Another day. Another bombing. That’s the impression being created, at least, by a mounting wave of attacks on Christians and churches in India.
Blasts from time bombs planted in churches have injured Christians in at least three states. And several have been murdered.
Indian church leaders charge that many of the attacks are part of a campaign by Hindu extremists bent on intimidating Indian Christians and driving missionaries out of India. Some government officials and Hindu groups counter that most cases are local quarrels exaggerated by Christians to foment hysteria — or are plots instigated by Pakistani Muslim agents to hurt India’s international image.
But few deny the increasing frequency of anti-Christian incidents.
The trend commanded renewed world attention early last year when Australian Baptist missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were burned to death their vehicle by militant Hindus in Orissa state. Millions of average Hindus reacted with shock and expressed sympathy for the family.
Missionary Gladys Staines has expressed public forgiveness toward those who murdered her husband and sons, and she intends to stay in India. But captured suspect Dara Singh, the alleged leader of the deadly attack, has become a hero to some Hindu extremist groups.
Reported anti-Christian attacks have numbered in the dozens since the beginning of 2000, continuing a frightening growth pattern of recent years. Church bombings are among recent headlines about persecution.
Regardless of who’s responsible for the church bombings, Christian leaders insist radical Hindu groups are behind many of the 100-plus attacks on Christians reported since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in India in 1998. The BJP government’s consistent downplaying or denial of organized Hindu involvement, they charge, only encourages more attacks.
Yet another church bombing in early July in Karnataka drew 100,000 Christians to a July 9 rally to pray and call for action. “We appeal to the government to bring under control the organizations that openly challenge our constitutional rights, spread half-truths and untruths — and encourage criminals,” said church leader Marampudi Joji at the rally.
Those organizations, according to Christians, include the Sangh Parivar (“united family”), a network of Hindu groups calling foe the purification of India from non-Hindu influences — including Christianity.
Before his recent death in a car accident abroad, the Roman Catholic archbishop of New Delhi declared Christians were facing their worst crisis since India gained independence in 1947.
Modern India’s “founding fathers’ — Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru — envisioned a pluralistic state, tolerant of all traditions. Two generations later, polls say a majority of Indians still favor that ideal, but radical forces preach “India for the Hindus,” a land reserved for “one nation, one people, one culture.” That’s a volatile message in a nation that speaks countless dialects and is home to more than 100 million Muslims, 20 million Christians and throngs of Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists and tribals.
Muslims remain by far the biggest and most despised “enemy” for Hindu extremists. But Christians, at about 2 percent of the population, present an easier target. And their evangelistic — infuriates the radicals, who contend Christians bribe poor Hindus to convert. Some Hindu groups carry out regular campaigns to “reconvert” new Christians by force. (BP)
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