CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE

For immediate release

December 6 2002

INDIAN POLICE OBSTRUCT MASS CONVERSIONS OF UNTOUCHABLES TO BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY

Indian police have obstructed the mass conversions of an expected 10,000 Untouchables (Dalits) by beating up believers and blocking roads.

A mass conversion event was planned for December 6 in Chennai (formerly Madras), but the authorities in Tamil Nadu have taken repressive measures to stop it.

Police harassed and threatened Dalit Pastor Victor Dharmaraj, the owner of the land on which the event was to happen, and later returned to remove a thousand chairs and ejected the volunteer workers.

Eight of these volunteers were arrested and taken in for questioning where they were beaten up.

All the roads into Chennai were blocked and 60 truck loads of Dalits were stopped from coming in.

The Dalits were due to convert from the Hindu faith to Buddhism and Christianity in a bid to free themselves from the caste system. A few hundred did manage to get into the area where the event was due to be held and there were symbolic conversions to both faiths. Conversion events also took place outside Chennai.

In one moving public demonstration of the church’s solidarity with the Dalits, Bishop M A Thomas from Rajistan washed the feet of two Dalit men and one Dalit woman, then embraced them.

Tamil Nadu and Orissa are the two states in India which have regulated conversions with the power to ban those alleged to be by ‘by force or by fraud’.

Militant Hindu groups such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have waged a growing campaign against Christian conversions. They have alleged that all conversion to Christianity happens ‘by force or by fraud’ and their influence can be seen behind the ordinances.

The leader of another militant group, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), claimed recently: “No-one converts voluntarily. It is motivated by greed.” This focus on conversions has had a knock on impact on some humanitarian groups who have faced allegations of providing aid as an inducement to conversion.

Groups such as CSW partner the All India Christian Council are concerned that this unconstitutional legislation will lead to further harassment of believers and the outlawing of all conversions.

The last mass conversion rally in Delhi on November 4 last year, which was also attended by representatives from CSW, saw 20,000 Dalits taking part.

Joseph D’Souza, President of the All India Christian Council, said: “This is very horrible. It is a clear violation of our constitution as well as the fundamental rights and religious freedom of the Dalits.

“Their conversion requires the approval of the state, but how is any Dalit going to go to report his conversion to the police or a magistrate when the state uses such brutal means to repress them?

“There is no way that a Buddhist or Christian leader is going to give a Dalit’s name to the state if the Dalit requests him not to. They are going to have to break the law in order to obey their freedom of conscience.”

For more information or a picture of Joseph D’Souza, contact Richard Chilvers at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on 020 8949 0587 or 020 8942 8810 or email or go to http://www.csw.org.uk