At the heart of the deepening conflict between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan is religious militancy. Islamic militant groups, which Pakistan either continues to support or refuses to restrain, attacked India's Parliament in December and an Islamabad church in March and, less than three weeks ago, killed 30 people (mostly women and children) in a terrorist assault in Kashmir. Typically overloooked, however, is the fact that India's growing Hindu militancy--which enjoys close ties with the Indian government--is stoking Hindu-Muslim conflict in the regio and undermining India's secular democracy. Unwittingly, Hindu militancy may also further radicalize South Asian Islam.

While India's democratic constitution is based on religious impartiality, right-wing Hinduism has grown increasingly powerful since the 1990s. With a Hindu-nationalist political party now dominating India's governing coalition, right-wing Hinduism enjoys immense political support. And the threat of Islamic militancy has only enhanced its popularity. The movement includes militant organizations that--in retaliation for a deadly attack by Muslims on a trainload of Hindus--helped organize the systematic killing of as many as 2,000 Muslims in the western state of Gujarat in March. Gujarat's right-wing Hindu government demonstrably--and perhaps deliberately--failed to restrain the perpetrators. Even as the killings continued, India's central government pledged its wholehearted support for the Hindu-nationalist agenda.

What dangers do religious militancy in general and Hindu militancy in particular pose to India's fragile democracy and the region's even more fragile stability? Will unchecked Hindu extremism drive India's largely moderate Muslim population of 120 million into an extremist reaction? To contain Hindu militancy and the violence it inspires, what steps must India take? What constructive role, if any, can be played by US policy toward the region?

As a result of this conference and the powerful messages of the speakers, Congressman Joseph Pitts (R.-Pa.) made this speech before the House of Representatives on June 18, 2002:

"Mr. Speaker, I rise today to condemn the atrocities committed by Hindu extremists in Gujurat, India, against Muslims and other minority groups. Last week I met with human rights, academic and religious leaders from India who shared reports documenting the designs of the extremist groups against Muslims, Christians, Dalits and others.

Trained combatants in Gujarat entered villages and attacked men, women and children. Pregnant women had their wombs ripped open and unborn baies were ripped out and tossed into burning fires. Approximately 300 women were gang raped. Over 2,000 people died. I have photos too gruesome to show in my office.

It appears that some of these Hindu extremist groups receive some of their funds from charities in the U.S. and the U.K. We should ensure that no funds from the United States gathered under charitable causes are used to finance terrorism, and we must publicly condemn the violence and officials who support ethnic cleansing.

Mr. Speaker, our government must respond to these brutal attacks and the underlying extremism. The silence of the U.S. Government is deafening."

Speakers

Cedric Prakash is Jesuit priest, based in Gujarat, where he serves as state coordinator of the United Christian Forum on Human Rights. Fr. Prakash closely follows religious extremism in South Asia.

Jonah Blank is a senior foreign policy advisory for Senator Joseph Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a longtime student of religion and politics in India.

Kamal Chenoy is Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi and a noted expert on religious militancy and religious violence in India.

Sumit Ganguly is Professor of Asian Studies and Government at the University of Texas-Austin. He is a noted authority on politicas and security issues in the subcontinent and author of Crisis Unending: Indo-Pakistan Tensions Since 1947 (Columbia University Press, 2002).

Sunil Khilnani is Professor of Politics at the University of London and currently a Fellows of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. He is the author of The Idea of India (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999) and is currently completing a biography of Jawaharlal Nehru.

Teesta Setalvad is Human Rights activitst based in India. She co-authored a 150-page report on the recent violence in Gujarat, entitled "Genocide," published in India in April.