anti-caste

BLASPHEMY LAWS IN PAKISTAN TARGET CHRISTIAN UNTOUCHABLES

Abolish Blasphemy Law and Protect Dalits in Pakistan by Vidya Bhushan Rawat (Countercurrents)

“The notorious blasphemy law in Pakistan has hit again at the ‘Christian’ minority when a Christian man was charged with blasphemy by a Muslim mob which tried to find him went to Badami Bagh colony of Christians and burnt over 125 houses when they could not find the man. [...]

“According to news reports that a mob of over 3000 people by Shafiq Ahmed, looked for the accused Savan, alias Bubby but due to their inability to find him the mob attacked his house, and also burnt the houses of 150 Christian families. Many residents, including women and children, hastily fled to save themselves. The police registered an FIR under section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (death sentence) against Savan and ensuring that he would be given into their custody to decide his fate. They also took Chaman Masih into custody.

“World-over there is a growing concern over the misuse of anti-blasphemy law which has put minorities under deep stress and forced them to convert to Islam. Muslim fanatics have used it to grab land of the poor particularly of the Dalits in Pakistan. [...]

“It has to be understood that in Pakistan a majority of Christians are actually Dalits in general and predominantly the communities of Sweepers which is contemptuously called as ‘Bhangi’. And the Masihs who were attacked were basically sweepers who face untouchability and caste discrimination. They do not get jobs other than sweeping and people do not come near to them. They are completely outcastes and are considered as ‘charsis’ and ‘Bhangedis’ which gives the impression that all the people from the sweeper community are drunkard and chain smokers.”

See also on anti-caste: PAKISTAN: PHONY BLASPHEMY CASE EXPOSED AS A PRETEXT TO DRIVE OUT OUTCASTE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY AND STEAL THEIR LAND (September 11, 2012)

CHILD LABOR IN INDIA

Children Toil in India’s Mines, Despite Legal Ban (New York Times)

“Just two months before full implementation of a landmark 2010 law mandating that all Indian children between the ages of 6 and 14 be in school, some 28 million are working instead, according to Unicef. Child workers can be found everywhere — in shops, in kitchens, on farms, in factories and on construction sites. In the coming days Parliament may consider yet another law to ban child labor, but even activists say more laws, while welcome, may do little to solve one of India’s most intractable problems.

“‘We have very good laws in this country,’ said Vandhana Kandhari, a child protection specialist at Unicef. ‘It’s our implementation that’s the problem.’

“Poverty, corruption, decrepit schools and absentee teachers are among the causes, and there is no better illustration of the problem than the Dickensian “rathole” mines here in the state of Meghalaya.

“Meghalaya lies in India’s isolated northeast, a stump of land squashed between China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Its people are largely tribal and Christian, and they have languages, food and facial features that seem as much Chinese as Indian.

“Suresh Thapa, 17, said that he has worked in the mines near his family’s shack ‘since he was a kid,’ and that he expects his four younger brothers to follow suit. He and his family live in a tiny tarp-and-stick shack near the mines. They have no running water, toilet or indoor heating. [...]

“India’s Mines Act of 1952 prohibits anyone under the age of 18 from working in coal mines, but Ms. Thapa said enforcing that law would hurt her family. ‘It’s necessary for us that they work. No one is going to give us money. We have to work and feed ourselves.’”

PAKISTAN: PHONY BLASPHEMY CASE EXPOSED AS A PRETEXT TO DRIVE OUT OUTCASTE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY AND STEAL THEIR LAND

Blasphemy in Pakistan by Gwynne Dyer

“It was a welcome change from the usual dreary story: a Christian or a Hindu Pakistani accused of blasphemy on flimsy grounds, tried, and sentenced to prison—or found innocent, set free and then murdered by some Muslim fanatic. This time was different.

“The victim this time was a 14-year-old Christian girl, Rimsa Masih, who is believed to suffer from Down’s syndrome. She was stopped by a young Muslim man who found the half-burned remnants of a book that allegedly included verses from the Qur'an in her carrier bag. He told the local imam, who called the police, and she was arrested.

“This kind of story usually ends badly in Pakistan. Two years ago, for example, a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, was arrested for insulting the Prophet Muhammad while arguing with fellow farm workers. She was sentenced to death by hanging, but it was such a manifest injustice that the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, publicly called for the repeal of the blasphemy law. He was assassinated by his own bodyguard in January 2011.

