Religious Minority Rights for Christians in India
On February 5th, 2015, Al Jazeera reported on protests by Christians in India. In the report, they discuss the climate facing religious minorities in India, and in particular, the hundreds within the Christian community arrested while protesting government inaction over church attacks (Al Jazeera 2015). As the article mentioned, “The protesters — who included nuns and priests — attempted to march from a cathedral near the country’s parliament to Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence, located in a high-security area where protests are banned. The protesters targeted Singh because he is responsible for maintaining domestic law and order” (Al Jazeera, 2015).
This protest was a response to the latest attack on a church “in which unknown persons broke into a Delhi church, desecrating property. The crime was the latest in a series of reported arsons, burglaries and acts of vandalism targeting local churches. In total, five churches have been attacked in the last two months” (Al Jazeera, 2015).
Christians are about 2.3 percent of the Indian population, and there have been many attacks against the Christian community. In the report, my Butler University colleague Chad Bauman was quoted in the piece, in which he said that “[s]ince the elections, certain more anti-Christian groups in India have gotten emboldened and have engaged in somewhat more provocative acts” (Al Jazeera, 2015).
Many Christians have been particularly worried ” since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept national elections last May” (Al Jazeera, 2015).
It is critical that the government provide full protection for all religious minorities in India. This not only means the freedom to practice one’s faith, but also a strong effort to ensure that any human rights violations are prosecuted.
However, it does not seem that human rights activists and many in the Christian community are comfortable with the current response by the police (Al Jazeera, 2015). Some of this sadly also stems from an event “[i]n December, Junior Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti asked a crowd gathered at an election rally in Delhi whether they wanted India to be governed by “the children of (Hindu deity) Ram or the children of bastards,” referring to Christians and Muslims” (Al Jazeera, 2015).
It is imperative that the government and all citizens condemn such statements, not only in language (as Modi did), but also through the firing of Niranjan and any other officials who would say such things. In addition, again, the government must ensure and that all religious minorities feel safe and secure. Such comments as the one made by Sadhvi Niranjan may be used by some to carry out additional hateful acts towards Christians and Muslims, and thus, the various communities in India must all stand up and speak against such horrible comments.
