Christian preachers arrested in India’s Hindu nation
Police arrested two women in central India yesterday for allegedly violating state laws on the preaching of Christianity. “The women were distributing pamphlets telling people how they may overcome their problems by following the Bible,” said D Srinivas Rao, police chief of Jabalpur district in Madhya Pradesh state.
“Several other objectionable pamphlets have also been seized from their possession.” The official said that under a state law anyone planning to preach religion must get permission first from authorities. “The offenders had not sought any permission,” Rao said.
The women were identified as Mariamma Mathew, 36, and B Godwil, 65. The arrests are the latest in a series of similar moves by police in the state, where the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power for more than two years.
Last year the Madhya Pradesh government set up a panel to look into reports of what rightwing parties call “forced conversions”. The panel said in its report that in another state district, the Christian population had gone up by 80% in the past two decades.
Christians make up just over 2% of India’s 1.1 billion population, but some have been criticised for aggressively recruiting converts among the country’s majority Hindu population. A Christian leader in the state said the group is a target of the BJP.
“Christians in this state have been under pressure for long and such atrocities on them have increased further under the BJP rule,” said Anil Martin, general secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Christian Association.
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