“The bodyguard was tried for murder and convicted, but he was treated as a hero by many Pakistanis, and the judge who sent him to prison had to flee the country. Two months later the only Christian member of Pakistan’s cabinet, Shahbaz Bhatti, was also shot dead when he spoke out against the blasphemy laws. Since then, almost nobody has dared to criticize them.

“Asia Bibi remains in prison awaiting execution. Her entire family, including her five children, live in hiding and cannot work or go to school. And while the higher courts would once have thrown out her conviction—they have overturned hundreds of sentences for blasphemy imposed by lower courts that were too vulnerable to local pressures—she can no longer even be confident of that.

“So the outlook seemed grim for Rimsa Masih when she was arrested last month—but then the imam who had called the police, Hafiz Mohammad Khalid Chisti, was arrested for doctoring the evidence. His own deputy had seen him adding pages from the Qur'an to the young Christian’s bag.

“‘I asked him what he was doing,’ the deputy told a television station, ‘and he said this is the evidence against them (the local Christians) and this is how we can get them out from this area.’ [...]

“Ashrafi added that Chisti was acting on behalf of a group who wanted to drive out the Christian minority in the area: ‘I have known for the last three months that some people in this area wanted the Christian community to leave so they could build a madrassah (on their land).’ They have already succeeded: some 300 Christian families have fled in fear for their lives, and they probably won’t be back. But at least the state is starting to defy the fanatics.

“Bail is not normally granted in blasphemy cases, but on September 8 Rimsa Masih was freed on bail, and a military helicopter lifted her out of the prison yard and into hiding. And Paul Bhatti, the Minister for National Harmony, whose brother and predecessor Shahbaz was murdered last year, broke a political taboo by explaining why ordinary Pakistanis are more hostile to the religious minorities in their midst than most Muslims elsewhere.

“‘It is not just a religious problem,’ Bhatti said. ‘It’s a caste factor, because (the victims) belong to the poorest and most marginalized people. Unfortunately they are Christians, and this caste system creates lots of problems.’

“Islam teaches the equality of all believers, but the caste system is alive and kicking in Pakistan. Go far enough back, and almost all Pakistani Muslims are descended from Hindus—and when those Hindu communities converted to Islam, they retained their ideas and prejudices about caste.

“This was particularly disheartening for groups at the bottom of the caste pecking order who had hoped that Islam would free them. When the British empire arrived in the area, therefore, it was the poorest and most despised section of the population who converted to Christianity.

“So everybody knows that most Christians are really ‘untouchables.’ The argument that got Asia Bibi in trouble, for example, broke out when some of her Muslim fellow workers refused to drink the water she had fetched because Christians were ‘unclean.’

“The Hindu minority is mostly just as low-caste as the Christians, and equally vulnerable. Together they are only six million out of 187 million Pakistanis, but they account for the vast majority of blasphemy accusations. In many cases, these accusations are merely a convenient weapon for Muslims engaged in land disputes and other quarrels with members of the minority groups.”

FOUR YEARS AFTER MASS ATROCITY LED BY HINDU RIGHT AGAINST CHRISTIAN UNTOUCHABLES

Remembering Kandhamal by Harsh Mander (The Hindu)

“It was a terrifying Christmas in 2007 for tribal and dalit Christians who live in the second poorest, deeply forested district of Odisha, Kandhamal. Long-smouldering violence targeting them exploded, and was to continue to rage for another full year. During this time, 600 villages were ransacked, 5,600 houses were looted and burnt, 54,000 persons rendered homeless, 295 churches and places of worship destroyed, and 13 schools, colleges and orphanages were damaged. The official death toll was 39, although unofficially the figure is claimed to be closer to 100. 30,000 people were forced to live in relief camps, and it is estimated that nearly half are still unable to return home. [...]

“Although the states of Odisha and Gujarat are located at the furthest eastern and western corners of India, separated by several thousand kilometres, the mass-targeted hate violence in both states, in 2007-08 and 2002 respectively have many striking — and deeply troubling — similarities. Each was characterised by a long build-up of hatred against religious minority residents, there is evidence of systematic advance preparation, state authorities were openly complicit in enabling the violence to persist for weeks and months, the attacks were unusually brutal and targeted women, thousands were displaced and discouraged from returning to their homes, facing organised social and economic boycott. And in both, compensation was tight-fisted and justice systematically subverted. [...]

