Catholic World News News Feature
Hindu extremists target Christians, jeopardize India's secularism April 14, 2009
A new book investigating the anti-Christian violence that exploded across India's state of Orissa last year has shown the Hindu extremists deliberately planned a campaign against the state's religious minorities.
In the Kandhamal district especially, the violence done by rampaging Hindu mobs was aggravated by the failure of the local government, controlled by the Hindu-nationalist BJP party, to intervene on behalf of the victims. Christians remain in danger in Kandhamal, the study shows, and the government remains deaf to the protests of Christians now facing an uncertain future in refugee camps.
Kandhamal: a Blot on Indian Secularism, by Anto Akkara-- who has been a frequent CWN contributor-- reflects the product of several trips into Kandhamal, and interviews with victims of the pogrom that began in August 2008.
The violence erupted, Akkara recalls, after the August 23 murder of a prominent Hindu-nationalist leader, Swami Lakshmanananda. Militant Hindu groups blamed the killing on Christians, although all of the Christian groups in the region quickly denounced the killing, and the crime was eventually tracked to a Maoist group.
Speaking at the April 10 introduction of Akkara's book, a more sympathetic Hindu leader, Swami Agnivesh, acknowledeged: " Immediately after Swami's death, all Christian organizations condemned the attack. Yet, the BJP and friends said, nahi - yeh inhoneen hi kiya hai (It’s the Christians who have done this)."
Supporters of Swami Lakshmanananda deliberately organized a funeral procession that took a long, circuitous route through Kandhamal in a "ploy to whip up communal passions," author Akkara charges. His book argues that the Swami's death became the rallying point for an anti-Christian campaign that had been planned for months, and even "put to test on a limited scale" in a series of assaults on churches during the Christmas season of 2007. During the spasm of bloodshed that followed, an estimated 5,000 homes were destroyed. Most of the destruction came in the neighborhoods through which the funeral procession had marched, and the victims were primarily Christians.
The state government of Orissa has acknowledged 32 killings in the days that followed. But Christian leaders have certified 75 deaths. The discrepancy points to the government's indifference and even hostility, Akkara charges, noting that relatives of the murder victims have been unable to claim compensation, while suspects have avoided prosecution, because the crimes have not been officially recognized. The author points out that although there have been 11,348 people named in reports of violent activity, only 633 arrests have been made.
As Orissa approaches parliamentary elections, the 50,000 Christians who were driven from their homes by the violence now face obstacles to their participation in the vote, while Hindu nationalists hope to consolidate their control on power in the state. Anto Akkara's book looks at the violence of late 2008 not as an isolated series of events, but as part of a long-term drive by Hindu extremists for political domination.
“I think the ashes in Kandhamal are not of the churches or of the Christians there," author Akkara concludes. "I think the ashes are the ashes of Indian secularism." Kandhamal: a Blot on Indian Secularism has been published by Media House in India.
