Hindu extremists torch nearly a dozen churches and the home of a Christian leader
December 28, 2007 8:23 am Hindu nationalism
Indian Christians held candles during a demonstration yesterday in New Delhi against the recent violence on Christians and their churches on Christmas in the Indian state of Orissa. (Manish Swarup/Associated Press)
Gavin Rabinowitz, Hindus, Christians torch homes and churches in India, AP, Boston Globe, December 28, 2007
NEW DELHI - Hindu extremists torched nearly a dozen churches and the home of a Christian leader yesterday, defying a curfew imposed to quell three days of religious violence in eastern India. Christians retaliated by setting fire to several homes belonging to Hindus.
Police have been unsuccessful in halting the attacks and the federal government announced it was sending in a paramilitary force.About 19 churches, most of them small mud and thatch buildings, have been razed since violence broke out on Christmas Eve when long-standing tensions between the Hindu majority and the small Christian community erupted over conversions to Christianity.
Hindu groups have long charged Christian missionaries with trying to lure the poor and those who occupy the lowest rungs of Hinduism’s complex caste-system away with promises of money and jobs.
Yesterday, a group of Hindus burned down the house of Radhakant Nayak, a member of India’s upper house of parliament and a Christian leader in the area, Nayak told the CNN-IBN news channel.
Also, 11 churches were ransacked and burned in Kandhamal district of Orissa state, the Press Trust of India quoted unnamed police officials as saying.
Superintendent of Police Narsingh Bhol said several prayer houses were ransacked and some were set on fire, but he did not have the exact number.
Meanwhile, in the village of Brahmangaon, a group of Christians burned down several Hindu homes in an apparent retaliation for the attack on churches. Angry Hindus then burned down the village police station….
Orissa has one of the worst histories of anti-Christian violence. An Australian missionary and his two sons, aged 8 and 10, were burned to death in their car in Orissa following a Bible study class in 1999. Orissa is the only Indian state that has a law requiring people to obtain police permission before they change their religion. The law was intended to counter missionary work.