A non-profit organization, Rest of World, has published a report about how certain pressure groups – such as the Vishva Hindu Parishad – use technology to intimidate and forcefully convert Christians in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.

Vigilante mobs collaborate on WhatsApp, find their targets and approach them before funerals. They contact Christian families and threaten them that they would not be allowed to bury their loved ones unless they convert to Hinduism. These incidents have intensified since Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014. Internet usage has significantly increased with the introduction of cheap data packages. WhatsApp’s speed of communication and mobilizing power make it convenient for mobs to intimidate Christians. 

The Vishva Hindu Parishad group members are divided into sections, covering about 50 villages. They all have WhatsApp locators. The groups are managed by directors, who monitor and filter information and give orders to execute offensives across a region of 38,000 square kilometres. They are all equipped with basic smartphones, all of which have WhatsApp installed. 

32-year-old Jaldhar Kashyap, whose mother died of throat cancer, was targeted earlier this year. He recalled the event: “We were given an ultimatum. If we wanted to carry out her funeral in the village, we had to abandon Christianity.” Hindu extremists blocked the entrance to the graveyard, forcing the family to convert to Hinduism before allowing them to bury their loved one. 

Vinod Bansal, national spokesperson of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, denied that the group is forcibly converting and threatening Christians. He also claimed that conversions to Christianity were the real problem: “We believe that if someone was cheated and converted to Christianity, they are inspired to convert more people. This is very dangerous. We need to put a full stop to this business of conversion to Christianity. Forced conversions and violence against India’s Christians and Muslims happen because the society is waking up and standing up to how jihadis and Christian missionaries are looting our people.”

The London School of Economics published a blog called “WhatsApp Vigilantes: An exploration of citizen reception and circulation of WhatsApp misinformation linked to mob violence in India“, commenting on the rising persecution of Christians in India. The writers note in the blog: “In the last five years, under the Hindu Nationalist BJP government and in states where the BJP and allies rule, vigilante mobs using targeted violence against Muslims, Dalits, Christians, Adivasis (indigenous people) and women have increased exponentially. In an equally disturbing aside, mobilizations of lynch mobs based on WhatsApp rumours about strangers alleged to be child kidnappers or kidney snatchers have also resulted in more than 40 murders since 2017. WhatsApp, TikTok, YouTube, ShareChat, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and a host of other lesser-known digital social media applications have been heavily implicated in the circulation of what appears to be systematic disinformation by politically motivated groups and malicious persons wishing to destabilize communities.”

Source: https://www.christianpost.com