New violence against Christians in India

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) reported on Monday concerning new acts of violence against Christians in India. Last weekend the houses of 20 Christians and a prayer-room were burned down in spite of the intervention of the police. On Friday a church of the missionary society "Gospel for Asia” was destroyed by fire. Two radical Hindus were killed by the police in the attempt to set fire to a church and the house of a Christian in the district of Kandhamal on Saturday evening.

At least 22 Christians have been killed according to reports of the Indian police in Orissa in pogrom-like attacks by Hindus since the murder of the Hindu nationalist and local leader of the radical Hindu movement Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, on 23rd August. Circles close to the Catholic Church of India are led to believe that there may have been more than 50 murders. About 1,500 houses of Christians have been destroyed by mob violence and more than 50 churches burned down. Some 50,000 Christians have fled their villages in fear of the violence and 15,000 of them have sought refuge in refugee camps.

The police suspect that Swami Laxmananda, who had for years called out with impunity for violence against Christians, was murdered by Maoist rebels. The Hindu leader has been held responsible for at least 56 attacks since 1987 by radical Hindus on Christians. He was also responsible for the forced conversion of Christian Adivasi native people to Hinduism.

The census of 2001 shows that 2.1 percent of the inhabitants of Orissa are Christians. The majority of them are Adivasi native people, who for decades have been disadvantaged in the Indian caste society and who for the first time received recognition and respect in the Christian churches.