The Christian Science Monitor

Discomfort among other Christians

"Even the older Protestant churches are unhappy with the evangelicals," says Bishop Chacko, head of the Roman Catholic diocese in Meghnagar in Jhabua district. "It is said that they are irresponsible. Consequences don't matter to them. They put the fire and then they leave it to burn."

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In Jhabua, distrust of the Christian community led some Hindus to falsely assume Christian foul play in the murder of a 10-year-old Hindu girl named Sujata.

Her body was found Jan. 11, 2004, in the basement bathroom of the Roman Catholic Church's Mission School in Jhabua, where nearly 2,500 students - most of them Hindus - attend. It was immediately apparent that the girl had been raped.

Police suspicion quickly turned toward the Catholic priests themselves, and several priests were held in police custody for 46 hours without being charged and without food or water, although no charges were ever placed.

Hindu activists mobilized

Two days later, after news of the murder began to circulate in local papers, Hindu activists began a campaign of agitation. One Hindu sadhu, or ascetic monk, planted himself in front of the church gates in protest. Thousands of Hindus joined him, some coming from neighboring towns and from as far away as Gujarat state.

Ram Shankar Chanchal Trivedi, a local schoolteacher and member of a Hindu nationalist organization called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Corps), says the brutality of the murder, and the appearance of Christian culpability, got local Hindus upset.

"She was a little girl who was brutally murdered, and people became emotional and aggressive; they couldn't tolerate it," says Mr. Trivedi sitting on a bed in simple middle-class home. He sighs. "People used to live happily here, but since the political leaders started taking advantage of the murder, it became a political issue."

Now that police have arrested a young drifter - a Hindu from Indore - who admitted to killing Sujata, Trivedi says that the Jhabua riots are a closed matter. But the tensions between the Hindu and Christian communities remain.

The biggest problem, he says, is the new wave of Christian conversions, which offends many Hindus.

" Adivasis are Hindus," Trivedi says, using the Hindi word for tribal. "Tribal people are illiterate, they don't know about religion. So Hindu people object because they are bothering tribal people who can't defend themselves. The tribals can be tempted by money, they should not be exploited."

He pauses. "It will become dangerous if conversion activity continues. It can be a big issue unless other churches don't make it clear to these people that conversion must stop."

For the Rev. Mahipul Bhuriya, a parish priest and a member of a major local tribe, the Bhils, there is danger from both the Hindu right and from the Christian evangelicals.

"I have been drawing a line between good churches that serve and bad churches that are only interested in conversion," says Father Bhuriya. "I tell people, 'I belong to a church that does not breed hatred,' and my Hindu friends are beginning to understand."

In his small Jhabua apartment, Verghese says that violence will not deter him from doing what he sees as God's work.

He adds that RSS activists burned 25 houses in the town of Ali Rajpur in retaliation for the murder of Sujata, and 14 members of his church have been jailed, blamed for the shooting death of an RSS activist.

Far from being terrorized, Verghese says his followers have been strengthened by the riots.

"There is some fear, yes, but the believers have more fear of the Word of God," he says, bouncing his 4-year-old daughter Praisey on his knee.

"There are some people who know very well that the moment Christian missionaries leave, their social development will stop. All the best schools, the best hospitals, are run by missionaries," he says, referring to schools like the Catholic Mission School, built by older, mainstream churches.

"But there are also people who know very well that when the adivasis are better educated and have better lives, they cannot be exploited anymore," Verghese says. "And that is the main reason for the violence against Christians."

Hindu nationalist outreach

Many Christians agree that the Hindu reaction against Christian missionaries is more deeply rooted in economics than in religion.

Historically, higher-caste Hindus treated tribesmen as inferior, and reinforced this in their economic relations. Most tribal people were unable to own their own land, so they farmed land owned by Hindus. As illiterate sharecroppers, tribesmen were kept subservient. As worshipers of ancestors and animals, tribal people were seen as backward.

But in recent years, the RSS and other Hindu nationalist groups have begun to reach out to adivasis, partly to prevent their conversion to other faiths, and partly to expand their political bases.

Now, RSS activists distribute Hindu idols in tribal villages and teach adivasis how to worship during Hindu festivals such as Ganpati, the festival of Ganesh. Similarly, the RSS's political ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has begun heavy recruitment of adivasis, an effort seen as crucial in winning state elections in Madhya Pradesh in December 2003.

Heavyweight political players like Narendra Modi of neighboring Gujarat state campaigned in Jhabua district, promising that a state BJP government would use Gujarat as a "Hindutva model" for its rule in Madhya Pradesh. BJP supporters say that he was referring to Modi's strong economic record.

Critics saw something darker, the use of Hindu mobs to attack religious minorities, as occurred in the Gujarat riots of 2002.

Ajai Sahni says there is no short-term solution to the problem, as long as religious identity is a major tool for mobilizing Indian voters at election time, and as long as every major party uses religious fears and prejudices to organize their support.

"One measure that is needed, however, is a very harsh law to punish those who engage in communal violence," says Mr. Sahni. "Such a law has long been overdue in India."

		COMMUNAL STRAIN: The Rev. Mahipal Bhuriya stands in front of a church that was stoned by Hindus after church members were falsely blamed for a murder. SCOTT BALDAUF