CSW welcomes FCO Orissa concern

Following a year of the most severe anti-Christian violence seen in post-independence India, particularly in Orissa and Karnataka states, CSW today released its annual briefingon religiously-motivated violence and discrimination faced by the Christian community in India during 2008.

The briefing outlines the systematic outbreaks of violence against Christians in Orissa and Karnataka, and catalogues religiously-motivated attacks in other states. It urges the government of India to implement the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief in the report of her 2008 mission to India, and highlights the need to tackle impunity in religiously-motivated violence and to investigate extremist groups involved in the propagation of violence. It also calls on the Indian government to restore the eligibility of Dalit Christians and Muslims to be listed as ‘Scheduled Castes’, which would allow violence against them to be litigated under a law designed to tackle particular forms of violence against Dalits, and for the repeal of state-level ‘anti-conversion’ laws.

John Dayal, Secretary General of the All India Christian Council (aicc) and a member of the government’s National Integration Council (NIC), said, “The anti-Christian attacks are always presumed to be sporadic and the Indian government refuses to see the pattern. However, the existence of anti-conversion laws, the state suspicion towards house churches, and the entire alienating vocabulary of the Hindu nationalist movement centred on ‘conversion’ and ‘missionaries’ promotes widespread suspicion towards Christians, which makes violence the easy next step. The ongoing patterns of violence, particularly in the states of Orissa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, show this very clearly”.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s Chief Executive, Mervyn Thomas said: “Rightly, there have been weighty international expressions of concern about anti-Christian violence in India, particularly in Orissa state, including in the FCO’s Human Rights Report2008 released today. We urge a continued international focus on this issue until the perpetrators and inciters of violence are brought to justice and the victims rehabilitated. However, anti-Christian violence in India should be seen in light of the wider concerns about anti-conversion laws, religious discrimination against Dalit Christians and Muslims, and the powerful anti-minority discourse of the Hindu nationalist movement. We strongly encourage the Indian government to tackle these concerns with a firm resolve, particularly by implementing the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief”.

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