Kandhamal, an obscure jungle district in Odisha –one of the least developed among 766 districts in India– is now known all over the world. The credit goes to the poor but valiant Christians who embraced martyrdom like the ‘Early Christians’ when they were threatened with death to forsake their faith in Christ. I was thrilled when Apostolic Nuncio to India Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli announced the news of the Vatican granting green signal for initiating the beatification process for 35 Catholic martyrs of Kandhamal. The October 18 ‘nihil obstat’ from the Vatican Dicastery for Causes of Saints has cleared the path “to initiate the process of beatification for the Servant of God Kantheswar Digal and companions, martyrs of Kandhamal” from the 2008 persecution of Christians. Encounters with these martyrs’ kins and thousands who survived martyrdom over the past 15 years have changed the course of my life. I have visited the ‘holy land of India’ sanctified by the blood of heroic Christians35 times. Now the roads are clear for Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack Bhubaneswar that covers Kandhamal, to set the canonization process in motion. The first step is an Archdiocesan council meeting to decide the date and plans for officially initiating the process.

In Chhattisgarh state, tribal Christians have to choose between an indifferent ruling party and the pro-Hindu rival Tribal Christians in central Indian Chhattisgarh state are confused about whom to support in the upcoming elections as the ruling Congress party has failed to protect them from the worst-ever anti-Christian violence, says a Catholic bishop Chhattisgarh, along with four other Indian states, goes to polls in two phases on Nov. 7 and 17 for its 90-member assembly. The ruling Congress party is banking on the performance of its Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel to win a second term. Its rival, the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is striving to make a comeback after it lost power in 2018 following a 15-year rule. “There is a cloud of confusion among tribal Christians,” said Bishop Paul Toppo of Raigarh in Chhattisgarh state referring to the Congress' inability to safeguard the tribal Christians, especially in Narayanpur and Kondagaon districts in the past couple of years. “Tribal Christians are dejected because they had voted for the Congress in previous elections. But when they were in trouble, the party failed to bail them out,” the prelate told UCA News on Oct. 31. The attacks by hardline Hindu groups, with tacit support from the BJP, started on Dec. 9, 2022, and continued until January. Several

         A principal and 55 members of the teaching staff at a Christian school have been booked by police under the stringent anti-conversion law in a northern Indian state.        Principal D S Dasan and his teaching staff at Eton English Medium School in Bansi in Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharth Nagar district have been accused of trying to convert people belonging to indigenous tribal and Dalit (formerly untouchable) communities. The case was registered at the Bansi police station on Oct. 30 under provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. “This is totally a fake case. We have not converted anyone,” said Dasan, who is a member of the Layman’s Evangelical Church and also doubles up as manager of the school. He told UCA News on Nov. 1 that the school has been running for more than three decades and has 2,000 students studying up to grade eight. "This is the first time such an allegation has been leveled against us,” he added. The Sunday service on Oct. 29 was purportedly termed as a religious conversion activity to register a false complaint by Rakesh Kumar Gautam. He alleged that the principal and the teachers were trying to convert tribal people and Dalits who attended the prayer

KOCHI: Three back-to-back explosions at a 2,000-strong prayer congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, a Christian denomination, at Kalamassery in Kerala's Kochi on Sunday killed two women and wounded 58 other members. The blasts were initially suspected to be a terror attack but were later declared to be the alleged handiwork of a disgruntled former member.KOCHI: Three back-to-back explosions at a 2,000-strong prayer congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, a Christian denomination, at Kalamassery in Kerala's Kochi on Sunday killed two women and wounded 58 other members. The blasts were initially suspected to be a terror attack but were later declared to be the alleged handiwork of a disgruntled former member. The improvised explosive devices (IEDs) allegedly planted at the Zamra International Convention and Exhibition Centre by the suspect, identified as Dominic Martinof Thammanam in Kochi, went off in the middle of prayers at 9.35am, police said. The centre was the venue of a three-day Jehovah's Witnesses event since Friday. Survivors said they heard three explosions within seconds, with the first one being powerful, followed by two smaller ones. "I found a woman in flames lying face down on the floor. I grabbed a hose from the fire-safety system and sprayed water over her to douse the flames,

AIZAWL: Mizoram chief minister and president of the governing Mizo National Front (MNF) Zoramthanga on Tuesday said his party will not work together with BJP in the coming election to the 40-member state legislature to be held on November 7, reports HC Vanlalruata. Talking to TOI, Zoramthanga blamed the majority Meitei community for the alleged attacks on churches in Manipur, which is governed by the saffron party, and said: "This is not the time to be close to BJP." He said the people of Mizoram being Christians, it will have a negative impact on the go what has happened in Manipur. ning party in view of what has happened in Manipur. The CM said he will not share stage with PM Modi when he comes to Mizoram for election campaign. Modi is scheduled to visit Mamit district on the Mizoram-Tripura- Bangladesh border for election campaign on October 30.Zoramthanga said MNF had joined the BJP-ledNDA and Neda (North-East Democratic Alliance) because of the fact that the party is strongly against the Congress-led UPA, now INDIA. "I told the central government that we are just following in their footsteps as the Centre helped and armed refugees from the erstwhile East Pakistan. We do not arm the

