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Religiously motivated terrorism is constantly in today's headlines, and Islam has faced its share of scrutiny of late (see, for example, "Islam According to Gallup," page 38). This is not surprising, given that we are barely seven years removed from Osama bin Laden's attacks against the United States. Yet no faith has a corner on the terror market. Bloodshed darkens the ranks of every religion.

India, the world's second most populous country, has long been wracked by sectarian violence. In the six-plus decades since Indian independence, Hindu mobs have attacked Sikhs, Muslims, and other Hindus. In fact, a Hindu assassinated Mahatma Gandhi.

Christians, too, who constitute about 2.4 percent of India's 1.1 billion people, have long been easy targets for those who believe that to be Indian is to be Hindu. This summer, terrorists in Orissa launched a pogrom against the state's defenseless Christian scapegoats after Maoist rebels assassinated a prominent Hindu swami (see page 15). As local police looked the other way, dozens of Christians were murdered, hundreds of homes were destroyed, scores of churches were torched, and thousands of Christians fled to nearby forests for safety. Some faced this stark choice: Become a Hindu or be killed. The mayhem quickly spread to five more states. Pledging aid to the victims, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh—whose secular government did too little, too late—called the violence a "national shame." What an understatement that is.

The real embarrassment to the world's largest democracy is not this incident. No, it is the fact that this flashpoint is not all that unusual for India. Orissa witnessed other attacks against

Christians just last Christmas. According to All India Christian Council, which defends the human rights of the nation's long-oppressed Dalits, somewhere in India an attack against Christians occurs on average every three days. Readers of this periodical will likely recall the grisly murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in Orissa nearly a decade ago (ct, March 1, 1999).

Freedom of religion is currently under threat in India. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom notes "a marked increase in violent attacks against members of religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians" in the late 1990s. The Institute on Religion and Public Policy (irpp) counts four Indian states—Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh—that formally restrict the right of Christians to share their faith with non-Christians.

Anti-Christian activists use these laws to punish followers of Jesus who attempt to obey the Great Commission, often claiming that Christians illegally bribe the poor to convert. This is a distortion at best. There is no doubt that many downtrodden Indians advance economically when they break the millennia-old chains of caste. How could they not? When you are at the very bottom, any move is a move up. Not to mention that many prefer the freedom Christ offers to Hinduism's caste system.

As Doug Bandow of the irpp dryly observes, "Rather than address the horrid treatment of lower-caste Indians, Hindu militants prefer to attack Christians." George Orwell could have been referring to the evils of caste when he wrote, "Imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever." Many Dalits have decided to shout, "No!" to the caste system's pitiless boot, and convert.

State anti-conversion laws contradict India's sprawling constitution, which formally prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. The charter also recognizes that "all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice, and propagate religion."

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November 2008, Vol. 52, No. 11