Yet another Indian state has announced plans to enact a draconian anti-conversion law, which is often used to harass Christians in the country. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the north-we-stern state of Rajasthan dis-closed its intent to curb religious conversions in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the country’s top court, on June 18. The affidavit was filed in response to a public interest litigation by Delhi-based lawyer and BJP Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking stringent steps by federal and state governments to control fraudulent religious conversions, which he called “a nationwide problem.”
The petition alleged the involvement of Christians in fraudulent religious conversion. Eleven Indian states, most of them ruled by the BJP, have enacted the draconian law, ironically named as freedom of religious acts. But Rajasthan “lacks a specific legislation” to curb conversions, according to the affidavit filed by the state government. After defeating the secular Congress party, the BJP formed a government in Rajas-than in December last year. “There is no doubt enactment of an anti-conversion law will make Christians vulnerable to hardline Hindu groups,” said a Catholic priest based in Rajasthan. According to Christian leaders, Hindu nationalist groups and activists may misuse the anti-conversion law to target them with impunity. “Laws are made when there is a need for them. But in this case, there is no such need,” said A.C. Michael, a Catholic leader based in Delhi. Michael, a former member of the Delhi state minority commission, said that the proposed law “will only make the life of Christians difficult.” Christians face severe atrocities in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, ruled by the BJP. The draconian anti-conversion law was first enforced as an ordinance in 2020 and adopted by the state assembly the following year as the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act 2021. Since the implementation of the law, close to 400 Christians, including Catholic priests and pastors, have been jailed in the state under the sweeping law. “We cannot rule out a similar situation in our state,” said a priest attached to the Udainagar diocese in Rajasthan. India’s top court is hearing public interest petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the anti-conversion laws passed by the states.

Neighbours of Shanti Bhavan (home of peace), a Missionaries of Charity centre in Kerala’s Kottayam town, have expressed surprise at the closure of the centre that had served the poor and destitute for half a century. The centre, opened by Mother Teresa in 1974, was closed June 21.
“We do not know why they closed and left the place,” said Jolly Varghese, a social worker in Kottayam. “Before they left, the sisters transformed their 55 inmates to other centers,” the Catholic layman told Matters India June 23. He said he knew the nuns for 45 years. “I was born and brought up in Kottayam town and have seen them coming to our colonies for charitable works. They wiped the tears of the poor, giving them food and medicine,” Varghese recalled. He said people used to bring people they found lying helpless on the street to the nuns. “The sisters welcomed them with love. We have brought many destitute people here,” he add-ed. He said he was shocked to see the centre’s gate closed when he was “passing by un-expectedly this way. It breaks my heart.” He said the neighbours would have stopped the closure if they were informed early.
His wife Nimmy said they had experienced the nuns’ kindness many times. ”Once we were going to the church in an auto with our two children, when we found a man on the street in a very bad shape. We took him to Shanti Bhavan and requested the sisters to attend to him. They gladly offered to help, and after the Mass we took him to another centre. There are several cases when sisters cooperated with us,” she added. The nuns have apparently given the keys of the centre to the diocese of Vijayapuram.

Catholic parents of some intellectually disabled children in Bengaluru got a boost with the Claretians offering support to an exclusive housing project for their community living. “Since four years, we have been dreaming of this project as we were really worried about our disabled children’s future after our death,” Merly Thomas, one of the parents, told a June 23 meeting at Claretian Seminary in the southern Indian city. Merly, a member of the Bangalore Archdiocesan commission for differently abled, says the Claretian support now helps them build the common living facility where children with intellectual disabilities and their parents can live with dignity. Claretian Father George Kannanthanam, who brought his congregation to the project, says he had seen parents of many differently able children worried about what would happen to their children when they are no more. The priest impressed upon his provincial to allot two acres of land for such families at Gauribidanur, on the outskirts of Bengaluru city. Kannanthanam, who had earlier served as the first secretary to the Bangalore diocesan commission for the disabled, said the Hope Society that functions under the Claretians will give wings to the project. The Archdiocese of Bangalore was first in India to set up a commission to ensure better participation of persons with disabilities in the life of the Church, he recalled.

