Mission Successful: 300 villages in Orissa now stand purged of Christians

OPINION, Outlook.com Oct 3, 2008

The Crucifixion Of Words

How bad language makes it easier to tolerate violence

by

NEELABH MISHRA

.......... In the context of such violence by their cadres and supporters, luminaries of the Bharatiya Janata Party have time and again demanded a "national debate" on conversion to their fold by Christians whose number ironically has shrunk in India from more than 2.8 per cent around the time of Independence to less than two-and-a-half per cent now. Christian groups claim that nearly 300 villages in Orissa now stand purged of Christians—they have either fled or been converted to Hinduism by force. So here is your debate on conversion—not through arguments articulated in words but scored by inflicting physical violence. "National debate" has a new meaning: bash the Christians up. Rob, murder and rape them. Along with the violence inflicted on humanity, I also mourn the violence inflicted on language wherein an innocuous word like debate has been contorted to connote a sinister new meaning. Remember George Orwell.

read it all