New Delhi (Fides Service) – Love your enemies. To obey commandment of Jesus in these times of interreligious tension in India, the Jesuits Fathers in Madhya Pradesh state have decided to travel all the possible paths to foster dialogue and relations with the fundamentalist groups against Christianity.
The local Jesuits told Fides Service that religious fundamentalism is destroying India’s traditional co-existence and social harmony. To counter this phenomenon the Jesuits fathers are organising interreligious seminars and meetings to bring Christians and Hindus together and help them rediscover their heritage of shared values.
Among the personalities whom the Fathers hope to involve in this dialogue is the federal government’s Environment minister Dilip Singh Judeo who in 1996 launched a year of “re-conversion” to re-convert more than 100,000 Tribals whom he held had been forced by missionaries to choose the religion of Jesus. The Jesuits also stress the importance of education to inter-cultural and inter-religious tolerance in schools of every grade.
The Indian National Commission for Religious Minorities agrees that Christians should claim their rights but without developing a culture of antagonism towards Muslims, which is a danger in these times of interreligious tension with a campaign for extensive approval of anti-conversion laws, already effective in some states. At a recent Commission meeting in Bangalore the Christian members stressed the need to encourage dialogue with Hindus forming special interreligious Councils to dispel certain widespread prejudices against Christians.
The Commission says that Christians must first of all be united among themselves. In India there are as many as 350 Christian denominations and many walk alone showing no interest for communion. The Commission said this is dangerous and damages the image of Christians among the non Christian population and could lead to religious antagonism harmful to all.
India has a population of about 1 billion: 82% Hindu, 11% Muslim and 2.6% Christian, and smaller groups of Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs. PA (Fides Service 2/7/2003 EM lines 33 Words: 385)