In Washington India is increasingly looked to as a potential
counterweight to China. But the communal violence of the late
August, in which thousands of Christians were forced to flee
rampaging Hindu mobs, should give even admirers of India pause. It
is a country not yet read for global leadership.
India appears to be on the same trail as China. At present
growth rates India’s population will overtake that of China, India
finally is enjoying significant economic growth, New Delhi
possesses nuclear weapons and an expanding conventional military,
and India’s government is pressing for a greater international
role. Strained bilateral relations between the U.S. and India have
turned into increasingly positive ties. Today Washington is
pressing for approval of a compromise agreement to acknowledge and
oversee India’s nuclear program.
There is much to admire about India. An ancient civilization, it
has become a relatively free nation, and has the potential to play
an enormously positive international role in the years ahead.
Unfortunately, the latest violence against Christians
demonstrates that India is not ready to take its place among the
first rank of nations. Attacks on minority faiths are routine in
India, and the national government has been unable or unwilling to
stem the violence. Worse, local and state authorities often abet if
not aid religious attacks.
The latest round of violence occurred in the northeastern
coastal state of Orissa. Hindu radicals led several days of
rioting, in which at least 18 Christians were killed, thousands of
Christians were forced to flee, and 75 churches and thousands of
homes of Christians were destroyed. An Indian policeman reported:
“Moments after we passed by a Christian village, people set it on
fire and everything was over within minutes.” Babu Joseph, with the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, spoke to some of the
victims: “They said that it was a horrifying experience. Groups
arrived at their villages carrying guns, swords and homemade
weapons and even small bombs, which they used to blast the places.
The groups targeted every Christian house in their villages. The
people had a list of Christian houses and institutions and none
were spared.” Mobs even torched a Christian orphanage, killing a
21-year-old teacher — a Hindu. Swarupananda Patra, general
secretary of the All Orissa Baptist Churches Federation, said,”All
Christian villages [are] empty in Kandhamal as Christians, old and
young, sick and pregnant mothers [are] hiding in forests exposed to
non-stop monsoon rains without food.” Samuel Wallace of
International Christian Concern said, “It looks like the only
defense these Christians have is God himself, because the Indian
government has proved itself unable to stop the violence.”
Christians, who only make up 2.3 percent of India’s population
of 1.1 billion, long have been convenient scapegoats for Hindu
militants. In the Kandhamal District of Orissa, a Hindu religious
leader, Swami Laxmmananada Saraswati, was killed — by Maoist
guerrillas, say the police. The group apparently even claimed
responsibility for the murder. But Subhash Chauhan of the World
Hindu Organization blamed Christians, setting off much of the
violence. The Orissa government proclaimed that everything was
under control, but eventually called for deploying the army. The
national government did nothing.
NO ONE, LEAST OF ALL the Indian authorities, should be surprised by
the violence in Orissa. Last year Hindu mobs destroyed some 20
churches and four people were killed in the sectarian violence.
Around Easter earlier this year Hindu mobs destroyed scores of
churches and hundreds of Christian homes. Yet the Orissa government
blocked charities and churches from aiding the victims. Human
Rights Watch last year reported: “For several years, extremist
Hindu groups in Orissa have been conducting an anti-Christian
campaign that has grown violent at times, while government
officials have looked the other way.” In fact, the attacks go back
years: In 1999 Hindu radicals burned an Australian missionary,
Graham Staines, and his eight- and ten-year-old sons to death in
their car after they participated in a Bible study. (Staines ran a
hospital and leprosy clinics. His widow, Gladys, forgave the
killers and continued to minister in Orissa until 2004.)
Nor is this the only example of recent violence against
Christians. In January in the neighboring state of Chhatisgarh, a
Hindu mob disrupted a prayer meeting, beating many of the Christian
participants. A local leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party led a group that attacked three Christian pastors. In
2006 there were several serious legal attacks on Christian
organizations in Rajasthan. Indeed, last year the All India
Christian Council figured that an anti-Christian attack occurred
somewhere in India every three days, with the perpetrators rarely
captured or punished. The United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom points to “a marked increase in violent attacks
against members of religious minorities, particularly Muslims and
Christians,” in the late 1990s, and “hundreds of attacks on
Christian leaders, worshippers, and churches throughout India” over
the last decade. (Hindu radicals also often target Muslims, who
make up about 13.4 percent of the population.)
