Attacks on Christians go unpunished in Indian state
CHHATTISGARH CHRISTIAN FORUM HAS DOCUMENTED MORE THAN 200 ATTACKS ON THE STATE'S MINORITY COMMUNITY IN THE PAST TWO YEARS August 30, 2021. A Christian leader in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh has accused the state government of inaction after six incidents of Christian attacks were reported within a week. The latest attack was reported from a remote village in Kabirdham district on Aug. 29. More than 100 Hindu activists beat up a pastor after barging into his house during a prayer service, said Mohit Garg, superintendent of police for the district. The mob also manhandled Pastor Kawalsingh Paraste’s family members and vandalized the house, damaging scriptures, articles of worship and household items, before fleeing. The incident occurred in Polmi village around 11am when the Sunday prayer service was underway, Garg said. “It is very unfortunate that we have witnessed repeated attacks on our Christian brothers and sisters last week. But it is nothing new. We have documented more than 200 such incidents in the state during the past two years,” Chhattisgarh Christian Forum president Arun Pannalal told UCA News. He said what was more unfortunate was that every time the government would try to play down the incidents and push for a compromise between
Pastor’s Wife, 19-Year-Old Injured in Attack on Christians Hard-line Sikhs, Hindus use swords and wooden rods.
A pastor’s wife is still bed-ridden after hard-line Sikhs and Hindus broke her leg in an attack on their church last month in northern India, sources said. Carrying swords and wooden rods, the assailants also slashed the head of a church member in the attack on Christians gathered for a meal at the Evangelical Church of God in the Arniwala area of Fazilka District, Punjab state. “The physical injuries were very brutal, so that even over a month after the attack, the injured have not recovered,” pastor Roop Lal told Morning Star News. “The doctors told us the injured area [of his wife’s leg] is totally infected, and the skin in the area developed some kind of boils.” In the July 12 attack, about 15 men also vandalized a security camera and destroyed the church gate and other property, causing damages of about 30,000 rupees (US$404), he said. Pastor Lal’s wife, Raj Rani, underwent two surgeries on her left leg, and 19-year-old Lovepreet Singh received 18 stitches for a wound on his scalp. Surgeons at Faridkot Medical Hospital on July 24 addressed the infection on Rani’s leg, and she underwent a later operation to insert rods for the fracture, Pastor Lal said. Having no money
Indian court rejects elderly priest’s request for a straw
A Catholic priest holds a placard with the image of Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy during a protest in Secunderabad on Oct. 21 against his arrest in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. (Photo: AFP) An elderly Jesuit priest in detention in an Indian jail has moved court for regular bail after his application to use a straw or sipper to drink water and other liquids was rejected. Father Stan Swamy, 84, has been in Taloja Central Prison in Mumbai, capital of Maharashtra state in western India, since Oct. 9. The activist priest is accused of sedition and links with outlawed Maoist rebels among other offenses and charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), a federal anti-terror combat unit. The priest, who is suffering from many age-related problems including Parkinson's disease, approached the special NIA court on Nov. 6 seeking permission to use a straw or sipper as he could not drink any liquid because of his shaking hands. When it came up for hearing on Nov. 26, the NIA did not respond to the application positively and the request was rejected. The counsel for the priest amended the application by retaining the demand for a straw or
Christians Jailed after Hindus Attack Them for Visiting Widower
Two pastors and wife were comforting Hindu who lost family to COVID-19.Three Christians are in jail after hard-line Hindus in northern India last week beat two of them, both pastors, and a Hindu they were comforting in the loss of his family to COVID-19. Hindu neighbors from the upper-caste Thakur community in Phoolpur, Uttar Pradesh state on Aug. 3 attacked 62-year-old Lalji Vishwakarma and the two pastors, the Hindu said. “A mob of Hindu extremist neighbors from the Thakur community barged inside the house and falsely accused me and the pastors visiting my house of forced conversions,” Vishwakarma told Morning Star News. “They have no pity that I have been grieving my family’s death.” Pastor Neel Durai, pastor Vijay Kumar Patel and his wife, Kiran Devi, had come to pray for him and his granddaughters, Vishwakarma said. “I lost my wife, son and daughter-in-law to COVID one after the other,” he said. “My young granddaughters, ages 10 and 12, and I were longing for God’s servants to visit us, pray for us and comfort us.” No one else was invited to join them in the prayers, he said. His two granddaughters were the only others at the house as the pastors began reading from the
India becomes unapologetically Hindu under PM Modi
THE TRANSFORMATION IS PRODUCING A NEW ELITE WHO ARE PRO-HINDU AND PRO-HINDI BUT DETEST ENGLISH August 5 marks the second anniversary of the constitutional amendment initiated by the Narendra Modi government to take away the functional autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state. A year later, on the same day in 2020, the prime minister laid the foundation stone for a grand Ram temple at Ayodhya on a plot of land where once stood the Babri mosque before its demolition by frenzied mobs of Hindus in 1992. The two events aren’t mere sociopolitical developments in the recent history of the country but can be seen as symbols of the latent but strong cultural transformation India has undergone ever since Modi became prime minister in 2014. This transformation has pitchforked a new elite who are basically provincial, pro-Hindu and pro-Hindi. They detest English and prefer the Hindi language, and proclaim their Hindu identity. The end result has been the rise of an unapologetic fanatic. “This is the new social order now. We may not see major upheaval or social destabilization. But in the name of anti-elitism what we have got is anti-intellectualism. More precisely it is anti-liberalism,” West Bengal-based social analyst Ramakanto Shanyal said. “The new
Sikhs Beat, Choke Christian Women in Northern India
A 24-year-old Christian woman in northern India regained the ability to speak nearly a month after she went into shock from a Sikh family choking her unconscious and attacking her sister and mother, sources said. Meenu Kaur Tank remains bed-ridden, on strong medicines, sometimes continues to fall unconscious and still barely speaks following the assault in Ghawaddi village, Ludhiana District in Punjab state, her sister said. “Meenu is unable to come out of shock,” her 27-year-old sister, Harpreet Kaur Tank, told Morning Star News. “She has lost her appetite and hardly talks…[The assailant] caught my sister from the throat and pressed it so hard, almost choking her to death. She fell unconscious.” In the June 20 attack on the widowed mother, sisters and others, five Sikh family members also partially stripped the Christian women as they beat them and reviled them for believing in Christ, sources said. The women, who became Christians in 2016, had just returned from an evening worship service. Munesh Devi and her daughters were attacked in Ludhiana District, Punjab state, India. (Morning Star News)Munesh Devi and her daughters were attacked in Ludhiana District, Punjab state, India. (Morning Star News) Meenu Kaur Tank was rushed to a hospital immediately after the 45-minute
