The contours of hate and religious bigotry in India have worsened over the decade, with a rabidly communal section suffering from Sikhophobia, Islamophobia, Christophobia and Dalitophobia. 11 years ago, on 8 October 2008, WSN editor Jagmohan Singh wrote an Open Letter to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom urging the bipartisan US body to closely monitor religious freedom in India and to place India on the Watch List of countries which violate religious freedoms. WSN reproduces the letter in the wake of the release of the movie “The Least of These –the Graham Staines Story” and the 2019 USCIRF Report on Religious Freedom in India.

Hon. Mr. Michael Cromartie -Greetings from the land of Guru Tegh Bahadur -who laid down His life for the protection of the right to religion.

Two faces of India were revealed to the world in the last two months –nuclear India and intolerant India.  Nuclear India is a relatively new phenomenon, though the world has yet to fathom the designs of India to become a super power and Intolerant India has been around for ages, but as Christians are the victims this time around, may be the international community will take notice and action.

This is the recent toll: 37 Christians killed, 101 churches attacked, one nun’s modesty violated and 27,000 Christians rendered homeless in Kandhamal distict of Orissa. Rampant forcible re-conversion of neo-Christians is a regular habit for the 6000 centres of RSS, 1500 Tribal welfare projects and 1,200 education centres –all manned by right-wing forces who are at war with all minorities and regional peoples of India.   The government of Orissa resorted to lies and protectionist measures to hide the truth, its police did not file First Information Reports.  The government’s complicity with the Hindutva bodies is apparent and brazen.

The march of the brahamanical forces against Christians and Dalits is on for a very long time and has been documented by Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups, prompting Dalit organizations to call for the institution of an UN Special Rapporteur on Dalit Rights.  India is one country which does not acknowledge the existence of indigenous peoples in the country and continues with the nomenclature of Adivasis –the aborigines of India.

India is one country which does not acknowledge the existence of indigenous peoples in the country and continues with the nomenclature of Adivasis –the aborigines in India.

The Indian onslaught is “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violation of religious liberty.  Having suffered Sikhophobia for many years, presently India is going through a phase of Islamophobia on the one hand and Christophobia on the other.  The spread of Sikhophobia across the country fetched votes for the Congress party, the spectre of Islamophobia fetched votes to fascist leader Narendra Modi in Gujarat and his party –the Bharatiya Janta Party all over the country when their leadership and followers brought down the centuries-old Babri Masjid.  Who will Christophobia benefit, is anybody’s guess.

 “ਪਾਰੋਸੀ ਕੇ ਜੋ ਹੂਆ ਤੂ ਅਪਨੇ ਭੀ ਜਾਨੁ ॥੧੬੭॥-You know that whatever happens to your neighbours, may happen to you.”

Bhagat Kabir in Guru Granth Sahib

Islamophobia and Sikhophobia are creations of state agencies unable to build a response to the fight for rights and fundamental freedoms and Christophobia has been started by fascist forces unable to tolerate equality and reduction in their ranks and is abetted by the state through silence and complicity.

This year India has celebrated its sixtieth year as a socialist secular republic.  Later this year, the United Nations will be observing the sixtieth year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  It is opportune time for the USCIRF to hold a mirror unto India and put India’s socialism and secularism into a proper perspective and not to be influenced by the size and scale of the growing market mechanism in the country.

From the burning alive of Graham Staines to the violation of the modesty of a young nun, the emboldened lumpens of the right parties which are receiving funding from British and American residents have to stopped in the ranks.  Their resources must be cut off.  According to Angana Chatterjee, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, “the following Sangh-affiliates, registered charities in the US, allocated sizeable amounts of money under ‘programme services’, disproportionately directed to Hindutava-affiliated groups in India.  Per 2006 tax record, Ekal Vidyalaya allocated more than two million dollars to India, India Development Relief Fund allocated 1.6 million USD, and Sewa International USA allocated 284,000 Dollars.”  All this money has directly and indirectly reached Orissa.

Bajrang Dal activists have been caught red-handed making bombs in Nanded and Kanpur.  Some died making bombs.  The police have failed to register cases, prosecution would be a far cry.  Prakash Sharma, Suhas Chouhan, Vinay Katiyar, Surendra Jain of the Bajrang Dal and Dr. Praveen Togadia should be debarred from entering US and other countries. Simply, they are terrorists who have not been classified as such.

