http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2002/14023.htm
India
International
Religious Freedom Report 2002
Released by the
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
The Constitution
provides for secular government and the protection of religious
freedom, and the central Government generally respects these
provisions in practice; however, it sometimes does not act
effectively to counter societal attacks against religious
minorities and attempts by state and local governments to limit
religious freedom. This failure results in part from the legal
constraints inherent in the country’s federal structure, and in
part from the law enforcement and justice systems, which at times
are ineffective. The ineffective investigation and prosecution of
attacks on religious minorities is interpreted by some extremist
elements as a signal that such violence likely is to go
unpunished.
There was no
overall change in the status of religious freedom during the
period covered by this report; however, there was significant
Hindu-Muslim violence during the period covered by this report.
The country is a secular state in which all faiths generally enjoy
freedom of worship. Central government policy does not favor any
religious group; however, governments at state and local levels
only partially respect religious freedom. The central Government
is led by a coalition called the National Democratic Alliance (NDA),
which has pledged to respect the country’s traditions of secular
government and religious tolerance. However, the leading party in
the coalition is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu
nationalist party with links to Hindu extremist groups that have
been implicated in violent acts against Christians and Muslims.
The BJP also leads state governments in Goa, Gujarat, and Himachal
Pradesh. Human rights groups and others have suggested that
the authorities in Gujarat have not responded adequately to acts
of violence against religious minorities by Hindu extremist
groups, due at least in part to the links between these groups and
the BJP. These groups have noted that the ineffective
investigation and prosecution of such incidents may encourage
violent actions by extremist groups.
Tensions between
Muslims and Hindus, and between Hindus and Christians, continued
during the period covered by this report. Attacks on religious
minorities occurred in several states, which brought into question
the Government's ability to prevent sectarian and religious
violence. The worst religious violence during the period covered
by this report was directed against Muslims by Hindus in Gujarat.
It was alleged widely that the police and state government in
Gujarat did little to stop the violence promptly, and at times
even encouraged or assisted rioting mobs. Violence and
discrimination against Muslims and Christians continued in other
parts of the country as well.
The U.S.
Government discusses religious freedom issues with the Government
in the context of its overall dialog and policy of promoting human
rights.
Section I.
Religious Demography
The country has a
total area of approximately 1.3 million square miles and a
population of slightly more than one billion. According to the
latest government estimates, Hindus constitute an estimated 81
percent of the population, Muslims 12 percent, Christians 2.3
percent, Sikhs 2.0 percent, and others, including Buddhists, Jains,
Parsis (Zoroastrians), Jews, and Baha’is, less than 2 percent.
Hinduism has a large number of branches, including the Sanatan and
Arya Samaj groups. Slightly more than 90 percent of Muslims are
Sunni; the rest are Shi'a. Buddhists include followers of the
Mahayana and Hinayana schools, and there are both Catholic and
Protestant Christians. Tribal groups (members of indigenous groups
historically outside the caste system), which in government
statistics generally are included among Hindus, often practice
traditional indigenous religions. Hindus and Muslims are spread
throughout the country, although large Muslim populations are
found in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, West
Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala, and Muslims are a majority in
Jammu and Kashmir. Christian concentrations are found in the
northeastern states, as well as in the southern states of Kerala,
Tamil Nadu, and Goa. Three small northeastern states have large
Christian majorities--Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya. Sikhs are
a majority in the state of Punjab.
Over the years,
many lower caste Hindus, Dalits (formerly called
"untouchables"--see Section II) and other non-Hindu tribal groups
have converted to other faiths because they viewed conversion as a
means to achieve higher social status. However, lower caste and
Dalit converts continue to be viewed by both their coreligionists
and by Hindus through the prism of caste. Converts are regarded
widely as belonging to the caste of their ancestors, and caste
identity, whether or not acknowledged by a person’s own religion,
has an impact on marriage prospects, social status, and economic
opportunity.
There are a
number of immigrants, primarily from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and
Nepal, who practice various religions. Immigrants from Bangladesh
usually reside near the border area.
According to the
Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India, there are approximately
1,100 registered foreign missionaries in the country (see Section
II).
Section II.
Status of Religious Freedom
Legal/Policy
Framework
The Constitution
provides for freedom of religion, and the central Government
generally respects this right in practice; however, state and
local governments only partially respect this freedom.
There are no registration requirements for religious groups.
Legally mandated benefits are assigned to certain groups,
including some groups defined by their religion. The Government is
empowered to ban a religious organization if it has provoked
intercommunity friction, has been involved in terrorism or
sedition, or has violated the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act,
which restricts funding from abroad.
The country's
political system is federal in character, under which state
governments have exclusive jurisdiction over law enforcement and
maintaining order, which has limited the central Government's
capacity to deal with abuses of religious freedom. The country's
national law enforcement agency, the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI), must receive a state government's permission
before investigating a crime in that state. However, the federal
government's law enforcement authorities, in some instances,
authorities have stepped in to maintain order.
There are many
religions and a large variety of denominations, groups, and
subgroups in the country, but Hinduism is the dominant religion.
Under the Constitution, the Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh faiths are
considered different from the Hindu religion, but the Constitution
often is interpreted as defining Hinduism to include those faiths.
This interpretation has been a contentious issue, particularly for
the Sikh community.
The legal system
accommodates minority religions’ personal status laws; there are
different personal status laws for different religious
communities. Religion-specific laws pertain in matters of
marriage, divorce, adoption, and inheritance. For example, Muslim
personal status law governs many noncriminal matters involving
Muslims, including family law, inheritance, and divorce. Hindu
groups such as the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) are pushing
for a uniform civil code that would treat members of all religions
alike.
The Government
permits private religious schools, which can offer religious
instruction, but does not permit religious instruction in
government schools. Some Hindus believe that this disadvantages
them since Muslims have many private religious schools (madrassahs),
but Hindus mostly attend government or Christian schools. Many
Christian schools minimize overt religious instruction to avoid
retaliation from Hindu extremists.
Some Government
officials continue to advocate "saffronizing," or raising the
profile of Hindu cultural norms and views in public education,
which has prompted criticism from minority leaders, opposition
politicians, academics, and advocates of secular values.
During the period covered by this report, the Government
announced its decision to rewrite existing National Council of
Educational Research and Training (NCERT) history textbooks. The
Government justified its decision by asserting that "history needs
to be presented in a more refreshing and cogent manner." In
December 2001, the Human Resource Development Ministry made
changes to chapters on Jainism in a textbook on ancient India
without previously informing the author.
