Conger

India’s Supreme Court has overturned a state court ruling banning Christian aid agencies from assisting victims of the Christmas pogrom in Orissa.

“This is a big victory for the churches,” the Church of North India’s Bishop Samson Das of Cuttack said. “The people have suffered like anything during last few months.”

“We are happy that at last our right to help suffering people has been upheld,” said the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bhubaneswar, Msg. Raphael Cheenath, who observed the proceedings in the New Delhi courtroom.

A week of anti-Christian violence by Hindu militants left over 100 churches destroyed, hundreds of homes burned, and forced several thousand Christians into refugee camps and into the jungle for safety.

On Jan 11, the District Collector of Kandhamal, the administrative magistrate for the area torn by violence, issued an order banning Christian aid groups and NGOs from undertaking relief work, arguing this would further inflame sectarian tensions. The state supreme court upheld his order on Jan 28 following an appeal by the Human Rights Law Network and the Catholic Church.

On April 9 the Indian Supreme Court stayed the District Collector’s order, effectively opening the region to relief efforts.

Dr. John Dayal, the president of the All India Catholic Union charged the state government had been “strangely silent and utterly inactive on this issue. No rehabilitation or relief policy has been announced” and the government’s relief effort “appears to be at a standstill.”

He charged the District Collector and the Orissa state government with siding with the Hindu militants, whom he said were “roaming free” and continuing to terrorize Christian villagers.

“To say that some persons would be upset because victims of a communal riot were getting relief is quite irrational to say the least,” he charged. And if Hindu militants were “upset because relief is being provided to the victims it is the duty of the state government to keep such communal elements under control rather than use them to prevent relief reaching the victim community,” Dr. Dayal said.

Indian president Pratibha Patil

The Church of North India has welcomed assurances from the governor of Rajasthan that he would block an anti-conversion bill passed by the state legislature.

Speaking at All Saints Cathedral in Ajmer, Gov. Shailendra Kumar Singh said India’s secular government respected “all religions equally.” Last month the Hindu nationalist BJP party, which controls the Rajasthan state assembly, passed a bill over the protests of the opposition Congress Party prohibiting conversions to Christianity by “use of force, allurement or fraudulent means.”

Those found guilty of procuring “fraudulent” conversions would be jailed for up to five years and face a fine of £600.

“Some religious and other institutions, bodies and individuals are found to the involved in unlawful conversion from one religion to another by allurement or by fraudulent means or forcibly which at times has caused annoyance in the community belonging to the other religion,” stated the bill. “In order to curb such illegal activities and to maintain harmony amongst persons of various religions, it has been considered expedient to enact a special law for the purpose.”

However social harmony between faiths “could be brought only through our good behavior and not by bills and legislation,” Gov. Singh told the Easter congregation.

Drawing from the Bhagavad Gita, Gov. Singh noted that the Hindu god Krishna had told Prince Arjuna that all are equal in society, and that one’s true “dharma,” or right way of living, is to fulfill one’s responsibilities.

The free practice of one’s faith “brings mutual confidence,” he noted, and would “create an atmosphere of love and brotherhood.”

The Bishop in Rajasthan, the Rt. Rev. Collin Theodore said the Governor’s words “came as a reassurance” as Christian leaders in the northwestern Indian state fear the new law would be used to persecute missionaries.

“We hope the governor means what he said. We have high hopes on him,” Bishop Theodore stated, according to Indian press accounts.

In 2006 the BJP controlled assembly passed an anti-conversion bill which was rejected by the then-Governor Pratibha Patil (pictured), who was elected President of India in 2007. Five Indian states: Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh have adopted anti-conversion bills at the behest of Hindu nationalist parties, who fear that a rising tide of Christian conversions could render Hinduism a minority religion in India.

“Problems of fanaticism, terrorism and secessionism have always arisen in the areas where Hindus were reduced to minority by large-scale conversions,” BJP legislator Nand Kishore Garg said in support of the Rajasthan bill.

The Indian government has agreed to compensate Christians whose homes were destroyed by Hindu fanatics in that country’s worst anti-Christian pogrom since independence.

The Church of North India (CNI) reports that the Orissa state government will rebuild the homes of Christians burnt to the ground by Hindu fanatics during the Christmas week riots, will pay compensation to the families of those killed, and give grants of assistance to those whose homes were damaged.

Last month the Church accused the Orissa state government of collusion when it declined to put a stop to the violence. Subsequent investigations by the church and government investigators have determined the attacks were part of a “well planned conspiracy” organized by a “Hindu priest named Lakhana Nanda Saraswati who visited [the area] just before Christmas and provoked the local Hindus to drive away Christians from the village. Soon the news spread across Kandhamal and anti-Christian attacks were made”

“Although the violence first broke out at Brahmanigaon the worst of violence was seen at Barakhamba village where Christians were attacked and one believer was even chased to death. Fearing ghastly consequence of returning home many people are still hiding in forest without any access to food, water and clothing and daring the cold,” the CNI said.

The Barnabas Fund reports the rioters led by cadres from the Hindu nationalist party the Vishwa Hindu Panishad (VHP) “were at pains not just to destroy but also to desecrate. At a church in Bamunigaon, they carefully took out the communion cups and all associated materials and crushed them under their feet.”

“In Kutikia a small church was attacked and its minister and 12 church members taken to a field where their heads were shaved because they refused to deny Christ. Then they were ordered to eat raw rice mixed with goats’ blood so as to become Hindus,” it said.

When the police refused to come to the aid of Christians under attack, the Bishop of Phulbani, the Rt Rev Bijay Kumar Nayak sought the aid of other CNI bishops and Christian leaders.

He asked the CNI’s Bishop of Cuttack the Rt Rev Samson Das, Roman Catholic Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack and other church leaders to intercede with India’s Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and state leaders. The Christian leaders urged the government to use the army to restore law and order, launch an investigation to identify the ringleaders and causes of the riots, and pay compensation to the victims of the communal violence.

The CNI has issued a statement condemning “the attacks in strongest words.” While pleased with the steps taken towards rebuilding the destroyed homes, it has urged the national government to investigate the collapse in law and order in Orissa.
Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.

The government of Orissa State is complicit in the Christmas week pogrom of Christians in Northeast India, the Church of North India has charged.

The government condoned, and in some cases supported the campaign of “bigotry, the ideology of hate and violence” that swept across the Diocese of Phulbani for five days beginning Dec 22, the General Secretary of the Church of North India, the Rev. Enos Das Pradhan said in a statement given to The Church of England Newspaper.

“The destruction and desecration of churches and burning of houses of the innocent people are outrageous and violates any norm of civic societies,” and was accompanied by the “utter collapse of the law and order machinery,” he said last week.

The violence against Christians was “premeditated, pre planned and the work of a well disciplined group to ensure simultaneous eruption across the Kandhamal district within hours of the first incident, and to sustain it for five days despite the presence of the highest police officers in the region,” Mr. Das Pradhan said.

Results of a fact finding mission led by the Bishop of Phulbani, the Rt. Rev. Bijay Kumar Nayak found that 16 churches in the CNI’s Balliguda and Udayagiri deaneries were destroyed. Over 3000 Christians are sheltering in relief camps, while “out of fear, some are in the jungle, some are out of the district and some are missing. The situation is still critical,” he said.

Of the 650,000 people living in Kandhamal district, about 100,000 are Christian.

An investigation by the All-India Christian Council (AICC) found that 95 churches were attacked and the homes of 730 Christian families destroyed by Hindu extremists affiliated with the VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) during the five days of sectarian violence.

“We are saddened to acknowledge the violence in Orissa will go into the history books as an unprecedented attack on Christians in India. The tragedy is deepened by proof that the violence was avoidable if the authorities had enforced the rule of law,” said AICC President Dr Joseph D’Souza.

The CNI urged “the Union and the State Governments and the National Commission for Minorities to deploy adequate [security] Forces in the troubled areas of Kandhamal and Phulbani District as the people are living in anxiety and fear.”

Mr. Das Pradhan asked Anglicans in Britain to pray for Bishop Nayak and “the members of the Diocese of Phulbani that they may stand firm and remain true to their faith and keep witnessing through their lives at this hour of oppression and atrocities.”

