UK to take up Russian Hindu cause

The campaign against the alleged harassment of Hindus in Russia by the Orthodox Church and the Mayor of Moscow is getting more intense in Britain.

Ashok Kumar, MP is launching the "Defend Russian Hindus Campaign" at the House of Commons in January.

There was umbrage here when it was learnt that Archbishop Nikon wrote a letter to the Mayor of Moscow urging him not to allow the construction of a Hindu temple in Moscow because according to him, Lord Krishna who is worshipped by the Hindu community was an "evil demon".

"Such untenable words in an age where interfaith harmony is the need of the day are nothing but an attempt to malign and persecute a faith community that teaches respect and freedom for every other faith community, " commented Ramesh Kallidai, Secretary General Hindu Forum of Britain, an umbrella organisation of most community groups in Britain.

The Defend Russian Hindus Campaign, launched by the Hindu Forum of Britain, Hindu Council UK, National Council of Hindu Temples UK, International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Vishwa Hindu Parishad UK, Hindu Council of Australia, Hindu American Foundation and many other worldwide Hindu organisations, aims to build awareness about the alleged persecution and discrimination against Russian Hindus by a corpus of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Mayor of Moscow, despite support from the Central Government.

There are over 100,000 Hindus in Russia. In Moscow alone, there are 5,000 Hindus of Indian origin and over 10,000 Hindus of Russian origin.

Two years ago the Mayor of Russia asked Hindus to vacate their temple in exchange for a piece of land on which they could build a bigger temple. After land was allocated to the Hindu temple, the original temple was demolished. The Russian Orthodox Church orchestrated mass protests against the allocation of land and started a misinformation campaign against Hindus in the media.

On October 30, 2005, after bowing down to pressure from the Orthodox Church, the Mayor of Moscow cancelled the land order and took away the piece of land given for the construction of the Hindu temple. Now, the 15,000 Hindus in Moscow have no place to worship. The consecrated Deities of Radha and Krishna will have no home, say the Hindu leaders.

Kallidai said around the time of India Prime Minister's state visit to Moscow to meet Russian President Putin, Archbishop Nikon, a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, called the Hindu God, Lord Krishna an "evil demon, the personified power of hell opposing God", and "a livid lascivious youth".

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2005/12/04/stories/2005120400470300.htm

Anchored in himself

Through all the positions he held, it could truly be said of our tenth President, as it can of few others, that K.R. Narayanan remained himself.

THE tyranny of deadlines sometimes trips up your peripatetic columnist. I was travelling when the sad news came through of the death of former President K.R. Narayanan. Ordinarily I would have dropped everything to pay him tribute in this space, but my schedule left me no time to replace the column I had already written. Now that I am writing after my readers have already digested the dozens of obituaries that have appeared about this fine human being, is there anything new to say?

Meeting K.R. Narayanan

The American politician Mo Udall, speaking at the end of a rather long list of orators, memorably quipped upon finally taking the floor: "everything has already been said, but not by everybody." I shall resist the temptation, however, to recycle what has already been said about K.R. Narayanan. We all know that the highest office in the land was occupied for five years by someone who was born amongst the lowest of the low: a man who was not only a Dalit but one born in a thatched hut with no running water, whose university refused to award him his degree at the same ceremony as his upper caste class-mates, and who yet rose above his lot to triumph without bitterness. We have read about his Tata scholarship to England, the letter from Prof. Harold Laski to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru urging him to take the young man into the Foreign Service, the illustrious career that followed in diplomacy, education, and politics, culminating in his assumption of the highest position his country could offer.

And yet none of that tells the whole story about K.R. Narayanan, about why he will be missed by those who had the privilege of encountering him in person. My own contact with him began in an unusual manner. I reviewed a book of his — a collection of essays and speeches written largely while he had served as India's Ambassador in Washington — for a national magazine. I had positive things to say about many things in the book, and sharp criticisms of some elements of the collection. I wrote the review under a pseudonym, so I was all the more surprised when the editor of the magazine forwarded to me a letter received in the name of my alias, from none other than K.R. Narayanan himself. It was an uncommonly gracious letter, thanking me not merely for my kinder words but for my criticisms, saying how much he had learned from my comments and expressing a desire to meet me. This was so exceptional an experience for me as a reviewer that I shed my anonymity and wrote back to the author — by then Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, a fitting position for an individual of such intellectual integrity. Our first meeting occurred a year or so later, when K.R. Narayanan, by then Minister of State for Science and Technology, was visiting Geneva, where I was living and working at the time. The Minister was as disarming in person as he had been in his correspondence: kind, soft-spoken, intellectually curious, morally engaging. A lifelong friendship was born.

Thereafter I made it a point to call on him on all my visits to Delhi. I saw him as Minister in two different Ministries, as Vice-President, and finally as President. The surroundings changed, but as each receiving-room became grander and more awe-inspiring, the man himself did not change. It was as if his own humanity was so genuine that it could not be affected by its external trappings. Few people who have held high office are so profoundly anchored in themselves that they are immune to being swayed by the tall waves and high winds that buffet the ship of state. K.R. Narayanan was an exception. Through all the positions he held, it could truly be said of our tenth President, as it can of few others, that he remained himself.

