Unseen hand of Hindu fascism claims more lives in Orissa

Christians in Orissa, Northeast India have been falsely accused this week of gun running by the extreme Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) in a full page ad the group took out in the local press on Monday (January 21, 2008).

Manju Roul, a Christian radio worker in India, claims the allegation in The Samaga newspaper is an ‘outrageous libel’ – and comes amid increasing tensions between Christian and Hindu groups in the run-up to local elections.

Hindu fundamentalist groups accuse Christians of buying converts and guns with funds they claim are coming through Christian missionaries.

Christian NGOs on the other hand say up to fifty churches were burned in December, and a further forty this month.  A BBC report on 2 January said that four people had been killed over the weeks of unrest. But Ken Hoke, former South East Asia Regional Adminstrator for Brethren in Christ World Missions said he believed the BBC had under-reported the carnage.  ‘It is hard to gauge, but it would be anywhere from 50 into several hundreds dead’, he said.

He added that bodies were being left in the forest where they fell, for fear of identification of families claiming their dead.

The VHP were using anti-Christian sentiment in its bid to win forthcoming elections to the Legislative Assemblies of Nagaland, Tripura and Megalaya, three of India’s northeast provinces, he believed. The VHP was standing on a fascist platform of ‘Hindu only’ states.

On Dec 22, in the Bramunigam area of Orissa, Roman Catholics preparing for Christmas were confronted by local Hindu fundamentalists who tore down Christmas decorations yelling: ‘We are a Hindu country.’  They threw bricks and fired bullets, leading to widespread violence across the state.  Two people were killed and five churches were burned, according to local reports.

Police were called to Oriya Baptist Church to remove a petrol bomb that had failed to ignite.  Church services have been disrupted, furniture destroyed and threats made to local pastors.

Since the unrest started, Christians have sought protection from local authorities, which they claim has been slow in coming.  Christians are being forced to protect their own churches from attack by holding all-night vigils.  One church in Nuagaon is under police guard until the 25 of January, when the danger will be re-assessed.  Also at risk is a church-run hostel that houses 110 female students.

Persecution of Christians is not new to India. In 1999 Missionary Graham Staines, along with his two children, were burned alive in their car.  And, as recently as 2004, one local pastor was beheaded in Orissa.  The VHP hold power in seven states including Orissa.

Orissa is a mainly Hindu region with a small Christian minority. Hindus accuse Christians of using bribes to make converts.  Christians come mainly from the unscheduled castes and claim they convert to find acceptance.

India is being considered for membership of the prestigious UN Security Council, a move confirmed by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown during his visit this week.

The VHP, part of the international Hindutva or ‘Hinduness’ movement, was formed by the Hindu supremacist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1964, based on the ideology of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. It put its own Bharatiya Janata Party into government in India in the late-1990s.

In Britain and the States the VHP helps promote Hindu identity and politics, similar to the Muslim umma, but arguably with less scriptural justification, since it is a territorial distinction based on the idea of sacred land.

A Virat Hindu Sammelan (Great Hindu Assembly) was organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Milton Keynes in 1989, and attended by an estimated 50,000 Hindus.