Hindu Violent Extremism Against Christians in India: The Continuing Legacy of the BJP

Hindu nationalists target Christians in India, as the culmination of a few decades of increasing hate. In Christmas 2007, a hundred churches were damaged and 700 Christian homes destroyed: things have gotten especially bad since the BJP gained power nationally in 2014, with their representatives giving hate speeches (including calling for death to Christians), encouraging the many hundreds of violent incidents recorded each year against Christians. See section 6 of https://www.humanreligions.info/hindu_extremism.html.

The Thugs / Thuggae / Thuggees of 13th-19th Century India

The Thuggae were a secret society in India, who dedicated their lives to ritualistically strangling victims as sacrifices to Kali, often in a way that specifically included first gaining their trust and confidance, and sometimes coming together en masse to perform a mass-murder. Parents initiated children into the order. It's not clear when they existed from, but they existed as a organised fraternity by the 13th century; they were eradicated in the 1830s. They believed that the killings kept the world in balance, and the victims and the Thuggae themselves were assured places in the afterlife for the performance.

"The Thuggae" by Vexen Crabtree contents:

1. For Kali, for Balance, for Paradise
2. Timeline (13th-19th century)
3. The Targets

Religion in India

India is 80% Hindu, 14% Muslim, 3% Christian. Hinduism has a wildly varied mix of beliefs and practices which date to prehistory. Buddhism and Sikhism both also started in India and in the 1960s, Western spiritualists took home some interpretations of Hindu beliefs: the result was a range of movements which became called the New Age.

But religion in India is no longer peaceful. Intolerant right-wing Hinduism-first parties have instigated a bloody series of mob conflicts with Christian and Muslim communities; causing hundreds of churches and mosques to be destroyed, and a great number killed and displaced.

Incompatibility between Hinduism and Islam lead to the breakoff of Pakistan amidst fighting that saw over a million people lose their lives, and, three subsequent wars and a nuclear arms race, with the disputed territory of Kashmir as the flashpoint. During this cultural and religious conflict, Hindu extremism has become "an impediment to... human rights".

http://www.humanreligions.info/india_religion.html

Violent Extremism in Hinduism

Hindu violent extremism is a serious problem, especially in north India; there are thousands of attacks against religious minorities every year. It has become "an impediment to... human rights". Reactions by victims stimulates Hindu mobs to enact further attacks. For example, when the Babri Masjid mosque was destroyed by Hindu activists in 1992, thousands of protesting Muslims lost their lives in a very one-sided series of mob fights. And over Christmas 2007 in one state, a hundred churches were damaged and 700 Christian homes destroyed. Complicit are political parties that use race and religion to divide people and stoke hatred; especially the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Shiv Sena. Section #3 lists some of the worst cases of mob violence. Link: http://www.humanreligions.info/hindu_extremism.html.