On Sunday October 10, Sister Gracy Monteiro, a school principal, who belongs to the Mirpur Catholic Mission in Uttar Pradesh, her colleague Sister Roshni Minj, and their driver were attacked by a right-wing vigilante mob while boarding a bus to Varanasi. The mob dragged them to the police station after roughing them up and abusing them.

The mob was reportedly a part of Hindutva groups such as the Hindu Yuva Vahini which have been gaining more ‘confidence’ that they are above the law in Uttar Pradesh and have begun prowling the streets as if looking for minority community members to victimise.

On Sunday the group was lurking the streets of Mau rounding up a group of Christians, accusing them of conversion, and handing them over to the police. Members of the group remain behind bars.

Then a smaller group, allegedly of the same mob, spotted the nuns’ vehicle and attacked them at the town’s bus station. These could have been dismissed as bizarre fake news if not for eyewitness accounts. Sister Grace Monteiro, who survived the attack, spoke in detail on the horror she witnessed and experienced on the streets of Mau.

She, an Ursuline Franciscan nun, had come to the city bus stand around noon, with her colleague Sister Minj, and school driver (name withheld to protect identity) when a mob of Hindutva radicals, dragged them out, roughed up the driver and forcibly took the three to the police station where they were kept till 6 p.m. 

Sister Monteiro says she kept asking the mob who they were, and kept trying to prevent them from hitting the driver, a non-Christian, even as the mob continued abusing, attacking and accusing the three of religious conversion. The driver, who has worked in the school for a long time, has not converted to Christianity, and now was harassed and victimised for merely being with the sisters. At the police station they were held without reason and later released, recalled Sr Monterio; only once she managed to contact the relevant authorities.   

“There were just the three of us. I was accompanying Sister Minj who was going home in Ranchi to visit her dying father. As we did not get the direct bus, we went to the Mau bus stand and Sr Minj went to ask about the bus, while the driver and I stayed in the car. Then a mob came and attacked the driver, dragged him out, and forced the three of us to walk to the police station,” she recalled, adding that they were perhaps identified as Christians because they were in the nun’s uniform of cream-coloured salwar kameez and the convent's name was painted on the side of their Bolero. 

“They told us to get out of the car; I asked them ‘why’. They started hitting our driver, and I told them not to hit us as I was going to answer whatever questions they had. They told us ‘we will show you who we are’,” she recalled, adding that the mob took out the vehicle's key and made them walk to the police station. It was more shocking that no policeperson intervened when the mob attacked the three.  

“We were in shock, this was sudden and unprovoked. Sister Minj was already under stress as her father was critical. I demanded that a policewoman should come and we will not go with them. The police asked us ‘are you converting’.” It was hours later that an inspector showed up and spoke to them, “We showed him all our proof, even the photo of Sr Minj’s critically ill father. Then the inspector said it was by mistake that we were picked up.” 

However, while there were no apologies, the nuns say it was the most traumatic experience, and they demand an explanation. Sister Minj has managed to reach her hometown to see her dying father, and Sister Gracy says she is still in shock but will file a complaint with the authorities soon. “Who were the two attackers? They have no right to attack us. I am against mobs, we have to complain. They have no right to attack,” she said, adding “We are also human beings, no? I objected to them as they were beating up my driver; they kept holding his collar. What kind of security, protection do we have? I do not have any safety to go out alone. Now we have to be careful.''

Sister Gracy said while she was in stress, there was no fear. “We are citizens of India. We are not doing something wrong. We have a lot of work. The entire day was wasted in the police station. Sister Minj lost money as her ticket was wasted. She had to travel the next day. I had identified the attackers to the lady police, but the cop asked me for the photo. The police had put us in a room; the man who attacked us was not seen again,” she added. 

Worshippers attacked

In the other incident, a regular prayer service was attacked by a Hindutva mob, some of whom claimed to be activists of Bajrang Dal as well as Hindu Yuva Vahini. The group then forced the Christian worshipers, including the priest, to go to the police station. According to reports, the mob was accusing the group of ‘converting’ people. However, the devotees, including one Vijendra Rajbhar, who spoke on video said they had been praying there regularly. According to the First Information Report (FIR) filed by one Radheshyam Singh, the worshipers have been accused of forcing people to convert to Christianity through allurements, as well as “violating Covid-19 protocol, using musical instruments, consuming narcotics and other intoxicants.”

Those arrested included Pastor Abraham Shakeel Ahmed, his wife Pratibha, Vijendra Rajbhar and Geeta Devi, the couple in whose house the worship took place. Rajbhar was then questioned on camera by ‘youtube journalists’, and he kept answering their questions and maintained that no forcible conversions were taking place and that the worship in his house had been a regular one. Even the pastor is heard saying in a video clip that anyone can attend the worship and that they pray for those who are unwell or need any kind of support and prayer. The First Information Report alleges that the pastor and others “insulted Hindu deities using abusive language,” reported MattersIndia, adding that the devotees also abused the Prime Minister and the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.

