After a chorus of protests and pleas, two nuns from Kerala are granted bail in Chhattisgarh, and some in Kerala's Christian leadership celebrate it as if they have achieved a miraculous breakthrough with the BJP governments in charge at both the state and central levels. The truth of the matter is, these fabricated charges are still pending, and a trial could be set anytime soon. Nevertheless, this whole exercise gives the Christian church a chance to take a fresh look in the mirror and see whether they are truly following their mission with integrity and honor.
There have been century-old debates that divided the Church in India on denominational lines, with deep-rooted disagreement on some theological terms. However, for a member of the Bajarang Dal in North India, the youth wing of the RSS, there are no differences between Catholics or Pentecostals. Still, they view them as Christians who are about to convert their family and friends to a 'foreign religion'. To them, it matters little whether those folks decided on their own through the hearing of the word directly from someone or by getting convinced of their faith online. Moreover, they do not respect the provision of the constitution that guarantees every citizen the freedom to choose to believe or not to believe in any religious philosophy.
The Church in Kerala has been too complacent about what has been happening to the body politic in India. They felt insular at home, which has very little or no history of government-led persecution of minorities or harassment of their mission work. Although Modi's ascendance to power drastically altered the fate of the Christians in North India, especially in Tribal lands, Kerala Christians failed to see the impending danger.
In 2024 alone, there were over 800 attacks on Christians or Christian Institutions across India. There are stories of Pastors who are killed, worship places invaded, churches vandalized or completely burned down, religious leaders being arrested and incarcerated in jail, a litany of human rights violations right on our face. In Manipur alone, over 240 churches were burned down, and the city of Imphal was ethnically cleansed of Kukis, who are mostly Christians. Although Hindu extremists were behind the plotting and the carnage, the BJP government successfully created an image of tribal conflict, camouflaging the real intent behind the mayhem.
Through it all, the Christian church leaders remained mum, occasionally expressing their displeasure through carefully crafted words that do not offend anyone. They appear to be more interested in protecting their institutional interests rather than standing up for truth and justice. Many of them would hobnob with the BJP's top brass on occasion, like Christmas, and wouldn't utter a word displeasing their hosts. It never bothered them that the Prime Minister never visited Manipur, but rather globetrotting around the world talking about 'Sanatana Dharma'.
When the Prime Minister renamed Good Friday and Easter as working days for central government employees and renamed them as 'Good Governance Day', there was hardly any outcry. Christian leaders still didn't get it, the mere fact that the rug was being pulled right under their feet. When Stan Swamy was denied a straw for his inability to drink directly from a cup due to Parkinson's disease, they couldn't comprehend that this was an onslaught that had become a regular feature of their foundational faith. Either they were incoherent or hiding in open space, disgracing themselves.
Violations of fundamental rights of the Christians have been on the rise along with the ascendance of the Hindutva right, which powers RSS and its subsidiary organizations like Viswa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal. In the early 2000s, coinciding with the arrival of Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, there was a sharp escalation of attacks on Churches, prayer halls, and Christian homes around Christmas. In the Dang district, primarily a tribal area, at least 20 churches were destroyed, and Christian tribals were assaulted and pressured to renounce their faith. Although overt violence has subsided in the area, surveillance, harassment, and social pressure on Christians continued. This Gujarat model seemed to have followed him to Delhi when he was sworn in as the Prime Minister and has become a pan-India strategy for Christians.
As Modi commences his administrative duty in Delhi, just as it happened in Gujarat, there was a series of attacks on churches in Delhi that occurred primarily between 2014 and February 2015, triggering national and international concern about the safety and well-being of religious minorities in India. The largest and prominent attack happened at the St. Sebastian Church in Dilshad Gardens on December 1, and the church was gutted by fire. On January 3, 2015, the Church of Resurrection in Rohini was vandalized, and the decorations were damaged. Our Lady of Church in Vikaspuri, St. Alphonso's church in Vasant Kunj, and the Holy Child Auxilium School in Vasant Vihar also suffered the same fate. It is inconceivable that these incidents could occur in isolation, right under the noses of national security agencies and law enforcement authorities within the heavily guarded capital of the nation!
