Hindu Extremist Attacks Escalated In Two Karnataka Districts In 2021
Attacks from Hindu extremists, including moral policing, increased substantially in just two of Karnataka’s districts, Udupi and Dakshin Kannada. The Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum, an NGO, counted 116 incidents last year, one for every three days, in this region. This count is the highest for the districts in four years.
The organization compiled the list by looking at cases of violence based on false allegations of religious conversion, cattle vigilantism, hate speech, desecration of places of worship, and other communal incidents.
“Members of the Muslim community are being attacked alleging that they are involved in Love Jehad. Christians are targeted alleging they are involved in conversion,” activist Suresh Bhat of the organization said.
In one incident in September, activists of Hindu Jagarana Vedike barged into a Christian prayer centre and alleged religious conversion. In October, Hindu extremists assaulted someone allegedly distributing Christian religious literature and handed him to the police.
Instead Of Arresting Hindu Attackers, Police Criminally Charge Dalit Family In Karnataka
The police in Karnataka’s Belagavi district falsely accused a Dalit family of attempt to murder after that family was attacked Hindu extremists from Bajrang Dal, a Hindu militia. The extremists had falsely accused the Dalits of carrying out conversions and attacked them. While the police acknowledged that they did not find an act of religious conversion at the Dalits’ residence, they still filed a case against the family.
“We have taken complaints from both groups and we are investigating the case but we have verified so far that there were no conversions happening. It was a prayer meeting that the family held every year in the week after Christmas,” police inspector Shrishail B. said. The incident occurred on the afternoon of December 29.
Akshaykumar Karaganvi, who said he was a Christian believer for 21 years, was holding prayers at his residence when the Hindu extremists forced their way in as they were getting ready for lunch. “Many people came in and started arguing with me. The men hit Bharathi, my sister-in-law, and took off her mangalsutra. Her son Sudhakar was also hit.”
Gujarat Court Defers Bail For Missionaries of Charity Nuns Accused Of Forced Conversions
A court in Gujarat state yet again adjourned hearings on the pleas of two Christian nuns for anticipatory bail in a case filed against them for carrying out forced conversions. The nuns belong to the Missionaries of Charity, which was founded by Nobel Prize winner St. Teresa of Kolkata. The nuns have denied that they were carrying out forced conversions.
In fact, a woman who the police cite as being subjected to such forced conversion has submitted an affidavit at the court denying that claim, making it very clear that the police case is false and motivated by the bigotry of the Gujarat government that is ruled by the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In an affidavit submitted to the court, the woman said her interfaith marriage was with her “consent and free will” and she was “not forced to convert” as claimed by the government authorities. The woman also disputed the police version that she used to live in the shelter, while claiming that she had joined the shelter home as a “volunteer.”
The woman accused the State government of damaging her “reputation and social life” by falsely citing her case as “forceful conversion.”
The nuns are in real danger of being arrested, but the court has as yet failed to offer them any protection. They have been charged under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, 2003 for allegedly “hurting Hindu religious sentiments” and “luring towards Christianity young girls” in their shelter home.
