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Hindu Fundamentalists in Orissa unleash attacks against Church
Nun assaulted, Bibles burned, buildings vandalized
Zenit-org-Fides (26.11.2003)/ HRWF Int. (25.09.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - The Catholic community in the east Indian state of Orissa is in shock following a new wave of violence by Hindu fundamentalists against the Church.
A group of men on motorbikes belonging to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal fundamentalist movements have attacked churches and assaulted a nun, authorities say.
On Nov. 21, the Hindu militants torched a Catholic church in Deogarh, west Orissa. The attack came after various acts of vandalism. The previous day, gangs wearing saffron-colored clothes -- saffron being the symbol of Hindutva ideology -- demonstrated in front of the residence of the district governor and started a bonfire to burn bibles and other Christian books.
They then went to Rajamunda village where they broke into a church and raped a nun serving at the parish.
The local Church has strongly condemned the violence, calling for a police investigation. Local security forces say the motorbike gang is sowing terror in the area.
Days earlier the gang went to Amulpani village to question the conversion of four Hindus who had become Catholics. From this village they proceeded to Jhareikela, where they sacked the home of a Protestant pastor and destroyed Christian books. Police are investigating.
Subash Chouhan, representative of the fundamentalist movement Bajrang Dal, has publicly denied that his activists were involved in the attacks. But the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) has protested against the violence and called for police measures to protect minorities from attacks by Hindu fundamentalists.
"We are concerned for the safety of Christians in Orissa state which seems to have learned from Gujarat how to terrorize religious minorities," said Sajan George, GCIC chairman, who called for the intervention of the National Commission for Minorities and the National Commission for Human Rights.
Orissa state has a population of 36 million, mostly Hindu. It is ruled by the nationalist Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, which strongly opposes the conversion of Hindus to Christianity or Buddhism.
Orissa and the states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have passed a law obliging those who want to change their religion to obtain written permission from the local magistrate. Religious minorities, including Christians, oppose the law.
Death sentence for murderer of missionary in India
Assassin wants to become "martyr fighting against conversion"
By Abhijeet Prabhu
Compass (23.09.2003)/ HRWF Int. (25.09.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - The severest punishment under Indian law, the death penalty, was awarded to Dara Singh by a designated Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Monday, September 22, for his role in the murder of the Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons.
Pronouncing the verdict before a packed courtroom at 4:35 p.m., the District and Sessions Judge, Mahendra Nath Patnaik, handed out the death sentence to Dara Singh under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and sentenced his 12 accomplices to life imprisonment.
Christians fear that the death sentence will make Singh a martyr for the militant Hindu cause. As he left the courtroom on Monday, Singh said, Injustice has been done to me. I am not going to appeal in the higher court. I would prefer to be a martyr fighting against conversion. Criticizing the judge, he claimed that utter injustice had been done to him. I had earlier appealed to shift my case to a different court, but that was not done, Singh said.
Armed police personnel took him handcuffed out of the courtroom into the van for Choudwar Jail, about 30 km from the court in Bhubaneshwar, capital of Orissa state. Singh had stated previously that he would appeal to the High Court.
Earlier in the day, K. Sudhakar, CBI counsel for prosecution, urged the court to award stringent punishment to the 13 defendants, saying they killed Graham Staines and his two sons without provocation. Citing several Supreme Court judgments, Sudhakar said that it was a fit case for awarding the extreme penalty.
The defense counsel, Bana Mohanty and Gyana Acharya, asked for leniency for the 13 accused on the grounds that most of them were tribals and the sole breadwinners of their families. However, they said that they would not appeal on behalf of Dara Singh since he had told the defense not to challenge the order in the High Court.
The death sentence awarded to Singh has to be confirmed by the High Court under Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. In Indian law, the death sentence is exceptional. The Supreme Court has laid down five criteria for capital punishment to be pronounced only in the rarest of rare cases. It is significant that Singhs murder of the Staines family fits all of the five criteria.
Graham Staines and his sons, Philip (11) and Timothy (7), were burned to death while they slept in the family station wagon parked outside a church at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district shortly after midnight on January 22, 1999. They were attending a jungle camp, an annual gathering of Christians for fellowship and teaching.
Meanwhile, speaking from Baripada in Bhubaneshwar, Gladys Staines, widow of Graham Staines, send out a biblical message of forgiveness. I have forgiven the killers and have no bitterness, because forgiveness brings healing and our land needs healing from hatred and violence. Forgiveness and the consequences of the crime should not be mixed.
On the day Singh and the other 12 defendants were convicted, BJP (Indian Peoples Party) workers burned hundreds of Bibles and evangelistic tracts in Uttaranchal in response to the sentence, while police stood by watching silently. BJP activists attacked several schools in Doiwala and Ranipokhari villages in Dehra Dun district and raised slogans against Christian missionaries for distributing offensive literature designed to convert people.
