Tag: Hindu nationalism

India: rise in vigilantism threatens minorities

May 16, 2017 India Beef, BJP, Hindu nationalism, Hindu Yuva Vahini, Uttar Pradesh

A marked rise in vigilante incidents against couples in inter-faith relationships is a cause for concern in Uttar Pradesh, the northern Indian state where the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP recently enjoyed massive electoral success, reports the Woolf Institute, a UK-based interfaith research unit. It says incidents like the lynching on 2 May . . . Read More

Persecution of Christians ‘still not taken seriously’

April 12, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Batnaya, Boko Haram, Egypt, Hindu nationalism, Iraq, Islamic State, Middle East, Nigeria, North Africa, Syria

Christians are the “most harassed religious minority in the world” but their oppression is largely under-reported in the West.

Following the Palm Sunday bomb attacks on two Egyptian churches, Ewelina Ochab, writing for Forbes, suggests that it’s time to be more proactive in response to the persecution of Christians – “the most persecuted religious group in the world”. “The situation [for Christians] has not improved [in] recent years,” she writes. . . . Read More

India’s churches also targeted on Palm Sunday, but Modi stays silent

April 11, 2017 India BJP, Haryana, Hindu nationalism, Madhya Pradesh, Narendra Modi, Rajasthan, RSS, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been criticised for condemning the Palm Sunday attacks on churches in Egypt but failing to condemn attacks in his own country. On the same day that two churches were bombed in Egypt, five churches in India – in five different states – were targeted . . . Read More

Chief Minister of India’s most populous state bans ‘illegal’ abattoirs

March 30, 2017 India Beef, BJP, Converts, Ghar Wapsi, Hindu nationalism, India, Maharashtra, Minorities, Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh

Butchers in Uttar Pradesh face difficult times as state government bans 'illegal' slaughter houses.

India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party on 19 March appointed a highly controversial Hindu cleric to lead the country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. The choice for Yogi Adityanath – a controversial Hindu monk who has been repeatedly accused of stirring anti-Muslim sentiments – is a shocking rebuke to . . . Read More

Nepal’s Christians have to trek into mountains to bury their dead

March 23, 2017 Nepal Burial, Hindu nationalism, Kathmandu, Nepal

One way in which the freedom of religion or belief in a country can be measured is whether minorities are permitted to carry out their own rituals during key ‘rites of passage’ such as birth, marriage and death. One of the world’s fastest-growing Christian communities is that in Nepal. Between the censuses . . . Read More

Uncertain future for Indian Christians after BJP’s election victories

March 22, 2017 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Catholics, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Hindu nationalism, India, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand

India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to have consolidated its political position across India after the party won several state elections. These were held in February and March; after results were counted in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur, it had secured a comfortable majority in India’s most populous . . . Read More

India: Chhattisgarh church remains shut, 6 weeks after Hindu mob forced closure

March 17, 2017 India BJP, Chhattisgarh, Hindu nationalism, Kerala, Narendra Modi

An Indian church remains shut, six weeks after a mob of angry Hindus halted a Sunday service and forced the pastor to close the church. He says the local government has sided with the mob. The church is in Dalli Rajhara, a mining city in the central state of Chhattisgarh, . . . Read More

‘Hindus never convert people’, says Indian MP

February 16, 2017 India Converts, Ghar Wapsi, Hindu nationalism, India, Minorities, Vishva Hindu Parishad

The Indian Minister of State for Home Affairs has claimed the Hindu population in India is decreasing because “Hindus never convert people”. Kiren Rijiju, tweeting on 13 February, also wrote that “minorities are flourishing”. Hindu population is reducing in India because Hindus never convert people. Minorities in India are flourishing . . . Read More

India’s religious freedom failings ‘enshrined in constitution’

February 16, 2017 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Dalits, Ghar Wapsi, Hindu nationalism, Narendra Modi, Religious freedom

Religious freedom in India will never be achieved unless the country is willing to make substantial amendments to its constitution and legal framework, says a new report. It also asks the US to put human rights at the heart of trade and diplomatic interactions with India. A tide of religiously . . . Read More

Police rapes, acquittals and false accusations highlight Christians’ vulnerability in India

January 12, 2017 India Chhattisgarh, Dalits, Hindu nationalism, India, Raipur, Rape, Women

The acquittal of two suspects in the gang rape of a Catholic nun, and a series of rapes by security forces in remote areas of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh have highlighted the vulnerability of women from marginalised communities. “If you are a woman tribal or from a minority, . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye