He was born in the mountains, up in the northern Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir, where the air was then still fresh and the trees were green.

Up there, in the small,
remote village of Ulaytokpo
in Ladakh, Sonam Wangchuk
went to school with other tribal children.

Education was difficult, he recalled, because minorities were discriminated against, and schools were lacking and poorly-equipped.

Teaching standards were abysmal during those days and what was written in textbooks was irrelevant to the lives of mountain people.

“I had a very rough education in the mountains,” Wangchuk told ucanews.com during an interview in Manila. “Not much with what you got from the textbooks made sense,” he said.

He was then too young to understand, but when he got older and was confronted with financial difficulties to continue his own education, he opened his eyes.

“I had to teach other students to support myself,” he said.

“It did not make much sense, even to people in New Delhi, and even in London,” he said with a smile.

He stressed the need for spiritual and religious leaders who should preach about “a new form of non-violence and peace with air, water and all living beings on this planet.”
“We need to update our religion,” Wangchuk told ucanews.com.
“Our religion is somewhat outdated from the time when people were killing with guns and daggers, our leaders are still talking about peace of that kind whereas the current problem is not the peace of guns and daggers,” he said.

Wangchuk said the “main causes of violence and deaths these days are environmental in nature [and] lifestyle related.”

He said he looks forward to “new ways of seeing religion” where Hindus and Muslims, for instance, would not only say that they would not eat this or that kind of meat but would say that “we don’t use plastic bottles, we don’t use cars for no reason, we use public transport, we use steps rather than escalators.”

The Law Commission has suggested certain changes in marriage and
divorce laws that should be uniformly
accepted in the personal laws of all
religions, while holding that the
uniform civil code “is neither necessary
nor desirable at this stage” in the
country. The Commission, headed by
former Supreme Court judge Justice B.S. Chauhan whose tenure ended on August 31, has come out with a 185-page consultation paper on “Family Law Reforms’ said a unified nation does not necessarily need to have “uniformity.”

It said the best way forward was to preserve diversity of personal laws even while ensuring they did not contradict fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

Saying, secularism cannot contradict the plurality prevalent in the country, the Commission said in the paper that: “Cultural diversity cannot be compromised to the extent that our urge for uniformity itself becomes a reason for threat to the territorial integrity of the nation.”

Indian Jesuit Father Stanislaus Lourdusamy says a treason charge linking him with militant Maoists is a fabrication being used to discredit his work for prisoners and tribal people.

The 82-year-old Jesuit, popularly known as Stan Swamy, was charged along with eight other rights activists on Aug. 28 for alleged links to a banned Maoist group in the western State of Maharashtra.

Police have also linked the activists with violence between Dalit and upper-caste Maratha people in the state earlier this year. “It is nothing but a complete concoction and absolute falsehood that is being propagated by Maharashtra police,” Father Swamy said in a Sept. 3 statement.

Father Swamy said he has been convener of an organization called Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee (PPSC) which assists under- trial prisoners.

For a change, a Catholic priest in Kerala chose a mosque to deliver his sermon.

Father Joseph (Sanu) Puthussery on August 31 visited the Juma Masjid at Vechoor in Kottayam district during Jum’ah (Friday prayers) and delivered a thanksgiving speech at the masjid prayer hall.

The Muslims had fed the flood victims who had taken shelter at his church that comes under Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese. St Antony’s Church at Achinakom in Kottayam district had sheltered more than 580 people rendered homeless by unprecedented floods that affected 12 of Kerala’s 14 districts mid August. The church authorities had faced shortage of food and water to feed them.
“I straightaway went to the masjid, appraised the Maulavi about our difficulty and requested his help. After the day’s prayers, Muslim brothers came to the church with a large quantity of food and water as per his direction,” Fr Puthussery told media persons.

The Muslim supplied essential articles to the relief camp at the church for several days. Besides food and water, essential medicines were also brought by the youths attached to the Masjid, Father Puthussery said.