For a month, the Indian State of Orissa has been a theatre to episodes of violence between Christian communities and fanatical Hindus. The epicenter of the conflict is the district of Kandhamal, where the Hindus are destroying Christians’ places of worship and homes. Orissa is one of the poorest parts of India, traditionally associated with the most discriminated parts of the population, (4/5 of the population are untouchables, or pariah, or dalit, meaning that in the social scale they are outside of the caste system). The toll of the violence now is 59 deaths, 115 Christian churches destroyed, homes damaged, and 50 thousand homeless Christians seeking refuge in the forests, where they continue to receive threats from the fundamentalists.

The episode that caused these persecutions to explode goes back to August 23rd, when the murder of radical Hindu Swami Laxananda was attributed to Christians, even if the police identified Maoists as responsible for the crime. Swami had been accused of inspiring the previous phase of violence last December. Last month’s massacre "is just the second half of a match started many years ago", comments journalist Giorgio Benardelli, from the Papal Institute for Missions Overseas (www.pime.org); he was in Orissa in February. The radicals of Visha Hindu Parishad and of Rastriya Swayamseyak Sangh, (Rss) are considered the principal fomenters of the threats. They use serious threats to force the tribal members who have converted to Christianity to reconvert to Hinduism. Fundamentalist groups roam through the villages of Orissa getting signatures on a document in which Christians attest to their conversion to Hinduism. The central Indian government seems to wait inactive where extremist groups mix religion and extreme nationalism.

"It is not by chance – says father Jimmy Dhabby, director in New Delhi of the Indian Social Institute- that this violence against the Christians exploded when the next elections are planned for May 2009, and in Orissa there will also be elections for the local government". It is well known that inter-religious conflicts polarize communities and create a climate of fear. That explains the campaigns of hatred fomented by the conservative national Party Bjp, which hope to get as many votes as possible in order to win the elections. The Indian democracy, which is based on 'vote banks', influences citizens to vote for candidates of the same group that belong to the same religion.