No letup in harassment of Church-run orphanage in India
Inmates of the orphanage were shifted in violation of an order by the Madhya Pradesh High Court, says its director A government-run child welfare agency in central India has defied a court order and asked a Church-run orphanage to move out its children in an alleged move to close down the institution. Ten children from St. Francis Sevadham Orphanage in Sagar diocese in Madhya Pradesh state, ruled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, were moved out in violation of a high court order against such a move. “Our 10 children were moved in the past week in different batches,” Father Sinto Varghese, director of the orphanage, told UCA News. More universal than Catholicism? Mary among Asian religions “The district Child Welfare Committee (CWC) asked us to produce the children before it and we complied with it,” Father Varghese said on May 25. The shifting, according to the priest, “is in violation of a January 2022 order of the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court" that restrained the CWC from moving inmates of the orphanage. The CWC had on May 10 issued an order to shift the children from the orphanage to government-aided facilities in gross violation of the high court order. The orphanage had filed a contempt
Toxic agenda
No one should be shocked. This is just one more instance of the peddlers of Hindu supremacy being unscrupulous in the pursuit of their goals In February, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, had expressed his great joy at the revival of the Kumbh Mela pilgrimage in the locality of Tribeni in Hooghly district, West Bengal. At the time, Modi said, “[D]o you know why it is so special? It is special, since this practice has been revived after 700 years… Two years ago, the festival has been started again by the local people and through ‘Tribeni Kumbho Porichalona Shomiti’. I congratulate all the people associated with its organization. You are not only keeping alive a tradition, but are also protecting the cultural heritage of India.” (https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1902487) The historical fact is that there never was a Kumbh Mela at Tribeni, and the so-called ‘revival’ is based on falsified research. I say this with confidence since the source of this disinformation is a sentence in my doctoral dissertation at Oxford University that someone doctored and then circulated widely. My research focused on pilgrimage traditions in West Bengal and is available on the internet in digital form from the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Someone with
2 Indian priests arrested during raid on orphanage
St. Francis Sevadham Orphanage, located on a prime 277-acre plot of land in Madhya Pradesh, is constantly targeted Two Catholic priests have been arrested in the central Indian Madhya Pradesh state for allegedly obstructing government officials when they came for a surprise raid of a Catholic orphanage. The priests were, however, released on bail by a court on May 8, hours after they were arrested for allegedly preventing the members of the state's child rights panel during the raid on St. Francis Sevadham Orphanage in Shyampur in Sagar diocese. “We were charged with false case after we objected to the inspection team, which wanted to climb on the altar,” said Father E. P. Joshy, youth director of Sagar diocese, who was picked up by the state police along with Father Naveen B. Joshy came to the campus of the orphanage following information that a team from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, led by its chairperson Priyank Kanoongo, was conducting a flash raid. “The team besides inspecting the orphanage also searched the church, convent, presbytery, and two hostels of children,” the priest said. “Father Naveen and I tried to tell them that the altar of a church for any Catholic is divine. But they
Christians seek protection as violence continues in central India
Elected village bodies dictate to Christians what they should believe and how should they live and work Christians seek protection as violence continues in central India An Indian policeman looks at damaged windows at a house in Bhopal on Jan. 28, 2006, after a group of Indian Christians were attacked during a prayer meeting. Christians in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh have appealed again to their state chief minister to protect them as hundreds of indigenous Christians continue to live in the forest amid rising violence. A delegation under the ecumenical Ecclesia United Forum (EUF) met chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and urged him to take “immediate steps to end violence," said Father Johnson Thekkadayil, a Catholic priest working in the state. “The brutal attacks unleashed on the Christians in Chhattisgarh, especially in the tribal regions, continues unabated,” Father Thekkadayil, who was part of the delegation told UCA News on Feb. 26, three days after they met Baghel. Christians in the Bastar region, dominated by indigenous people, have been witnessing unprecedented violence, reports say. The forms of violence include social boycotts, assaults, parading men and women nude, and encroachments of Christians’ land. Increased violence in the past six months has forced more than 1,000 Christians to flee
‘We support free press,’ says US on India blocking BBC documentary
The Centre had directed YouTube and Twitter to remove links to the documentary, which revisits Narendra Modi’s alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. ‘We support free press,’ says US on India blocking BBC documentary US Department of State spokesperson Ned Price. | Screengrab via @StateDeptSpox / Twitter The United States Department of State on Wednesday said that it continues to highlight the importance of free press around the world when asked to share its view on the BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots. The documentary, India: The Modi Question, alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi – then the chief minister of Gujarat – had prevented the police from acting to prevent the violence during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The first part of the documentary, released on January 17, alleges that a team sent by the British government had found that Modi was “directly responsible for a climate of impunity” that led to the violence against Muslims. On January 21, Centre had directed YouTube and Twitter to remove links to the BBC’s documentary by invoking the emergency blocking orders under the Information Technology Rules of 2021. On Wednesday, the US State Department spokesperson Ned Price was asked whether banning of the BBC documentary was a
India’s Blocking of BBC Documentary Reflects Broader Crackdown
