Missionaries and Martyrs to India

Religious Atmosphere:

• Indias constitution provides for full religious freedom of worship and witness for all religions. The rise of Hindutva extremism resulted in a hate campaign against Muslims in the early 90s and against Christians in the late 90s as being followers of foreign religions.
• Anti-conversion legislation and imposing legal restrictions on Christian activies has been strongly demanded. Some states have enacted such legislation, which in turn, condones a rising wave of violence and even murder of Christian workers.
• The number of attacks against Christians has rapidly increased. From 1964-1996 there were 38 recorded incidents. In the three years after, there were a total of 300 attacks. The Anti-conversion legislation has been passed in six states: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattigarh and Madhya Pradesh. Tamil Nadu, which had earlier passed a similar law, recently repealed it.
• Since 1998, there have been hundreds of attacks on Christian leaders, worshippers and churches throughout India. These attacks have included killings, torture, rape and harassment of church staff, destruction of church property and disruption of church events.
• The caste system reflects Indian occupational and socially defined hierarchies. Tribal groups and low castes known as untouchables are constantly discriminated against. Dalits, the lowest of the outcastes, are attacked by Hindu militants because of the spread of Christianity among this group, especially in rural areas. More than half a million Christians come from a Dalit background.
• Tribal groups who have converted to Christianity have been targeted for attacks by Hindu organizations. In June 2005, an independent peoples tribunal investigating the rise of violent sectarianism in Orissa was threatened by members of right wing Hindu extremist groups.

Extremist Groups:

• Apart from the Sangh Parivar, militant Hindus of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have joined hands with other affiliated Hindu organizations and have created a political wing for themselves called the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
• The BJP, being one of the numbers of offshoots of RSS, has been implicated in incidents of violence and discrimination against Christians. BJP was a part of coalition Governments from 1998 till 2004 and two of its senior leaders were members of RSS.

Government:

With a Muslim president, Sikh prime minister and a Christian head of the governing parliamentary party, the government committed to a policy of tolerance and maintaining a highly diverse society. Yet, the Hindu militant and extremist groups with the support of the BJP at the government level, continue to attack Christian minorities in many states. The anti-conversion bills passed so far make it illegal for people to convert from one faith to another without registering their conversion with the authorities and proving no coercion was involved. Anyone accused of participating in forced conversion can face a 3 year prison sentence. Although the Christian population is on the rise and stands at 6% of the countrys total population, the government has not released this as an official figure in fear of Hindu extremist reactions.

What You Can Do: