Home Atrocities 1998

 
January 1998
 
February 1998
 
March 1998
March 2, Gujarat
People distributing leaflets about a Christian meeting at the Vadodara Polo Ground are attacked by Bajrang Dal, Durga Vahini and VHP cadre. Among those injured is a pregnant woman, who is repeatedly kicked in the stomach. The police detain the victims, but not the attackers.
 
March 4, Gujarat:
A meeting of evangelists at the Vadodara Polo Ground is disrupted by VHP- Bajrang Dal cadres, who injure several people. A day earlier, the same activists attempted to set the stage on fire.
 
March 13, Maharashtra:
Alleged Hindu fundamentalists attack Christian pilgrims in Khanvel.
 
March 16, Uttar Pradesh:
Bajrang Dal activists attack a Christian meeting in Kanpur, resulting in injuries to several people and loss of property.
 
March 19, Jammu and Kashmir:
Four Muslims are beaten to death in Karara near Doda by RSS workers in reprisal for the killing of an RSS worker two days earlier by a different group of Muslims for allegedly molesting a local girl.
April 1998
April 11, Gujarat:
Alleged VHP-Bajrang Dal activists armed with hockey sticks, cricket bats and rods, attack a Christian group observing Passion Week in Palanpur.
April 16, Gujarat:
A church under construction is brought down at Naroda near Ahmedabad. (The structure appears to have been built without legal approvals, but temples nearby, which were also constructed without the necessary legal approvals, were not touched.)
May 1998
May 3, Maharashtra:
Shiv Sena activists disrupt a concert by Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali in Mumbai.
 
May 8, Jammu and Kashmir:
Mobs of RSS workers in Poonch destroy government buildings and attempt to attack Muslim homes in protest against the killing of four people by terrorists in Surankot.
 
May 11, Maharashtra:
Shiv Sena activists assault a missionary, Octavio Nevis, in Ambernath.
 
May 15, Bihar:
Modestus Tirkey, headmaster of a Catholic school, is attacked in Ranchi.
 
May 18, Gujarat:
Hindu fundamentalists attack a Catholic priest, Xavier Amalraj, at Pilpilvada near Zankhav.
June 1998
June 16, Maharashtra:
The St. Savariyar Church in Srilankapada slum in Mumbai's Malad suburb is demolished. Unauthorised Hindu structures are, however, left untouched.
 
June 17, Gujarat:
St. Xavier's School and Lourdes Convent in Surat are served with orders by the Collector, Surat. Records of admissions and applications are confiscated. School officials claim that this was done to harass them.
 
June 21, Gujarat:
A prayer hall is burnt down in Singana village, Dangs district.
 
June 23, Gujarat:
After two Muslim youths elope with Hindu girls from Randhikpur village, VHP and Bajrang Dal squads force over 400 Muslim villagers to leave their homes in an act of collective reprisal. The administration and the police stand by and watch as independent fact-finding teams and journalists visiting Randhikpur are attacked.
 
June 29, Gujarat:
A prayer hall in Umerpada village in Dangs district is attacked by assailants who, however, fail in their attempts to set it on fire.
July 1998
July 3, New Delhi:
News breaks of the plans of the BJP Government to remove churches from the list of recognised places of worship on the pretext that wine is served (as a holy sacrament) in the churches.
 
July 8, Gujarat:
The body of Samuel Christian is exhumed from a graveyard in Kapadvanj in Nadiad district, by VHP activists, and dumped near a Methodist church nearby.
 
July 11, Maharashtra:
Two Christian workers are beaten in Bhind.
 
July 12, Gujarat:
Christians gathered for worship at a prayer hall in Dhavalidod are threatened by the village leader. The church's lock was broken later the same day and a cross removed.
 
July 17, Karnataka:
VHP activists raid at least 11 Christian-run schools in Bangalore, Mysore, Mandya and Mangalore, disrupting their functioning. In one case, a nun who protested was spat upon.
 
