The Indian government has slammed the US government’s religious freedom watchdog after its latest report said faith freedom is seriously shrinking in India. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) should be called “an entity of concern” because of its “efforts to undermine India’s standing as a beacon of democracy,” a federal government official told media on March 26 in New Delhi. Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of External Affairs, made this statement the day after the US watchdog released its report. The report urged the US government to designate India as a “country of particular concern” due to its engagement in and tolerance of systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act. The report also urged the US to impose “targeted sanctions” on entities such as India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), for “their culpability in serious violations of religious freedom.” India dismissed the report as “biased and politically motivated” and said USCIRF was misrepresenting “isolated incidents and cast aspersions on India’s vibrant multicultural society.” The US report said India “increasingly enforced sectarian policies seeking to establish India as an overtly Hindu state, in contrast with the secular principles of the constitution” during the past 10 years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power more than 10 years ago in 2014 and won the next two elections in 2019 and 2024, leading his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the promise of prioritizing Hindu interests. The report accused top BJP leaders of engaging in “hateful rhetoric and disinformation against Muslims and other religious minorities to gather political support” ahead of the general elections in 2024. “Such rhetoric fueled attacks on religious minorities that continued after the election, including vigilante violence, targeted and arbitrary killings, and demolition of property and places of worship”, it said.

More than 50,000 Christians in India’s Arunachal Pradesh state gathered to protest a government plan to revive a stringent 40-year-old anti-conversion law, fearing its misuse to target and victimize them. “We oppose the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 1978 because it curtails our religious rights,” said Tara Miri, the president of the Arunachal Christian Forum (ACF). Christians from all 29 districts and different church denominations turned up for the March 6 protest and “filled all our 50,000 chairs” in an open ground state capital, Itanagar, Miri told on March 7. “There are 46 Christian denominations in the state, and members of all of them joined the protest because we feel the state government should not implement the law,” Miri said. The anti-conversion law was first introduced in 1978 to protect the traditional religious practices of indigenous communities from external influence or coercion. But it remained dormant for over 45 years as successive governments failed to frame the rules. On Sept. 30 last year, the Gauhati High Court’s permanent bench in Itanagar directed the state government to finalize the rules within six months after a public interest litigation by a citizen against the government’s failure to enforce the law. The law prohibits religious conversion “by use of force or inducement or by fraudulent means” and has provision for a two-year jail term or a fine up to Rs 10,000 (US$115) if found guilty. The law also mandates that every conversion has to be reported to the deputy commissioner, a top officer in the state’s districts. A failure to report an intended conversion shall attract a penalty.

It is heartening to know that India’s Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal by some Dalit Catholics from Kumbakonam diocese in Tamil Nadu state in southern India. On the other hand, it is shocking that these poor Dalit Catholics had to approach the courts, as reported by UCA News, to give them their rights against caste discrimination, which is enshrined in the Indian Constitution and also goes against the very basic teaching of Catholicism. St. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians (3:27-28), points out, “You are baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed so to speak, with the life of Christ himself. So, there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus.” Once baptized in Christ, people join the family of the Church and become one with all the People of God. They can no longer be identified or discriminated against by their caste, colour, race, or gender.

The Indian Church’s campaign for this Lenten season plans to reach out to some 10,000 people with disabilities, helping them with care, support, and devices for assistance, say officials. Cari-tas India, the social service wing of the national bishops’ forum, on March 9 launched the national campaign in New Delhi, promi-sing to collaborate with the Delhi Archdiocese and Conference of Religious India, the national forum of men and women reli-gious congregations in the count-ry. The initiative “aims to support 10,000 persons with disabilities through early detection, care and support, assistive devices, and livelihood opportunities” Patrick Hansda, Caritas India’s public. relations officer, told on Mar 10. Catholic Church communities across the globe launch campaigns to raise funds and create aware-ness on social issues during Lent, a seven-week period of prayer and abstinence that begins on Ash Wednesday and leads to Easter. Archbishop Anil J. T. Couto of Delhi opened the Indian Church’s campaign, which Caritas will execute in collaboration with Chetanalaya (Hindi for ‘abode of awareness’), the social service wing of the archdiocese.” It is our firm hope that people will be inspired by this campaign in their own context, reaching out to those marginalized or rejected by socie-ty,” Archbishop Couto said while launching the campaign. Handsa said that since the archdiocese is “already rendering the service on disabilities, Caritas India collabo-rated with it.” He said they also plan to collaborate with the Con-ference of Religious India ”for the effective reach to the needy.” Members of the conference work in most regions of all 28 Indian states and eight federally ruled areas of the country.

“Accelerate Action” to gua-rantee gender equality and wo-men’s rights, focusing on impa-ctful solutions, inclusivity and intersectionality, is this year’s call for International Women’s Day on March 8. A promising demon-stration of such action is the out-reach by an India-based network of Catholic women called Sisters in Solidarity (SIS), established in 2019 to provide holistic support to a nun survivor of clergy sexual violence (CSV) and to her compa-nions. However, SIS members also respond in other capacities to sexual violence and other gend-er equality issues in the Church and broader society. Pertinent to the SIS response is its combined feminist theological and social science sensibility that undersco-res the commitment to gender equality and women’s rights in the Church and society. Anchored in understanding women’s experi-ence of sexual violence as a first principle, SIS and like-minded support groups assert that the traumatic psychological impacts on women from the onset of vio-lence through to complete healing, range from a swirl of mixed and swinging emotions (especially when the perpetrator is a known authority figure whose responsi-bility is to protect), to serious psychological dysfunctionality and self-harm. Emotional impacts may be worse in contexts that place a high premium on virginity, link sexual purity to women’s bodies, family and community honour, and resort to a range of discriminatory silencing and punitive tactics, in-cluding stigmatization by fami-lies, communities, work, religi-ous, and other institutions. This generates shame, self-blame guilt, fear, anger, feelings of a loss of self-worth, and an overall sense of hopelessness and despair. Sur-vivors of sexual violence, inclu-ding SIS-supported survivors, also find it difficult to access justice.

