Hindus persecuting Christians.

New Delhi--On June 8, 2000, three Catholic churches and one Baptist church were bombed in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Goa. On July 25, Victor Crasta, a Catholic priest, was shot to death in Tripura state. Don Bosco School in Agartala state was bombed on August 20, and a few hours later a similar explosion took place at nearby St. Paul's School. On the night of September 5, vandals desecrated a statue of the Blessed Virgin at Sacred Heart Church in New Delhi. Isolated criminal incidents?

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom thinks not, nor do the Catholic Church and Protestant groups which have been under increasing persecution in India by radical Hindus intent on making India officially a Hindu nation.

This sharp escalation in anti-Christian violence in India (over 2000 reports of attacks on Christians over the past two years) is being met with silence by the government, even as Pope John Paul II received Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Indian Prime Minister, in the Vatican on June 26 and asked that India guarantee respect for religious liberty.

Christian groups run thousands of schools and hospitals in India, as well as business enterprises that include help for poor rural areas. Missionaries run most leper colonies; many Hindus regard the disease as a punishment for wrongdoing. In many ways, millions of non-Christians are benefiting from church work. Why, then, the attacks and intolerance?

A militant Hindu group known as Sangh Parivar, or United Family, warns Indians of the "sweet poison" of Christianity. It complains that Hindus are converting against their will, that Christians are undermining India's educated, and that the previously docile local people might demand new rights and could no longer be treated as near-slave labour. This could force major changes in the way the country is managed.