March-April  1999

Hitler first targeted the Jews and communists and later viciously attacked the trade unions and all democratic sections of society. The RSS/VHP/Bajrang Dal combine, quoting Golwalkar, target muslims, Christians and communists, and the state has already begun attacks on workers/employees’ struggles and other democratic sections. Hitler spoke of German nationalism, the RSS combine speaks of Indian nationalism. There is nothing indigenous about RSS philosophy and actions... they merely imitate Hitler. And as it was with Hitler, the Indian state has played an important role in fanning the Hindu fascist frenzy. This has received an added boost with the BJP taking power in the Centre and some states.

First it was the Sikhs, then the Muslims, then the dalits and now the Christians. When one is attacked the others think they are safe and remain quiet. And each attack is preceeded by a goebellian-style propaganda ... for the Sikhs it is the ‘terrorist/separatist’ hysteria; for Muslims it is a ‘pro-Pakistani anti-national’ hysteria; for dalits it is a ‘reservation’ hysteria; and now for the Christians it is the ‘conversion’ hysteria. Their targets are generally the poor and middle-classes — the poor to butcher, the middle-class to loot. The Christians have become a convenient target for the swadeshi spouting fascists who are unprepared to attack the MNC onslaught in our country. The Christians have been made into symbols of the West and then attacked in a show of mock nationalism. The fascists are thus diverting genuine patriotic anti-imperialist sentiments into hatred against a community. The present attacks on Christians is part of a systematic plan of the Hindu chauvinists.

There has been no immediate provocation for the present spate of attacks on Christians — neither has there been any aggressive campaign by the missionaries nor has there been any spate of conversions. In fact the Christian community has been growing at a much slower rate than that of Hindus, notwithstanding the conversions taking place. The percentage of Christians in the total population has actually fallen from 2.53% in 1971 to 2.43% today. In the two decades from 1971 to 1991 the Hindu population grew by 24%, while the Christian population grew by just 16%. Inspite of this, a disinformation campaign has been whipped up on the ‘conversion’ issue giving legitimacy to the fascist attacks.

This has been whipped up to a feverish pitch in Gujarat, where the attack has been focussed on the poorest and most backward section in that state – the Dang tribals. Left in backwardness by successive governments—there are only 21 small-scale industries in the entire district and 36% of tribal land has been usurped by the forest department... some 22% of the tribals have turned to Christianity. With a percapita income of just Rs. 400 per month, unemployment at 50%, illiteracy at 55% ... the conversions are nothing new and have been taking place over the decades. So, they were ideal prey for the fascists.

On Christmas day of last year an anti-Christian rally by the Hindu Jagran Manch went on a rampage in Ahwa, the district headquarters of the Dangs. They attacked local Christian schools, beat up people and smashed windows. Surprisingly, not only did the district magistrate give permission for the rally, he was in fact publicly felicitated by these fascist goons. The Christmas day events initiated systematic attacks throughout the district which resulted in setting fire to nine churches and vandalising eleven in just one week. The violence was also carried across the state border to Peth taluk of Nasik district, where, at a Vishal Hindu Sammelan the sangh parivar and Shiv Sainiks warned of physical attacks if Christians do not close their institutions by March 31st. Interestingly the main organisers of this sammelan were precisely those lumpens who had earlier been mobilised by the police to attack revolutionaries of the CPI (ML)(PW) working in the area.

But the Dang attacks are not an isolated event, there have been systematic attacks on Christians in many parts of Gujarat and in other parts of the country as well. In Gujarat the communal attacks on Christians last year have far outnumbered those which have taken place in the earlier fifty years taken together. Attacks have also taken place in MP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, UP, Orissa and Karnataka. In Bombay an annual Christian cultural function was disrupted with the police looking on. While in Karnataka the Bajrang Dal has been responsible for attacks on mission schools in Mysore, Mandya, Hubli and Bangalore. But it was the rape of four nuns in Jhabna, MP, and the brutal killing of the Australian missionary and his two young sons in Orissa that shocked the country and attracted world condemnation.