“In Odisha, once again like in Gujarat five years earlier, the attacks were marked by exceptional cruelty. Kanaka Nayak recalls the horrific mob slaughter of her husband when he refused to reconvert to Hinduism. ‘They spat on him and started to sing and dance around him; they paraded him, and dragged him. They told him “you sing your songs and let Jesus come and save you”.’ [...]

“Women who suffered sexual violence in both massacres continue to live with the agony of memory and silences of shame. One said in confidence to the Tribunal, ‘The attackers removed their mask before they raped me. Earlier, they would respect me. I was shocked that they took revenge on me for my uncle's refusal to convert to Hinduism... Lots of things have changed in my life after that incident. I have been in hiding. I am traumatised, sad, depressed and struggling. I feel ashamed. I am unable to forget about the incident and carry on with life. But I feel I should be strong to get justice.’”

See previous anti-caste posts on Kandhamal

NEITHER CONVERSION NOR DEATH ITSELF BRINGS ESCAPE FROM UNTOUCHABILITY

Caste Hindus oppose burial of Dalit convert (The Hindu)

“The only ten Dalit families of Katripulam [in Tamil Nadu] had converted to Christianity three years ago.

“However, there has been a samudaya thadai, or community restraint, on commemoration of their religious practices within the village. With the first death in their community, the issue came to the fore.

“Dalit graveyards have had a chequered trajectory here. All the graveyards on government poramboke lands are common for all, except Dalits. As in life, Dalits are ostracised in their graves and the ‘SC graveyards’ are government-sanctioned euphemisms for such ostracism. [...]

“According to Birla Thangadurai, member of District Committee against Bonded Labour, those families had converted to escape caste oppression. The point is to have them bonded for eternity.”

IN AFTERMATH OF HINDU-RIGHT POGROMS AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA...

Survivors of Communal Violence in Kandhamal Under Threat of Evacuation for Third Time (Communalism Watch)

"Around 100 survivors of communal violence, who have been staying in an abandoned NAC market complex at G. Udaygiri of Kandhamal district after the forcible closure of relief camps by the government, have been asked by the local administration to vacate the place. With the news of visit of a European Commission team to the region, the government have ordered to remove the people again as a part of its attempt to project that government had brought back normalcy in Kandhamal and violence affected people are living at their villages peacefully without any threat.

"‘The BDO has asked us to vacate immediately and if we refuse police force will be used,’ said the worried survivors of Kandhamal violence. When the violence broke out on August 23, 2008, they were forced to leave their villages and their houses were burnt down. They had to take shelter in relief camps, but they were forced to leave from there also after the new BJD government come to power. Hence they had taken shelter in the market complex like beggars.

"‘Where can we go with these two babies?’ asked a crying mother Ms. Menaka Nayak (25). Her youngest baby was born in the camp itself. ‘We can not go back to our village, because they will not allow us to live there if we do not convert to Hinduism. The government is not prepared to provide security and necessary help. On top of it they are trying to throw us out from here also.’"

See more on Hindu-right atrocities in Orissa

CASTE OPPRESSION OF CHRISTIANS, BY FELLOW CHRISTIANS

Dalit Christians to walk out of Eraiyur village (Express Buzz)

"Eraiyur was under media spotlight last year when the Dalits of the parish were on a fast-unto-death in March. They alleged that Vanniyars [an upper-caste Christian community] were not allowing Dalits to use the pathway to the cemetry and not sharing with them the cemetry and the hearse. Vanniyars had their separate burial ground and own hearse to cart the dead there.

"Besides, they had raised their voice against the sacred car with the idol of Our Lady of Rosary, taken out through the village streets during the main festival in May, not visiting Dalit colonies and the around 1,000 Dalit congregation not being allowed to contribute money for the conduct of the festival.

"When the protest in March last year led to a police firing, killing two persons, a peace meeting was called and the archdiocese of Puducherry and Cuddalore gave an assurance to put an end to the discrimination.

"But other than the common pathway issue, nothing else has been sorted out. A new hearse provided to the parish has not been touched by the Vanniyars, who have made one exclusively for themselves."

