The chief minister and oth-ers in Tripura have applauded a Salesian school in a village in the northeastern Indian state after its girls’ band, formed less than a year ago, made history at national level.
The Girls Brass Band of St Xavier’s Pathaliaghat clinched third place at the National School Band Competition held in New Delhi, January 21-22.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, on his Facebook page, congratulated the band for the achievement. The school, located 36 km south of the state capital of Agartala, set up the band only in April 2023.
The band’s rise to fame “is an incredible story of hard work, discipline, tenacity, and grit,” says principal Salesian Father Babu Stephen.
The band consists of 25 girl students, aged between 11 and 16 and studying in grades 6-8.
Father Stephen confirmed that the students were all “ab-solute beginners, totally new to playing music” before the school launched the brass sand. He said it felt “surreal that even before completing a year of existence, the band has already made a mark at the district, state, zonal, and natio-nal levels.”
To reach the national level competitions the team had to win three earlier stages: the district, the state and the zonal stage. At the zonal stage of the competition, held in Bhubanes-war on December 22.
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Indian court wades into inter-faith marriage issue
Religious conversion for marriage must be done only after fully knowing the rituals and customs of the chosen faith, an Indian court has said amid controversies surrounding inter-faith marriages in the South Asian nation.
People who convert to marry should be fully aware of “the consequences of such actions,” A.C Michael, a former member of the state-run Delhi Minority Commission, told on Jan. 23, while reacting to the order by the Delhi High Court in India’s national capital.
High Court judge, Swarana Kanta Sharma, cautioned agai-nst religious conversion for the purpose of marriage on Jan. 19.
It is important to inform the individual with exhaustive infor-mation concerning “doctrines, customs, and practices asso-ciated with the chosen faith,” Sharma observed.
Eleven Indian states, most of them ruled by Modi’s party, have enacted a sweeping anti-conversion law, criminalizing religious conversion with a jail term of up to 10 years.
Petitions are pending in the Supreme Court challenging these anti-conversion laws.
Leading states like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have criminalized inter-faith marri-ages, especially between Hindu girls with Christian and Muslim boys.
Modi’s party calls Muslim youths marrying Hindu girls “Love Jihad”.
Tribal Christians under pressure to renounce faith in Indian state
A Catholic archbishop in the central Indian Chhattisgarh state has urged his Catholics to remain united in their faith amid claims by a Hindu group of having converted about 250 Christian families to the Hindu religion.
Archbishop Victor Henry Thakur of Raipur told UCA News on Jan 29 that “it is time we should be united and firm in our faith as there will be attempts to divide people in the name of religion, caste and creed.”
A group of some 1,000 people from 251 families, two of them Muslim and the rest Christian, were welcomed into the Hindu religion, reported Organiser, a mouthpiece of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an umbrella forum of pro-Hindu groups.
The conversion ritual involves washing feet with water from the river Ganges. It was reportedly held on Jan. 27 in Raipur, the state capital, in the presence of Pandit Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, a Hindu seer, and Prabal Pratap Singh Judev, state secretary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“Hindus who had once come under some pressure or greed, and joined other religions or sects… They are now coming back to the Sanatan Dharma [eternal religion],” Judev said.
Judev claimed that “large-scale conversions to Christianity have taken place in Chhattisgarh” and so “the Ghar Wapsi [homecoming] campaign will go forward with all might.”
The homecoming is a nationwide campaign initiated by hardline Hindu groups aligned with the BJP and its ideological parent RSS three decades ago. It aims to convert Christians and Muslims to the Hindu religion, claiming Hinduism is the common home and original religion of all Indians.
Though Christians comprise less than 2 percent of Chhattisgarh’s 30 million population, the Hindu groups claim the actual number is much higher.
Mangaluru’s renowned psychologist awarded Person of Year title
Suman Pinto, an addiction counsellor with nearly three decades of service, was awarded the “Person of the Year, 2023” by the Link Association.
The association, a pioneering group in addiction recovery services in coastal Karnataka, has instituted the award in collaboration with Ecolink Institute of Well-being, global trainers of addiction professionals.
The award was given at a function on January 13 during the association’s annual assembly.
Suman, who did her Masters in Social Work from Roshni Nilaya in 1995, currently works as the director of the addiction treatment center at Dr. Tunga’s Manaswini Hospital, Arkula on the outskirts of Mangaluru.
