On 22 January 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Ram temple in Ayodhya at the site where the Babri mosque once stood, marking the unofficial start of the general elections campaign by his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).1 The construction of the temple, which had served as a rallying cry for Hindu nationalists since the mosque’s demolition by a Hindu mob, stirred up sentiments of Hindu pride across the country, with the BJP leading the celebrations.2 On the other hand, the principal opposition party, the Indian National Congress (INC), boycotted the ceremony, accusing the BJP of politicizing religion.3 The fanfare surrounding the inauguration also overlooked the temple’s deadly origins, prompting concern over the turn toward majoritarianism in Indian society.4 The Babri mosque, constructed under the reign of the Mughal emperor Babar, was believed to have stood upon the birthplace of the Hindu Lord Ram, making it a point of contention between India’s Hindu and Muslim communities for nearly two centuries.5 Following nationwide mobilization by senior BJP leaders to reclaim the Ram Janmabhoomi (birthplace), a Hindu mob demolished the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992.6 In the years since, the Ram Mandir (temple) remained a focal point of the Hindu nationalist movement, with the BJP

In the mineral-rich heartland of India’s Bastar region in the state of Chhattisgarh, a severe onslaught against indigenous communities, known as Adivasis, is currently unfolding. The Indian government officially recognizes the major Adivasi community in the region, the Madia, as a “particularly vulnerable tribal group.” Despite this recognition, the ongoing state-led aggression against them poses a grave threat to their existence, putting thousands of lives at stake. At the heart of this unfolding tragedy lies the Indian government’s steadfast commitment, echoed by the declarations of Home Minister Amit Shah, to eradicate Maoist revolutionaries by the end of 2024. In their pursuit of a “Maoist-free India,” state forces have intensified their operations in 2024. Over the past four months, they have killed eighty-two Adivasis and Maoists. On April 16 alone, security forces killed twenty-nine Adivasis and Maoists, fifteen of whom were women. To carry out this bloodshed, the Indian state has deployed not only thousands of local police operatives but also more than ten thousand troops from border security and paramilitary forces as well as special counterinsurgent units. They have established hundreds of military camps across Adivasi terrain to terrorize and eliminate them. Military and police camps have been strategically established at intervals of

In the contemporary global landscape, marked by dynamic geopolitical shifts and transformative economic paradigms, nations are actively realigning their diplomatic strategies, placing strategic goals on par with economic advancements. However, amidst these pursuits, there is a concerning tendency among states to overlook critical moral imperatives. This oversight is particularly evident in the context of Hindu nationalism in India, where the prioritization of political and economic objectives often eclipses the essential considerations of moral standards and human rights. The rise of majoritarian politics in India under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—a political wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has significant implications for minority rights, democracy, and regional stability. BJP—an electoral front of the ‘Sangh Parivar’ (a consortium of Hindu Nationalist outfits who firmly believe in their religion based political ideology or ‘Hindutva’).  As per this ideology, India is a homeland exclusively for Hindus wherein other religious communities can only have second class citizenship Hindu nationalists advocate for a homogenized Hindu identity, excluding Muslims and other minorities like Christians, Sikhs and scheduled castes, while minorities resist assimilation and assert their distinct identities. This dynamic fuels tensions and impedes efforts towards peaceful coexistence. This article examines the implications of Hindu extremism for minority rights, democracy, and regional

In India's elections, 970 million are eligible to vote, including 22.31 million Christians. Despite their numbers, Christians remain nearly invisible in electoral discussions, overshadowed by prevailing xenophobic narratives and policies under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration. With two of seven rounds of the great Indian elections over, it is a very long wait for the results on June 4, when the world will know if an election campaign based on xenophobic hate can still sway the people of an India preparing to land a man on the moon next year. But perhaps no one will be as anxious about the results as India’s estimated 200 million Muslims and 30 million Christians. The numbers remain an approximation, extrapolated from the 2011 census. The 2021 census was not held in the wake of the Covid pandemic. It is not known when the census will now be held. For the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, approximately 970 million people out of a population of 1.4 billion people are eligible to cast their vote.  Among them would be about 22.31 million Christian voters. This is seemingly a large number, but Christians are all but invisible in the election debate. Both communities, however, have borne the brunt of laws and programs

The Indian church, Catholic or Protestant, does not usually find it easy to discern which way the political wind is blowing. It is even much less adept at sensing the undercurrents. A “safety first” impulse makes Catholic prelates in Kerala and Mumbai sing high praises of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and get into his good graces. This was seen at its most embarrassing at Modi’s infamous Christmas party in New Delhi last year. It was attended by people ranging from Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai to the wealthiest gold merchants and loan sharks from Kerala. This they do, it is popularly believed, to save their educational and other institutions from the greed and the wrath of government which sees Christianity as alien, and Christians just a little less vile than Muslims, which the ruling party deems to be vermin, “deemak” or termites as Federal Home Minister Amit Shah described them once. Occasionally, as in the headquarters of a Kerala-based church, it also keeps India’s terrifyingly powerful financial and criminal investigating agencies away from the abbey door. Evangelical groups such as the Believers Eastern Church, created by the US-based Gospel for Asia’s India-born founder K P Yohannan, have gone so far out as to officially