Some major
religious holidays celebrated by various groups are considered
national holidays, including Christmas (Christian), Eid (Muslim),
Guru Nanak's Birthday (Sikh), and Holi (Hindu).
The central
Government is conscious of the perception that because of the
composition of its support base it is less likely to respond to
acts of violence against religious minorities by Hindu extremist
groups. It has made efforts to show that it is addressing the
concerns of religious minorities who believe that they are
threatened.
The Government
has taken steps to promote interfaith understanding. The National
Commission for Minorities (NCM) and the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC) have appointed members and are tasked
respectively with protecting the rights of minorities and
protecting human rights. These governmental bodies investigate
allegations of discrimination and bias and can make
recommendations to the relevant local or central government
authorities. These recommendations generally are followed,
although the recommendations do not have the force of law.
Restrictions
on Religious Freedom
The Unlawful
Activities Prevention Act empowers the Government to ban a
religious organization if it has provoked inter-community
friction, has been involved in terrorism or sedition, or has
violated the Foreign Contribution Regulations Act, which restricts
funding from abroad. Human Rights activists have criticized the
government for selectively applying the FCRA against religious
minorities.
In September
2001, the Government officially banned the Students Islamic
Movement of India (SIMI) under the Unlawful Activities Prevention
Act. The Government alleged that the SIMI had links with terrorist
groups such as the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and the Hizbul Mujahideen.
On May 3, 2001,
the Government officially banned Deendar Anjuman, a Muslim group,
for "fomenting communal tension" and actions "prejudicial to
India’s security." State prosecutors alleged that some members of
the tiny Muslim group called Deendar Channabasaveshwara Siddique (DCS)
and its parent organization, Deendar Anjuman, were responsible for
the Karnataka and Andrha Pradesh church bombings in 2000
(see Section III).
From July to
August 2000, approximately 45 members of the organization were
taken into custody in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in connection
with the bombings. During this time in order to justify the ban,
the Government claimed that Deendar Anjuman was involved in a
complicated plot to destabilize the country’s communal relations;
however, of the group’s few thousand members, probably only a few
were involved in terrorist activities.
The fact that a
Muslim group was responsible for the bombings of Christian
churches was unusual; most attacks against Christians are
perpetrated by Hindu extremist groups or by mobs. Some observers
have compared the vigorous investigation and prosecution of
Deendar members for attacks against Christians with the general
lack of vigor in the investigation and prosecution of Hindus
accused of carrying out attacks against Christians.
The Religious
Institutions (Prevention of Misuse) Act makes it an offense to use
any religious site for political purposes or to use temples for
harboring persons accused or convicted of crimes. While
specifically designed to deal with Sikh places of worship in
Punjab, the law applies to all religious sites. The state of Uttar
Pradesh passed the "Religious Buildings and Places Bill" during
the state assembly budget session from March to May 2000. The bill
requires a permit endorsed by the state government before
construction of any religious building can begin in the state. The
bill’s supporters stated that its aim was to curb the use of
Muslim institutions by Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups,
but the measure remains a controversial political issue among
religious groups in the northern part of the country. Most
religious groups from all of the communities oppose the
restriction on building religious structures and continue to view
it as an infringement upon religious freedom. In West Bengal,
legislation implemented in early 2000 requires any person who
plans to construct a place of worship to seek permission from the
district magistrate; anyone intending to convert a personal place
of worship into a public one also requires the district
magistrate’s permission.
The BJP, which
has led two coalition national governments since 1998, is one of a
number of offshoots of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, an
organization that espouses a return to Hindu values and cultural
norms. Members of the BJP, the RSS, and other affiliated
organizations (collectively known as the Sangh Parivar) have been
implicated in incidents of violence and discrimination against
Christians and Muslims. The BJP and RSS express respect and
tolerance for other religions; however, the RSS in particular
opposes conversions from Hinduism and believes that all citizens
should adhere to Hindu cultural values. The BJP officially states
that the caste system should be eradicated, but many of its
members are ambivalent about this. Most BJP leaders, including
Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani,
also are RSS members. The BJP's traditional cultural agenda has
included calls for construction of a new Hindu temple to replace
an ancient Hindu temple that was believed to have stood on the
site of a mosque in Ayodhya that was destroyed by a Hindu mob in
1992; for the repeal of Article 370 of the Constitution, which
grants special rights to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the
country’s only Muslim majority state; and for the enactment of a
uniform civil code that would apply to members of all religions.
The BJP does not
include the above RSS goals in the program of the coalition
Government it leads; however, some minority religious groups have
noted that the coming to power of the BJP coincided with an
increase in complaints of discrimination against minority
religious communities. These groups also claim that BJP officials
at state and local levels increasingly have become unresponsive in
investigating charges of religious discrimination and in
prosecuting those persons responsible.
The degree to
which the BJP's nationalist Hindu agenda has affected the country
with respect to religious minorities varies depending on the
region. State governments continue to attach a high priority to
maintaining law and order and monitoring intercommunity relations
at the district level. As a result, the central Government often
is not the most important player in determining the character of
relationships of various religious communities between each other
and with the state.
In general
religious minorities in the northern area of the country are
concerned that attacks on religious minorities no longer appear to
be confined to Gujarat and Orissa. However, only a few isolated
incidents of communal violence were reported in the north during
the period covered by this report (see Section III). The appeal of
Hindu nationalism seemed to decrease in Uttar Pradesh, where the
BJP-led state government was defeated in elections in early 2002.
The Government dispatched the NCM to investigate attacks against
Christians in the northern part of the country in 2000, but the
NCM's findings that the attacks were not "communal in nature" led
to widespread criticism in the minority community. There is strong
evidence that the NCM report misrepresented the victims by
claiming that the victims entirely were satisfied that there was
no religious motivation behind the violence. Victims of the
incidents claim that the local police were not responsive either
before or during the attacks. By the end of the period covered by
this report, no arrests had been made or were likely to be made in
connection with these attacks.
The eastern part
of the country presented a varied picture with regard to religious
freedom during the period covered by this report. Sporadic attacks
continued but were not concentrated in one geographical area. In
Orissa, which has been known for violence against religious
minorities (particularly after the killings of Australian
missionary Graham Staines and his two young children there in
January 1999), the communal situation remained relatively
unchanged during the period covered by this report, despite the
installation of a BJP-Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government in February
2000. In November 2000, the Orissa government notified churches
that religious conversions could not occur without the local
police and district magistrate being notified in order to give
permission; however, this does not appear to have been enforced.