The resistance to Christian expansion and its evangelical forces on the streets and social media is the new shift the society is witnessing in Andhra Pradesh in the last decade. Despite encountering formidable opposition from Hindus since the colonial period, the Church has always adeptly navigated, allowing itself to regroup and devise novel strategies. In the last few decades, the Church has shifted its focus from service activities like educational institutions and hospitals to gospel preaching. A new breed of churches based on an aggressive evangelist model, similar to the USA-based evangelists, have sprung up across the state of Andhra Pradesh. With core missionary activity shifting to street gospel preaching, criticism of Biblical scriptures and their teachings has started coming in from different sections of the society i.e. common people, ex-Christians, knowledge seekers and freethinkers.A steady and deep study of Christian scriptures has started taking shape amongst non-Christians. The escalating encounters between Christians and non-Christians have started changing the dynamics, posing a threat to the foundations of the Church. The reasons for this resistance are multifaceted, involving philosophical, theological, cultural and historical influences. One of the dominating factors contributing to this resistance is the account of personal experiences of non-Christians and Christians. STREET EVANGELISM In

The religious freedom charity Release International says a rise in attacks against Christians in India is ‘deeply alarming’ and it fears there is a denial in India about the increase in anti-Christian violence. It says the attacks have been fuelled by right-wing nationalism, while growing numbers of Christians are being arrested under anti-conversion laws. The United Christian Forum (UCF) has recorded 525 violent attacks to the end of August, more than for the entire previous year in which there were 505 recorded incidents. The UCF says attacks are rising ‘not just year-on-year, but month-on-month’. UCF says the growing violence follows the passing of sweeping anti-conversion laws in almost 40 per cent of India's 28 states. Most of those states are governed by the ruling nationalist BJP government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Anti-conversion laws supposedly target conversion by force or allurement. But their loose wording means any kind of charitable work could be considered a form of bribery. Congregations accused of forced conversion have had their buildings ransacked and property destroyed. Human Rights Watch (HRW) claim these laws are often misused by police to target Christians, particularly from the Dalit or Adivasi communities. The United Christian Forum says 520 Christians have now been arrested and

TWO inquiries into attacks on Christians and other minority faith communities in India have reported growing violence, and increasing numbers arrested under anti-conversion laws introduced in states governed by the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The United Christian Forum (UCF) has recorded 525 violent incidents in India this year, in the eight months to August: a rise of 45 per cent since 2022. It also recorded 520 Christians arrested and accused of forced conversions, including a couple arrested at their wedding, along with the pastor, after it was alleged that the wedding was a “conversion event”. The UCF is a coalition of Christian organisations which advocates on behalf of religious minorities. The UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand de Varennes, told the US Commission on Religious Freedom, which is carrying out one of the inquiries: “India risks becoming one of the world’s main generators of instability, atrocities, and violence, because of the massive scale and gravity of the violations and abuses targeting mainly religious and other minorities such as Muslims, Christians, Sikhs. . . It is systematic and a reflection of religious nationalism.” The Washington-based Indian American Muslim Council said in its latest report that Muslims and Christians were facing targeted attacks and hate crimes in India, including demolition

New Delhi, Separate parliamentary and legislative seats, land for cemeteries and scholarships are among 20 demands Christian groups in Telangana have put forward to political parties in the southern Indian state. The Telangana State Federation of Churches, Telangana Council of Churches and Synod of Telangana, representing the entire Christian community in the state, had met in the state capital of Hyderabad early October and decided to ask the parties to include their demands in their manifestos as the state gets ready for the November 30 assembly elections. The demands are important enough to be added in the manifestos of political parties, said Montfort Brother Varghese Theckanath, who was in a delegation that met Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal in New Delhi on October 12 to hand over the Telangana Christians declarations for political parties. “We are presenting this to all political leaders,” the brother told Matters India October 14. Father Raju Alex, deputy secretary of Telugu Catholic Bishops’ Council, told the Deccan Chronicle daily that the Christian community has always lacked the government’s encouragement and support. “The Christian community has a good chunk of voters in Telangana. We will support the parties which stand for us,” he added. The community wants political parties to give two

Purnomoy Chakma and Tarun Chakma, who were excommunicated after converting along with their families, moved the court accusing the two Buddhist organisations of persecuting them The Tripura high court has ordered police and the administration to intervene and make arrests if required over the persecution of two Buddhist families for converting to Christianity in November last year. Purnomoy Chakma and Tarun Chakma, who were excommunicated after converting along with their families in Unakoti, moved the court accusing the two Chakma organisations of persecuting, threatening, putting their livelihood at risk, and confining them to their homes. Purnomoy Chakma, a daily wager, said he was being denied work and that he earlier worked under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Tarun Chakma, an auto-rickshaw driver, said Chakma organisations issued a diktat for his boycott and threatened up to 40,000 as a fine if anybody hired his auto. He said he had taken a loan to buy the auto-rickshaw and also a personal loan to meet his expenses. The petitioners said they were prevented from attending prayers at a church and that Buddhist Chakmas have asked people not to interact with them or else they would be fined and punished according to their customary law. The