She started her career as a counselor in addiction recovery at Link Integrated rehabilitation center, who went on to serve in other prestigious institutions in Mangaluru under renowned psychiatrists in Father Mullers hospital, K S Hegde Medical Academy and Prajna Counselling Centre.
With her nearly three decades of experience in addiction therapy and as a counsellor in K S Hegde Medical Academy, Suman has played significant roles in developing the addiction treatment program at the medical college and served the community-based deaddiction camps by the Dharmasthala for over a decade.
Ayodhya’s day: the bishop of Lucknow hopes it will inspire ‘brotherhood’, not political confrontation
India today saw the consecration of the Ram Mandir, the monumental temple in Ayodhya desired by Hindu nationalists at the site where, according to Hindu tradition, the god Ram was born.
“The consecration and inauguration of Ram Temple in Ayodhya is a matter of joy for millions of Ram bhaktas or devotees of Lord Ram,” said Bishop Gerald Mathias of Lucknow, a large city in Uttar Pradesh, speaking to AsiaNews about the event.
“I wish and pray that this ceremony and inauguration will also inaugurate the Ram Rajya that Mahatma Gandhi dreamt of for our beloved country. Ram Rajya or the Kingdom of God is characterised by the divine and human values of justice, peace, love, brotherhood, tolerance, and religious harmony.
The solemn ceremony, which represents a personal triumph for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, comes at the end of the long controversy with Muslims whose Babri mosque stood at the same site, but was razed to the ground by Hindu fundamentalists in 1992 in an event that triggered a spiral of communal violence that cost thousands of deaths.
It was designed to accommodate up to a million people at any one time, with the ambition of exceeding the number of visitors who travel to the Vatican and Makkah every year.
Christians need to rethink mission in ‘new India’
The Ram temple that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated this week is a mile-stone in assessing how his lea-dership is changing India’s con-cept of secularism and democracy with far-reaching implications for its religious minorities, particu-larly Muslims and Christians.
When Modi became prime minister for the first time, leading his pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a landslide victory in the 2014 parliamentary elect-ions, he was just a chief minister of Gujarat state, one of 28 Indian states.
The victory was powered by the groundwork done for decades by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is an umbrella forum of Hindu organizations that work to make India a nation of Hindu hegemony.
Since 2014, Modi’s BJP and the RSS have been working with-out losing sight of their prime objective – making India a Hindu nation.
Many believed a second term for the BJP in 2019 after winning more seats in parliament would lead to changing certain features of India’s secular constitution in the push for a Hindu nation. But the Modi administration showed no rush to do that.
“As prime minister, he does not need to change the written constitution as his political oppo-nents keep saying. Looking at it carefully, you will realize Modi has effectively reshaped the coun-try with his governance strategies already,” according to Assam-based social scientist Ashutosh Talukdar.
Mangaluru’s St Aloysius College becomes deemed university
Jesuit managed St. Aloysius College, Mangaluru has received the status of ‘Deemed to be Uni-versity,’, approved by the Univer-sity Grants Commission and the federal Ministry of Education.
“This status gives us several opportunities to further improve the education mission with exce-llence and commitment,” rector Jesuit Father Melwyn Pinto told Matters India.
“This is a unique opportunity to serve the cause of higher edu-cation, including designing sy-llabus, conducting examinations and issuing certificates indepe-ndently,” said the rector, adding they have further plans to expand the college campus and start new courses.
Established in 1880 the college has been a premier higher edu-cational institution in coastal Karnataka with several distinctive achievements. The college was elevated to the autonomous status in 2007 allowing it to make na-tional and global presence.
The UGC and the Ministry of Education granted the university status to the college after studying its proposal on various paramet-ers like physical and digital infra-structure, curricular design, re-search and innovation, graduate outcomes, student attainment le-vels, placements, vision and mi-ssion of the institution and its impact on society.
Earlier, the college was re-peatedly given accreditations by National Assessment and Accre-ditation Council (NAAC) and Na-tional Institutional Ranking Fra-mework (NIRF) and other distin-ctive rankings, Father D’Souza said.
Catholics request security after Hindu radicals assault churches in central India
In the wake of anti-Christian assaults by Hindu activists in central India, which featured the placement of saffron flags on the rooftops of four Protestant churches, local Catholic leaders are calling for increased security ahead of the installation of a new bishop for the local diocese.
The incidents occurred Jan. 21 following Sunday services in the four churches in the Jhabua district of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. According to local media reports, the Hindu militants were celebrating the Jan. 22 consecration of a new temple to the Lord Ram in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh state on a site believed to be the Hindu deity’s birthplace.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who attended the consecration ceremony, has touted the massive new temple as the cornerstone of a Hindu nationalist renaissance in India.
