Myth of Forcible Conversions: A Fact Finding Report
This is the first part of a special report after a fact-finding team’s visit to the Congress-ruled state in central India. THE Hindu nationalists have quite successfully propagated that Christians are converting Hindus with either inducements, fraud or through coercion on such a large scale that there would be a demographic imbalance sooner rather than later. My visit to villages in Narayanpur and Kondagaon in the state of Chhattisgarh as a member of fact-finding team constituted by CSSS, UCF, AIPF and AILAJ showed once again that the shoe fits on the other foot. It is the Christians who are being subjected to violence, threats and forced displacements if they do not convert to Hindu religion. Some Christians have been converted forcibly, while others who resisted were forced to leave their villages and seek refuge from violence elsewhere. According to Adv. Sonisingh Jhali, All India People’s Forum, based in Jadalpur and who has been helping the displaced Christian Adivasis, more than one thousand of them have been displaced from their villages. According to the District Collector and Magistrate of Narayanpur, 250 have been displaced from the villages in his district and have sought shelter in indoor stadium of the district. However, another about 150
Organised campaign to convert Christian Adivasis to Hindus in Chhattisgarh: Report
There was no forcible religious conversion and the situation was under control, Mahendra Chhabra, chairman of the Chhattisgarh minorities commission, said. State authorities, however, denied that the violence was related to forcible religious conversions. There was an “organised campaign” to forcibly convert Christian tribals into Hindus in Bastar’s Narayanpur and Kondagaon districts, a team of civil society representatives said in a report on Monday after visiting more than 30 villages in districts where attacks allegedly took place against Christians. State authorities, however, denied that the violence was related to forcible religious conversions. “From December 9, 2022 to December 18, there was a series of attacks in about 18 villages in Narayanpur district and 15 villages in Kondagaon district, displacing about 1,000 Christian Adivasis from their own villages,” said the report of a fact-finding team led by Irfan Engineer, director of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, and Brijendra Tiwari, convener of the All India People’s Forum, Chhattisgarh. “Those displaced were told to give up their Christian faith and convert to Hindu religion, failing which they were threatened their village or face dire consequences, including death,” the report said. “Many Christian adivasis were gravely assaulted and beaten with lathis, tyre, and rods. At
Christian Adivasis forcefully converted to Hinduism in Chhattisgarh: Report
According to the report, "the district administration disregarded early indications such as threats and intimidation targeting Christian Adivasis." Although these intimidations were reported, nothing was done. A civil society report shed light on an organised campaign to convert Christian tribals into Hindus in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur and Kondagaon districts. After visiting more than 30 villages in the districts where alleged attacks against Christians occurred, a team of civil society representatives claimed in a report released on Monday that there was a “organised campaign” to forcibly convert Christian tribals. State officials, however, disputed that the violence was a result of coerced conversions to a particular religion. According to a fact-finding team led by Irfan Engineer, director of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, and Brijendra Tiwari, convener of the All India People’s Forum, Chhattisgarh, “There was a series of attacks in about 18 villages in Narayanpur district and 15 villages in Kondagaon district from December 9, 2022 to December 18, displacing about 1,000 Christian Adivasis from their own villages.” The fact-finding team, which also included organisations like the United Christian Forum and the All India Lawyers’ Association for Justice, was established in response to episodes of violence against Christians in the districts of Narayanpur
A year of martyrs and persecution for Indian Catholics
The Vatican canonized Blessed Devashayam while the Catholic community seeks justice for Father Stan Swamy Indian Catholics celebrated the canonization of their first layman saint in 2022 amid a spike in violence against Christians across the nation and growing strife over a liturgy dispute within an Oriental Church. Pope Francis canonized Blessed Lazarus, popularly known as Devasahayam, at the Vatican on May 15. “In Devasahayam we have the first Indian who is acknowledged to have won the crown of martyrdom on Indian soil,” observed Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao, the archbishop of Goa and Daman and president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI). Devasahayam is also the first married person from India to be conferred a sainthood, he added underlining the special significance of his canonization for the Church in India. The Vatican scored another first in India when it appointed Archbishop Anthony Poola of Hyderabad as the country’s first cardinal from a Dalit or formerly untouchable community. About 201 million of India’s 1.3 billion-plus people are Dalits, many having converted to Christianity and Islam over the centuries to escape caste-based discrimination. Some 60 percent of India’s 25 million Christians are believed to be of Dalit or tribal origin. "Dalit Catholics have been demanding important
Statement
Extremist outfits and their proxies in America should think deep and hard as to what they are actually doing on the US soil. December 21. 2022, Washington DC. Last May, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) filed a defamation lawsuit in federal court in D.C. accusing Mr. John Prabhudoss, the Chairman of the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations, along with the co-founders of Hindus for Human Rights, Ms. Sunita Viswanathan and Mr. Raju Rajagopal, and Prof. Audrey Truschke and Mr. Rashid Ahmed of IAMC, of defaming HAF in commentary each made about reports in the press that HAF and other extremist Hindu nationalist organizations had obtained federal COVID relief. The reports were that HAF and others received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the U.S. government meant for companies trying to survive the pandemic. On December 20th, 2022 Federal Judge Amit Mehta dismissed the case against all defendants. While he ruled that there was no personal jurisdiction over Ms. Viswanathan, Mr. Rajagopal, Prof. Truschke, and Mr. Ahmed, Judge Mehta dismissed the claims against Mr. Prabhudoss on the merits. He found that HAF “does not plausibly allege that Prabhudoss’s statements are verifiably false” because they amounted to statements of opinion. He further found
