Religious Intolerance Remains Highest in India

Sarah Khan

Apparently a secular state, India remains the worst country in terms of religious intolerence according to United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in the past six years. The State Department 2016 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices places the strongest emphasis on deteriorating religious tolerance, violence caused by Hindu nationalist groups and the support these groups receive from the ruling BJP party. The insecurities faced by the religious minorities and the lower Hindu castes have also been pointed out in the recent report. Additionally, the report draws attention to restrictive laws on cow slaughter and religious conversions. A special report titled, Constitutional and Legal Challenges Faced by Religious Minorities in India concludes that “During the past few years, religious tolerance has deteriorated and religious freedom violations have increased in some areas of India. To reverse this negative trajectory, the Indian and state governments must align theirs laws with both the country’s constitutional commitments and international human rights standards.”

Moreover, an Indian constitutional provision deeming Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains to be Hindus, contradicts international standards of freedom of religion or belief. Despite gave violations, the report has placed India among the tier 2 countries (countries in which religious freedom conditions do not rise to the statutory level that would mandate a Country of Particular Concern CPC designation but require close monitoring due to the nature and extent of violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by governments) where the country has been since 2009.

There has been large-scale communal violence against religious minorities in India since 2008, and in recent years the Indian government has not taken any substantial step to address the communal violence against minorities in India. Restrictions on foreign-funded NGOs and religious freedom along with corruption and police and security force abuses are among the most significant human rights problems in India, according to a US report. NGOs and religious leaders, including from the Muslim, Christian, and Sikh communities, attribute the increase to India’s general election and some politicians’ use of religiously divisive language.

In the past decade, extremist Hindus have increased their attacks on Christians and Muslims. There has been worst cases of violence against minorities in India. For instance in 1999, Graham Staines, an Australian missionary who had worked with leprosy patients for three decades, was burned alive in Orissa along with his two young sons. The brutal violence visited on Muslims in Gujarat in February 2002 also brought the dangers of Hindu extremism to world attention. Between one and two thousand Muslims were massacred after Muslims reportedly set fire to a train carrying Hindu nationalists, killing numerous people. Despite these grave human right violations, there has been no incremental step by UN or international community to address religious intolerance in India.

One of the grave concerns regarding human rights violation is forced conversions. The BJP policies on Hindutva and conversion coincide with increasingly violent attacks by Hindu militants on religious minorities. Attacks on Christians, especially in the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Orissa, have surged in recent years. India’s Home Ministry (internal security) and its National Commission for Minorities officially list over a hundred religiously motivated attacks against Christians per year, but the real number is certainly higher, as Indian journalists estimate that only some ten percent of incidents are ever reported. These attacks include murders of missionaries and priests, sexual assault on nuns, ransacking of churches, convents, and other Christian institutions, desecration of cemeteries, and Bible burnings.

The other major target of Hindu extremists is the Muslim community, which is haunted by the fear of recurrent communal riots that have taken the lives of thousands of Muslims and Hindus since Indian independence. During the outbreak of violence in Gujarat in February 2002, many of the victims were burned alive or dismembered while police and BJP state government authorities either stood by or joined in. The mobs had with them lists of homes and businesses owned by Muslims, lists that they could have acquired only from government sources.

Hindu extremism has largely been ignored by international community including the United States. In India, this violence is supported by Hindu extremists and their allies in the Indian government, currently led by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Despite yearly reports by United States Commission on International Religious Freedom on grave violation by BJP led Indian government, India has not been designated as CPC. Moreover, the US government or even UN has never raised the issue as matter of concern with Indian government. The US and international community must address the grave HRVs by Indian Hindu extremists against Muslims and Christians and USCIRF must designate India as CPC to address HRVs against minorities.

The writer can be reached at ardent.jingo@gmail.com