Indian Christians Facing Severe Persecution, Claims Jesuit Priest At FIACONA Discussion
Mumbai: Christians in India are being meticulously denigrated, demonised, and bad-mouthed, said Father Cedric Prakash, a Jesuit priest based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
“Challenges that Christians face in India are tremendous. They will take away our land, properties, and homes,” said Prakash on Tuesday evening while speaking at a virtual discussion organised by FIACONA (Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations) on the subject ‘Challenges Facing the Christians of India Today’.
The aim of the meeting, which was attended by members of the Indian Christian diaspora, clergy, and civil rights activists, among others, was to lay out a path to the challenges in pursuing justice in cases of religious persecution, especially after the recent national elections. Reverend Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar, who moderated the meeting, said that Christians and people of faith faced a global challenge and needed to map out patterns of violence and its challenges.
Prakash spoke about the challenges Christians face in India and how faith communities and civil society work for advocacy in the area. One of the instances discussed was the recent statement by a judge of the Allahabad High Court who said that unchecked and unlawful conversion of religion could lead to the majority becoming tomorrow’s minority. The judge had remarked while denying bail to a man accused of converting Hindus to Christianity. “How can he (the judge) make such an obnoxious statement? Christians form 2.3% of the population What are they frightened of?” asked Prakash, a writer and visiting scholar at several universities.
Talking about the contribution made by the community in the fields of education, health, science, politics, and culture, Prakash said that the community has been denigrated and demonised using anti-conversion laws, especially after the 2014 general elections.
Prakash said that denying the right to proselytise was against the freedom of religion, the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the freedom to accept a religion of one’s choice – matters where the state should not interfere. He said that the anti-conversion laws in Uttar Pradesh, which were used to prosecute religious missionaries, ‘demonised and denigrated’ Christians. “The laws are meant to take the focus away from the grave realities that the country faces. The legitimate fear is that if Dalit Christians are given reservations people will convert. This will expose the caste hierarchy,” said Prakash.
Other cases that were brought up in the meeting were the ethnic conflict in Manipur, hate speeches, attacks on Christian prayer halls, cases of child trafficking made against the Missionaries of Charity, an organisation founded by Nobel Prize winner St Theresa, prosecution of Christian priests under the POCSO (Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences) law, and the recent appeal for remission in jail term by the man convicted of burning Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two children in Orissa in 1999. He said the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s report on religious freedom in India has listed many such concerns.
“It is a shame that the Prime Minister did not have the courage to say a word (about Manipur) or the courage to stop the attacks,” said Prakash. Prakash said that the attacks have resulted in Christians withdrawing themselves. “Christians have gone into the backseat. They do not express themselves. They will not stick their necks out,” he said.
This article is originally published on https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/indian-christians-facing-severe-persecution-claims-jesuit-priest-at-fiacona-discussion
