A forum of lay Catholics has urged the head of a state government in northeast India to protect minority Christians and tribal people who are being threatened and harassed by hardline Hindu groups. “We cannot keep silent and remain mute spectators when our community is in pain,” John S. Shilshi, founder member of the North East Catholic Research Forum (NECRF), told UCA News on March 6.In a memorandum handed over to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on March 3, the NECRF expressed disappointment that the state administration failed to address the community's grievances. “The chief minister is the guardian of all people irrespective of their caste, creed, and religion,” it reminded him.Shilshi said the memorandum highlighted the ultimatum given by a Hindu group, Kutumbha Surakshya Parishad (family protection council), to Christian schools in Assam to rid themselves of all Christian symbols. The group’s president Satya Ranjan Borah on Feb. 7 also threatened priests and nuns to discontinue wearing cassocks and habits on school campuses and demanded that churches located within educational complexes be removed. A poster in Assamese, the state's official language, came up near a Christian school on Feb. 23. “This is a final warning to stop using schools as a religious institution. Remove Jesus

It appears Satya Ranjan Borah does not want to miss checking any boxes in his checklist of hardline Hindutva objectives. Hindutva leader from Assam, Satya Ranjan Borah, has issued a warning about taking to the streets in protest against Christian missionary institutions alleging them to use soft targets to convert people. At a recent press conference, the right-wing leader claimed christian missionary institutions had not notified religious institutions and asked them to prove if he is wrong.Borah asserted that none of the schools in Assam have 'namghar' then what is the point of having a church in a school? "They (Christian missionaries) although are not converting people directly are using soft-target based schemes, be it seeing Jesus Christ in the morning till the end of the day

After passing of 15-day deadline given to Christian missionary schools for the removal of idols of Jesus Christ, Mother Mary and the Cross, several Hindu groups led by Kutumba Surakshy Parishad have decided to move the Gauhati High Court against Christian missionaries for their anti-India activities and practices of exclusive Christianity in missionary schools and other educational institutions across the state. “The group of Sanatan Hindu organizations have decided to move to Gauhati High Court and to file a PIL in this connection to remove the religious practice and religious installations from the school campus,” , Kutumba Surakshya Parishad president Satya Ranjan Borah said while addressing a press conference at Guwahati Press Club here on Tuesday. The Hindu organisations have demanded the removal of the idols of Jesus Christ and Mother Mary and the Cross from the missionary schools.The demand came following an incident at a missionary school- Calvary English School at Balipara in Sonitpur district in which a 10-year-old child was physically and mentally assaulted for uttering ‘Jai Sri Ram’ while opening a book in the classroom. The incident took place on February 5. “This incident has violated the Juvenile Justice Act, Article 14,15 of the Constitution of India; New Education Policy

The government in India’s strife-torn Manipur has admitted for the first time that 219 persons have been killed in the ethnic violence that broke out nearly 10 months ago in the northeastern state.Governor Anusuiya Uikey disclosed the figures during her address to the state legislative assembly on Feb. 28. Most of the victims are tribal Christians. The state's police have registered close to 10,000 cases in connection with the sectarian violence and arrested 187,143 people as a preventive measure, Uikey said.Uikey told the assembly that compensation would be given to the families of deceased persons and expressed sympathies with them. Manipur, bordering civil war-hit Myanmar, has witnessed unprecedented violence since May 3 last year between Kuki tribal Christians and the Meitei Hindu community.But Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not visited the state, although its government is run by his pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party.The sectarian strife started over granting tribal status to the influential Meiteis that would guarantee them reservation quotas in education and government jobs under India’s affirmative action. Christians who make up nearly 41 percent of Manipur’s 3.2 million population are against granting reservation quotas to the Meiteis who form a majority of the state's 53 percent Hindus. The initial days, in July last year, saw two indigenous Christian women being

An altercation broke out between the two communities over an alleged attempt of illegal conversion in the Padmnabhpur area of the Durg district of Chhattisgarh, the incident occurred on Sunday morning, March 3 where members of both communities indulged in a verbal which later turned violent over alleged attempt of conversion in Oriya Basti near Raipur Naka. According to the reports, the members of the Bajrang Dal had received information about a prayer meeting called in a Church in the Oriya Basti on Sunday, following which they reached the spot and lodged their protest against the said gathering, leading to an altercation with the people of the Christian community. The workers of Bajrang Dal alleged that reports of illegal conversion in the name of prayer meetings through lure and inducement have been coming to them from the said region, hence, upon receiving information about such a gathering, they reached the spot and lodged their protest against the said meeting. Though soon after the workers of Bajrang Dal started protesting against the gathering, they got involved in a scuffle with the members inside the Church leading to a violent altercation that resulted in minor injuries to a few people from both sides. Meanwhile, upon receiving

