Persecution of Christians

The Christian message from early times was the equality of man before God. For God, any man is equal to any other. There is no distinction from the have s and have-nots. This is a primordial social order when men lived in indepedant caves with their spouses and members of the family. Even in such a primary social level, there was a division of labour and a division of power . The men used to employ their physical strength to procure food for the family. the women used to tend it and give it to all the members. The children , being the weakest used to be obedient observers and learners of the ways of the clan. This division of labour and power only strengthed the unity of the group as there was always a family elder or clan leader.

Over the course of time this social order gave place to larger social units brought into being by the mightier overpowering the weaker and smaller groups and bringing them under their control and command . This lead to a wider division of labour. Those who had better genetical endowments or greater physical prwoess aquired in life's engagements used to be given suitable work by the clan leader, while the less endowed were given the lesser or meaner work and jobs. This in course of time lead to more pwerful and less powerful in the social group.

With the emergence of trade and commerce and use of money the more powerful became the haves and the others the have-nots. Industrialisation and more division of labour aggravated the distinction between th rich and the poor The haves accumulated wealth and became more rich and the others comaparatively very poor. The more powerful rich started exploiting the brawn of the poor by giving them the lowest wages possible. The extra profits thus earned enriched the cffers of the rich to make them still more richer. The rich thus accumulated capital. Use of all forms of capital and mechanisation by these rich accentuated the gulf between the rich and the poor. Thus ineqality and exploitation and marginalisation of the poor becam the order of modern civilsation.


Recently in Orissa there was a communal flare-up and the have-nots a and their leaders and Christian teachers and priests were attacked. It was a local rebellion of the rich against the poor. The State and the police turned away their eyes on the pretext that it is a communal issue.The poor illiterate farm workers in the villages were persecuted by the communal zealots on the ruse that by becoming Xians they will be removed from the farms where they were working formerly.The land Lords used to employ them on their farms and give them the minimum wages. In other words the "haves" were exploiting the poor 'have-nots" by compelling them to work on their farms at low wages.

Christanity teaches equality of man . The land lords fear that if the workers imbibe that spirit of equality, they may revolt against the exploiatative aspects in their work conditions and there may arise a demand for better terms in work conditions. In other words the upper class communal zealots feared that the Christian message of equality and freedom will deprive them of the cheap labour they used to get from these "have-nots". So they wanted to prevent the Christan missionaries working in their villages and making the down-trodden aware of their social and economic exploitation by the rich. This was the basic reason of the recent riots in Orissa. The communal colour given to the riots was a ruse to mask the real economic reason behind the destruction of churches and attacks on the poor. The communal colour will make it more appealing to the hindu majority in the locality. In fact the communal colour made even the Orrisa Government elusive in suppressing the riot and massacre.