A recent article published in the ‘Telegraph’ captioned, “They want to exterminate us: India’s Christians fear rise in violence as Hindu nationalists set to win key vote” has raised eyebrows, in the backdrop of the longstanding syncretic culture of India.
The article alleged that result of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, which is likely to give BJP a second term, will give fresh momentum to the party in its alleged persecution of minorities. It added that attack on Christians would increase in the next five years.
The article seems to be based on the uncorroborated and incomplete inputs, published with an aim to put the image of the country in poor light.
The article gave an account of slogans (October 3, 2021) raised by a mob of right wing Hindu activists outside a Church in Uttar Pradesh and arrest of the Pastor and his wife on the unlawful conversion.
The fact remains is that, Pastor Nandu Nathaniyal Singh and his wife Savita Singh were found to be engaged in alleged conversion activities by holding Changai Sabha at the residence of one Bahadur Maurya at village Jodhi Ka Pura (district Azamgarh).
They were enticing the non-believers towards Christianity by showing Bible and assuring that their miseries would end after conversion to Christianity. Local police, acting on a complaint had registered a case and arrested both of them and as such the police action was not prejudiced.
In another development, allegations have been levelled by ‘Alliance Defending Freedom’, a US based Christian non-profit organisation, that instances of attacks on Christians have increased to 220 percent since 2014.
It is unfortunate that such allegation has been published without any evidence and details of the incidents and dates being mentioned. On the contrary, a significant decrease has been noticed in communal incidents between Hindus and Christians during the eight-year period (2014-2021) in comparison to the previous period of 2006-2013.
The incidents have reduced by 43% and number of deaths and injuries have also decreased by 87% and 25% respectively.
In one such move to internationally tarnish India’s image as a secular country ‘Open Doors International’: a non-denominational mission supporting persecuted Christians in the world, in its report (2022), has marked India as the tenth most dangerous country in the world for Christians. But, it is a fact that ‘Open Doors International’ is habitual in making propaganda based on uncorroborated inputs.
In early 2017 also, Open Doors International, estimated that a church was burned down or a cleric beaten 10 times a week on average in India between January and October 2016—triple the number of incidents the group reported in 2015.
Verified data, however indicated that the figures were highly exaggerated as only 58 incidents of minor nature had taken place during 2016 (January-October) as against 53 such incidents reported during 2015. It also tried to portray criminal offences as communal in nature.
In view of the propaganda being engineered by various anti-India agencies, people irrespective of religion, especially the Christians should remain vigilant and feel proud of the secular and syncretic culture of India.
Hindus are subjected to intimidation,more than other communities