By now, we are all familiar with the Manipur story. Those attacks appeared to have been premeditated and well-planned. In the valley, the reports indicate the precision pinpointing of minority houses that were selected and burnt. The Hindu militants, who mainly belong to Arambai Tenngol and Meitei Leepun, appeared to have the tacit support of the Police and the law enforcement authorities. Therefore, the theory promoted by vested interests that there is hardly any religious angle to the whole unrest is quite suspect. BJP has long been critical of the Northeastern states and blamed foreigners, especially missionaries, for their separatist tendencies. This is a payback and part of a well-orchestrated BJP effort to remake the Northeast to their liking.
Why is the BJP engaged in such polarizing and punishing enterprises instead of focusing on nation-building and social and economic progress? The simple answer is their deep-seated commitment to the RSS ideology. Narendra Modi was an RSS Pracharak before he was tapped to become the Gujarat CM. RSS is the ideological backbone of the BJP's anti-minority Project that is deeply rooted in Hindutva's cultural and nationalistic Project manifested in political symbolism, policy, and narrative framing. It also underpins campaigns of cultural policing and community coercion, mostly directed at Christians and Muslims.
Their so-called Project is guided by their spiritual mentor and theoretician, M.S. Golwalker, also known as Guruji. He wrote in his 1939 tract (Our Nationhood Defined) about Christians and other Semitic minorities. Golwalkar argued that religion is central to nationhood, placing Hinduism at the core. He rejected secular or territorial nationalism in favor of a cultural definition of nationhood rooted in five unities: geography, race, religion, culture, and language. He wrote explicitly that Semitic faiths—Muslims and Christians—should either fully assimilate into Hindu culture or remain subordinate with no citizens' rights, privileges, or protections unless they abandoned their religious and cultural identity. Golwalkar went further, praising nazi Germany's racial policies as a model, arguing that Germany's "purging of the Semitic races" served as a warning that mixed cultures cannot be assimilated into a united whole—and was a lesson India should heed.
It's important to recognize the profound influence of Christians in the academic, health, and social arenas, despite constituting only 2.3% of the population. Their contributions have been significant, shaping these sectors in ways that benefit society as a whole. The tightening of FCRA is a clear attempt to undermine these contributions, with over 20,000 entities already affected.
Despite being aware of the situation, the Church leadership in Kerala, a state with a significant Christian population, has made a decision that will forever stain the Christian community's principles. Some have chosen to align with the BJP, either to protect their institutional interests or due to the misguided belief that 'my enemy's enemy is my friend'. This betrayal of long-held principles is a stark reminder of the detrimental effects of religious nationalism, which is in direct conflict with the biblical call for universal brotherhood, equality before God, and protection of the marginalized.
Those nuns were accused of human trafficking only because someone changed their religion at no cost to anyone else. The caste hierarchy, a social structure deeply intertwined with religious beliefs, hated those young people who were traveling with the Nuns to gain their freedom from enslavement, poverty, and perennial suppression of their rights and denial of an opportunity for enlightenment. They are afraid of them finding their own identity, gaining their freedom, and making a mark of their own. They want to keep the status quo going. These are sadistic elements that have been in entrenched control for centuries over these poor folks. Yet, these Nuns, with their resilience and determination, are upsetting their apple cart.
The arrest and detention of Catholic nuns in Chhattisgarh—notably Sisters Preethi Mary and Vandana Francis—should serve as a serious wake-up call for Christians in Kerala and across India. While Kerala Christians may feel relatively secure due to the state’s secular and pluralistic traditions, the incident in Chhattisgarh reveals a larger, systemic pattern of hostility toward Christian identity under the current political climate. It is about time for the Christian leadership to come out of their closets and seek the truth!
