Lay group seeks protection from Hindu groups in Indian state

A forum of lay Catholics has urged the head of a state government in northeast India to protect minority Christians and tribal people who are being threatened and harassed by hardline Hindu groups.

“We cannot keep silent and remain mute spectators when our community is in pain,” John S. Shilshi, founder member of the North East Catholic Research Forum (NECRF), told UCA News on March 6.In a memorandum handed over to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on March 3, the NECRF expressed disappointment that the state administration failed to address the community’s grievances.

“The chief minister is the guardian of all people irrespective of their caste, creed, and religion,” it reminded him.Shilshi said the memorandum highlighted the ultimatum given by a Hindu group, Kutumbha Surakshya Parishad (family protection council), to Christian schools in Assam to rid themselves of all Christian symbols.

The group’s president Satya Ranjan Borah on Feb. 7 also threatened priests and nuns to discontinue wearing cassocks and habits on school campuses and demanded that churches located within educational complexes be removed.

A poster in Assamese, the state’s official language, came up near a Christian school on Feb. 23. “This is a final warning to stop using schools as a religious institution. Remove Jesus Christ, Mary, etc, from school premises,” it read.The memorandum also referred to a proposed legislation, the Assam Healing (Prevention of Evil) Practices Bill, 2023, introduced in the state assembly on Feb 10 and aimed at curbing evangelism by prescribing imprisonment and hefty fines for engaging in practices like magic healing.

The chief minister himself told media people that the proposed legislation was meant to curb evangelism in Assam and would be an important milestone for his government.“Whoever is Muslim, should remain Muslim, whoever is Christian, should remain Christian and whoever is Hindu, let them remain Hindu so that a proper balance can be achieved in our state,” Sarma reportedly said.

Assam Christian Forum (ACF), an umbrella body of various denominations in the state, refuted the allegation of conversions to Christianity through magic healing and said, “We find his [Sarma’s] statement both misguided and needless.”NECRF has urged the chief minister to reconsider the language used in the bill and remove any “controversial references” to Christians “to avoid their misinterpretation by those with ulterior motives.”It also sought attention to another “unreasonable demand” raised by pro-Hindu groups that tribal people who have now become Christians should be delisted from the country’s recognized list of Schedule Tribes.

“This call raised from time to time by some hardline Hindu groups is causing concern and fear psychosis amongst many tribal Christians,” Shilshi said.Christians make up 3.74 percent of Assam state’s 31 million people, higher than the national average of 2.3 percent.

This article is originally published on https://www.ucanews.com/news/lay-group-seeks-protection-from-hindu-groups-in-indian-state/104358