15 fundamentalists found them. Iswar fell as he was trying to escape. The attackers took the opportunity to put a towel around his neck, and dragged him to a nearby river.

After beating him repeatedly, they killed Digal by cutting his body into three parts. They threw his remains into the river. The body parts were never recovered.

Runima and her four children managed to find refuge in a relief camp. That same afternoon, a boy who had witnessed the scene, since he, too, was part of the mob, told her what had happened.

The boy, however, refused to testify in court. As a result, only two men were ever imprisoned for Digal’s death, but after two years they were released on bail.

Runima has since left the town to move closer to her parents. When she goes back, she said, she can overhear threatening comments coming from her former attackers as she passes them in village streets: “We will take care of you,” she says they mutter.

“I haven’t denied the Lord, and my faith has made me stronger,” Runima told Crux.

She was born in a Christian family, and when Iswar proposed, she told him she’d marry him only if he got baptized. He did so, and his parents and siblings followed in his footsteps soon after.

* * * * *

Monalisa Nayak (Crux Staff Photo/John L. Allen Jr.)

Gopona Nayak

The situation of Monalisa Nayak, 25, in many ways mirrors that of Runima Digal. Her husband, Gopona Nayak, was killed Aug. 24 in 2008 after he refused to embrace Hinduism. Although she was able to identify 12 of her husband’s murderers, no one else came forward to support her testimony, and so the attackers remain at large.

Unlike Digal, however, Monalisa has no family to go back to, since they banished her after she became a Christian. In fact, they even blamed her misfortune on her decision to convert.

“You had it coming for abandoning your family’s faith,” she said they told her at the time.

She explained that an angry mob grabbed Gopona, her husband, in the forest after they had fled the village. While trying to escape, he fell down a hill into a field submerged in 15 feet of water. The extremists threw stones at him, and when he was badly hurt, they dragged his unconscious body to a local Baptist church.

The attackers then tossed Gopona’s body into the church and doused the structure with kerosene, burning him to death.

Monolisa hid in the forest for at least three more days. Because of heavy rains, by the time she managed to get the police to go to the crime scene, there was no physical evidence left of the assault.

She and her two children now survive on the roughly $1.50 a day she earns as an occasional daily laborer.

* * * * *

Puspanjali Panda (Crux Staff Photo by John L. Allen Jr.)

Divyasingh Digal

Puspanjali Panda, 44, wasn’t able to bury her martyred husband, either. Divyasingh Digal was killed Aug. 26 as he was coming out from a church program. As he was leaving the church, he heard a mob was looking for him, so he took refuge in a nearby house.

Some hours later, the mob caught up to him. They dragged him out to the street and beat him with sticks and slapped him as he continued to struggle to escape. Eventually one knocked him down by throwing a stone at his head.

Having subdued Digal, they then cut off his limbs and dragged him to the shore of a nearby river, abandoning his body after his death.

At midnight, a crowd of Hindu extremists went to the Panda household and threatened to kill Puspanjali, too, if she didn’t convert, but they weren’t able to get in and eventually gave up. They tried again around 5 a.m. to no avail.

Early the next morning, she roamed the town looking for her husband until someone told her to avoid the river because there was a body lying on the ground.

She was able to identify the remains, and went to the police to file the complaint. They took the body to do an autopsy and never returned it to her, which Puspanjali believes was a way of covering up the crime. As a result, she was never able to say goodbye.

“The extremists didn’t allow me to bury my husband,” she said in tears.

Paralyzed by fear, a product of seeing her husband’s killers walking around town with impunity, she moved to her parents’ house. Last year, however, after she refused to convert to Hinduism, her father told her that she and her 17-year-old daughter could no longer live in the family home.

Today, Puspanjali lives at a relief camp with 70 other families that still haven’t been able to return to their villages even seven years after the violence ended.

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SC/ST benefits available to Christians reconverting to Hinduism: Kerala HC

KOCHI: A member of a scheduled caste or tribe (SC/ST) who had converted to Christianity from Hinduism can claim the rights and benefits available to SC/ST members if he reconverts, the Kerala High Court has held.

