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anyone under IPC 153-A and it was granted <strong>in</strong> 1999. In Aug. 20006, the Veraval court issued a<br />
summon to Valjibhai.<br />
This <strong>in</strong>tolerance of free expression escalated under the BJP and culm<strong>in</strong>ated <strong>in</strong> the burn<strong>in</strong>g<br />
alive of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Sta<strong>in</strong>es and his young sons Philip and Timothy<br />
<strong>in</strong> January 1999. The All India Christian Council, the All India Catholic Union, and the Christian<br />
Lawyers Association, have documented verified and authenticated anti-Christian violence<br />
which shows an average of 250 <strong>in</strong>cidents of violence aga<strong>in</strong>st m<strong>in</strong>ority religious groups a year.<br />
The violence peaked <strong>in</strong> 1998-99 Christmas season, beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g with the destruction of three<br />
dozen village churches <strong>in</strong> the Dangs forest district of Gujarat by the Vishwa H<strong>in</strong>du Parishad<br />
and Bajrang Dal. In three short days, over 100 churches were destroyed, scores of shops, and<br />
other Christian establishments and hundreds of homes burnt, with at least<br />
5,000 men, women and children displaced. (See detailed report <strong>in</strong> Rediff India Abroad:<br />
McCarthyism's Indian rebirth May 13, 2003.) And the story cont<strong>in</strong>ues even today.<br />
These are not acidental events. This character of H<strong>in</strong>duism is <strong>in</strong>herent <strong>in</strong> the philosophy of<br />
Gita. The techniques of defeat<strong>in</strong>g Kauravas <strong>in</strong>cluded treachery and immoral acts and were<br />
<strong>in</strong>stigated by the Supreme H<strong>in</strong>du Deity Himself. It is this <strong>in</strong>herent contradiction <strong>in</strong> the H<strong>in</strong>du<br />
religion itself that Dr, Ambedkar was try<strong>in</strong>g to expose.<br />
Dr. Ambedkar wrote:<br />
“But the time has come when the H<strong>in</strong>du m<strong>in</strong>d must be freed from (the hold) which the silly<br />
ideas propagated by the Brahmans, have on it. Without this liberation India has no future. I<br />
have undertaken this task know<strong>in</strong>g full well what it <strong>in</strong>volves. I am not afraid of the<br />
consequences. I shall be happy if I succed <strong>in</strong> stirr<strong>in</strong>g the masses”<br />
Let this analysis by one of the great sons of India <strong>in</strong>spire us to break loose of the bondage.<br />
'I am the LORD, and I will br<strong>in</strong>g you out from under the burdens .., and I will deliver you from<br />
their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment,<br />
and I will take you for my people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the<br />
LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens ...<br />
Prof.M.M.N<strong>in</strong>an<br />
2008<br />
iv
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