This western Indian city is better known as the hometown of Mohandas Gandhi, a Hindu and India's messiah of nonviolence and religious tolerance. But lately, Rajkot and surrounding Gujrat state are becoming known for what Christian leaders say is growing intolerance linked to the rise to power of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The mob that ransacked the school was searching for copies of the New Testament that had been distributed by a traveling Christian group. As the children watched, the attackers made a bonfire of 400 Bibles and told the students, all girls, that the school was conspiring to make them marry Christian men so they would be forced to become Christian. Despite their small numbers, Christians have a certain prominence because schools founded by missionaries are among the most prestigious in India.
Hindu parents compete to enroll their children.
The attack on the I.P. Mission School was one of more than 90 violent incidents aimed at Christians in 1998, according to the United Christian Forum for Human Rights, a group of lay Christians. The group says that was more than in any other year since India's independence in 1947. The forum blames what it says is an atmosphere of intolerance that has accompanied the Bharatiya Janata Party's political rise. The party won national elections in March and heads the national governing coalition. It also controls the state government in Gujrat.