INDIA: NEW DELHI: HINDU ACTIVISTS PROTEST AGAINST POPE'S VISIT скачать в хорошем качестве

INDIA: NEW DELHI: HINDU ACTIVISTS PROTEST AGAINST POPE'S VISIT

(1 Nov 1999) Hindi/Nat In New Delhi on Monday, Hindu activists protested against a visit by Pope John Paul II which is due to commence this Friday. Hindu groups are demanding an apology from the Pontiff for atrocities committed by Christian missionaries centuries ago. They also want a ban on religious conversions in the country, saying that missionaries are still forcibly converting Hindus. This is the sort of heat Pope John Paul II will feel when he arrives in New Delhi this Friday for a four-day visit. Many right wing Hindu groups are holding rallies across the country to demand an apology from the Pope and protest what they call forcible conversions of poor Indians by Christian missionaries. Shiv sena, a political party affiliate of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party , burnt an effigy representing the alleged conversions to Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church in India denies Hindu fundamentalists' charges that Christians engaged in forced conversions. Some historians believe that 75-thousand people who resisted the conversions were killed four centuries ago. Many Hindu temples were razed and people fled Goa to escape the persecution, according to local activists. SOUNDBITE: (Hindi) "Pope John Paul is coming...we are demanding that if he can apologise to the Americans, the Yugoslavs and to the Jews, why can't he apologise to the Indians for the sins committed by his Christian missionaries ?" SUPER CAPTION: Jai Bhagwan Goel, Shiv sena India's nearly 1(b) billion population includes 820 (m) million Hindus, 120 (m) million Muslims, 23 (m) million each of Christians and Sikhs. The country's right-wing government has urged Hindu nationalists to show restraint during Pope John Paul II's visit . Elaborate security arrangements are being made to ensure that the Pope's visit goes off peacefully. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...