Seminary rectors to tackle Hindu fundamentalism - General | hindujagruti.org

• Seminary rectors to tackle Hindu fundamentalism - General | hindujagruti.org

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  • Ranchi (Jharkhand):
  • The Association of Rectors of Major Seminaries of India (ARMS) plans to tackle the problem of Hindu fundamentalism that its says is the biggest threat to the Church and India as a whole.
    
    Father Joseph Prasad Pinto, ARMS' newly elected president and rector of Ranchi's St. Albert's College, told UCA News the rectors wanted to find a solution to growing sectarianism and attacks on religious minority groups, including Catholic priests working in remote areas in the country.
    
  • Their Sept. 25-28 meeting in Ranchi, eastern India, had as its theme: "Formation for Mission in Today's Context."
  • A statement from the meeting noted the rise of Hindu radicalism as "the most potent threat to the Church and society in India." It also said Hindu fundamentalism had attracted "fringe fascist elements" that use various "manipulative" and "insidious" ways to spread their ideology.
  • The rectors said the Hindu fundamentalists' sole aim is to establish a Hindu nation that allows tribal and dalit people (former "untouchables" in the Indian caste system) and religious communities to exist only as second-class citizens "subservient to the upper castes."
  • The rectors want seminarians to study the way Hindu radicals spread propaganda that projects their target groups as villains. Their statement noted that these radicals influence the media, infiltrate the bureaucracy, police and judiciary, and introduce their ideology to the education system.
  • The rectors said they would encourage their students to develop a spirituality that could deal with sectarian politics, study the phenomenon of Hindu fundamentalism, work for human rights and use the media in the fight against sectarianism.