QUESTION: What must the Church do in the wake of communal and fascist tendencies in India? – Paul T A

ANSWER: Jacob Parappally MSFS

There were always communal forces raising their ugly heads in India. Fortunately, they were only a few fundamentalist groups and the incidents of communal violence were only a few in different parts of India. The partition of India on the basis of religious affiliations and the rise of Hindu fundamentalist groups just more than two decades before the independence of India already sowed the seeds of future communal tensions in our country. When Pakistan chose a Constitution based on the religious rules of Islam, India chose a secular Constitution founded on the principles and values of democracy.
The Indian version of secularism was different from the Western understanding of it. When the westerners separated religion from the state, the Indian state recognized all religions of India and treated all religions equally and even gave them the privilege of following the rules and regulations of their own religions. A common civil code was proposed in the Constitution of India as an ideal to be actualized in future when all people have grown to accept it. In the Preamble of the Constitution of India it is clearly stated the Republic of India would secure for all its citizens, “Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship”. More than six decades, by and large, the Indian state could remain faithful to its Constitution concerning the freedom of religion to be enjoyed by all citizens of different religions and ideologies and live in relatively peaceful atmosphere. Certainly, there were a few sporadic incidents of communal violence here and there. They were contained and not known all over the country except a few notorious ones. But in the current decade, we see a number of violent conflicts in the name of religion. There were arson, violence, lynching etc. on the basis of what one eats, the way one dresses or on the manner of one’s belief and the customs one practices.
Along with the incidents of communal violence, the fascist way of governing the country by subtle ways are reducing the power of the institutions that are vanguards of democracy like judiciary, parliament, election commission etc., and a few hands are trying to secure power over the entire nation. The fascist ways of using propaganda machinery to the maximum possible, threatening those opposing the anti-people policies of the ruling dispensation or arresting them without proper reason and only based on the orders ‘from above’, using the central and state agencies to harass all those who do not fall in line with the fascist ideologies are increasingly becoming a threat to the democratic fabric of our country. In this context, it is a right question to ask, what is the response of the Church to this situation? Should it not exercise its prophetic role to challenge the forces that are seen to be destroying not only the cherished values of our nation but also imposing and forcing inhuman and enslaving values on right-thinking people? Being a silent spectator to this situation would be construed as acquiescing to the demands of fascist policies and programmes and indeed to fascism as such.

A Wake-up Call to the Church in India

The Church in India seems to be suffering from a collective minority-complex. Often we hear from those authorities of the Church whose voice is heard and recognized that we are such a minority community in India that we must not respond to evils of the governments as it would create problems to our community as a whole. So better to keep quiet about it. Individual Christians may respond the way they choose but it is dangerous for the Church to respond to it. This is the standard position of the Church though it is not explicitly stated anywhere. Even in the case of Manipur killings and other incidents of violence the response of the Church authorities was not a united voice of condemnation not only of the violence but also of the government that failed to contain it. In fact, the Chief Minister publicly announced the Kukis are responsible for the violence while it was obvious to everyone that it was engineered by Meitei leaders with the support of the ruling government.
Some important Church authorities considered the conflict only as an ethnic violence and it had no religious underpinning. This was the government line which always orchestrated and continue to orchestrate that it was only ethnic clashes between two tribal groups of Meiteis and Kukis. Even if the violence began as an ethnic conflict between the two tribes Meiteis and Kukis, it was a fact that it could not be separated from the antagonism of 83% Hindu Meiteis against the Kukis who are Christians. Otherwise, how would one explain the burning down of 249 churches according to the archbishop of Imphal within 36 hours of the first wave of violence in May, 2023. It was not an ethnic violence alone. It was an ethnic violence with an obvious intent to attack the religion of the Kukis which gave them an identity beyond their tribal identity. Most of the Meitei Hindus were indoctrinated by RSS ideology to fight against the minorities who do not belong to the Punyabhumi of Hindustan. The Sanghparivar groups are quoting the statement of some of the Church authorities to substantiate their view that it was only an ethnic conflict as the International community condemned the violence in Manipur as a attack on religious minorities
The European Parliament on July 10 listed the issue for a discussion two days later. In the plenary session they saw it as a part of “Hindu majoritarianism” that under the BJP rule India has become known for. The resolution on this issue further said that “Intolerance towards religious belief and minorities has contributed to the current violence,” and called for the protection of “all religious minorities, such as Manipur’s Christian community.” Certainly, the Church in India organized some protest marches against the attack on the Christians of Manipur and provided help for both Kukis and Meiteis living in relief camps as they lost everything they could live on. However, with its powerful institutions spread all over India and its political power in certain parts of our county, the Church could not raise its prophetic voice against the Central and State governments who failed in their rajadharama or their bounden duty as rulers to quell the violence using many means at their disposal and allowed the worst to happen. By the end of July 2023, according to the reports, 181 people were killed.
One wonders whether these happenings are planned strategies to subjugate or eliminate the minorities in our country and to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra or Hindu Nation as defined by M.S.Golwalkar in his book, We or Our Nationhood defined. The attempts of the Hindutva brigade or the Saffron Brigade to infiltrate Government agencies and those institutions that safeguard democracy and the Constitution of India have been happening since two decades. The changing of names of cities, towns and institutions, interpreting Hindu religious symbols and names to serve the purpose of eliminating traces of historical facts and evoke religious sentiments to secure political power are some of the ways to evoke fascist and communal thinking in the minds of the majority Hindu population of our country. Before any election to the parliament or to the state assemblies some religious conflicts are engineered to divide the majority community and minority communities. As in the time of Nazis false propaganda is unleashed to show that the majority community’s life and property are under threat and they needed to be protected and they could use any means for their safety. Can the Church remain a mute spectator to these dangerous happenings in our country? Can it be pro-active in responding to this situation in solidarity with the millions of Indians who want to live in peace and harmony and to safeguard true democracy and Constitutional rights of every citizen?
A Prophetic Church against Fascism and Communalism
The Church whether it is a majority community or a minority community has to play its role as a prophetic community. Like the prophets of the Old Testament and Jesus the Prophet, the Church can fulfill its prophetic function in a fragmented society only by being a credible witness to the values of the Gospel. When the Church makes compromises with the ruling dispensations to protect its own interests, it has no moral credibility to challenge the structures and systems that foster communalism and fascism. It cannot also exercise its prophetic role when the Church itself is fragmented within itself on various issues, when its institutions appear to be corrupt and profit oriented, when in its own way of governing there are fascist tendencies and when it condones fundamentalist groups in the Church itself. The Church in India needs to repent of its failures and seek the grace of conversion to regain its credibility.
To fight against the forces of fascism and communalism the Church needs to be more pro-active than re-active. It should be in the forefront to preserve and promote the humanizing cultural and religious values of our country. The educational and charitable institutions of the Church are the best means to promote the universal and humanizing values of our culture especially those enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution of India. In solidarity with the people of other religions and ideologies the Church should prophetically challenge forces that divide and fragment the society in the name of religion, culture, caste, ethnicity etc. It should preach the values of the Gospel that build up communion among people of all religions and ideologies and live it in relationship with all. Against the forces of fascism, communalism and religious fundamentalism of all religions especially against the ideology of Hindutva the Church must preach and promote Bandhutva in solidarity with all humans of good will. It will be an anti-dote to the rise of fascism and communalism.