Principled decisions

Obituarists better qualified than I have written of his principled positions on political issues, his memorable assertion of his independent convictions at the State dinner for President Clinton, his courage in sending improper decisions back to the Cabinet for reconsideration. I salute K.R. Narayanan for what he did, but I write today to praise him for who he was. Decent, learned, unaffected, a gentleman through and through in a land — and a profession — where gentlemen seem a vanishing breed, K.R. Narayanan stood for an idea of India that appealed to the better angels in all of us Indians. As President he led an India whose injustices he had keenly felt, but an India which offered, through its brave but flawed experiment in political democracy, the real prospect of change through affirmative action and the ballot box. In his five years as our Rashtrapati, the man who did not change embodied the enduring values of a country that has changed profoundly. That is what we have lost with his passing, and it is a loss that touches every one of us.

From DEC 1: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/CWN/111805persecutedindia.asp
Hindus Target Christians in India
By Gary Lane
CWNews

CWNews.com – India is the world's largest democracy, yet Christians are persecuted there in greater numbers than just about any other country. One mission organization says at least 30 acts of persecution and violence take place against Indian Christians every month. Yet Indian missionaries are pressing on, despite the costs .

Caught on amateur videotape: Hindu radicals attacking Christian students at a train station in Kota, India. The students were peacefully on their way to a Bible School graduation ceremony. Yet, the Christian victims of this attack—not the Hindu perpetrators—were taken to the police station and held overnight for questioning.

In another incident, widow Satyaveni Raju cries, mourning the loss of her pastor husband, Isaac Raju. Pastor Isaac had introduced many Hindus, who were willing, to Christ. But, last summer, he was maimed and murdered by radicals opposed to his evangelistic efforts.

Satyaveni explained that her husband "went to the bus stand, and then disappeared for several days. We did not see him again until my son and I were called to the mortuary. I could not identify him. Because his face was totally peeled off. They brutally killed him. I was only able to identify him by his clothes, undergarments and the scars on his legs."

In yet another incident, Hepsibah's husband Daniel was martyred about a week before Pastor Isaac. Pastor Daniel had also won many willing Hindus to Christ, yet his outreach caused militant Hindus to make numerous threats against him.

But Daniel's murder took Hepsibah by surprise. She said, "I never thought it would happen like this. I thought they would just beat him, or threaten him, but I never imagined they would kill him."

Daniel's death has caused great hardship for Hepsibah and her family. Yet she believes her husband's murder was God's will, not an unjust act.

Hepsibah told us, "God will never do injustice. My husband is in Heaven. Now, let God's will be done in my life, as well. There can be no greater happiness and blessing than to know my husband died a martyr for Christ."

While most Indian Christians look to God for eternal security, they still expect their government to do all it can to protect them from attack here on earth.

Christians had high hopes and great expectations when the Congress Party returned to power here in 2004. It was thought the Congress Party would better protect the rights of minorities.

But that hasn't been the case. Already, this year alone, more than 200 acts of violence have been perpetrated against Christians. It's not happening in big cities, like here in Delhi, but in the remote areas of India.

Jay Kumar is an Evangelist, and he told us, "I am very happy because I prayed for this gift and God has given me this gift."

The ‘gift’ missionary Jay Kumar speaks of is the ‘gift of persecution.’ Here is how he received it.

Jay and five other students from the Gospel For Asia seminary were attacked, early this year, in a remote area of India's Kerala State. A mob of militant Hindus were angry because Jay and the other evangelists shared the Gospel with Bangladeshi. They are immigrants, workers at a brick kiln factory. Surprisingly, Jay says he was rejoicing and praising God as the Hindus were beating and kicking him. The beating was bad enough that Jay was hospitalized.

Jay said, "...That particular moment, when I was beaten, I was praising God because he counted me worthy to suffer for Him!"

Other evangelists told us of similar experiences.

am Gopal is also an evangelist. He explained, "…They just caught me by my shirt and my collar and pulled me down, and then started to hit me with blows and kicks. Some people from the crowd were screaming and saying, ‘Bring the gun, bring the revolver and shoot him’."

Evangelist Ram Gopal is with the New Delhi based India Evangelical Team. They train missionaries and send them into the harvest field. Most of them will serve in remote, rural villages—in dangerous, unreached areas and Hindu strongholds.

Pastor Shaji Verghese is with the India Evangelical Team, IET. He says the goal is to plant nearly 8,000 churches throughout India by 2010. So far, more than 4500 churches have been started.

Pastor Varghese added, "We are growing because God is with us. And the Bible says ‘If God is with us, who can be against us?’ So, we don't care about the persecution. Let it grow. The souls will be saved, even more, at a higher speed."

Those coming to Christ in the greatest numbers are the Dalits—commonly referred to as ‘the untouchables." Many are poor, uneducated and jobless.

Christian missionaries offer them a way out of their misery—a hope they cannot find in the Hindu caste system.

Despite restrictive laws, beatings and even death, Indian missionaries are determined to press on—ignoring both risks and costs.

Pastor Varghesetold us with confidence , " India will become a Christian country in the days to come. So, keep praying for our nation. We have taken up the challenge. No matter what happens, we will go and lovingly conquer this India for our Christ."

Visit the Gospel for Asia Web site (www.gfa.org)

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