wfn.org | Anti-Christian Violence in India

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: Wendy S. McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web: www.ncccusa.org

27NCC3/12/99   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CASTE INSECURITY IS AT ROOT OF ANTI-CHRISTIAN
VIOLENCE IN INDIA, MINISTER REPORTS
Visit Comes on Heels of NCC Letter Deploring Anti-Minority 
Attacks in India

 NEW YORK, March 9 ---- An Indian minister who has been on a 
government-sponsored team investigating recent incidents of 
religious violence in his country says that homegrown hatred and 
fear, and not outside influences, are at the root of the attacks.

The Rev. Dr. James Massey, a minister in the Church of North 
India and a member of the government-sponsored National 
Commission for Minorities (NCM), which conducts on-site studies 
of the most severe incidents of anti-minority violence, visited 
New York Feb. 24-26 as part of a delegation from "Dalit 
Solidarity Peoples" (DSP).

After investigating the highly publicized Jan. 22, 1999 
murder of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two 
young sons in Manoharpur village of Orissa and studying anti-
minority attacks in six states, Dr. Massey said the NCM team 
concluded that the incidents are part of a "definite plan on the 
part of militant Hindus to create insecurity among Christians."

The New York visit, which was co-sponsored by the National 
Council of Churches Southern Asia Office, the United Church Board 
for World Ministries and Union Theological Seminary, came on the 
heels of a Feb. 11 pastoral letter to high-level church leaders 
in India about anti-minority violence in India.  In it, NCC 
General Secretary the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell says, "We 
deplore attacks on any minority community in India."  She calls 
on the government of India to "find moral, legal and 
constitutional ways to address these violations."

Interplay Between Caste, Religion and Politics Fuels Violence

Dr. Massey explained that a complex interplay between caste, 
religion and politics fuels the violence in India.  "The 
government and Hindu nationalist organizations say that anger 
over forced conversions and international conspiracies to 
discredit the government are behind the attacks," Dr. Massey 
said.  "This is not true.  In fact, we found out that militant 
activists in Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Sevak 
Sangh (RSS), two groups with the aim of preserving Hindu cultural 
dominance, met last year and came up with a strategic plan to 
weaken `Christians, Dalits and other backward classes.'  That 
plan included raping women, destroying places of worship and 
using local criminals to kill missionaries and other religious 
leaders."

"As I said in the letter, we are deeply disturbed that a 
long and noble history of harmonious religious pluralism is being 
shattered by a rising tide of religious fundamentalism and 
intolerance," Dr. Campbell said.  "In addition to appropriate 
government response, we pray that Hindus, Christians and other 
religious communities will continue to find opportunities to 
cooperate and to rebuild mutual respect and trust."

"The word `Dalit' means `oppressed.'  The term is a 
purposeful self-designation by people belonging to a number of 
castes considered `untouchable' including Chamars, 
Chuhrahs/Bhangis and Mahars," explained the Rev. Dr. John 
Webster, a Presbyterian who is Editor of the Dalit International 
Newsletter.  "There is a raised fist in the term, because it 
implies that caste status is not of their own doing and the 
injustice needs to be set right.  Dalits make up 18 to 20 percent 
of India's population of 950 million."

In spite of lip service to the rule of law protecting 
minorities, Dalits continue to be killed and their homes and 
places of worship vandalized.  Dr. Massey reported 750 murders 
and between 500 to 1,000 homes destroyed each year.  Poverty and 
unemployment are also astronomical among Dalits. 

Delegation members said that a link has long been made 
between Christians and Dalits for two reasons.  First, 50 percent 
of Christians in India are Dalits.  "There is a tradition that 
says, `India is meant for Hindus,' meaning that we don't really 
belong to this country," said Ms. Soosai Raj Faustina, a teacher 
and member of the DSP National Working Committee.

Secondly, "Christians have a history of helping Dalits with 
education and economic development," Dr. Massey said.  "This is 
very threatening to the upper castes because they have an 
interest in maintaining a pool of cheap labour.  They fear losing 
their position."

"Even within the Christian church, Dalits are kept separate, 
so we suffer discrimination even there," Ms. Faustina said.  She 
also reported that upper caste women have kept Dalit women out of 
the women's movement, proving to her that "communal and caste 
feelings are primary over other commitments like feminism or even 
religious faith."

