MUMBAI – Two incidents involving Catholic priests in recent days illustrate the increasingly complex situation for Christians in India facing a rising tide of Hindu nationalism, with one priest arrested under the country’s controversial anti-conversion laws and another suspended for joining the right-wing BJP party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In one case, a priest in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh was detained and eventually charged after going to a local police station to inquire about a church employee who’d been arrested after a complaint from a member of a militant Hindu nationalist group regarding prayers being offered in a private home. According to observers, local police were originally looking for the employee’s brother, who is also a Christian pastor, based on a complaint from a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad organization. Eventually four members of the family were arrested, and, when they phoned Father Sebastian Francis Babu for help, he too was taken into custody. Bishop Gerald Mathias of Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, told Crux that the arrests amount to “sheer harassment of Christians.” “The accusation of conversion is baseless,” Mathias said, ascribing the arrest of Babu to “sheer high-handedness of the police, who are simply under control of

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has called on the Modi government to release 37 individuals across multiple faiths jailed for the 'peaceful exercise of their freedom of religion or belief'. New Delhi: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has once again noted with concern that “religious freedom conditions in India have notably declined in recent years”. During a hearing  on ‘Advancing Religious Freedom within the US – India Bilateral Relationship’ on September 20, USCIRF highlighted the Indian government’s legal framework and enforcement of “discriminatory policies against religious minorities”, a press statement said. USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the US Congress to monitor, analyse, and report on religious freedom abroad. The governmental body makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. The hearing on September 20 discussed “enforced discriminatory policies targeting religious minorities”, the recent violence in Haryana’s Nuh , and targeted attacks against Christians and Jewish minorities in Manipur. The participants of the hearing offered policy options for the United States to work with India to combat abuses of religious freedom and related human rights in the country. “Religious

The incident occurred at a premises used as a prayer hall by the community in Tulsidham locality of the city, an official said. A prayer hall of the Christian community was allegedly vandalised by unidentified miscreants in Maharashtra's Thane city, police said on Friday. Based on a complaint, an offence under section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code was registered on Thursday, the official said. The complainant stated that when she reached the prayer hall on Thursday morning, she found mud smeared on the entrance board of the premises and the Cross was also defaced, he said. Some window panes were smashed, and wires of the air conditioner and electric meters were damaged, the official said, adding that a banner with objectionable words was put up on the door of the premises. The police are probing the matter and no arrests have been made in this connection so far, he said.   This article is originally published on  https://www.deccanherald.com/india/maharashtra/christian-prayer-hall-vandalised-in-thane-police-case-registered-2715349

Police in Uttar Pradesh reprimanded a pastor for the fourth time on September 24 based on allegations of forced conversions made by Hindu extremists after he was arrested twice and faced court proceedings for similar allegations earlier. “The most they can do is put us in jail, what else can they do,” remarked 45-year-old Shakuntala, the pastor's wife, while recounting the incident to Christian Today. The pastor, identified only by his first name, Shriram, hails from Semrahana Village in Bahraich district. Despite facing numerous attempts to deter him, he fearlessly ministers God’s word to his modest congregation of 25-30 individuals. Shriram, 51, faced detention in 2004 when a formal complaint was lodged against him by right-wing groups. He underwent extensive questioning by several police officials and high-ranking authorities. “My case caused quite an uproar and was widely covered in newspapers, but by God’s grace, the charges were eventually dropped,” Shriram informed CT. In 2021, he was once again arrested at the behest of a Hindu extremist, resulting in a First Information Report (FIR) being filed against him. After over a year of legal battle, he was acquitted without any charges pressed by the magistrate. In February 2023, police, accompanied by the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) and

MUMBAI – Two incidents involving Catholic priests in recent days illustrate the increasingly complex situation for Christians in India facing a rising tide of Hindu nationalism, with one priest arrested under the country’s controversial anti-conversion laws and another suspended for joining the right-wing BJP party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In one case, a priest in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh was detained and eventually charged after going to a local police station to inquire about a church employee who’d been arrested after a complaint from a member of a militant Hindu nationalist group regarding prayers being offered in a private home. According to observers, local police were originally looking for the employee’s brother, who is also a Christian pastor, based on a complaint from a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad organization. Eventually four members of the family were arrested, and, when they phoned Father Sebastian Francis Babu for help, he too was taken into custody. Bishop Gerald Mathias of Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, told Crux that the arrests amount to “sheer harassment of Christians.” “The accusation of conversion is baseless,” Mathias said, ascribing the arrest of Babu to “sheer high-handedness of the police, who are simply under control of

In a Washington Post article titled Identity, not ideology, is moving the world, political analyst Fareed Zakaria noted that while a healthy nationalism has historically contributed to the expansion of liberty and democracy, there is a global trend where right-wing figures are meeting people's need for stability and identity in a rapidly changing world. Zakaria described this force as "a strange mixture of insecurity and assertiveness" among those in positions of power. In India, the rise of the Hindu right wing has faced criticism, with concerns about increased mob violence against religious minorities and the normalisation of hate speeches targeting Christian leaders and institutions through mass media. Fortunately, in April 2023, the Supreme Court of India recognized hate speech as a serious offense that could threaten the country's secular fabric. In August 2023, Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti emphasised that any reluctance to act against hate speeches would be viewed as contempt of the nation's highest court. Unfortunately, these directives continue to be disregarded by organisations and individuals, including the "Legal Rights Observatory" (LRO) and authorities like Priyank Kanoongo, Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), who employ platforms like Twitter to defame Christian and Muslim leaders. Dr.

India (MNN) — A two-year-old’s birthday party with his Christian parents suddenly turned into a frightening moment for the family. The father, Raxit, mentors Children’s Bible Club leaders with Mission India and hosts church services in his home. Mission India’s Regan Miller says, “[Raxit] had a group of believers over to his house to celebrate his son’s birthday, and a group of anti-Christian extremists just barged in loudly and were aggressive and using inappropriate language and behavior. They were just about to start pelting people with stones, and they only stopped because they saw a security camera.” Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there. “The police in the area actually favored the anti-Christian activists and filed a case against Raxit,” says Miller. “He’s had his church disrupted on Sundays before or just had people protest his services. But this is kind of a next-level event.” Threats and targeting of Christians has grown more common in India over the last decade. Raxit’s story hits home for Mission India as they support local believers in ministry. The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) is coming up Sunday, November 5. It’s really a key time to focus prayer for our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters as they proclaim the Gospel in

Christians in a southern Indian state have urged the provincial government to end discriminatory education policies that adversely impact Christian-run schools receiving state funds.   The Christian community runs around 6,000 of the estimated 8,403 schools in Tamil Nadu that receive government aid, and hence are referred to as “aided schools.”   “Most of them are in villages where the government is unable to provide education for want of infrastructure,” said Father Antonysamy Solomon, secretary of the education commission of Tamil Nadu Bishops Council (TNBC). He said the roughly 6,000 schools, which include close to 2,500 Catholic schools, have played a pioneering role in educating several generations in Tamil Nadu for more than a century.   “The government agreed to provide aid because of the community’s contributions. But it is discriminating against us and favoring only government schools now,” Father Solomon said.   The state government provides breakfast for students in primary schools run by it. Students passing out from the 37,211 government schools also benefit from a 7.50 percent special quota in admissions to higher education courses like medical and engineering.   A monthly stipend of 1,000 rupees (US$12) has been announced recently for female students from government schools to help them pursue higher education.   “The same privileges are not extended

The Archbishop of Imphal, in Manipur, India, says that violence is still raging in the state and that the response of the central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is insufficient. Violence in Manipur, India continues to rage “here and there,” four months after its initial outbreak in May, according to Archbishop Dominic Lumon of Imphal. Speaking by phone with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the archbishop said that the situation could continue like this for months, unless the central government seriously intervenes. “We are hoping that the central government steps in. If it says ‘stop,’ I think that the violence will end, but if nobody intervenes, it will carry on.” But the government’s silence is deafening. Since the crisis began, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not visited Manipur, and he has barely commented on it. “So far, we have not heard him say much, and it has been more than four months. Only once did he make a statement, when videos came out of two girls being paraded around naked. But on the violence in general, he has not said anything.” In May, ACN sent emergency aid for victims of the attacks and has remained in touch with the local Church. Interethnic

A pastor in India is in jail on fraudulent claims that he broke the country's "anti-conversion" laws by sharing the Gospel with people, although there is no evidence that he did anything wrong. Pastor Bajarang Rawat, 47, faces charges of converting people by "allurement" even though police could not find any witnesses to testify against him, and the only evidence they presented to the courts was his Bible, Morning Star News reports. Rawat was arrested on July 16 and charged at the Loni Katra police station under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 for an "attempt to convert…by use of misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by fraudulent means," the outlet reports. The next day police drove him to the courts and the judge asked what was the reason for his arrest. They told him they had confiscated a Bible from him. "Reprimanding the policemen, the magistrate told them that it was not a crime to possess a Bible and that he himself has a Bible at home," Pastor Rawat told Morning Star News. "The policemen stood silent, but even after this conversation, I was sent to jail." It is one of the latest examples of how Hindu extremists in India