I have just returned from a week-long visit to New Zealand and was pleasantly delighted to learn that 48.2% of the population does not identify with any religion (irreligion) or any sub-divisions that arise to divide the population into classes of hierarchy. Australia, the second nation I just visited, is characterized by a primarily Christian populace, though 38.9% of the population does not affiliate with any one religion. While China reports that 25.2% of its people do not adhere to any religious beliefs, Russia asserts that 24% of its extensive population does not affiliate with any particular religion. India, however, presents a colorful picture of its affiliations. 99.79% of the population identifies with the world’s largest religions: Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, and others. India is a diverse country with over 4,635 ethnic groupings, where Hinduism is the major religion followed by nearly 80% of the people. Nevertheless, Hinduism is not a homogeneous entity; it is fragmented into intricate hierarchies of subgroups and subcategories based on caste. The intricate caste (Varna) system in India has its roots in the Hindu scriptures, which categorized Hinduism into four main castes: Brahmins (priests), Vaishyas (merchants), Kshatriyas (warriors), and Shudras (laborers), with the occasional inclusion

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,” Hitler’s propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels, reportedly said. (In reality, he insisted, “Good propaganda does not need to lie, indeed it may not lie.”)The U.S. State Department’s latest Human Rights Report on India is the epitome of good propaganda. It is so good, in fact, that were Goebbels among us today, he would praise it as “gaslighting.”Meanwhile, its timing would put a metronome to shame: The report has been released to coincide with India’s elections, which began April 19 and will roll out in waves across the subcontinent until June 1. Reuters published a story on the State Department on April 23, as nearly a billion Indians headed to the polls. Biden’s Gift to Modi The report is Joe Biden’s gift to India Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who, shamelessly supported by India’s lapdog media, is poised to win a third term in power in what analysts have described as “the most predictable polls India has held in decades.” Christians (and Muslims) have already suffered the worst persecution in recent history under Modi, an activist in India’s extremist para-military Hindu outfit: the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), whose Hitler-inspired ideology asserts that India belongs to Hindus

When he began his legal career in Bombay in 1895, Mohammad Ali Jinnah became the youngest British Indian ever called to the bar after completing his examinations at Lincoln's Inn, one of the most prestigious legal institutions the world has to offer. At only 19, Jinnah was already exceptional among his peers for his eloquent and articulate legal advocacy, traits that would define his career and later his pivotal role in the formation of Pakistan. Renowned for his sharp legal mind and powerful oratory, Jinnah was recognised even then as one of colonial India's most formidable lawyers. Judges feared him; his peers wanted to be him. His vision for a secure state for India's Muslims, where he foresaw significant challenges for those opposing the idea of Pakistan, underscored his early recognition of the complex interplay of loyalty and identity in the subcontinent—predicting those against a separate Muslim state would perpetually strive to prove their allegiance to an independent India. Jinnah's career was characterised by his vigorous debates with prominent figures, including the Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, who would later be assassinated by the IRA. He strongly advocated for renaming India to 'Hindustan', a move he believed would reflect the true cultural

It is the biggest show on earth. Ever. The 2024 General Elections, which is the 18th since the Indian Republic was declared, throw up mind-boggling statistics. For the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of the Parliament, approximately 970 million people out of a population of 1.4 billion people are eligible to cast their vote, including 18 million who reached 18 years of age this year. In 12 states, there are more women voters than men. Among the registered voters are over 48,000 transgenders, identified for the first time in such an exercise. The mechanics put in place by the Election Commission of India are equally gigantic: 1.05 million polling stations, manned by 15 million personnel to supervise the polling. The votes are recorded on electronic voting machines (EVMs), which remain a source of much controversy but have been deemed legal by the Supreme Court. The results will be declared on June 4. Christians are approximately 2.3% of the population, and by simple arithmetic, they total about 22.31 million voters. A seemingly large number, the Christian voters, but their presence will remain essentially unfelt for all the impact they make on the results, or on the representation of their

Just days before Kerala votes on April 26 in the general elections, the influential Latin Church has said its bank accounts were frozen by the central government after its 2022 protests against Adani Group's Vizhinjam International Seaport, and the account freeze is still hurting it. Vizhinjam, a coastal hamlet in the state capital, had witnessed strong protests against the seaport, which also resulted in violence in November 2022. In a pastoral letter read during Sunday Mass, the Latin church said it was facing a funds crunch due to the freezing of its bank accounts by the authorities. "We are unable to receive funds even for our missionary purposes because, after the Vizhinjam protests, the authorities have frozen our bank accounts. That situation continues even now," the letter, which was read across all the Latin churches, said. The issue of the account freeze was mentioned in the letter seeking financial assistance from believers, for the various expenses of the church. -- PTI This article is originally published on https://news.rediff.com/commentary/2024/apr/22/bank-account-frozen-after-stir-against-adani-kerala-church/240493d7014d34337839bc35183516c1