Indigenous Chri-stians in India’s strife-torn Manipur say they are worried over the state government’s move to deny power, water, and welfare schemes to “un-registered” villages in the hilly north-eastern state.
Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on Oct. 8 instructed the authorities not to provide essential services like water and power and benefits of various government welfare schemes to villages in the hilly districts if they are unregistered. Though Singh did not clarify what he meant by “unregistered villages,” media reports said the chief minister was referring to villages that have emerged in the Kuki-dominated areas since 2006. ”This move is yet another attempt to target indigenous Christians who are mostly from the Kuki-Zo community, living in the state’s five hilly districts,” said a Church leader based in the capital, Imphal. He requested that his name not be revealed for security reasons. Another church leader based in a hilly district said that many people lost their houses and businesses during the ongoing sectarian violence and took shelter in other villages. “A few of them have set up temporary houses in other villages. If the government does not recognize them, it will be like adding insult to injury,” he said on the condition of anonymity. Singh, a leader of the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has repeatedly blamed “illegal migrants” from neighbouring civil war-hit Myanmar for the ongoing violence in the state and accused the Kuki-Zo communities of giving shelter to them. Singh belongs to the majority Meitei community, which is at loggerheads with the predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo tribal people. ”The government decision to disconnect water or electricity supply will lead to further hostilities between the warring groups,” noted the Church leader. He said the Meiteis and the Kuki-Zo communities cannot co-exist anymore.
Among the 3.2 million people in the state, 41 percent are indigenous Kuki_zo people, mostly Christians, and the influential and wealthy Meiteis Hindus who live in the valleys account for 53 percent. Their feud over granting tribal status to the Meitei Hindus to avail reservation benefits under India’s affirmation action policy has seen the death of nearly 230 people and the uprooting of nearly 60,000, most of them Christians. Christians allege that the official tribal status will allow the influential Meitei community to buy land in Indigenous areas in the districts of Senapati, Tamenglong, Churachandpur, Chandel, and Ukhrul. Christians have been seeking the resignation of Singh over his failure to contain the sectarian violence that started on May 3 last year.

India’s premier investigation agency has exonerated a Franciscan nun in a case that accused her of causing a 17-year student’s suicide by attempting to convert her in a southern state. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in its report, ruled out religious conversion as the cause of the January 2022 suicide by the student of Sacred Heart Higher Secon-dary School in Michaelpatti under Kumbakonam Diocese in Tamil Nadu. The federal agency informed the Ma-durai bench of Madras High Court on Sept. 18 that it had interrogated 141 individuals and scanned through some 265 documents in connection with the case. It found no substantiating evi-dence to support the allegation of religious conversion and urged the court to dismiss the charge, it added. The CBI, however, said that the girl may have taken the extreme step as she was made to do domestic chores in the school hostel. The girl’s Hindu parents alleged she was forced to commit suicide after nuns harassed her for not converting to Christianity. Tamil Nadu police disputed this, saying the girl had not made any such revelation either to the police or the magistrate who took her dying statement.

Five people, including a pastor, have been jailed for religious con-version in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Police said Pastor Gerald Massey Mathews of the Dasna Church, and the others were arrested for converting people under the pretext of curing their illnesses and offering their children a quality education. Uttar Pradesh is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which enacted a sweep-ing anti-conversion law in 2020.”
The police arrested Pastor Ma-thews and others on Sept. 23 and kept them in custody for more than 24 hours and on Sept. 25 sent them to jail in Dasna without giving any details,” Christian activist Minakshi Singh told on Sept. 25. “The police have kept us in the dark,” said Singh, general secretary of Unity in Compa-ssion, a charity based in Uttar Pradesh. The Christian lay leader said the sweeping anti-conversion law was enacted by the right-wing government without “proper study.” According to news reports, the complaint against the pastor and the others was filed by Naveen Singh, coordinator of the Dharam Jagaran Samanvay Samiti (Forum for Hindu Awakening).

