C/r Persecution Complex Or Plain Vanilla Politics

[Guest]

A boilerplate whine on "persecution politics" (exploitation angle), and not so much on "persecution complex" itself (which is inward). Ofcourse Human Rights etc is another whine with a different shade, ultimately they are all cogs in the same wheel - discredit Hindus and India, along the way, no legitimate issues are addressed.

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The politics of persecution
November 03, 2004

By Erich Bridges

Pride goeth before a fall.

India’s ruling Hindu nationalists tasted the bitter truth of Solomon’s warning earlier this year. Popular, confident and riding a wave of economic expansion, then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee called early parliamentary elections. He fully expected the nationalist alliance dominated by his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win.

He was wrong.

The nation’s voters, though overwhelmingly Hindu, soundly defeated the BJP alliance. The secular-minded Congress Party swept back into power, led by Sonia Gandhi (widow of the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, assassinated in 1991).

Why the stunning result?

<b>Why the stunning election result — and why should Christians care? </b>

Political analysts say the main reason for Congress’ victory was the anger millions of rural poor and low-caste Hindus took to the polling stations. They rebelled against the whole idea of “India Shining” — the BJP slogan for the nation’s rapid economic progress — while they see little except poverty and corruption at the local level.

Now the pressure is on Congress Party leaders to help deliver prosperity to the villages. If they don’t, they’ll be the ones turned out next time. <b>India’s Muslims and Christians, however, hope to be major beneficiaries of the vote. </b>

Minorities hope to benefit

<b>“Justice has shined over the peoples in India,” an elated Christian leader said after the defeat of the Hindu coalition. “Christians, Muslims and the poor have suffered (under BJP rule). We lost lives, property, the right to worship and to proclaim the gospel. Now is the time to praise our Savior and proclaim the good news.” </b>


<b>Both minorities have endured persecution by Hindu militants who believe “India is for Hindus.” Thousands of Muslims have died in anti-Islamic riots. Christians in several states have been vilified, attacked — and in some cases, killed — in dozens of incidents over the last decade. </b>

<b>India’s 130 million-plus Muslims remain by far the biggest and most despised “enemy” for Hindu extremists. But Christians, at less than 3 percent of the population, present an easier target. And their evangelistic success — particularly among responsive low-caste Hindus, Dalits (“untouchables”) and tribal peoples — infuriates the radicals. Some Hindu groups carry out regular campaigns to “reconvert” new Christians by force.</b>

Christian leaders say the radicals’ real agenda is to defend the economic status quo of the outlawed (but still widespread) Hindu caste system, which relegates lower castes — the great majority of Indian Hindus — to servant status.

<b>National BJP officials consistently downplayed or denied the involvement of radical Hindus in the persecution of Christians and Muslims. That may well have contributed to their election loss.</b>

‘We expect change’

<b>Christian persecution “will continue and perhaps increase” </b>in states where Hindu fundamentalists still rule, cautioned Joseph D’Souza, president of the All India Christian Council. “But at the national level, we expect change …. We expect the freedom to exercise all our spiritual and social rights.”

A proposed national “anti-conversion” law aimed at stopping Christian evangelism is now “out of the question,” D’Souza added.

More than an economic referendum, the election was “a mandate to renew secular democracy in India,” declared Ipe Joseph, another national Christian leader. <b>“Most of the voters have shown that they reject (Hindu) fundamentalism.”</b>


Democracy that’s endured

Indians don’t claim to have a perfect democracy. Their brand is huge (675 million eligible voters this year), unwieldy, dangerous, often corrupt. But it has stood the test of nearly six tumultuous decades.

Since gaining independence from Great Britain in 1947, India’s democracy has survived the bloodbath of partition, multiple wars with Pakistan, disastrous economic policies and — at least so far — <b>the extremist Hindu nationalism of recent times. </b>

“Indians are no longer prepared to endure the injustices of the past,” says writer Gita Mehta. “And living in a democracy, they are prepared to do something about it.”

That kind of atmosphere has created a robust marketplace of ideas — and perhaps an irresistible momentum not only for political and economic freedom, but freedom of the spirit.

E-mail the writer.


Read a Baptist Press update on the political climate in India:India’s Bharatiya Janata Party, after defeat at polls, renews push for Hindu nationalism.