By Rama Lakshmi
Why is a retired and much-decorated Christian police officer who valiantly fought terrorist groups in the 1980s feeling threatened in India today?
In a column in the Indian Express newspaper on Monday, police officer Julio Ribeiro said recent attacks on Christian institutions in India make him feel as if he is on the “hit list" of conservative Hindu groups.
“Today, in my 86th year, I feel threatened, not wanted, reduced to a stranger in my own country,” Ribeiro wrote. “I am not an Indian anymore, at least in the eyes of the proponents of the Hindu Rashtra,” or the Hindu nation.
The column cast a spotlight on questions that have nagged many Indians for some time — are the recent church attacks and controversial statements against religious conversions carried out by Christian missionary groups part of a deliberate plan by Hindu extremist groups that feel buoyed by the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi? Are Christians being singled out? Or should the incidents be treated as regular crimes?
Hindu revivalist leaders and some of Modi’s colleagues have even said that the real motive behind Mother Teresa’s social work was to convert Hindus. They have urged Christians to re-convert to the Hindu faith in a campaign called “homecoming.” There have been a few attacks on churches.
Last week, a 71-year-old nun was gang-raped by robbers in the eastern state of West Bengal. One minister in the state government said the “homecoming” campaign has created a climate of religious intolerance, but the police dismissed any religious motive behind the rape.
During his visit to India in January, President Obama had said that some acts of recent intolerance would have shocked Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi, India’s revered independence leader and an advocate of nonviolence.
A few days later, Modi followed up by saying that his government will “not allow any religious group, belonging to the majority or the minority, to incite hatred against others, overtly or covertly.”
In his column, Ribeiro wrote that recent incidents “added to a sense of siege” among India's Christian community, which makes up a little over 2 percent of the country's 1.2 billion population.
But police authorities in New Delhi have said that churches are not the only religious institutions being attacked. In 2014, police said, 206 Hindu temples and dozens of other religious facilities were burgled and vandalized in the city.
On Twitter, Ribeiro earned support as well as criticism on Monday.
Rama Lakshmi has been with The Post's India bureau since 1990. She is a staff writer and India social media editor for Post World.
Why is a retired, Christian tough cop feeling threatened in India today? - The Washington Post
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