Fire destroys church in northeast India amid hostility
Hindu groups have been spearheading anti-Christian campaigns in Assam state, accusing Christians of converting tribal people
Updated: January 17, 2025 11:34 AM GMT
A fire has burnt down a village Church in India’s northeastern Assam state amid right-wing Hindu group’s campaigns against Christian missionaries, but police are yet to confirm if it was an arson attack or an accident.
Tezpur diocesan Father Ambrose Musahary told UCA News on Aug. 17 that the church of his St. Teresa parish in Jhakar Gao village had been “burnt down to ashes” two days earlier.
The five-decade-old church in the Udalguri district has about 160 Catholic families, “most of them coming from Indigenous backgrounds,” the priest said.
The priest added that Hindus and Christians in the village lived in peace, and “we never had any disturbance or hatred among different communities.”
Bishop Michael Akasius Toppo of Tezpur, who visited the spot on Jan. 17, told UCA News that police and Church officials “are not sure whether someone deliberately set the church on fire or it was an accident.”
“We have no evidence” for either case and “we can say anything about it” only after the police investigation is completed, the bishop said.
The fire happened three days after the parish celebrated the first Mass of two newly ordained diocesan priests who belong to the parish’s indigenous families.
A senior Church leader who did not want to be named told UCA News on Jan. 17 that the fire “could be a ploy for disturbing the communal peace in the area after two Indigenous people were ordained as priests.”
He said right-wing Hindu groups continue a campaign in the state, accusing Christian missionaries of using fraudulent methods and incentives to convert tribal people to Christianity.
Right-wing Hindu activists claim Christian-run schools and hospitals are a façade to attract and convert gullible tribal and socially poor people.
In the past, they demanded to remove all the Christian symbols, such as crucifixes and statues of Jesus and Mary, from Christian institutions. They have also demanded priests and nuns attend their duties in Church-schools in civil dress.
The Hindu-leaning Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) runs the state government, which Christian leaders say supports the Hindu groups’ idea of making India a Hindu theocratic nation.
Last year, the state enacted a new law, the Assam Magical Healing (Prevention of Evil Practices) Act, purportedly to check superstitious practices.
But Christian leaders say it aims to check Christian religious gatherings and healing prayers, making Christian life difficult in the state.
Christians comprise 3.74 percent of Assam’s 31 million people, above the national average of 2.3 percent.