July 18, Gujarat:
The Shantiniketan High School in Zankhav near Surat, run by Christian missionaries, is vandalized. The playground is ploughed with a tractor.(Violence follows false reports in the Gujarati language press that the school's adivasi students are forcibly converted, whereas only 152 of the school's 750 students are Christians.)
 
July 18, Gujarat:
A prayer hall is burnt down in Bhapkal village in Dangs district.
 
July 18, Tamil Nadu:
An Assemblies of God church is attacked and church materials are looted in Anaipalayam.
 
July 20, Gujarat:
Copies of the New Testament are burnt by VHP and Bajrang Dal activists at IP Mission School in Rajkot. The VHP says that the request on a page in the copies of the Bibles distributed by Gideons International asking believers to sign as proof that they have accepted Jesus Christ as their saviour is evidence of forcible conversions.
 
July 23, Gujarat:
Mobs led by a low-level revenue official attack adivasis at a prayer meeting in Borkhal village.
 
July 24, Gujarat:
Bajrang Dal and RSS activists attack Catholic priests in Isar, a small adivasi village near Zankhav.
 
July 25, Gujarat:
The body of a Christian is exhumed from a graveyard in Gandhinagar, by Bajrang Dal activists.
August 1998
August 9, Gujarat:
A church is destroyed allegedly by RSS cadres in Ahmedabad.
 
August 15, Gujarat:
Communal riots break out in Sanjeli against the background of the BJP-VHP's efforts to communalise inter-community weddings. The home of a Christian priest, Joe Vas, is attacked. (Riots followed a Dharam Sabha organised in the town three days earlier, where BJP-VHP leaders made speeches inciting adivasis against Muslims. Independent investigators found that in this case the root cause of the riot was the local panchayat's refusal to honour court orders granting a Muslim fishing rights in a local pond.)
 
August 15, Uttar Pradesh:
Bajrang Dal and VHP cadres attack church workers in Robertsganj.
 
August 25, West Bengal:
Bikash Das, a church worker, is assaulted by a Trinamul Congress leader.
 
August 31, Bihar:
A church is demolished in Kobatoli village in Gumla district.
September 1998
September 5, New Delhi:
The Bajrang Dal announces that it will launch a 'new Quit India Movement' to remove all Christian missionaries from the country. The organisation, along with the VHP, demands an end to forced conversions they allege are taking place.
 
September 23, Madhya Pradesh:
A crowd allegedly led by a BJP MLA attack Edward Sarel, a Catholic priest, in Jhamli village, 10 km from Jhabua.
 
September 23, Uttar Pradesh:
Nuns at the Clarist Convent in Baghpat are assaulted.
 
September 25, Madhya Pradesh:
Nuns are raped at a Christian convent in Jhabua. Although specific culpability for the incident remains unclear, it came in the wake of the VHP-BJP's anti-Christian campaign.
 
September 26, Uttar Pradesh:
Police and local administration officials barge into the Jiwan Jyoti Christian Hospital campus in Robertsganj and misbehave with patients and hospital staff.
 
September 26, Uttar Pradesh:
Activists of the Hindu Jagran Manch, the Bajrang Dal and the Rana Tharu Parishad break into the Union Church at Amaun near Khatima in Udham Singh Nagar district and install a Siva idol.
 
September 26, New Delhi:
A statue of St. Bernard is broken and thrown out of the grounds of Jesus and Mary College in New Delhi.
 
September 30, New Delhi:
Giriraj Kishore, secretary-general of the VHP, asks Christian missionaries to leave India.
October 1998
October 1, Gujarat:
The VHP and Bajrang Dal ban pop dandiya ras dancing in several cities of Gujarat and forbid Muslim film stars from participating in these events.
 
October 1, Rajasthan:
School books are found to have been rewritten to suit the Hindu Right's agenda. Articles by RSS chief Rajendra Singh, his deputy K.S. Sudershan, Panchjanya editor Tarun Vijay and the Swadeshis Jagran Manch's Jalam Singh Rawlot found to appear in Class 9 textbooks.
 
October 1, Karnataka:
Convent schools in Karnataka and some other States begin to receive threatening letters and, in some cases, visits by local VHP leaders demanding that they stop their supposed prosletysation activities.
 
