One of the most auspicious Hindu festivals, the Durga Puja, has commenced and Hindus worldwide are rejoicing. However Hindus of the Harijan colony in Assam’s Tezpur, despite being in the natural home of the Hindus, Bharat, are not able to celebrate the Durga Puja peacefully. Members of the Christian community have been repeatedly trying to disrupt their preparations for the grand worship of Maa Durga. These disruptions started long before Mahalaya and had intensified during the last week of September.
Most northeastern states are in the clutches of Christian missionaries; lately, these conversation activists have started to expand their dominance over Assam as well. The Harijan colony of Tezpur has also come under the radar of Christian evangelists who have been rapidly converting the Hindu SC families residing in the colony into Christianity. As per statistics, at least 70% of the residents in the colony have been converted to Christianity, and only the remaining 30% are still Hindus.
It is reported that the converted Christians often pick up fights with the Hindus, who are now in a minority. The Hindus, like every year, had been preparing for the upcoming Durga Puja. However, some Christian extremists raised objections to the organization of Puja in the colony, and started disrupting the ongoing arrangements.
This led to a clash between the Hindus and the Christians on September 27. Reportedly, 6 individuals have been injured in these clashes. The police were informed as soon as the mayhem escalated and took a serious turn and a contingent was sent to control the situation. A formal complaint against the Christians has been filed at the Tezpur Sadar Police Station for obstructing the Durga Puja celebrations by the Hindus.
The local Hindus told media that they are living with great difficulties due to the regular disturbances by the converted Christians, but are willing to put their life at risk to defend their dharma.
“70% of the people residing in this colony are Christians and only 30% are Hindus. However, those who have become Christian originally belong to the Hindu dharma and hailed from the Harijan Samaj. Their faith has been changed to Christianity by giving them money. These people would use the surname of the Harijan community earlier. Atrocities are being meted out on the remaining Hindus in the colony. They are not even allowed to worship as per their faith. If they indulge in bhajan kirtan in the colony, they are abused and attacked with stones. If anyone takes out the flag of Bhagwan Hanuman, it is torn down as well,” shared the Hindus while speaking to local media.
Persecution of Hindus in minority-dominated areas of the country is all too common. Hindus of V. Kalathur, a village in Perambalur district, TN have been facing trouble from the Muslim community in conducting temple festivals and utsavs. Both communities are of equal size in the village. Madras High Court in its ruling observed ‘allowing religious intolerance is not good for a secular country and ‘resistance’ by one religious group, if reciprocated by another, could lead to chaos and riots’.
Such attacks also show how the Christian missionary mafia is now spreading its tentacles in Assam. The state, like West Bengal, has already been suffering from large-scale illegal infiltration happening through the porous borders between Bharat and Bangladesh which is also leading to the change in demography in the state.
Meanwhile, the nation’s Anglicized, deracinated elite turn a blind eye to this persecution of indigenous peoples by Abrahamic missionaries. The Scheduled Caste Hindus, just like any other Hindu community, share the same festivals, deities and modes of worship as the rest of the Hindu samaj, while also having their own unique gram devatas and other practises.
This incredible religious and cultural diversity is being gradually destroyed due to the unrelenting assault of foreign-funded missionaries which our secular state tacitly supports. The same is happening in other parts of the world like Brazil. Could there be a bigger tragedy than this?