The Orissa Freedom of Religion Act of 1967 contains a provision
requiring a monthly report from the state on the number of
conversions; district officials are required to keep such records.
After a conversion has been reported to the district magistrate,
the report is forwarded to the authorities, and a local police
officer conducts an inquiry. The police officer can recommend in
favor of or against the intended conversion, and often is the sole
arbitrator on the individual’s right to freedom of religion; if
conversion is judged to have occurred without permission from the
district magistrate or with coercion, the authorities may take
penal action. There were no reports that the district magistrate
denied permission for any conversions.
The four southern
states are ruled by political parties with strong secular and
pro-minority views. Each of these parties--the All-India Anna
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu, the Telugu Desam
Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh, and the Congress Party in Kerala
and Karnataka--has a history of support for religious minorities
and has attempted to assuage religious minority fears about
religious tension in the rest of the country.
The southern
branches of the BJP generally take a more moderate position on
minority issues; however, religious groups in the region still
allege that since the BJP’s rise to power in the national
Government, some local officials have begun to enforce laws
selectively to the detriment of religious minorities. The groups
cite numerous examples of discrimination, such as biased
interpretations of postal regulations, including removal of postal
subsidies; refusals to allocate land for the building of churches;
and heightened scrutiny of NGO's to ensure that foreign
contributions are made according to the law.
In the west,
Gujarat continued to experience incidents of intercommunity strife
in which Hindu nationalist groups targeted Christians and Muslims.
Beginning in February 2002, after an attack by Muslims on a train
in Godhra that resulted in the deaths of 58 Hindus (see Section
III), an estimated 2,000 Muslims were killed in rioting in Gujarat
that continued throughout the period of this report. The Gujarat
state government and the police were criticized for failing to
stop the violence, and in some cases participating in or
encouraging it. Muslim women and girls were raped, and an
estimated 850 to 2,000 Muslims were killed. The violence began on
February 27 after a Muslim mob in the town of Godhra attacked and
set fire to two train cars carrying Hindu activists. Fifty-eight
persons were killed, most of them women and children. On February
28, Hindus attacked and looted Muslim homes, business, and places
of worship. In addition, Muslim women and girls were raped and an
estimated 2,000 Muslim persons were killed. NGO's report that
police were implicated directly in nearly all the attacks against
Muslims in Gujarat, and in some cases, NGO's contend, police
officials encouraged the mob. Christian and Muslim communities
remain suspicious of the state Government.
In Maharashtra,
Hindu-Muslim violence has increased in recent years (see Section
III). In Madhya Pradesh, intercommunity strife is relatively
uncommon. In April 2001, the state’s Chief Minister Digvijay Singh
strongly stated that his government would deal equally strictly
with any violence committed by either Hindu or Muslim
fundamentalist groups. There were no incidents of intercommunity
strife in the new state of Chhattisgarh during the period covered
by this report. Religious communities generally live together
harmoniously in Goa, despite one incident of intra-Christian
strife during 2000 (see Section III).
Some persons
alleged that the state of Gujarat discriminated in distributing
aid to victims of the January 26, 2001 earthquake in Kutch
district, which left more than 20,000 persons dead. In April 2001,
a Human Rights Watch activist toured the affected region and
claimed that in the distribution of relief supplies upper caste
Hindus received better treatment than lower caste Hindus and poor
Muslims in the worst affected towns of Bhuj, Bhachau, and Anjar.
However, representatives of many NGO's working in the region
reported that the Gujarat government's relief effort did not
discriminate by caste or religion.
There is no
national law that bars a citizen or foreigner from professing or
propagating his or her religious beliefs; however, speaking
publicly against other beliefs is considered dangerous to public
order and is prohibited. Given this context, the Government
discourages foreign missionaries from entering the country and has
a policy of expelling foreigners who perform missionary work
without the correct visa. Long-established foreign missionaries
generally can renew their visas, but since the mid-1960’s the
Government has refused to admit new resident foreign missionaries.
New missionaries
currently enter as tourists on short-term visas. In November 2000,
the Home Ministry ordered a family of American Christian
missionaries based in Tamil Nadu to leave the country because
their business and tourist visas were incompatible with their work
in the country. In addition to foreign missionaries,
several Christian relief organizations have been hampered by
bureaucratic obstacles in getting visas renewed for foreign relief
work. Missionaries and foreign religious organizations must comply
with the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, which restricts the
ability of certain NGO's, including religiously affiliated groups,
to finance their activities with overseas assistance.
The personal
status laws of the religious communities sometimes discriminate
against women. Under Islamic law, a Muslim husband may divorce his
wife spontaneously and unilaterally; there is no such provision
for women. Islamic law also allows a man to have up to four wives
but prohibits polyandry. Under the Indian Divorce Act of 1869, a
Christian woman could demand divorce only in the case of spousal
abuse and certain categories of adultery; for a Christian man, a
wife's adultery alone was sufficient. However, during the period
covered by this report this law was amended by Parliament to allow
Christian women to file for divorce for the same reasons as men.
Abuses of
Religious Freedom
While the central
Government has not been implicated in abuses of religious freedom,
human rights activists have criticized the Government for
indifference and inaction in the face of abuses committed by state
and local authorities, as well as private citizens.
In June 2000, the
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) ordered affected states to
provide written reports detailing the violence against Christians
and the actions taken by state governments. All of the states
submitted reports to the NHRC, which found no organized pattern of
anti-Christian activity. Some Christian leaders are unhappy with
the NCM, which they believe does not represent of their views.
