Land of Contrasts
To try to describe a visit to India is a study in selection. India is a vibrant and vivid land of colour and contrasts. The Editor’s visit coincided with the conclusion of the five week-long elections and new government formation as well as the IPL cricket tournament. This is the world’s largest democracy, and it matters to people as much as cricket (which is saying a great deal!). If only the proud West held democracy in such respect.
It is a land of great poverty and inequality, as well as great dignity, history and creativity. A visitor to any country tends to observe the things that are most different to his own culture and experience, or of his own interests. This observer is no different. In these snapshots the Editor relates stories of two Indian Christians—different by virtue of being a 2% minority in their country. Their stories need to be heard. The Editor is a teacher. These are about some of his students. Sadly, Christians are not safe in many parts of India these days. Thus, initials are used in the place of names; and they have been changed.
Picture 1
B., now in his twenties, was born in a remote village in NE India. There was no electricity, no running water. When his father bought a radio (battery operated?), all the villagers gathered around—not to listen to it, but to touch it. Firewood had to be collected from a great distance. The nearest market was a day’s journey away, by bus; he remembers the first time he rode the bus, how exciting it was, and what a big world he found.
When he was older, a battle between insurgents in the area and government forces passed over the village. Miraculously, no one was killed. As a result of the attack the government moved the entire village to another area. The happy result for B. was that he was able to go to school. He was older than other pupils; parents bringing their children for the first time would come to him and say, ‘Here is my child, sir, please take good care of him.’ But, he was in school.
He responded to the sense of God’s call on his life for service, and went away to study for Christian ministry. It was difficult; not so much the studies, but the conditions. When he and his fellows from his region were ill, no one would nurse him, because they did not want to catch the virus.
At the end of his first term he determined to go home. Although he had a reservation on the train, traffic delays on the way meant he had to jump on the last railcar as the train was leaving the station, and ended up with standing room only. Other late-comers continued to press into the car. At the same time, some youths already in the car threatened B.—if he touched them, they would kill him. The leader took out his knife.
There he was, being pushed by the crowd behind, and threatened before if he got too close. He cried out to God, certain that his life was about to come to an end. Then, someone asked him what was wrong. When he told him of his fear, the man turned to the youth and said, ‘I am protecting this person. If anyone tries to hurt him, I will kill him.’
As B. put it, ‘I was so relaxed!’
The certainty that this deliverance was an answer to his cry for help to God, he decided that he would return to his theological training after all.
While he was away at school, rebels came to his home village again. They demanded to be fed, and the villagers had no choice but to feed them. Government forces learned of their presence, and soon a full-scale battle encompassed the village. Someone from a neighbouring village learned of the battle, and phoned B. to inform him. He promptly left school to get home as quickly as possible, fearing the worst for his family.
But, once again, the miraculous proved the case. Although spent ammunition shells littered the whole area, no one in the village perished.
Looking back on this, B. says, ‘I realise how much God has given me, and how good he is to me.’
He is one of my MA students in Bangalore. For him to get here for the two-weeks of class took five days: two days by bus, then three days on the train. And he feels blessed.
When I wonder whether teaching is worth it all, I shall think again of my student B.
Picture 2
Although India is officially a ‘secular’ state, the rise of Hindu nationalism has created a hostility to minority religions amongst the vast poorly educated Hindu population. Churches have been vandalised and burned; Christians have been beaten and killed. The local police seem to stand by and watch, if not take part.
M. came to the course last year shortly after having been arrested and held for several days on the charge of buying conversions to Christianity. The circumstances were that he was travelling with some of the church leaders from his region to a national gathering of the denomination. The distance was great enough to require spending one night along the way in a hotel. The hotel manager knew that the people with the pastor were from a poor village area and would not have their own money to travel and stay in a hotel. Therefore, he assumed the pastor was bribing them to come with him. So he called the police. He and his son were arrested, and eventually released on bond, pending hearing and possible trial.
What the manager would not know or understand is that the churches support their leaders, and pay expenses to gatherings where they represent their local people.
While under arrest, a policeman volunteered to M. the information that Christians are easy to abuse, because they do not draw attention to the injustice, as the Muslims do. M. responded, ‘This is what we do.’ A Muslim offered to arrange revenge for him.
That was a year and a half ago. This trip I was supposed to have M. in class again, but knew he would be delayed because the hearing had at last been scheduled, for the day he was to be with us. That hearing heard the prosecution evidence; they had obtained statements from people in the village saying the M. had paid his members to become Christians. They obtained the statements by paying these people to say this. Meanwhile, during this whole period, M. had been prevented from going to the village in order that he may not try to influence the people in the church!
Subsequent to the prosecution evidence, the court instructed M. to go to the village and obtain affidavits from a certain number of people to support his defence. He did that, and he was due to appear before the court on the day I left the country. I await the result.
The election by an unexpectedly large margin of a Congress government is taken as a good thing by Christians and other minorities. It is the largest majority in 30 years, and the first time a government had been elected to a second term in nearly as long. People have voted for stability; and they have resoundingly rejected the divisive sectarianism of the BJP, Hindu nationalists.
Having noted this, however, the persecution of minorities will not stop over night. For one thing, three states—including the one I was visiting—continue to be governed by the BJP (Hindu nationalist party). Just the night before I left a church in the region was attacked and vandalised. Christians in this state do not expect the harassment to stop—women being attacked in the street; churches damaged; property ownership contested, etc.
But this is not the whole story, either. Since the Iraq invasion led by the US and the UK, Indian Christians are being told to ‘go back to America’. So, not only the majority Hindus, but the fellow minority Muslims have turned on Christians.
It would appear that these millions of native-born Indians have become more ‘collateral damage’ of the Bush/Blair war on terror.
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