The tendencies of some religions to pollute our culture cannot be tolerated in Uttaranchal, BJP state President Manohar Kant Dhyani said.
India prepares national "anti-conversion rule"
Government aims to stop low-caste Hindus from embracing Islam, Christianity and Buddhism
By Joshua Newton
Compass (13.09.2003)/ HRWF Int. (15.09.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Indias coalition government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is about to introduce fresh rules to prevent religious conversion among backward Hindus across the nation.
Entitled Change of Religion of the Members of SC/ST (Regulation and Approval) Rule, the law will come into effect once published in the official gazette.
Framed by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the rule has no approval from the Indian Parliament. The BJP, the ruling Hindu nationalist party, is vigorously opposing conversion of backward Hindus to Christianity and Buddhism.
This rule is not against conversion. We are just trying to regulate forcible conversion, Bizay Sonkar Shastri, chairman of Indias National Commission for SC/ST, told Compass. Our aim is to ensure that secular nature and the principles of equality are not violated by conversions, he said.
Once implemented, the law will insist that anyone wishing to change religion apply with an affidavit before the District Collector (a chief government executive) or an equal authority. Further, the official must provide a written order granting his permission. If violated, the person could be punished with a fine of 1000 Indian rupees ($21) per day, from the date on which the conversion took place until he or she is charged with the offense.
In a country where 350 million people are illiterate and 260 million fall under the poverty line, the rule demands aspiring converts to have undergone a secondary education.
This will effectively deny a large section of Indians their right to religious faith ensured by Indias Constitution, said Oliver DSouza of the All India Christian Council.
He said Indian Christians will fight the rule if implemented.
In cases of aspiring converts who lack the required educational qualification, the law recommends setting up of a panel to guarantee freedom of conscience of the uneducated. The District Collector shall appoint an observer for such conversions, who shall be a civil servant belonging to the same denomination to which the said conversion is sought to be effected.
All District Collectors are expected to submit a quarterly report to the state governments and an annual report to the federal government on all religious activities related to conversion.
Observers feel that Indias Supreme Court abetted the present move to bring new laws on conversion by its September 1 ruling that there is no fundamental right to convert anyone from one religion to another. It further stated that the authorities can impose restrictions on religious conversions.
Church groups across India have already expressed disappointment over the court decision, which in effect allows the federal government to prevent people from changing their religion.
But some are hopeful about a review of the judgment.
This judgment and the present rule can be questioned on the grounds of fundamental rights, said DSouza. The ruling will have to come up before a constitutional bench of the court, where we stand a chance.
We will make sure that religious rights of the minorities are protected, he added.
Christian leaders also point out that the rule can be discussed in Parliament, allowing elected representatives to debate the issue.
The National Commission for the socially backward is showing its true colors, said DSouza. By aiding the rightist Hindu rulers to prevent Dalits from leaving the Hindu fold, it has virtually turned into a national commission for fascism, he said.
Conversion to Christianity is a highly controversial issue in India. In January 1999, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burned alive, allegedly by Hindu fundamentalists who accused Staines of converting tribal peoples.
The Indian states of Orissa, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu, where the BJP or its allies are in power, have passed laws to prevent conversions. For some time, the BJP has been pushing for other Indian states to pass similar laws.
Critics say these rules are specifically aimed at Christian missions working among tribal peoples, the poor and the low-caste Hindus known as Dalits.
Christians in Kashmir targeted and accused of forcing conversions
Bishop says some fear a sort of religious "propaganda" under way
Zenit.org (12.06.2003)/ HRWF Int. (27.05.2004) - Website http://ww.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Christians in Kashmir are on edge about recent violence in this border region.
"We fear for the future," said Bishop Peter Celestine Elampassery of Jammu-Srinager in Indian Kashmir. "Christianity has been present in Kashmir for 200 years and has never had any difficulty with Muslims or Hindus."
Yet, "today in Kashmir there are many new Christian groups that are very active in missionary work," he said. "These are causing alarm among Hindu and Muslim people and also the local authorities, who fear a sort of 'Christian propaganda.' This has broken the existing harmony and explains the episodes of violence in recent times."
The local press has reported rumors of thousands of conversions by the new Christian groups.
In May a number of schools were attacked: St Luke's at Anantang, run by a Protestant group, and Good Shepherd School in Pulwama, run by the Mill Hill missionaries.
Kashmir is at the center of a quarrel connected with the Muslim secessionist movement, which has generated a 50-year conflict resulting in more than 70,000 killed.
"For Kashmir, our hopes for peace depend on an improvement in relations between India and Pakistan," Bishop Elampassery explained. The people have had enough of the war, but on both sides, India and Pakistan, militant groups are very active, he said.