In another incident of luring people to follow Christianity while spreading fallacy about the Sanatan Dharma reported from Chhattisgarh, as many as five people, including women, have been arrested by the police after members of a Hindu outfit lodged their strong protest over the incident in the Korea district of Chhattisgarh. The incident pertains to the Indira Aawas colony of Chhindad locality under the Churcha police station limits of Korea district, where members of the Christian community were allegedly involved in inciting people to follow Christianity through inducement on Wednesday evening, February 28. Though, the information of such a gathering soon reached the locals’ members associated with the Dharm Jagran, who lodged a strong opposition to the gathering and subsequently filed a police complaint on the next day, following which the accused were nabbed by the police. According to the details of the complaint filed by Pradeep Patwa, a resident of Cherwapara village, members of the Christian community, including pastor Dharamsai Tirkey, had gathered in the house of one of his neighbor, Vijay Sarthi, where they were inciting others to embrace and practice Christianity through the means of fallacy on Wednesday evening. The complainant has alleged that the pastor and his associates, while propagating the benefits of embracing Christianity, were portraying the Hindu god,

Durg. On Sunday, there was a fierce fight between Christian community and Bajrang Dal workers in the city. As soon as information about the matter was received, police force from 6-7 police stations reached the spot and controlled the situation with great difficulty. According to the information, prayer was going on in a church located at Raipur Naka in Durg around 10-11 am on Sunday. Suddenly Bajrang Dal workers reached there in large numbers. He alleged that people from other religions were being invited into the discussion to brainwash them into religious conversion. Efforts are being made to lure them in various ways. Bajrang Dal workers started raising slogans of Jai Shri Ram outside the church. Seeing this, people of a particular community became angry. They started throwing stones at them. This made Bajrangi very angry. They entered the church, during which there was fierce fighting and swinging between the two parties. Someone informed the police about the matter. As soon as the information was received, around 200 to 250 police force reached there. Bajrang Dal workers were very aggressive about religious conversion. Even in the presence of the police, he raised slogans of Jai Shri Ram and said that he would

Some 30 Christians, including a Catholic priest, face an inordinate delay in securing bail and continue in jails of northern Uttar Pradesh state after being arrested on charges of illegal conversion activities this year. Bishop Gerald John Mathias of Lucknow, based in the state capital, sought prayers for their release including his priest Dominic Pinto, on March 1 after the priests' bail application was postponed for the third consecutive time. The delay in hearing the bail application is “sad and unfortunate and discouraging,” the bishop said.Pinto is among 39 Christians arrested and remanded in the first two months of this year in the northern Indian state following complaints of violating the state’s stringent anti-conversion law. Christian leaders in the state said some seven of the 39 arrested secured bail but others continue in jail. “Let us not lose hope,” Mathias said and asked Christians to “continue to pray until bail is granted.”Pinto was arrested and sent to on Feb. 5.The priest is among 15 persons, including five women, accused of organizing mass religious conversion in an area under Deva police station in Barabanki district.They were accused of violating the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. The law criminalizes forced religious conversions. It also

MUMBAI, India – Two days after Father Joseph Attuchalil of the Palai diocese was assaulted in Kerala, Archbishop Mar Andrews Thazhath of Thrissur accused the government of “ignoring Christians in minority welfare programs.” Addressing a Feb. 25 forum organized by the Thrissur archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church in India, said the Samudaaya Jagratha Sadas – which means Awakening of Community/Society and was the subject of the meeting – was a voice raised against the growing injustice against the Christian community, The Hindu reported. The meeting condemned the increasing attacks against the Church and its institutions and demanded protection under the Constitution. “We will turn the other cheek if anyone slaps us on the one cheek. But we will definitely ask them why they had slapped us. The program is meant to bring the issues faced by the Church and the believers to the attention of the political leaders and society,” the archbishop said. Kerala is a state in southern India. According to the 2011 census, 54 percent of Kerala’s population are Hindus, 26 percent are Muslims, 18 percent are Christians. Addressing the meeting, Auxiliary Bishop Mar Tony Neelankavil asked the faithful to ask questions to those who approach them for votes. “We need to fight against vote-bank politics

The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) has placed India in its highest persecution tier in its latest global prayer guide, bumping the country up from “hostile area” to “restricted nation.” VOM’s mid-tier “hostile area” category identifies nations or large areas of nations where, despite government attempt to provide protection, the Christian population remains persecuted by family, friends, neighbors, or political groups because of their witness. Indian believers have largely faced this type of violence, including last year’s Manipur attacks, which killed more than 100. In contrast, “restricted nation” describes countries where government-sanctioned circumstances or anti-Christian laws lead to the harassment of Christians or the loss of their civil liberties. It can also include government policies or practices preventing Christians from obtaining Bibles or other Christian literature. (Christians in restricted nations often also experience persecution from family, community members, and/or political groups.) Although Indian Christians largely face persecution that reflects VOM’s mid-tier categorization, the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been a key player in recent years in driving public opinion against non-Hindu Indians. “The rise of Hindutva ideology—and the open and enthusiastic embrace of this ideology by Modi and other government leaders—has had the effect of making India’s national government an overt persecutor of the church