Orissa to promote Christian tourism

(Nov.17,2009): In eastern India’s Orissa State, a minister has offered a special package of Christian spiritual tourism to the state, where anti-Christian riots killed scores of Christians last year. Tourism and Culture Minister Debi Prasad Mishra told visiting Protestant tourists that the state wants to highlight Christian heritage and religious amity in the state. “Orissa has huge potential for religious tourism, especially Christian heritage tourism. We have a large number of Baptist and Roman Catholic churches and colonial heritages in the state, which could attract a large number of tourists,” Mishra said.
A team of 33 bishops of the Church of North India - CNI, visited the state recently to see the situation in the tribal dominated Kandhamal district, where last year’s anti-Christian violence was mostly focused. “The Kandhamal episode is over and normalcy has returned to the state,” the minister claimed. He added that the state wants to tell Christian leaders that Orissa “is full of religious heritages belonging to their religion.” The 2008 violence orchestrated by Hindu fanatics killed some 90 people and displaced 50,000, mostly Christians. Reverend Enos Das Pradhan, general secretary of the CNI Synod, said the government has brought things into normalcy in the state. He noted Orissa has a long history of Christianity and peaceful coexistence. “The step to promote religious tourism will make the bond stronger,” he added.|