Christian Council files plea in High Court
The Hindu (21.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (27.05.2004) - Website http://ww.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The All India Christian Council has filed a special civil application in the Gujarat High Court challenging the validity and constitutionality of the Freedom of Religion Act banning conversions without the prior permission of the concerned district magistrates.
Admitting the petition during the preliminary hearing today, Justice K. M. Mehta directed the Advocate General to appear before the court on Friday to explain the government's views on the issue. The petition was filed by Samson Christian, joint secretary of the Council.
The bill was passed by the State Assembly without any discussion on March 26 and the then Governor, Sunder Singh Bhandari, after some initial hesitation, gave his assent to it on April 8.
Priest to die for child sacrifice
The Hreald Sun (02.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (05.05.2004) - Website http://ww.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A court has sentenced a priest to death for sacrificing a nine-year-old child to appease a deity in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.
A lawyer said the state's High Court upheld the sentence imposed by a lower court, saying it was a case of extreme culpability which rendered life imprisonment inadequate.
"The murder ... was definitely extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical, revolting and dastardly so as to arouse indignation," the court said.
The priest was said to have sacrificed the boy in order to please a goddess.
The killing happened in the Jamtara district, nearly 200km from the state capital Ranchi.
He was booked by the police on a complaint lodged by the child's parents and initially sentenced to death by a Jamtara court.
Bihar: Suspected witch tortured
The Hindu (15.04.2003)/ HRWF Int. (16.04.2004) - Website http://ww.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A 40-year-old woman was beaten mercilessly and forced to consume human excreta after being declared a witch in Purani Chowk area of Samastipur district, police said today.
A group of villagers held one Sita Devi responsible for the death of a local and after removing her clothes beat her up with lathis and later forced her to consume excreta on Sunday, police said.
The attackers alleged the woman with practising witch-craft and held her responsible for the death of Ashok Kumar, who was ill for a long time and had died in a Delhi hospital on Saturday.
The victim has lodged an FIR against six persons of the same locality with Rosera police station of the district in this connection, police said adding raids were being conducted to nab the accused.
Gujarat to ban faith conversions
The government in the Indian state of Gujarat has decided to bring in a new law to stop the practice of religious conversion
BBC News (25.02.2003)/ HRWF Int. (27.02.2003) - Website http://ww.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The state governor, Sunder Singh Bhandari, declared the Freedom of Religion Bill would be brought before the state assembly during the session that opened on Tuesday.
The law - known as Dharam Swatantrata Vidheya - will be similar to anti-conversion laws that exist in some other Indian states.
Gujarat has been the scene of considerable religious tension over the last several years.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ashok Bhatt told the BBC the final shape of the new law will be decided at a cabinet meeting next week.
Mass baptism
Last year, the government in Tamil Nadu came under severe criticism from various public groups and political parties for introducing the law, which they said was against religious minorities and low-caste Hindus.
However, in December police arrested a number of people who were organising a mass ceremony.
Thousands of low-caste Hindus - known as Dalits - were due to be converted to Christianity and Buddhism.
The event was organised in direct defiance of a tough new anti-conversion law, similar to the one planned by the Gujarat authorities.
The wording of the law in Tamil Nadu is designed to prevent forced conversions but many Christian leaders say its aim is to stop all conversions.
The recent conversion of whole low caste Hindu communities to other religions has alarmed Hindu organisations.
Plans to introduce the new law come a few months after the ruling BJP retained control of Gujarat in the state elections and as the party strikes a controversial deal with its right-wing Hindu parent organisation the RSS.
Support
It is being seen as an attempt to pursue a more right-wing pro-Hindu agenda.
The RSS gave controversial support for the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, in the elections last October.
In Tamil Nadu, Hindu leaders accused evangelical Christians of bribing the poor by offering inducements to convert and they saw the new law as a way of protecting them.
During the last few years several instances of Christians being targeted for practising conversion of tribal groups have been reported from Gujarat.
VHP demands arrest of assaulted missionary
Rediff.com (17.01.2003)/ HRWF Int. (20.01.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Three days after suspected activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Kerala attacked American missionary Joseph W Cooper, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Friday demanded his arrest.
As Cooper -- who was attacked with iron rods, swords and crowbars when he was returning after attending a Bible convention -- continued to be treated at the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences in Thiruvananthapuram, the VHP's state unit alleged that the missionary carried out religious propaganda in violation of Indian laws.
VHP state organising secretary Kummanam Rajasekharan told rediff.com that Cooper and his team of evangelists were trying to convert residents of a scheduled caste colony in Kilimanur village outside Thiruvananthapuram.
"The US missionary was not entitled to hold evangelisation programmes on a visiting visa to India," he said.
He said the VHP would submit a memorandum to the government requesting the missionary's arrest.
