Hindu nationalists in India plan ‘religious cleansing’

Extremists in Madhya Pradesh announced plans to rid their state of all Christian influence, putting pressure on believers who want to worship in peace.

NEW DELHI, May 2010 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu nationalist organizations in Madhya Pradesh state have declared their intentions to rid the district of Mandla of all Christian influence by starting preparations for a large 'reconversion' event next year.

A similar event in Gujarat state in 2006 was filled with Christian hate speech.

More than 100 Hindu devotees from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra attended an April 22 ground-breaking ceremony for the 'reconversion' rally set to be held next February in Mandla, reported Patrika newspaper.

A source present at the ceremony disclosed that leaders announced a list of objectives to be achieved before the festival, with one prominent agenda item being to drive away Christian pastors, evangelists and foreign aid workers from the district.

The newspaper quoted four Hindu leaders who have spoken out against foreign Christians and renewed their oath to obtain 'reconversions' from supposed Hindus who had become Christians. The leaders pledged to 'cleanse Mandla of Christians.'

After anti-Christian speeches at the ground-breaking ceremony, Mandla district reported its first attack against Christians in Bamhni Banjar village on May 2, said Pastor Rakesh Dass.

Around 40 Hindu extremists surrounded the house of Pastor Bhag, who has led a home fellowship for five years, and accused him of forceful conversion as they shouted anti-Christian slogans. Using abusive language, they pelted his house with stones as about 60 people were attending a worship service, Pastor Dass told Compass.

“The mob was carrying deadly weapons like knives and rods,” he said.

The violence against Christians in Madhya Pradesh state signals a major onslaught in the offing, warned Kurishinkal Joshi, president of the Madhya Pradesh Isai Sangh, an assembly of Christians in the state.

If Christians do not come forward to protest such atrocities, “the next Kandhamal will be in our state,” Joshi told some 1,500 people at the meeting in Indore, the state’s commercial capital, on May 2.

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