Sister Ardra Kuzhinapurathu is the first woman to head the major superiors of Kerala, the southern Indian state that has produced the largest number of Catholic religious men and women in the country. She became the president on June 7, 2023, at a joint meeting of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council and the religious superiors. The Kerala unit is part of the Conference of Religious India, the national association of the major superiors, with more than 130,000 members, among them 103,000 women. Sister Kuzhinapurathu spoke to Global Sisters Report about various challenges faced by the religious congregations in India – dwindling vocations, aging members and the culture of working together.

Prasad James cannot hear the roar of the sea, but can paint the beauty of the waves. “I have painted the charming Karwar beach, its waves, fishermen with their boats, tourists, and the beautiful sunset,” James told Global Sisters Report in sign language, translated by his teacher, as he showed his works. The sixth grader is among 48 children currently studying in Asha Niketan (House of Hope) Deaf School, a residential school for children who cannot hear or speak managed by the Sisters of the St. Joseph of Chambery, a French congregation, for the Karwar Diocesan Development Council. The center, founded in 1996 near a beach in Karwar on the Goa-Karnataka border, is the first Church-managed school for children with hearing impairments in Karnataka state’s northern region. It now caters even to villagers of Maharashtra, Karnataka’s northern neighbor. “Children seem to enjoy their silent world, but we really struggle to get into that world,” said Sister Tresa Irudayasamy, one of three nuns who live on campus and teach the stu-dents in sign language. The nun, who’s been the hostel warden for four years, has built a good rapport with the children, but said she still struggles in the classroom to teach them. “We use our universal language of love and care mostly, and it works better than our sign language,” she told GSR with a smile.

Indian Cardinal Anthony Poola has pledged the Christian com-munity’s support for the new government in southern Andhra Pradesh state that unseated a Christian-led government in the recently concluded polls.
N. Chandrababu Naidu was sworn in as state chief minister on June 12 for the fourth time. He heads a coalition government com-prising his Telugu Desam Party (TDP), regional Jana Sena party, and the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In a letter to the new chief minister, Cardinal Poola assured “support of the Catholic Church and the Christian com-munity” to make the state “inclusive and sustainable.” The 62-year-old cardinal, archbishop of Hyderabad in the neighboring Telangana state, also promised “prayers for prosperity, peace and harmony in Andhra Pradesh.” He was made a cardinal in 2022. His Telangana state was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. The cardinal heads the regional Telugu Catholic Bishops’ Council, which includes all the Catholic bishops of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Telugu is the official language of both the states.
“We hope the alliance partners will keep a check on the BJP,” said Father Anthony Thumma, advisor to the Telugu Federation of Churches. Nadu’s alliance came to power after defeating the YSR Congress, a regional party headed by Jagan Mohan Reddy, a Church of South India member. He led the state government for five years and kept friendly terms with the BJP. Both Naidu and Reddy “always worked for the welfare of the people, especially for minorities in the state,” said Fr Thumma, also secretary of the Indian bishops’ Office of Dialogue and Ecumenism.

The top court in southern Indian Kerala state has asked its communist-led government to remove illegal religious structures on public land. The Kerala High Court’s order “will have a widespread implication if implemented in letter and spirit,” said a Church leader who did not want to be named. He told that the forceful removal of illegal religious structures might lead to opposition. Encroachment on government land is prohibited under the Kerala Land Conservation Act. However, religious structures, including Christian crosses, can be seen across public lands in Kerala. “Nowadays, it is a trend to erect stones or crosses in public places and thereafter to start worshipping these stones and crosses with religious col-or,” said Justice P V Kunhikrishnan of the Kerala High Court. People need not encroach upon government land “to construct religious structures,” Justice Kunhikrishnan told the Kerala government, led by the Communist Party of India, in his May 27 order. Justice Kunhikrishnan has directed the state government to set a deadline for executing the order to re-move illegal structures from public land.

