Tag: BJP

India: Violence against Christians continues in run-up to 2019 elections

October 10, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, Assam, BJP, Caste, India, Narendra Modi, UN, Uttar Pradesh

Hindu nationalists vandalised two Christian places of worship in the northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Assam in the last two weeks, reports AsiaNews. On 29 September a statue of Saint John Bosco, also known as Don Bosco, was desecrated in the city of Tezpur, Assam, northeast India. It . . . Read More

India: 271 Christians charged with converting Hindus through lies and drugs

September 18, 2018 India BJP, Converts, Hindu nationalism, India, Minorities, Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh

Two hundred and seventy-one Christians in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh have been charged with a range of crimes including attempting to convert Hindus through the use of drugs and by spreading lies about Hinduism. Of the 271, just three were named – pastors Durga Prasad Yadav, Kirit . . . Read More

India: Kandhamal Christians still waiting for justice one decade after massacre

August 23, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Dalits, Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Odisha, Proselytism

Some 56,000 Christians fled their homes during the rioting and many stayed in camps such as this one in Raikia. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Ten years after the worst case of anti-Christian violence in India’s history, the local community continues to struggle, with reparations from the government slow in coming and seven reportedly innocent Christians still in prison. Nearly 100 Christians were killed, 300 churches and 6,000 Christian homes were damaged, and 55,000 people . . . Read More

Modi speaks out against ‘menace’ of mob attacks for first time

August 15, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, Bajrang Dal, Bihar, BJP, Dalits, Ghar Wapsi, India, Madhya Pradesh, Minorities, Narendra Modi, Pentecostals, RSS, Vishva Hindu Parishad

Attacks on Christians in India by Hindu extremists are on the increase and often their church buildings are destroyed as well, like this one in central India.

India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has for the first time condemned violence against minorities, saying that everyone has a duty to fight the “menace” of mob lynchings. But his critics say that, after four years in power at the head of a Hindu nationalist government, the comments have come too . . . Read More

Hindu extremist violence on the rise in southern Indian states

August 3, 2018 India Andhra Pradesh, Bajrang Dal, BJP, Caste, Churches, Converts, Dalits, Hindu nationalism, House churches, Hyderabad, India, Narendra Modi, Police, Religious freedom, RSS, Telangana

Good Fruit Ministries church in Sangameshwar village of Siddhipet District, Telangana state was demolished by a bull dozer on the directions of uppercaste Hindus who follow Vaastu shastra.

Religious freedom advocate ADF India has noted a rise in incidents of religiously motivated violence in India’s two Telugu language-speaking southern states, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, including the brutal murder of an elderly Christian woman. So far this year, ADF India says it has verified 17 incidents of anti-Christian persecution . . . Read More

Anti-Christian violence in India’s Uttar Pradesh ‘part of the state machinery’

July 20, 2018 India Beef, BJP, Hindu nationalism, Hindu Yuva Vahini, Hindutva, India, RSS, Uttar Pradesh, Vishva Hindu Parishad

The northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, one of several to be ruled by the governing BJP party, is emerging as a new centre of anti-Christian violence as politicians use a fundamentalist form of Hinduism to intimidate minority communities. According to the religious freedom NGO ADF-India, Uttar Pradesh experienced the . . . Read More

Missionaries of Charity complain of ‘baseless innuendos’ as government orders probe

July 16, 2018 India BJP, Hindu nationalism, India, Jharkhand, West Bengal

Roman Catholic nuns of the Missionaries of Charity order pray at the tomb of Mother Teresa at a service to commemorate the 20th death anniversary of Mother Teresa at the Missionaries of Charity house in Kolkata on September 5, 2017.

The order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa has moved to defend itself from “false news” and “baseless innuendos” after the government yesterday ordered all the country’s states to inspect all childcare homes run by the Kolkata-based order. The women and child development minister, Maneka Gandhi, made the announcement on Monday as criticism . . . Read More

BJP responsible for most hate speech in India, study finds

July 11, 2018 India Bihar, BJP, Caste, Hindu nationalism, India, Minorities, Mumbai, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh

The north-eastern Indian state of Bihar leads the way for hate speech in India, according to a new study published by Telegraph India. Law students from three different universities in Patna, Dehradun and New Delhi used media reports between 2014-2018 to examine the use of hate speech in the country. They . . . Read More

India: 16 more Christians detained under Jharkhand’s ‘anti-conversion law’

July 10, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Caste, Dalits, Hindu nationalism, India, Jharkhand, Missionaries, Proselytism, Religious freedom, RSS

A number of the Christians who were arrested by police, after they held a prayer service at the house of a Christian family in Phulpahari, India. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A group of 16 Indian tribal Christians who visited another tribal family in the eastern state of Jharkhand to talk to them about Christianity are in police custody after the local village head accused them of “conversion by inducement”. Last year, Jharkhand became the seventh Indian state to introduce a . . . Read More

Indian state’s ‘anti-conversion law’ to be repealed

June 29, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, Arunachal Pradesh, Baptism, BJP, Catholics, Converts, Hindu nationalism, India, Minorities, Missionaries, Narendra Modi, Proselytism, Pune

Christian groups have welcomed a surprise announcement by a nationalist chief minister of a state in north-east India that he will ensure that a law preventing conversions from one faith to another is repealed. Pema Khandu, a Buddhist who heads the nationalist BJP-led state government in Arunachal Pradesh, told an . . . Read More

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