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

treatment – not even citizen’s rights.’ 86 Therefore, organizations like RSS and its
offshoots have raised their voice in favour of disbanding the Commission. As
Jaffrelot has observed, their ‘aim was to remove some of the protections granted
to the minorities … and in effect, to assert the strength of the Hindu majority.’ 87
When V. Augustine, the former Christian representative in the Minorities
Commission, came to Rajasthan in 2004 to address Christians, some
representatives from the Pentecostal community expressed their concern about the
serious threat they faced from militant groups. 88 In his address, Augustine said
that Christians have the freedom to practise and propagate their faith, but they
have to remember that ‘it is the majority who gave us such a freedom, and so we
should be grateful to the majority.’ However, his reply evoked mixed responses.
Some took it as the expression of the submissive outlook of Christians; others saw
it as evidence of the impotence of the NCM; for yet others it was an echo of the
fear of minorities; and to others it characterized the arrogance of Sangh Parivar
imprinted on the NCM.
4.4. The Nexus between Politics and Religion
Pentecostals along with other Christians as well as other minority religious groups
hold that one of the greatest challenges they face is the implications of the
relationship between politics and religion. However, as McKean observes, the
interrelationship between Hindu religious organizations and politics is a complex
86 M.S. Golwalkar, We or Our Nationhood Defined, 4 th ed. (Nagpur: Bharat Prakashan, 1947), 55-
56, quoted in Michael, ‘Hindu Nationalism,’ 483.
87 Christophe, ‘Hindu Nationalism,’ 361.
88 In this meeting I was one of the representatives of the Pentecostal Community in Rajasthan.
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