❈ ❈ ❈

‘Christmas Is to Christians What Diwali Is to Us’: What At present’s India Can Be taught from Gandhi

S.N. Sahu

“Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” and “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, ceaselessly invoked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leaders of his Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJ), ring hole within the face of relentless assaults on minorities, their locations of worship and their festivals. These assaults have intensified over the past eleven years. Latest assaults by BJP leaders and Hindutva vigilante teams on Christians – together with verbal abuse directed at folks celebrating Christmas – reveal a disturbing sample of hate and intimidation aimed toward denying residents their cultural liberty and their constitutionally assured proper to practise their religion.

Vicious and scary assaults have been carried out with impunity in a number of elements of the nation, largely in BJP-ruled states. Even shopkeepers, together with impoverished distributors professing Hinduism and different faiths – not simply Chiristianity – promoting roadside replicas of Santa Claus or Christmas caps have been threatened with dire penalties if they didn’t cease. That is regardless of their constitutionally protected proper to have interaction in commerce and commerce.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), in an alarming violation of the structure and norms of civilised conduct, has appealed to Hindus to not take part in Christmas celebrations, invoking so-called ‘cultural consciousness’ to justify its actions. In actuality, its campaigns have focused folks irrespective of religion. Shopkeepers, buying malls and academic establishments have all come underneath assault.

Such intolerance in direction of Christians and all these related to the festivity of Christmas threatens the structure and the very concept of India. That concept was formed and sustained by the imaginative and prescient and values of figures reminiscent of Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi.

Swami Vivekananda on being Hindu

Swami Vivekananda was warmly obtained by Christians in america following his historic deal with on the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. In letters to his disciples in India, he wrote, “I’m right here amongst the youngsters of the Son of Mary and the Lord Jesus will assist me.” He persistently emphasised that Hinduism didn’t merely tolerate different religions however sought unity with them. As he famously declared:

“We Hindus don’t merely tolerate; we unite ourselves with each faith – praying within the mosque of the Mohammedan, worshipping earlier than the hearth of the Zoroastrian, and kneeling to the Cross of the Christian.”

For Vivekananda, all religions have been makes an attempt by the human soul to know and realise the Infinite. As he put it, “All religions alike, from the bottom fetishism to the best absolutism, are however so many makes an attempt of the human soul to know and realise the Infinite.”

This understanding led him to a strong picture of concord amongst faiths: “So we collect all these flowers, and, binding them along with the twine of affection, make them into an exquisite bouquet of worship.”

These phrases mirrored a deeply rooted cultural consciousness grounded in respect for all faiths. True to this spirit, on the eve of Christmas on December 24, 1895, Vivekananda wrote to an American good friend, Mrs Bull, wishing her a Merry Christmas and a cheerful New 12 months, and praying for her peace and good well being. That instance stays profoundly related.

Those that at the moment goal Christians and intimidate folks of different faiths for celebrating Christmas stand in direct opposition to every little thing Swami Vivekananda represented.

Gandhi’s concept of religion and worship

What Vivekananda articulated was absolutely mirrored within the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi drew inspiration for Satyagraha from many figures, together with Jesus Christ, Prahlad of the Hindu custom, Socrates of Greek historical past and Imam Hussain of Islam. They have been the ethical exemplars whose lives demonstrated the facility of reality and sacrifice. Their concepts strengthened his perception within the important unity of religions.

On October 28, 1911, writing within the Indian Opinion, Gandhi referred to the arrest of a Hindu in South Africa for bursting firecrackers on Diwali. The arrest was challenged by Dawad Mahomed, a Muslim, and Rustomjee, a Parsi, who identified that Christians have been allowed to rejoice their festivals in the identical method with out police interference.

Confronted with this show of interfaith solidarity, the authorities launched the arrested man. Gandhi noticed that such unity in defending each other’s non secular festivals strengthened fraternity throughout non secular boundaries.

Respect for all religions and their festivals remained central to Gandhi’s considering all through his life. On Christmas Day, December 25, 1944, he acknowledged, “We maintain all religions in equal respect and all such festivals deserve respect.”

