Persecution uniting Christians in India, says pastor

By Deborah Gyapong

Canadian Catholic News

OTTAWA (CCN) — Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) Canada wants to raise awareness of systematic Christian persecution in India’s Orissa state.
VOM’s contact in India is also working on a theology of persecution in the wake of the violence.

“It’s quite natural for us to feel that maybe God is absent, maybe God is indifferent or inactive and he won’t find fault with us for thinking these thoughts and having those feelings,” said Rev. Sudhakar Mondithoka in a March 25 interview.

The Hyderabad-based Baptist pastor and zoology professor said extremist Hindus have engaged in organized attacks on Christians of all denominations.

More than 400 churches were destroyed in four months of continuous violence, following the assassination by Maoists of an extremist Hindu Swami in August 2008, he said. “(The churches) are still in ruins today.” The swami had whipped up anti-Christian hatred before his death, so Christians were blamed for his shooting.

“As it always does, suffering unites Christians,” said the pastor, who spent several days in Canada in late March visiting churches to give a slide presentation revealing the largely unreported extent of the damage that has officially killed 65 people, left 2,000 reported missing, affected 300 villages and destroyed 4,600 homes.

About 100,000 people were touched by the violence, he said. About half scattered to different parts of the country, while another half ended up in relief camps. Many are still there. More than 18,000 suffered injuries, including being burned or gang raped.

“The church there is pretty young — only 200 years old — and it has always faced persecution, but never on this scale,” he said.

A Catholic nun was paraded naked in the streets and gang raped, he said. Though she is still traumatized, the Catholic Church has rallied around her, he said. He described her as “quite young and a missionary from the south of India.” She has appeared on public television and testified in court against her attackers. A Catholic priest was killed.

“We did a one-day youth retreat at a Catholic retreat house that was attacked, its vehicle burned and its building destroyed,” he said. Another priest who survived the attack has returned to the centre.

Some reports have argued that the violence had more to do with clashes among Christian dalits — formerly known as untouchables in the Hindu caste system — and forest tribal peoples and majority Hindus in the Kandhamel region of the state.

“It cannot be reduced to a fight between the tribals and dalits,” said Mondithoka, who took a VOM team from Canada to Orissa state last September to survey the damage and meet with priests, pastors and affected congregations. Only the Christians were targeted, even though the assassinated guru had been trying to attract Christians from both groups back to Hinduism.

“It was pre-planned and well-organized,” he said. “They blocked all the roads with huge logs and boulders so people could not escape.”

Hindu families were warned ahead of time to fly a saffron-coloured flag so their houses would not be burned, he said.

Mondithoka says the Scriptures and the experiences of those who have experienced persecution show “God is more present in times of trouble than other times.”

He said pastors and leaders have told stories of Hindu neighbours sheltering them from violence and helping them escape to safety. “That is the way God comes through.”

Others have testified to a sense of the presence of God comforting them and filling their hearts with confidence, even giving them the power to forgive their persecutors, he said. “If we are left to ourselves it is easy to entertain bitterness and find ways to retaliate.”

Mondithoka said the violence is awakening and uniting Christians, enabling them to realize there is a cost to be paid for choosing to follow Jesus Christ. “God is bringing good out of this terrible evil.”

“If we choose to be witnesses like Christ wants us to be, we will see the reality of persecution catching up with us in some form,” he said. “That’s the choice we have to make as Christians.”

He said his visit to Canada was “in some ways to show the rest of the world that persecution cannot destroy our Christian spirit.”

Though India has many languages, cultures and religions, Hindu extremists insist there is only one religion, one culture and one identity. “That’s the agenda of Hindutva,” he said.

Muslims are targeted as well, but they retaliate, he said, so the government is quicker to respond if Muslims are attacked.

CNEWA Canada (Catholic Near East Welfare Association) has contributed money to help refugees from the violence, said national secretary Carl Hetu, though the Holy See’s charitable organization is mostly active in the southern part of India, as well as the Middle East. CNEWA remains in contact with the bishops in the region, he said.