On occasion
Hindu-Muslim violence led to killings and a cycle of retaliation
(see Section III). In some instances, police and government
officials abetted the violence, and at times security forces were
responsible for abuses. Police sometimes assisted Hindu
fundamentalists in committing violent acts. In February 2002,
after a Hindu-Muslim clash in Gujarat, Muslims and human rights
activists alleged that the state reserve police sided with the
attackers rather than with the victims (see Section III). Human
rights activists reported that the Gujarat police received
specific instructions not to take action to prevent a possible
violent reaction to the February 27 attack by Muslims on a train
in Godhra carrying Hindus (see Section III). These observers
asserted that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi personally told
Ahmedabad police officials on February 27 to allow Hindus 2 days
to react "peacefully" to the Godhra incident. The press and human
rights activists have reported widely that police refused to come
to the aid of Muslim victims, and in some cases even participated
in attacks on Muslims and Muslim-owned businesses. The police
reportedly told Muslim victims, "we don't have orders to help
you." It was reported that assailants frequently chanted "the
police are with us," according to eyewitness accounts. On March
24, a report that the government of Gujarat transferred police
officials who allegedly had taken action against Hindu rioters
drew further media and National Human Rights Commission criticism
of perceived government partisanship. In its "final" report on
Gujarat, released on June 1, the NHRC held the Gujarat government
responsible for the riots and accused it of "a complicity that was
tacit if not explicit." It concluded in its report that "there is
no doubt, in the opinion of this Commission, that there was a
comprehensive failure on the part of the state government to
control the persistent violation of rights of life, liberty,
equality, and dignity of the people of the state." The report
recommended a CBI inquiry into the communal riots, which the state
government subsequently refused to allow.
Jammu and
Kashmir, the country’s only Muslim majority state, has been the
focus of repeated armed conflict between India and Pakistan, and
internally between security forces and Muslim militants who demand
that the state be given independence or ceded to Pakistan.
Particularly since an organized insurgency erupted in Jammu and
Kashmir in 1989, there have been numerous reports of human rights
abuses by security forces and local officials against the Muslim
population, including execution-style killings, beatings, rapes,
and other forms of physical abuse. Government forces deny these
allegations and assert that they target persons not on the basis
of religion, but on suspicion of involvement in terrorist
activity. For their part, terrorists killed and otherwise attacked
hundreds of Hindu and Muslim civilians in 2001 and 2002. Given
that the terrorists exclusively are Muslim and charges of
religion-based harassment could be used to further their political
objectives, it is impossible to substantiate either the claims of
the security forces or those making the allegations against them.
It is difficult to separate religion and politics in Kashmir;
Kashmiri separatists exclusively are Muslim, and almost all the
higher ranks as well as most of the lower ranks in the Indian
forces stationed there are non-Muslims.
The BJP has been
inconsistent in its approach to violence against Christians. In
June 2000, in Uttar Pradesh, Vijay Ekka, a witness to the killing
of a Catholic priest, George Kuzhikandum, died in police custody.
Ekka initially was placed under police protection because of the
risk of Hindu reprisals against him. Human rights organizations
and minority communities across the country criticized his death.
Archbishop Vincent Concessao of Agra said that Ekka's body showed
signs of torture, and that police had told church authorities that
Ekka had committed suicide. While in detention, Ekka told visitors
that he was being tortured constantly in police custody, and said
that he was afraid that the police would kill him. The state
government initiated an investigation into Ekka’s death on June
17, 2000, and a few days later announced plans to establish a
judicial inquiry. The Mathura superintendant of police was
transferred, and two policemen were arrested in connection with
the incident. At the end of the period covered by this report, the
trial against the two police was continuing; another eyewitness in
the case had registered a complaint with the NHRC regarding
harassment by the local police
Weak enforcement
of laws protecting religious freedom partly is due to an
over-burdened and corrupt judiciary. The legal system as a whole
has many years of backlog, and all but the most prominent cases
move slowly. Official failure to deal adequately with intragroup
and intergroup conflict and with local disturbances in some places
as a practical matter has abridged the right to religious freedom.
A federal political system in which state governments hold
jurisdiction over law and order problems contributed to the
Government’s ineffectiveness in combating religiously based
violence. The country’s only national law enforcement agency, the
CBI, is required to ask state government permission before
investigating a crime in the affected state. States often delay or
refuse to grant such permission.
There were no
reports of religious prisoners or detainees.
Forced
Religious Conversion
In April 2002,
the Pondicherry state government ordered an inquiry into the
alleged forced conversions of prisoners to Christianity by the
superintendent of Pondicherry Central Prison. Six prisoners filed
a complaint, claiming that they had been tortured after refusing
to convert.
Hindu nationalist
organizations frequently allege that Christian missionaries force
Hindus, particularly those of lower castes living in the east, to
convert to Christianity. Christians claim that the efforts of
Hindu groups to "reconvert" Christians to Hinduism are coercive.
There is no firm evidence supporting either side's claim of forced
conversions.
There were no
reports of the forced religious conversion of minor U.S. citizens
who had been abducted or illegally removed from the United States,
or of the refusal to allow such citizens to be returned to the
United States.
Improvements
and Positive Developments in Respect for Religious Freedom
During the period
covered by this report, Parliament passed the long-debated
amendments to the Indian Divorce Act of 1869. These amendments
allowed Christian women to file for divorce, for the same reasons
as men. In May the Mumbai High Court ruled that divorces of Muslim
couples must be proven in court. Previously, a Muslim male's
assertion of a divorce was sufficient.
The trial for the
killing of Graham Staines and his two minor sons is still at a
preliminary stage. The trial is being prosecuted by the CBI,
rather than by local prosecutors and under the CBI’s efforts, the
trial appears to be making progress. Singh has been denied bail,
and witnesses are beginning to testify to his involvement.
In April 2001,
the standing committee of the Home Ministry expressed concern over
the "alarming rise of the monster of communalism," and asked the
Government to take steps to check the growing divide among
communities.
Section III.
Societal Attitudes
Animosities
within and between the country's religious communities have roots
that are centuries old, and these tensions--at times exacerbated
by poverty, class, and ethnic differences--have erupted into
periodic violence throughout the country's 55-year history. The
Government makes some effort, not always successfully, to prevent
these incidents and to restore communal harmony when they do occur
(see Section II); however, tensions between Muslims and Hindus,
and between Hindus and Christians, continue to pose a challenge to
the concepts of secularism, tolerance, and diversity on which the
State was founded.
Within the Indian
context, the phrase "communal violence" generally is understood to
mean Hindu-Muslim conflict and the possibility of retaliation and
serious riots. During the period covered by this report, attacks
on religious minorities occurred in several states. Some of these
attacks were motivated by economic motives or arose in a context
of existing nonreligious disputes; others were purely religious in
motivation.
Hindu-Muslim
violence has led to killings and a cycle of retaliation. In some
cases, local police and government officials abetted the violence,
and at times security forces were responsible for abuses. Violence
against Christians, at least outside of the northeast, rarely
results in mass retaliation. However, between Hindu and Muslim
communities, even rumors, supposed slights, or perceived insults
can result in mass riots.
