Justice
Rare for Victims of Christian Persecution in
India
Dr. John Dayal
New Delhi, March 26 (International Christian
Concern) - Victims of Christian persecution
from across India shared their horrific stories
and highlighted the denial of justice to them
before an independent people's jury.
The depositions were part of "The Independent
People's Tribunal against the Rise of Fascist
Forces in India and the Attack on the Secular
State," a three-day program which concluded
here on March 22.
The independent jury was organized
by non-profit organizations Anhad and Human
Rights Law Network, and supported and attended
by a plethora of rights groups, including Christian
organizations, like the All India Christian
Council (AICC) and the Christian Legal Association.
Of the 100 victims who submitted
their statements, about 40 were Christian. The
rest were mainly were from Gujarat state, which
witnessed a wide-scale killing of members of
the Muslim minority community in 2002.
Impunity of perpetrators of
gang-rape
"I was gang-raped by my
fellow tribal villagers, including the brother
and father of the local legislator in January
2004, and I named everyone in my police complaint,
but no one has been arrested till today,"
lamented Taramani, a school teacher from Madhya
Pradesh state's Jhabua district.
Taramani's village, Alirajpur,
was one of the worst affected villages during
the spate of anti-Christian violence that followed
the infamous January 11 incident, in which a
young girl was found dead in the compound of
a Catholic school in Jhabua district. Hindu
fundamentalist Hindu Jagran Manch (Forum for
Revival of Hindus) blamed the murder on the
church, and instigated a series of attacks on
Christian individuals and their institutions.
This was despite the fact that a non-Christian
admitted to the crime.
"A crowd of about 250
people first launched an attack on my house
and set it on fire and then some of them took
me to a jungle and outraged my modesty,"
said, Taramani, a widow.
With tears in her eyes, she
added that when she returned she found the house
completely gutted. "Even the police initially
refused to register my complaint which they
did only later and reluctantly."
"All that I have received
from the government is Rs.30,000 ($700), but
no arrests. The perpetrators still tell me that
nothing will happen to them, as they are very
powerful," she said.
Attackers remain at large
Another victim, Shobha Onkar,
also from Alirajpur, could not help crying as
she narrated how she was attacked by a mob in
the aftermath of the January 11 incident. "About
300 people surrounded our house in the presence
of the local police inspector and started breaking
in. I thought I should open the door before
they vandalized my house, but when they entered
into the house, one of them hit me with a stick
on my head. I started bleeding profusely,"
she said.
"My son ran to the police
and bent on his knees to plead them to rescue
me, saying, 'They will kill my mother,' but
they did not budge," she added.
Onkar also said that relatives
of the local legislator belonging to the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) were among the crowd.
Onkar's house was badly damaged
and completely looted. "The government
gave me only Rs.6,000 ($140) as compensation.
And justice, which matters the most, was denied,
as the perpetrators were not brought to justice,"
she added.
There were also victims from
the states of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra,
Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir.
Lessons for the church
Dr. John Dayal, secretary general
of the AICC who was one of the jury members,
told ICC, "From the Christian perspective,
the hearings were memorable and important. Christians
of all denominations, and both men and women,
came forward to depose for the first time in
a major way. In my experience this is also the
first time that an all-India picture has emerged
of anti-Christian violence from a people's tribunal."
The all-India pattern of violence
has lessons for everyone, and particularly for
the church whether it is Catholic, Protestant
or Evangelical, he said, adding that urgent
steps needed to be taken. "Clergy and church
workers have to be trained in human rights and
basic law."
Another memorable witness,
said Dayal, was the compilation by the Rev.
Madhu Chandra of AICC to prove the massive activity
of Hindu extremists in the north-eastern Hindu
majority states of Manipur and Assam.
"For me, the most heartening
testimonies were of women - Muslim and Christian."
Madhya Pradesh a daylight church
He also said it was obvious
that "Hindutva pressure" was working.
"The church in Madhya Pradesh is fast becoming
a 'daylight church' with mission activity in
the evening and after sun down - which is how
outreach programmes can work in forest villages
when people return home after sunset - has stopped.
Only in full daylight can some work be done.
And yet, the church hierarchy seems not too
worried."
In other areas, church activity
is now confined to tribals alone, who constitute
just a third of the population even in the so-called
tribal belt of central India, he said. "This
has serious ramifications."
Dayal thanked the civil society,
including "well-meaning Hindu activists",
for their "unstinted support" to the
Christian community.
No help from the State
Based on the statements of
the victims and presentations by human rights
activists, the tribunal noted that "demonization
of minorities, both Muslims and Christians,
and their consequent marginalization and physical
attacks have been noticed all over the country,
particularly in the states where the BJP is
in power, like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,
Rajasthan and Gujarat."
In these cases, the victims
have failed to get any help from the State.
The role of the police is particularly dubious,
as in most cases, the victims were not even
able to file an FIR (first information report).
It is often noticed that the victims are turned
into perpetrators of crime. As a result, there
is a sense of helplessness that the minorities
feel."
Rights activists also deplored
the role of the media, mainly local newspapers
in vernacular languages, in inciting anti-minority
violence.
The tribunal was an initiative
of Shabnam Hashmi of Anhad and attorney Colin
Gonsalves of the Human Rights Law Network.
ENDS
Vishal Arora
Independent Journalist New Delhi, INDIA
vishalarora_in@hotmail.com
www.vishalarora.co.in
mobile:
Skype ID: 91-9313346210
vishalarora.in