See also:

A house divided: Caste violence at Eraiyur in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district brings to the fore the issue of discrimination against Dalit Christians (Frontline, April 12-25, 2008):

"Dalit Christians of the village have been on a fast since March 7 demanding that the Archbishop recognise the Sagaya Matha Chapel they had built for a new Dalit parish in the village. Their complaint was that they were not treated as equals by the Vanniar Christians within the Church of Our Lady of Rosary, the present Eraiyur parish church, located in the centre of Eraiyur. Archbishop Anthony Aanandarayar was firm that there could not be two churches for the same order in one village.

"On the third day of the fast, on March 9, angry Vanniar Christians carrying sticks, poles, iron rods, stones and other weapons stormed the Dalit colony in the village. Over 30 Dalits were injured and about 80 of their houses were damaged."

And see anti-caste: CHRISTIANS IN TAMIL NADU VILLAGE TREATING OTHER CHRISTIANS AS UNTOUCHABLE (June 12, 2009)

POGROM OF LOW-CASTE CHRISTIANS—SEVEN KILLED, HUNDREDS HOMELESS

Hate Engulfs Christians in Pakistan (New York Times)

"The attack in this shabby town in central Pakistan — the culmination of several days of rioting over a claim that a Koran had been defiled — shows how precarious life is for the tiny Christian minority in Pakistan.

"More than 100 Christian houses were burned and looted on Saturday in a rampage that lasted about eight hours by a crowd the authorities estimate was as large as 20,000 strong. In addition to the seven members of the Hameed family who were killed, about 20 people were wounded.

"The authorities, who said the Koran accusation was spurious, filed criminal charges in the case late Sunday and apprehended at least 12 people. Officials said a banned Sunni militant group, Sipah-e-Sohaba, was among those responsible for the attacks, the third convulsion of anti-Christian mob violence in the region in the past four weeks.

"Christians, who make up less than 5 percent of the entire population, are often treated as second-class citizens in Pakistan, where Islam is the official religion. Non-Muslims are constitutionally barred from becoming president or prime minister.

"While some Christians rise to become government officials or run businesses, the poorest work the country’s worst jobs, as toilet cleaners and street sweepers."

150 YEARS AGO TODAY, LOW-CASTE NADAR WOMEN IN KERALA WON THE RIGHT TO COVER THEIR BREASTS

A struggle for decent dress by R. Ayyappan (Express Buzz)

"The victory of the Channar Lahala or the Upper Cloth Mutiny (Maaru Marakkal Samaram), after half-a-century of violent struggle, is widely seen as the transformative event that triggered a wave of renaissance movements that shaped modern Kerala.

"'Cries for equality began to rise not just from various parts of Kerala, but from the whole of South India after the Channar Mutiny. The agitation to end ‘oozhiyam vela’ or work without pay, the agitation to secure entry into temples, the agitation to secure the right to walk on public roads, all these struggles that went on to change the face of Kerala were inspired by the success of the Upper Cloth Mutiny,' writes historian Joy Balan Vlaathangara in his book ‘Vaikuntaswamiyum Samoohika Navothanavum’. [...]

"It was western influence and the work of Christian missionaries like Charles Meed and Malt during the early part of the 19th century that revealed to the Nadars the indignity of their existence.

"There are historical accounts of labourers who had migrated to Sri Lanka to work in colonial tea plantations returning with enough money to lead European lifestyles. Converted Nadars, too, started wearing upper clothes and saw it as a sign of social progress.

"The upper castes, including the royalty, did not take kindly to these progressive thoughts. An account says that a lower caste lady who went to the palace of the Attingal Rani wearing an upper cloth had her breasts chopped off by royal decree. Out on the streets, the upper castes unleashed violence on Christian Nadar women who had their breasts covered."

July 26, 1859: declaration by ruler of the princely state of Travancore (modern Kerala)

CHRISTIANS IN TAMIL NADU VILLAGE TREATING OTHER CHRISTIANS AS UNTOUCHABLE

Bigotry alive for Christian Dalits (BBC)

"The dominant Vanniyar [Christian]s created rules which restricted the movement of the Dalit [Christian]s.

"When they visited the parish church they were not allowed to walk on the main street leading to the building. Instead they had to use a side street that led to the church gate.

"When Dalits died they were not allowed to be buried in the cemetery. Their burial ground is beyond the village and can only be accessed through a broken path.

