November, 2007

India: Desperately needing divine intervention -- a call to pray for India

- plus three other current prayer needs     

India, which is around 80 percent Hindu and 12 percent Muslim, has a population of more than one billion of whom some 25 million (2.4 percent) are Christian. The Indian Church is ancient and traditional, dating back to the first century and the Apostle Thomas. It is also new and dynamic with an indigenous missionary movement emerging in the 1960s such that India is now second only to USA as a missionary-sending nation. Most Indian missionaries minister cross-culturally in India. Indian states are extremely diverse: Mizoram and Nagaland for instance are mostly Christian, whilst other states like all those across the northern tribal belt are still pioneer mission fields where there are numerous and large unreached people groups. Many of those states, such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, are in the grip of Hindutva.

'Hindutva' is a fascist Hindu nationalist and militant ideology being advanced by Hindu nationalist politicians for political gain. In the February 1998 federal elections, the Hindu nationalist Barantya Janata Party (BJP) emerged with the largest numbers of votes. They headed a coalition government that saw persecution of Christians immediately and dramatically escalate. The United Christian Forum for Human Rights reported there had been 108 separate cases of violence against Christians reported during 1998 - two per week - and more than the total in India's 50 years of post-independence history. The BJP then suffered a shock election loss in May 2004. After months of infighting and reflection, the BJP emerged in 2005 with a strategy to regain federal power, preferably in the 2009 elections, and preferably with a clear majority.

The BJP strategy is to convert the mostly illiterate animist tribal Indians to Hinduism and then dragnet the Hindu vote through an aggressive ! Hindutva campaign. The BJP is presently campaigning across the nation to convince tribal animists (who traditionally vote for non-Hindu parties) that they are really Hindus who should come into the 'Hindu mainstream' for the defence of their beloved India. Defence? Yes: defence against a terrible enemy - the Christian missionary! Emissaries of Hindutva charge Christian missionaries (mostly Indians) with dividing Indian families and causing social unrest, as well as being tools of the CIA through whom they allege the USA is undermining Indian national security!

Before 2005, members of Hindutva militias carried out nearly all the attacks on Christians. Today, though the militias are expanding, a significant proportion of attacks are perpetrated by Christians' Hindu neighbours who have been incited to violence by the BJP's Hindutva scaremongering. Before 2005 most attacks against Christians were in the northern tribal belt. Today they are nationwide, from tribal Bihar in the north to cosmopolitan Bangalore (the 'Silicon Valley o! f India') in the south. Furthermore, multitudes no longer see them as shameful acts of intolerance but as heroic acts of patriotism.

On 17 November, the All India Catholic Union reported there have been 190 cases of violence against Christians so far this year - more than four a week. These are not common crimes like robbery but instances of Christians being assaulted, raped or murdered solely because of their Christian faith. Persecution is most severe in states under BJP rule, with Karnataka recording the most atrocities. Persecution is at higher levels than ever before, and the BJP re-election campaign is advancing unchallenged.

PLEASE PRAY AND ASK GOD TO -

• bring the Indian Church through these days of trial, refined, sanctified, united and triumphant. 'For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly r! ealms.' (Ephesians 6:12 NIV)
  
  
• inter vene in the Indian situation: may he fill India's federal politicians with indignation over the religious intolerance and anoint leaders (Isaiah 45:1) to confront Hindutva and expose its lies and religious intolerance; may he awaken Indians to the dangers of Hindutva (including repression and isolation) and the destructive lies and hateful incitement of its advocates.