12-06-2003, 02:37 AM
http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/publi...dia/preface.htm
http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/news/...-2003-11-25.htm
SUBJECT OF MAJOR NEW REPORT BY RELIGIOUS FREEDOM CENTER
WASHINGTON, DC, November 25, 2003-- Freedom Houseâs Center for Religious Freedom today released a major, new 148-page report on India: The Rise of Hindu Extremism and the Repression of Christian and Muslim Minorities in India.
The Centerâs report identifies a worrisome new trend in the worldâs largest democracy -- the rise in India of a Hindu nationalist movement known as the Sangh Parivar (âfamily of organizationsâ). Its ideology of Hindutva is directed at ensuring the predominance of Hinduism in Indian society, politics, and culture and is promoted through tactics that include violence and terror, the Center finds. Part of this extremist Hindu agenda is to subjugate or drive out the 14 per cent of the population who are Christian and Muslim.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which assumed power in 1998 at the head of a coalition of centrist parties, functions as the political wing of the Hindu nationalist Sangh Parivar. Within the Sangh Parivar, it is allied with extremist groups that engage in a virulent hate campaign and sometimes acts of violence against religious minorities. The RSS, one such group, was founded by admirers of fascism and Naziism, produced the radicals who killed Gandhi, and is now a major paramilitary organization with millions of members. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee publicly praises the RSS, and attends their functions.
The new report shows that, while the governing BJP has occasionally persuaded Hindu militants to tone down their rhetoric, it appears unable or unwilling to control or hold accountable Hindu militants and, in some cases, its officials have incited and orchestrated militants, and participated themselves in attacks on religious minorities. As the report details, this is combined with its use of political power to Hinduize the school curriculum, declaration of intent to change the constitution in order to undercut the rights and status of minorities, and support for laws that restrict conversions to non-Hindu religions among lower castes and tribal people.
Recently, with BJP support, laws have been adopted that restrict the ability of a Hindu to change his religion in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat states, and proposals are underway for national restrictions on religious conversions. Pope John Paul II spoke out against these developments in June 2003 as âunjustâ and âprohibiting free exercise of the national right to religious freedom.â
Such BJP policies coincide with increasingly violent attacks by Hindu militants on religious minorities. One target of extreme Hindu nationalist groups is the Muslim community, which is haunted by the fear of communal riots that have taken the lives of thousands of Muslims and Hindus since Indian independence. Between one and two thousand Muslims were killed in massacres in the state of Gujarat in February and March 2002, which began when Muslim mobs reportedly set fire to a train carrying Hindu nationalists, killing at least 58 people. No one has been punished to date for the thousands of Muslim deaths in Gujarat. [On November 24, 2003, 15 Hindus were convicted of 14 Muslim murders in Gujarat and the case is headed for appeal.]
Christian persecution in India gained international attention in 1999 after Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burned alive by a Hindu extremist mob. Indiaâs Home Ministry (internal security) and National Commission for Minorities list over a 100 annual attacks against Christians in recent years. The attacks include the murder of missionaries and priests, the sexual assault of nuns, the ransacking of churches, convents and other Christian institutions, the desecration of cemeteries and Bible burnings. A list of such attacks is recorded in the appendices to the new report. Though the perpetrators of the Stainesâ murders have been sentenced, the vast majority of the anti-Christian crimes go unpunished.
This mounting violence has taken place against the background of provocative statements by BJP members and their allies. After the massacres in Gujarat, the stateâs Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, a BJP member, called upon his supporters to âteach a lessonâ to those who âbelieve in multiplying the population,â referring to the Muslim community. Ashok Singhal, the President of the VHP International, one of the components of the Sangh Parivar, described the Gujarat carnage as a âsuccessful experimentâ and warned that it would be repeated all over India.
Violence against the Christian and Muslim minorities is more common in election periods as Hindu radicals resort to hate rhetoric and violence in calculated political moves to solidify their support, according to the report. Sangh Parivar threats and violence aimed at stopping lower caste members from converting from Hinduism has also helped garner Hindu votes.
While Islamist terror is a real problem, in Kashmir in particular, the practice of some Indian authorities to retaliate indiscriminately against and demonize the entire Indian Muslim and Christian communities violates basic human rights, the report finds.
âDespite the continued integrity of some of Indiaâs proud democratic institutions, the hate-filled, often violent, Hindu nationalist trend, with key BJP support, is threatening Indiaâs tradition of tolerance and its reputation as a liberal, pluralistic democracy,â said Center director Nina Shea. âA country once personified by Mahatma Gandhi is becoming known for religious hatred and violence,â she noted.
