Concerns have been raised for Christians and other minorities in India following the landslide victory of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the country’s general election in early May.
The BJP won 282 out of 543 seats, routing the secular Congress party, which has been in power for the last ten years. BJP leader Narendra Modi, a divisive and controversial figure who focused his campaign on reviving the flagging Indian economy, is set to become prime minister.
Hindu nationalism
The BJP is the political wing of a Hindu nationalist movement, Hindutva, which is striving to make India a religiously pure nation. Its emphatic victory in the election is therefore ominous for Christians and other non-Hindus in the country.
Sajan K. George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), said: ‘Past experience [shows that] whenever they came into power, they have not been kind to us or they’ve always tried to violate constitutional guarantees given to Christians in India’.
Supporting attacks on Christians
The BJP has given support to Hindu extremist groups that attack Christians, and states under the party’s rule have generally experienced a rise in anti-Christian violence. The party was at the helm of Orissa State during the horrendous 2007–2008 riots in which Hindu militants rampaged through villages, torching houses and churches. Around 60,000 Christians were left homeless; 91 lost their lives, and around 18,000 were wounded.
Muslims have also been targeted. Modi was chief minister of Gujarat State in 2002 when more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in religiously motivated riots that were among the worst in the country’s history. He has been accused of allowing the violence to continue unchecked; some of his supporters have been convicted for their complicity.
There are concerns, particularly among the Christian and Muslim minorities, that the BJP victory will inflame sectarian tensions and embolden Hindu extremists to unleash further violence. During the election campaign, 41 Muslims were killed in sectarian fighting in Assam State.
Alarming answer
Christian leaders were alarmed by Modi’s response to a question put to him in a television interview last month. He was asked what steps he would take to protect churches from attack, if elected, to which he replied: ‘I have never heard of such incidents taking place’.
Last year, around 4,000 Christians were targeted in acts of violence, which were mostly carried out by Hindu extremists, and there were around 100 attacks on churches or worship meetings.
Dr John Dayal, secretary general of All India Christian Council, said that more than two dozen churches were destroyed in Modi’s own Gujarat State in 1998, adding: ‘Surely he knows what happened in Kandhamal, Orissa and Mangalore, Karnataka and other places in 2007 and 2008 when more than 300 churches and more than 6,000 Christian homes were destroyed by the Hindu radical-led mobs’.
Anti-conversion laws
The BJP also poses a threat to religious freedom in India. It has already introduced ‘anti-conversion’ laws in a number of states, which are regularly used as a pretext by Hindu extremists to attack Christians – whom they falsely accuse of converting people by force – and also to prevent legitimate Christian evangelism. Prior to the general election, the BJP pledged to introduce national legislation to curb ‘missionary’ activity and end proselytising if elected.
Concerns have also been raised about the 200 million Dalits or ‘untouchables’, who are a historically disadvantaged people group at the very bottom of India’s hierarchical society. They have long been campaigning for equal recognition with their Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh counterparts.
