Tide Of Intolerance

The truth to this lies underneath. The younger Indian generations basically ( in their hearts) are finding that there is less truth in their local beliefs but still do follow blindly because their parents did so. Indian society
is a very conservative & only recently has a vast no. been exposed to the world (unlike the Greeks) The planned attacks organized by the pro Hindu parties is due to fear of loosing their base. Fear is the killer.
Hindu party

What happened since then is that the Christian missionaries decided to go overboard against the Hindu missionaries. It looks like someone decided to hire the Maoists who then trained local Christians to kill the Swami and start the latest round of violence.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/oct/17orissa.htm

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On a longer time scale I would trace this current round of religious disagreement to 1999 when the Pope visited India and -

"boldly proclaimed Jesus Christ as humanity's "only savior" and called upon the church to bring Christianity to Asia during the third millennium."

to which the VHP responded -

"We accept the challenge of their spreading Christianity in Asia. They will not be able to do it in India"

Basically what we have is a battle for supremacy between two religious fundamentalist organizations.

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The point Sumit's article makes is rather ludicrous. When confronted with such forces no amount of public shaming can work with voters. It did not work with American voters who voted in Republicans and it will not work with Indian voters who are voting in the BJP.

I am very much distressed to read about the persecution of christians in my birth country, India. Last year I returned to my native place, Mangalore for a visit. I was impressed by the harmony that was existsted between all cultures and religions. But this September, I heard, hordes of rioters went from churches to churches in a looting & destroying spree. What happened within a matter of few months? Temples and mosques are coming up everywhere in Europe and Americas to cater to the needs of devotees, whereas churches are shutting down. In Atlanta, Hindus have built worlds Largest temple with the blessings of the governments. Here in Quebec, the secular provincial government has imposed ethics and religious curriculum across Quebec schools, including private ones, in order to cultivate tolerence among the citizens. This was prompted just because a small municipality adopted a resolution in jest, to ban hijabs in public places. I urge local, state and central governments in India to take some drastic actions to eradicate intolerance and cultivate harmony among all the people. I thank Mr. Ganguly for exposing the evil of intolerance that is prevelent in the governments of India.
John D'Silva
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Voices from Orissa:
http://wayfaring.blogspot.com/2008/10/voices-from-orissa.html

Voices from Orissa:
http://wayfaring.blogspot.com/2008/10/voices-from-orissa.html

A Soldier retiree's plans cut short by Orissa's dance of death:
He served his country and thought he could lead a post-retirement life in the peaceful environs of his hometown Kandhamal. But little did this former Warrant Officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF) envision that he would be witness to his evangelist brother being hacked to death and his house torched in Sulesaru ??? a tiny village 22 km from G Udayagiri block in Orissa's riot-hit Kandhamal district.

After spending 38 days in a relief camp at Hubback High School in Udayagiri, 52-year-old Bugan Digal walked to 'freedom' on October 2. Today, Digal has taken 'shelter' in his relative's home in Kolkata with his wife and daughter. "It was on August 26 afternoon that the mobs attacked Totamaha village in Raikia block where my brother Akbar Digal was an evangelist. He begged the goons to spare him, but they would have none of it. Two of them raised their swords, brought it down on his head and threw his body in the nearby tamarind field," Digal told TOI over the phone in a choked voice.

"I was told that locals later burnt my brother's body. He was just 46 years old," Digal said.

Recalling the sequence of violence on the night of August 25, he said: "About 500 people came to my village, attacked us and burnt houses and places of worship. My wife, daughter and I ran into the nearby jungles and we spent the whole night there. We walked 22 km to reach Udayagiri police station the next night."

Everyone condemns the criminal acts that have been committed and the stata and central governments are taking action. The Indian media has has not been idle and has brought information on the incidents to the attention of the Indian public and the global community. However your article condemns without presenting the facts dispassionately and inviting the readers to form their own conclusions. In this respect your article is more of an anti-Hindu tract than an article worthy of being printed in a magazine like Newsweek. I would also add that I have serious reservations on the kind of India Studies that you undertake

The Bajrang Dal and VHP terrorists used the death of this swami to murder and burn innocent christians, destroy their churches, schools, orphanages, leprosy homes and nursing homes and drove them to the jungles because of this LIE.

SHAME ON THEM. They are the ones who are FORCING CONVERSION. They told Christians to CONVERT to Hinduism or die (reconversion)!

So this proves it - the biggest terrorist are VHP and Bajrang Dal. They are COWARDS who cannot defend India against the REAL problems like defending our borders against Pakistani and Bangladeshi terrorists or even the Maoists who have CONFESSED to killing their swamy. But these Bajrang Dal cowards and terrorsts know that they will get their ass kicked right and left if they do that. So what do they do to show their power? They attacked innocent women by raping them, burning priests to death, destroying properties - COWARDS. That what they are. COWARDS. Shame on you netizens who write supporting Bajrang Dal / VHP's attrocities!!!

