Ever since the erection of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Cape Comerin, about 20 years ago, the RSS has been concentrating on the district of Kanyakumari, where over 40 percent of the population is Christian, and making it a testing ground for their ultimate aim of annihilating Christianity (and Islam) and making India the home of the Hindus alone. In the initial stages they started with harassments, calling names, insulting priests, pastors and nuns. Everywhere, roadside, govt. lands they installed Hindu idols even in Christian properties. They have been imparting regular “instruction’ in thier temples, sowing the seeds of hatred toward Christians. Whenever Christians celebrate festivals their practice is to install mike and blare insults on Christians. They make it a point to declare that India is for Hindus alone and that they would build their temples with the blood of the Christians. Meantime Christians went on with their educational & medical institutions serving more Hindus than the Christians. We are now caught unprepared for the gruesome fruits of the paramilitary training the RSS has been giving the Hindu youngsters and students in large numbers in various hideouts throughout the district, keeping them ready for guerilla-type attacks on the minorities. Recently this guerilla warfare has intensified :
1. In Nov. & Dec. 1981 on slight pretexts violent communal disturbances have been created and properties belonging to the Christian farmers have been destroyed at such villages as Viliukiri, Madathattuvilai, Chemparathivilai and Appattuvilai.
2. Among the resolutions passed at a district-level peace committee, subsequent to the Madathattuvila and Kulasekharam disturbances, it was decided in the presence of the Collector and the SP that no more idols will be installed by any religious group in public places in the district. In violation of this resolution, RSS stealthily installed a Ganapati idol on the mid-night of Feb. 17 at a place called Monday Market in a junction where four busy and public roads meet. This was objected to by the Highways dept. and the public. After a few days of negotiation the idol was removed by the police as instructed by the State Govt. for which RSS blamed the Christians and intensified hatred against them.
3. The tragedy came at a place called Mondaikadu. Here there is a Bagavathi Amman temple. About a furlong away is the coastal Nagercoil-Colachel road. On the other side of the road is a shrine belonging to the Catholic fishermen of Puthoor village (population-3000) all of them extremely poor. It is one of the poorest and most backward fishermen villages in the district. The villagers, especially the sick, pray at the above shrine. On Feb. 28. Bagavathi Amman fete commenced. On the first day the prayers went on as usual ; no objection was raised. But on March 1, the police asked them to stop praying. When the uneducated fishermen refused to heed, without any prewarning such as lathi-charge and teargas, all of a sudden the police opened fire killing six and seriously wounding 15. All kinds of falsification of circumstances leading to the wanton shooting were immediately undertaken by the police as indicated by us in a separate leaflet. After the shooting incident, when the feelings were tense, the Hindus wanted & on walking to the sea only through the pathway of the Christians where the six were want- only slain, and have a holy dip in the sea waters. The RSS was behind this crude insistence. The Hindus could have gone (and even now go) for the dip in the sea through several alternate and nearby path-ways as recommended at the peace committee meeting held immediately after the tragic shooting. To avoid further confrontation the Chief Minister of TN and police appealed to the Hindus not to insist this year on the dip in the sea. Ignoring this fact of intervention by the Govt. a wild propaganda is encouraged through-out India that the Christians would not permit the Hindus to take a sea bath:
4. At the dt. level peace committee meeting soon after the shooting the Vicar-General of the Catholic Diocess of Kottar proposed a vote of condolence for the victims and their relatives at Puthoor. The proposal was violently and vehemently opposed by several Hindus. The Collector was a witness to this inhuman fact.
5. A joint committee of Christians and Muslims proposed to conduct a silent procession on March 14 at Nagercoil to condole the slaying of Christians. The RSS was bent upon stopping the procession. To this effect on March 11 at Eathamozhy a gang with fire and weapons destroyed and looted shops belonging to Christians and Muslims. But the press falsely reported that the Christians had destroyed Hindu shops. It is totally false and the press is constantly twisting facts to suit RSS designs. With the Eathamozhy incident the Hindu militants succeeded in giving the impression to the govt. that district was in the grip of a major upheaval and Collector was led to impose 144 section throughout the district and withdraw the permission to conduct the planned silent procession. In another village called Pallam (Catholics-1800) armed militant RSS gang in kakhi uniform made a flash attack on the village throwing hand grenades and using a large quantity of petrol and devastating the whole village by fire, destroying the interior of the big church and convent and wounding hundreds in the process, demolishing the alter, burning the vestments, looting the sacred vessels and throwing the Sacred Host all over the place, All this took place while 144 section was supposed to be in effect. They celebrated their victory by raising the RSS flag on top of the church. The nuns were molested and the properties belonging to the fishermen were carried away to their homes by the Hindu militants. This happened on March 15 while the Chief Minister was in Nagercoil, just 10 km. away from Pallam. The same day the Presentation Convent to Kattar, within the town limits of Nagercoil, was destroyed. The cemetry belonging to the Kottar Cathedral was destroyed and about 500 crosses over the graves were broken.
7. The nearby coastal village of Melamanakudy was also the target of their attack. The convent there met with the same fate as that of Kottar. Several files and the food for the school children was looted. The nuns had to flee the scene to the coast which is about 1 km. away while two of them were badly assaulted. Two persons were killed in police-firing while the people mistook the police for the RSS who wear the same uniform as the police.
8. Kovalam is a coastal village, one mile west of Kanyakumari. There too RSS goondas entered the village, burnt down houses, shot down one fisherman, wounded several others and created panic and terror in the area. The RSS men are in possession of guns.
9. The Church of South India churches at Marthandam, Neyyor and Ramavarmapuram are under constant threat. The CSI churches at Alankottai, Vairakudy, Yehovangar, Surankudy, Vadalivli, Dharmapuram-Puthoor were attacked and ,damaged. The RSS militants are on rampage. Who will stop them ? KK dt. has become thier major testing ground. If Christianity (& Islam) is suppressed here it would be an easy task for them to wipe away Christianity from the rest of India. We the Christians of Kanyakumari are suffering for the future of minority communities like Christians in India. The immediate problem is that of the coastal people and their miserable plight. For the past one week there has been no bus service to the coastal villages. No ration ,supply, no communication with outside. Any attempt to bring food to these sadly isolated people is also thwarted by the RSS goondas. Christians are throttled by the sheer power and strategy of the RSS gang. Christians have no newspapers of their own to give the world the correct news and no protection from the police as most of the police officers and other officials have RSS leanings. Our repeated appeals to the central and state governments have proved futile. We want the whole world to know the truth. Local newspapers are bent on suppressing it. This report is being released on behalf of Bishop M. Arokiasamy, Bishop’s House, Box 17, Nagercoil-629 001. and Bishop G. Christdas, CSI Diocesan Office, Nagercoil-629 001. by Fr. J. R. Narchison, Rev. Y. Robinson and Fr. A. M. Hilary.
