Thirty lawyers, media personnel, pastors and agency workers from Christian denominations across India met at the Centre for Religious Freedom in Delhi from November 25–29 to prepare resources to enable Christians of all churches in India to meet the likelihood of further persecution in months to come.
Persecution may be stepped up because Hindu nationalist politicians may win power in the current local and upcoming national elections and even form the Government if only in coalition with others.
The worst attacks have been against Muslims in Gujarat in 2003 and Christians in Orissa in 2008. Other subtle forms of intimidation are also used, such as laws making so-called ‘inducements to convert’ punishable by imprisonment.
Hindu tolerance?
It is sometimes thought that it is only Islam that objects to and opposes Christian evangelism. However, in certain states in India, groups of Hindus are becoming as aggressively opposed to evangelism and Christian mission activity. This discredits Hinduism’s claim to be a very tolerant religion.
Such opposition does not come from poor and marginalized people who constitute 60% of Hindus and who are, by and large, the audience of Christian evangelists. It is third parties, the upper castes and rich people who object to Christians evangelizing poor people, often bringing social betterment programmes as well.
Professor Shamsul Islam of Jaharwal Nehru University, Delhi, a secular Muslim, argued that Hindu nationalist politicians ‘want to deprive minorities of all their civil and human rights’ and openly adhere to the totalitarian models of 20th-century European fascist leaders.
When such politicians gain political and economic power they act through others whom they pay to carry out violent and aggressive attacks on individual Christians and vulnerable churches.
Dalit alienation
There is increasing alienation of the lower castes and those formerly called ‘untouchables’ (now Dalits) from mainstream Hinduism, which is dominated and ruled by upper caste Hindus. Many of those who are alienated are looking for alternatives and are willing to take the risk of conversion. This openness of Dalits to Christian evangelism correlates with the rise of Hindu fundamentalist attacks on Christians. These fundamentalists are threatened by what they see as a loss to the Christian community of large numbers of Dalits, who have a new sense of empowerment through Christian hope and education and belonging to a global family.
Inducement
Because Hinduism interprets religion as a means to secure divine blessing, they automatically assume that anyone who converts from Hinduism to Christianity must have been induced so to do with promises of material gain. A number of State Governments have, or are introducing, anti-conversion legislation to combat such supposed ‘inducement’.
Father Dominic Emmanuel, a well-known media spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in India, suggested that Christians be ready with responses to the ‘inducement argument’. ‘If the inducement charge is true, how come — after 1000 years of Christianity in India, where over 50% of the people are poor — only 2% of the population are Christian and that percentage is decreasing?’
Support Group Development
Participants in the seminar were encouraged to form local groups that would respond to attacks at six levels: 1. Spiritual support — providing spiritual and crisis counselling and prayer support; 2. Media and information; 3. Legal rights — providing details of making legal complaints nationally and to international fora; 4. Developing good relationships with the police for protection and action; 5. Developing good relations with community leaders so that churches can be seen as a benefit to their communities — for example, by setting up schools; 6. Direct relief — providing contacts for relief support and places of refuge.
To this end, a most significant strategy to assist such communities is the introduction of English education. This is because, as English is the language of international communication and business, knowledge of English opens up a universe of opportunity to Dalit children. Further, English language introduces concepts of freedom and equality of status to people inured in the habits of servitude. Teachers of English from anywhere in the world could play their part through short-term involvement.
‘The Indian church will be better equipped to address religious freedom through the creation of these support groups to address the spiritual, legal, political, social and development issues that such persecution raises’, said the Rev. Richard Howell, the General Secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India.
