India Religious leaders follow Gandhi in fasting for peace

(November 05, 2009) Hundreds of people from various religions have followed in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi, fasting in protest against violence across India. "This is just the beginning of our search for peace and protest against violence," said Om Prakash Shah who organized a nine-hour fast on Wednesday, 4^th of November. A Protestant bishop and a Catholic priest were among some 30 religious leaders and 300 lay people who gathered at a Mahatma Gandhi statue in Kolkata for the programme. The immediate focus of the fast was the unrest in West Bengal's Lalgarh province, the scene of ongoing operations against Maoists who back tribal people against alleged government land grabs and police atrocities. Shah said the Lalgarh controversy was "only part of the bigger problem that we seek to address. We want to create a climate of peace and harmony. Gandhi is the universal symbol of non-violent protest and we wished to emulate his example to protest violence," said Shah, who heads the Centre for Peace and Progress, a Kolkata-based NGO. Father Sunil Francis Rozario, who coordinates Calcutta Catholic archdiocese's Dialogue and Ecumenism Committee, said that the Church must reach out to people of other religions to foster positive understanding among various groups. He said that Church people felt encouraged by the "positive steps" taken by secular groups to promote peace and harmony. Bishop Parimi Samuel Pavana Raju of Calcutta, the retired Protestant Church of North India said people should not stop at fasting, but addresses the root causes of violence such as poverty, hunger and privation.