Christian arrested, accused of converting Dalits in India
Police in a northern Indian state have arrested a Christian man for allegedly converting 230 families of Dalits (former untouchables). Uttar Pradesh state's police arrested Bajrang Rawat on July 17. He was accused of converting the Dalit families to Christianity by promising to cure their ailments, said a report by Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency. Rawat has been illegally living on railway land in Barabanki, 27 kilometers from the state capital Lucknow, along with other poor families since the past year, Akhilesh Narayan Singh, an additional superintendent of police, told the media. Copies of the Bible and other Christian books were recovered from Rawat’s house while a probe was on to ascertain the involvement of other people in helping him, Singh said. “We have been in contact with Singh, who is investigating the case, and it is too early to comment,” Christian activist Minakshi Singh told UCA News on July 19. “There are several unanswered questions," said Minakshi Singh, general secretary of the charity Unity in Compassion based in Uttar Pradesh. There are questions like "why Rawat, who is from Lucknow, was staying in Barabanki on railway land? Who are the Dalits? Are they Hindus or from other faiths?" She also expressed doubts if "the religious conversion had taken place" or if "it was just propaganda by some group?" All this will
MP: Christian priest, two others get two-year sentence for unlawful conversion
Jhabua (MP), Jul 19 (PTI) A court in Madhya Pradesh's Jhabua district on Wednesday sentenced a Christian priest and two others to two years' rigorous imprisonment for converting members of a tribal community by offering allurement. District judge Lakhanlal Garg also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on Father Jamsingh, pastor Ansingh and their assistant Mangu. The three were convicted under section 5 of the Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Act, public prosecutor Mansingh Bhuria said. The article is published on www.ptinews.com/
A Troubling Trend for Religious Freedom in India
While freedom of religion is integral to our American pluralist life, many countries experience religious oppression through anti-conversion laws. These laws intend to elevate the state-endorsed religion; codified laws forbid individuals from changing from the majority religion to a minority one, particularly Christianity and Islam. India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan have anti-conversion laws. Recently, there has been growing concern about officials enacting new, more restrictive, and discriminatory laws in India. India is the birthplace of many world religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism. In 1950, the nation adopted a Western-style secular democracy. The country is home to thousands of ethnic groups and nearly two dozen official languages. Out of this diversity, one would expect ethnic and religious tolerance to reign. Recently, Hindu nationalism has become a growing force politically. Hindu nationalists subscribe to the Hindutva, or ideology that only Hindus are true Indians and that all other religions, especially Christians and Muslims, are foreigners who must be expelled. India’s People’s Party (BJP) won the national election in 2014. Known Hindu nationalists, including Prime Minister Modi, lead the party. At a conference in 2021, Hindu Mahasabha political party leader Pooja Shakun Pandey and other Hindu leaders made hate-filled remarks about