According to a UCFHR (United Christian’s Forum for Human Rights) during 1998 : there have been five cases of the rape of nuns, nine nuns have been killed and 25 manhandled, 16 priests have been killed and 11 churches destroyed or set on fire.

The attacks on Christians seem part of a well worked-out BJP plan. At the peak of the Gujarat controversy, when the Prime Minister specifically visited the state on this issue, instead of condemning the hoodlums, he instigated them further by calling for a national debate on conversions. Advani, added fuel to the fire, by stating that the bulk of foreign money coming to private institutions goes to Christian bodies for conversion. This disinformation was countered by the National Minorities Committee... of course, he conveniently forgot about the millions of dollars flowing into the VHP, Krishna Consciousness and other Hindu cults !! Pramod Mahajan ‘accused’ Christian missionaries of indulging in conversions under the garb of service to the poor. And on the killing of the Australian missionary both Vajpayee and Advani immediately exonerated the Bajrang Dal, even though the main accused, Dara Singh, was a Bajrang Dal activist who had campaigned for the BJP in the last elections. The ex-socialist, turned fascist, George Fernandes, after visiting Orissa, went so far as to blame the murder on some ‘international conspiracy’ against the BJP. The Gujarat CM even went to the extent of trying to prevent fact-finding missions from visiting the Dangs.

In Gujrat the government has directed the police intelligence department to conduct a census on Christians seeking information on : their total numbers, the activities of missionaries, the annual foreign grants received by them, the details of arms and weapons, their past dossiers and if at any time they were involved in ‘anti-social’ activity, the incidents of Hindu-Christian clashes during the past five years and many more humiliating questions such as ‘criminal involvement’ and ‘trickery for defilement’.

And for the entire country, a massive ‘reconversion’ plan has been chalked out by the Sangh Parivar backed by huge funds from the BJP government treasury. For the drive of ‘reconverting’ Christians back to Hindu fold the VHP has targeted 200 districts with focus on tribal areas and the North East. Already in Madhya Pradesh, after announcing that 1000 tribals will ‘reconvert’, 70 were ‘reconverted’ at a function presided over by BJP MP, Dilip Judeo. This ‘reconversion’ is bound to be the basis for enflaming further hatred against Christians, dividing the local people, and initiating pogroms. Besides, there is no question of ‘reconversion’ of tribals as they were never a part of the Hindu fold. The proselytizing activity of the Sangh Parivar differs little from the Christians missionaries, except that the former instill hatred into the minds of tribals.

In all communal acts the various wings of the state, and particularly the police force and bureaucracy, act in conjunction with the Hindu fascists. All their acts of violence are condoned, arrests are rarely followed up, and even the grossest acts of rape, murder and loot are ignored. It is therefore not surprising that, over the last three decades, over 80% of casualties in Hindu-Muslim riots have been Muslims. And all the Commission reports inquiring into such riots merely gather dust, without any action being taken on them.

While the state collaborates, the parliamentary opposition’s stand varies from a ‘soft’ hindutva approach to a policy of appeasement towards the Hindu chauvinists. Most wear their secularism on their sleeves, merely to be utilised as a convenient tool for politicking. To take some examples :

In Madhya Pradesh, the Digvijay Singh government is itself conducting RSS-style campaigns of Hinduisation and Sanskritisation of tribals. For example, last year, the government decided to include upper-caste non-tribals in the Dussehra samitis, which traditionally consists only of local tribal leaders. These officials, traders, etc. have introduced the practice of burning effigies of Ravana. This upset the locals, as Ravana, if known at all, is seen in a positive light. Then, during the Kumharas jatra, an annual ritual performed to keep diseases away, officials have introduced the Ramkatha on the first day of the function. Also, the administration has banned buffalo sacrifices at the Dantewada’s Singhla Dei Mata mandir. The Ramkrishna mission has been encouraged to open a network of centres and schools in tribal areas where children are taught to despise tribal customs and beliefs and to change their food habits. Finally, in North Bastar, the Gayatri Parivar, with tacit support from the government, has been aggressively converting tribals to Hinduism and discouraging them from taking part in tribal festivals.

