Assaulted Pastor in India Faces Baseless Charges, Death Threats
NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Still recovering from injuries at the hands of a Hindu extremist-led mob that beat him unconscious in January, a pastor in central India faces death threats, landlords who refuse to rent to him and baseless charges of forcible conversion, sources said. “Kailash Dudwe was brutally assaulted to the extent of almost being killed, was stripped and paraded on the street with grievous injuries, was hospitalized for a fortnight, a warrant issued against him and sent to jail,” said Anar Singh Jamre, a Christian leader in Pastor Dudwe’s area of Dhar District, Madhya Pradesh. Hindu extremists led a mob of more than 20 people to attack Pastor Dudwe and six other Christians – his wife, a 16-year-old girl and four men – who had gathered to pray at his church site in Kukshi village on Jan. 14, he said. With his 1-year-old baby nearby, the assailants tried to hit his 5-year-old daughter with an iron bar, he said. “My wife caught the rod and stopped it from hitting our daughter,” Pastor Dudwe said. “I still get terrified at the thought of their brutality, that they showed no mercy towards my little girl.” The 16-year-old girl picked up his son
Christian Pastor Slashed, Shot to Death in Central India
NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Six masked men in central India this month killed one of 22 Christians a Maoist group had warned to “leave the pastorship,” sources said. Pastor Yalam Shankar was slashed and shot to death the evening of March 17 outside his home in Angampalli village, Bijapur District, Chhattisgarh state in front of his wife and daughter-in-law, relatives said. They said he was in his early 50s. The assailants left a note on his body stating that they were Maoists who had killed him for being a “police informer,” but area Christian leaders and police said they doubted that was the motive. While Pastor Shankar was eating dinner on March 17, some men outside his house called out the name of his oldest son, the pastor’s daughter-in-law said. Pastor Shankar went out to speak with them, and his wife and daughter-in-law followed. As he stepped out telling them that his son was not at home, the six men with faces covered with cloths attacked him, said his daughter-in-law, whose name is withheld for security reasons. “As soon as my father-in-law stepped out of the house, they tied his hands at the back,” she said. “Then they hit his face and forced
Christian pastor alleges assault by Delhi mob claiming he was involved in religious conversions
A Christian pastor has alleged he was assaulted on February 25 by a mob in Delhi that accused him of being on a conversion mission. Four days after a complaint containing these allegations was filed at the Maidan Garhi police station in South Delhi, an FIR was registered on 3 March. The pastor, 35-year-old Kelom Kalyan Tet, said that the incident occurred between 10.50 am and 12.30 pm. According to his complaint, he had gone to the Bhati Mines area to meet a friend. When he was leaving, some local residents accosted him and forced him to chant “Jai Sri Ram.” “They asked me why I had come here,” Tet told Scroll.in. “I said I had come to meet Kaalu bhai [his friend] which is when another person, who they had called on the phone, reached the area.” The confrontation then became violent. “They spoke to each other and accused me of religious conversion,” he said. “They started beating me up and took my phone, my bag which had my Bible, the papers of my bike and other important papers. They were taking photos and videos of the entire thing.” Tied up and beaten Tet said that some women objected to him being beaten and asked the men
Hostility toward Christians Grows in District in Northern India
Intense opposition to Christianity grew in an area of northern India in the past month as a Hindu mob invited news media to record them reviling a house church gathering, and another pastor and his family were driven from their home, sources said. Intending to stir public sentiment against Christians, members of the Hindu extremist Bajrang Dal in Jammu and Kashmir state’s Kathua District brought local news reporters to record them intruding into a house church worship service in the district’s Ward No. 4 colony on Jan. 5. “Suddenly, the mob forcefully entered our church member’s house where we gathered with my family to pray together,” pastor Pawan Kumar told Morning Star News. “They started abusing us in extremely foul language. Soon the media and cameramen started recording the exchange.” “But they did not pay heed to our requests – they said that we are brainwashing the minds of Hindus to attract them to Christianity,” he said. “I told them, ‘Nowhere is it written in the Bible that we should brainwash others to attract them to Christianity. You have totally misunderstood our faith. We are asked to love everyone irrespective of their religion, caste or sect.’” The home, located in a secured, upscale neighborhood, is
Madhya Pradesh: Catholic priest, pastor among three arrested under anti-conversion law
The complainant alleged that they lured tribal villagers into Christianity by promising free education and treatment in missionary-run schools and hospitals. A Catholic church priest and a pastor were among three people arrested by the Madhya Pradesh Police on Sunday night for allegedly luring tribals from a village in the state’s Jhabua district to convert to Christianity, The Indian Express reported. A first information report was filed at Kalyanpura police station based on a complaint by a man identified as Tetiya Bariya. The complainant alleged that Father Jam Singh Dindore, Pastor Ansingh Ninama and a person named Mangu Mehtab Bhuriya lured tribal villagers into Christianity by promising free education and treatment in missionary-run schools and hospitals. All three of them have been charged under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021, popularly known as the anti-conversion law, Dinesh Rawat, who is in charge of Kalyanpura police station, told PTI. In his written application, Bariya said, “On December 26, at around 8 am Father Jam Singh Dindore called me and Surti Bai [another villager] to their prayer room and made us sit in a weekly meeting called for conversion. They sprinkled water on us and read the Bible to us.” The complainant claimed he was
Arrests, Beatings and Secret Prayers: Inside the Persecution of India’s Christians
