There have been multiple incidents of mobs vandalising Christmas decorations in India ahead of the festival, according to local media.
The Indian Express has reported that a mob, armed with wooden sticks, vandalised Christmas decorations and installations at a mall in the Raipur city of India’s Chhattisgarh state.
The report also mentioned that the incident took place on the same day when a Hindu organisation, Sarva Hindu Samaj, had called a Chhattisgarh bandh — a form of protest — against alleged religious conversions. According to The Hindu, the protest was also called following clashes over the “burial of a person from a converted family” in the Kanker district.
The Indian Express carried an account of the incident as narrated by an employee of the mall, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Around 80-90 people barged in […] we were supporting the protest. For the last 16 years, since we began operations here, we have always supported bandh calls. But I have never seen such behaviour. The mob threatened us […] shouted at us. They indulged in violence,” the report quoted the employee as saying.
Another employee, who also spoke anonymously to The Indian Express, said: “Some women were crying … they (the mob) were charging at all those who were trying to stop them. They kept saying we do not want to see Santa. People who had come to watch movies got scared.”
Videos, that were said to be of the incident that took place at Magneto Mall, were also circulating on social media.
Separately, The Hindu reported that members of the Vishva Hindu Parishad Bajrang Dal — which has been classified as a Hindu militant organisation by the US Central Intelligence Agency — vandalised a school, disrupting Christmas preparations, in the Nalbari district of Assam on Wednesday.
The Hindu’s report, citing police, said Bajrang Dal members also damaged festival items at shops in Assam.
It further quoted an unidentified police official as saying that Bajrang Dal members also staged a protest against Christmas celebrations in Nalbari.
“The activists entered the St Mary’s School of Panigaon village and vandalised the preparation of the Christmas Day programme. They burnt down the banner and posters of the celebration,” the official said, according to The Hindu.
He was further quoted as saying that Bajrang Dal activists had raised the slogan of “Jai Shree Ram” and warned the administration against celebrating Christmas at the school.
“They then went to various shops selling Christmas goods in Nalbari town and set fire to some items in front of the shops near the Jain Mandir in the town,” he said.
The Hindu reported that Bajrang Dal members also burned goods at shops selling Christmas items.
The report also carried a statement by Bajrang Dal Nalbari District Secretary Bhaskar Deka, who said while speaking to the media that “we don’t want Christian festivals here. Trade in any festival-related items of Indian origin. But we do not accept doing business with a festival of non-Indian origin.”
An earlier report by the news website stated that Kerala’s Education Minister V. Sivankutty had “flagged incidents of school managements calling off Christmas celebrations under pressure, allegedly from Hindu far-right groups owing allegiance to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh”.
The Hindu also reported that there was uproar on social media after videos of some individuals, reportedly belonging to Hindu right-wing groups, standing outside a church in Bareilly and reciting religious verses amid police presence before Christmas.
“The group consisting of roughly 20-25 people also raised slogans of Jai Shree Ram,” the report said.
