Indian nun, mother arrested for ‘offending’ religion
A Catholic nun and her mother were among five people arrested for allegedly offending religious feelings and promoting enmity between religions after they joined a Mass in the central Indian Chhattisgarh state. Police arrested newly professed Sister Bibha Kerketta, a member of Daughters of St Anne (DSA) on June 6 night along with her mother, aunt, uncle and a driver from her home at Balachapper village, Jashpur diocese. “The nun and her family members were booked in a totally false case,” said Father Nirmal Minj, parish priest of the nun's Shanti Bhavan parish. More universal than Catholicism? Mary among Asian religions The arrested were kept in the police station at night and were produced before the court the following day, on June 7 evening. The court granted bail to the nun’s uncle but remanded others into judicial custody, Minj said. Kerketta became a professed nun in December and the family “celebrated a thanksgiving Mass at her home,” Minj told UCA News on June 8. “Close family members, priests and nuns from the locality attended the Mass and had a fellowship meal as well,” he said. Soon after the guests left, some 20 men, some of them from the nearby villages, forced their way into her home and started
Indian bishops say Manipur riots targeted tribal Christians
Bishops' body in Kerala says the 'well-orchestrated' violence in the northeastern state exposes BJP’s ‘double standards’ A man walks past a house that was set on fire and vandalized by mobs in Khumujamba village on the outskirts of Churachandpur on May 9 in a violence-hit area of the north-eastern Indian state of Manipur. The sectarian violence in Manipur state in north-eastern India was "well-orchestrated" and "targeted the Kuki tribe," 90 percent of whom are Christians belonging to different denominations, alleged a Catholic bishops’ body from southern Kerala state. “It is true that the normal conflict between the majority local Hindu community representing Meiteis and indigenous people, mostly Christians, was communalized and used to destroy tribal Christians,” said Father Michael Pulickal, secretary of the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance, which carried out an inquiry into the Manipur riots. Father Pulickal told UCA News on May 29, three days after releasing a report of the commission, that “the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) changes its colors for power” and the violence “has exposed the double standards” of the party. The BJP rules India and Manipur state. The priest, a member of Carmelite of Mary Immaculate, said the commission had gathered inputs from reliable
Minority body demands India uphold constitution guarantees
National Conference for Minority also calls for an equal opportunities commission at convention in New Delhi Minority body demands India uphold constitution guarantees P. Wilson, a member of the Indian Rajya Sabha, or Upper House of parliament, addressing a convention of the National Conference for Minority in New Delhi on May 27. A national body of Indian minorities has demanded the federal government guarantee them the constitutionally protected right to practice and profess their religion and protect them from hate speech, intimidation, attacks and killings. Some 100 members of the National Conference for Minority and invitees including politicians, activists, writers and students made the demands at a gathering on May 27 at the Constitution Club in the national capital New Delhi to discuss the situation of religious minorities across the country The one-day convention also demanded the setting up of an equal opportunities commission to ensure a proportional share in the nation’s finances and resources, besides fair representation in electoral politics of the country. P. Wilson, a Christian member of the Rajya Sabha, or Upper House of the Indian parliament, said Christians had contributed immensely to nation building, especially in the fields of education and health, but instead of acknowledging it they were being falsely blamed
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
Indian Christian leaders stress peace in Manipur
At least 71 have died in sectarian riots with tribal Christians in a standoff with the majority Meitei Hindu community Christians on May 21 attend an ecumenical prayer meeting for peace in Manipur in front of Sacred Heart Cathedral, New Delhi, which was visited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Easter Holy Week Christian leaders have urged people in the riot-hit northeastern Indian state of Manipur to maintain peace after sectarian violence claimed over 71 lives and close to 1,700 houses, including places of worship, were burnt. “In solidarity, we grieve with our brothers and sisters who have fallen victims to violence and have suffered immensely in consequence. We also convey our deepest condolences to all those who have lost their near and dear ones to this human carnage,” Archbishop Emeritus Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati and chairman of the Joint Peace Mission Team (JPMT) said in a statement. The Joint Peace Mission Team comprising the Nagaland Joint Christian Forum and Concerned Citizens for Peace noted that the situation “in Manipur is very frightening and escalating to proportions of a huge humanitarian crisis.” The statement, signed by Archbishop Menamparampil and JPMT spokesperson, Allen Brooks, called on people in Manipur “to explore constructive ways of easing