India has to be put up on the Watch List of countries where religious freedom conditions are such that they require close monitoring due to the nature and extent of violations of religious freedom engaged in and tolerated by India. The RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal –to name a few have been engaged in all activities against multi-religiosity, secularism and pursuit of their professed aim of making India a Hindu-India, actually Brahman-India.

With the only declared country –Nepal ceasing to be a Hindu country, there is a greater sense of urgency in the nefarious minds of these fascist zealots to make India a Hindu country.  This is the root cause for the growing intolerance in India.

With the only declared country –Nepal ceasing to be a Hindu country, there is a greater sense of urgency in the nefarious minds of these fascist zealots to make India a Hindu country.  This is the root cause for the growing intolerance in India.

As you are mandated “to advance the visibility of and serious thinking about how the United States can best address the challenges of religious extremism, intolerance, and repression throughout the world”, all such organizations, who in the name of social work are pursuing their anti-minority and anti-people agenda, should be put under the scanner in the United States. If minority organizations seeking to pursue their ethnic rights can be listed as terrorist organizations, surely it would be proper to debar those organizations that have a proven record of racist actions and ethnic cleansing roles. The USCIRF should not delay in checkmating RSS, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The embargo on the entry of mass-terror specialist and chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi should be followed up with these measures.

It is significant that India’s National Commission for Minorities has for the first time since its inception called for a ban on the right wing body, Bajrang Dal, but that is certainly not enough.  Fascist methods are being adopted in this country with such glaring impunity that the events unfolding daily are a grim reminder of Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

Ethnic minority peoples eagerly await the report of Ms. Asma Jahangir, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, who this year spent two weeks to have a first-hand understanding of the religious rights situation in India.  USCIRF can draw up on that information too and intervene soon.

Sometime back -a few years ago, USCIRF came close to putting India on the Watch List, but the intervention of one of the commissioners saved India.

As many activists in many countries do not know about the role that your organization plays as a bipartisan federal body assessing and proposing US foreign policy action to advance freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and other freedoms needed to protect people at risk of abuses, such as killing, detention, or torture, I think that USCIRF should make special efforts to popularize its work and also undertake more regional studies to advance its mandate, particularly in South Asia. It is appropriate that the USCIRF seek data from various credible members of civil society in India about the right to religion in the country.

The USCIRF has rightly stated that the “internal affairs” argument used by authoritarian and totalitarian regimes dissolves when those governments undertake international commitments.

Your Commission has rightly stated that the “internal affairs” argument used by authoritarian and totalitarian regimes dissolves when those governments undertake international commitments.  To further its nuclear ambitions, India has made a variety of promises and the test on the religious liberty front would be a small one to gauge whether it will fulfill its bigger promises.  The worldview should be that Nuclear India must be kept under observation and while the celebrations are on in New Delhi and Washington, apolitical bodies must send out the right message –loud and clear.

While Kandhamal still burns and poor Christians are being lynched and their homes ransacked, the Sikh, Muslim and civil society leadership has rallied behind the Christians.  The Sikhs have done so as it is teaching they have imbibed. Bhagat Kabir in Guru Granth Sahib says   “ਪਾਰੋਸੀ ਕੇ ਜੋ ਹੂਆ ਤੂ ਅਪਨੇ ਭੀ ਜਾਨੁ ॥੧੬੭॥-You know that whatever happens to your neighbours, may happen to you.”

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or their beliefs….”

Eliezer Wiesel, Holocaust writer, victim of Nazism, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize Winner

The Christian leadership, though very influential, has all along inured itself from the misery and suffering of other minorities when under attack.  In June 1984 and November 1984, there were comments in the Christian Science Monitor and words of compassion from the Pope in Vatican, but the Christian religious leadership in India chose silence and neutrality. Same has been the case when Muslims were the butt of attack in the carnages in Mumbai and Ahmedabad.  It is high time for the Christians to throw up political leadership in the country. It is my belief that if Indian Christians continue to shy away from activism, turn a blind eye to misery of other communities and limit themselves only to educational, oecumenical and proselytization activities, that would be a wrong policy and detrimental to them.

I am sure that you will take up the Christian case. I also urge you not to forget the case of Sikh students in France.  In a paradoxical statement, given out just a few days ago, in response to a journalist’s question, President Sarkozy has said that France respects Sikh customs and practices, but the Sikhs are welcome to France without the turban as the Sikhs will have to adhere to French rules and regulations. Need we say more?

Holocaust writer and himself a victim of Nazism, Eliezer Wiesel while accepting the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize said: “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or their beliefs….”

Sincerely
Jagmohan Singh