He urged that such events ought to encourage meditation and introspection fairly than outward show, reminding those who Jesus accepted the Cross in pursuit of what he believed to be reality.

On January 26 the next yr, Gandhi reiterated: “For us who consider within the equality of all religions, the beginning of Jesus Christ is as worthy of veneration as that of Rama, Krishna, and many others.”

This outlook mirrored the inclusive imaginative and prescient that guided India’s freedom battle, the framing of the structure and the method of nation-building after independence.

On December 24, 1945, talking at a prayer assembly in Sodepur, Gandhi urged folks to respect all religions of the world as their very own. On Christmas Day, December 25, 1946, at a prayer assembly in Srirampur, he noticed:

“Jesus Christ may be seemed upon as belonging to Christians solely, however he actually didn’t belong to any group, inasmuch because the lesson that Jesus Christ gave belonged to the entire world.”

On December 24, 1947, at a prayer assembly in Delhi, Gandhi remarked, “Christmas is to Christians what Diwali is to us.” He additionally cautioned, “Actually, neither Diwali nor Christmas is an event once we ought to take pleasure in revelry and lose our heads… I don’t regard Christmas as an event for folks to take pleasure in drunkenness.”

Whereas extending greetings to Christians in India and overseas, Gandhi made his place unmistakably clear:

“It has by no means been my want that the liberty of India ought to imply the smash of the Christians right here, or that they need to change into Hindus or Muslims or Sikhs… For a Christian to change into a Hindu or a Muslim is a destiny worse than demise.”

In his view, “A Christian ought to change into a greater Christian, a Muslim a greater Muslim, and a Sikh a greater Sikh.”

This inclusive imaginative and prescient, rooted in mutual respect and equality amongst faiths, should be defended at the moment. The duty lies with these in energy to guard the Structure and uphold the equal dignity of all religions, particularly at moments reminiscent of Christmas when intolerance is being brazenly inspired.

[S.N. Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K.R. Narayanan. Courtesy: The Wire, an Indian nonprofit news and opinion website. It was founded in 2015 by Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M. K. Venu.]

❈ ❈ ❈

To These Who Persecute Christians

Rohit Kumar

I would need you “Merry Christmas” however you might need a difficulty with that, so I gained’t. (It’s a pity, although, as a result of Christmas is a competition celebrated all around the world by Christians and non-Christians alike and has a appeal all its personal.)

First, permit me to introduce myself. I’m a instructor. I work with youngsters in colleges in North India and assist them navigate their adolescent years which, by all indications are getting more and more troublesome every passing yr.

I’m additionally a Hindu. The distinction between you and me, although, almost definitely, is that that isn’t my main id. I’m a human being and an Indian at the beginning (as are you). Every thing else is secondary.

I consider all people are worthy of dignity and respect, no matter their caste, creed, background or faith. What do you consider?

By the way, I obtained my main training at a Ramakrishna Mission Faculty in New Delhi. Due to the character of the college, I acquired fairly a grounding within the Hindu scriptures, however at no level do I keep in mind our lecturers (who have been sanyasinis) instructing us to hate different religions or think about ours supreme, the best way lots of you do.

In truth, one of many first issues I keep in mind memorising as a toddler was Narendra Nath Dutta (Swami Vivekanand’s) speech to the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. He started his speech by reminding his viewers that there have been some ways of reaching the divine:

“Sisters and Brothers of America,

I’ll quote to you…just a few strains from a hymn which I keep in mind to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is each day repeated by thousands and thousands of human beings:

“Because the completely different streams having their sources in other places all mingle their water within the sea, so, O Lord, the completely different paths which males take via completely different tendencies, varied although they seem, crooked or straight, all result in Thee.”

He then went on to offer an admonition that’s value pondering:

“Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have lengthy possessed this stunning earth. They’ve stuffed the earth with violence, drenched it typically and sometimes with human blood, destroyed civilization, and despatched complete nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society could be much more superior than it’s now.

“However their time has come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this conference could be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable emotions between individuals wending their strategy to the identical purpose.”

The bell that tolled that morning, sadly didn’t ring the death-knell for all fanaticism.

