VIOLENCE AGAINST CHRISTIANS                                                                             IN INDIA CONTINUES.       (Part  1)
  131 VIOLENT ATTACKS REPORTED IN 2012
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 30, 2013 – A newly issued report documents the ongoing persecution of Christians in India.  According to the 2012 Christian Persecution Report, which was conducted by the Evangelical Fellowship of India, a Delhi-based organization, there were 131 reported incidents of violence against Christians in 2012, most carried out by radical Hindu organizations with the tacit support of the police.  These included cases of harassment, intimidation, false accusations, arrests, and physical attacks.  India has killed more than 300,000 Christians in Nagaland since 1948 (plus many more throughout the country.)  The report shows that Karnataka recorded 37 attacks, Chhattisgarh 21 and Madhya Pradesh 18.
     "Hate crimes against tribal Christians are compounded by police apathy," said Abraham Mathai, president of Indian Christian Voice. "If the police could drive out gangsters like Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan, can they not stop these Hindu fanatics?"  Mr. Mathai added that "Most of these attacks are targeted at the tribal population, mainly because there is less police supervision in these areas. In Palghar, the tribal Christians have been living in constant fear after their prayer meetings were disrupted by the locals."
   "The cases mentioned are the ones where Christian groups have been attacked because of their religion, with the primary motivation of disrupting prayer meetings and conversions," said Tehmina Arora, advocate, EFI. The Delhi-based organization, that has been compiling such reports since 2005, had released the 2012 report in the capital last week. The organization compiled the cases over one year through police information as well as direct complaints. "Though the cases have marginally decreased from 2011, it is mainly because many such instances continue to go undocumented. In many cases, the police refuse to file first information reports and people are also often hesitant to approach the police," said Arora.  John Dayal of the All India Christian Council, who helped compile the report, said that "many incidents go unreported."  Thus, the actual number of incidents may be higher.
    The repression of Christians mirrors the repression of Sikhs and other minorities.  As Narinder Singh, a spokesman for the golden Temple, said, ``The Indian government, all the time they boast that they are secular, that they are democratic. They have nothing to do with a secularism, nothing to do with a democracy. They kill Sikhs just to please the majority.'' And Sikhs are unfortunately not the only ones.