Tag: India

Indian children ordered to hail ‘the land of the Hindus’

September 21, 2017 India Bhopal, BJP, Education, Hindu nationalism, India, Madhya Pradesh

An Indian Catholic bishop has voiced concern at an edict from a state education minister that schoolchildren should be forced to adopt a slogan praising India as the land of the Hindus. Kunwar Vijay Shah, education minister of the central state of Madhya Pradesh, has ordered pupils at state schools . . . Read More

India: ‘pressure from right-wing Hindus’ forced closure of Catholic children’s hostel

September 20, 2017 India Anti-conversion law, Hindu nationalism, India, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh

A children’s hostel owned by the Catholic Church has been closed down by the government in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. A priest told Matters India that it was because the authorities are “under mounting pressure from right-wing Hindu groups”. The hostel, in the western district of Guna, allowed . . . Read More

India: senior Church leaders call on Modi to help ‘control ideological hatred’ in Jharkhand

September 15, 2017 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Dalits, Himachal Pradesh, India, Jharkhand, Narendra Modi, Ram Nath Kovind, RSS

Hindu radicals burn a dummy replica of local Jharkhand Archbishop, Cardinal Telephore Toppo of Ranchi. (Photo: Catholic Bishops' Conference of India)

In a strongly worded open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) called on him to intervene and “curb the spread of hate created by the BJP chief minister” of Jharkhand state. The letter follows the burning of a dummy replica of local Jharkhand . . . Read More

India: two Christian women accused of ‘forced conversions’

September 11, 2017 India Anti-conversion law, Hindu nationalism, India, Jharkhand, Karnataka

Two Christian women in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka have been escorted to a police station by Hindu activists, who accused them of trying to convert other women, despite there being no complaints from the women themselves, reports Asia News. According to the activists, the two women – known . . . Read More

India: alleged sex offence in Catholic school ‘attempt to tarnish image of Church’

September 6, 2017 India Bhopal, India, Madhya Pradesh

An archbishop in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has said the sex offence allegation against a priest, who is the principal of a church-run school in the state, is another case of harassment against local Christians, reports UCA News. The archbishop, Leo Cornelio, who is based in the . . . Read More

India: cautious response to appointment of first Christian to Modi’s cabinet

September 6, 2017 India Alphons Kannanthanam, Anti-conversion law, BJP, Catholics, India, Jharkhand, Kerala, Narendra Modi

Alphons Kannanthanam was sworn in on 3 September at the Presidential Palace in New Del

Church officials in India’s Christian heartland of Kerala are cautiously optimistic following the appointment of a first Christian MP to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, amid heated political debate. Modi’s past three years at the head of a Hindu nationalist government (the BJP) have seen a rise in radical extremism . . . Read More

Indian pastor, assistant, wife and other women beaten up by Hindu extremists in Rajasthan

September 1, 2017 India Anti-conversion law, Bajrang Dal, India, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, RSS

Pastor Harjot Sethi in a still taken from the video he posted on YouTube after he was beaten by militant Hindu extremists.

An Indian pastor was among those injured when about 50 Hindu extremists attacked a group of Christians holding a prayer meeting in one of their homes in Dabli Rathan, Rajasthan state, on 16 August. From his hospital bed, pastor Harjot Sethi told Global Christian News that extremists belonging to two . . . Read More

Nepal criminalises conversions and ‘hurting religious sentiment’

August 22, 2017 Nepal Anti-conversion law, Blasphemy, Charikot, Converts, Hindu nationalism, India, Nepal, Proselytism

As Nepal prepares for its first election following the introduction of a new Constitution two years ago, its parliament has passed a Bill criminalising religious conversion and the “hurting of religious sentiment”, as Christian Solidary Worldwide (CSW) reports. Nepal’s Christian minority fears that, once presidential approval is given, the new . . . Read More

Jharkhand the latest Indian state to pass ‘anti-conversion bill’

August 15, 2017 India Anti-conversion law, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, India, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Protestants, Ram Nath Kovind

The Indian state of Jharkhand passed an “anti-conversion bill” at its Assembly meeting on 12 August, despite demands that the bill should be sent to a select committee for further scrutiny. “This is not normal,” Indian journalist Anto Akkara told World Watch Monitor. “It shows the growing arrogance of the . . . Read More

70 years after Pakistan’s founding, what PM’s recent ousting means for minorities

August 14, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Divorce, Imran Khan, India, Islamic extremism, Jamaat-e-Islami, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Mumtaz Qadri, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan Peoples Party, PTI, Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, Sindh, Taliban

70th Annual General Assembly Debate

Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventieth session.

30 September 2015

United Nations, New York

Photo # 646792

UN Photo/Cia Pak

Pakistan celebrates its 70th birthday today (14 August). And there’s a new Prime Minister after Nawaz Sharif, founder of the largest political party, was disqualified by the apex court on 29 July on charges of not being “righteous” and “ameen”*. This Supreme Court decision about Sharif “will throw the governing . . . Read More

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