The Church of North India has banned its schools from using corporal punishment. Teachers who cane students can now be dismissed under the new regulations announced this month.Corporal punishment in Indian schools is widespread and no national policy governs its use, with some states banning the practice outright, while others permit teachers to cane or use force to discipline students.

“Incidents of a student being subjected to corporal punishment are rare in our schools,” Bishop PSP Raju of Calcutta told The Statesman. “The recent decision was undertaken by the board of governors of the schools to handle the issue more strictly” and give firm guidance to teachers, he said.

In February 2004, the Calcutta High Court ruled that caning in state schools in West Bengal was unlawful and ordered a halt to its use, but permitted other forms of physical punishment.

In December 2000, the Delhi High Court ruled that provisions for corporal punishment in the Delhi School Education Act (1973) were inhumane and detrimental to the dignity of children. “Corporal punishment has no place in the education system,” the court held, but enforcement of the ruling in state schools has been lax.

Bishop Raju said that CNI schools had long discouraged the use of corporal punishment by teachers, but the new regulations and enhanced teacher training would make it mandatory.

CNI schools have also introduced school counseling system to address the underlying problems that had led to the use of corporal punishment. The proposed programme would see independent counselors visit the school, talking separately with students, staff and teachers in an effort to resolve disciplinary issues before they arise.

India’s Supreme Court has postponed a hearing on a challenge to the country’s scheduled caste laws by Christian leaders.  On Nov 28 the court granted the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a continuance, after the country’s solicitor general stated they were not ready to proceed to trial.

India’s Christian and Muslim minorities have brought suit against the government, charging that laws designed to protect and support India’s Dalits, discriminate against non-Hindus.

The postponement comes after 36 bishops of the Church of North India, Church of South India, the Roman Catholic Church, and Orthodox churches led a rally in Delhi urging an end to government sanctioned discrimination against Christians.

In May 2007, a government sponsored report prepared by former Chief Justice Ranganath Misra’s panel recommended that Dalits who converted to Christianity or Islam be given the same legal privileges offered to Hindu Dalits or converts to Buddhism or Sikhism.  In 1950 the government introduced an affirmative action programme for Dalits, the lowest caste with Hinduism, setting aside 15 per cent of government jobs and school places for them.  Dalits who convert to Christianity or Islam loose this benefit.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Madras, Msg. Malayappan Chinnappa told the rally caste discrimination was a form of terrorism against Dalits.

“We want the government to end this discrimination,” Bishop Jeyapaul David Swamidawson the president of the National Council of Churches in India and Church of South India’s Bishop in Tirunelvely told the rally on Nov 29.  Government sanctioned discrimination against Christian Dalits was “a violation of fundamental rights and human dignity,” the bishop said.

The Church of North India’s Social Service Institute reports that unseasonably early monsoon rains have lead to severe flooding in the Northern Indian state of Bihar, along the border of Nepal.

“Bihar’s worst ever floods have not only rendered hundreds of thousands homeless, it has also damaged lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of hectares in standing crops, thousands of houses, roads, bridges, embankments and hundreds of schools,” the CNI reports.

The state’s Disaster Management Department said the monsoon rains had affected over 11 million people in 4822 villages. Indian Air Force helicopters have been air-dropping food to some villages cut off by the flood waters.

The Church has begun organizing food and relief shipments to the region and is working with other aid agencies to assist those affected by the flood. In addition to food aid, the Church anticipates a shortage of medical supplies, with cholera likely to arise from the stagnant waters.

The relief charity Christian Aid said its four partner organisations in India were reaching 60,000 people in the worst hit areas.

The CNI stated the floods were the worst in “living memory” with approximately 75,000 homes damaged or destroyed. “It may take years for the victims to recover from the damage and misery inflicted by the floods and the state government faces a big challenge to rebuild and repair the damage,” it said.

“This level of constant rainfall in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh states is unprecedented. We have never witnessed this before,” said Christian Aid’s Anand Kumar.

“The monsoon season usually starts in late August. But [by early August there were] 15 days of sustained rainfall.”

