Category: National

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, newly elected president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, has expressed “anguish” over increasing threats to pluralism in the country.

“Intolerance is causing a certain amount of anxiety to us,” Cardinal Gracias said in Bangalore, while addressing a news conference at the end of the assembly of Indian bishops.

“Diversity is one of the strengths of India. It is known world over for its diversity of culture, language and religion. Any attempt to divide people by certain sections will be harmful for the nation,” cautioned Cardinal Gracias, responding to a question on how the bishops’ assembly viewed the increasing threats to diversity in recent years.

Human rights groups have expressed concern over religious-based crime in India, and the government has confirmed an increase in violence based on religion.

Auxiliary Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas of Ranchi, secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, said attacks on pluralism were “not only against Christians, but all Indians.”

“You cannot allow a few rabid elements to spoil the harmony. It is a question of upholding constitutional values and rule of law,” the bishop added.

India’s pro-Hindu government has presented detailed data in parliament showing a surge in religion-based violence since it came to power four years ago. The statistics, revealed on Feb. 6, confirm a long-standing allegation by rights groups that the situation is worsening.

In 2017, 111 persons were killed and at least 2,384 injured in 822 cases of sectarian violence, the highest figure in the past three years. In 2016, 86 persons were killed and 2,321 injured in 703 incidents of religion-based violence.

Parliament was told that the highest number of sectarian incidents was reported in India’s most populous State, Uttar Pradesh, which has 200 million people, some 40 million of them Muslims.

The state, where the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in last year’s provincial elections, witnessed 195 incidents of religion-based violence in 2017, claiming 44 lives and injuring 452 people.

Four Catholic priests have been charged with rioting and criminal intimidation in India’s Madhya Pradesh State over a land dispute involving a hard-line Hindu group. The priests of Ujjain Diocese resisted an attempt by a Hindu group to take over a piece of land in front of a Catholic Church-run hospital in Ujjain, a city with a Hindu temple and a site for pilgrims.

“No one has been arrested yet,” an official of Madhav Nagar police station, where the case has been registered, told ucanews.com on Feb. 1.

The dispute revolves around a plot of land adjacent to Pushpa Mission Hospital, a 44-year-old facility with 200 beds. Hospital authorities say the local civic body gave the public land to the hospital for use as a parking area and to maintain its greenery. However, some members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the pro-Hindu party that runs the state government, attempted to take over the land on Jan. 27, accusing the church of illegally occupying the site. However, the church obtained a “stay order” to maintain the status quo from the Madhya Pradesh State High Court.

Gagan Singh, who led the crowd and claimed to be the owner of the public land, is the assistant to the local BJP parliamentarian for the area. Church officials say charges against them were framed under political influence.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on January 30 hit out at the BJP-led NDA government for offering money to churches in Congress-ruled Meghalaya ahead of the assembly elections.

“You will find the BJP has a lot of money. These days their leadership believes that everything can be bought,” he said drumming up support for his party candidates in the seven assembly  constituencies in Jaintia Hills district.

“I am very sad to hear that the BJP offered money to our churches in what I consider to be a huge sum…,” said Gandhi, who travelled 60 km to Jowai, the district headquarters of Jaintia Hills.

The Congress President is scheduled to meet Church leaders of various Christian denominations over breakfast on January 31 Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, state Congress President Celestine Lyngdoh, Lok Sabha member Vincent H.Pala and others accompanied the party leader.

On January 7, Union Tourism Minister K.J. Alphons announced a tourism package of Rs 70 crore to develop religious and spiritual circuits in the state.

But the Presbyterian Church and Catholic Church, besides the opposition Hill State People’s Democratic Party, raised their eyebrows on the offer.

Election to the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly will be held on February 27. “There is no price, there is no amount of money that can buy the people of Meghalaya. The BJP may buy a few leaders here and there as few leaders may defect to the BJP or their proxy the NPP (National People’s Party),” the Congress President said.

The Chakhesang Baptist Church Council (CBCC), a constituent of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council, has urged every Christian believer to refrain from practising Yoga, in line with the appeal made by the Nagaland BCC few months ago.

Declaring Yoga a spiritual discipline deeply rooted in Hinduism, the Nagaland Baptist Church Council had in August asked its associate Churches do not practise Yoga as it is not compatible with Christianity.

The CBCC reiterated its stand on anti-Christians ideologies recently and appealed to all concerned authorities not to impose yoga practises to Naga students to uphold the religious freedom envisaged in the Constitution.

This call was made during the 67th general council of CBCC held at CBCC Mission Centre, T.Chikri, Pfutsero hosted by Baptist Theological College (BTC) from January 19 to 20 under the theme “Knitted together in Christ.” Altogether 514 delegates repre-senting all the CBCC churches participated.

CBCC resolved to pray and fight against all exploitative and oppressive forces and ideologies that were found inimical and detrimental to Christian faith and practices.

Growing intolerance and attacks on Christians in other parts of the country is a cause of concern for Church leaders here in Garo Hills.

“Church leaders here are apprehensive of the growing intolerance against Christians even as the current atmosphere in Garo Hills is peaceful and normal. People of different communities in Garo Hills have respected each other all these years,” Fr Theodore T.Sangma, Parish priest at the Sacred Heart Shrine in Lower Wadanang here told The Shillong Times.

Fr Theodore, who spared time for this correspondent in the middle of Soba, an annual conference of Catholics, also termed the trend of religious intolerance as “dangerous,” stating the fact that it has almost compelled people from the Christian community to be “subdued” and “affiliate with political parties.”

“It is unfortunate that people have been compelled to be lenient towards their religious faith and instead align themselves with political parties. This is a fallout of the growing levels of intole-rance against Christians in the country,” the parish priest said.

India’s federal commission tasked with safeguarding religi-ous minorities has called for the establishment of government-funded universities primarily for Christians. But not all Christians support the proposal.

The National Commission for Minorities in its Jan. 13 annual report said such an initiative would be in keeping with the already existing state-funded Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia University.

The commission sought a seven-year financial assistance program to establish new univer-sities for Christian communities, who already run their own edu-cational and health care facilities.

The commission said the government should collaborate with the Catholic Church in India, which runs some 400 colleges and 15,000 of 36,000 Christian-managed schools.

The University of Bombay has conferred the “Best College Award’ on St Andrews College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Bandra, a suburb in the western Indian metropolis. The award was presented on January 26, India’s 69th Republic Day, at the University Campus, Kalina. The award was received by Father Magi Murzello and Dr Marie Fernandes along with the students council.

An all-woman band is shattering stereotypes of gender and caste in a village in the eastern Indian State of Bihar, among the poorest and least developed in the country. The Sargam Mahila (woman) Band in Dhibra village near State capital Patna, was set up about two years ago by Sudha Varghese, who runs a charity for women. After about six months of practise, they were ready.

Initially, the 10-member band was ridiculed by their families and other villagers, but they refused to be deterred, said Sabita Devi, a member.

“People used to laugh at us, but why should women sit at home?” she asked. “These days, women are flying in planes – why can’t we be in a band?”

It wasn’t long before the drumming group caught the ears of the community, said Varghese who heads the charity Nari Gunjan. “These women are Mahadalits, the most margina-lized among the Dalits. For them to receive bookings for weddings and company functions, and to perform in front of people is a very big deal,” she told the Tho-mson Reuters Foundation.

The women used to work in the fields for daily wages, but making a living by playing music has provided them with “inde-pendence and dignity,” said Var-ghese, a Catholic nun who has worked with lower-caste Dalit women for several decades.