Human rights abuses against India’s social and religious minorities have been on the ascendance since the BJP government came to power.

This grim reality is already being acknowledged within India as well as internationally, says the Alliance for Justice and Accountability (AJA) of the United States.

The AJA report launched in Washington DC came nearly two months after the United States Commission on Inter-national Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) declared that religious freedom in India was at stake.

At the launch of the latest report the panellists such as Jennifer Prestholdt (Deputy Director, The Advocates for Human Rights), veteran journa-list Kannan Srinivasan, and Ajit Sahi (Advocacy Director, Indi-an American Muslim Council) briefed the press.

AJA talks about the inability of Indian government in dealing with the anti-minority violence and said that “government action seem to actually protect the perpetrators.” It said, “The Government of India has not demonstrated a sense of urgency to adequately investigate and effectively prosecute perpetra-tors of human rights violations against members of minority groups,” the report said.

Guwahati: A Darjeeling hills Mukhia tribal scholar presented his doctoral study on the impact of Christianity on his fellow hills tribal commu-nities of Lepcha and Tamang at Assam Don Bosco University Guwahati, 18 May 2017.

The Ph.D. thesis by Assistant Professor at Salesian College Sonada Mr Terence Mukhia is entitled “Impact of Christianity on the Lepcha and Tamang Tribal Communities in the Darjeeling District (1841-2017): A Philosophical Pers-pective.”

The research was under-taken at Assam Don Bosco University under the super-vision of Salesian Father Dr. Mathew George of Kolkata.

The four year long research was funded by Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), New Delhi from where the research scholar, Terence Mukhia, passed Junior Re-search Fellowship (JRF).

The thrust of the thesis says Mukhia, “is on the impact of Christianity on the Lepcha and Tamang tribal communities in the Darjeeling District from a philosophical perspective.”

An era in journa-lism, especially in the Catholic Church, came to an end when Fr George Veliparambil, former Managing Editor of the Kerala Times and president of the Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA), died on May 15.

According to reports and obituary write ups, Father Veliparambil was on the forefront in modernizing Malayalam language and journalistic style of reporting and writing. As Kerala Times Managing Editor, he revived ‘Satya Nadam’ (True Voice), one of the oldest periodicals in Malayalam.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said he will take up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi the issue of kidnapped Kerala Catholic priest Tom Uzhunnallil, who is at an undisclosed location in Yemen. Vijayan was replying in the Kerala Assembly to a motion moved by former State Finance Minister K.M. Mani, who accused the state government of doing nothing to bring back the kidnapped priest.

Pope Francis on May 20 appointed Fr Nazarene Soosai as the new bishop of Kottar diocese that covers the southernmost region of mainland India. The 54-year-old priest replaces Bishop Peter Remigius, who turned 78 on the same day. He did his philosophical and theological studies from Sacred Heart Seminary in Poonamallee, Chennai and was ordained a priest for Kottar on April 2, 1989.

A group of civil society groups has urged the United Nations (UN) to direct the Indian government to protect life, personal security and places of religious worship of Christians in the country.
In 18-page report entitled “Universal Periodic Review India: Minorities on the Margins: Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Christian Community in India” was submitted by Christian Collective (A National Solidarity of the Indian Christian Community for Peace and Harmony) to UN last September.

This report is a joint NGO submission by the Christian Collective (A National Solidarity of the Indian Christian Community for Peace and Harmony), Franciscans International, VIVAT International, Congregations of St. Joseph, Pax Romana, Sisters of Charity Federation, Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries and other partners on the issue of freedom of religion or belief, related to the third cycle of Universal Periodic Review for India, scheduled to take place in April – May 2017.

The Christian Collective represents human rights, civil society and freedom of faith groups represented in India who have endorsed this report. As international partners, Franciscans International, VIVAT International, Congregations of St. Joseph, Pax Romana, Sisters of Charity Federation, Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries as well as other partners have been involved and consulted in the process and provide support and endorsement for the submission. This report is the culmination of consultations held in various parts of the country. This report focuses on the status of freedom of religion or belief with respect to the Christian community in India.

“We have submitted UPR report on Christian collective to UN Geneva. India is coming for review on May 4,” said Ajaya Kumar Singh, human rights activist.

The Christian Collective report was facilitated by Dr. John Dayal, senior journalist and human rights activist, and Singh. The UPR is a unique mechanism of the Human Rights Council (HRC) aimed at improving the human rights situation on the ground of each of the 193 United Nations (UN) Member States

A convenience store owner in Stuart in Florida, who is an Indian Catholic, is back at work after being stabbed in a recent hate crime attack.

Shinoy Maliackel was stabbed by a homeless man on April 19 at the Family Dollar Discount store he runs in Stuart after he came to the defence of a female co-worker who was being harassed.

The attack was caught on surveillance video. When the attacker was caught by deputies a few blocks away he admitted he did it because he doesn’t like Arabs.

However Maliackel is not Arab. He is from India and is a Catholic. Maliackel is glad to be back at work, and says he’s touched by all the support and well-wishes he’s received from people across US, expressing their concern and sorrow over the attack.

“I’m really happy. I was like, I was really overwhelmed by the support,” Maliackel said. He estimates 200-300 people have stopped by, sent cards or letters or messages on Facebook.

“I’m not really angry for what happened to me because that just makes my quality of life go down, if I get angry, mad, hate, those kind of things,” Maliackel said.

It took 12 stitches and 12 staples to close the wound and now Maliackel has a scar on his right arm.

Catholics in Bangalore are all set to accord a formal welcome to the Vatican Ambassador to India Arch-bishop Giambattista Diquattro May 4 on his first visit to the archdiocese of Bangalore.
Abp Diquattro is in Bengaluru to participate in the Standing Committee Meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) at St. John’s Medical College. He will also preside over the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the National Biblical, Catechetical and Liturgical Centre (NBCLC).

On this occasion the Archdiocese of Bangalore has arranged a Pontifical High Mass on May 4 at 6 p.m. at the Infant Jesus Shrine in Viveknagar, which will be presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio. The Cardinals and the Bishop-Members of the CBCI Standing Committee and a large number of Priests, Religious and Devotees of the Infant Jesus will participate in the Mass and the felicitation to be held afterwards.

Student protests continue in the eastern Indian Jharkhand state after the government renamed a college after a Hindu nationalist, a move church activists say was done to dismantle the identity of indigenous people.

The government move was “totally unacceptable and we condemn it,” said Bishop Vincent Barwa of Simdega, chairman of the Indian bishops’ office for tribal people.

The protest began after the government, run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), re-named the state’s pre-mier Ranchi College to Doctor Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University on April 17.

Mukherjee (1901–1953) was a Hindu who founded the nationalist Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951. Mukherjee is considered an ideologue of the pro-Hindu nationalist movement that was a precursor to the BJP.

With BJP in power in New Delhi and most states in northern India, Hindu groups have become emboldened and stepped up their action to establish a Hindu hegemony, ignoring the cultures and well being of tribal and Dalit people among them, their leaders allege.

Bp Barwa said people from elsewhere may not fully grasp the ramifications of the decision and consequences for the life and identify of the state’s tribal communities. The move pushes Hindu hegemony on people, “as they did not even consider changing the name to one of several tribal heroes who sacrificed their lives to protect indigenous land and identity,” said the bishop, who comes from the Oraon tribe.