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India's general election was expected to tighten the grip of Hindu nationalists on the world's largest democracy and lead to escalating persecution of religious minorities. Instead, the results, announced in May, are being hailed with headlines reading "shock and awesome." Despite pre-election polls predicting a comfortable victory for the incumbents, the secularist Congress Party, long out of favor, clobbered the rightist ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee.

But Joseph D'Souza, , president of the All India Christian Council (AICC), says religious minorities aren't completely safe yet. He expects a backlash of anti-Christian persecution from Hindu militants in the BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, and Gujarat

Still, he says, Christians can expect more justice at the national level. "We expect the new government to reign in the [rightist] forces," D'Souza said. "The Christians should stay alert and united to carry on God's work."

D'Souza said he was surprised by the "spontaneous move of public anger" exhibited in last month's elections. He said the BJP, which ran on a program of high-tech economic growth and better relations with Pakistan, overlooked the plight of India's oppressed Dalits, hundreds of suicides by impoverished farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states, and the jailing of innocents under new antiterrorism laws. There have also been hundreds of attacks against Christians in the last six years, while the BJP looked the other way.

In February, for example, Hindu fanatics dragged six Christian women from their homes in an Orissa village. The women, including two 15-yearold girls, were beaten and had their heads forcibly shaved when they refused to convert to Hinduism.

"There is a sense of relief among Christians," D'Souza said. "We expect things to change now."

Hindu radicals, seeking to stoke their voting base, had announced plans to "reconvert" 400,000 tribal Christians to Hinduism. Representatives of the militant Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) say they will continue to organize such ceremonies, with or without government support. However, D'Souza said a national anticonversion law is dead. "The BJP would have little chance of pursuing it now," he said. Days after the election ended, the government of Tamil Nadu announced a rollback of the state's anti-conversion law (CT, November 2003, p. 34).

Christians around the nation were praying about the election, which the AICC labeled "make or break." Expressing "deep joy" over the victory of a secular government, Donald De Souza, spokesman of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, said, "Obviously, the people have rejected curbs on religious freedom. The constitution gives enough religious freedom, and we don't ask for more. The minorities should be protected, and people should feel free."

In another shock, on May 19, Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi, a Roman Catholic born in Italy, announced that she would not become prime minister. Instead, she nominated Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, to become the country's first non-Hindu prime minister.

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today.Click for reprint information.

Other Christianity Today articles on the recent elections in India include:

India's Historic Elections and the Hand of God | Persecution will continue, but without as much implicit state support, says the president of the All India Christian Council. (May 14, 2004)

Indian Churches Hail the Defeat of Hindu-Nationalist Government | "Vote consciously" campaign urged Christian voters to elect secular political parties. (May 14, 2004)

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July 2004, Vol. 48, No. 7