The court's decision assumes much significance in the backdrop of 'Ghar Wapsi' reconversion campaign introduced by the Hindu right-wing group Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) last year. Earlier this month, VHP had claimed that it had reconverted over 33,000 persons and had 'prevented' over 48,000 conversions.

It was a petition filed by a father and daughter whose forefathers belonged to Hindu Cheramar community that was considered by the court. Those who approached the court were 46-year-old MA Chandraboss of Ramapuram in Kottayam and his 18-year-old daughter Alida. They were born as Christians as Chandraboss' father had converted to Christianity. In 2009, Chandraboss and his family reconverted to Hinduism by undergoing 'Shudhi Karma' under the auspices of Arya Samaj.

Chandraboss' daughter Alida appeared for the common entrance examination this year and sought admission in the SC/ST quota. However, her claim to SC/ST quota was rejected on the basis of an anthropological report by a state government agency named Kerala Institute for Research, Training and Development Studies (KIRTADS). An appeal filed before the government against this also came to be dismissed.

At the high court, their counsel G Krishnakumar argued that though they had converted to Christianity, they retained the essential character of the caste to which they belonged and suffered the disabilities and disadvantages of other members of their caste.

Opposing the claim, state government submitted that the petitioners, having born into Christianity and having lived as Christians till their reconversion, are to be treated as Christians and not as a scheduled caste member. It is a conversion of convenience, the government counsel argued.

Ruling in favour of the petitioners, justice K Vinod Chandran held, "The 2nd petitioners (Chandraboss' daughter) definitely was brought up in her father's house, may be as a Christian, but a Christian-Cheramar. There being generally no accepted caste discrimination in Christianity, the identity in the Cheramar community was essentially retained."

The court further said in the judgment, "It is to be noticed that Christianity, as it is generally understood, does not have any caste discrimination and the very fact that the 1st and 2nd petitioners (Chandraboss and his daughter) were all along issued with community certificates as belonging to Christian-Cheramar would indicate that they had their origin in the Hindu-Cheramar community. Considering the question of a Christian convert reconverted to Hinduism, this court in Ponnamma's case (Ponnamma vs Regional Director, 1983) held that the child of parents who (had) converted to Christianity at the time of the birth of the child, could always convert back to Hinduism and claim the rights of the caste of her forefathers once she converts back to Hinduism. The rights of a child born as a Christian, to Schedule Caste parents who converted to Christianity, to reconvert to Hinduism and claim the rights available to a Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe, was affirmed by the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court." 

 

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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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Remember Kandhamal?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWew4lOKmHM&feature=youtu.be

RSS readies to target minority educational institutions

The education wing of the RSS, the Bhartiya Shiksha Mandal (BSM), is planning to file a review petition in the Supreme Court asking it to reconsider the definition of minority institutions. According to the BSM, the management of minority institutions is “misusing” its “privileges” and also shying away from the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act and other education-related welfare schemes of the government.

The main contention of the BSM does not rest with this. It has also alleged that these institutions have more general students than those belonging to the minority the institution is being run for; while it is only the management that is comprised of minority members, demanding  a redefinition of minority institutions that will emphasize the composition of students and not that of the management as the main criterion of this constitutional status.

“The purpose of giving privileges to minority institutions was to help the students belonging to minority communities,” this purpong secretary Mukul Kantikar.

Kantikar also went on to add, “the beneficiary should be minority. Just because the management is minority, you cannot have minority status”.

The procedure in use for admitting students to government-aided minority educational institutions is dependent on a calculation of the percentage of students belonging to the given minority community in the given area, by state governments. The 2002 Supreme court order makes way for the provision to admit students belonging to other communities in these institutions for want of enough minority students.

It is Article 30(1) of the Indian Constitution that gives minority communities the right to establish and administer their own educational institutions.

The BSM, after having prepared a draft of the National Education Policy, is now contemplating on either intervening as a stakeholder or filing a petition in the aforementioned matter. “The definition of minority status should be reviewed, for which there should either be a Supreme Court intervention or a constitutional amendment. We want to explore both the possibilities”, Kantikar added.

Source: http://www.tehelka.com/rss-education-wing-demands-new-norm-for-minority-institutions/