WASHINGTON: Hindu nationalists in India threatened and assaulted Muslims and Christians because of their religious beliefs during 2015, according to a report released by the US Statement Department on Wednesday.
The report entitled International Religious Freedom Report for 2015 said that there were reports of religiously motivated killings, assaults, riots, coerced religious conversions, actions restricting the right of individuals to change religious beliefs, discrimination, and vandalism in the country.
“Hindu nationalists threateed and assaulted Muslims and Christians and destroyed their property because of their beliefs and in disputes over the location of churches and mosques,” the report said. Targets of killings included an intellectual advocating secular “rationalism”.
According to the report, numerous senior U.S. government visitors underscored the importance of religious freedom throughout the year, including President Obama during his January visit to Delhi.
The US embassy in India and Consulate representatives discussed reports of religious persecution and coerced religious conversions, social media-based religious intolerance, and religiously motivated attacks, as well as the U.S. response to these concerns, with these officials and leaders.
According to the Evangelical Fellowship of India, a Christian advocacy organization, there were 177 incidents of violence, harassment, or discrimination across India targeting Christians.
“Muslims were also targeted based on land disputes, their traditional livelihoods selling beef or buffalo products, and social interactions with Hindus. Several well-known authors, filmmakers, and other civil society members returned national and state-sponsored awards to protest what they said was the growing religious and cultural intolerance in the country.”
The report detailed incidents of violence against Sikh, Christians and Muslim minorities mainly by Hindu nationalists. Hundreds of legal cases related to the burning of a train and subsequent violence in Godhra, Gujarat in 2002, which resulted in the deaths of more than a thousand Muslims and Hindus, remained pending, the report said.
Religious minorities and Dalits described the passage of the Maharashtra law banning cow slaughter and beef distribution and consumption as a state government initiative disproportionately affecting Muslims, who have traditionally dominated the beef and buffalo meat trade.
After the September 28 Hindu mob killing of an individual accused of cow slaughter in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, religious groups reported official hate speech against Muslims increased. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar remarked, “Muslims can stay in India, but they will have to give up eating beef.”
After the All India Muslim Personal Law Board objected to adoption of the Surya Namaskaar sun salutation yoga posture in schools and colleges, Sadhvi Prachi, another leader of the VHP, advised Muslims to “connect themselves with the traditions of India, culture of India … there is no need for any objection. If they are objecting then they should go to Pakistan. People who are objecting to [yoga] have no right to reside in India”.