ATTACKS ON MINORITIES: In Bastar, hundreds of Christian Adivasis flee villages, alleging a series of attacks against them
The violence had been instigated by local leaders, they said in a complaint submitted to the police on Monday. In Bastar, hundreds of Christian Adivasis flee villages, alleging a series of attacks against them Christian Adivasis sat on protest outside the Narayanpur district collectorate for two days before they were forcibly evicted. On Sunday, hundreds of Christian Adivasi protestors gathered outside the district collectorate in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh, to demand that the administration ensure their safety. In a complaint submitted to the police on Monday, they alleged they had been beaten up and forced to leave their villages because of their faith. Kunao, a 22-year-old man from Bhatpal village, 25 km from Narayanpur district headquarters, said he was summoned to a meeting by fellow villagers on Sunday morning. He said the villagers beat him up and threatened him by saying: “If we see you here tomorrow, we will beat you, demolish your home and throw you out of the village.” At around 3 pm on Sunday, he and his family hopped on a tractor trolley and fled the village along with five other Christian families. “They targeted us because we are Adivasi people and follow the Christain faith,” the 22-year-old said. “I was told at the
How to turn a country over to the mob
Stop a marriage, demolish a bus stop, frighten minorities. As the rule of law collapses in India, the whims of Hindu extremists become de facto State policy. Even in Karnataka, very few people know of the Hindu Jagruti Sene – their Facebook page has no more than 1,000 followers. In normal circumstances, no one would have bothered if a group on the fringes of the Hindu right demanded that the main train station in the dusty, poor northern city of Kalaburgi painted in green be repainted because “it looks like a mosque”. But this is the new India with every old vice resurrected and magnified, with fundamentalist demands, however nutty and bigoted, taken into serious consideration. So, it was no surprise that a few days later, the Indian railways – known for a notoriously slow bureaucracy, which takes years to even clear footbridges connecting metro and mainline stations – repainted Kalaburgi station white. Meanwhile, in the state capital of Bengaluru, a more well-known Hindu group called the Hindu Jangruti Samiti – its previous successes include a stop to the shows of “anti-Hindu” stand-up comics – successfully began lobbying legislators of the state and India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for a ban on the
Hackers planted evidence on computer of jailed Indian priest, report says
Jesuit priest Stan Swamy died after spending more than eight months in jail on terrorism charges NEW DELHI — For months, Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest, claimed his innocence in courts and pleaded for medical care, but Indian authorities denied him bail. He died at a hospital in July 2021 after spending more than eight months in jail on terrorism charges. Now, an examination of an electronic copy of his computer by Arsenal Consulting, a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm, concludes that a hacker infiltrated his device and planted evidence, according to a new report by the company. The analysis is more proof that Swamy and his co-defendants were framed in a case that exemplifies the Indian government’s crackdown against civil society and prominent critics, the defense team says. More than a dozen activists, academics and lawyers have been imprisoned under an anti-terrorism law — some for more than four years — accused of having ties to a banned Maoist armed group that aims to overthrow the government. They deny the charges. The stringent terrorism law has drawn criticism in part because the accused can rarely secure bail and cases brought under the law have a poor conviction rate. They were accused of plotting
India’s ratcheting up curbs on Christians, Muslims
There are occasional rays of hope amid the gloom but at the moment, there is reason to be pessimistic The fate of the 70-year-old struggle of India’s converts from its erstwhile “untouchable” castes in the Hindu hierarchy may well be in the hands of a former chief justice of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan while in office had asked Church leaders if they were willing to say on oath that they exercised caste discrimination in their congregations. There was silence in the courtroom. He was at that time hearing appeals against Article 341 Part 3 which assures affirmative action including scholarships, jobs and political representation to this group of citizens as long as they remain Hindu. If they convert to Christianity or Islam, they lose the benefits. The converts may also be jailed if the government discovers that they had studied in Church schools on scholarships given to Christian students. "Dalits who embraced other religions were denied the benefits of affirmative action by presidential order" Justice Balakrishnan was the first Dalit, as the former untouchable castes now call themselves, to become the chief justice of India. His elevation was the direct result of a question raised by former President K R Narayanan, the
Forced conversions a threat to national security, says SC
NEW DELHI: Calling religious conversions by use of force or allurement a threat to national security, the Supreme Court on Monday sought a detailed affidavit from the government on steps being taken to curb this "dangerous trend." As solicitor general Tushar Mehta told the court that it is common knowledge that such conversions are rampant in tribal areas, the court asked what the Cenre and states have done to stop it. The Centre must step in and make its stand clear, the bench of Justices MR S hah and Hima Kohli said. Forced conversions a threat to national security, says SC Expressing grave concern over alleged religious conversions by use of force, allurement and deception, the Supreme Court on Monday warned that this posed "a very serious threat to the security of the country" and sought a detailed affidavit from the government on the steps being taken to curb this "dangerous trend". Hearing a PIL filed by advocate-petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay, a bench of Justices M R Shah and Hima Kohli told solicitor general Tushar Mehta that "everyone has the freedom of conscience to choose a religion. But religious conversions through force or any kind of temptation is a dangerous thing which must be stopped".