Hindus and
Muslims continue to feud over the existence of mosques constructed
several centuries ago on three sites where Hindus believe that
temples stood previously. The potential for renewed Hindu-Muslim
violence in connection with this controversy remains considerable.
Extremist Hindu groups such as the VHP and Bajrang Dal maintain
that they intend to build a Hindu temple in Ayodhya on the site of
a 500-year old mosque demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992, with or
without the Government’s approval. In March 2002, the Vishva Hindu
Parishad (VHP) agreed to delay the decision on temple construction
for at least 3 months.
Some of the most
severe communal violence in the country's history occurred during
the period covered by this report. On February 27, 2002, Muslim
mobs attacked a train in Godhra, Gujarat that was carrying Hindu
activists returning from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. The attack
reportedly followed an altercation between Hindu activists on the
train and Muslim vendors at the train station in Godhra that
morning. Two train cars were set on fire, and 58 passengers will
killed, including 15 children and 25 women, according to Gujarat
state officials. Hindu mobs in Gujarat and Maharashtra allegedly
angered by the attack on the train and incited and organized by
members of the Sangh Parivar, destroyed Muslim businesses, raped
Muslim women, and killed Muslims. The official estimate of the
number killed is 950; however, some observers believe that the
number may be as high as 2,000. The anti-Muslim violence displaced
approximately 150,000 persons who fled for security reasons or
because their homes were destroyed. Property damage was
significant, with large numbers of Muslim homes, businesses, and
religious site destroyed. Although the most severe violence took
place during the week following the attack on February 27, 2002,
reports of sporadic violence and interreligious strife continued
throughout the end of the period covered by this report. Initially
the Government announced a probe only of the Muslim attack on the
train; however, after criticism by opposition parties and the
media, the government expanded the probe to include the violence
after the attack on the train.
In April 2002, a
fact-finding team visited Gujarat to document the impact of
communal riots on women. The team consisted of women from various
women's organizations. The report stated that Muslim women had
been subjected to "unimaginable, inhuman, barbaric" sexual
violence during the violence. Women suffered rape, gang rape, and
molestation.
In October 2001,
communal riots broke out in Malegoan, Maharashthra after
authorities tried to stop Muslim clerics from distributing
pamphlets that advised Muslims against buying American goods to
protest U.S. military action in Afghanistan. Twelve persons died
in the riots that followed. A curfew was imposed in the town for
days, and two plastic factories were burned down.
On August 1,
2000, news of a massacre of Hindu pilgrims to Amarnath by Kashmiri
militants spread through the country. In Gujarat, in the cities of
Surat, Ahmedabad, Palanpur, and Rajkot and in two villages in the
Sabarkantha district, Khed Brahma and Modasa, angry Hindu mobs
reacted by burning Muslim businesses. The fights that ensued left
two Hindus and three Muslims dead, and caused $2.5 million (117.5
million rupees) in property damage. In Surat, Muslims alleged that
the state reserve police sided with the attackers instead of the
victims.
In late September
2000, during voting for city elections in Ahmedabad, a partisan
clash with communal overtones developed into a riot. The police
fired on the rioting mob, killing eight Muslims.
On October 16,
2000, a gang entered Tahira village, Siwan district, Bihar, and
killed five members of a Muslim family. Police suspect that
unknown persons in nearby Mohajirpur village committed the
killings in retaliation for the killings of Hindu villagers a few
days earlier. On December 3, 2000, a group of men in Tirunelveli,
Tamil Nadu, attacked and killed a Muslim imam with crude bombs and
sickles.
In early
September 2000, in the city of Nanded in Maharashtra, Hindu-Muslim
violence broke out for 2 days after Muslims in a mosque allegedly
threw stones at a Hindu religious procession during the annual
Ganesh festival. Approximately 60 persons were injured. The
Mahrashtra government ordered a judicial inquiry; however, there
were no reported results by the end of the period covered by this
report. The local media observed a voluntary gag order to prevent
the violence from spreading to other cities.
In March three
mosques were damaged and adjoining shops and houses set on fire in
Bhiwani, Haryana after reports of cow slaughtering in the town. In
the period covered by this report, an estimated thirty small
Muslim shrines were demolished in various Gujarati cities and
villages, and allegedly Hindu rioters placed idols of the Hindu
God Hanuman and christened these shrines temples of the "rioting
Hanuman." In early 2001, Hindu-Muslim tension increased
after the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by Afghanistan's
Taliban. Almost the entire country's religious community,
including most prominent Muslims, strongly protested the Taliban's
action; however, some radical Hindus exploited the issue. On March
5, 2001, Bajrang Dal activists allegedly burned a copy of the
Koran in New Delhi. A police investigation resulted in two
arrests; however, there was no further action by the end of the
period covered by this report.
In the
Maharashtra cities of Pune, Aurangabad, Nanded, and Nasik over the
weekend of March 9 to 11, 2001, Muslims reacted to an alleged
Koran burning in New Delhi by going on strike and burning Hindu
property, government vehicles, and a police station in Pune. A
radical Muslim student’s organization, Student’s Islamic Movement
of India, had posted inflammatory posters about the incident.
Mumbai police averted trouble by holding intercommunity meetings
in sensitive areas of the city.
On March 21,
2001, in Amritsar, Punjab, members of a new, fringe Hindu
extremist group burned a Koran and threw pig body parts inside a
mosque in an attempt to enrage Muslims and start communal
violence. A few days of riots, resulting in several deaths and
extensive property damage, ensued in the northern cities of
Amritsar, Kanpur and Baramulla. A similar Koran burning in Patiala,
Punjab, did not lead to major riots. The VHP accused "hostile
elements" of trying to stir up communal tension.
Throughout the
period covered by this report, Jammu and Kashmir continued to be a
focus of violence. Muslim militants committed atrocities against
Hindus and other Muslims, and the security forces often used
excessive force to suppress them. Civilians frequently are caught
in the crossfire. Custodial killings of suspected militants, all
of whom are Muslim, are common. Militants also carried out several
execution-style mass killings of Hindu villagers and violently
targeted Pandits (Hindu Kashmiris) in an attempt to force Hindus
to emigrate.
