Christians in Bengal plan rallies against rising attacks by Hindu nationalists
The Christian community in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal is planning rallies and conventions after a string of attacks following the recent formation of a new Hindu nationalist government.
The Bangiya Christiya Pariseva, or Bengal Christian Council, has said the gatherings being planned would push for communal harmony, protection of constitutional rights and a tougher response to hostility toward Christians, according to UCA News.
BCP urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, both from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, to act and safeguard Christians’ safety and dignity, citing crosses being torn down at a church in the Buri Bot Tola area of Subhasgram, a municipality in South 24-Parganas district near Kolkata.
Herod Mullick, a BCP state core committee member, was quoted as saying that the group viewed the cross incident as an assault on a revered Christian emblem that put communal peace at risk. He said fundamentalist groups were casting Christians as anti-national despite the community’s record in education, healthcare and social work.
BCP rejected claims of forced conversions, an accusation Hindu nationalist groups typically use to justify attacks on Christians. The group invited critics to produce proof, saying all mainline churches discourage coerced conversion and that a person’s choice to become Christian follows careful spiritual reflection.
BCP said it was ready to pursue legal action against those spreading the unverified claims, adding that Christians would rather face lawful scrutiny than “baseless propaganda.”
The group said its rallies would be held throughout West Bengal on dates set by district committees, and announced a statewide prayer gathering, with date and venue still to come.
A BCP delegation is reportedly working with Kolkata’s Archbishop, Elias Frank, on steps to build Christian unity in the state.
On July 12, about 60 people allegedly linked to the Hindu Jagaran Manch, a Hindu nationalist group, barged into a convent run by the Salesian Sisters and threatened to tear down a chapel and cemetery under construction there, The Tablet reported.
Fr. Stephen Alathara, deputy secretary general of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, was quoted as saying that such disputes belong in courts and democratic institutions. He called for the nuns’ safety and minority communities’ constitutional standing to be upheld.
The All India Catholic Union, a lay Catholic organization, condemned the intimidation of the sisters, who had secured the necessary permits before building.
AICU spokesman John Dayal said in a statement that worship rights are guaranteed under India’s Constitution and that nobody has authority to threaten nuns or demolish lawfully built structures.
Dayal said the incident was one instance in a wider pattern of harassment against Christian institutions in several districts, and cited a mob member's declaration that “your government is no more, now it is our government” as evidence of the intimidation. He linked the rise in such incidents to the BJP taking power in the state.
The BJP took charge of West Bengal for the first time in May, when it ended a decade-and-a-half of Trinamool Congress Party rule. Many also tied the outcome to an alleged purge of the electoral rolls that dropped more than 9 million voters ahead of the vote.
The worst violence in the state came on July 5, with four separate attacks.
In Murshidabad district, a mob broke into a Christian widow’s home and pressed her to abandon her faith and give up land for a temple, while a group in Bankura district seized Bibles and held a Protestant congregation during worship, and a crowd at Suvas Gram tore apart a Presbyterian church’s altar and equipment.
Trouble had begun a day earlier in West Midnapore district’s Palbari, where men identified with Hindu nationalist groups targeted female guests, Christian and Hindu, at a couple’s thanksgiving service. Police in the Kotwali area later took the pastor, the Rev. Anup Ghosh, into custody on suspicion of holding conversion rites, after officers reportedly stood by during the attack.
In East Burdwan district, worshipers at Grace Church, in Katwa’s Faridpur locality, were beaten along with their pastor by a stick-wielding crowd during July 5 Sunday services and lost cash, phones, trophies and identification cards. Church officials said they had been asked a day earlier to hand over 200,000 rupees, or roughly $2,100.
That same day, a separate crowd forced its way into the unfinished church at Buri Bot Tala and knocked three crosses from its roof. A church legal team helped local Christian Swapan Purkait file a police report with Sonarpur authorities, who logged charges of trespass and intimidation, though nobody was arrested.
Hindus make up about 71% of West Bengal’s population, Muslims 27% and Christians 0.7%.
