Fundamentalists in India

Today is Ash Wednesday. For some, the term applies too literally.

India has had religious tolerance for 5,000 year. That is until about 1875 when some Hindu fundamentalists decided that India was only for Hindus. They reasoned that since both Islam and Christianity came from the Holy Lands, neither religion has any place in India.

The situation has since reached devastating proportions. In 1998, a mob of 5,000 attacked Christians setting fire to 92 houses and burning churches. Two Australian missionaries were burned to death. Their crime had been caring for lepers for the last 25 years. All of the lepers were Hindus. No one was ever converted.

Christians are forced to reconvert to Hinduism by drinking "holy cow urine mixed with dung" to counter the effects of communion on the body.

On Christmas Day in 2007, six people were killed and 100 homes burned. On August 25, 2008, 111 were beaten and two missionaries were set on fire. Their crime had been taking care of lepers for the last 10 years. None of the lepers were Christian.

Today, the Christian community lives in a tent city under the protection of the government until a "solution" is found. These are relief camps for the people who had to flee their homes and land in fear of killing. Sixty people were killed in further violence in November, 2008 and 20,000 were rendered homeless. Today around 10,000 people are still living in the camps. Priests from the Society of the Divine Word are secretly living among the refugees and attempting to minister to their needs. While the government has proposed compensation for the losses incurred, the Fundamentalists are already mobilizing a counter attack opposing the use of state tax money to support the victims. The interesting thing is that no one wants to talk about this issue. It's not in the press and even the Church doesn't seem to want to call attention to it in fear that more publicity will just fan the flames of reprisal. It makes me think of the classic poem during WWII about how no one protested when the Nazis rounded up different groups of people and no one protested. The last line is "And then they came for me". There was nobody left to protest.

This isn't a very good report on the situation and you can read more about it by googling "Orrisa Christian attacks". Historians, government officials and sociologists will tell you it's a complex situation rooted in the ancient past and woven into the culture. But as an accountant, my general rule is always "follow the money". Scratch the surface just a little and you'll find that the castes with money are mad because the Church is taking away its cheap labor. By trying to fight for human rights for the Christians, by educating them, and giving them skills, the Church is attempting to elminate poverty. Poverty means people will work for nothing but food. I'm pretty sure this is called "slavery" and you know what happened in the US when someone tried to "free the slaves". It's always about economics even when its about religion.

India is a dangerous place right now and we haven't heard the end of the Fundamentalists.
As you enter the season of Lent, remember to be thankful that you can express your beliefs without fear in the USA, even if you have no beliefs.