What’s at risk, as a substitute, is insaaniyat, or in case you want, maanavtaa (humaneness), one thing that appears to be profoundly lacking in folks like Anju Bhargava, native BJP chief from Jabalpur, who barged right into a Christmas lunch for visually and hearing-impaired college students, and bodily confronted a visually impaired lady, making derogatory remarks about her incapacity, and telling her she could be blind in her subsequent life as nicely.

Why a lot hate? It’s not good for anybody, least of all for the haters. It’s good to do not forget that “Hate is an acid that nearly does extra harm to the vessel by which it’s saved than it’s to the thing on which it’s poured.”

When Narendra Modi grew to become prime minister of India in 2014, he promised “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishvas” to all Indians. Unhappy to say, since then there was a 550% improve in assaults on the Indian Christian group. My query is – why? What’s so threatening a couple of group that hardly constitutes 2.3% of the nation’s inhabitants? (Or is that, like most bullies, you discover it best to choose on the weakest?)

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has additionally issued a current attraction urging Hindus to chorus from celebrating Christmas this yr, and has requested shopkeepers, malls and colleges to not promote or show Christmas-related gadgets or greetings forward of the competition. (This diktat has gone unheeded, by the way. The markets I visited just lately are filled with Christmas bushes and decorations which many (together with and principally non-Christians) are shopping for. The merchants are prioritising gross sales over bigotry.

The folks of the group you hate a lot have a quite simple creed given to them by the Christ they worship and comply with, and whose coming into the world Christmas commemorates:

“Love God with all of your coronary heart, soul and thoughts, and your fellow human as your self.“ (Matthew 22:37–39)

It’s a creed that has illuminated and outlined the lives of thousands and thousands – from the very well-known to the just about unknown – inspiring them to steer lives of sacrifice and selflessness and serve the poorest and weakest.

Christians, by the way, have been additionally forewarned by their Christ who informed them to not be shocked when “males shall revile you and persecute you and say all method of evil in opposition to you falsely.” (Matthew 5:11)

He then exhorted them to

“Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for people who despitefully use you and persecute you, that you could be be the youngsters of your Father which is in Heaven”. (Matthew 22:37–39)

How do you hate those that refuse to hate you again?

The justification that so many who hate and persecute Christians provide is that “they’re changing folks to Christianity.”

Every time I hear that line, my thoughts goes again to January 26, 2001. A horrible earthquake had levelled complete cities and cities like Bhuj, Bachau and Anjar in Gujarat. Moved by tales of struggling popping out of Gujarat, I and a bunch of mates loaded up a few vehicles with reduction provides and headed out to the westernmost district of Gujarat, the place not a lot support had reached.

After a 40-hour journey by street, we reached a city known as Naliya, the place we discovered {that a} Catholic faculty was now serving as a makeshift base camp for reduction work. Upon reaching that college, we have been greeted by a younger man who launched himself as Father Saji, who invited us all for a heat meal and informed us we might keep within the faculty dorm during our reduction work there.

The following morning, I realised we weren’t the one volunteers current. Many different volunteers and NGOs who needed to assist the victims of the earthquake had arrived on the faculty as nicely.

I’ll always remember the assembly Father Saji had with all of us that morning.

“Welcome to Naliya,” he mentioned. “Thanks all for coming right here to assist the needy. I need to make it very clear that though we’re Christians, and we’re motivated by our religion, we aren’t right here to evangelise or proselytise. I’m Christian, it’s possible you’ll be Hindu or Muslim or Sikh. It doesn’t matter. We’re solely right here to serve the struggling, and we’re very joyful to affix arms with you.”

He then led us in a prayer that every one of us knew:

“इतनी शक्ति हमें देना दाता, मन का विश्वास कमज़ोर हो ना

हम चलें नेक रस्ते पे हमसे, भूलकर भी कोई भूल हो ना।”

“Grant us such power, O Giver, that our religion doesn’t develop weak;

Might we stroll on the righteous path, and by no means stray, even by mistake.”

