Terrorism and lies
from a vocal minority

“We can’t count on the police,” says Kumara Swami. He is the General Secretary of Operation Mobilisation (OM), India, a major partner in Opportunity 21, the US$90 million UBS ministry expansion program which is the largest distribution project in history. In India, OM and its partners operate a large evangelisation and Bible distribution program.

“When our evangelists are attacked we always call the police,” he says. “Sometimes they don’t show up, sometimes they come and do nothing and there have been incidents where they have actually participated in the attacks.” We are sitting in a hotel lobby, talking quietly. He starts looking around anxiously.

Can we talk?

“Can we sit in the car and talk?” he whispers. Unpleasant experiences have taught him to be very careful. “Recently we were standing by our van talking openly about our next destination. When we arrived there local Hindu extremists were waiting for us and started pelting us with stones, but we managed to escape.”

Some OM India evangelists have been stopped by the police and had all but personal Bibles confiscated. “The problem is that the police think that this kind of behaviour is backed by the political authorities,” he says.

“Christians drink blood!” and “Christians eat their children!” are among the accusations levelled by Hindu fundamentalists against Christians.

“Since the coalition government, with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 1998, ending many years of Congress Party dominance, things have worsened. Even though the BJP officially backs the Constitution, there is no doubt about what they actually stand for. With slogans like ‘India for Hindus’ and ‘Only Hindus are patriots’, they whip up a hostile attitude towards Muslims and Christians. Backed by this policy of ‘silent endorsement,’ the Hindu extremists can continue their physical terror.”

Misinterpretation

“Christians drink blood!” and “Christians eat their children!” are among the accusations levelled by Hindu fundamentalists against Christians. The accusations, which arise from a misinterpretation of the sacrament of Holy Communion, are about as old as Christianity itself.

“Christians practise enforced conversions!” is the most common accusation, and Dr B K Pramanik, General Secretary of the Bible Society of India, has stated many times: “You can’t force anyone to become a Christian. It will always be an individual and voluntary decision. A genuine spiritual change only takes place where God’s spirit works in each individual.”

Hate campaigns

The vast majority of Hindus repudiate the hate campaigns. On the plane from Delhi to Bangalore I pick up an Indian weekly magazine containing an interview with India’s Defence Minister George Fernandes.

“You can’t force anyone to become a Christian. It will always be an individual and voluntary decision. A genuine spiritual change only takes place where God’s spirit works in each individual.”

Asked whether he thinks Christian missionaries are weakening the nation, he answers: “Christianity came to India 2,000 years ago – the existence of Christians in Kerala goes back 2,000 years. In Tamil Nadu, their history is 500 years old. On the west coast of India the Christians have a 400- to 500-year-old history. In the northeast and in some tribal areas of the country their presence is a relatively recent phenomenon.

“But the ultimate test of your patriotism is what you do and what you don’t do. The Christian missionaries in India – whether they should have gone about converting people or not is a matter on which there can be eternal debate – have done work to raise the level of consciousness of the people through education, giving a sense of dignity to the people through institutions which look after health needs and so on.