A tribal body in India’s strife-torn Manipur has announced a four-day travel advisory for Christians, cautioning them against an impending attack by their rival Hindu group. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) on Sept. 24 urged Kuki-Zo tribal Christians in the hilly state in north-eastern India not to venture out of their areas as the Hindu Meitei commu-nity may launch an attack between Sept. 26 and 29. The ITLF has put all village volunteers on high alert, especially in its stronghold in Churachandpur district, where tribal students started a riot 16 months ago. The tribal body also announ-ced the closure of schools, other institu-tions and offices from Sept. 27-29 and a total shutdown on Sept. 28. In a statement on Sept. 24, ITLF said the Manipur gov-ernment recently accumulated highly advanced Medium Machine Gun (MMG) MK 2A1 weapons, and state security advi-sor Kuldiep Singh hinted at an impending “attack” on Sept. 28. “Previously, an assault on Kuki-Zo occurred shortly after the Manipur government issued a warning of an attack by 200 Kuki militants,” it noted. “This is their strategy to target us. They use the media to blame the Kuki-Zo for everything and Meitei militants attack us,” a Church leader who did not want to be named told on Sept. 25.
He said if the government has infor-mation about an impending attack by Kuki militants why not check them. “This announcement is a smokescreen to target us,” he added. We need to be cautious as the state government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party is backing the Meiteis. “Mani-pur Chief Minister N Biren Singh is a Meitei himself,” added the Church leader. Singh has accused Christians of a role in the narcotic trade because many among them have ethnic and family ties in neighbouring Myanmar.

A convention of psychologists has stressed the need for mental health workers caring for themselves while attending to other people’s mental health. As many as 75 Catholic psychologists from 12 Indian states attended the 25th annual convention of the Conference of Catholic Psychologists of India (CCPI) in Kolkata. Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Kolkata presided over the opening of the September 20-22 convention at Seva Kendra that explored the theme, “Fostering Wellness – Innovative Approaches to Therapist Self-Care and Client Engagement.” Christian Brother Sunil Britto, the conference coordinator who introduced the theme: “Self-Compassion for Our Self-Care,” asked the participants to reflect on how they care for themselves while attending to the needs of their clients. Priya Puri, chief Clinical Psychologist and founder of “The Healing Space,” addressed the opening session on “The Therapist Dilemma.” She addressed the tension of being fully present for others while balancing one’s own needs. Shatabhisha Chatterjee, consultant Clinical Psychologist attached to Mental Health Foundation Kolkata who addressed trauma-informed care, introduced the therapists to Internal Family Systems theory, encouraging them to heal from vicarious trauma.

Three Nepali nationals and two Indians have been arrested by police in the northern Indian border state of Uttar Pradesh for allegedly luring a “rat-eat-ing,” socially backward and marginalized community to embrace Christianity.
Police raided a Sunday prayer service in Bhedihari, a village on the Indian-Nepalese border and arrested Bhim Ba-hadur Gurung, his wife, Vishnu Gaya Devi, and Meena Ksha-triya, all Nepali citizens, and local residents Mangal and Ja-garnath on Sept. 22. According to news reports, Christian orga-nizations involved in religious conversion are active in the Musahar settlement area in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous and largest state. According to India’s national human rights commission, the Musahars, a declared schedu-led caste of Dalits (former untouchables) under the Indian constitution, are living in the northern Indian states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. They are reported to be the poorest among the Dalits. Musahar means “rat eater” in the Bhojpuri lang-uage, spoken in Bihar where they constitute 2.2 million of the state’s 104 million people. “We came to know about it through news reports and local sources. The matter is under investigation. Hence, it is too early to say anything,” said Pastor Jiya Lal, based in Sul-tanpur district in Uttar Pradesh. In February, the police arrested four Christians from the same locality, Lal added. “However, we have no updates in that case,” the pastor told.
on Sept. 23.
Religious conversion is banned in Uttar Pradesh, where Christians constitute a mere 0.18 percent of its 200 million people. Ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2017, the Hindu-majority state enacted the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act in 2020 introduced by monk-turned-politician Yogi Adithyanad’s government. His right-wing government amended the draconian law in July this year which was passed by the state assembly in August. Under the amended legislation anyone will be able to file a police complaint, unlike before when only conversion victims, their parents and other close blood relatives could do so. Penalties will also get tougher with life imprisonment now a possibility in cases of forced conversions. The law will come into force once the state governor Anandiben Patel gives her nod, which is just a formality. “Since the [original] anti-conversion bill was passed in 2020, violence against the Christians has increased,” Uttar Pradesh-based Pastor Dinesh Kumar told UCA News on Sept. 23. Often allegations of religious conversion against Christians have proved false, he said. The BJP and its parent paramilitary outfit the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are against missionary activities of the Indian Church among India’s Dalits and indigenous people who are currently grouped under Hinduism. Dalits and indigenous people make up more than 25 percent of the South Asian nation’s mammoth 1.4 billion people. Uttar Pradesh ranks second among states with regard to anti-Christian violence, according to the United Christian Forum, an ecumenical group based in New Delhi