The following three weeks have been a few of the most memorable ones of my life. Day by day we loaded up small tempos of reduction provides and headed out into the Kutch desert, to villages that had been destroyed within the quake. Each night after distribution, we returned to a scorching meal within the faculty and the corporate of Father Saji and the opposite volunteers the place we exchanged the tales of the day and made plans for the following day.

I’m grateful for the chance to have seen an instance of real Christianity in motion. I realise you may not have. Maybe it’s as a result of you might have chosen to not.

This Christmas, although, I pray that you’ll step exterior the boundaries of hate you might have circumscribed for your self and see that there’s a world full of excellent folks on the market, even when they aren’t the identical faith as you.

Merry Christmas!

[Rohit Kumar is an educator. Courtesy: The Wire, an Indian nonprofit news and opinion website. It was founded in 2015 by Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M. K. Venu.]

❈ ❈ ❈

Sangh Scares Off Santa: A Christmas of Worry

John Dayal

On Christmas day, prime minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to go to a cathedral in New Delhi which attracts lots of of individuals of all faiths who come maybe to really feel the enjoyment and peace related to the kid Jesus, or simply out of curiosity to see the most important celebration within the Christian calendar.

It’s attention-grabbing that the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) authorities ‘s calendar lists 25 December as Good Governance Divas in reminiscence of the late prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who too was born on Christmas day. In Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath authorities has made attendance obligatory in colleges, and erring workers might face stern motion.

For the Modi go to, safety is the highest precedence. Final Christmas, in order to not disturb the day for the trustworthy, a particular desk with a portrait of Jesus had been put up, a candle lit earlier than it. A choir of younger folks sang acquainted carols, and the senior clergy lined as much as alternate formal pleasantries with the visitor. Modi apparently additionally spoke to the Cathedral gardener, giving him some horticultural recommendation.

Will probably be a lot the identical this yr, and if all goes nicely, Modi may have informed the world that he loves the Christians of Bharat, they usually in flip love him much more. The brand new vp of India, C.P. Radhakrishnan, was the visitor of honour on the annual Christmas dinner by the Catholic Bishops Convention of India. The vp in flip hosted the Bishops, and plenty of extra, at a lunch at his official residence, assuring the gathering that non secular minorities have been protected in India. Radhakrishnan known as Jesus’s message a “beacon of compassion.”

In Raipur, nonetheless, the Catholic archbishop, Victor Henry Thakur, was very anxious. He despatched a letter to native church buildings, colleges and different establishments urging warning, “Within the gentle of the decision for Chhattisgarh Bandh tomorrow, I really feel and recommend that every one our church buildings, presbyteries , convents and establishments ought to search safety in writing from the native police. Please think about my suggestion as a result of it appears to have been deliberate simply earlier than the Christmas, because it was the case at Kandhamal in Odisha.”

The Bishop was referring to the Christmas eve violence within the Kandhamal district of Odisha in 2007 the place markets have been set afire, girls molested and Christians made to flee into close by forests. A number of months later in 2008, Kandhamal erupted once more, with some 70,000 folks displaced, 400 church buildings and establishments destroyed and a few 4,500 homes burnt. A Catholic nun was gang-raped and paraded bare, the police as standard escorting the gangs.

In distant Left front-ruled Kerala, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) teams have been coercing colleges, lecturers and fogeys to not take part in any Christmas exercise. The faculties buckled underneath the strain. State training minister V. Sivankutty mentioned faculty managements had returned cash pooled in by college students for the year-end celebrations underneath strain from teams related to the RSS.

Sivankutty mentioned that the RSS was making an attempt to copy its “North Indian” mannequin of “othering” minorities in Kerala and added that the state authorities would resist all such makes an attempt.

“The federal government will resist any try to remodel colleges into stifling compartments of spiritual segregation by any fundamentalist group. Imbibing secular and democratic values at a younger age lays the bottom for a humane and secular society,” he mentioned.

The hate and concentrating on of Christians within the nation

The hate and concentrating on within the nation is nonetheless as actual because the suffocating fog within the nationwide capital.

