Source:  www.assistnews.net

Date:  October 19, 2007

By Jeremy Reynalds
Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

BANGALORE, INDIA (ANS) -- Despite India remaining healthily democratic, freedom of religion is steadily on the decline.

That's according to John Dayal, a journalist-turned- Christian activist, who is now national president of the All India Catholic Union and secretary general of the All India Christian Council, founded in 1919.

"Many of the rights have been systematically diluted over the years by governments, courts and fundamentalist forces," Dayal told Ecumenical News International (ENI) in a recent interview about his soon-to-be- released book on religious freedom in India.

"A Matter of Equity: Freedom of Faith in Secular India" is a critique of religious freedom in the country. Deayal told ENI that this freedom, or lack of it, ranges from the steady dilution of constitutional guarantees to harsh treatment meted out to Christians and minorities in every corner of the country.

The book is a collection of articles Dayal wrote both as a journalist, and after he became outspoken on issues concerning India's Christian community.

In his writings, ENI reported, Dayal describes a steady upsurge in anti-Christian violence from the late 1990's, when the Hindu nationalist BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) emerged as a strong political force.

"Even before the BJP came up, religious freedom had been facing curbs both by the government and the judiciary,"Dayal, who lists several documents in his book to support his claim, told ENI.

ENI said Dayal points out that the first anti-conversion bill, which restricts people converting to Christianity, was introduced by the avowedly secular Congress party in the 1960's. The BJP, Dayal claims, now emulates this legislation.

Dayal also says, ENI reported, that Christians enjoyed "better religious freedom three decades ago than now," and notes that lower courts in several areas have often been "hostile to Christian grievances where they get little relief."

While India stopped allowing missionaries to enter the country decades ago, ENI said Dayal comments that, "Christian missionaries who have done exemplary service to the nation have been unceremoniously packed off by the government denying them visa extensions on one pretext or other."

Apart from that, the author says that the State machinery has been used to harass Christians and their institutions, even by secular governments.

"In this context, one will wonder what is the meaning of the religious freedom spelt out under fundamental freedom in our constitution," ENI reported Dayal says.

"But, what we (Christians) have faced from 1990's has capped it all," argues Dayal, who has visited almost every troubled spot in the country following attacks on Christians.

"A Matter of Equity" cites systematic and orchestrated attacks on Christian targets by Hindu fundamentalist forces that ENI reported the author laments as being rooted in a "belief in violence."

Dayal says that during recent times India has recorded hundreds of incidents of deliberate violence against Christians, including the murders of priests, rapes of nuns, and brutal assaults on missionaries, besides attacks on Christian gatherings and buildings. On the other hand, ENI reported, Dayal says following the steady rise in atrocities, churches have also begun to speak up and come out on to the streets.

However, Dayal says that church leaders have failed to provide strong leadership for the 26 million Christians in India, or "to demand from the government what has been taken away over the decades."

"A Matter of Equity: Freedom of Faith in Secular India," by John Dayal, is published by New Delhi-based Anamika Publishers and Distributors.

For more information or to purchase the book e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it