"As per the Foreigners Act of 1956, citizens of other countries visiting India should not engage in religious preaching. They are only supposed to go sightseeing and visiting relatives," the VHP leader said.
But Church leaders deplored the VHP's stand. "The attack on Cooper was an unfortunate incident. But sadly... violent elements have been emboldened by the rhetoric of certain fundamentalist leaders of Hindutva, who spread hatred against minorities," Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, who heads Kerala's largest Syro Malabar Church, told rediff.com
As for the VHP's demand for arresting Cooper, the cardinal said, "A section of the people are trying to add insult to injury."
He also asked all the church groups in the country to be sensitive to the religious feelings of others while professing Christian faith.
PTI adds
Police on Friday arrested five more persons, all said to be RSS workers, in connection with the attack, sources said.
The five -- Baiju, Deepu, Shile, Binu Kumar and Manesh -- were remanded to judicial custody by the first class judicial magistrate at Attingal in Thiruvananthapuram district. Four were arrested earlier.
The police also took a statement from Cooper, who suffered a deep cut on the right palm, about the incident.
A pastor, Benson Sam, who was injured in the attack was discharged.
The RSS denied any involvement in the attack.
"It has become customary for a section of the media to drag the name of RSS whenever such incidents occur, as was evident from Jhabua nuns rape case, or missionary Graham Staines' murder in Orissa," joint general secretary of the RSS, Madandas Devi, said in a statement in New Delhi.
"I will refrain from giving the details of the undesirable proselytising activities of some of the Christian churches, as also the dubious antecedents and the character of the family that was targeted in Kilimanur," he added.
US missionary attacked in India
BBC News (15.01.2003) / HRWF Int. (16.01.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - An American missionary has been attacked in southern India by right-wing Hindus allegedly belonging to a group close to the ruling party.
Joseph W Cooper, 68, who is from Pennsylvania, received knife wounds in the assault in Kerala state in which five others were also hurt.
Police say they have arrested five activists of the hardline Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
But local RSS leaders deny the movement had anything to do with the attack.
The RSS is a group with close ties to the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party that heads the federal coalition government.
Christian groups have condemned the attack, which took place on the outskirts of the state capital, Trivandrum, on Monday night.
Armed gang
Eyewitnesses say Mr Cooper, a visiting preacher, was surrounded by an armed gang of 10 people as he was returning from a prayer meeting.
"We were approaching our car when the unexpected attack took place," Pastor Benson Sam told the BBC.
A police spokesman said Mr Cooper had sustained a deep cut in his right palm.
"The gang attacked Cooper and others with swords, sticks and iron bars.
"As other church members rushed to the scene the attackers fled," he was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
A local pastor, his wife and two children and one other person were also injured.
The victims were all taken to a local hospital but eyewitnesses said this was delayed by an hour until the police arrived on the scene.
Mr Cooper was attending a Protestant convention in the area organised by a local church.
About one third of the population of Kerala is Christian and attacks of this kind are rare.
But local people told the BBC that in recent months some right-wing Hindu organisations had been protesting against religious minorities.
Attacks
In recent years, there has been an increase in violence against Christians in India, who make up about 2% of the population.
In 1999, an Australian missionary working in India and his two little sons were burned to death by a mob in the eastern state of Orissa.
That attack was blamed on hardline Hindu groups who accuse the missionaries of forcibly proselytising low-caste Hindus and tribal groups - a charge the Christian groups deny.
Last month, the southern state of Tamil Nadu passed a controversial new law banning religious conversion through coercion or material inducement.
Many Christian groups in the state protested against the move, which they argued was unconstitutional.
India is a secular state which permits freedom to practice any religion.
Anti-conversion law challenged in High Court
The Hindu (03.01.2003) / HRWF Int. (07.01.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The Madras High Court today issued notice to the Tamil Nadu Government on a petition challenging the State's anti-coversion law and seeking to declare it as "unjust and constitutional".
The notice, returnable in three weeks, was issued by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice B Subhashan Reddy and Justice C Nagappan on a PIL filed by a city advocate R Rajamani, who also sought a stay on the operation of the "Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Act 2002" pending disposal of his writ petition.
Alleging that the evils of untouchability was a reason which compelled Scheduled Castes to abandon Hinduism and adopt Christianity and in some cases Islam, the petitioner contended that the practice of following or changing ones' religion or set of beliefs was a matter exclusively within the private domain of the people.
Stating that till date no one had claimed they were forced by any sect or group to convert to another religion and that conversions had taken place voluntarily, he said the work of propagating religious practices was individual in nature and not systematic.
While the State Government had the power to enact legislation for maintenance of law and order, it did not have the power to unduly and unreasonable interfere in the private affairs of the citizens or criminalise everyone, without necessary safeguards, under the guise of maintaining law and order.
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