Christian Aid predicted that with the rise in global warming, “such disasters and floods are set to become worse and more frequent in the future.

“The Asia floods demonstrate just how vulnerable the poorest communities are to the effects of climate change,” it said.

CHRISTIAN women’s groups have expressed outrage over a rising tide of female infanticide in India, following the discovery of two mass graves of aborted foetuses. This is a dangerous situation and, if it continues, there will be the extinction of female children,” said Sabitha Swaraj, president of the All India Council of Christian Women on July 26 following the discovery of the mass graves. The preference for male children has lead to a gender imbalance in the population of India. A study published in 2006 in the Lancet found that in 2001 showed that for every 1,000 male babies born in India, there were just 933 girls.

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.

AN INDIAN government commission has found that Christian Dalits (formerly known as Untouchables) continue to suffer from caste-based discrimination, and has urged the government to grant Christians the same legal rights as Hindu Dalits. Christians in India have welcomed the commission’s findings and have called upon the government to an end a campaign of anti-Christian violence waged by Hindu extremists sparked by the report. Speaking to a rally on May 29 in front of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, the Bishop of Delhi Karim Masih (pictured) urged Christians to set aside denominational divisions to work toward full civil rights. “Today I don’t come as a CNI leader. I come as a Christian. All denominations should unite until all the anti-Christian atrocities stop,” he said.

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.

Christians across India are celebrating the defeat of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) this week following general elections for the lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, which put the India National Congress party back in power after eight years in opposition.Many Christians shared the sentiments of Msgr Osco D’Penha, the Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Bombay, who called the victory of Sonia Gandhi’s Congress Party “a miracle wrought by prayer”.

India’s 14th general elections — the world’s largest electoral process — began on April 20 and ended on May 10. Prime Minister Vajpayee resigned after early returns indicated that the Congress Party would win 212 of the Lok Sabha’s 543 seats to the BJP’s 180.

Mrs Gandhi’s background sparked controversy in the election as BJP leaders raised the spectre of a foreign-born Prime Minister, an attitude that led to her shock withdrawal from the post this week.

A Roman Catholic born in Italy, Mrs Gandhi (57) became a naturalised Indian citizen in 1963. Her late husband, Rajiv, was Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989, her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister from 1968 to 1984, and her husband’s grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, led the country for 17 years following independence in 1948.

Electoral analysts credit the Congress Party upset victory to weariness with the BJP’s Hindu Nationalist agenda and economic frustrations. While India’s economy grew almost eight percent last year, the benefits of economic liberalisation over the past decade have been uneven with the vast majority of the rural poor untouched by the rising prosperity.

Opposition to the BJP brought together an unlikely alliance of Muslims and Christians with Communists and other left-wing secular parties opposed to the BJP’s militant Hindu agenda and free-market economic reforms. One plank of the BJP’s electoral platform called for the passage of a national anti-conversion law that would ban conversions from Hinduism to Christianity.

In the run up to the election Church leaders encouraged their members to go the polls to make their voices heard. The Rev Enos Das Pradhan, General Secretary of the Church of North India, asked a Student Christian Movement of India
Conference on April 15 if “Christians [were] still only a vote bank?” And were to remain “only a subject and not a participant in decision-making.”

Sherly Isaac, editor of the Church of South India publication Good News, stated the eight years of BJP rule had been harsh for rural Christians as Hindu militants
sought to eradicate the Church. “Many Christians were killed and many were burnt alive.”

“Of many, their hands and legs were chopped off. Many of them were made to walk naked on the streets and were beaten up severely. Many were told that either they should renounce their religion and join Hinduism or face death. Many Churches were demolished, burnt down or were converted to Hindu temples.”

Msgr Vincent Concessao, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Delhi, speaking on behalf of Catholic Bishops Conference of India, the Evangelical Fellowship of India, and the National Council of Churches of India noted “with a little regret [the Vajpayee's government's] deafening silence towards those fundamentalists who were spreading hatred against the minorities” and welcomed the election of the Congress government whose “mandate by the people of India is to strengthen the secular traditions for which India is known the world over.”