Terrorism in India
by Fr. Roger Landry - December 5, 2008
For four days last week the whole world was united in horror and prayerful concern in response to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. In a series of ten coordinated attacks across India's largest city and financial capital, striking hospitals, hotels, train stations, restaurants, movie theaters, crowded docks, a Jewish center, and police headquarters, a band of what seems to be ten assassins killed at least 172, injured at least 293, and terrified multitudes. A group calling itself the "Deccan Mujahideen" has claimed responsibility for the attacks and, while the group is unknown, their principles and tactics are not: they are following the same jihadist philosophy of terrorizing and killing the innocent made known by Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists. That is doubtless one of the reasons for so much international attention, because people fear that what Islamic terrorists did in Bombay could be exported to other cities around the world.
There is another form of brutal, religiously-inspired terrorism occurring in India, however, that has not been receiving the same surveillance. It has been going on, not for four days, but for four months. Perhaps because it is not occurring to foreigners or being carried out by Islamic terrorists, it has not yet aroused the scrutiny and commitment of the world. But it is just as evil and perhaps even more violent. It is the Hindu-on-Christian-terrorism occurring in the state of Orissa.
After a Maoist group on August 24 killed a Hindu Swami, local Hindu members of the "Hindu Identity Movement" spread rumors that it was in fact Christians who had killed him. Radical Hindus, like those in the BJP (Indian People's Party) and RSS (National Volunteers Organization), resent the presence of the Christians, whom they think undermine the caste system by promoting, especially in their schools, the dignity of all people, including the lower classes. The murder of the Swami provided a volatile occasion for these groups to scapegoat and massacre the Christians. Since late August, 500 Christians have been killed, 150 churches destroyed, 300 Christian villages demolished, 5,000 Christian homes burned to the ground, 13 Christian schools and orphanages attacked, more than 15,000 people injured and over 50,000 have run to refugee camps or taken cover in the forests. Many of the attacks occurred in broad daylight in the presence of the police, who claim to be powerless against the mobs, but whom locals say are sympathetic to the violence. One Catholic nun was burned alive as she tried to defend the kids of her orphanage. Another nun, as we detailed in our November 7 edition, was dragged by a mob of 50 men to a veranda full of shattered glass and then gang-raped in the sight of police as the social center she ran was set on fire.
Pope Benedict has tried to raise international attention to the anti-Christian terrorism occurring in Orissa and rouse the international community to action. He said in a Wednesday audience soon after the violence began, "I have learned with deep sorrow of the acts of violence perpetrated against the Christian communities in the Indian State of Orissa, subsequent to the deplorable assassination of Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati, a Hindu leader. So far several people have been killed and various others have been injured. Centers of worship that belong to the Church have also been destroyed, as well as private homes. While I firmly condemn every attack against human life, whose sacredness demands the respect of all, I express my spiritual closeness and solidarity to the brothers and sisters in the faith who have been so harshly tried. I implore the Lord to accompany and sustain them at this time of suffering and to give them the strength to continue in the service of love on behalf of all."
On October 12, during the canonization of St. Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, the first native Indian to be raised to the altars, he called attention to her courage and applied it to the struggles of Catholics in her native land: "Her heroic virtues of patience, fortitude and perseverance in the midst of deep suffering remind us that God always provides the strength we need to overcome every trial. As the Christian faithful of India give thanks to God for their first native daughter to be presented for public veneration, I wish to assure them of my prayers during this difficult time. Commending to the providential care of Almighty God those who strive for peace and reconciliation, I urge the perpetrators of violence to renounce these acts and join with their brothers and sisters to work together in building a civilization of love."
Hopefully one of the goods that God will draw out of the evil of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai will be a greater focus on religiously-inspired terrorism in the world's largest democracy, so that all forms of terrorist atrocities being committed there can be resolutely fought and extirpated.
Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.
