Three churches near India's southern city of Bangalore have been ransacked by suspected Hindu extremists, despite a government crackdown on anti-Christian attacks. Police believe a right-wing Hindu group vandalised the churches, and have arrested their leader. More than two dozen churches have now been attacked in the southern state of Karnataka over the past week. It follows similar clashes in the eastern state of Orissa in which up to 20 people died. Karnataka's 2.5 million Christians say they're being targetted for opposing the violence in Orissa.
Presenter: Murali Krishnan
Speakers: Junior home minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal; Vinod Bansal a spokesperson for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad; Father Babu Joseph of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India
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KRISHNAN: The wave of violence and destruction follows weeks of anti-Christian militancy in the eastern state of Orissa in which 20 people have been killed and thousands forced to flee from their homes and take refuge in the surrounding jungles. Tension still runs high in many parts of the state. But the sudden spurt of anti-Christian violence in Karnataka, which has until now spared the large-scale clash between Christians and Hindus, is causing major concern to the government in New Delhi. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government has despatched a fact-finding team, comprising members of the National Minorities Commission (NCM) and National Commission for Women (NCW). Junior home minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal also led a delegation to Bhubaneshwar, Orissa's state capital to get a first hand account of the situation.
JAISWAL: We have come to Bhuwaneshwar to conduct an on the spot assessment especially to find why the situation has so rapidly deteriorated. The delegation will go to the various places hit by violence.
KRISHNAN: The seeds for the current conflict were planted on August 23, when a Hindu leader, Laxmananda Saraswati, and four others were killed in the district of Kandhamal in Orissa after 20 to 30 gunmen barged into a Hindu school and began shooting. At the heart of the violence is anger among rightwing Hindu groups such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal over the issue of conversions to Christianity, especially among members of the Dalit and other "untouchable" classes. Vinod Bansal a spokesperson for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad says his organisation was not responsible for the violence but warned that it will escalate unless conversions stopped.
BANSAL: (We) had nothing to do with this violence. This violence is only a reaction of the community, there and then, to do with this large scale conversion, and the atrocities being imposed by these Christian missionaries. The violence can end only by apprehending the persons responsible in India. Unless you stop conversions in India, then this violence will recur in future also. Because this totally destabilise the country's national security, and the emotions of the countrymen.
KRISHNAN: In Orissa, fearful Christians have been forced to reconvert back to Hinduism to save themselves from being killed by the mobs, who have destroyed hundreds of churches and homes. Police said the violence in Karnataka was led by the right-wing Hindu Bajrang Dal organisation, and that attackers on motorcycles had gone to each church during prayers, sending worshippers fleeing for their lives. Father Babu Joseph of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India says the magnitude of violence this time was huge. He refused to name the outfits involved but said the Hindu groups were creating social unrest.
JOSEPH: This time the magnitude is much more than ever before. Particularly in Orissa, for about three weeks it has been going on and on, and nearly 50,000 people have lost their homes, and institutions have been destroyed, and unfortunately it has now also spread to Karnataka, particularly this area, where a lot of Christian population is there. The most unfortunate part is that some organisations representing, or allegedly representing Hindu community, are taking the law in their hands and trying to create social disturbances by targeting Christian community and Christian institutions.
KRISHNAN: Orissa has historically been a tinderbox of Hindu-Christian tensions that has often seen clashes between the two communities. In January 1999, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were killed when a mob set fire to the vehicle in which they were sleeping outside a church in Manoharpur, a tribal village in the Keonjhar district. Hindus account for 83 percent of India's more than 1 billion population, while Christians make up 2.4 percent. The fresh round of violence has led many in the Christian community to fear for their calm.
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/stories/200809/s2370443.htm
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