According to local sources, activists energized on the eve of the consecration ceremony climbed on top of the four churches and prayer halls in Jhabua, shouting Jai Shri Ram (“Hail Lord Ram”), a frequent battle cry of Hindu nationalists, and planted saffron flags on the roofs.
Saffron is the color symbolically associated with Hindu identity in India, and some analysts have described the rise to power of right-wing Hindu nationalism under Modi as representing the “saffronization” of India’s democracy.
Three of the churches involved were Pentecostal prayer halls managed by the Shalom Church, while the fourth was part of the Church of South India, one of the country’s largest Protestant denominations. Visuals of the incident showed a group of youths standing on top of a prayer hall, one of them tying a saffron flag with Lord Ram’s image to the holy cross on the building.
Pastor Kidar Singh of the Church of South India told Crux that around 4:00 p.m. on Jan. 21, over 50 right-wing activists gathered near his house, waiving saffron flags and shouting slogans near the church compound.
“They were chanting slogans, such as Ek hi Rashtra, ek hi Ram (‘only one nation, only one Ram’),” he said.
Pilgrimage Street resonates early days of Christianity in Korea
The Sea Link Road in Gaehangjang of Incheon has earned fame as a “Historical and Cultural Pilgrimage Road” thanks to a series of century-old heritage sites related to the early days of Christianity in Korea.
All year round, pilgrims and tourists from home and abroad flock to the street to visit the monuments, including the site where the first Catholic missionary nuns arrived in 1885, Korea’s first Anglican cathedral and the Methodist Church, and Incheon’s first Catholic cathedral known as Dapdong Cathedral.
During the Christian Unity Octave from Jan. 18-25, when Christians across the globe pray for the unity of all Christians, many people throng to the street to visit the churches and other historical Christian sites.
A monument dedicated to four missionary nuns (two French and two Chinese) from the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres congregation stands in front of Incheon Central Police Station.
The nuns arrived in Incheon on July 22, 1888, five years after the opening of Jemulpo Port. Their arrival marked a new beginning for Catholic religious life when Korea was under the rule of the long-reigning Joseon dynasty (1392-1910).
The site is home to a bronze sculpture by famed Korean sculptor Joseph Choi Jong-tae depicting the missionary nuns disembarking from a ship. A prayer: “For the greater glory of God” is also engraved on it, recalling a note from the travel diary of one of the pioneering nuns, Sister Zacharias.
Some 200 meters from the nuns’ monument stands the Korean Christianity 100th Anniversary Memorial Tower, which commemorates the missionary spirit of the Protestant missionaries who first set foot in Incheon in 1885.
The church was rebuilt in 1985, on the 100th anniversary of its founding.
At the entrance to the church are busts of Appenzeller, the second pastor, George H. Jones, and Reverend Kim Ki-beom, the first pastor not only in the Korean Methodist Church but also in the Korean Protestant Church. A restored building of the Jemulpo Wesleyan Chapel, Incheon’s first Western-style Protestant chapel, is also located next to the church.
Myanmar soldiers flee to India after rebel gains
Nearly 300 Myanmar soldiers crossed the border into India to flee an advance by armed insurgents fighting the country’s junta, an Indian paramilitary officer told AFP on January 20 .
Clashes have rocked parts of Myanmar near the Indian border since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked security forces in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since a 2021 military coup.
This week, the group said it had taken over the major town of Paletwa and six military bases along the border of India’s Mizoram state, where the soldiers had crossed on Wednesday.
A total of 276 troops carrying their arms and ammunition arrived at Bondukbangsora village, an officer from the Assam Rifles paramilitary force, who declined to give a name, told AFP.
“We have given them shelter at our camp,” he said, adding that the arriving soldiers were “given all the support they require”.
The officer said that his unit was collecting biometric data from the soldiers and had sought approval from the defence ministry in New Delhi to return them to Myanmar.
Hundreds of other Myanmar troops have fled to India to escape fighting since the ceasefire ended in November, according to local media reports.
Two Myanmar military aircraft arrived in Aizawl, the Mizoram state capital, to collect and repatriate soldiers who retreated from the conflict.
In October, an alliance of the AA and two other ethnic minority armed groups launched a joint offensive across Myanmar’s northern Shan state, capturing towns and seizing vital trade hubs on the China border.