2/2
Still on what really happened in Dangs, Gujarat in 1998.
http://christianaggression.org/item_displa...S&id=1141381543
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>What Happened in Dangs?</b>
Posted March 3, 2006
June 1999
Hinduism Today
On January 7, 1999, the respected Sarvodaya leader Ghelubhai Nayak, 82, made a report to India's National Human Rights Commission on the Hindu-Christian conflict in the Dangs District of Gujarat. It is here that violence occurred in December and January which attracted international attention, just prior to the murder of Staines. This report, originally published in the Observer is one of the few on-the-scene accounts by a long-time resident.
Myself and my elder brother, Chottubhai Nayak, came to Dangs in 1948 at the behest of late Sardar Patel for commencing tribal welfare activities in this backward region. I and my Gandhian colleagues condemn violence. However, we are anguished to bring to your notice the ground realities behind the recent incidents in Dangs which haven't come to the fore or have been <b>deliberately ignored by the large sections of the media</b>, which in turn has led to a one-sided media reporting and press statements inflaming the area further.
There is no dearth of evidence to prove that the violence is a reaction to the organized conversion activities of the Christian missionaries in the area with means that are clearly questionable and even illegal. The single-point program of the missionaries is to convert the tribals and in doing so they are often using means that go far beyond the realm of social service. They entice with a curious mix of blind faith and allurements. The population of converted (Christian) tribals, which was just around 500 when we came to Dangs in 1948, today stands around 40,000 which is over 30 percent of the total tribal population of the area around Dangs.
<b>The violence in Dangs began on Christmas day after some Christian youths pelted stones on the rally of the Hindu Jagran Manch and burned the jeep of a tribal participant in the rally.</b> There have been at least 15 instances in the past three years in Dangs wherein the Christians, under the influence of their preachers, desecrated idols of Lord Hanuman, who is worshiped in this area by a large section of tribals for ages. In one incident in Gaadhvi village three years ago, they urinated on an idol of Hanuman, and later in Jharsod village they crushed Hanuman's idol to pieces and threw it away in the river.
<b>Then there have been several instances where tension has gripped a village after the Christians publicly called Hindu Gods as Satan [the devil],</b> again under the influence of their preachers. Another cause of the increasing tension is the refusal of the Christians tribals to contribute to the traditional tribal festivals.
In many cases a tribal who accepts Christian faith starts pressuring his brother into accepting the faith, and this often results in bloody fights over the issue. In a case last October, I had warned the district collector about an <b>attempt by some Christians to disturb peace when they twice beat up no less than the nephew of the former Bhil Raja of Linga (in Dangs) when he refused to marry his son to the daughter of a Christian, who was forcing him to enter into the matrimonial alliance.</b> The Christians of Linga have also been opposing the construction of a Hanuman temple on a piece of land which is owned by the Raja of Linga, Bhavar Singh, and to which they have no right.
(A christian Terrorist Bride. Scary.)
Let me remind you that Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, denounced the conversion activity by Christian missionaries as "a blot on humanity in the name of social service." Even Vinoba Bhave, the greatest saint that the country can boast of in the past several centuries, denounced conversion activity and called for a legal ban on any kind of conversion. I have been a close witness to the entire episode in Dangs, and I stand by whatever I have mentioned in this communication.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Still on what really happened in Dangs, Gujarat in 1998.
http://christianaggression.org/item_displa...S&id=1141381543
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>What Happened in Dangs?</b>
Posted March 3, 2006
June 1999
Hinduism Today
On January 7, 1999, the respected Sarvodaya leader Ghelubhai Nayak, 82, made a report to India's National Human Rights Commission on the Hindu-Christian conflict in the Dangs District of Gujarat. It is here that violence occurred in December and January which attracted international attention, just prior to the murder of Staines. This report, originally published in the Observer is one of the few on-the-scene accounts by a long-time resident.
Myself and my elder brother, Chottubhai Nayak, came to Dangs in 1948 at the behest of late Sardar Patel for commencing tribal welfare activities in this backward region. I and my Gandhian colleagues condemn violence. However, we are anguished to bring to your notice the ground realities behind the recent incidents in Dangs which haven't come to the fore or have been <b>deliberately ignored by the large sections of the media</b>, which in turn has led to a one-sided media reporting and press statements inflaming the area further.
There is no dearth of evidence to prove that the violence is a reaction to the organized conversion activities of the Christian missionaries in the area with means that are clearly questionable and even illegal. The single-point program of the missionaries is to convert the tribals and in doing so they are often using means that go far beyond the realm of social service. They entice with a curious mix of blind faith and allurements. The population of converted (Christian) tribals, which was just around 500 when we came to Dangs in 1948, today stands around 40,000 which is over 30 percent of the total tribal population of the area around Dangs.
<b>The violence in Dangs began on Christmas day after some Christian youths pelted stones on the rally of the Hindu Jagran Manch and burned the jeep of a tribal participant in the rally.</b> There have been at least 15 instances in the past three years in Dangs wherein the Christians, under the influence of their preachers, desecrated idols of Lord Hanuman, who is worshiped in this area by a large section of tribals for ages. In one incident in Gaadhvi village three years ago, they urinated on an idol of Hanuman, and later in Jharsod village they crushed Hanuman's idol to pieces and threw it away in the river.
<b>Then there have been several instances where tension has gripped a village after the Christians publicly called Hindu Gods as Satan [the devil],</b> again under the influence of their preachers. Another cause of the increasing tension is the refusal of the Christians tribals to contribute to the traditional tribal festivals.
In many cases a tribal who accepts Christian faith starts pressuring his brother into accepting the faith, and this often results in bloody fights over the issue. In a case last October, I had warned the district collector about an <b>attempt by some Christians to disturb peace when they twice beat up no less than the nephew of the former Bhil Raja of Linga (in Dangs) when he refused to marry his son to the daughter of a Christian, who was forcing him to enter into the matrimonial alliance.</b> The Christians of Linga have also been opposing the construction of a Hanuman temple on a piece of land which is owned by the Raja of Linga, Bhavar Singh, and to which they have no right.
(A christian Terrorist Bride. Scary.)
Let me remind you that Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, denounced the conversion activity by Christian missionaries as "a blot on humanity in the name of social service." Even Vinoba Bhave, the greatest saint that the country can boast of in the past several centuries, denounced conversion activity and called for a legal ban on any kind of conversion. I have been a close witness to the entire episode in Dangs, and I stand by whatever I have mentioned in this communication.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Death to traitors.