ARE CHRISTIANS REALLY PERSECUTED IN INDIA?

The veracity of the tales of the Christian persecution in India has become a cause of dispute among different Christian churches in India.

Sometime back it was left to the Indian Rationalists to set the record straight regarding the alleged persecution of Christians in India. We presented our considered view in articles and interviews (and in more than one issue of this bulletin) that most of the cases which hit national and international headlines were either misleading like the famous case of one raped Christian nun among thousands of women and children in India, who become rape victims without any public notice, or they are concocted and faked. In many highlighted cases the media would give a small correction after some days, that, for example, not only the murder victim was a Christian, but also the murderers -which make them simple criminal cases without any communal relevance.

The National Minority Commission of India under the chairmanship of Justice Mohammed Shamim has meantime systematically investigated reported cases of Christian persecution. The commission's Christian member John Joseph  spoke to Sanal Edamaruku about the results and gave information about the background of the international campaign.

"The recent wide-spread campaign in the West that the Christians are persecuted in India is nothing short of colorful lies, half-truths or highly exaggerated stories unleashed by Indian Christian NGOs and missionary groups to mobilize Christian donor agencies to open their wallets," said John Joseph in the exclusive interview which appeared in Kerala Sabdam, a widely circulated news weekly of Kerala,  where a considerable Christian population lives. It triggered a series of public reactions. Several Christian groups and leaders who do not make a living from the financial support from western donor agencies came out openly against the campaign of the Christian NGOs. Christian persecution in India is a favorite theme for many western churches including the Roman Catholic Church, which invest huge sums of money and efforts in India for promoting religious conversions.

John Joseph argued that out of the huge number of crimes happening in India, a large country of a billion population, systematically cases are picked up in which  a Christian priest or church are involved. They are isolated from their background and presented as stories of persecution, by vested interests. Those cases are to be handled by the police and the law and order machinery of the government. Presenting such isolated cases as Christian persecution is not in the interest of even Christians. The inflow of money from the West to the Christian organizations has increased considerably since the beginning of this campaign.

With the systematic campaign of the churches, missionary groups and Christian NGOs about persecution of Christians in India, the Christian community is under the grip of fear and suspicion. John Joseph also expressed apprehensions that a section of the Christians motivated by the stories of "persecution" may resort to militancy. There are reports from some areas that efforts are already on to form Christian militant outfits with  financial and technical assistance from outside the country. Missionary groups promoting militancy  are cunningly planning to bag dollars showing martyrs. Bloodshed may be a sad outcome of this development, he warned.

John Joseph, Christian representative in the three-member National Minority Commission, is a devout Christian and son of one of the founders of the Pentecostal movement in India.

Meantime the metropolitan (equivalent to archbishop) of the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, Joseph Mar Gregorios, also spoke to Sanal Edamaruku in an exclusive interview and asserted that he did not believe that Christians are persecuted in India. The Jacobite Syrian church has nearly two million members in India and is one of the oldest churches in India. It has a long tradition of friendly co-existence and mutual support with Hindus. The Catholic church, seeing the United Christian Front in the persecution question  cracking and breaking, reacted sharply to the public position taken by the Jacobite Syrian bishop. The official spokesperson of the Catholic church, in an angry statement, ridiculed the Jacobite Syrian church as a sect and fringe group with limited following.

There is resistance at several parts of India against the aggressive conversion drive of evangelical groups and the Catholic church. There are also isolated cases of violent response from local communities against the Christian groups using poverty and unemployment to influence conversion. Recently there was a series of minor bomb blasts, which damaged some churches in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states. Police inquiries revealed that a Muslim cult having connections in Pakistan has been behind these blasts. There are allegations that Pakistan, in order to weaken India and to tarnish its image internationally, is behind these bomb blasts. There are also reports about public demonstrations in Pakistan alleging that Christians are persecuted in India.