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ENI-08-0203
By Kristine Greenaway
New Delhi, 7 March (ENI)--Recent religious conflict in the Indian state
of Orissa has been aided by the aggressive evangelising of
missionaries from outside the region, says an official with the largest
traditional Protestant denomination in northern India.
The roots of the tension lie in concerns about the conversion of Hindus
to Christianity and in a long-simmering dispute about the rights and
benefits granted to Christian converts under India's caste system, the
Rev. Enos das Pradhan, general secretary of the Church of North India,
said in a recent interview with Ecumenical News International. An
upsurge in evangelisation by missionaries from overseas and from southern
India has further inflamed tensions in the area, said Pradhan.
In December 2007, a violent confrontation in Orissa's Kandhamal
district, between Christians and members of a Hindu group, opposed to
conversion, set off a wave of retaliation that resulted in extensive damage to
the property of Christians at a time they were celebrating the holy
feast of Christmas.
Concerns about Christian evangelisation in Orissa date back to the
1970s when anti-conversion legislation was passed by the state. Under the
law, people wishing to convert to Christianity must apply to district
authorities for approval to be baptised or face a fine or imprisonment.
Since then seven other states have passed similar legislation. The laws
in each state seek to set conditions for conversion, but penalties
imposed in the form of the loss of economic and education rights following
conversion vary.
Indians of lower castes, now known as Dalits, were reported to have
been the targets of much of the violence in Orissa. India has affirmative
action legislation which reserves access to some government jobs and
education opportunities for people from economically or socially
marginalised castes. Christian Dalits have, however, historically been denied
these "reservation" rights on the basis that as Christians they are free
from discrimination based on the Hindu caste system.
India's 160 million Dalits represent one seventh of the country's
population. Fears that proposals to extend affirmative action benefits to
Dalit Christians would make it more attractive to convert have led Hindus
to resist proposals to extend "Reservation" rights to Dalit converts.
Further complicating the situation, people known as Tribals in Orissa
who convert to Christianity are allowed to retain their affirmative
action "reservation" rights. Dalits and Tribals account for nearly 75 per
cent of all converted Christians in India.
Indian-born communication rights specialist Pradip Thomas, a professor
at the University of Queensland in Australia, said the presence of
external evangelists has contributed to the rise in militant
anti-conversion efforts by Hindu organisations such as the Vishva Hindu Parishad and
the Bajrang Dal.
"Missionaries from South India are involved in 'spiritual warfare'
using the media and Christian networks," Thomas said.
With the rise in religious intolerance fuelled by Hindu extremists and
Christian evangelists, there are also fears that freedom of religion in
India is under attack. In a statement released in December 2007, Human
Rights Watch urged both Hindu and Christian leaders to work toward
peaceful reconciliation, warning that India's secular identity is at risk.
"The challenge facing the Christian Church in India today is to learn
how to live as strong Christians in a pluralistic society," Pradhan
says. "Sixty years after Indian independence, the future of secularism is
at stake."
:: Christianity, with about 26 million adherents, accounts for about
2.3 percent of India's 1.1 billion people. It is the country's
third-largest religion, following Hinduism and Islam. Judaism arrived in India
about 2500 years ago.
[COURTESY TO ENI AS SOURCE]
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