Christian leaders have urged India’s newly sworn coalition government to change the leadership in strife-torn Manipur where ongoing sectarian violence since May 3 last year has claimed around 220 lives and displaced over 50,000, mostly tribal Christian people. Their appeal came in reaction to the call by chief of the parent organization of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to find a solution to the escalating violence in the remote northeastern state. A C Micha-el, a New Delhi-based Catholic leader, said Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayam-sevak Sangh (RSS or national volunteers’ group), holds considerable influence over the ruling BJP. Bhagwat addressed a gathering in Nagpur city, the RSS headquarters, on June 10 and said, “It is important to re-solve the conflict as a priority.” Michael said, “Merely saying so is not enough.” The Christian leader said Bhagwat should take steps to remove federal Home Minister Amit Shah and Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh from their offices. “They [Shah and Singh] are responsible for the current plight of the people of Manipur. If they continue to be at the helm of affairs, no justice could be expected for the suffering people,” Michael added. Tribal Christians and majority Meitei Hindus in Manipur have been fighting since May 3 last year over granting tribal status to the Meiteis to avail educational and job benefits under India’s affirmative action program.

The Christian community in an eastern Indian state has taken a cautious “wait and watch” approach after the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a landslide in the state, where anti-Christian violence claimed around 100 lives over 15 years ago.
The BJP pulled off a stunning victory in the just concluded Odisha state elections. It defeated the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), a secular regional party that ruled the state uninterruptedly for 24 years. The BJP won 78 seats in the 147-member Odisha State Assembly and se-cured 20 of the 21 parliamentary seats in the simultaneously held state and parliamentary elections. The results were declared on June 4. Mohan Majhi, a four-time BJP legislator, was sworn in as the chief minister on June 12. The 52-year-old politician was a teacher in a school run by the powerful Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS—National Volunteer Corps). The RSS is considered the mother organization of the BJP and an umbrella body of all hardline Hindu organizations in the country that are blamed for attacking religious minorities such as Christians and Muslims. “The change of guard is a matter of concern for us Christians as our people have not yet fully reco-vered from the shock of the 2008 Kandhamal riot,” said Father Ajay Singh, a priest from the Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, based in the state capital Bhubaneswar. It is the first time the BJP has come to power on its own strength in the state. The new chief minister Majhi is regarded as “a strong and firebrand tribal leader” from the mineral-rich Keonjhar (now Kendujhar) district, which hit headlines in early 1999 for burning to death Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons. “We will wait and watch how the new government will run the state as we cannot judge a new government based on the record of a political party or its affiliate groups,” Singh, who is an activist-lawyer, told. The Catholic priest said the only relief was that the BJP failed to garner the 272 seats required for a majority in the parliament.

A Catholic diocese in a northwestern Indian state has joined government agencies in providing relief to people reeling under severe heatwave conditions that have reportedly claimed over 120 lives. Local media reported 122 deaths in Rajasthan state due to the extremely hot weather, with nearly half of those occurring between May 23 and May 30.
The India Meteorological Department issued a red alert on May 30 for Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, and Madhya Pradesh in the northwest and central parts of the country. Experts cautioned against heat-related illnesses and suggested that state governments take adequate preventive measures to protect vulnerable people. The mercury surpassed 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in Rajasthan’s Churu town and neighbour-ing Haryana’s Sirsa town. A part of the national capital New Delhi recorded the country’s highestever temperature: 52.9 degrees Celsius (127.22 de-grees Fahren-heit). “It is very disturbing to learn that so many people have lost their lives in the extreme weather conditions,” said Emeritus Bishop Oswald Joseph Lewis of Jaipur diocese in Rajasthan. He told that volun-teers at the diocese’s social service wing are reaching out to people to help and guide them. “Our people are going house to house to make people aware of the extreme weather conditions, suggesting precautions to be taken and giving them medicines,” the prelate said. Lewis said most casualties were reported among daily wage laborers compelled to work under the hot sun. “Our volunteers are providing them free lunch and water” to compensate for the lost daily wages, he added. The prelate said theirs was a small effort to help the government agencies deal with the situation. Shashi Dharan, the public relations officer of the Delhi Archdiocese, said they have made arrangements for drinking water outside churches in the national capital.