Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bhubaneshwar (Fides Service ) – The Catholic community in Orissa state, east India is in a state of shock after a new wave of Hindu fundamentalists against the Indian Catholic Church. A group of men on motor bikes belonging fundamentalist movements Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, are sowing terror and destruction attacking churches, spreading fear among the people and raping a nun.
On 21 November the militants attacked and torched a Catholic church in Deogarh (west Orissa). The attack came after various acts of vandalism: the day before these gangs who wear saffron coloured clothes, saffron being the symbol of Hindutva ideology, demonstrated in front of the residence of the District governor and started a bonfire to burn bibles and other Christian books. Then they went to Rajamunda village where they broke into a church and raped a nun serving at the parish.
The local Church has strongly condemned the violence calling for a police investigation. Local security forces say the motor bike gang is sowing terror in the area. Days earlier the gang went to Amulpani village to question the conversion of four Hindus who had become Catholics. Then they went to Jhareikela village, where they sacked the home of a Protestant pastor destroying Christian books. The police says it is combing the area to find the criminals.
While Subash Chouhan, representative of the fundamentalist movement Bajrang Dal has publicly denied that his activists were involved in the attacks, the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), has protested against the violence calling for police measures to protect minorities from attacks by Hindu fundamentalists.
“We are concerned for the safety of Christians in Orissa state which seems to have learned from Gujarat how to terrorise religious minorities”, said Sajan George, GCIC chairman , calling for an intervention by the National Commission for Minorities and the National Commission for Human Rights.
Orissa state has a population of 36 million, mostly Hindu and it is ruled by the nationalist Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) strongly against conversions of Hindus to Christianity or Buddhism. Orissa and in other states of the Indian Federation (Gujarat and Tamil Nadu) passed a law obliging those who want to change their religion to obtain written permission from the local magistrate. The law is strongly opposed by religious minorities, including Christians (PA) (Fides Service 25/11/2003 lines 45 words 455)
