A disturbing question today confronts West Bengal: does the right to practise one’s religion depend on the permission of those who claim to defend the majority faith?
I raise this question after leading a fact-finding team to investigate the recent targeting of Christian communities across rural Bengal. Christian residents, church leaders and nuns told us about denial of burial rights, restrictions on water supplies, social ostracism and a campaign of intimidation and harassment by Hindutva vigilante groups.
Several of these incidents have already made headlines, particularly one in Paschim Medinipur involving the exhumation of a buried body and a forcible cremation. Since our fact-finding tour in early October, more attacks against Christians have occurred in Bengal, prompting opposition parties and Catholic bishops to write to the Home Minister seeking urgent intervention. In the most recent incident, a new church at Narayantala in South 24 Parganas was attacked.
Political change in Bengal has come with a stark message: minorities must keep their heads down and stay silent. Some of the families we met had been told by self-styled mob leaders, in so many words: “Our government has come.” This strikes at the heart of constitutional rights, including the right to pray and practise one’s faith.