Read the main story in nytimes.com 12/22/2021: “They want to remove us from society,” a Christian farmer said of Hindu extremists. Rising attacks on Christians are part of a broader shift in India, in which minorities feel less safe. INDORE, India — The Christians were mid-hymn when the mob kicked in the door. A swarm of men dressed in saffron poured inside. They jumped onstage and shouted Hindu supremacist slogans. They punched pastors in the head. They threw women to the ground, sending terrified children scuttling under their chairs. “They kept beating us, pulling out hair,” said Manish David, one of the pastors who was assaulted. “They yelled: ‘What are you doing here? What songs are you singing? What are you trying to do?’” The attack unfolded on the morning of Jan. 26 at the Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra Christian center in the city of Indore. The police soon arrived, but the officers did not touch the aggressors. Instead, they arrested and jailed the pastors and other church elders, who were still dizzy from getting punched in the head. The Christians were charged with breaking a newly enforced law that targets religious conversions, one that mirrors at least a dozen other measures across the country that
Rise in Attacks on Christians in Southern Indian
A fact-finding report by a Protestant group in India has documented 39 violent attacks on Christians in the southern state of Karnataka since January. The Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) published the report on Dec. 13 claiming that the Christian community in Karnataka had good reason to feel targeted by the outbreak of violence. “It is clear and obvious that an atmosphere of fear and apprehension prevails in the Christian community and its grassroots religious clergy because of a systematic targeting through a vicious and malicious hate campaign,” said Reverend Vijayesh Lal, EFI general secretary and publisher of the report. He further added that it was “equally obvious that those involved in carrying out this hate campaign and fear-mongering enjoy the protection and possibly support of elements within the political and law and order apparatus in the state.” Reverend Lal said the EFI was making the report public in the interests of the Christian community in the state and the country and to help safeguard peace and harmony by calling upon the state government to act immediately before any major untoward incident takes place. Copies of the report have been sent to the office of the prime minister of India,
Indian Prelate Seeks End to Violence Against Christians
12/08/2021: Archbishop Sebastian Durairaj of Bhopal seeks action against the culprits and dialogue between the Church and its accusers. Archbishop Sebastian Durairaj of Bhopal has urged authorities to end the continuing violence against Christians in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. “A section of our community is feeling insecure. That is why we met Home Minister Narottam Mishra, who has assured us of appropriate action,” the archbishop is reported to have said in a video message released after his meeting with the minister on Dec. 7. He also appealed for action in the recent attack on St. Joseph School in Vidisha district by a 500-strong mob of Hindutva activists alleging the school management was converting students to Christianity. The newly appointed archbishop, who is based in state capital Bhopal, told UCA News that he raised the issue of increasing attacks against Christians and their institutions in the state. “He asked me ‘Do you convert people?’ and I replied ‘No, we don’t,’” Archbishop Durairaj said about his interaction with Mishra. “The minister patiently listened to our concerns and agreed to help us. He promised action against those who attacked the school.” We need to reach out to all those who have misconceptions or misunderstandings about us
Catholic school attacked in Madhya Pradesh
12/06/2021: A mob of more than 500 people on December 6 attacked a Catholic school in a town of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, accusing it of indulging in religious conversion. Brother Antony Pynumkal, principal of St Joseph’s School at Ganj Basoda in Vidisha district told Matters India that the allegation of conversion was “fake and baseless.” Ganj Basoda town is some 105 km northwest of Bhopal, the state capital. The Malabar Missionary Brother said they had received a memorandum on November 30 from some local Hindu groups from Ahirwar, Dangi and Rajput Communities alleging of conversion of students. The management had informed the police but only two of them were deployed in the school premise when the mob came. They could not do anything, said Brother Pynumkal. The local parish of St. Joseph on October 31 organized the First Holy Communion and Confirmation of eight Catholic children. A local Youtube channel called “Aayudh” carried the event as conversion. “Those children are not our students and the parish is some two kilometers away from the school,” said Brother Pynumkal. The management had already informed the local police about the memorandum and ongoing board exams in the school. The principal said the mob attacked the school
Why India is witnessing spike in attacks on Christians, churches
Rights groups record more than 300 attacks on Christians and their religious places in the first nine months of this year. New Delhi/Roorkee, India – In late October, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met and invited Pope Francis to India, the country with the second-largest Christian population in Asia. However, in a speech about two weeks earlier, Mohan Bhagwat, head of the far-right Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), warned Hindus about religious conversions and alleged “demographic changes” in India’s northeastern states, which have a large Christian population. In his annual speech on October 14 to mark the Hindu festival of Dussehra (also known as Durga Puja), Bhagwat said: “Rising population and demographic imbalance need to be addressed and population policy is to be redesigned. And that policy should be applicable to all irrespective of caste and creed. Illegal immigration in bordering districts and conversions in [the] northeast have changed the demographics further.” The RSS aims to create an ethnic Hindu state out of India. As the head of Sangh Parivar, the umbrella group of Hindu nationalist organisations including the BJP, Bhagwat’s Dussehra speech is considered an agenda-setter for the year. Rise in attacks on Christians across India As