There were a
number of violent incidents that are believed to have been carried
out by Muslim militants. Early in 2001, eight Sikhs were killed,
allegedly by an obscure militant group. On February 3, 2001, two
gunman killed six Sikhs and wounded at least four others in
Srinagar. The public interpreted this attack as punishment by
militants for the killing earlier in the week of a Muslim
civilian, allegedly by Sikh policemen belonging to Kashmir's
Special Operations Group; however, such allegations never were
proved. The Government sent a four-member team to Kashmir to
investigate the killings; however, no one had been charged, and
there had been no reported progress in the investigation of the
killings at the end of the period covered by this report. Sikhs
protested the killings, which led to violent clashes with police.
The February 2001 incident was the first attack against the
Kashmir Valley’s minority Sikh population since the March 2000
killing of 35 Sikh men in the village of Chatti Singhpora in south
Kashmir.
On July 21, 2001,
13 persons, including 6 pilgrims and 2 security force personnel,
were killed and 15 others injured in attacks on pilgrims of the
annual Amarnath Yatra (pilgrimage). According to unconfirmed
reports, militants in disguise opened fire and detonated an
explosive device enroute to the Amarnath cave. In May 2001, six
Hindu cattle herders in the mountains around Jammu were beheaded,
apparently by Muslim militants. On October 1, 2001, Kashmiri
terrorists killed 38 employees and security officers and injured
50 others in an attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative
Assembly. A spokesman for the terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad,
based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack.
In July 2000,
Muslim militants killed three Buddhist monks in Rangdum, Kargil
district. On July 30, 2000 militants threw a grenade into a jeep
carrying Hindu religious pilgrims near Gulmarg, killing one person
and injuring five others. On August 1 to 2, 2000, militants
entered a camp of Hindus making the annual pilgrimage to Amarnath
in the northern part of the state and fired automatic weapons at
tents, at the unarmed civilians in the camp, the pilgrims’ local
porters and guides, and at army personnel nearby. A total of 32
persons were killed in the attack, all of them unarmed civilians.
Similar attacks occurred throughout the night of August 1 to 2,
2000 killing approximately 100 persons in various places in Jammu
and Kashmir. On August 17, 2000 militants reportedly killed six
Hindu villagers and seriously wounded seven others in Jammu. On
August 18, 2000 militants entered a Hindu village in the Koteswara
area near Rajauri and indiscriminately fired at villagers, killing
four persons and injuring six others. On August 18, 2000 militants
killed three elderly men and a teenage boy and wounded two other
persons when they fired automatic guns at civilians in Ind
village, Udhampur. On August 20, 2000 a person shot and injured a
Hindu telephone kiosk operator in Qazi Gund, near Anantnag. Also
on August 20, 2000 militants entered the Hindu village of Indeh,
Udampur district and killed four members of a Hindu family. No
judicial or publicized action was taken against the militants and
none seems likely in the future.
In March 2002,
the Jammu and Kashmir government demanded an apology from former
VHP leader Vinay Katiyar (now Chief of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh)
for his comments on the Hazratbal shrine located in the region.
Katiyar had stated that the holy relic believed to be a single
hair from Prophet Mohammed's head and preserved at the Hazratbal
shrine actually belonged to a Hindu seer. After Katiyar made this
statement, large-scale demonstrations followed.
Violence against
Christians increased in 1999 and 2000, although it has decreased
since. A Home Ministry report released on April 26, 2001, admitted
that there had been "an increase in attacks on Christians and
their institutions in the year 2000," and went on to claim that
communal violence as a whole had declined by 9 percent. The
outbreak of societal violence against Christians that occurred
during 1999 and 2000, which apparently was sparked by rumors of
forced conversions of Hindus to Christianity, was not repeated
during the period covered by this report. However, tensions
persist, and the underlying resentment of Christians by Hindus
sometimes leads to violent confrontations. In late April 2001, the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India said that while incidents of
violence against the Christian community had decreased, "that does
not mean that the threat perception has also decreased" among
Christians.
Christian
missionaries have been operating schools and medical clinics for
many years in tribal areas. Tribals (who have no caste status) and
Dalits (who are at the lowest end of the caste system) occupy the
very lowest position in the social hierarchy. However, they have
made socioeconomic gains as a result of the missionary schools and
other institutions, which, among other things, have increased
literacy among low-caste and non-caste persons. Some higher-caste
Hindus resent these gains. They blame missionaries for the
resulting disturbance in the traditional Hindu social order as
better educated Dalits, tribals, and members of the lower castes
no longer accept their disadvantaged status as readily as they
once did. Some Hindu groups fear that Christians may try to
convert large numbers of lower-caste Hindus, using economic or
social welfare incentives. Upper-caste Hindus, the membership base
of the BJP and RSS, are afraid that this may destroy the rigid
caste hierarchy. Many acts of violence against Christians stem
from these fears.
Citizens often
refer to schools, hospitals, and other institutions as
"missionary" even when they are owned and run entirely by
indigenous Christian citizens. By using the adjective
"missionary," the RSS taps into a longstanding fear of foreign
religious domination.
Anti Christian
violence has included killings. In December 2001, a 22-year-old
nun, Sarita Toppo, was killed in a remote tribal village in
Sarguja district of Chattisgarh. In early December 2000, a
Catholic priest was killed in Manipur. Earlier in Kurpania, Bihar,
a nun was raped and a convent was looted.
Many persons also
have been injured in attacks on Christians. In November 2001, four
Christian missionaries were seriously injured when they were
attacked in Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh. In February 2001, four
persons were injured after purported members of the Sangh Parivar
attacked the Holy Family Church in Mysore, Karnataka. A group of
70 men, allegedly Bajrang Dal activists attacked the church during
the celebration of Mass. The VHP termed the incident as
"unfortunate," and asserted that the attackers did not belong to
the Sangh Parivar. In August activists from the VHP and Bajrang
Dal attacked three Christian nuns from an orphanage in Jhabua
district and some Muslim drivers in Madhya Pradesh. The victims
alleged that police later harassed them when they arrived at the
police station to lodge a complaint. In March 2001, alleged BJP
and RSS activists attacked a Christian congregation at Chevalla in
Andhra Pradesh. The alleged reason behind the attacks was the
pervasive perception that Christians were encouraging conversions
of Hindus.
