In 2007 and 2008, many Christians were killed and at least 50,000 displaced in large-scale riots in Kandhamal, a large rural district in Orissa state on India’s eastern coast. Now, more than three years later, many of the Western NGOs have left, and riot victims have either returned home or moved on. While Westerners may have forgotten, Christians in Kandhamal have not. According to the Global Council of Indian Christians, “Memories of the horror during Christmas of 2007 are still fresh in the minds of Christians of Kandhamal.”

The fears of Kandhamal Christians were renewed after three Christian leaders were murdered in 2011. The first, Saul Pradhan, was killed in January. Police refused to conduct a post-mortem, claiming he died from the “bitter cold,” but Hindu radicals later confessed to the murder.

Seven months later, Michael Digal was murdered near Baliguda. Police initially claimed Digal died in a motorcycle accident, but his wounds pointed to assault rather than an accident. Under pressure from the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), investigators determined that Digal was likely targeted by Hindu radicals because he testified against some of the 2008 riot participants.

VOM helped the families of both Saul Pradhan and Michael Digal by providing housing, school fees for children and spiritual support for the widows.

Just last month, on Dec. 15, 2011, Christian legal activist Rabindra Parichhawas was murdered in Bhanjanagar. Attackers slit his throat and shot him before dumping his body.

These murders are evidence of the ongoing Hindu agenda to rid Kandhamal district of non-Hindus. During a Hindu supremacy rally in July 2011, Hindu-fundamentalist BJP political party members proclaimed, “Hindus are brothers; all others are traitors.” GCIC also reports that a BJP leader has been visiting Kandhamal villages, urging faithful Hindus to finish off Christian leaders one by one.

We went to many remote villages in the area. The people are mainly Muslim or Hindu belief. We split up into two teams. The first team was Lijo and Johnson. The other team was Joseph and me. Pastor Paul and Babu stayed at the van and preached. Each team went to the houses and small village shops to distribute gospel tracts.

After an hour and a half we would pack up and move on to the next area and do the same things again.

The very last place we came to was a Roman Catholic area. We thought this would be a good area since most of the people here are Christians.

It was an unusually hot day especially it being the middle of January!   From a distance I could see the local roman catholic priest and a group of men talking among themselves. Then they started walking towards the van.

I yelled out “excuse me sir, is there something wrong?”

He turned to me and asked, who are you? What organazition are you with? I answered all of his questions. But he did not like the answers. The priest said to me “This is my place here and you can not preach here nor can you distribute any gospel tracts here. While he was talking to me he could hear the preaching going on. What is going on over there he asked? He started to run towards Pastor Paul while he was preaching.  I called out to the priest, “wait, im going there too. Lets walk together and talk.” But he didnt wait for us he was running to pastor paul where he was preaching. By the time Joseph & I got there more than 25 people showed up and the priest made Pastor Paul to stop preaching. We were preaching in a public place, in the public road side. I knew the priest had no right th tell us we cannot preach there. We were not going into anyone’s home. The reason we stopped preaching is because I know if we make any other decision it will cause a religious problem to arise. When things like this happen there will always be two sides. Some on our side & some on the Priest’s side. Before I knew it there were two groups of people that had gathered around. The group with the Priest kept shouting for us to leave & stop preaching. The other people were shouting back, leave him alone he hasnt done anything wrong. You have no authority here for this is a public place.

I could tell that this was not going to end peacefully if we didnt leave. Before leaving I told the priest we are leaving this place but the judgement will be upon you for this.

The priest said dont you worry I will take care of that.

In my 20 years of ministry I have never seen a Catholic Priest coming out from his church and telling us not to preach. It makes me wonder… Where is the Catholic church running to……..?  What do they stand for….?

What are they preaching…..? Are they preaching the Bible….. or are they taking all their followers to hell???

It is very scarey and disturbing to my soul when I think about these things!

In His Mission,

Shajan

Favouring the proposal of the BJP government in Karnataka, Chief Minister Gowda said he would seek public opinion for the inclusion of Gita in primary and secondary schools.

“The Bhagavad Gita doesn’t belong to a particular religion or a sect as its teachings are universal. It aims at refining mankind and other religions have appreciated its philosophical teachings,” Gowda said. 

Expressing confidence that all sections of people would agree to the government’s proposal, Gowda said the religious text was already being taught in Madhya Pradesh.

“Before introducing the Bhagavad Gita in primary and secondary schools, the government will have a thorough discussion with a cross-section of the society. We do not want any controversy in this regard,” Gowda told reporters. 

The Chief Minister was speaking on the sidelines of Shri Bhagavad Gita Abhiyan Mahasamarpana function organised by various religious mutts in Bangalore.

Following his statement on introducing Gita, a group led by senior advocate Professor Ravi Varma Kumar criticised the proposal and said under no circumstance can religion be introduced in schools set up in a secular atmosphere.

“The government cannot impose religion on anyone. Under the Education Act and also the Constitution, they have no right to do so. The Constitution ensures the Right to Religion and what the government is trying to do is contrary to what the Constitution says,” Kumar said.

“A religious book cannot be a text book under any circumstance. The law of the land is very clear and that there cannot be religious education in schools as it violates the secular fabric of the country. The government is attempting to propagate religion and this is wrong,” Kumar told Rediff web portal.
Last year, a controversy was sparked when Primary and Secondary Education Minister Vishwanath Hegde Kageri issued a circular that proposed the teaching of Gita to primary and secondary school children daily for one hour. 

“As the education minister I support the campaign. The government is ready to give money to mutts that support religion and culture, which the government believes in. Nobody can question it,” Kageri said.

The July circular was challenged by several religious groups on grounds that it went against the Constitution and affected the religious beliefs and sentiments of minority communities.

A petition filed by the Karnataka State Minorities Educational Institutions Managements Federation said the circular was contrary to the rights guaranteed to minority institutions and violated Section 7(g) 3 of Karnataka Education Act which upholds unity, sovereignty and integrity of the nation.

Protests were subsequently held by political and religious organisations condemning the attempt to “communalise” education.

We recently had two VBS programs in our local area of Vellikulangara.

We had 200 children attend. We played special games, taught songs. taught Bible stories, had water balloon fights & jumped in the Moon Walk.

These children we so happy to be there & eager to learn.

We had such a wonderful time.