Daily Times

Religious and sectarian violence in all its forms in India has been one of the country’s most serious problems, both before and after the partition of the subcontinent. Attacks against Christians in particular, especially missionaries and the recently converted, have become alarmingly common since the latter half of the 20th century. The frequency of these attacks rose greatly after 1988 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) first took office. These crimes have also escalated since Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the BJP came into power. Modi’s victory was celebrated by Hindu nationalist elements and his supporters are becoming more and more vociferous about their belief that India is a Hindu nation. In attempts to appear secular whilst facing the task of governing such a large, diverse and multifaceted country, Modi has backtracked from his Hindutva roots and instructed the Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi, where the majority of these crimes have been concentrated, to “come down hard” on the offenders.

Bassi however, does not believe this recent chain of violence to be connected to religion. He categorized the vandalism of a Christian school in the Vasant Vihar area of south Delhi on Friday as a random robbery. This was the sixth attack on a Christian building in India in the past two months. Bassi has also referred to three other cases concerning Delhi Christians as accidents and random crimes. However, this sudden rise in crimes against a religious minority cannot be merely coincidental and the government of India needs to pay greater attention to this trend. As the Reverand Vijayesh Lal, a minister in the Evangelical Fellowship of India said, “There is a definite pattern emerging in the targeting of Catholic properties.” Last week, hundreds of members of the Christian community in Delhi took to the streets to protest the targeting of their schools and places of worship. The protesters also said that they were speaking out against police inaction and were later detained in police custody.

Religious extremism and Hindu nationalism have been growing in India, despite the country’s constitutional pledge of secularism. This trend fits into a worldwide pattern of rapidly growing religious violence, extremist militant groups and hate crimes. Although it is troubling to see communities pitted against each other on the basis of religion, governments need to take a stand to promote tolerance and religious freedom and to bring about social change via education, law enforcement and other institutions. India, along with all the other nations of the world, needs to fully embrace secularism to promote tolerance and interfaith harmony. *