The Nation: Religious Tensions: Burning the Cross

Unprecedented attacks against churches and Christians in several parts of the country reveals the violent new game plan of Hindutva's fringe.

One of the churches which was set on fire in south Gujarat

Lush forests cascade down the mountainsides. Sparkling streams meander through the forests. If the Dangs district is known as the Kashmir of Gujarat, it's not without reason. But like Kashmir, south Gujarat's paradise -- a poor but peaceful tribal area of 311 villages, known until now for its near-zero crime rate -- has been torn asunder.

Last week foot soldiers of extremist Hindu groups, mainly the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal, rampaged through Dangs, burning half a dozen churches, vehicles and two mission schools and battling Christians. It signalled for the Hindutva fringe a new enemy: Christianity. Some 44 persons, mostly Hindu tribals, were booked for violence, but the action was too late, too limited. The mayhem spread to neighbouring Surat where two churches were burnt and Christians attacked. By the third day, the community -- despite stray efforts to retaliate -- cowered in fear, untrusting of an administration that was incompetent at best and partisan at worst.

The attacks in Dangs were only the latest in a series of nearly 40 attacks on Christians in south Gujarat in the past six months. It took to about 90 the number of cases of violence recorded this year against Christians nationwide -- mostly in Gujarat, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh -- more than at any time before in India's history.

Simultaneously, VHP supremo Ashok Singhal ranted about "Christian conspiracies" to wipe out Hinduism. Among these were Sonia Gandhi's rise, mass conversions and the nobel prizes to economist Amartya Sen and Mother Teresa. The reasoning: Sen's prescription of mass literacy would be used to inundate India with money for conversions.

"They have now shifted focus to Christians because Muslims are not soft targets any more," says CPI(M) General Secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet. Some say the Hindu right is rattled by the rise of Sonia; by attacking her faith they hope to corner her. That's about right. "They (Christians) think that with her rise they will have the best of times and get away with anything," says VHP international President Vishnu Hari Dalmia.

The VHP's focus of attack is clearly shifting from Muslims to Christians. Many functionaries at the VHP's national meet in Jaipur said in off-the-record conversations that the onslaught against Christians will create a political issue that will discomfort Sonia Gandhi, a Roman Catholic. They hope to make an emotional issue of conversions and consolidate the Hindu vote, as they did during the 1992 storming of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

The BJP tried to distance itself from its radical allies, its spokesman weakly saying, "Any effort to spoil mutual relations between various communities is not proper." But the prime minister was angrier. "This has gone beyond the limits of tolerance," said Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Singhal, he warned "would soon be brought under control". But keeping the fringes in check is going to be hard work for a beleaguered BJP. The ante has been upped and there is clearly a fresh tear in India's already tattered secular fabric.

"Peace committee meetings", a euphemism usually associated with officially brokered attempts at rapprochement during Hindu-Muslim riots, were for the first time used for the Hindu-Christian clashes of Dangs. A people for long termed a "model minority" spoke of a feeling of insecurity, anxiety, even anger. "Where is all this persecution leading?" asks Father Ignatius Mascarenhas, rector of Pratiksha, a diocesan theologate in Delhi. "There's a threshold of tolerance. The Christians have so far been seen as a peace-loving community, but ... I've been hearing talk from intelligent, informed people telling me, 'Father if we don't react, they will laugh at us and nothing will be done'." Stung by widespread criticism, Singhal refused an interview, accusing India Today of being part of the "international conspiracy". He only said: "Tolerance is in our country's culture. We must learn to live together. Today the media has launched a tirade against us ... why is no one bothered about 85 per cent (of India's population), the Hindus?"

How did things come to such a pass for one of India's most non-controversial minorities?

The main argument boils down to one point: proselytisation, seeking converts for Christ, mainly in backward tribal areas. There is little doubt that conversions were the order of the day when western missionaries spread into India's hinterland through the last century. They brought education and healthcare to people forgotten by their own. And thanks to a rigid caste system whole families, castes and villages converted to the faith, which is supposed to have first arrived in India two millennia ago with the coming of the Apostle Thomas.

