Indian American Christian Organization Says the U.S. Faces Imminent Threat From Passive Hindu Extremism

The Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations (FIACONA) is urging the United States to “clearly understand the imminent threat from passive Hindu extremism,” and “to proactively integrate” human rights-related issues into U.S. policies uniformly,” instead of doing them selectively. Through the findings of its second annual report, published on Jan. 30, the non-profit aims to provide critical information and analysis for Washington policymakers.

Data revealed in the report shows that “violence against Indian Christians, Muslims, Dalits, farmers, manual laborers, dissenting Hindus, and women has increased exponentially in the last decade after the BJP came to power.” It also shows that “the attacks against Indian Christians were premeditated, organized, and meticulously planned and executed by India’s Hindutva political groups and their network of organizations working closely with law enforcement and other agencies of the Hindu nationalist government.”

According to data collected by FIACONA, last year, there were 1,198 cases of verified violence against Christians in India, a 157 percent increase from the previous year. The report “directly attributes” the increase in these incidents “to the propaganda by the BJP government officials accusing Indian Christians of large-scale ‘forced’ conversion.” It also cites data that shows that “violence against Christians in India is planned and orchestrated by Hindutva nationalist political parties as a part of a larger design to create a Hindus-only state, to the exclusion of the people of Abrahamic faiths.”

The report also quantifies the cost of ongoing harassment against Christians. FIACONA estimates the total loss to be around $100 million (INR 790 crores). Although “the sustained propaganda campaign” against Indian Christians for the past 10 years “has made a lot of people believe it, the government census data shows that the Christian population has not increased in the last 75 years,” the report says. “According to the census estimates, Indian Christians are still around 2.4 percent of the population despite 2,000 years of existence in Indian territories.”

According to FIACONA chairman John Prabhudoss, if America is “willing to turn a blind eye to India’s slide into a religious fundamentalist state, it will directly threaten its national security interests in that region.”

Although the “RSS claims that the actual number of Christians is much larger,” FIACONA says the group has “no evidence or government data to back up their claim.” Yet, “the BJP-run state governments are using the false propaganda of large-scale conversion to impose restrictions on people to change their religious faith.”

Sleeper Cells in the U.S.

The report also traces the rise of “Hindutva extremist sleeper cells” in the U.S. They operate as “Hindu religious, cultural, and business associations, allowing them to raise funds as non-profit organizations,” which are then sent “to aid a religious terror agenda that hurts the Christian community in many parts of India,” the group says.

Additionally, these groups “promote an extremist ideology among second-generation Indian Americans.” FIACONA believes that these organizations “must be flagged prominently in public debates in the U.S., and must be brought to the attention of the Justice Department and local law enforcement officials.”

These organizations “are not just creating trouble in a foreign country like India,” the report argues. “Rather, they are becoming an American problem as these organizations are creating a radical network under the radar in calm and peaceful neighborhoods in America.”

“One million plus Indian American Christians ask the U.S. State Department to correct its wrong interpretation of the law and accept what the data shows about the extent of violence against Christians and other religious minorities carried out by a political party that is running the government of India by using the government agencies, institutions, and its officials,” says FIACONA president Koshy George. “Failing to do so will amount to repeating America’s past mistakes with China and Pakistan.”

The group believes that “India’s slide into becoming a Hindu nationalist state will adversely impact America’s national security and financial interests.” Hence it wants the U.S. “to advise the Union Government of India to collect data on the violence committed against all weaker sections of the society.” It believes that “making such data public could discourage the fascist tendency from getting stronger in India.”

It wants the U.S. to require “all international and corporate investors in India to incorporate ‘Equal Opportunity Disclosure’ labels to include religious and linguistic diversity for their hiring process in India.” It is also asking the U.S. Congress “to pass a law that would allow the victims of religious violence to sue the perpetrators, be it a non-state actor or a government official, in the courts under the U.S. jurisdiction for both criminal and civil negligence.” Some of its other asks include allocating “10,000 asylum visas annually for Christian victims of religious violence from India.”

According to FIACONA chairman John Prabhudoss, if America is “willing to turn a blind eye to India’s slide into a religious fundamentalist state, it will directly threaten its national security interests in that region.”