Events & Issues
New
Delhi, 23 March 2015
Attacks
On Churches
SMASH
CASTE INEQUITIES INSTEAD
By Proloy
Bagchi
The other day in the newspapers one
found an essential difference between India
and Pakistan
had been obliterated by the events in the two countries. While two of the Lahore churches were
subjected to suicide bombing, killing as many as 70 church-goers and injuring a
like number (some of them critically), an up and coming church in Hissar
district of Haryana was demolished.
While the Pakistani attacks on the
churches were clear cases of terrorist attacks and were even owned by such an
outfit, the one in India
was the act of rabid Hindus who not only seemed to have razed the
under-construction church but also vandalized it, hoisting a flag at the site
with “Shri Ram” written on it. This was a clear indication of the reprehensible
handiwork of fringe elements of certain Hindu groups.
Surendra Jain, a spokesperson of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a right wing
organization, (claiming to represent all Hindus) aggressively defended the
demolition, issuing threats that such cases would happen in future if
Christians did not stop conversions. Ill-informed as he seemed to be, he
appeared unaware that the right to practice and prosylatise a religion (without
inducements) is sanctioned by the Indian Constitution.
He also erroneously claimed that the
First War of Independence of 1857was fought as a religious war and asserted
such wars would continue to be fought until the Christians mended their ways. Alluding
to the razed church, he asked whether Christians would allow construction of a
Hanuman temple in Vatican –
as if the village where the church was demolished could be equated with the Vatican.
The foot soldiers of the Hindu
fringe organizations are increasingly taking the law in their hands under the
mistaken notion that they would be protected by saffron Governments at the
Centre and in some of the States. Firstly, they are mostly unaware of what
Hinduism or Hindutwa stands for and, secondly they forget that people in
general are aware of their rights and they would not allow any willful
infringement of laws to go unnoticed and, possibly, unpunished.
Regardless of the colour of the Governments,
people and the electronic media are far too active for the comfort of any
religious miscreant. Nonetheless, the onus of all such inconsequential acts is
placed on Prime Minister Modi as most of these have occurred in quick
succession after his assumption of power.
Demolition of the church, coming as
it did after the unfortunate incident of rape of an elderly nun in Ranaghat, West Bengal, attracted keener attention of everyone,
including parliamentarians and the Vatican Christians are getting greater
attention from the Hindu fringe elements as they probably find them a softer
target. Besides, most of the religious activities of the Christians are carried
out in backward and rural areas and there they are open to attacks by crude and
ill-informed Hindu activists in the general absence of effective policing.
However, only a day or two earlier a church in Delhi was a victim of stone-pelting by masked
men.
Unfortunately, these misguided
people do not realise that Hinduism, despite erosion of its secular power over
the centuries, survived for thousands of years because of its own intrinsic
strength. Buddhism and Jainism, the two breakaway religions, remained as small
islands surrounded by the ocean of Hinduism in India. Its spirit, backed up by its
ancient philosophical base, gathered worldwide appreciation. It had been
imbibed in many parts of the world and its cultural remnants can be seen and
felt in largely Buddhist and Muslim South-East Asia.
Besides, even more than one thousand
years of Islamic and 300 years of British rule could not subdue it in this
country where it is followed by the majority till this day. What is more, with
all its warts, India
with its mostly Hindu population, continues to be preferred place for residence
by numerous foreigners of different religions. After all, it had historically
been the haven for the tormented and tortured peoples of the Middle-East and
the Far East. Hindu India embraced them all.
Known for its “open-arms” and
welcoming attitudes, the country, down the ages, allowed people of various
religions – Christians, Jews, Parsees, Baha’is Buddhists, Jains and several
Islamic sects – to come and find sanctuary in this country, enriching its
culture as also endowing it with a fair name in the world.
Why shatter this fantastic image by
narrowness of mind as displayed by Islamic countries? Do these rabid Hindus
wish to behave like Pakistanis, who slowly but surely ejected Hindus and Sikhs
from West and East Pakistan and also torment
the small minority of Christians? No, we are far better than them. We should
not be swayed off our feet by what the narrow-minded and mean protagonists of
Hinduism preach. Ours is a far more enlightened civilization of which we are
proud. We cannot allow our fair name to become spotty because of a few
misguided ignorant, uncivilised and uncultured philistines.
If the rowdy foot soldiers of VHP
think that by their violent and destructive activities they would be able to
protect Hindu religion they are sadly mistaken. What they should do instead is
to try and get rid of the ills of Hinduism. Its caste system constitutes one of
its great and inherent weaknesses and yet it is practiced with vehemence,
particularly in rural areas. The so-called Dalits, the former untouchables, are
generally at the receiving end of the atrocities. The incidence of caste
violence in rural areas is increasing despite the efforts of the State.
Almost every day there are reports
of ill-treatment of Dalits and rape of their girls in national dailies. It is
these miserable people who prefer to switch their religion even though it might
not be of great help to them. Yet, those who hate Christians and try to destroy
their churches would be the first to maltreat dalits and discriminate against
them. This is what hurts Hinduism the most and this is what needs to be
addressed by the self-proclaimed protectors of Hinduism. They should try and
smash this inequity before thinking of smashing churches, for it is the Church
which provides succour to the lowly Hindu.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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