On Sunday morning, a series of blasts rocked a convention centre in Kerala, where more than 2,000 people belonging to the denomination of Jehovah’s Witnesses gathered for a prayer meeting. Preliminary investigation revealed that the blasts at Zamra International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Kalamassery, Ernakulam, was caused by IED.
One person was killed and more than 50 others were injured in the incident, according to local TV reports.
The man, who surrendered before the Kerala Police on Sunday afternoon and claimed responsibility for the bombings, had said in a Facebook post that the Christian denomination had refused to change its ways despite multiple requests.
The accused, identified as Dominic Martin, allegedly told police that he had sought reforms in the activities of the group and that the bombs were detonated as his demands were not heeded.
Who are Jehovah's Witnesses?
The origins of the modern-day Jehovah's Witnesses organization can be traced back to late 19th century, when a small community of Bible students residing near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States, embarked on a new kind of examination of the Bible and the origins of Christian doctrine, creed, and tradition. This early group was mostly influenced by teachings of a Bible study group’s founder, Charles Taze Russell. He grew up in a Presbyterian household but left the faith as a teenager. Russell started taking classes and published numerous Bible interpretation works since the early 1870s. A lot of his ideas were against the core beliefs of traditional Christian denominations.
In 1884, Russell established the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, now headquartered in Warwick, New York, serving as the central body of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization. They hold the belief in the restoration of the world to the ancient Christian doctrines before the “impending apocalypse”. They also believe that those who do not attain salvation at the time of the world's end will be the first to face mortality.
Following Russell's death in 1916, Joseph Franklin Rutherford assumed the presidency of the Watch Tower Society. Despite encountering resistance and internal divisions, he implemented substantial organizational reforms and rebranded its adherents as Jehovah's Witnesses, placing a strong emphasis on the authority of ‘Jehovah’. In 1931, the name "Jehovah's Witnesses" was officially adopted, marking a distinct break from Russell's earlier followers. Rutherford shaped the Jehovah's Witnesses into a committed cadre of evangelists.
Jehovah’s Witnesses call themselves Christians, citing that they “follow closely the teachings and behavior of Jesus Christ”. A person becomes a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses only after being baptized in the name of Jesus. However, they consider themselves separate from groups that are traditionally considered Christian. Many Christian denominations also do not identify Jehovah’s Witnesses as Christians as the latter reject their ideas of ‘holy trinity’ and do not believe in the immortality of the soul.
Persecution
Jehovah's Witnesses maintain a stance of political neutrality and firmly reject the use of violence. Nevertheless, their refusal to salute government symbols has frequently subjected them to persecution in various parts of the world throughout history. Jehovah’s Witnesses are sometimes portrayed as members of a “cult”.
During World War I, this religious denomination was prohibited in Canada. In late 1936, US schools initiated the expulsion of children who refused to partake in the flag salute. Subsequently, in June 1940, the US Supreme Court affirmed the schools' authority to expel non-conforming students. Consequently, numerous states started implementing laws that mandated compulsory flag salute and the expulsion of non-compliant children. The Supreme Court's ruling set off a wave of violence against the group's members. Witnesses in the US, particularly in small towns and rural areas, where they endured beatings, castrations, tarring and feathering, and even death.
Between 1940 and 1944, more than 2,500 incidents of violence and persecution were documented. Hundreds of members were detained and charged, including accusations of sedition. In response, the group organized extensive campaigns for public witnessing.
In Germany, their act of preaching was banned, and the Watch Tower Society headquarters were confiscated and shut down. Since 1922, many members were arrested on peddling charges. In 1933, with the ascent of Adolf Hitler to power, governmental constraints grew more stringent, prompting Jehovah's Witnesses to distribute over two million copies of a Declaration of Facts, which aimed to denounce their ill-treatment and advocate for the right to continue their preaching activities. However, these efforts yielded limited results, as they faced job terminations and approximately 2,000 of them were incarcerated in concentration camps.
In the 1960s and 1970s, members of the denomination also faced persecution in certain African nations. Notably, since 2004, the group has encountered a series of official bans in Russia.
Presence in India
Jehovah's Witnesses have maintained a presence in India since 1905. In 1926, a national office was founded, and in 1978, a charitable trust was officially registered to represent the legal interests of Jehovah's Witnesses. According to JW.org, currently, there are 56,747 Jehovah’s Witnesses ministers in the country across 947 congregations.
In India, the group had been involved in an important case that saw a conflict between freedom of religious conscience and saluting national symbols. In 1986, the Supreme Court of India heard a case that involved three children of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect who did not join in the singing of the National Anthem at their school. The school authorities expelled the children for not singing the National Anthem, which the children's parents challenged in court.
The Kerala High Court rejected the plea and their re-appeal also failed, after which they moved the Supreme Court and received a favourable verdict. The Supreme Court ruled that the expulsion from school violated the children's rights to freedom of expression and religion, creating an important precedent. The case (Bijoe Emmanuel v. State of Kerala) has been cited in many subsequent cases involving freedom of speech and expression and the right to practice religion.
According to JW.org, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been the target of over 150 violent mob attacks since 2002 in India. A significant portion of these incidents revolved around allegations of converting individuals to their faith through their door-to-door evangelism efforts.