In August 2000,
in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, a mob beat up a priest for distributing
Christian literature. In September 2000, a Catholic Church in
Karnataka was vandalized. In late November 2000, in Surat
district, Gujarat, a Hindu mob vandalized a small church
(converted house) in Chindhia village of Vyara Tehsil. The owner
of the church land, which is in a tribal area, was a tribal
convert to Christianity who reportedly willingly reconverted to
Hinduism and supported the vandals in reconsecrating the building
for Hindu worship. The Bishop of the Evangelical Church of India,
a small Protestant denomination, was refused an audience with the
Chief Minister of Gujarat to discuss this case. The Chief Minister
and Gujarat authorities considered the case a conflict over
conversion and land, and not a religiously motivated attack on
Christians. The lower (tehsil level) court ruled in favor of the
Christian group, but the district court ruled in favor of the
Hindu group’s possession of the premises. The Christian group has
appealed the decision to the Gujarat high court (the next higher
court).
In January 2001,
in a village near Udaipur, Rajasthan, Bajrang Dal activists
allegedly beat two Christian missionaries and their followers
because they were watching a film on the life of Christ. Both
missionaries were attempting to convert local tribals.
On May 7, 2001,
Father Jaideep, a Christian priest, was attacked in Jatni town,
Orissa. Local citizens reportedly were enraged by the priest's
distribution of pamphlets to propagate Christianity in a
Hindu-dominated area, allegedly participated in the attack. In
June 2001, a report in The Hindu, a leading national newspaper,
stated that more than 5,000 tribals were reconverted back to
Hinduism in Orissa over a period of 2 years.
In March 2002,
following the outbreak of communal riots in Gujarat, Christian
organizations reported that Christian institutions and
functionaries in the state also were attacked. These Christian
organizations blame the RSS and the VHP for ransacking and burning
Christian missions in Sanjeli and Dhudhia, although these charges
have not otherwise been confirmed. In April 2002, a church in
Managalore, Karnataka was attacked by approximately 60 persons
protesting alleged attempts to convert local Hindus to
Christianity. In August 2001 in Anakapalli, Andhra Pradesh, 43
Christian tombs in the local burial ground were destroyed.
Throughout June and July 2000, there were several bomb explosions
in or near Christian institutions in the southern states of
Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. No one was killed in the explosions,
which caused relatively minor damage. The blasts later were blamed
on Deendar Anjuman activists. Members of the group were taken into
custody, and the Government later banned the group (see Section
II). These incidents, as well as the killing of a principal at a
Christian school near Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, in 2000 led to
heated debates in Parliament during which opposition members
accused the Government of failing to rein in the radical elements
of the Sangh Parivar (see Section II).
In May 2001, at
the Banavali village of Salcete Tehsil in South Goa, a Christian
priest named Satirino Antao tried to sell a disputed school
property to a splinter Christian group calling themselves the
"Believers." The majority of the school’s parents were Catholics
who opposed the move. Reportedly on May 20, 2001, after a heated
meeting, the parents vandalized school property and on May 28,
2001, allegedly assaulted Father Antao. The Archbishop’s office
claimed that Antao had been removed as priest of Banavali church
in 1973 and had no right to sell the school because it belongs to
the Catholic Church. At the end of the period covered by this
report, the case against Antao remained in the Goa High Court.
On May 28, 2001, in Kapadwanj in Kheda district in Gujarat,
members of the VHP stopped a funeral procession to prevent the
burial of a Christian in a disputed burial ground. The police used
tear gas to dispel the VHP members, but the body had to be moved
to Ahmedabad for burial.
On March 8, 2001,
K.S. Sudarshan made a speech advocating the "Indianization" of
Islam and Christianity. He stated that [Muslims and Christians]
"should sever their links with the Mecca and the Pope and instead
become swadeshi." He also had stated that Christians should
"reinterpret their scriptures" in a manner more in keeping with
Hindu cultural norms. Catholics took special exception to this;
the Archbishop of Delhi pointed out that the Indian Christian
church is 2,000 years old (traditionally dating from the Apostle
Thomas), and that although the spiritual head was the Pope, the
day-to-day administration of the church was entirely in Indian
hands. The RSS published an article entitled "Foreign
Missionaries, Quit India:RSS" in their journal The Organiser, in
which they attacked missionary-backed Christian institutions in
the country. In March 2001, in Orissa, Christian
Archbishop Cheenath gave a speech objecting to an amendment to the
Orissa Religious Freedom Act which he believed would make
conversion more difficult. He said that fears of forced conversion
were not credible. He noted that, although Christian schools have
for generations educated a far larger percentage of citizens than
there are Christians in the general population, Christians make up
slightly less of the population today than they did in the 1991
census.
In September
2001, some Christian leaders, believing that violence against
Christians had declined significantly since the summer of 2000,
agreed to meet with leaders of Hindu organizations. RSS chief K.S.
Sudarshan stated there was a need for more such meetings between
the RSS and Christians to create an atmosphere of peace and to
remove misgivings and fears within the minority community.
However, in 2001 the RSS angered minority communities by publicly
challenging the "Indian-ness" of religious minorities. On December
31, 2001, RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan addressed a meeting of
volunteers of the Hindu Swayamsewak Sangh (a global organization
of expatriate Hindus) in a suburb of Mumbai. He said that only the
RSS can serve as the bulwark against what he claimed was the
Catholic Church’s agenda of converting large Asian populations to
Christianity.
In Christian
majority areas, Christians sometimes are the oppressors. In
Tripura, there were several cases of harassment of non-Christians
by Christian members of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT),
a militant tribal group with an evangelical bent. For example,
NLFT tribal insurgents have prohibited Hindu and Muslim festivals
in areas that they control, cautioned women not to wear
traditional Hindu tribal attire, and prohibited indigenous forms
of worship. In Assam, where the population is increasing rapidly,
the issue of Bangladeshi migrants (who generally are Muslim) has
become very sensitive among the Assamese (predominantly Hindu)
population, which considers itself to be increasingly outnumbered.
According to the
Ministry of Home Affairs, approximately 51,000 Pandit families
fled their homes in Jammu and Kashmir due to the violence between
1990 and 1993. Of these, 4,674 families are living in refugee
camps in Jammu, 235 families are in camps in Delhi, and 18
families are in Chandigarh. The rest still are displaced, but are
living outside of the camps in Jammu and Delhi. The Pandit
community criticizes bleak physical, educational, and economic
conditions in the camps and fears that a negotiated solution
giving greater autonomy to the Muslim majority might threaten its
own survival in Jammu and Kashmir as a culturally and historically
distinctive group. In August 2000, the Jammu and Kashmir
government adopted a proposal designed to facilitate the return of
Pandits to the Kashmir valley and rehabilitation of the Pandits.
