India Riots: A View from the Inside

The leader of a ministry native to India with a Bible school in Gujarat State provided the following "inside" view in an e-mail sent to Christian Aid last week, edited for Missions Insider:

On Sunday night, March 4, about 500 radical Hindus surrounded our Bible school, and nearly 100 of them scaled the compound wall and started banging on the doors and windows.

"Don't harm us," the students answered. "We are not Muslims."

The Hindus demanded to know the meaning of the word "Ebenezer" written on the front of the building. But before anyone could answer adequately, others shouted, "Come and join our campaign against the Muslims." Then the mob suddenly disappeared as quickly as it came, but some shouted back, "We will come for you tomorrow."

About 12 hours later the government lifted for two hours the strict shoot-on-sight 24-hour curfew to allow women (not men) to go to the market--or what was left of it--since many shops had been burned and ransacked. During those two hours, two women believers in our church who worked as office staff with the Gujarat government and had contacts with people in the railroad were able to obtain tickets for all the students and staff. They all rushed to the train station and are now safely staying in another staste until it is safe to return. The timing was too perfect for it to be anything but the provision of the Lord.

In the meantime, the overall picture in Gujarat remains grim and horrific. About 34 major towns where Muslims live are being attacked by radical Hindus. People are being dragged out of their homes to be shot, burned, or hacked to pieces. Whole Muslim villages are being wiped out in a kind of religious "cleansing." It is a scene like those in Bosnia a few years ago. Before our Bible students left, they reported neighboring Muslim homes and shops being destroyed and people being killed and hacked to pieces just a block or two from the school. Two Christians were also reported killed.

In the city of Ahmedabad, with 3.5 million people, untold numbers of Muslims have died. Federal troops, with orders to shoot on sight, are barely keeping the city from breaking into total chaos. The 24-hour curfew is still in place. My own brother-in-law, a lieutenant colonel in the Indian army, was asked to bring in hundreds of troops from near the India-Pakistan border and reports that the city has gone mad in a religious frenzy.

As Christians, we can only deplore and mourn these violent acts of darkness spurred on by the lies of the enemy in the names of false gods. This episode only illustrates the volatile situation that exists all over India between religious groups. The slightest incident is like lighting a match in a field of very dry grass.

Editor's Note: The violence broke out February 26 when a trainload of "Ram Sevaks" (servants or worshipers of Ram, the Hindu god) stopped to get refreshments in Godhra in Rajasthan State. Hundreds of them bought food from the poor Muslim vendors, but allegedly got back on the train without paying. This enraged the Muslim community in which the train station was situated, and Muslims set fire to the train, killing 58 Hindu passengers. This enflamed the Hindus who began killing Muslims in Gujarat and across the nation. The media has reported 700 deaths, but Christian Aid's field scout in Delhi suggested as many as 2000 have died.

The recent violence is an explosion of tension that has been smoldering since 1992 when Hindu radicals razed a Muslim mosque that had stood at a site in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh State for 500 years. In the ensuing violence in 1992, at least 1100 people were reported killed. The Supreme Court has barred the building of any temple on this land, but radical Hindus are determined to start building there on March 15, or die trying. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said today he has ordered the posting of 4,000 police and security personnel in Ayodhya to keep the situation there from turning violent. Stand by for more violence.

For more information about this native ministry in India, write insider@christianaid.org and put MI-311 601-IGO on the subject line.