A woman who organized the celebration in Udmurtia was charged for “illegal missionary activity.”
by Massimo Introvigne
A prosecutor in Udmurtia, Central Russia, claims that organizing the Maha Shivratri festival, the “great night of Shiva” celebration for Hindus, and advertising the event on social media is a form of “illegal missionary activity” forbidden by Russia’s anti-proselytization law.
A woman, Ekaterina Kalinkina, who teaches yoga and Vedic astrology to a small group of followers, was charged in Udmurtia and faces a fine of 50,000 rubles.
She posted on VKontakte that the incident “makes me think about the future,” and she is considering three options. First, “I’m going underground, continue to do pujas, but will not inform about them via Internet. Who needs to know may write to me in person and find out. Of course, big holidays like Maha Shivratri … are out of question.”
Second, Kalinkina wrote, she may “keep it up to 3 more times (in most countries, the minimum number of precedents necessary to be granted political asylum because of religious persecution), and then I emigrate. Options are already being offered: India, Spain, USA…”
Third, she may try to “find two more indestructible and strong-willed people with residence permit in Udmurtia, and together we go to register ‘Sanatana Dharma,’ a religious group, which aims to perform traditional Indian religious rites, traditional sacred texts (mantras and hymns) and spread information about traditional Indian deities.”
Precedents are not encouraging, as the move by the prosecutors against Kalinkina’s group is clearly part of a wider crackdown in Russia against all forms of religion perceived as “competing” with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