In Karnataka, the Janata Dal government has sought to appease the fascists over the Bababudangiri sufi shrine issue in Chikmagalur. When the Bajrang Dal gathered thousands at the Dattatreya Peetha festival on December 3, ’98, the district administration themselves took down the green flag and hoisted a saffron flag provided by the fascists. Of course, any attempt to satiate the fascists only wets its appetite further.... Once the saffron flag was hoisted the Bajrang Dal threatened that "we will cut off your hands" if the flag is touched.

In Tripura, the CPI(M) state government directly and indirectly assists the Bengali chauvinists and police in their attacks on tribals. At the instigation of the CPI(M) a host of Bengali chauvinist organisations in league with the Tripura State Rifles have unleashed a reign of terror on tribals in the state.

A good example of politicking that goes on in the name of secularism was the ‘left’ jamboree of February 20. Under the garb of secularism a ‘third front’ was sought to be built involving even many communal and reactionary forces. All sorts of opportunist alliances and capitulationist policies are being adopted under the pretext of fighting ‘communal forces’. A real fight against communalism, must be taken to the streets, by defending the minorities, isolating the fascists and building a broad anti-fascist democratic front.

Christians missionaries began their work in this country as part of British policy, to diffuse people’s discontent against the horrors of their colonial rule and to also create a social base for that rule. Today too, all missionary activity, whether Christian or Hindu, is geared towards diverting the masses from the path of revolt, taking them towards an illusory heaven. They are fake ‘social doctors’ who treat the symptom rather than the disease. Both concentrate their activities amongst the poorest and most backward sections, those who need revolution most, in order to keep them away from revolution.

Historically, in India the bulk of the conversions to Islam and Christianity have come from the scheduled and other oppressed castes and tribes. In an attempt to escape from the upper-caste tyranny of the Hindu caste system, large numbers converted. Now these Hindu fascists, who are themselves the staunchest upholders of the caste system, seek to prevent conversion and keep the masses in their tyrannical control. Though religious conversions achieve little for the people, every individual has the right to choose his/her own religion or to convert from one religion to another or even oppose all religions. The upper-caste elite and their representatives in the media, instead of raving and ranting against conversion, would do better to look for the reasons and causes that are driving people towards it.

While the parliamentary opposition only chant bhajans against communalism, there has been a groundswell of democratic sentiment against the hindu fascists. Whether it is the mass demonstrations of the Christians; or the vocal opposition of the intellectuals against the vandalism against the film ‘Fire’; or the entire Marathi literary body attacking Bal Thackeray’s insults and even resigning from government posts in protest; or Dalits in Gujrat threatening to convert to Christianity; or the nation-wide resentment against the Shiv Sena vandalising the cricket pitch and office against the Pakistani team’s visit to India.... and also as was reflected in the defeat of the BJP in the state elections — the people are no longer prepared to tolerate the terror of the fascists. Most important, the tribals are rejecting all missionaries and turning to the genuine revolutionaries, like the CPI (ML) (PW).

But such anti-fascist sentiments is in itself not enough to smash the fascists. Unless they are hit they will not fall. Fascists breed on hatred and violence and grow and develop with state support. In the period of economic crisis and a growing discontent of the masses, fascism and /or fascist methods is the last resort of the ruling classes. With the rulers having tied our economy to the apron strings of the imperialist market, the present crisis will grow at an exponential rate in the coming years. To sustain their crumbling order fascist methods are the only answer.

The violence of the fascists, must be met by people’s violence. When the VHP openly boasts in its ‘parichay mala’ books about the demoralising impact on missionaries "through their forcible occupation of places of worship and schools and by physically assaulting them at times".... to act only within a framework of legality is futile. To fight them effectively, a broad front against the fascists must be built of all genuine democrats and fighting forces; the fascists should be isolated and then crushed. The anti-fascist resistance in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s is a good lesson on how to fight then. And at the spearhead for this fight will be the armed strength of the masses led by the revolutionaries.

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