When India became an independent nation in 1947, its founding fathers intentionally constructed it to be a secular society acknowledging the profound diversity of religions that exists in the society. In such context, Christians of India have coexisted peacefully with other religious communities. That is, until the late 1970s, when peace was breached by a series of attack against Christians. The latest example occurred in the summer of 2008, in the state of Orissa, in which persecution killed 157 Christians and injured 18,000, as well as causing widespread damages to properties, including the burning down of homes, schools, and churches.
These disturbing incidents raise a series of questions and concerns: Why have these acts of violence occurred against Indian Christians? Who were (are) the persecutors? Are the persecutions merely the contemporary manifestation of the conflict that has always existed between Christians and other religionists of India? What of the persecuted Indian Christians? Who are they? Pastorally speaking, what are their needs? What is the best way to prevent such conflict from occurring in the future?
This study seeks to address these questions. It does so by examining socio-political origins of anti-Christian persecutions in contemporary India and applying
insights from pastoral care and counseling. The thesis this study seeks to argue is this: One of the basic causes of the persecution of Christians in Orissa and elsewhere in India today is the rise of Hindu nationalism, which seeks to impose a monolithic vision of the country on the citizens at the expense of religious minorities such as Christians; and the Christians who have been victimized by such imposition can best be helped by a pastoral care and counseling that focuses on forgiveness and reconciliation and by social justice initiatives that compel the Indian government to enable Christians to enjoy their religious freedom guaranteed in the Constitution.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TCU/oai:etd.tcu.edu:etd-03162010-153500 |
| Date | 16 March 2010 |
| Creators | Appileyil, Varghese V. |
| Contributors | Timothy S. Lee, Bryan G. Feille |
| Publisher | Texas Christian University |
| Source Sets | Texas Christian University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf, application/octet-stream |
| Source | http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-03162010-153500/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to TCU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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