Tag: Kandhamal

India: Supreme Court orders seven Kandhamal Christians freed on bail after 9 years in prison

December 13, 2019 India BJP, Hindu nationalism, Human rights, India, Kandhamal, Minorities

Eleven years ago today, 13 December 2008, an Indian man was arrested. Initially, he suspected it would be quickly resolved – he was active in local politics and assumed it was for something minor connected to that. But it was to be over ten years before he would get his . . . Read More

India: Supreme Court orders Kandhamal Christian freed on bail after 10 years in prison

May 22, 2019 India Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Minorities

Gornath Chalanseth's stepmother greets him as he leaves Indian jail, 21 May 2019 (Credit: Anto Akkara)

Gornath Chalanseth, one of seven Christians jailed for life for the murder of a Hindu swami in the Kandhamal district of Odisha state in eastern India, has been freed on bail by India’s Supreme Court yesterday, May 21. The seven – three of whom are Dalits, the other four tribals . . . Read More

India: Life sentence for top politician gives hope for justice for Kandhamal Christians

December 21, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, Christmas, India, Jharkhand, Kandhamal, Madhya Pradesh, Minorities, Odisha, Tamil Nadu

Rights activists say the lifetime prison sentence given to a top politician in India on 17 December for his involvement in the riots that led to the killing of thousands of Sikhs in 1984, gives hope to India’s Christian minority still waiting for justice, reports Matters India. The High Court . . . Read More

Ten years after arrest of their illiterate husbands, Indian wives wait for justice

October 5, 2018 India Hindutva, Kandhamal, Odisha

It was around midnight on 4 October 2008 that Durjo Sunamajhi and Munda and Sanathan Badamajhi were arrested by dozens of police in their shanty homes in India’s eastern Odisha state. Ten years on, these three illiterate Christians, from the remote Madaguda area of Kandhamal, are yet to return home. Four other Christians – . . . Read More

Kandhamal riots were result of Hindu political conspiracy, says activist

September 20, 2018 India Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Odisha

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, seven innocent people are still in prison, convicted of a crime that was the result of a larger political conspiracy, says Catholic journalist and activist Anto Akkara in an interview with Indian news platform The Wire. Almost 100 . . . Read More

India: 2 years after Supreme Court order, no investigation into ‘shocking’ number of Kandhamal acquittals

September 11, 2018 India Catholics, Delhi, Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Odisha, Proselytism

The man spearheading the campaign for “justice” for the victims of the worst case of anti-Christian violence in India’s history has denounced the failure of the Odisha state government to follow up on a Supreme Court order to investigate why there have been so few criminal convictions despite nearly 6,500 . . . 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

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

India: 2017 saw 20% increase in atrocities against Christians, says lawyer

May 30, 2018 India BJP, Catholics, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Karnataka, Minorities, Narendra Modi, Odisha

Amid growing extreme Hindu nationalism in India, dozens of speakers have called for concerted action to uphold the country’s constitution and fundamental rights, at a conference to mark four years of government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “There is a grave threat to plurality,” Professor Ganesh Narayan Devy, a . . . Read More

Court orders extra payment to Christian widows of 14 who died in India riots

May 8, 2018 India Ghar Wapsi, Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Odisha

Christian women who have been rendered widows in recent anti-Christian violence in Orissa sing their traditional song at a Christmas celebration in Bangalore on December 8 in Bangalore.

The Global Council of Indian Christians based in Bangalore brought two dozen Orissa riot widows to Bangalore from the refugee camps in Kandhamal for conducting medical checks on them and to draw attention to their plight. Though Orissa government has declared compensation of 200 000 rupees ($4000) for those killed, only two of the two dozen widows have got the compensation as police insist on documentary proof for the murders and even recovery of the body some of which have been thrown in rivers and
dumped in jungles.

Photo by Anto Akkara

Following a long-fought campaign, the High Court of Odisha state in eastern India has ensured the disbursal of extra compensation awarded two years ago to dependants of 14 Christians killed in the widespread anti-Christian violence that engulfed Kandhamal district in 2008. In addition, the court has forced the Odisha government . . . Read More

2017 ‘one of the most traumatic years for Indian Christians’

February 19, 2018 India Alphons Kannanthanam, BJP, Chhattisgarh, Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Sangh Parivar, Uttar Pradesh

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

The Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) has described 2017 as “one of the most traumatic” years for Indian Christians in a decade after it recorded 351 verified incidences of hate crimes against Christians during the year. The Religious Liberty Commission of the EFI, which brings together Christians from more than . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye