The
global surge in Muslim-Christian feuds found traction after Osama bin
Laden turned upon his mentors, a reckless alliance of Muslims,
Christians and Jews. The current methods of Hindutva zealotry have
borrowed elements from the Jewish Haganah, the Daesh’s interpretation of
jihad, and Christian Crusades.
Father
Jacques Hamel’s murder was the handiwork of a hateful fanatic. The
virus afflicts Muslims in many parts of the world, not least in Pakistan
and Bangladesh. Europe is, of course, the new theatre of their bigoted
bloodletting. Should that take the focus away from the perpetual threat
the Christian minorities face in India?
What
is really disturbing is the fact that India’s serially pummelled
Muslims are among the biggest offenders in not acknowledging the rough
treatment meted out to their Christian cousins. Indian Muslim leaders
wail, given half an opportunity, about their problems, and their sense
of victimhood is pervasive. But rarely do we find any among them sharing
the grief of others, leave alone the Christians.
This
is par for the course with the largely upper-caste media, which revels
in the Hindu-Muslim cockfight on TV screens but fights shy of accepting
that the communal problem is more varied and complex. This could be
partly because Hindutva attacks on Christians as distinct from attacks
on Muslims would involve a discussion on caste — which is a deterrent to
open debate. A large swathe of Indian Christians belongs to the lower
rung Dalit and tribal communities.
The
Hindutva hatred of Christians has old roots. An early founder of the
ideology had thundered that “in this land Hindus have been the owners,
Parsis and Jews the guests, and Muslims and Christians the dacoits”. The
two have been bunged together repeatedly, the Muslims and Christians.
They are the main targets, mostly for their religious identity but also
subtly as caste groups.
Yet
Muslims are so absorbed in their own victimhood that lending a shoulder
to the brutalised Christians is not a tempting thought. (At another
level Kashmiri Muslims seldom show empathy for the struggle of largely
Christian Manipuris though Manipuris often lend their voice to Kashmiri
protests.)
Among
the most vocal Indians who speak up and lead from the front when
Muslims are under assault whether in Kashmir or elsewhere are India’s
Christian preachers. I have seen the Christians being treated with scant
respect in Pakistan way before the Salafist creed began to course
through the nation’s arteries. One visit to Youhanabad near Lahore made
me ill for days with the squalor the Christian community is made to
endure.
In
India, the missionaries and the church have managed to ensure that the
Christian laity is better buffered against the humiliations they face in
Pakistan and now in Bangladesh.
Yet
who can take on the might of a powerful state and its nefarious
alliances with religious fascism? The ceaseless attempts to undermine
the church’s good work are occasionally reflected in the state’s
collusion with the denial of visas to foreign Christian missionaries.
Recently, even some American religious rights officials were refused
entry by the current government.
I
find it amazing that many young and old leaders in the Hindutva stable
endorse the policy of targeting Christians though they were schooled in
schools run by Christian missionaries, or treated at hospitals cared for
by Catholic nuns. The Hindutva hatred possibly stems from two factors.
One has to do with an ingrained inferiority complex. Hindutva cannot set
up a school like the grand La Martienere College in Lucknow where
teachers teach not just the biblical belief in the Creation but also
offer the option to contemplate the scientific possibility that humans
may have evolved from early apes.
The Hindutva model of narrow-apertured schools borrows from the Muslim madressah system, where Darwin and Ghalib are anathema.
The
other factor in the perpetual hatred is the Christian appeal, through
work like the one associated with Mother Teresa, which disrupts
Hindutva’s own proselytising requirements.
Much
of the Hindutva clamour for ghar wapasi reflects a desperate effort to
somehow hijack someone else’s brood of homing pigeons in flight. With
the state’s support for right-wing groups this is a patently unequal
contest.
The
assault on Indian Christians is a recurring affair. After an Australian
missionary and his two young sons were set ablaze in their jeep in
Orissa by Hindu zealots in 1999, the mob returned in 2008 to carry out
horrific rapes and murders of Dalit Christians again in Orissa. The
killers of a lovable priest in France will find amazing kindred spirits
in India.
Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2016
