By MURCADHA O’FLAHERTY
LONDON (ACN) — A senior Church figure in India has praised Christians for refusing to resort to violence when protesting against a growing wave of attacks by religious extremists who support the ruling nationalist party.
Bishop Thomas Paulsamy of Dindigul, Tamil Nadu State, southern India, told the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need that the state authorities have sided with militant Hindu aggressors rather than victimized religious minorities.
In Tamil Nadu alone, there have been more than 15 violent attacks against Christians so far this year.
About 20,000 Christians from at least 16 towns in the region have taken to the streets to demonstrate against sustained aggression directed at the faithful.
The bishop described the Christian campaigners as “always peaceful, never violent.”
Christian persecution watchdogs have accused police not only of failing to protect religious minorities under attack but also of persecuting Christian victims of violence.
Religiously motivated violence, including desecration of churches and the killing of a pastor from southeast India whose murder by hanging in January, provoked protests from the Christian population.
The pastor had previously complained to police about harassment by high-caste Hindus.
With Christians suffering increased persecution from extremists, the bishop said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been backing militant Hindu groups.
Bishop Paulsamy said: “The BJP supports the fundamentalists. . . . [Prime Minister Modi] does not want the constitution to apply, but rather the religious principles and values of Hinduism.”
India’s bishops are working to protect Christians and other minorities through an inter-religious working group.
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