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
STATEMENT
May 16, 2023, Washington DC. The Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations is greatly troubled by the large-scale assault on the Christian churches and homes in the Northeastern Indian State of Manipur during the first week of May by the Hindu nationalist BJP government-supported militia. The Federation has reasons to believe that it was a well-planned, coordinated attack by the party in government against the Christian population of the state. The attack has all the markings of the Hindu nationalist campaign seen in previous violent campaigns carried out by the BJP party and its mother organization, the RSS, in Gujarat 2002, Odisha 2008, and Delhi 2020. In all these cases, government authority was used to facilitate and protect the Hindu militia while the police were ordered to stand down for the duration of violence. During this government-sponsored violence, on May 3rd and the 4th, over 200 churches and over 500 homes of the Christians were burned by the BJP militia. The violence has forced more than 23,000 people to flee their homes. Initial reports indicate that the police were actively supporting the militia providing them tactical support. FIACONA strongly condemns the violence perpetrated by the ruling party on its Christian population. FIACONA urges the US
STATEMENT
FIACONA urges U.S. State Department to designate India as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ May 15, 2023, Washington DC. The Federation of Indian Christian Organization in North America (FIACONA), an advocacy organization for religious freedom in India, applauds the United States State Department for exposing the dubious record of Human Rights and Religious Freedom in India under the BJP administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On the 2022 report on International religious freedom, India has been accused of systematic violations of human rights that included punitive bulldozing of Muslim homes and businesses, attacking the places of Christian worship on baseless allegations of ‘forced conversions’, and creating fear and spreading a sense of insecurity among the religious minorities. The report states, “In multiple states, police arrested Christians accused of forcing others to convert. Christian groups said police sometimes aided crowds who disrupted worship services the crowds said were forcibly converting Hindus”. The report also cited that 108 former senior government officials wrote Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that government discrimination against religious minorities, “particularly Muslims, in states like Assam, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand,” was “undermining” the country’s constitution.” The report also stated, “Attacks on members of religious minority
‘My Brother Was Beaten to Death on May 3. I Blame CM Biren Singh for the Manipur Violence’
Lamlamoi Gangte, who shared a neighbourhood with MC Mary Kom's brother and witnessed harrowing sights at Imphal on May 3, tells PM Modi, 'Like you, I am also Indian.' Moltheitampa (Churachandpur): Telling one’s own story is never easy. Particularly when you are living the trauma. So much has happened over the last few days with me and my family that if you were to ask me today’s date, I wouldn’t be able to remember it. So let me begin with what you would remember. You would remember celebrated boxer from Manipur, Mary Kom, pleading with the Prime Minister, the Union home minister and the Union defence minister on Twitter, on the morning of May 4, to save her state. She had tweeted, “My state is burning.” A night before, her brother Hupreng’s house was nearly burned down by a mob in the Games Village area of Imphal city. Her tears in the video, where she spoke of what was unfolding in her state were real. The danger for life and property to the tribals residing in the capital city had reached her brother’s door too. Hupreng has been my neighbour. The armed mob, hunting for property owned by Kuki-Zomi people in our colony situated in
Rise in attacks on Christians coincides with enactment of anti-conversion laws, petitioners tell SC
The petitioners also alleged that groups linked to the Union government are behind the communal attacks. The attacks on members of the Christian community increased after 2021 and they coincide with the enactments of anti-conversion laws in several states, petitioners told the the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Live Law reported. Anti-conversion laws have been enacted by BJP governments in nine states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh. The laws require prior permission for religious conversions for marriage. The states have either passed new anti-conversion laws or updated existing ones after 2017. The new versions of the laws put in place stricter punishments and newer grounds for restricting conversions, such as conversion “by marriage” – where a person who adopts another faith to enter into a marriage would be deemed to have been forcibly converted. The Supreme Court is hearing pleas filed by Bengaluru Archbishop Peter Machado, the National Solidarity Forum and the Evangelical Fellowship of India alleging an increase in attacks on Christians in India. The Centre has maintained there is no merit in the pleas. “It is a recent trend that certain organisations start planting articles and preparing self-serving reports themselves or through their associates, which