Program Highlights New Evidence of Government Role in 2002 Gujarat Riots Victims of the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat state, which left more than 1,000 dead, gather for a protest The Indian government’s blocking of a BBC documentary on the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat state in 2002 is just the latest attempt to prevent criticism of the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Last week, the BBC released the first of a two-part series, “The Modi Question,” highlighting findings of a previously unpublished report of the United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office that investigated the 2002 riots when Prime Minister Modi was chief minister of Gujarat state. Soon after the documentary’s release, Indian authorities invoked emergency powers under the Information Technology Rules to compel social media platforms to take down the video in India. In February 2002, there was a retaliatory spree of rape and killings across Gujarat after some Muslims attacked a train carrying Hindu pilgrims. More than 1,000 were reportedly killed in the riots, most of them Muslim. Allegations that the state authorities did not act to stop the violence against Muslims, which was often led by leaders of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or affiliates, sparked international condemnation. The UK
1000 Christians subjected to violence in Chhattisgarh some forcibly converted to Hinduism Civil rights groups
New Delhi, Dec 29 (PTI) Some civil rights groups have claimed that about 1,000 Christian tribals in Chhattisgarh were subjected to violence over their religion and some of them were forcibly converted to Hinduism. The Centre for Study of Society and Secularism in partnership with All India Peoples Forum, All India Lawyers Association for Justice and United Christian Forum constituted a fact-finding committee which visited the state. Irfan Engineer, director of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism who led the fact-finding committee, claimed that there is an "organised campaign to forcibly convert Christian Adivasis to Hindu religion". He said the team found that about 1,000 Christian tribals in Chhattisgarh were subjected to violence over their religion. Between December 9 and December 18, there were a series of attacks in about 18 villages in Narayanpur and 15 villages in Kondagaon displacing about 1,000 Christian Adivasis from their villages, he said at a press conference here. "Those displaced were threatened to denounce their Christian faith and convert to Hindu religion failing which they would have to leave their village or face dire consequences, even death. Many Christian Adivasis were gravely assaulted and beaten with bamboo canes, tyres, rods, etc. At least two dozen people had
‘Sustained campaign’ to convert tribal Christians in India’s Chhattisgarh state hit
From December 9 to 18, at least a thousand Christians were reportedly displaced and at least two dozens were injured Rights activist John Dayal; Michael Williams, president of the United Christian Forum; and Irfan Engineer, director of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, release the result of their investigation on the reported attack on Christians in 18 villages of Narayanpur and 15 villages in Kondagaon districts in Chhattisgarh during a press conference in New Delhi on Dec. 29, 2022. Close to a thousand tribal Christians are languishing in camps in India’s central state of Chhattisgarh for refusing to be converted to Hinduism, according to a Catholic priest. Father Nicolas Barla, secretary of the Office of Tribal Affairs of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, said the Christians refused to renounce their faith so they were pushed out of their villages and were forced to live in the open camps in the middle of winter. The priest said there seems to be a sustained and organized campaign to forcibly convert Christian tribals to Hinduism in the state’s “tribal belt.” From December 9 to 18, at least a thousand Christians were reportedly displaced, at least two dozen injured, due to attacks in 18 villages in
1000 Christians subjected to violence in Chhattisgarh, some forcibly converted to Hinduism: Civil rights groups
New Delhi, Dec 29 (PTI) Some civil rights groups have claimed that about 1,000 Christian tribals in Chhattisgarh were subjected to violence over their religion and some of them were forcibly converted to Hinduism. The Centre for Study of Society and Secularism in partnership with All India Peoples Forum, All India Lawyers Association for Justice and United Christian Forum constituted a fact-finding committee which visited the state. Irfan Engineer, director of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism who led the fact-finding committee, claimed that there is an “organised campaign to forcibly convert Christian Adivasis to Hindu religion”. He said the team found that about 1,000 Christian tribals in Chhattisgarh were subjected to violence over their religion. Between December 9 and December 18, there were a series of attacks in about 18 villages in Narayanpur and 15 villages in Kondagaon displacing about 1,000 Christian Adivasis from their villages, he said at a press conference here. “Those displaced were threatened to denounce their Christian faith and convert to Hindu religion failing which they would have to leave their village or face dire consequences, even death. Many Christian Adivasis were gravely assaulted and beaten with bamboo canes, tyres, rods, etc. At least two dozen people had
1,000 Christians subjected to violence in Chhattisgarh, some forcibly converted to Hindus: Civil rights groups
Between December 9 and December 18, there were a series of attacks in about 18 villages in Narayanpur and 15 villages in Kondagaon displacing about 1,000 Christian Adivasis from their villages, the fact-finding committee found. The government has weaponised laws to target Adivasis and called it a very dangerous precedent, a human rights activist said. 1,000 Christians subjected to violence in Chhattisgarh, some forcibly converted to Hindus: Civil rights groups Some civil rights groups have claimed that about 1,000 Christian tribals in Chhattisgarh were subjected to violence over their religion and some of them were forcibly converted to Hindus. The Centre for Study of Society and Secularism in partnership with All India Peoples Forum, All India Lawyers Association for Justice and United Christian Forum constituted a fact-finding committee which visited the state. Irfan Engineer, director of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism who led the fact-finding committee, claimed that there is an “organised campaign to forcibly convert Christian Adivasis to Hindu religion”. He said the team found that about 1,000 Christian tribals in Chhattisgarh were subjected to violence over their religion. Between December 9 and December 18, there were a series of attacks in about 18 villages in Narayanpur and 15 villages in Kondagaon displacing