"The charges of conversion are wild. How is it we are still a minuscule minority in Gujarat?"
Father Cedric Prakash
United Christian Forum for
Human Rights

Today the churches are loath to talk of proselytisation, though "evangelisation" continues to be one of the aims. Theologians say this is not conversion. "Evangelisation does not mean proselytisation; it means bringing the gospel and Jesus' message ... to the people," says Father George Gispert-Sauch, professor of theology at Delhi's Vidya jyoti, a centre for religious studies.

"They have been on a conversion spree in south Gujarat using money and everything within their reach," alleges Swami Ashimanandji, a Bengali sadhu considered within the RSS as an "expert" in tackling proselytisation. The missionaries hold him responsible for instigating Hindu tribals into attacking Christians in not just Dangs, but in neighbouring Valsad district too. "His single point programme is to annihilate us or banish us from the district," says Reverend T.V. Gaekwad, superintendent of the Church of North India in Dangs. "Till he came here two years ago, things were okay."

Dangs is even today an impoverished area. Annual per capita income: Rs 5,000. Literacy: 45 per cent. Jobs are scarce and the tensions were obvious when the Hindu Jagran Manch held protests against Christian tribals hiding their religious identity to get government jobs reserved for Hindu Scheduled Tribes. Instigation from Hindu activists provided the spark to the tinderbox. Added to this was the confidence Hindu organisations gained after the BJP Government took office in Gujarat last March. "What kind of warped thinking blames us for this violence?" asks John Dayal, national secretary of the All India Catholic Union. "Ferment has socio-political reasons and should be treated as such."

No Hindu organisation ever brought succour to the Dangs the way the Christian missions did. The church came here a century ago when there was little but despair. "Where were all these Hindu leaders when we were rotting here in poverty," asks Baburao Gangde, 47, a tribal Christian. "These preachers showed us the true path and gave us dignity." Today there are four school-cum-hostels with 1,000 students each, three dispensaries, various income-generation programmes and kindergartens among the 1.42 lakh people of the Dangs. Compared to this the Sangh Parivar has one school and no more.

Conversions swelled the number of Christians and even today preachers talk against idol worship and distribute calendars that say: "If you embrace Christianity you and your cattle will be free from diseases and you will get enough farm income.

The conversions are not forced, but the VHP -- which has an avowed agenda of reconversion of Muslims and Christians -- says it will not accept in this manner the constitutional guarantee of freedom to practise any religion. The paranoia of conversions and the threat to Hinduism, however, have little grounding in overall demographic fact. The percentage of Christians in the total population has actually fallen to 2.43 per cent (around 26 million) from 2.53 per cent in 1971. From 1971 to 1991, the Hindu population grew by about 24 per cent, while the Christian population grew by 16 per cent.

The VHP and its allies specifically target north-eastern states -- once tribal, now many like Nagaland and Meghalaya are strongly Christian -- accusing missionaries of fomenting separatism. But reaction is sharp in what the VHP calls Nagabhoomi. "We are happy that at least somebody discovered us 125 years ago and brought enlightenment and education," says Nagaland Chief Minister S.C. Jamir. "Instead of badmouthing them, the VHP and the lunatic fringe would be well advised to follow their example."

Belatedly, the VHP and its sister organisations are trying to put their efforts where their mouths are, but they have a long way to go. The RSS and the VHP are now concentrating on tribal areas. They run 1,100 schools; 300 more VHP-run schools to open by March, but compared to Christian missions, that is a drop in the ocean. Unlike Islam, Indian Christianity has blended seamlessly with local cultures. And in the seminaries, a greater understanding of Hinduism is very much a part of theological studies. Young men in their 10-year training to become Catholic priests extensively study the Upanishads, the Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharat; they live in Ashrams and pray with swamis. Christianity, despite the attacks in Dangs, will clearly not be an easy target for the Sangh Parivar.