Militant Hindu youth wing faces ban

India’s National Integration Committee met over the weekend to discuss the banning of the Hindu extremist youth group Bajrang Dal.

Bajrang, a reference to Hanuman, the monkey god commonly venerated by Hindus, is accused of anti-Christian violence sparked in August by the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati.

The government has asked for a fact finding report into the violence in which children in Catholic orphanages have been burned alive, and even a nun gang-raped, and which has displaced up to 50,000 people in the world’s biggest democracy.

The Bajrang Dal, part of the fascist VHP Hindutva movement, are defiant saying they will react strongly if they are banned.

The UPA government coalition is seeking to balance political losses against its international reputation for being tough on terror, and its constitutional integrity.

The Times of India over the weekend reported on the longstanding conflict between the tribal Konds and the dalit Panas both of which have become Christians. 

Maoists are accused of exploiting this dispute over land and national social classification benefits.

Said NGO Heather Payne, in Delhi: ‘Maoists, who have claimed responsibility for killing the anti-Christian Swami, and the Hindu extremists have both exploited this very local conflict with disastrous repercussions, perhaps more successfully than they could have anticipated.’

A story that made the mainstream media last week was the first burial of a victim who was burnt alive in his home. A disabled man’s bones were found among the ashes, put into a coffin and buried with Christian prayers.

Some media comment has blamed missionaries for seeking to convert ‘Hindus’ to Christianity.  The press has missed the fact that dalits – untouchables – are outside the caste system, meaning that as ‘non-people’ they were not Hindus in the first place.  Christianity in fact offers a new life.

The Christian Lawyers Association has started to assist victims of violence filing legal reports [First Incident Reports, FIRs] with the police in Orissa.

Ashok, one of the team of five working for three months on legal redress issues, told of coming within earshot of shooting when he was seeking out victims last week.

He told Lapido Media: ‘One victim who had completed a FIR knew his attacker and knew that police would inform him that a FIR was being made against him, putting him in danger all over again. His daughter said he shouldn’t hand in his FIR.’