India: Religious Freedom Developments

Despite India's democratic traditions, religious minorities in India have periodically been subject tosevere violence, including mass killings, in what is called "communal violence." Those responsiblefor the violence are rarely ever held to account. 

It has become increasingly clear that an increase in suchviolence has coincided with the rise in political influence of groups associated with the Sangh Parivar, acollection of Hindu extremist nationalist organizations that view non-Hindus as foreign to India and hencedeserving of attack. 

With the rise in power of the Sangh Parivar's political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP, the current ruling party in the national government coalition), the climate of immunity for theperpetrators of attacks on minorities appears to have strengthened.

Since 1998, there have been hundreds of attacks on Christian leaders, worshippers, and churches throughoutIndia. These attacks have included killings, torture, rape and harassment of church staff, destruction ofchurch property, disruption of church events, and attempts to force renunciation of Christianity andreconversion back to Hinduism.

At the end of February 2002, in the town of Godhra, a mob of Muslims set fire to a train resulting in thedeath of 58 Hindus. Within days, hundreds of Muslims were killed across Gujarat by Hindu mobs. In addition,hundreds of mosques and Muslim-owned businesses and other kinds of infrastructure were looted or destroyed.More than 100,000 fled their homes. Many Muslims were burned to death; others were stabbed or shot. 

Otheratrocities were committed against the victims, including the rape of Muslim women and girls; many weremutilated or burnt to death. India's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), an official body, found evidencein the killings of premeditation by members of Hindu extremist groups; complicity by Gujarat state governmentofficials; and police inaction in the midst of attacks on Muslims. Official reports issued in June by theGujarat Police Administration reveal that the Gujarati government failed to take even basic steps to halt theupsurge in violence against Muslims and that orders were given to police not to interfere with the Hindu mobs.

The NHRC also noted "widespread reports and allegations of well-organized persons, armed with mobiletelephones and addresses, singling out certain homes and properties for death and destruction in certaindistricts— sometimes within view of police stations and personnel," suggesting the attacks may havebeen planned in advance. 

Christians were also victims in Gujarat, and many churches were destroyed. There havealso been instances of retaliatory violence against Hindus.Although the BJP-led central government may not be directly responsible for instigating the violence againstreligious minorities, it is clear that the government is not doing all that it could to pursue theperpetrators of the attacks and to counteract the prevailing climate of hostility against these minoritygroups.

Though the severe violence in Gujarat provided the national government with adequate grounds— under theConstitution and existing laws to counteract communal violence— to invoke central rule in the state, the BJPgovernment did not do so, despite many requests and the fact that the killing of Muslims continued (on alesser scale) for many weeks. Some positive steps were taken by the federal government, particularly in thedispatching to Gujarat of a senior police official in May, after which time the violence largely ceased. 

However, many thousands remain as internally displaced persons, either in camps or elsewhere, without homes,employment, or businesses to return to. In July, despite the devastation and massive displacement of Muslimscaused by the riots, Gujarat's BJP government dissolved the state assembly in order to hold new elections inthe state. In response, the country's Election Commission found that the time was not conducive for theholding of elections, and ordered that they be delayed until later this year. It also recommended that thecentral government invoke presidential rule in Gujarat. 

In calling for a postponement of proposed balloting inGujarat and for the federal government toimpose presidential rule, the Election Commission concluded that "fear … is still a palpablereality" with the riot-victims "fearing risk to their life and property."