Religious Liberty Prayer List – No. 154 – Wed 06 Feb 2002

[RSS: the militant Hindu body, Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh. BJP: the Bharatiya Janata Party, the political wing of the RSS.]

When the BJP won power in February 1998, they did so with a Hindu nationalist (Hindutva) platform under the banner ‘One Nation, One People, One Culture’. The government has taken this as the mandate to pursue its Hindu nationalist agenda, which it does through propaganda and spreading disinformation. In December 2001 there were protests when Hindu nationalist academics were appointed by the BJP to rewrite the national Indian history textbooks, importing anti-Christian bias, accusing Christians of fomenting political conspiracies and ‘fostering anti-national tendencies’. See RLP 147 http://www.evangelicalalliance.org.au/missions/rlc/postings/147.htm

On 21 January, an article in The Times of India detailed how the RSS accused Church leaders of seditious activity. ‘The Baptist churches in particular are providing arms and other logistic support to various insurgent outfits in the north-eastern states,’ claimed the RSS chief, K S Sudershan, accusing them of ‘fuelling secessionist tendencies’. He went on to say, ‘…the churches have been involved in converting Hindus to Christianity by luring the poor people with money and other temptations.’ Sudarshan also said that, to maintain social harmony, conversions should be stopped and Christians should instead promote co-existence. He even made the incredible statement that ‘religious conversion is a violent act’ to support the RSS view that it should be banned by law.

This sort of disinformation breeds fear and suspicion, and encourages anti-Christian hostility. In November, Sorita Toppo, a 29-year-old Indian Catholic sister working amongst tribal people, was brutally raped and murdered. The villagers loved her but the high-caste Hindu moneylenders were opposed to her teaching and liberating the people. A pastor’s wife was attacked by a masked man with a razor in Maharashtra in November and the statement from the State Minority Commission of the Government of Maharashtra blamed the attack on one of the militant Hindu groups ‘which have been systematically terrorising Christians in the recent past’.

A church official reports that anti-Christian posters are being displayed in Madhya Pradesh, where the RSS plans to build devalayas (shrines for Hindu gods) in 350,000 tribal homes. The right to convert is being seriously challenged in the state of Orissa. This is in defiance of the Indian Constitution which enshrines religious freedom and the right to convert as fundamental human rights, as per Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Evangelical Fellowship of India responded with the facts in a media release which concluded, ‘It is sad that the contributions of the Christians in almost every field of nation building is never mentioned while Christians continue to be attacked, abused and falsely accused… Are not attacks on Christians, other minorities and the marginalised sections of society acts of terror?’

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR

* wisdom for the Evangelical Fellowship of India and all church groups as they provide leadership in handling this crisis of disinformation.

* protection for Christians sharing the Gospel and presenting Christ through word and deed at great personal risk – over 40,700 Christian Indian nationals serve within India as missionaries.

‘Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you.’ Psalm 86:2

* the Spirit of God to continue his work of empowering the Church in India, fortifying the courage of evangelists and blessing their ministry with the saving of many lives.

* significant international condemnation of both the terror that is being directed against Christians in India and the way in which the government is inciting as well as condoning it.

* all efforts to outlaw conversion to be thwarted.

SUMMARY TO USE IN BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE:

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DISINFORMATION EVOKES HOSTILITY IN INDIA

Once again the Indian Government has launched an assault on India’s Christian community through disinformation. The ruling BJP is the political wing of the Hindu militant group, the RSS, whose chief (K S Sudershan) charged publicly that Christians have been ‘providing arms and other logistic support to various insurgent outfits’ and ‘fuelling secessionist tendencies’. He also claimed that ‘…the churches have been involved in converting Hindus to Christianity by luring the poor people with money and other temptations’. Religious conversion (that the RSS wants banned by law) Sudershan called ‘a violent act’. This sort of disinformation breeds the climate of anti-Christian hate and suspicion in India. The escalating violence directed towards India’s more than 40,700 Christian national missionaries is one of its results.

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Please pass this along to others with attribution to World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty Prayer List <>

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The WEA Religious Liberty Commission sponsors this RL Prayer List to help individuals and groups pray specifically and regularly for religious liberty issues, and in particular to uphold the Church where it is suffering persecution.

RL Prayer is moderated by Ron Clough, a commissioner of the WEA RLC and convenor of the Australian EA RLC. Elizabeth Kendal researched and compiled this message.

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