Tag: BJP

Indian police play down mob attack on Christian meeting

April 18, 2018 India BJP, Chhattisgarh, Hindu nationalism, India, Narendra Modi, Pentecostals, Police

Christian families have fled their homes in eastern India after telling police a Hindu nationalist mob had attacked a church fellowship meal, only to be met with attempts to silence them. Pastor Kasi Ram told World Watch Monitor that only three Christian families remained in the village of Bakel – . . . Read More

Anger as Hindu religious leaders given ministerial status

April 12, 2018 India BJP, Hindu nationalism, India, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Minorities

Christian and Muslim leaders have voiced concerns after five Hindu religious leaders were accorded “minister of state” status by the nationalist BJP (Bharatiya Janarta Party) government in India’s Madhya Pradesh state, Catholic news agency UCAN reported. Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan told journalists that the move was aimed at the “attempts . . . Read More

India: major faiths reject use of religious identity for political gain

April 9, 2018 India Beef, BJP, Goa, Hindutva, India, Maharashtra, Narendra Modi

Dressed in the saffron colour, groups such these are promoting the nationalist cause for India to be a Hindu-nation. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Leaders of six major faiths have issued a joint call condemning the use of religion for political ends, ahead of India’s 2019 general election. Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Muslim and Sikh leaders met in the western state of Goa on 5 April to discuss rising communal tensions in several areas . . . Read More

Indian Christians charged with ‘hurting religious sentiments’ by handing out Easter tracts

April 5, 2018 India BJP, Churches, Easter, Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, Hyderabad, India, Police, Proselytism, RSS, Telangana, Women

Four Christians, including the wife of a church leader, have been charged with “hurting religious sentiments” after they handed out Christian tracts during an Easter procession in India’s southern Telangana state. Rayapuri Jyothi, 38, Meena Kumari, 52, Mahima Kumari, 35 and Bagadam Sudhakar, 45, were taken into custody by police . . . Read More

Good Friday holiday reinstated in Christian-majority Indian state after protests

March 29, 2018 India BJP, Christmas, Digital India Day, Good Governance Day, Gujarat, Hindu nationalism, India, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Narendra Modi, Religious freedom

Widespread protests have forced the government in Christian-majority Meghalaya State in north-east India to restore the Good Friday holiday. The coalition government, to which the Hindu nationalist BJP is a partner, had declared in a circular that Good Friday would be a normal “working day”, but the move was withdrawn . . . Read More

India: Telangana Christians ‘terrified’ after Palm Sunday attack

March 29, 2018 India BJP, Hindu nationalism, Hyderabad, India, Palm Sunday, Telangana

World Watch Monitor has received a set of photographs showing the aftermath of an attack on a church service in India’s southern Telangana State on Sunday, 25 March. Trusted local sources reported that a group of Hindu extremists entered the Sheloha Prayer House in Hyderabad, the state capital, at around 10am, . . . Read More

India: police leave Catholic hospital separated from power supply after attack

March 23, 2018 India BJP, Catholics, Hindu nationalism, India, Madhya Pradesh, Police, Ujjain

Police guarding a Catholic hospital in central India that was attacked by a Hindu nationalist mob are restricting staff access to its emergency generator. The last members of the 100-strong mob that attacked Pushpa Mission Hospital in Ujjain city, Madhya Pradesh, left the site following a 16 March court order . . . Read More

India’s government ‘rewriting history’ to appear more Hindu

March 22, 2018 India BJP, Education, Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, India, Minorities, Narendra Modi

The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appointed a committee of scholars to rewrite the history of the nation in favour of Hindus, Reuters has reported. The news agency said that minutes of a January 2017 meeting of the 14-person committee and interviews with members indicated that the . . . Read More

Pro-Hindu BJP wins over Christian voters in northeast India

March 16, 2018 India Beef, Bihar, BJP, Catholics, Elections, Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, India, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Narendra Modi, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh

Christians gather for the general assembly of the National Council of Churches in India in Shillong, capital of the Christian-majority state of Meghalaya in the north-east. (May 2008)

India’s pro-Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is now the governing party in two Christian-dominated states in the northeast, following recent election successes in Nagaland and Meghalaya. But to do so, it had to betray its core values of Hindutva, according to John Dayal, former National President of the All India . . . Read More

India: Church leaders deplore bulldozing of hospital premises in BJP-ruled state

March 14, 2018 India BJP, Catholics, Hindu nationalism, India, Madhya Pradesh, Minorities, Ujjain

Church leaders in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have deplored an attack on a Catholic hospital, the premises of which was vandalised and bulldozed by a mob led by the personal assistant of a Member of Parliament, representing the ruling BJP. “Police have filed a case today [14 . . . Read More

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