Each massive and small Christian group has written to the Union house minister, Amit Shah, with copies marked to the Prime Minister’s Workplace (PMO )on X, urging him to make sure that police and administration in states, metropolitan cities and the countryside make sure that troublemakers are contained. Letters have been despatched on behalf of the Catholic Bishops Convention of India, the Evangelical Fellowship of India, the United Christian Discussion board and the Bombay Catholic Sabha.

No letters have been despatched to Mohan Bhagwat on the RSS headquarters, until stories final got here in. Hate was completely normalised. As was violence, the police was silent, or complicit.

Cadres subsequently have been occurring with enterprise as standard, tilak on the brow, a lathi within the hand, abuses and threats on the lips. Girls leaders are main from the entrance, and in Jabalpur might be seen manhandling a visually challenged lady attending a prayer service. The BJP chief mentioned she was checking if forcible conversions have been occurring within the place.

Essentially the most obscene of such violence passed off in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district, on 15 December, a dispute over the burial of Rajman Salam’s father led to clashes. Hardline Hindu teams objected to the usage of an ancestral graveyard for the Christian convert, leading to accidents and police intervention. A little bit earlier, mobs vandalised a prayer corridor in Bastar over comparable burial rights, inflicting a number of accidents.

In Madhya Pradesh, focused assaults disrupted Christmas prayer conferences in a number of areas. On December 10, in Jabalpur, a mob assaulted Christians throughout a service, accusing them of compelled conversions underneath anti-conversion legal guidelines. Related disruptions occurred in Bhopal and Indore, the place prayer gatherings have been halted by vigilantes, resulting in arrests of pastors fairly than the attackers.

In Uttar Pradesh, on December 5, a church in Lucknow was vandalised, with worshippers crushed and literature destroyed. These incidents mirror a coordinated effort to intimidate Christians throughout their competition season, typically justified by claims of unlawful conversions.

In Rajasthan, the completely weaponised anti conversion regulation has triggered a spike in persecution, with mobs attacking church buildings and houses. On December 12, in Jaipur, a prayer assembly was raided, leading to accidents to girls and youngsters.

The Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) despatched a letter to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on the Amabeda village tensions following a burial dispute. The letter detailed persevering with threats and known as for cover of Christian rights.

Christians teams have this yr documented over 700 incidents of violence until November this yr, noting 334 incidents from January to July 2025, together with 107 instances of threats and harassment, and 116 false accusations and arrests. EFI’s Spiritual Liberty Fee reported bodily violence in 42 incidents and worship disruptions in 29 instances.

Statistics reveal the size of the issue. In 2024, UCF recorded 834 incidents of violence, averaging 69.5 monthly, a pointy improve from 127 in 2014. EFI verified 640 instances that yr, together with 255 threats, 129 arrests, 76 bodily assaults, and gender-based violence in 17 situations. By November 2025, UCF documented 706 incidents, with EFI projecting over 700 for the yr. In comparison with 2024, 2025 exhibits a 10-15% rise, pushed by hate speech and vigilante actions in states like Uttar Pradesh (95 incidents by July) and Chhattisgarh (86).

Arrests of pastors and Christians have intensified in 2025, notably in Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In Uttar Pradesh, at the very least 12 pastors have been arrested by August on false conversion fees, typically after mob assaults the place victims are detained.

On 20 July, in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, six pastors have been arrested throughout a disrupted service and crushed in custody. 5 extra pastors confronted assaults in jail in August, with documented proof ignored. In September, in Mangaluru, Karnataka, arrests adopted stabbings by Hindu activists, however fees focused Christians. Between 2020 and 2023, over 855 have been detained nationwide on conversion allegations.

A sustained hate marketing campaign drives this violence, portraying Christians as threats to Hindu tradition. Anti-Christian propaganda has induced a 500% surge in assaults over the last decade. In 2025, hate speech occasions focused minorities, framing conversions as invasions. Elected officers’ rhetoric emboldens mobs, resulting in requires genocide in Chhattisgarh. Social media spreads messages inciting violence. It stays a Christmas underneath risk.

[The writer is a former editor, member of the National Integration Council and past president, All India Catholic Union. Courtesy: The Wire, an Indian nonprofit news and opinion website. It was founded in 2015 by Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M. K. Venu.]