The report was compiled by Center Fellow Dr. Paul Marshall with the help of Indian human rights advocates and journalists who specialize in religion.
The report is available for $12 from the Center for Religious Freedom and can be ordered online at www.freedomhouse.org/religion.
-------------------------
From: "Ravi Razdan"
To: <religion@f...>
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 9:57 AM
Subject: Hindu Extremism In India Report- Inaccurate, Biased & Distorted
Dear Ms Shea,
I am writing to express my outrage at the venomous and factually
incorrect report below by the biased Dr Paul Marshall. You charter
mentions "...defends against religious persecution of all groups.." not
just some or the politically expedient ones. This report reads more like
a tirade against the evil Hindus with all violent acts against them
either not mentioned or being obfuscate by Dr Marshall's "clever" prose.
http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/news/...-2003-11-25.htm
My point- in this report there no mention of the Muslim violence on
Hindus or the rise of Muslim extremism in India funded by the Wahabi
dollars. The so called Hindu extremism did not gain strength all of a
sudden over the past 15 years. Majority of Indians see it as a backlash
against the rise of the Islamic extremism.
Here are some facts which this report totally ignores:
a) Half of million Kashmiri Hindus; living there from times before the
advent of Islam were ethnically cleansed from the valley by the Islamist.
http://www.kashmir-information.com/Atroc...index.html
B) 56 women an children were torched alive by Islamist in the train
prior to the Gujarat riots not "reportedly killed". Mr Marshall like a
typical Jihadi blames it on a overturned stove! I did not know that
overturned stove also paralyzes people so they can't move and leave.
c) No mentions of Marad massacre of Hindu fishermen again by an armed
gang of Islamist leaving a mosque after Friday prayers.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/09rajeev.htm
http://www.hinduunity.org/marad-massacre-may2-2003.htm
So does your organization see Muslim extremism and killing of Hindus as
a good thing to be encouraged ? Is that why it is being ignored in
this report.
Islamist intolerance for minorities and their general aggressiveness is
well known throughout the world, India is no exception. Your report
needs to reflect that reality.
Either fix this report or have a separate report on Muslim extremism in
India. I look forward to your thoughts on a speedy way of rectifying
this bias.
Sincerely,
Ravi Razdan
http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/news/...-2003-11-25.htm
SUBJECT OF MAJOR NEW REPORT BY RELIGIOUS FREEDOM CENTER
WASHINGTON, DC, November 25, 2003-- Freedom Houseâs Center for Religious Freedom today released a major, new 148-page report on India: The Rise of Hindu Extremism and the Repression of Christian and Muslim Minorities in India.
The Centerâs report identifies a worrisome new trend in the worldâs largest democracy -- the rise in India of a Hindu nationalist movement known as the Sangh Parivar (âfamily of organizationsâ). Its ideology of Hindutva is directed at ensuring the predominance of Hinduism in Indian society, politics, and culture and is promoted through tactics that include violence and terror, the Center finds. Part of this extremist Hindu agenda is to subjugate or drive out the 14 per cent of the population who are Christian and Muslim.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which assumed power in 1998 at the head of a coalition of centrist parties, functions as the political wing of the Hindu nationalist Sangh Parivar. Within the Sangh Parivar, it is allied with extremist groups that engage in a virulent hate campaign and sometimes acts of violence against religious minorities. The RSS, one such group, was founded by admirers of fascism and Naziism, produced the radicals who killed Gandhi, and is now a major paramilitary organization with millions of members. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee publicly praises the RSS, and attends their functions.
The new report shows that, while the governing BJP has occasionally persuaded Hindu militants to tone down their rhetoric, it appears unable or unwilling to control or hold accountable Hindu militants and, in some cases, its officials have incited and orchestrated militants, and participated themselves in attacks on religious minorities. As the report details, this is combined with its use of political power to Hinduize the school curriculum, declaration of intent to change the constitution in order to undercut the rights and status of minorities, and support for laws that restrict conversions to non-Hindu religions among lower castes and tribal people.
