Fr Myron J. Pereira SJ

Some 13 years ago, in 2007, John Dayal, then secretary of the AICU, brought out a detailed report, a “white paper” on violence perpetrated against Christians in India. He began his report with these ominous words: “India, by Constitution a secular, democratic republic, continues to be not a very safe place for its tiny Christian minority.”

It is only in India that Christians are persecuted by Hindus, who otherwise proclaim to the world their great tradition of tolerance and peace.

For more than 70 years in the last century, the most vicious persecution of Christians was perpetrated by the Communist countries, particularly by Soviet Russia and its satellites. The Communists were rabid atheists.

In most of the world today, the violence against Christians comes from fanatic Muslims – the Islamic State, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, and by fundamentalist groups in Pakistan. Such groups describe themselves as “true believers,” and consider everyone else, kafirs, pagans.

Widely different ideological positions, but the same kind of hatred!

Let’s take a look at the Hindus of the Sangh Parivar. They persecute not just Christians, but all poor minorities – Muslims, dalits, tribals and women. Are they truly Hindu? – or are they in reality fascist, whose inspiration and strategy comes from Hitler, Mussolini and their ilk?

The communal agenda of the Sangh Parivar, or Hindu fascism, affects not just Christians and Muslims, but the whole of Indian society. Its ultimate aim is not just to crush the minorities, but to convert present-day democratic, secular India into a feudal, retrograde Hindustan. This is why Christians are persecuted for “conversions” and Muslims are branded ‘terrorists,’ tribals are designated as “naxalites” and modern Indian women described as “sluts and whores.”

So the first thing is to recognise the radical differences of perspectives. The Hindu fascists persecute Christians because they want another kind of society.

Let’s state it bluntly: Christians are persecuted, not because of conversions (as the Hindu fascists claim), but because Christians stand for human rights. Christian welfare services are attacked because they work for the poor and the marginalised, to give these a sense of human dignity – as contrasted with the evil system of caste and privilege, which is what the Hindu fascists so desperately want.

Through their schools, Christians reach out to every kind of Indian – tribal, dalit, women – and are committed to the building of an educated and egalitarian society. The Hindu fascists, by contrast, want to create a society based on caste privilege. What they term ‘education’ is little more than crude indoctrination.

When acts of violence do occur, the police do not register the complaints or FIRs (First Information Reports) of the victims. The media, specially the Hindi media (newspapers, TV channels) in the northern states suppress these reports. As a result, not many in the country are aware of what is really going on.

But the attitude of the police and the media to other victims – dalits, tribals, women and children – is the same as that of the perpetrators of violence. Which makes me ask whether the violence against minorities (religious or social groups) is not in actuality a question of human rights abuse of gigantic proportions in the country.

The second challenge is to work out a strategy.

Our biggest challenge as Christians is to organize our alumni. Most of these are ordinary Hindus, who have benefited from the works of the Church, and who hold Christian missionaries in great esteem.

None of those who have passed through our institutions believe the lies about conversions being spread by the Hindutva wadis, but all of them stay quiet and will not open their mouths in public.

Many are embarrassed by the violence shown by Hindu fascist goondas, who claim to speak on behalf of Hinduism. But like most people everywhere, they will not easily stick their necks out for somebody else.

In other words, our alumni are good, but weak. Some are complicit.

So far alumni associations have focused on fund raising and dinner parties. While this is good as far as it goes, it doesn’t go far enough. Will our students speak out on behalf of justice and human rights? Can we organize them to do this? Can we use the media – our publications, radio, TV, the internet – to publicize this? Can we organize them not just to recognize the constitutional right for conversions, but to fight for human rights everywhere – for the human dignity of the poor, for the right to information and to be educated, for the right of all Indians to have access to medical care and welfare, as the Church has traditionally done?

The hostility to Christians today is a challenge to us, to bring this country to a new awareness of the human person based on the Gospel values of honesty, compassion and service to all. His disciples, the Master declared, would be persecuted because of the truthfulness of their lives.

This is what is happening today. But take heart! The persecuted Jesus is also the Lord of history: “In the world, you will have problems. But take courage, I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33)