[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 20]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 28873-28874]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 ARTICLE EXPOSES HINDU FUNDAMENTALISTS' REPRESSION OF CHRISTIANS; WILL 
                       THE POPE BE SAFE IN INDIA?

                                 ______
                                 

                          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 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.''

[[Page 28874]]

       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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