Between January and October, more than 300 attacks against the religious minority and its places of worship were perpetrated by Hindus extremists.
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At 5:45 am, Thursday, December 23, Father Joseph Anthony Daniel was awakened by a phone call. The Saint-Joseph Church of the Parish of Soosaipalya, Karnataka (southern India), aged 152, had been vandalized in the night. “The statue of St. Anthony and that of the little Jesus he held in his arms were decaptered by a stone’s throw,” describes the priest, who immediately went to the police station to file a complaint. “The whole village is shocked. We are a peaceful Catholic parish of 78 families, I do not understand the motivations of the vandals, on the eve of Christmas,” he is surprised.
This attack is part of a wave of violence against the Christian minority in India. In the first ten months of the year, more than 300 attacks on Christians and their places of worship have been perpetrated by Hindu extremists across the country, according to a count of several human rights organizations.
Between January and November, just in the Karnataka, thirty-nine Christian incidents were identified by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a non-governmental organization. In his report, published on December 14 and entitled” Criminalize the practice of faith “, PCUC points out that the authors of all these attacks are members of Hindu extremist organizations, such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), paramilitary organization and ideological matrix of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Conversions have become a crime”
In the Karnataka, this resurgence of violence against Christians takes place on the back of charges of forced conversions. The BJP, in power in that state, affirms that conversions to Christianity are crawling and local authorities have even ordered, at the end of October, a census of all churches and priests who officiate there. The leader of the executive, Basavaraj Bomai, did not hesitate to speak of slow “religious invasion”. “The idea of mass conversions is the myth; moreover, the percentage of Christians in the Indian population continues to diminish,” says Peter Machado, Archbishop of Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka, where Christians represent less than 2 % Population. At the national level, they are only 2.3%, in an India at 80% Hindu.
The day the Saint-Joseph Church of Soosaipalya was vandalized, Karnataka adopted a controversial anti-conversion law. The latter imposes drastic restrictions on interreligious conversions and marriages. The planned sanctions can go up to ten years in prison. “Conversions have become a crime, it’s an infringement of religious freedom but also to the right to privacy”, regrets Peter Machado. The Christian community also fears that this law galvanizes self-proclaimed militias and promotes new violence.
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