However, various Pandit groups criticized the proposal for failing
to address the political aspirations of Pandits, for failing to
provide economic support and adequate security for returning
Pandits, and for creating special economic zones that would
aggravate communal tensions. The proposal was abandoned during
2001, in large part due to the Government's inability to ensure
the personal security of returnees.
The country’s
caste system generates severe tensions due to disparities in
social status, economic opportunity, and, occasionally, labor
rights. These tensions frequently have led to or exacerbated
violent confrontations and human rights abuses. However,
intercaste violence generally does not have a significant
religious component.
The country’s
caste system historically has strong ties to Hinduism. Hinduism
delineates clear social strata, assigning highly structured
religious, cultural, and social roles, privileges, and
restrictions to each caste and subcaste. Members of each
caste--and frequently each subcaste--are expected to fulfill a
specific set of duties (known as dharma) in order to secure
elevation to a higher caste through rebirth. Dalits are viewed by
many Hindus as separate from or "below" the caste system;
nonetheless, they too are expected to follow their dharma if they
hope to achieve caste in a future life. Despite efforts by
reform-minded modern leaders to eliminate the discriminatory
aspects of caste, societal, political, and economic pressures
continue to ensure its widespread practice. Caste today therefore
is as much a cultural and social phenomenon as a religious one.
The Constitution
gives the President the authority to specify, in a schedule
attached to the Constitution, historically disadvantaged castes,
Dalits, and "tribals" (members of indigenous groups historically
outside the caste system). These "scheduled" castes, Dalits, and
tribes, are entitled to affirmative action and hiring quotas in
employment, benefits from special development funds, and special
training programs. The impact of reservations and quotas on
society and on the groups they are designed to benefit is a
subject of active debate within the country. Some contend that
they have achieved the desired effect and should be modified,
while others strongly argue that they should be continued, as the
system has not addressed adequately the long term discriminatory
impact of caste. According to the 1991 census, scheduled castes,
including Dalits, made up 16 percent and scheduled tribes made up
8 percent of the population.
Muslims,
Christians, and Sikhs historically have rejected the concept of
caste, despite the fact that most of them descended from low caste
Hindu families and continue to suffer the same social and economic
limitations of low caste Hindus. Low caste Hindus who convert to
Christianity lose their eligibility for affirmative action
programs. Those who become Buddhists, Jains, or Sikhs do not, as
the Constitution groups members of those faiths with Hindus and
specifies that the Constitution shall not affect "the operation of
any existing law or prevent the state from making any law
providing for social welfare and reform" of these groups. In some
states, there are government jobs reserved for Muslims of low
caste descent.
Members of
religious minorities and lower castes criticized the 2001 census
as discriminating against them. They claim that they frequently
were not allowed to register their correct caste status. Census
results are used to apportion government jobs and higher education
slots to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In February 2001,
the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India strongly criticized the
census for "discriminating against weaker sections of society" by
maintaining that Scheduled Castes may only be Hindu, Sikh, or
Buddhist. The National Council of Churches in India also protested
the census. Despite the fact that Christianity does not recognize
caste at all, Christian leaders recognize that society in general
still does, and that the 50 percent of the country’s Christians
who are of Dalit origin may be disadvantaged by not being allotted
shares of jobs and places in education under the Scheduled
Castes/Scheduled Tribes provisions of the Constitution. Dalit
converts to Christianity claim that societal discrimination
against them on the basis of caste continues, even within the
Christian community. One indicator of the continued slowness of
economic and social upward mobility of Dalit Christians is that,
of the 180 Catholic bishops in the entire country, only 5 are
Dalits. Muslim Dalits, who account for most of the country’s 130
million Muslims, also were not counted as Dalits in the census.
Muslim leaders have not protested the census issue vigorously.
In 2001 Human
Rights Watch reported that the practice of dedicating or marrying
young, prepubescent girls to a Hindu deity or temple as "servants
of god," or "Devadasis," reportedly continues in several southern
states, including Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Devadasis, who
generally are Dalits, may not marry. They must live apart from
their families and are required to provide sexual services to
priests and high caste Hindus. Reportedly, many eventually are
sold to urban brothels. In 1992 the state of Karnataka passed the
Karnataka Devadasi (Prohibition) Act and called for the
rehabilitation of Devadasis, but this law reportedly is not
enforced effectively and criminalizes the actions of Devadasis.
Since Devadasis are by custom required to be sexually available to
higher caste men, it reportedly is difficult for them to obtain
justice from the legal system if they are raped by higher caste
men.
Despite the
incidents of violence and discrimination during the period covered
by this report, relations between various religious groups
generally are amicable among the substantial majority of citizens.
There are efforts at ecumenical understanding that bring religious
leaders together to defuse religious tensions. The annual Sarva
Dharma Sammelan (All Religious Convention) and the frequently held
Mushairas (Hindu-Urdu poetry sessions) are some events that help
improve inter community relations. Prominent secularists of all
religions make public efforts to show respect for other religions
by celebrating their holidays and attending social events such as
weddings. Institutions such as the army consciously forge
loyalties that transcend religion. After episodes of violence
against Christians, Muslim groups have protested against the
mistreatment of Christians by Hindu extremists, and in 2001,
prominent Catholics spoke out against the killings of six Sikhs in
Kashmir.
Section IV.
U.S. Government Policy
The U.S. Embassy
continued to promote religious freedom through contact with the
country’s senior leadership, as well as with state and local
officials. The U.S. Embassy and Consulates regularly meet with
religious leaders and report on events and trends that affect
religious freedom.
During the period
covered by this report, U.S. Embassy and Consulate officials met
with important leaders of all of the significant minority
communities. The NGO and missionary communities in the country are
extremely active on questions of religious freedom, and mission
officers meet with local NGO’s regularly.
The Ambassador
and other senior U.S. officials publicly expressed regret over the
communal violence in Gujarat, extended condolences to the victims,
and urged all parties to resolve their difference peacefully. In
addition, the USAID office provided funding for an NGO program
designed to assist internally displaced persons in Gujarat.
U.S. officials
from the Consulate General in Mumbai traveled to Ahmedabad within
days of the start of the violence in Gujarat, to meet with
officials and private citizens about the violence. As rioting
continued, other Mumbai Consulate General officers traveled to the
state to assess the situation. Consulate officers also met in
Mumbai with a range of NGO, business, media and other contacts,
including Muslim leaders, to monitor the aftermath of the violence
in Gujarat.
Released on October 7, 2002
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