Thoughts on this please, sounds like B.S. based on everyone I ever met from India. Though the deaths might be based on this, might be based on something else, some Christians can get in the face of others rather badly.
Hindu Extremism on the Rise in India
By Suryamurthy Ramachandran
CNS Correspondent
14 February, 2000
New Delhi (CNSNews.com) -Hindu fundamentalist groups in India are trying to curb the activities of other religious groups and control the "expressions" of those not conforming to their world view, according to analysts here.
As examples, analysts point to Hindu attempts to change the Indian constitution in ways that would curb artistic free expression and restrict the right of minority Christians and Muslims to preach and practice their religion freely.
"Increasing intolerance among the Hindu fundamentalist organizations, which pose a grave threat to democracy, are an indication of the rise of fascist forces in India," said politics professor M. Mohanty of Delhi University.
"What happened with European fascism is now happening with the Hindus," he told CNSNews.com.
Kanti Bajpai, professor of international politics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, agreed, telling CNSNews.com that "the rise of right-wing politics in India is far more advanced and violent than in Austria."
More than 80 percent of India's nearly one billion people are Hindus. Muslims form a sizeable minority of around 15 percent, while just 2.5 percent are Christians.
Although Hindu fundamentalist leaders have formally denied responsibility for attacks on minority religious communities, their propaganda is characterized by threats of violence.
In Orissa, where Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were murdered 13 months ago, the local government passed an order last November prohibiting religious conversions without the prior permission of the local police and a district magistrate.
The order, an amendment to the 1967 Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, stipulates that a citizen wishing to convert must undergo a police inquiry to explain his or her reasons.
India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, has passed a bill restricting the building and use of places of worship. It is awaiting the approval of the Indian president.
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