April  2003 
Year 9    No.86

Religious Freedom


Rule of law?

Attacks on religious minorities in several states brought into question the government’s ability to prevent sectarian and religious violence, says the US department of state’s country report on human rights for India, 2002

Although the law provides for religious freedom, enforcement of the law was
poor, particularly at the state and local levels, where the failure to deal adequately with intra-group and inter–group conflict and with local disturbances abridged the right to religious freedom. There was significant Hindu–Muslim violence during the year. In many cases, the government response was inadequate, consisting largely of statements criticising the violence against Muslims, with few efforts to hold accountable those persons responsible to prevent such incidents from occurring.

In September (2002), Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi allegedly made disrespectful remarks about Muslims in an election rally speech. In the speech, Modi allegedly blamed Muslims living in refugee camps for the state’s population boom, although he denied insulting Muslims. Throughout the year, the government generally described the violence and attacks as a series of isolated local events.

Tensions between Muslims and Hindus, and between Hindus and Christians, continued during the year. Attacks on religious minorities occurred in several states, which brought into question the government’s ability to prevent sectarian and religious violence. The worst religious violence during the year was directed against Muslims by Hindus in Gujarat. It was alleged widely that the police and state government in Gujarat did little to stop the violence promptly and at times even encouraged or assisted the Hindu fundamentalists in perpetrating violent acts.

The destruction caused the forcible displacement of more than 1,00,000 Muslims into makeshift camps throughout Gujarat. The government disbanded the camps by mid–June.

Some Christian groups also claimed that BJP officials at state and local levels became increasingly uncooperative. The government also has been criticised for not attempting to restrain the country’s radical Hindu groups.

Christian leaders noted a slight decrease in the incidents of violence against their community and also a change in the type of incidents; however, attacks against Christians continued. On April 29, a church in Orissa was attacked and set on fire with 20 worshippers inside. No injuries were reported. A spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India said that fewer physical attacks occurred against Christians; however, Hindu nationalists began an ideological campaign to limit access to Christian institutions and discourage or, in some cases, prohibit conversions to Christianity.

For example, on July 18, Sister Brishi Ekka was sentenced to 6 months in jail by a court in Chhattisgarh for not reporting the 1996 conversion of 95 families to Christianity. This was the first conviction under the state’s anti-conversion law, which has been in force since the 1970s. Sister Ekka appealed the decision in the Chhattisgarh High Court and later was released on bail.

The government found that 80 per cent of attacks on minorities were motivated by local incidents, economic arguments, or intra–denominational feuds. In August a new cable television station, promoting Catholic values, was launched in Kerala; however, several cable television station operators in Kerala and the neighbouring states reportedly refused to make the stations’ programming available to viewers.

The fear of conversion of Hindus and Muslims by Christians was highlighted in an August 15 statement by Prime Minister Vajpayee. He stated "There is a conversion motive behind the welfare activities being carried out by some Christian missionaries in the country’s backward areas, and it is not proper, although conversion is permissible under the law."

Citizens often referred to schools, hospitals, and other institutions as "missionary" even when they were owned and run entirely by indigenous Christian citizens. By using the adjective "missionary," the RSS tapped into a longstanding fear of foreign religious domination.

In Christian majority areas, Christians sometimes were the oppressors. In Tripura, there were several cases of harassment of non–Christians by Christian members of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), a militant tribal group with an evangelical bent. For example, NLFT tribal insurgents have prohibited Hindu and Muslim festivals in areas that they control, cautioned women not to wear traditional Hindu tribal attire, and prohibited indigenous forms of worship.

Hindus have been victims of violence. For example, on September 24, an attack on the Swaminarayan Hindu Temple in Gujarat left 40 persons dead before security forces stormed the temple. The government responded swiftly by deploying approximately 3,000 army personnel to dispel a strike and protest march called by the VHP to protest the attack. Critics of the government noted that had the government acted quickly following the Gujarat violence, many deaths could have been prevented.

Throughout the year, pan–Islamic militants continued to try to drive all non–Muslims out of Kashmir. 

(Excerpts from the US department of state’s country report on India for the year 2002, released on March 31, 2003.)


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