The primacy of caste is exactly what Dr. Massey said he and 
the NCM team discovered in their extensive investigations of 
anti-Christian violence in Dumka, Ludhiana, Gujarat, Nasik, 
Jhabua and Manoharpur.  These crimes include:
  An attack on Roman Catholic priest Father Kristodas in Dumka 
(Bihar), vice-principal of St. Joseph's School, during 
September 1997.  Father Kristodas was paraded naked by a mob 
in the presence of civil administrators and police;
  The assault of more than a dozen Protestant youths at a police 
station in Ludhiana during October 1997, allegedly at the 
request of Hindu extremists;
  The gang rape of four nuns in a remote village Navapur in 
Jhabua district in September 1998;
  Several incidents in Gujarat between the months of July and 
December 1998 including the exhuming of corpses, burning of 
New Testaments and burning of churches.

"We found that neither the state administration nor anyone 
else could produce proof of mass or forced conversions," Dr. 
Massey said.  "This is a myth being spread to create hatred among 
different groups.  Also, tribal communities are being set against 
one another."   The NCM team found the source of the attacks and 
divisive rhetoric to be right-wing groups.

"The culprits include people belonging to various 
fundamentalist groups as well as personnel belong to government 
administration and police," Dr. Massey said.  Yet according to 
Dr. Massey, "in nearly all the cases of anti-minority violence, 
the culprits have not been punished."

Lack of Political Will Prevents Execution of Recommendations 

Pushing both for punishment of offenders and prevention, the 
NCM Commission issued detailed reports, including extensive 
recommendations, to the government.  In the NCM "Report on 
Minority Situation in Gujarat," 20 concrete recommendations 
included:
  Convening meetings of non-political representatives of all 
religious communities to discuss ways to create, promote and 
preserve harmony.
  Ordering proper, effective and time-bound enquiries into all 
incidents of anti-Minority violence and vandalism that have 
occurred since March 1998.
  Awarding deterrent punishment to all those found guilty of 
crimes against Minorities
  Paying adequate compensation to victims of anti-Minority 
violence
  Setting up a Minorities Welfare Department in the State 
Government Secretariat
  Protecting all places of worship
  Implementing the provisions of the Constitution of India, 
provisions of the Indian Penal Code relating to Offences 
against Religion, and other relevant legislative enactments.

 Dr. Massey said that so far, the NCM recommendations have 
not been acted upon "because the political will is lacking at the 
state and central levels."

 Dr. Massey and other delegation members said they expect 
continued attempts to divide their movement. said Professor N.G. 
Meshram, National Treasurer of DSP and a Buddhist.  That Dalits 
might be united "creates the greatest fear in the minds of the 
upper classes," said Professor N.G. Meshram, National Treasurer 
of DSP and a Buddhist.  But he said that DSP does not wish for 
revenge.  "All we want is to be able to identify ourselves.  
Enough miseries have been suffered for the ages," he said.

 "Politically and economically, the upper castes hold the 
power," added Ms. Faustina.  "So the fear is always there, 
especially among those of us who resist." 

Meanwhile, Dalits continue to face daily discrimination and 
violence no matter what their economic status.  "I am a teacher 
with some economic resources, and still I am always reminded of 
my Dalitness," said Ms. Faustina.  "I have trouble finding 
housing, because the first question on a housing application is 
`What is your caste.'"

Ms. Faustina explained that even though she teaches in a 
mixed school run by the Roman Catholic church in Ongur, Dalits 
are still separated in the village.  "Normally, Dalits are put on 
the East side of the village because the wind goes from West to 
East and non-Dalits don't want to be contaminated by wind that 
has touched Dalits.  Meanwhile, all the institutions are in the 
non-Dalit area of the village.  We are resisting all these 
things," she said.

Dr. Massey encouraged U.S. church members to learn about the 
Dalit's situation and to support organizations like DSP as well 
as schools and other institutions that support Dalits.

The NCC has supported Dalit programs for many years 
including the DSP's predecessor, the Dalit Solidarity Programme 
of the World Council of Churches.

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