I think this article is spot on on what really happens in india...
Religion, politics and violence in IndiaHong Kong, China — Police uncovered some 20 homemade bombs at the residence of a politician in India’s Kerala state Sunday. The bombs were found wrapped in plastic bags, placed in a bucket and buried in a hole on the property of Vipin Das, a leader of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh organization. The police said the pungent odor of newly mixed chemicals pervaded the area.
The RSS is one of India’s mainstream Hindu fundamentalist political parties. It claims a humanist platform aimed at revitalizing the spiritual and moral traditions of India. It requires only basic common sense to understand that humanism and homemade bombs have nothing in common. In the Indian context, however, what is common is the close nexus between violence, religion and politics.
The RSS is not unusual in mixing this volatile cocktail. Mainstream religions in India – Hindus, Christians and Muslims – are all equally responsible for advocating violence, conniving with politicians and playing politics in India.
The first to disagree with the above statement would most likely be the Christians. They promote a general image of performing selfless missionary work, charity and endless hours of public service. It is not rare for bishops and other high-ranking Christian leaders to command their followers to take up arms, however. For example, it is common in central Kerala, particularly in Ernakulam district, for churchgoers to carry small weapons when they attend Sunday masses.
Every year at least two dozen cases of assault are registered against individuals and priests in Ernakulam district alone, usually against fellow believers due to a rift in the church. In order to even enter the cemetery of the Mulanthuruthy Mar Thoman Church a person needs prior permission from the executive magistrate of the district. The court has ordered so because in the past “believers” have tried to desecrate the tombs of their deceased rivals, among other things.
The parishioners of this church are notorious for having fought each other with weapons during Sunday masses. The parishioners, which include some senior politicians of the state, have rallied behind the two factions that fight literally tooth and nail to gain control of the church’s assets. The politicians and clergy have used each other to help them win their battles.
As for Hindu fundamentalists, a cursory glance at any Indian newspaper will provide the latest details in the ongoing war sparked by upper-caste Hindu-sponsored violence.
The Muslim community too is no exception. There are Muslim religious schools in India that preach violence in the name of the Koran. There are Islamist teachers who tell their young students that violence is justified to get rid of the infidels. It is public knowledge that some of the “most wanted” criminals from the north Indian states find safe haven in these madrassas of central Kerala.
Having said this about the religious institutions, the secular front is not much different. There are secular leaders in India who propagate nothing but violence to attain their political goals. But of course they do stand apart from their fundamentalist religious brethren, because they are led not by religious beliefs practiced in secret beyond the public eye, but by so-called socialist philosophy, which they claim to be preaching to the ordinary villager.
A meeting held Sunday at Kochi city in Kerala was a typical caricature of what religion and politics are in India. The meeting was organized to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ordination of Catholicos Baselios Thomas I of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church. It was attended by the union home minister representing the central government, the chief minister of the state and some important members of his cabinet from the Communist Party, the opposition leader of the state and the former railway minister from the fundamentalist Hindu party. One after the other, everyone who had a chance to speak was eager to talk about national security and the problems posed by religious fundamentalism.
The media, digital and print, celebrated the occasion with full color pictures and reports of the meeting. In doing this they catered to and satisfied their readers, which they maintain by reporting news about different factions from time to time. Even the mainstream media in India is divided along religious and political lines. Some publishing houses are so dominant that independent and truthful reporting is getting harder and harder to find.
Of course one could view such a gathering as a symbol of political and religious harmony. But for those who know India well, the picture is clear – at the end of the day they are all birds of the same feather, and their empty words mean nothing much.
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(Bijo Francis is a human rights lawyer currently working with the Asian Legal Resource Center in Hong Kong. He is responsible for the South Asia desk at the center. Mr. Francis has practiced law for more than a decade and holds an advanced master's degree in human rights law.)
Topic: So hindus like the forced conversions too.....