a contextual missiology of the spirit - eTheses Repository ...

enterprises. The VHP had planned to build a temple on the site of Rama’s birth-
place using ramshila (bricks of Rama). These sacred bricks (as they argue) have
been brought to Ayodhya from every part of India, particularly north India.
However, the vital fact is that ‘some of the stones most prominently exhibited
came from the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and South Africa.’ 50
It seems that the militant attitude of Sangh Parivar and their influence behind the
rising attacks on minority groups is evident, and it has caught the attention of
international communities. The United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is reported to have said, ‘an increase in such
violence has coincided with the rise in political influence of groups associated
with the Sangh Parivar … that views non-Hindus as foreign to India and hence
deserving of attack.’ 51 Very recently the European Union (EU) has ‘conveyed its
“serious concerns” over “massacres” of Christians in India,’ following the brutal
killing and persecution of Christians in the state of Orissa. 52
Today, the issue of the foreignness of Christianity is regarded very seriously in
Rajasthan. This is partly due to the fact that, as described in chapter three, the
advancement of the Christian message in the state was initiated by Scottish
missionaries. After them, a number of missionaries from abroad as well as from
south India came to the state. Therefore, there developed the misconception that
50 Veer, Religious Nationalism, 4.
51 Sridhar Krishnaswami, ‘U.S. Panel for Naming India, Pak as “Countries of Concern,”’ The
Hindu, 2 October 2002, under ‘Front Page,’ http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/10/02/stories/
2002100205270100.htm (accessed 22 November 2007).
52 Correspondent, ‘PM Responds to EU Concern over Attacks on Christians,’ All India Christian
Council, 30 September 2008, under ‘News,’ http://indianchristians.in/news/content/view/2436/47/
(accessed 29 Sept 2008).
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