Recently, with BJP support, laws have been adopted that restrict the ability of a Hindu to change his religion in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat states, and proposals are underway for national restrictions on religious conversions. Pope John Paul II spoke out against these developments in June 2003 as âunjustâ and âprohibiting free exercise of the national right to religious freedom.â
Such BJP policies coincide with increasingly violent attacks by Hindu militants on religious minorities. One target of extreme Hindu nationalist groups is the Muslim community, which is haunted by the fear of communal riots that have taken the lives of thousands of Muslims and Hindus since Indian independence. Between one and two thousand Muslims were killed in massacres in the state of Gujarat in February and March 2002, which began when Muslim mobs reportedly set fire to a train carrying Hindu nationalists, killing at least 58 people. No one has been punished to date for the thousands of Muslim deaths in Gujarat. [On November 24, 2003, 15 Hindus were convicted of 14 Muslim murders in Gujarat and the case is headed for appeal.]
Christian persecution in India gained international attention in 1999 after Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burned alive by a Hindu extremist mob. Indiaâs Home Ministry (internal security) and National Commission for Minorities list over a 100 annual attacks against Christians in recent years. The attacks include the murder of missionaries and priests, the sexual assault of nuns, the ransacking of churches, convents and other Christian institutions, the desecration of cemeteries and Bible burnings. A list of such attacks is recorded in the appendices to the new report. Though the perpetrators of the Stainesâ murders have been sentenced, the vast majority of the anti-Christian crimes go unpunished.
This mounting violence has taken place against the background of provocative statements by BJP members and their allies. After the massacres in Gujarat, the stateâs Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, a BJP member, called upon his supporters to âteach a lessonâ to those who âbelieve in multiplying the population,â referring to the Muslim community. Ashok Singhal, the President of the VHP International, one of the components of the Sangh Parivar, described the Gujarat carnage as a âsuccessful experimentâ and warned that it would be repeated all over India.
Violence against the Christian and Muslim minorities is more common in election periods as Hindu radicals resort to hate rhetoric and violence in calculated political moves to solidify their support, according to the report. Sangh Parivar threats and violence aimed at stopping lower caste members from converting from Hinduism has also helped garner Hindu votes.
While Islamist terror is a real problem, in Kashmir in particular, the practice of some Indian authorities to retaliate indiscriminately against and demonize the entire Indian Muslim and Christian communities violates basic human rights, the report finds.
âDespite the continued integrity of some of Indiaâs proud democratic institutions, the hate-filled, often violent, Hindu nationalist trend, with key BJP support, is threatening Indiaâs tradition of tolerance and its reputation as a liberal, pluralistic democracy,â said Center director Nina Shea. âA country once personified by Mahatma Gandhi is becoming known for religious hatred and violence,â she noted.
The report was compiled by Center Fellow Dr. Paul Marshall with the help of Indian human rights advocates and journalists who specialize in religion.
The report is available for $12 from the Center for Religious Freedom and can be ordered online at www.freedomhouse.org/religion.
-------------------------
From: "Ravi Razdan"
To: <religion@f...>
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 9:57 AM
Subject: Hindu Extremism In India Report- Inaccurate, Biased & Distorted
Dear Ms Shea,
I am writing to express my outrage at the venomous and factually
incorrect report below by the biased Dr Paul Marshall. You charter
mentions "...defends against religious persecution of all groups.." not
just some or the politically expedient ones. This report reads more like
a tirade against the evil Hindus with all violent acts against them
either not mentioned or being obfuscate by Dr Marshall's "clever" prose.
http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/news/...-2003-11-25.htm
My point- in this report there no mention of the Muslim violence on
Hindus or the rise of Muslim extremism in India funded by the Wahabi
dollars. The so called Hindu extremism did not gain strength all of a
sudden over the past 15 years. Majority of Indians see it as a backlash
against the rise of the Islamic extremism.
Here are some facts which this report totally ignores:
a) Half of million Kashmiri Hindus; living there from times before the
advent of Islam were ethnically cleansed from the valley by the Islamist.
http://www.kashmir-information.com/Atroc...index.html
B) 56 women an children were torched alive by Islamist in the train
prior to the Gujarat riots not "reportedly killed". Mr Marshall like a
typical Jihadi blames it on a overturned stove! I did not know that
overturned stove also paralyzes people so they can't move and leave.
c) No mentions of Marad massacre of Hindu fishermen again by an armed
gang of Islamist leaving a mosque after Friday prayers.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/09rajeev.htm
http://www.hinduunity.org/marad-massacre-may2-2003.htm
So does your organization see Muslim extremism and killing of Hindus as
a good thing to be encouraged ? Is that why it is being ignored in
this report.
Islamist intolerance for minorities and their general aggressiveness is
well known throughout the world, India is no exception. Your report
needs to reflect that reality.
Either fix this report or have a separate report on Muslim extremism in
India. I look forward to your thoughts on a speedy way of rectifying
this bias.
Sincerely,
Ravi Razdan