India's religious diversity and vitality perhaps surpasses that of any other country in the world. Peaceful coexistence and violent intolerance exist in parallel. Despite generally strong constitutional and legislative protections for freedom of religion or belief, there are some significant exceptions, and violent attacks on minorities usually go unpunished. Human rights activists working on their behalf often work under serious threats and pressure.

India’s religious diversity

Healthy religious pluralism and violent religious intolerance exist side by side in India.  The subcontinent has a rich history of religious diversity – countless traditional religions have long been practised among indigenous groups, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism originated here, Christianity arrived in the first century, and Islam came in the eighth century.

However, India also has a long history of religious conflict, with religion and politics intertwined.  During the struggle for independence, religion became fused with chauvinistic forms of nationalism, and in India, there emerged an aggressive Hindu nationalist ideology known as Hindutva, which saw no place in India for non-Hindus, especially Muslims and Christians.

Decades later, the Hindu nationalist movement, known as the Sangh Parivar, still poses the largest threat to pluralism in India.  Its main organ is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), founded in 1925, which has several associated organisations.  The RSS has a large reach, via its network of unmarried male pracharaks: it claimed to have held nearly 40,000 meetings across 27,000 locations in 2009.

The main political wing of the Sangh Parivar is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the largest opposition party.  Its campaign for the 2014 general election is well underway, led by the highly controversial Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, who continues to face serious allegations about his role in a 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom, which led to the death of 2,000 people and for which he has never even apologised.

Communal violence

Religious minorities suffer from communal and targeted violence at the hands of Sangh Parivar members.  Usually, those who carry out violence are unpunished, and often the state is negligent or complicit.

The vast majority of communal violence in India has been perpetrated against Muslims, including the notorious 2002 violence in Gujarat, and there has also been Muslim violence against Hindus.

In 1984, Sikhs in Delhi were massacred after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was murdered by her two Sikh bodyguards in retaliation for military operations in Punjab.

August 2013 marked the fifth anniversary of India’s worst episode of anti-Christian violence, in and around Kandhamal district, in the state of Odisha (formerly Orissa).  While significant attention was paid to the violence in 2008, which resulted in the death of at least 90 and the displacement of over 54,000 people, it was the culmination of a long build-up of anti-Christian hatred, and its long-term effects on the victims are deeply concerning.

Here is a timeline we created of the communal violence in Kandhamal...

Incidents of anti-Christian violence continue to be perpetrated on a regular basis around the country, targeting churches and small pockets of Christians around the country.  Karnataka state has seen a particularly high rate of violence.

Analysts of communal violence stress that it does not arise from natural tensions between religions, but it is the result of deliberate aggravation.  The underlying mindset of ‘communalism’ sees different religious communities as homogenous, competing with each other for dominance.  This mindset gives justification for violence in the eyes of the perpetrators.  A common feature of this violence is the lack of any meaningful action from the state.

The government has taken steps towards drafting legislation to prevent, control, and deal with the aftermath of communal violence in an effective way.  The Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill is the result of an extensive consultation with civil society, but it has now stalled and there is currently a lack of political will to turn it into law.

Anti-conversion

Hindutva sees Hinduism as the default way of life for Indians.  It distinguishes between conversions away from Hinduism, which threaten the nation’s integrity, and conversions to Hinduism, which are ‘homecomings’.

The most common justification for anti-Christian violence is that the Christians were converting others.  This is given legitimacy by laws in seven states, which prohibits conversion by force, fraud, or allurement, and placing various restrictions on the process of converting.  The laws are based on the underlying assumption that all conversions take place in this way.

The former UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief visited India in 2008 and wrote that she was “deeply concerned” that anti-conversion laws were “being used to vilify Christians and Muslims”, and that these laws “should be reconsidered since they raise serious human rights concerns”.

Meanwhile, the Sangh Parivar has a campaign to draw adivasis (indigenous tribes) into the fold of its particular brand of Hinduism.  It argues that it is not converting them, but ‘reconverting’ them or bringing them home.  Such a campaign lies in the backdrop to the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Odisha.

Caste-based discrimination

There is a caste-based dimension to almost every human rights issue in India, and freedom of religion or belief is no exception.  At least 167 million people (according to outdated 2001 census figures) are Dalits, the base of the hierarchical caste system which still shapes Indian society and attitudes to a large extent, and they face grievous patterns of discrimination, exploitation and violence.  Many converts to non-Hindu religions come from the Dalit, adivasi or ‘low’ caste communities.

The state offers some benefits to address the disadvantages faced by Dalits and adivasis, including a system of quotas in public-sector education and employment, and a law to address caste violence.  However, these measures only apply to Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist Dalits.  Christians and Muslims are excluded, despite facing discrimination within their own communities and in wider society.  They therefore pay a socio-economic price for their religious identity.  Several commissions within India, a UN body, and the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief have all recommended this should change.

CSW’s work in India

CSW has worked extensively with partners in India to ensure these issues are on the international human rights agenda for India, and that they are raised through many different mechanisms.

We have consistently raised concerns about the situation in Odisha, working closely with activists on the ground and bringing the attention of the international community to their plight.

We assisted the UN Special Rapporteur in her visit in 2008, and were pleased to see many of our recommendations echoed in her report.  We provided input into India’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2012, and a significant number of states raised issues on which we had briefed them, including encouraging India to introduce the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill.

We also work to strengthen civil society groups in India to be as effective as possible in their own domestic and international advocacy, through training and building relationships.

Timeline

1947: India gains independence. The monumental act of partition with Pakistan causes Hindu-Muslim riots resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths

1984: Indira Gandhi assassinated by Sikh bodyguards, in retaliation for military operations in Punjab.  Anti-Sikh violence results in approximately 3,000 deaths

1992: Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya stormed and destroyed by Sangh Parivar-led mob. Hindu-Muslim riots ensue across the country, including in Bombay where 900 are killed and tens of thousands are displaced

1999: Australian missionary Graham Staines murdered by Hindu extremists in Orissa. The incident is considered to mark the beginning of the wave of anti-Christian violence which has continued ever since

2002: 59 Hindu activists killed in a train in Godhra, Gujarat; over 2,000 people, mostly Muslim, killed in retaliatory violence across the state

2008: Anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal district, Orissa: 90 people killed and over 50,000 displaced from destroyed homes

Facts

• With over 1.2 billion people, India is the second most populous country in the world, and predicted to surpass China by 2025.
  
• India has an estimated 1,600 languages, which illustrate its extreme size and complexity.
  
• Although over 80% of India’s population is Hindu, it is thought to have the third largest Muslim population of any country in the world.