Hindu nationalists staged a humiliating attack April 10 against a Catholic nun operating a secondary school in a Bombay suburb.
Political activist Sujata Ghag, led a group of 15 women into the administrative office of Holy Cross Convent High School in Thane and demanded to meet with the senior headmistress. When Sister Veronica Fernandes told the group that the principal was not available, the women attacked her, smeared her face and body with black paint, then fled when a police constable approached the group of women.
In Indian culture, smearing a person with black paint represents the highest degree of humiliation. Ghag declared on a local television broadcast that the attack was intended to send a signal to other Christian schools in the area.
The same day, Hindu extremists in the state of Fujarat vandalized a building at a Christian health care center near Limdi that was scheduled to be dedicated by former state minister Kirtisinh Rana.
Organizers, fearing for the safety of attendees, canceled the inaugural function.
(CD)
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