No one is proud of what is happening in Orissa today and those who have committed criminal acts should be brought to justice. However you have by the anti-Hindu tone of your article, suceeded in tarring all Hindus with the blame. Talking of Hindu zealots is as reprehensible as referring to Muslim mujahideen. The PM himself used the phrase a "national disgrace" which is more apt than your phraseology. Rather than fan the flames it would be better if you had appealed to the sense of justice and secular ideals that underpin the Indian Republic, by a dispassionate review of the incident and its antecedents. I certainly have reservations as to the kind of India Studies that you undertake.

KANDAMAL FORCED HINDU RECONVERSION INSTANCES: At the infamous Nuagam relief camp near Baliguda, where a nun was allegedy raped on August 25 and where today there are about 2,000 tribals bunched up around leaky tents and on ground wet from flooding, Johan Naik and four others like him stand out as the most wretched.

"We are accursed," says Johan, rubbing his gnarled hand on his bald head. A month ago, as rampaging Hindu mobs ran through Kandhmal, looting, burning and pillaging, around 400 men converged at his house in Pirigada, a cluster of Protestant houses in Nuagam block. There, with swords unsheathed and drunk on the righteous rage of bigots, five of them gave Johan a choice. "You either embrace Hinduism or you die," he was told.

Soon, he was dragged to the nearby Patakhanda temple and made to prostrate before the statue of a 'Godess'. Someone brought a jar of cowdung and cow's urine and forced him to gulp a bit of it. That was his purification rite and "return home" to Hinduism. And before he could actually make sense of what was happening, a young man whipped out a razor, doused his head in water and began tonsuring him.

Orissa is in the news yet again. Except that unlike in December 2007, the news of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati???s death is real. Nevertheless, very much like the last time, the VHP has gone berserk again. Political murders and killing of Christians and Dalits (as ???imagined murderers??? and "imagined forced converters") or vandalising churches is unacceptable to any democratic society (as in Karnataka). The violence inflicted has been meticulously planned and executed over two-three days when the Orissa government and its affiliated agencies BJP/VHP/Bajrang Dal!!!
Poor Kandhamal Christians and Dalits have lost everything, 100+ dead and 50000+ sitting in refugee camps with only FAITH hanging on with them. Does this forced conversions, as these FASCISTS claim???

Caste system was invented and flourished by Brahmins and Upper Caste Hindus (who form about 15%) for centuries, to the disadvantage of 85% of the Backward / Lower Castes of the Indian population. Even today, lower castes are not allowed into Hindu temples. Of latest a lower caste Hindu was killed in Bihar state for entering a temple and provide offering to the Hindu diety!!! No wonder these FASCISTS upper class Hindus are threatened by the enligthment Christanity is facilitating to the lower castes, and hence their FASCIST agenda (i.e. presently spreading the Conversion rumours, without any proof to support)!!! SHAME ON YOU ALL WHO SUPPORT WHAT IS PRESENTLY HAPPENING IN INDIA (i.e. minorities treated as SECOND CLASS CITIZENS by FASCIST HINDU organizations, who also incidentally adore SWASTIKA symbol). The only good news is that majority of the Hindus are secular and peace loving people!!!
But then, with general election looming in Y2009, the BJP (Hindu Nationalistic Party), wants to create a ???CONVERSION HYSTERIA???. Luckily the incidents of the past few months have already sent shock waves not only to the Indian Christians, but also to the Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs etc..of India during the last few weeks, resulting in country wide condemnation of this FASCIST behaviour !!! In such a situation, one can only pray that such dangerous designs disturbing the communal harmony of the vibrant secular Indian democracy doesnt win !!!

God "so loved the world (of humanity) that He gave His only begotten Son (Jesus Christ) that all who believe in Him should not perish (eternal destruction of the soul) but have everlasting life." Salvation is through Christ alone. God's Word speaks about how the way is broad for those who are headed for destruction, but narrow is the way to eternal life through Jesus Christ. There is Salvation in no other name under heaven whereby men might be saved. True Christians...those who belong to Christ and not Christians in name only are seeking to save the lost and dying in India. They are reaching out to the forgotten Dalits (lowest class) and all in India. Check out the website for Gospel For Asia (www.gfa.org). These are India's own people reaching out to the lost and dying without Christ throughout all of India. "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God" (2 Corinthians 4:6). We are seeing this take place in India and Asia today.

Hindu Nationalistic Organizations (RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, Hindu Munnani, Ram Sena etc??? ), all of which are associated with the political party BJP, have a game plan to create Hindu nationalism to win Year 2009 elections (as they won after demolishing the Muslim Babri Masjid in an earlier general election), but this time poor Christians are targeted and BLAMED for forcible conversions without any proof (i.e.basically creating a conversion hysteria with Hindu nationalistic tone). This show the opposition party BJP does not seem to have ???any democratic political issues??? to fight the ruling party inorder to win the elections once again??? Very sad to note that minorties are made scape goat in the process.