Tag: India

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

Afghan convert to Christianity flees, but persecution follows him

August 2, 2018 Afghanistan, Converts, Delhi, India, Kabul, Minorities, Refugees, Taliban, UN

An Indian newspaper has highlighted the story of an Afghan convert to Christianity who fled Afghanistan on account of the persecution he received for his faith, only to find that it followed him to India. “AP”, a man in his 60s who arrived in India three years ago, now lives . . . Read More

India’s Christians treated like terrorists, Catholic bishops say

July 31, 2018 India Catholics, Hindu nationalism, India, Jharkhand

Christians in India are treated as “terrorists” by the government, according to a group of Catholic bishops, who claim it uses its Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) to investigate Christian institutions, Catholic news agency UCAN reports. Nine bishops from the north-eastern state of Jharkhand met with the state governor, Draupadi Murmu, in . . . Read More

Indian government body wants church confessions banned

July 30, 2018 India Catholics, India, Kerala, Rape, Religious freedom, Women

The Indian government should ban the sacrament of confession in the country, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has proposed, saying Catholic clergy use it to harass women, AsiaNews reports. The state advisory body said in its statement that confessions can lead to blackmail and that “priests pressure women into . . . 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

‘Total impunity’ in India, as Muslims and Christians ‘bear brunt of ruling ideology’

July 13, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, Hindu Munnani, Hindu nationalism, Hindu Yuva Vahini, India, Jharkhand, Minorities, Pentecostals, Rape, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh

Frequent reports of violent attacks against India’s religious minorities show the “total impunity” enjoyed by their Hindu nationalist attackers, says one civil rights activist. In one recent attack, a pastor, his wife and their congregation were attacked at their ‘house church’ in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state on Sunday (8 . . . 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

India: Priest’s arrest an attempt to ‘malign’ Church

July 3, 2018 India Catholics, India, Jharkhand, Rape, Women

Indian National Congress party activists hold placards and shout slogans during a protest against the abduction and gang-rape of five women in Jharkhand's Khunti district on 23 June 2018. (Photo: -/AFP/Getty Images)

Civil society representatives in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand have objected to the arrest of a Jesuit priest for his alleged involvement with the gang rape of five women last month, calling for an independent investigation, reports news site Indian Currents. “The allegations against Fr. Alphonse Aind … are . . . Read More

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