Category: From The States

There is a need for Christians to close ranks with the protesting farmers who are fighting for justice, says Father Y.T. Vinayaraj, theologian, writer and chief editor of the Malankara Sabha Tharaka, the organ of the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church head- quartered in Thiruvalla.
“The Christian faith is essentially anti-imperialist and the Church is duty-bound to join forces with people’s resistance movements,” says Dr Vinayaraj, who took to Face-book the other day to make a fervent appeal for support to the farmers.
According to him, the Centre is colluding with neo-liberal capitalist forces to divest the farmers and other ordinary people of their rightful share of resources. “This government relies on religious nationalism to gain political legitimacy and deals with an iron hand democratic protests seeking justice. We have had so many instances of this: the attack on Jawaharlal Nehru University, the anti-CAA [Citizenship (Amendment) Act] protests, the justice for Rohit Vemula movement and now the farmers’ agitation. It is time subaltern and democratic forces came together to offer resista-nce,” Dr Vinayaraj, who also teaches at the Mar Thoma seminary told.
He feels let down by the leaders of a section of the Catholic Church who he thinks “are only trying to push their vested interests by joining hands with the undemocratic forces.”
“What are they trying to strike a deal for? Mere representation in minority forums or for some personal gains? When asked if they discussed the farmers’ protest during their meeting with the Prime Minister, one bishop said they had not discussed any political issue. But isn’t solidarity with the suffering and the deprived classes, the Dalits, at the heart of Christianity? It is a fake religiosity without that,” argues Dr Vinayaraj, who wants the Church to be a reformist force.
Images of the exodus of migrants, the protesting farmers, imprisonment of human rights activists, persecution of women, Dalits and sexual minorities and a government that was increasingly becoming authoritarian were all invoked by the editorial of the Mar Thoma Church organ in its December 2020 issue, ask-ing what these signs portended for the Church.

Dalit Christians in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu held a protest march in Kumbakonam Diocese against the discrimination faced by Dalits.
The protesters from eight Dalit Christian groups marched on Feb. 6 to submit a memorandum to the bishop and other diocesan officials stating their demand for a Dalit bishop in the diocese.

The wealthy in India grew richer during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, while millions went to bed without food, says the latest Oxfam International report.
The annual report, published just ahead of last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, noted that Indian billionaires increased their wealth by 35 percent in 2020 when the world struggled against the pandemic.
During 2020 wealth increased globally to make the world’s billionaire elite richer, said Oxfam, a confederation of 20 independent charitable organizations based in Oxford, England.

The Madras High Court has directed the Registrar of Companies to inquire into allegations of misuse of the assets of the Church of South India (CSI) Trust Association that has properties worth several trillions of rupees across southern India.
In his order, Justice R Mahadevan directed the registrar to conduct the inquiry strictly in accordance with law by giving the church association an opportunity to be heard between February 17 and 22. The Court also asked the registrar to file a detailed report with the federal Ministry of Corporate Affairs for deciding further course of action in two weeks.

A nationwide law to ban religious con-versions or interfaith marriages is not being planned since it falls under the dominion of states, the central government said in parliament on February 2.
The assurance came amid a renewed drive for such legislation in several states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), that heads the federal coalition government.

Three Indian cardinals on January 19 met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested him to invite Pope Francis to the country.
Talking to reporters after the meeting in Delhi, the cardinals said the prime minister agreed to their request and promised to take a decision soon.
The cardinals are Oswald Gracias, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Confer-ence of India, George Alencherry, the head of the Syro-Malabar Church, and Syro-Malankara Church leader Baselios Cleemis.
The meeting was part of the prime minister’s interaction with heads of various church, initiated by Mizoram Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai, a native of Kerala where assembly elections are due this year.
Cardinals said they have been asking for an invite to the Pope for quite some time and expressed the hope that it would be realized soon. In 2018 there was a growing demand for the Pope to be invited to the country when he visited two Asian neighbors, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Pope Francis had expressed a desire to visit India during his flight back from a trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan on Oct 2, 2016. He said he would “almost certainly” visit India and Bangladesh in 2017.
On February 7, 2017, three Indian cardinals, including Cardinal Gracias, had met Modi in New Delhi, to discuss the possibility of a papal visit. A bishops’ press release following the meeting said, “The government holds a favorable attitude toward the Pope’s visit to India.”
However, despite efforts by the bishops, the 2017 visit never materialized because of foot-dragging by the federal government led by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“It is overdue. We expect a decision from the PM soon,” said Cardinal Alencherry after the latest meeting with Modi.
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A Christian group in India’s Kerala state has called for promoting non-halal meat among community members rather than the halal meat popular among the Muslim community.
The Christian League is planning to create awareness among Christians about the meat they consume and wants shops to specify what sort of meat they are selling to ensure that Christians get non-halal meat.
“Christians should know what meat are they eating,” said Murphy Thomas, chairman of the inter-denominational league, which claims to address issues concerning the Christian community in the southern state.
“We know many Christians eat halal meat, which has religious importance to Muslims, and therefore we want Christians to avoid it and be aware of shops that sell non-halal meat,” Thomas told on Jan. 13.

The National Kamadhenu Commission (Rastriya Kamdhenu Aayog, RKA), which is responsible for the welfare of the sacred cow and its use for human benefit, issued a syllabus claiming that “Jesus Christ said that killing a cow is like killing a human being.”
The online syllabus is part of a plan the RKA to set up an online exam, to be launched on 25 February, centred on the cow with all sorts of information about the animal. The syllabus contains questions and answers, comments and explanations to help people prepare for the exam.
RKA chairman Vallabhbhai Kathiria explained that the exam is aimed mainly at students, and serves to spark curiosity about the importance of cattle, “raise awareness and educate” on the species’ traits, and learn about “cow science,” which can support the Indian economy, given the size of the stock: 194 million heads.
One section of the syllabus is titled “What famous people said about the cow.” One of the quotes, the one cited above, is attributed to Jesus Christ.
For Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) president Sajan K George, the quote is a “half truth” and “a propaganda operation to pola-rise society along ethno-religious lines.”
The Jesus quote is not only false (no source is mentioned in the syllabus), but dangerous. “Tribal Christians have been lynched for skinning dead cows,” he explained.
What is more, “cow vigilantes” have targeted Muslims, tribal people and Dalits. “Any-one who eats beef could be crushed by anti-slaughter laws.”

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, has joined calls for the government of India to release Father Stan Swamy. The 83-year-old Indian Jesuit priest and social activist has been imprisoned since October 9, 2020, on unfounded charges of sedition and terrorism.
In an open letter published on India’s Republic Day, January 26, the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, and Father Damian Howard, provincial of the Jesuits in Britain, urge Indian authorities to grant bail to Father Stan Swamy, on humanitarian grounds.
They make this plea, “so that he can receive the medical attention he needs and challenge the manifestly unjust charges brought against him.”

An annual report by the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), a Protestant organization, recorded 327 violent attacks on Christians in 2020.
The report said the targeted attacks included five murders, 26 incidents of social boy-cotting and six incidents of churches being destroyed or burned.
“The incidents recorded are by no means an exhaustive list as many remain unreported and unrecorded even in normal years because of the fear of further atrocities,” Rev. Vijayesh Lal, EFI general secretary, said in the report published on Jan. 14.
“Christians, especially pastors in rural areas, were victims of violence and had their congregational prayers disturbed and places of worship attacked. Political excoriation, police impunity and vigilante groups on their trail marked the experience of many Christian communities in several parts of the country at the height of the Covid-19 spread.”