"In addition, the funeral cart parked inside the church building can be used only by Vanniyars.

"'We were told not to touch any upper caste person, not to get too close to them, not to talk to them,'" says Mrs Peraiyamaka, 60, a farm labourer who has been visiting the parish church since childhood.

"'It is no different now.'"

VISIT TO A LOCAL BJP OFFICE IN ORISSA AT ELECTION TIME: ACTIVISTS FOR RULING HINDU-RIGHT PARTY DENY MASS ATROCITIES AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS AND THREATEN MORE

A campaign where hate is integral by Siddharth Varadarajan (The Hindu)

"As the BJP activists warmed to the discussion, one young leader told me that the scale of the violence had been exaggerated and that many Christians had burnt their own 'toota-phoota,' or dilapidated, homes in order to get government compensation. 'You have to understand that they are lazy,' he said. 'If they stay in camp instead of going home, they get free food and relief. They don’t have to work. And then they know the money they are getting from America will stop the minute they leave the camps.'

"Ashok Sahu, a young RSS activist (not to be confused with the BJP candidate currently in jail for hate speech) then listed out a number of sins that he said the Christians were guilty of. These included falsely accusing Hindus of committing crimes, abducting Hindu girls, grabbing adivasi land and reservation quotas, and, of course, engaging in religious conversion."

See also:

Orissa: Tragedy Continues by Ram Puniyami (Countercurrents, April 19, 2009):

"Recently the Archbishop Cheenath of the state said that the elections in the Kandhmamal district should be postponed as the refugees living in the camps are not able to return. The reason is that many of them who returned were threatened by the local Bajrang Dal workers and associates. They were told to renounce Christianity, convert to Hinduism, pay the fine, withdraw the cases and vote for the candidate who they will be told to, obviously BJP candidate. Many of those who tried to return with such hostile conditions awaiting them if they return, came back, some to the camps others to unknown destinations."

See anti-caste: ANOTHER MASS ATROCITY LED BY HINDU RIGHT AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA (September 2, 2008)

IN AFTERMATH OF POGROMS, THREATS BY HINDU RIGHT KEEP UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS FROM THEIR HOMES

Over 3,000 still in Orissa camps (The Hindu)

"More than seven months after Orissa’s tribal-dominated Kandhamal district experienced widespread anti-Christian violence, 3,100 people belonging to the minority community are still living in relief camps being run by the administration.

"About 25,000 people took shelter in 19 relief camps when communal violence was at its peak in the district in the aftermath of the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Lakshmanananda Saraswati and four others on August 23 last.

"The number of people living in the camps has decreased slowly but the 3,100 people in six camps are not willing to leave as they are being told by the communal forces that they can return to their homes only as Hindus."

NEW BOOK ON THE HINDU RIGHT'S POGROMS AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA

quoted in VIOLENT GODS: Hindu Nationalism in India's Present – Narratives from Orissa by Angana P. Chatterji (Three Essays Collective, 2009):

“We did not convert because we are poor. If I am poor but accepted by my community, there is no [social] terror in that poverty.... We did not convert for money. We converted because of the society that saw us as lesser, not worthy. We were ‘lower caste’, ‘untouchable’, ‘lowly’. Now we are Christian. Our god wants us. We can walk into his temple. We are worthy. You understand?” [Spoken by a Dalit convert in Orissa.]

from the publisher:

"This pioneering research was conducted between 2002-2008 in urban and rural settings in the eastern state of Orissa, a primary arena for the onslaught of organized Hindu majoritarianism. Through situated reflection, storytelling, and ethnographic accounts, this genealogical excavation examines Hindutva/Hindu supremacist proliferations in manufacturing imaginative and identitarian agency for violent nationalism."

See also:

interview with Agana Chatterji on Violent Gods (ZNet)

And see anti-caste: ORISSA: HINDU-RIGHT ATROCITIES.

