Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly claimed in public — including on the lawn of the White House in June — that India is not a hotbed of persecution or violence against religious minorities. “I’m actually really surprised that people say so. And so, people don’t say it. Indeed, India is a democracy,” Modi said while standing next to President Joe Biden during a visit to Washington this year. “We have always proved that democracy can deliver. And when I say deliver, this is regardless of caste, creed, religion, gender. There’s absolutely no space for discrimination.” In reality, Hindu nationalists organized mob attacks on Christian communities throughout the year, burning down churches and often destroying entire neighborhoods, leaving Christians displaced. The worst of the violence in 2023 occurred in Manipur, northern India, where members of the majority Hindu Meitei tribe went on a rampage against majority Christian Kuki-Zo communities throughout the spring and summer, often filming their atrocities. Modi’s government did not comment on the matter until a video went viral in the rest of the country showing a mob of presumably Meitei men raping Christian women in broad daylight and parading them naked through the streets. “The police were there with the mob which was attacking our village,” one

Persecution against Christians is expected to rise in several countries in the coming year, according to Release International. The organisation's new Persecution Trends report, released this week, warns of an intensfication of persecution in a number of countries, including Nigeria, India, Pakistan and China in 2024. Nigeria has suffered one of its worst Christmases after 160 were killed in a series of attacks in Plateau State between 23 December and Christmas Day. Morning Star News reports that the dead include church members and pastors, while hundreds of homes have been destroyed. Release International's Nigeria partner confirmed the reports. They said, "We are deeply saddened by these incidents and condemn these killings and attacks on innocent Christians during their worship." The Persecution Trends report predicts that persecution in Nigeria will rise in 2024. Attacks on Christian communities by jihadists are "dispossessing them of their lands by destroying their food supplies and forcing them to convert or flee". These attacks are expected to continue next year. Release CEO Paul Robinson is calling on the worldwide Church to pray for Christians in Nigeria. He also wants the Nigerian government "to take decisive and effective action to protect its vulnerable communities". "Our hearts go out to beleaguered Christians in Nigeria. We

BENGALURU: Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for hosting Christmas celebrations at his residence in New Delhi, Bengaluru Archbishop Dr Peter Machado suggested that the PM should also look into many pressing issues of the Christian community. In a letter to the PM, Dr Machado on Thursday said, “Christmas 2023 was special for Christians in India as PM Modi invited representatives of Christians in New Delhi to his own house on Christmas Day. To take positively forward Modiji’s Christmas message of peace and goodwill, it would be an excellent move on his part to address the concerns of the Christian community by taking into confidence Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, and Religious and Lay leaders of the community. Instances of hate speeches against Christians, attacks on churches and institutions, and promulgation of anti-conversion laws in more and more states have led to deprivation and usurpation of the constitutional rights of Christians, which can be best handled by the Prime Minister’s Office with timely interventions. We all look up to the Prime Minister to give a soothing touch to the burning problem of Manipur, which may be an ethnic issue, but has left deep scars on the Christian community

NEW DELHI: A group of activists and representatives of Christian community on Thursday said it is an irony that the year which saw churches being burnt in Manipur is ending with Prime Minister Narendra Modi felicitating leaders of the minority community. At a press conference here, civil society activists Apoorvanand, John Dayal, Shabnam Hashmi, Minakshi Singh, Mary Scaria and A C Michael said that through the year, the Christian community had been pleading with the prime minister to visit Manipur, which has been engulfed in ethnic violence. They alleged that the prime minister perhaps could not find the time to visit Manipur and left it to the Union home minister and the chief minister to handle the situation. More than 200 people have been killed and nearly 60,000 rendered homeless in ethnic violence between the majority Meitei community and the tribal Kukis since early May. The majority of Kukis, who live in the hill districts of Manipur, are Christians. In a statement, the activists said, "Civil Society and the Christian community in India note the irony of the year 2023 where summer began with the burning of churches and the killing of Christians in the valley of Imphal in Manipur, and ends with religious

Agartala: A day after a rally was taken out to press for the passage of an anti-conversion law to protect indigenous faiths and culture by a right wing-backed tribal organisation Janajati Surakha Mancha (JSM), Tripura royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarman, founder and leader of the state's main opposition party, TIPRA Motha, on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the tribal leaders who demanded delisting Christians from ST status. Besides criticising the organisers, including Padma Shri Bikram Bahadur Jamatia who has been fighting against the conversion of tribals to Christianity since the late 90s during the peak of insurgency, Pradyot said he would embrace everyone with love and compassion to counter the narrative of hatred being spread by some people. "If someone gets an award from the Centre, it doesn't necessarily mean the person has to fully surrender himself before the central government. You shouldn't forget that you were born in this society. Your existence is possible because of this Tiprasa (tribal) community," Pradyot said. He pointed out that he would counter the narrative of hatred with his two principal weapons - love and compassion. "Those who want to create conflict within the Tiprasa people may continue with their slogan, but in the New

