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Hindu nationalism and religious persecution

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  • Hindu nationalism and religious persecution

    Arrests, Beatings and Secret Prayers: Inside the Persecution of India’s Christians
    .
    “They want to remove us from society,” a Christian farmer said of Hindu extremists. Rising attacks on Christians are part of a broader shift in India, in which minorities feel less safe.

    By Jeffrey Gettleman and Suhasini Raj

    Photographs by Atul Loke
    INDORE, India — The Christians were mid-hymn when the mob kicked in the door.

    A swarm of men dressed in saffron poured inside. They jumped onstage and shouted Hindu supremacist slogans. They punched pastors in the head. They threw women to the ground, sending terrified children scuttling under their chairs.

    “They kept beating us, pulling out hair,” said Manish David, one of the pastors who was assaulted. “They yelled: ‘What are you doing here? What songs are you singing? What are you trying to do?’”

    The attack unfolded on the morning of Jan. 26 at the Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra Christian center in the city of Indore. The police soon arrived, but the officers did not touch the aggressors. Instead, they arrested and jailed the pastors and other church elders, who were still dizzy from getting punched in the head. The Christians were charged with breaking a newly enforced law that targets religious conversions, one that mirrors at least a dozen other measures across the country that have prompted a surge in mob violence against Indian Christians.

    Pastor David was not converting anyone, he said. But the organized assault against his church was propelled by a growing anti-Christian hysteria that is spreading across this vast nation, home to one of Asia’s oldest and largest Christian communities, with more than 30 million adherents.

    Muslims were the original targets of the anti-conversion laws, themselves an outgrowth of the continuing animosity since the formation of Pakistan (which ironically granted them possession of the Indus River from which India takes its name). I recall an Indian student arguing passionately in opposition to Gandhi for allowing he division to occur. Note this was an Indian national, from a culture where teachers are revered more than parents. I’d suggested that for Gandhi to deny Pakistanis their right to self-determination would betray the principles he’d championed in winning India its independence.

    With the annexation of Indian-controlled Kashmir now safely in the rear-view, the political forces let loose have found a new target.

  • #2
    Originally posted by Juvenal View Post
    Arrests, Beatings and Secret Prayers: Inside the Persecution of India’s Christians
    .
    “They want to remove us from society,” a Christian farmer said of Hindu extremists. Rising attacks on Christians are part of a broader shift in India, in which minorities feel less safe.

    By Jeffrey Gettleman and Suhasini Raj

    Photographs by Atul Loke
    INDORE, India — The Christians were mid-hymn when the mob kicked in the door.

    A swarm of men dressed in saffron poured inside. They jumped onstage and shouted Hindu supremacist slogans. They punched pastors in the head. They threw women to the ground, sending terrified children scuttling under their chairs.

    “They kept beating us, pulling out hair,” said Manish David, one of the pastors who was assaulted. “They yelled: ‘What are you doing here? What songs are you singing? What are you trying to do?’”

    The attack unfolded on the morning of Jan. 26 at the Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra Christian center in the city of Indore. The police soon arrived, but the officers did not touch the aggressors. Instead, they arrested and jailed the pastors and other church elders, who were still dizzy from getting punched in the head. The Christians were charged with breaking a newly enforced law that targets religious conversions, one that mirrors at least a dozen other measures across the country that have prompted a surge in mob violence against Indian Christians.

    Pastor David was not converting anyone, he said. But the organized assault against his church was propelled by a growing anti-Christian hysteria that is spreading across this vast nation, home to one of Asia’s oldest and largest Christian communities, with more than 30 million adherents.


    Muslims were the original targets of the anti-conversion laws, themselves an outgrowth of the continuing animosity since the formation of Pakistan (which ironically granted them possession of the Indus River from which India takes its name). I recall an Indian student arguing passionately in opposition to Gandhi for allowing he division to occur. Note this was an Indian national, from a culture where teachers are revered more than parents. I’d suggested that for Gandhi to deny Pakistanis their right to self-determination would betray the principles he’d championed in winning India its independence.

    With the annexation of Indian-controlled Kashmir now safely in the rear-view, the political forces let loose have found a new target.
    Disturbing. And it's always stories like this I think of and remember, and then shake my head when I hear American Christians complain about being persecuted because some store makes their employees say 'happy holidays' instead of 'merry Christmas', etc.. It's like... yeah, no, you wouldn't be able to handle the actual persecution that some of your fellow Christians experience in other countries.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Gondwanaland View Post

      Disturbing. And it's always stories like this I think of and remember, and then shake my head when I hear American Christians complain about being persecuted because some store makes their employees say 'happy holidays' instead of 'merry Christmas', etc.. It's like... yeah, no, you wouldn't be able to handle the actual persecution that some of your fellow Christians experience in other countries.
      For that reason, I regularly remind fellow Christians that our "persecution" is NOTHING compared to what goes on in other countries.
      The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

      Comment

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