REPORT ON ANTI-UNTOUCHABLE, ANTI-CHRISTIAN ATTACKS BY HINDU RIGHT IN ORISSA AND KARNATAKA

From Kandhamal to Karavali: The Ugly Face of Sangh Parivar (Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee, Human Rights Forum, Organisation for Protection of Democratic Rights, Peoples Democratic Forum, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Karnataka State Unit, Federation for Peoples Rights, Committee for Protection of Civil Liberties, Peoples Union for Human Rights, Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights)

"This is a report prepared jointly by a number of Rights Organisations and individuals on the large scale violence against Christians in Orissa and Karnataka during August-September 2008. The violence was committed by Sangh Parivar organisations, mainly the Bajrang Dal. Their political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) happens to be in power in both the States, and that has ensured that the police watched benignly as the arson and murder took place in public. The ideology and the organization of their mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), pervades the media in both the States to such an extent that with a few honorable exceptions, the Press has reported the violence in a manner that puts the onus on the victims: they were at fault and had it coming."

HINDU RIGHT LEADS FORCED CONVERSIONS OF UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA

Convert or we will kill you, Hindu lynch mobs tell fleeing Christians (Guardian (UK))

"The wave of forced conversions marks a dramatic escalation in a two-month orgy of sectarian violence which has left at least 59 people dead, 50,000 homeless and thousands of houses and churches burnt to the ground. As neighbour has turned on neighbour, thousands more Christians have sought sanctuary in refugee camps, unable to return to the wreckage of their homes unless they, too, agree to abandon their faith.

"Last week, in the worst-affected Kandhamal district, The Observer encountered compelling evidence of the scale of the violence employed in a conversion programme apparently sanctioned by members of one of the most powerful Hindu groups in India, the 6.8-million member Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) - the World Hindu Council."

See also anti-caste: ANOTHER MASS ATROCITY LED BY HINDU RIGHT AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA

ANOTHER MASS ATROCITY LED BY HINDU RIGHT AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA

Christians cower from Hindu backlash in India's east (Reuters)

"The mob poured kerosene on the thatched rooftops of the village homes, then threw matches. Church spires were hacked down.

"The Hindu part of the village was untouched. For four days Digal and his stricken Christian neighbors hid in the teak forests, before being herded to a government-run relief camp.

"The violence replicated itself in village after village, as the rural Kandhamal district of Orissa convulsed from some of the worst anti-Christian attacks in India.

"At least 16 people, mostly Christians were killed, churches destroyed and 10,000 Christians were forced to flee their homes as violence spread.

"Christians responded with some -- not proportionate -- violence. Almost all the villages Reuters visited bore evidence of attacks on Christians."

See anti-caste: HINDU RIGHT LEADS MASS ATROCITY AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA (January 1, 2008)

See also:

Orissa: The sangh parivar’s reach for a Hindu state by Angana Chatterji (Communalism Combat)

Interim Report on Orissa: Concerned Citizens’ Independent Fact-Finding Mission, Sept 25, 2008

HINDU RIGHT LEADS MASS ATROCITY AGAINST CHRISTIAN UNTOUCHABLES IN ORISSA

Christians in India are, with very few exceptions, untouchables or oppressed tribals. They take Christianity at least in part in order to escape their outcaste status, if only in name.

The Hindu right has been on a campaign since the late 1990s to intimidate and forcibly convert this small, vulnerable religious minority. The pattern of violence includes incidents of murder, rape, and arson. In one widely reported case in 1999 an Australian missionary and his two young sons were burned to death while sleeping in their camper.

That was in Orissa, and it is in that backward state, where nearly half the people live below the official poverty line, that the worst attacks ever against Christians in India were carried out last week. They took place in the district of Kandhamal, where Hindu-right activists have been organizing among the majority Kandha tribals, encouraging them to take up orthodox Hindu practices and exploiting their petty rivalry with the untouchable Panas, ninety-five percent of whom are Christians.

In Kandhamal's Bharakama village on the days leading up to Christmas celebrations, Hindu-right activists staged provocations against Christians and vandalized decorations. On Christmas Day a Hindu-right mob of thousands systematically destroyed Christian homes, churches, and institutions, killing several people and leaving thousands more homeless.

See:

Charting the history of sangh parivar violence in Orissa by Angana Chatterji (Communalism Combat)

See also:

Fact Finding Report by All India Christian Council Orissa Chapter

India: Stop Hindu-Christian Violence in Orissa (Human Rights Watch, December 27, 2007)

A dangerous mix by Soumyajit Pattnaik (Hindustan Times)

And for background on the Hindu right's anti-Christian campaign:

Anti-Christian Violence in India by Vinjay Lal

Anti-Christian Violence on the Rise in India (Human Rights Watch, September 29, 1999)