October 1, Uttar Pradesh:
The Uttar Pradesh Government issues a Government Order making the singing of Vande Mataram mandatory in schools in the State. Public outrage and the threat of legal action by the Minorities Commission and independent groups force it to back down and lead to the resignation of the Education Minister.
 
October 7, Uttar Pradesh:
The staff of the Christ Jyoti Convent School in Baghpat is threatened by villagers who have been told that children are forcibly converted there.
 
October 18, Maharashtra:
Christian villagers in Karye Sadapada village near Peth are attacked after they refuse to make contributions of cash and rice for an adivasi festival. A church is destroyed.
 
October 27, Uttar Pradesh:
The BJP-dominated Municipal Corporation of Ayodhya passes a resolution banning burials within the city limits. Ayodhya has a large Muslim population and is the site of several graveyards.
 
October 30, Gujarat:
Bajrang Dal-VHP members armed with belts, chains and lathis attack delegates at the National Christian Conference in Baroda.
 
October 31, New Delhi:
A spokesperson for Vidya Bharati, the pro-RSS educational body, says that 14-year-old school-children should not be taught "salacious texts", which in its view includes poems by Alfred Noyes.
November 1998
November 3, Gujarat:
VHP members attack social groups seeking to end anti-women exorcism rituals at the Kaliyaji temple in Shamlaji.
 
November 4, Gujarat:
Miscreants, instigated by VHP-Bajrang Dal workers, attempt to set fire to a chapel in Baurigautha village in Dangs district. Churches in Nirgumandal village are also damaged.
 
November 5, Gujarat:
A church is burned down at Gadhavi village in Dangs district.
 
November 9, Haryana:
A convent in Khera Khummar village in Jhajjar district is broken into and two nuns are beaten and asked to leave the district.
 
November 11, Gujarat:
Hindu fundamentalists force residents of Daghunia village near the Satpura road in Dangs to enter hot springs for ritual purification. The village sarpanch also issues orders barring adivasi Christians from drawing water from the community well, grazing their livestock on community land and gaining employment in government projects.
 
November 12, Gujarat:
Churches are burned down in Kamath village.
 
November 13, Haryana:
A missionary team from Punjab is attacked by VHP activists in Beri town while distributing leaflets on gospels.
 
November 24, Karnataka:
Forty armed Hindu activists, allegedly affiliated to the RSS, attack a Christian service at Kulai near Mangalore.
December 1998
December 1, Maharashtra:
Lumpen elements belonging to the Shiv Sena storm cinemas in Mumbai and stop screening of Deepa Mehta's film 'Fire,' on the grounds that it is anti-Hindu.
 
December 3, Karnataka:
Police action terminates a rath yatra organised by VHP activists with the public support of Karwar's BJP MP Ananthakumar Hegde to storm the Sufi shrine of Hazrat Abdul Azeez Macci at Chikmagalur. The VHP and the BJP claim that the shrine is in fact a Hindu temple, which they wish to call Datta Peetha.
 
December 3, New Delhi:
Shiv Sena lumpens attack cinemas screening 'Fire' and follow this up with attacks on a cinema in Patiala, Punjab.
 
December 11, Maharashtra:
Shiv Sena corporators in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation move a motion to make the singing of Vande Mataram mandatory in Greater Mumbai's schools.
 
December 12, Maharashtra:
Shiv Sena protestors throw stones at actor Dilip Kumar's house for saying that 'Fire' has a right to be screened. Vulgar slogans are chanted by Sena activists who strip down to their underwear. The police stand by.
 
December 14, Gujarat:
Churches are burned down at Lachanchariya village and several other places.
 
December 24, Maharashtra:
Christmas celebrations in Mumbai's Bandra suburb are disrupted by Bajrang Dal activists.
 
December 25, Gujarat:
A VHP-affiliated Hindu Jagran Manch rally in Ahwa town in Dangs district, timed to coincide with Christmas gatherings, ends with attacks on schools and churches throughout the district. The attacks last several days. (The rally was preceded by the distribution of offensive pamphlets about Christian priests and nuns.)