[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 155 (Friday, November 5, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2282-E2283]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ARTICLE EXPOSES HINDU FUNDAMENTALISTS' REPRESSION OF CHRISTIANS; WILL
THE POPE BE SAFE IN INDIA?
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HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS
of new york
in the house of representatives
Thursday, November 4, 1999
Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, on October 28, the New York Post ran an
excellent article by Rod Dreher exposing the tyranny of what he called
``Hindu brownshirts'' who run India. He notes that the Pope is heading
to India soon and wonders if the Pope and his entourage will be safe in
the face of this religious violence.
Dreher wrote that ``a small but violent faction of Hindu
fundamentalists aligned with the
[[Page E2283]]
Hindu nationalist government have been conducting an organized campaign
against the Pope as part of a concerted effort to demonize and
persecute the country's tiny Christian minority.''
In the article, Dreher states that there were 108 cases of beatings,
stonings, church burnings, looting of religious schools, and other
attacks on Christians. Freedom House, a widely respected human-rights
monitoring organization, reports that there have been more incidents of
violence against Indian Christians in the past year than in the
previous 50 years, even though Christians make up just 3 percent of
India's population.
Missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were burned to death
in their Jeeps by a Hindu mob affiliated with the ruling party. The
Hindu militants surrounded the jeep and chanted ``Victory to Lord
Ram.'' Last month, Hindu fundamentalists kidnapped a nun named Sister
Ruby and forced her to drink their body fluids. These are only two of
so many incidents that I have lost count.
There have been cases of forcible reconversion to Hinduism along with
the violent incidents against Christians and Christian institutions.
Many of us have been standing here discussing this, yet it continues to
go on in a country that continues to proclaim itself democratic.
It is not just the Christians. The persecution of Sikhs and Muslims
has been well documented in this body time and time again. India has
killed over 200,000 Christians since independence, and it has also
murdered over 250,000 Sikhs, more than 65,000 Muslims, and tens of
thousands of others. The highest shrines of India's Sikh and Muslim
communities have been attacked by the Indian government.
It is clear that there is no religious freedom in ``democratic''
India. How can we be upset about China's persecution of Falun Gong and
turn our heads when India practices oppression on Christians, Sikhs,
Muslims, and others?
It is our responsibility as the leader of the Free World to help
ensure freedom for everyone on the planet. We must subject India to the
same penalties we impose on any other country that violates religious
freedom. We should stop our aid to India until it respects basic human
rights, including religious freedom. We should put the Congress on
record in support of self-determination for all the minority nations
that India is victimizing. Finally, I call on President Clinton to
stress these human rights and self determination issues when he visits
India early next year.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to put Mr. Dreher's article into the Record
for the information of my colleagues.
Pope's Passage to India May Be Most Perilous Yet
[From the New York Post, Oct. 28, 1999]
(By Fred Dreher)
Will Pope John Paul II be safe in India? There is more
reason to worry for the pontiff's welfare as he visits the
world's largest democracy next week than there was when he
went to communist Poland under martial law.
That's because a small but violent faction of Hindu
fundamentalists aligned with the Hindu nationalist government
have been conducting an organized campaign against the pope
as part of a concerted effort to demonize and persecute the
country's tiny Christian minority.
The government promises to protect the Holy Father from
coalition fanatics. But while John Paul can rely on state
security, his Catholic followers and Protestant brethren
remain at the mercy of Hindu brownshirts.
These thugs have carried out vicious attacks on Christians
since a coalition led by the hard-line Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) came to power two years ago.
Freedom House, the Washington-based human-rights
organization, says there have been more recorded incidents of
violence against India's Christian minority in the past year
than in the previous half-century.
The most shocking incident took place in January, when
Hindu thugs burned alive Australian missionary Graham Staines
and his two little boys. That was far from a isolated
incident.
In 1998, the Catholic Bishop's Conference in India reported
108 cases of beatings, stonings, church burnings, looting of
religious schools and institutions, and other attacks on
Catholics and evangelicals.
It has been just as bad this year. Just last month, a
Catholic priest working in the same territory as the Staines
family was murdered while saying Mass for converts, his heart
pierced by a poison-tipped arrow.
Why the attacks? Hindu nationalist leaders, particularly
those associated with the BJP-allied World Hindu Congress
(VHP), claim Christians are on ``conversion overdrive.''
This is preposterous. Despite being present in India for
almost 2,000 years, and educating hundreds of millions of
Indian children, Christianity claims the allegiance of less
than 3 percent of the country's people.
Even in Orissa state, site of the worst anti-Christian
violence, fewer than 500 conversions occur each year.
Still, Hindu nationalists continue to make wild-eyed
assertions, such as VHP leader Mohan Joshi's recent statement
that missionary homes run by Mother Teresa's order were
``nothing but conversion centers.''
Not true, but if it were, so what?
We know perfectly well what would have become of the
diseased and the destitute had Mother Teresa's nuns not
rescued them from the street: They would have been left to
die in the gutter condemned by a culture that decrees these
lowborn souls deserve their fate.
``What has the VHP done to better the life of the low
castes? The answer is nothing,'' says Freedom House
investigator Joseph Assad.
``When I was in India, I talked to one Christian who was
forcibly reconverted to Hinduism. He told me when no one
cared for us, Christians came and gave us food, gave us
shelter and gave us medicine.''
An Indian Protestant activist who lives in New Jersey told
me BJP rule has meant open season on followers of Christ.
``The last two years have been unprecedented,'' the man
says. ``They have burned chuches down, raped nuns, killed
people. We complain to the government, but they look the
other way.''
The Hindu militants certainly do not represent the
sentiments of all Hindus. But these thugs have the tacit
support and protection of the ruling BJP. Indeed, the BJP Web
site condemns ``Semitic monotheism''--Judaism, Christianity
and Islam--for ``bringing intolerance to India.''
This is what is known to professional propagandists as the
Big Lie. No wonder Hindu hard-liners confidently pillage
Christian communities.
How many more Hindu-led atrocities will Christians and
others suffer before Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee
calls off the nationalist dogs?
Will it take a physical assault on the Holy Father for the
world to wake up to the kind of place Gandhi's great nation
has become.
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