The top court of a central Indian state has quashed a cri-minal case of child trafficking against a Protestant leader, say-ing it was ill-intended and meant to damage his image. The Jabalpur bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court “quashed the false case on Sept. 23,” said Shashank Shekhar, a lawyer representing Ajay Lall, founder of the Central India Christian Mission. The high court noted that the case against “the petitioner is sugar-coated with ill-intention and made to belittle his image in the soci-ety,” Shekhar told. Police in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district charged Lall in August with committing various offen-ses under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Child-ren) Act. Lall was accused of not sharing details of two children who stayed at his orphanage 15 years ago, which led to the registration of a case of child trafficking. The bench of Justice Sanjay Dwivedi sla-mmed the police for registering the false case. He said the action was initiated against Lall without a complaint or obje-ction from any children or their parents. The high court also noted the arbitrary role played by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), a statutory federal body to protect the rights of children. “A well-orchestrated campaign and negative media coverage was carried out to malign the image of an insti-tution that extends a helping hand to poor children,” said Daniel John, a Catholic leader based in the state capital Bho-pal.

Catholic women religious in India have enhanced their youth ministry, with the aim to bring young people closer to the church and their traditions. “This involves not only working on their faith formation, skills training or academic excellence, but [also] understanding and accepting them as they are with their dreams, weaknesses and strengths,” said Apostolic Carmel Sister Maria Nirmalini, who heads the women’s wing of the Conference of Religious India. Young people in India, she told Global Sisters Report, are losing their trust in an adult-dominated world and migrate to foreign countries in large numbers for freedom and growth, leaving their parents and their Christian heritage. Youth distancing from the church was first studied by the National Youth Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of India in 2012, which found that church attendance had dropped during the teen and young adult years: Only 29 percent of youths continued attending church frequently while in college, and 40-50 percent of students in youth groups reportedly struggle in their faith after graduation. “It is high time we recognized this dangerous trend and be with the youth,” said Sister Nirmalini, who led the Conference of Religious India until May. “Youth are not going away from the church, but the church is moving away from them,” added the nun, who has spent decades as an educator. The women religious’ youth ministry received a boost in May at the conference’s triennial national assembly, which voiced concern over Catholic youths’ distancing from the church, as well as their mass migration. (According to the 2023 Indian Student Mobility Report, about 1.3 million students from India went overseas for studies in 2022, and the report’s authors predict that about 2 million students from India will be studying abroad by 2025.)

Gorakhpur diocese in Uttar Pradesh state has been asked to pay for ‘encroaching’ on land it took on lease from govt.
An Indian diocese has decided to appeal against a court order to pay compensation to a villager for occu-pying his land in a northern state.
The Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh on Sept. 10 asked the Gorakhpur diocese to pay along with the state government a compensa- tion of 1 million Indian rupees (US$11,910) to Bhola, the land owner who was identified by a single name.
“We are going to challenge the high court order in the Supreme Court [the top court in the country] as we do not agree with its findings that the diocese illegally encroached upon the land,” said Gorakhpur diocese spokes-person Father Justin Cheruparambil.

A ban imposed after protest by women and students from the Meitei Hindu community turned violent on Sept. 9
A five-day ban on internet services came into force on Sept. 10. in India’s Manipur state where tribal Christians and majority Hindus have been fighting for over 16 months.
The “temporary suspension” started on Sept. 10 at 3 p.m. and will end on Sept. 15 at 3 p.m., said the state government led by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On Sept. 9, women and students from the Meitei Hindu community held a protest in the capital Imphal, which turned violent. The protesters wanted removal of top police officers and resignation of lawmakers for their failure to end the ethnic strife that claimed over 220 lives.