According to local Christians, those from the independent churches are the ones most easily targeted as vigilante mobs barge into house-churches, and disrupt prayers, beating up those leading the prayers. Some pastors, who often hail from poor families, then go into hiding and some even stop preaching. There is a rise in ‘media houses’ which work as a ‘media wing’ of the vigilante groups. They often accompany the mobs and ask questions which are accusations in themselves. 
The office of SP Mau, Ghule Sushil Chandrabhan, declined to comment, but confirmed that the accused were still in jail. Calls to the investigating officer, Inspector D.K. Srivastava, went unanswered.

More attacks in October

Several churches, mostly independent, were reportedly attacked in various States over the Gandhi Jayanti weekend. The most serious attack was reported from Roorkee, Uttarakhand, where worshipers attending Sunday’s congregational prayers were seriously injured when a right-wing mob vandalised the Church. The mob alleged that “religious conversion” was taking place, before it launched its vicious attack.

According to news reports, the Uttarakhand police have booked “200 people for allegedly vandalising a Church in Roorkee”. The accused have been booked for rioting, theft, trespassing and voluntarily causing hurt under varied sections of Indian Penal Code, reported the Hindustan Times. 

The Church is located in Solanipuram Colony, Roorkee and those attending the prayers told media persons that at around 10 a.m., a right-wing mob, including women, came to the prayer hall and shouted slogans against the church and its people. The mob accused those in the church of “carrying out religious conversion of some Hindus under the garb of charity work in the area” and suddenly began to vandalise the Church premises. The worshipers also alleged that they were “physically manhandled” by the mob.

It is noteworthy that elections are due in the state next year, and communal polarisation and unrest have been reported to peak as the days draw closer. According to news reports, all allegations of “conversions” were denied by N Wilson, who is associated with the Christian prayer house. He told the media that over the “past two decades regular prayers, mass meetings and charity related activities were being carried out from the prayer house.”

According to a report, the FIR registered by Prio Sadhana Lanse, the church pastor’s wife, stated that “over 200 men and women belonging to the local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing, barged into the church and started vandalising it, while beating up the churchgoers.”  She said, “the frenzied mob, shouting slogans like ‘Vande mataram’ and ‘Bharat mata ki jai’, barged into the church, which is on the first floor of the building. They started beating our volunteers and the women attackers bashed up our womenfolk.” The FIR named Rajni Goel, Rakhi Pradhan, Banita Chauhan, Seema Goel, Dhir Singh and Shiv Prasad Tyagi by Lanse who had recognised them as they were local residents.

However, this is not an isolated incident, according to sources in Evangelical Fellowship of India Religious Liberty Commission (EFIRLC); multiple such attacks have been reported from other places as well. They were all reported during the weekend of October 2-3, when the nation observed Gandhi Jayanti. 

Some of these attacks include:

Bhilai, Chhattisgarh: A local Pastor identified as Santosh Rao was called to the police station along with some others. He was accused of “conversion”, and was let go after interrogation.

Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh: Pastor Nandu Nathaniel and his wife arrested under sections of UP’s Anti Conversion law as well as some other IPC sections, after a complaint was launched by the person who lives next to the place where Christians worship.

Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh: Evangelist pastor Prerit and his Church were attacked allegedly by a right wing group which came to disrupt their Sunday worship. 

Komakhan, Kusumi Police station, Mahasamund, Chhattisgarh: A group of villagers entered a house church and allegedly vandalised it and “slapped a 12-year-old boy” who was praying inside the church. According to EFIRLC sources, the team is gathering more information and is reaching out to the victims with support.

These attacks come close on the heels of another incident that took place on September 28 where, according to sources, Evangelist Charley John (63), Vishal Parashuram (24) and Keval Ram (29) were arrested in Rampur Bushehar in Himachal Pradesh while they were distributing Gospel literature. 

In February this year, the Supreme Court of India had allowed Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), to challenge laws against religious conversion passed by Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh by amending its original plea questioning similar laws passed by Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. In addition, the court also allowed the Muslim organization Jamait Ulama-i-Hind, to intervene in the proceedings. The organisation alleged that the laws led to the harassment of a large number of Muslim men and hence there was a need to oppose the legislation. 

On January 6, the Supreme Court had issued notice to the Centre and the states of Uttarakhand and UP on two petitions challenging the validity of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020 and the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018. One of the petitions was filed by CJP.

(The article first appeared in SabrangIndia)