Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described his country’s diversity as “the nation’s real strength” and celebrated the nation’s northeast in a letter published Monday, the Times of India reported amid ongoing anti-Christian riots that have displaced tens of thousands of people in northeast Manipur.
Modi’s letter was allegedly a response to one received from a resident of restive northern Jammu and Kashmir, Nazakat Choudhary, who had participated in a government program meant to facilitate intranational travel to encourage national cohesion. Choudhary had visited Assam, in far east northern India. The Hindu nationalist prime minister responded to the letter as a means of promoting the program.
“India is home to many cultures, cuisines, customs and lifestyles, where people belonging to different communities, practising different faiths, speaking different languages, observing different rituals not only coexist but also celebrate each other’s diverse way of life,” Modi wrote to Choudhary, according to the Times of India. The newspaper paraphrased Modi as saying that “the natural and instinctive love of Indians for diversity is the nation’s real strength and has kept it united through centuries.”
Modi also reportedly used the message to promote the northeast generally and Assam – on India’s border with China and the site of several attempts by the Communist Party to usurp Indian sovereign territory – specifically.
“Witnessing the multi-hued cultural splendour of Assam during the festival of Bihu, marvelling at the massive Brahmaputra river, learning about great personalities such as Veer Lachit Borphukan and Srimanta Sankaradeva,” Modi wrote, “and enjoying unique products like Muga silk, Tezpur litchi, Joha rice, Boka chaul and Kaji Nemu is truly an incredible experience. I have a particularly special liking for the Gamosa from Assam.”
Modi’s homage to “diversity” in northeast India follows two violent weeks in the region in which Hindu nationalist mobs, emboldened by the impunity they have often enjoyed under Modi, have rampaged through Christian communities in Manipur, just south of Assam. Manipur borders Myanmar and is home to a variety of tribal communities, the largest of them being the majority Hindu Meitei people. The Meitei control local politics and began a campaign last month to urge Modi’s government to designate them a “Scheduled Tribe,” granting them expanded territorial and political powers. After members of other tribes organized a peaceful protest against the designation, Meitei mobs began burning down their homes and specifically targeting Christian sites such as churches and the Christian-administered Manipur University.
At press time, reports indicate that Hindu mobs have destroyed at least 25 churches and displaced as many as 35,000 people, many of whom are living with no access to food or basic resources in woodlands neighboring the ruins of their old homes.
Children evacuated by the Indian army during the ethnic riots in Manipur state prepare to leave after reuniting with their parents at a temporary shelter at the Leimakhong Army Cantonment in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur on May 10, 2023. More than 50 people have been killed in the hilly border region in clashes between the majority Meitei people, who are mostly Hindus, and the mainly Christian Kuki tribe. (ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images)
“The police, the local police, don’t protect the Christian churches and in some ways aid and abet the rioters,” David Curry, the president and CEO of Global Christian Relief, told Breitbart News on Friday, addressing the situation in Manipur. “So the bigger systemic problem is, why does the central government allow this to happen? Why do local municipalities and policemen allow these attacks against churches and Christians and facilitate it?”
Curry noted that human rights groups have documented a “300-percent jump in reported attacks on Christians and Christian churches” since Modi became prime minister in 2014.
Hindu nationalist mobs are often, though not exclusively, responsible for mob violence in the country. In addition to the Manipur situation, riots broke out this week in the western state of Maharashtra, killing at least one person and resulting in over 100 arrests as a response to a showing of the film The Kerala Story, which depicts the conversion and radicalization of formerly Hindu girls to Islam and their ultimate recruitment into the Islamic State terrorist organization. Muslims have objected to the story as propaganda intended to inflame Hindu sentiments against Muslims following the Hindu nationalist promotion of laws against “love jihad,” or the conversion of Hindu women to Islam through marriage.
Authorities in Maharashtra did not identify which group was rioting over the movie or what incident, in particular, caused it, stating only that a “social media post” about the movie inflamed unspecified religious sentiments. Some local government officials claimed the rioting was “pre-planned” and used the film as an excuse.
Religious mob attacks and riots have become common under Modi in India. In its annual 2022 report on international religious freedom, the State Department detailed widespread “attacks on pastors, disruption of Christian and Muslim worship services, and vandalism of churches” by Hindu mobs, who face little police action in response. In some incidents, such as a mob attack that turned into clashes between Hindus and Muslims in April, police arrested the Muslim participants and largely let the Hindus go.
“Unfortunately, what happened is that police took action only towards the Muslim community. In the FIR … that complaint the police officer made, all the accused are Muslims,” attorney Shaukat Indori told France 24 in April regarding a clash between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat.
Christian groups have documented similar discrimination.
“Christian groups said police sometimes aided crowds who disrupted worship services the crowds said were forcibly converting Hindus,” the State Department detailed. Muslim groups detailed similar, though less frequent, incidents.
The NGO United Christian Forum (UCF) explained in a report the State Department cited, “In almost all incidents reported across India [during the year], vigilante mobs comprising religious extremists have been seen to either barge into a prayer gathering or round up individuals that they believe are involved in forcible religious conversions.”
“With impunity, such mobs criminally threaten and/or physically assault people in prayer, before handing them over to the police on allegations of forcible conversions,” the report continued. “Often communal sloganeering is witnessed outside police stations, where the police stand as mute spectators. Sadly, this violence against the Christian community is compounded by the failure of the police to investigate and prosecute mobs and perpetrators.”
Leftist American President Joe Biden will host Prime Minister Modi for a White House State Dinner, among the highest honors America reserves for foreign heads of state, in June.
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