In a move that threatens to heighten communal tensions, the Janajati Dharma Sanskriti Suraksha Manch (JSM), an affiliate of the pro-Hindu Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has announced its intention to stage a protest rally on Christmas Day in Agartala, the capital of Tripura. The focus of their demonstration is a call for the removal of welfare benefits for tribal people who have converted to Christianity or Islam, asserting that these religions are of foreign origin. The JSM argues that individuals who have embraced these faiths should be eliminated from the official Scheduled Tribes (STs) list. The central argument put forth by the JSM is that converted tribal individuals no longer adhere to traditional customs, advocating for their exclusion from the ST category. This move would deny them crucial benefits such as education, job quotas and other welfare advantages granted under India’s affirmative action programs. Santi Bikash Chakma, the convener of JSM’s Tripura unit, made the organisation's stance clear during a press conference, stating, “We will organise a massive rally at the Swami Vivekananda Ground on December 25, demanding the delisting of converted people from ST status by amending constitutional provisions.” Chakma emphasised that the JSM is not against any religion but advocates for the

“All community members should not use the term Hindu for describing their religion in the next census. They should shun names of sub-castes. They should only use terms Veerashaiva or Lingayat to describe themselves. This is for the good of society and to tell the world about the specific numbers of our community,” resolution number 5 has said. The other resolutions include a demand for a fresh caste census. The State government should not accept the Kantharaj report. The socio-economic survey of the various communities or caste census in the State is eight years old and its contents are believed to have been leaked. A fresh census should be conducted scientifically and it should enumerate social, educational and economic status of all castes, including the sub-castes of the Veerashaiva Lingayat groups. The rally urged the State government to send a proposal to the Union government recommending Central OBC status to all sub-communities of Veerashaiva Lingayats. “This will help the millions of community members who live in poverty,” a resolution said. The State government should declare Basavanna to be the cultural leader of the State. His ideology is eternally relevant to the world, the mahasabha said. The mahasabha also passed a resolution to support all agitations

The year 2023 has put the Indian Church on the global map for all the wrong reasons — sectarian violence, persecution, clerical abuse, financial irregularities, and a dispute over the liturgy. The ongoing sporadic violence in northeastern Manipur, where an unprecedented ethnic riot began on May 3 and claimed some 200 lives, stands out as a case of hostility against Christians. The violence has displaced more than 50,000, mostly Christian Kuki tribal people, who continue to languish in state-run relief camps as they lost their houses and belongings. They have practically been crippled after Church institutions, their strong pillar of support, were unable to back them owing to the unmindful violence. Churches and Church-run institutions, including schools, social work centers and seminaries, were razed either with bulldozers or by fire. Christians who make up 41.29 percent of the 3.2 million people in the tiny hilly state are from indigenous communities. The violence against them will remain as an indelible mark of “utter helplessness” as their women were paraded naked and gang-raped among other grave crimes under the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule. The state continues to be in a state of lawlessness and nobody knows when normalcy will be restored. The steady rise in persecution Persecution against Christians has

TIRUPPUR:  For the first time in their living memory, 60 Dalits from Rajavur village of Madathukulam taluk of Tiruppur district walked wearing footwear on ‘Kambala Naicken Street’ in the village late on Sunday.  By doing so, they broke the unwritten rule of the upper castes that barred Dalits from walking on the street with slippers. Scheduled Caste members are not even allowed to ride cycles on the street, sources said. All the 60 residents of the 300-metre-long street are Naickers, a Backward Caste community. Of the nearly 900 households in the village, 800 belong to dominant castes such as Gounders and Naickers.  Narrating the ordeal shared through generations, A Muruganandam (51), a villager, said, “Arunthathiyar community members were barred from walking with slippers on the street. SC members were given death threats and were also assaulted. Even upper-caste women issued threats, saying that a local deity would bring death to SC members if they walked with slippers on the street. We were avoiding the street and living under oppression for decades. A few weeks ago, we brought the issue to the notice of Dalit outfits,” another villager said. ‘Even after walk, dalits still in fear ’ “Late on Sunday, we walked through the street

Ahead of Christmas celebrations, a District Education Officer in Madhya Pradesh has said that “written permission” from the parents or guardian is necessary for students to wear Christmas-related costume in skits or fancy dress events. A circular — in Hindi — issued by the District Education Officer of Shajapur across schools reads, “Students should not be made part of Christmas-related events, including making them dress up or play roles like Santa Claus and Christmas tree without the written consent of parents, to prevent any untoward incident,” NDTV quoted the circular. The circular warns the schools to take actions aligning with the communication made, adding that, disciplinary action will be taken against the organisation if there are any complaints in this regard. District Education Officer Vivek Dubey said although most of the times events are held amicably, sometimes there are disputes and complaints, which are brought to him. Speaking to ANI, Dubey said, “Cultural programs are held in schools but the programs are a little religious and children of other faiths are also assigned religious characters to play which is not as per their own religion. Most of the time such events are held harmoniously but sometimes it leads to disputes and complaints come to us…” This article is