What really galls Hindu extremists is that many lower-caste
Hindus convert to Christianity to escape the humiliating
discrimination embodied by Hinduism’s rigid caste system. When
Christians minister to the needs of social outcasts, radical Hindus
contend that the assistance — which upper-caste Hindus do not
deign to provide — is a bribe for conversion. Rather than address
the horrid treatment of lower-caste Indians, Hindu militants prefer
to attack Christians.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the violence in Orissa a
“national shame,” but his government has done little to stop the
current attacks or to prevent similar outbreaks in the future.
India is a parliamentary democracy, but rather less than a fully
free society. The human rights group Freedom House ranks India as a
2 (on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 the highest) for political rights
and 3 for civil liberties. Elections are generally free but, notes
Freedom House, “Government effectiveness and accountability are
also undermined by pervasive criminality in politics, decrepit
state institutions, and widespread corruption.” The State
Department observes: “There were numerous reports that the
government and its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings,
including extrajudicial killings of suspected criminals and
insurgents, or staged encounter deaths.”
Religious liberty is another problem area. The Commission has
labeled India as a Country of Particular Concern since “religious
minorities in India continue to be subject to violent attacks,
including killings,” while “Those responsible for the violence are
rarely held responsible for their actions.”
ALTHOUGH THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT has been reliably secular and the
constitution guarantees religious freedom, several states refuse to
protect that same freedom. The Institute on Religion and Public
Policy points to Orissa as one of four states — along with
Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh — that formally
restrict evangelism activities and conversions.
Moreover, notes the Institute, “The Indian judicial system also
hinders the ability of prosecutors to investigate and pursue
criminal cases against individuals that violate human rights. The
courts are notoriously slow, primarily due to the lack of a
sufficient number of lawyers and judges prosecute these cases in a
timely and effective manner.”
The State Department makes a similar observation: “Some state
governments enacted and amended ‘anti-conversion’ laws and police
and enforcement agencies often did not act swiftly enough to
effectively counter societal attacks, including attacks against
religious minorities. Despite government efforts to foster communal
harmony, some extremists continued to view ineffective
investigation and prosecution of attacks on religious minorities,
particularly at the state and local level, as a signal that they
could commit such violence with impunity.”
Although reform is most needed at the state level, only the
national government may be able to give the push necessary to
improve respect for religious liberty in the most abusive states.
For this reason, the Institute recommends that New Delhi push for
abolition of the so-called anti-conversion laws, as well as
training for police at both the local and state levels to enable
officers “to remain unbiased during their investigations and the
manners in which they handle interreligious violence and tension.”
Local governments, in particular, “also must put greater emphasis
on the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of violators of
religious freedom in order to encourage an environment that
promotes religious diversity and expression for all faith
communities.”
The Italian government urged New Delhi to halt the violence as
attacks in Orissa mounted. The U.S. should encourage action as
well. Washington has established a good relationship with India’s
government and should put its diplomatic capital to good use.
Moreover, the Congress Party-led coalition government is more
likely to expand religious liberty than the opposition BJP, which
includes more radical Hindu nationalists.
ALTHOUGH THE U.S. GOVERNMENT is in no position to enforce religious
freedom abroad, it should highlight the importance of guaranteeing
protection of this most basic human right if India wishes to play
an increasingly important international role. New Delhi will be in
a better position to claim the moral mantle of the world’s largest
democracy if its society also offers a free and safe home for
religious minorities. In contrast, a country in which mobs
periodically rule the streets, killing and destroying as they see
fit, will have a harder time convincing other nations that it is
fit to lead.
The latest outbreak of violence demonstrates the limits of
Indian democracy, but India remains a far more hopeful place than
the usual authoritarian regimes that restrict religious liberty.
Observes the Institute on Religion and Public Policy: “The Indian
constitution provides a strong protection for religious freedom,
despite the problems that one encounters in numerous state
‘anti-conversion’ laws. The country is massive with a population in
excess of 1 billion people. These people come from a wide variety
of backgrounds, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Jains,
all live peacefully within the same neighborhoods. This is a
promising indication India can develop a religiously tolerant
society.” The rest of us now must encourage India to build a freer
and more tolerant society upon this promising foundation.
