[Clemenza]

Maybe if the Catholics in India would stop supporting Communists, they would be more respected by the locals in India.

Hinduism has a better claim of being the "one true faith' of the Indian people, as it evolved out of various faiths that existed on the subcontinent prior to the invention of Christianity.

I seem to remember a certain other faith that (among the hierarchy, not necessarily among intellectuals and laypeople) violently denounced Republicanism and religious pluralism until the 1960s.

[Steelfish]

I don’t think Indian Catholics in general support communism anymore than Hindus in India or Nepal support Maoism or communism. Hindu Calcutta (Kolkatta) has been officially communist for decades.

[Cronos]

Maybe if the Catholics in India would stop supporting Communists, they would be more respected by the locals in India.

Catholics in india don't support Communists -- and in most parts of India, the Catholics and Hindus get along and have gotten along very well for centuries. The only violence has now occured due to Baptists in the north east and other protestant missionaries in Orissa who distributed literature portraying Hindu gods as demons.

Catholic priests don't do that -- they'll explain what they believe or show by example.

Most hindus go to Catholic schools, may even attend mass etc. and they all condemn the violence against Christians (against muslims, they'll go "ah,,,hhmmm", but against Christians they condemn quite vociferously).

Why? Because Catholics are integrated in India. The Orissa tragedy is more due to:
1. ethnic rivalries (lower castes v/s tribals)
2. the evils of an affirmative action system that is slowly creeping so that everyone wants a piece of the pie
3. Politics -- political partying cynically using this to gain votes.


Hinduism has a better claim of being the "one true faith' of the Indian people, as it evolved out of various faiths that existed on the subcontinent prior to the invention of Christianity.

Hinduism is a meta-religion or umbrella term that includes a wide variety of beliefs. Many local gods like Bhavani etc. were incorporated into more pan-Indian gods or goddesses, while Shaivites, Vaishnavites can believe different things and you can also include agnostics like Arya Samaj in the Hindu fold

why, in it's most expansive term, you can brand everyone in India as Hindu by culture -- one Catholic priest said "I am Indian by nationality, Hindu by culture and Christian by religion and those three things are mutually exclusive with no issue about me being all of these".