ICC Note:
The leader of a right-wing Hindu group in India has told religious minorities that they will be denied access to Hindu festivals over the next month. Radical Hindu nationalist activities have increased dramatically since the election of the new government led by the Hindu nationalist party BJP. Across India, communal violence has erupted along religious lines and some have claimed that at least 600 incidents have taken place in the first 100 days of the new government. This announcement of segregation is just another step in India becoming a less religiously free nation.
9/26/2014 India (Voice of America) – A prominent right-wing Hindu group in India warned Muslims and Christians on Thursday not to join in a lively Hindu religious festival this month, in the latest bid by activists to step up segregation in the multi-faith country.
Emboldened by the May election victory of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hardliners in his party and affiliated Hindu groups have been stirring up sentiment against India’s religious minorities in recent months.
“We are warning Muslims and Christians that they should stay away from all our festivals. The Navratri festival is for Hindus only,” Surendra Jain, spokesman for a Hindu group called the Vishwa Hindu Parishad [VHP], told Reuters.
The annual, nine-night Navratri Hindu festival began Thursday. In many parts of the country it is marked by celebrations involving prayer, music and dance among men and women.
It is famous for being high-spirited, and Christians and Muslims are known to take part. They also take part in the Holi Hindu spring festival.
Hindu activists plan this year for the first time, however, to demand identity cards to keep non-Hindus out of festival venues. Usually in India, one can tell a person’s religion by their name.
“Muslims and Christians do not pray to the Hindu mother goddess, so why should they dance and enjoy nightly feasts with us?” said Jain, accusing young Muslim men of taking part in the festival to tempt Hindu girls into converting to Islam.
Members of the VHP have in the past been accused of instigating communal violence, including riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, when Modi was its chief minister.
At least 1,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims.
The VHP is a radical member of a cluster of right-wing Hindu groups that includes Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Modi has distanced himself from the anti-Muslim views of some of his supporters.
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