Catholics in India are protesting a plan by local politicians to acquire the site of a 416-year-old chapel and use the land it is built on as part of a planned soccer stadium.
The Chapel of Our Lady of Remedies is located in the federally administered western Indian town of Daman, one of the four formerly Portuguese Indian territories of Goa, Daman and Diu that were annexed by India in December 1961.
The chapel is threatened with demolition under a contentious development plan supported by politicians aligned with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the political party that governs India. The BJP has attracted widespread criticism for alleged anti-Christian prejudice.
Built by Portuguese Captain Ruy de Mello de Sampayo, a colonial Portuguese governor of Daman in 1607, the chapel has remained a place of worship for Daman’s minority Catholic population. Christians account for just over 2,600 of the town’s 329,000 people, nearly 90 percent of whom are Hindu.
A local Catholic leader, Rui Pereira, is concerned that the town’s BJP-affiliated politicians will take the land next to a football field on which the 17th-century chapel stands.
“They want to acquire the chapel’s land and once they acquire the land, they can do whatever they want,” said Pereira, who recently accompanied a group of local Catholic leaders to express their apprehension in a meeting with the president of the Daman Municipal Council, Sonal Patel.
The local administrators “want to expand the football field, which means they want to flatten the chapel,” Pereira said.
Although the Chapel of Our Lady of Remedies is known for “its architectural antiquity and unique wood carving, which should be preserved,” said Pereira it has not been declared a heritage building by the Archaeological Survey of India, a federal entity responsible for protecting sites of unique historical and cultural value.
It is feared that this may serve as a justification for local authorities to demolish the chapel in pursuit of their development plans.
“But this should not be done,” said Council president Patel. “We are with the Christian community.”
Brian Rodrigues, a priest who conducts services at the Chapel of Our Lady of Remedies, said a group of local Catholics is preparing to appeal to the High Court in Mumbai in an effort to prevent the demolition of the religious site.
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