Hubert Praveen grew up thinking that only people of other faiths, namely Hindus and Muslims, can be religious fanatics. The 43-year-old father of two now has a different understanding of life and faith after he completed a course on theology. “We say Hindus and Muslims are fanatics. But we are no less when it comes to our own religion and faith,” Praveen, a resident of the southern Indian city of Bengaluru told. He said his understanding changed after he completed an online theology course on Dialogue and Evangelization with St. Peter’s Pontifical Institute in Bengaluru (Bangalore) in southern India. The seminary trained some 1,000 people in two online courses–one year certificate course and a two-year diploma course since 2024. Praveen said these courses help laypeople like him appreciate faith and lead a life without being judgmental. Praveen was among 142 people–laymen, nuns and religious brothers–who completed the online certificate course and attended years’ convocation on Feb. 23. The two-year online diploma course in theology covers subjects such as Biblical Studies, Systematic Theology, Moral Theology, Canon Law, Liturgy and Missiology. Praveen says the certificate course helped him understand that regular churchgoers are not “holier than thou” than those who may not go and go less frequently. “Before I took this course, I was proud that my faith was the right faith. But now I see people of other faiths as the children of the same God and we all will meet in the same heaven after death,” he said.
The seminary founded 50 years ago offer these courses online and through regular postal mail, describing it as “theology coming to visit you right on your doorstep, to make learning easy. “The seminary also admit lay people and nuns for canonically valid degree and licence courses as regular students, who have to physically attend the classes. Ashok Kumar, a retired banker from Vijayawada diocese in southern Andhra Pradesh state also appreciated the online course. For engaging in Church’s “administrative and mission work, we need qualified people who can preach and teach,” Kumar told.

Church leaders have mourned the death of Hindu pilgrims in the latest stampede at the overcrowded New Delhi Railway Station in India’s capital. The deadly crush on Feb. 15 night reportedly killed 18 people and left several injured. Railway officials said the surging crowds scrambled to catch trains to Prayagraj, a city in northern Uttar Pradesh state, for the Maha Kumbh, the world’s biggest religious gathering of humanity. This is the second such tragedy related to the Maha Kumbh festival in recent weeks. On Jan. 29, at least 30 people lost their lives in a stampede at the festival in Prayagraj. Two trains had been delayed at the station, while a third heading to Prayagraj was waiting to depart. “People pushed against each other to get into them and the crush occurred after some passengers slipped and fell on the stairs” leading to the platforms, a spokesperson for Indian Railways said. Opposition leaders criticized the Indian Railways and the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led federal government in Delhi, for failing to manage crowds. “Very unfortunate and sad that we have lost precious lives of Hindu pilgrims,” Father Savarimuthu Sankar, spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Delhi told on Feb.17. He said the administration “learned nothing from the deadly stampede just 15 days ago.” Father Isidore D’Souza, chancellor of Allahabad diocese told that “in both the incidents, the authorities did not expect that such huge crowds would turn out.” Allahabad is the former name of the Prayagraj. People suspect that the exact number of causalities in the stampedes is not made known. “It’s also not clear what exactly led to the tragedies,” D’Souza added.

Church leaders in India have welcomed the Vatican’s decision to add the feast of St. Teresa of Kolkata to the universal liturgical calendar, saying it will help Catholics across the globe emulate the nun’s sense of service to the poor.” This is a great recognition and appreciation of her work for the poorest of the poor and the abandoned men, women and children,” Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta told UCA News on Feb.19. The archbishop was responding to the Feb. 11 Vatican decree that said Pope Francis had added the saintly nun to the liturgical calendar, making the feast day Sept. 5, the day of her death in 1997. The Vatican decision “would also provide a tremendous boost to the work of her congregation — the Missionaries of Charity — in all corners of the world,” D’Souza said. The Vatican decree said the decision follows requests from “bishops, religious and associations of the faithful” and also considers “the influence of the spirituality of Saint Teresa of Calcutta throughout the world.”

Police in central Indian Madhya Pradesh state filed a criminal case against a Catholic nun and three others on Feb. 16 for violating the state’s anti-conversion law. Indore city police filed the case against Holy Spirit Sister Sheela Savari Muthu and her three colleagues – two women and a man – after they organized a program for the children of domestic workers. The case is based on the demand of some right-wing Hindu activists. The Hindus wanted action against Christians for allegedly trying to convert some 120 children who attended the health and hygiene awareness camp conducted in a public garden. The police detained the accused for close to nine hours but released them at nine at night despite some 600 Hindu activists shouting slogans against their release and missionary activities. The Hindu mob also tried to instigate the children and women brought to the police station to give testimonies against the nun but failed. They also unsuccessfully attempted to get the nun’s female colleagues to give statements against her inside the police station, eyewitnesses told. “Neither the children nor the women succumbed to their pressure, but still the police, under pressure from the Hindu activists, registered the case,” says an eye witness to the incident, who did not want to be named. Sister Muthu said it was “totally a false case.” “We organized a health and hygiene camp for the domestic workers’ children. We did it in the open public garden with permission from the local government officials,” she told. Within a few hours of the program, people gathered and started shouting slogans against missionaries and religious conversions. “Soon, we sought police help,” she said.” The police took us to the police station.

A Church leader from India’s Manipur expressed optimism after the strife-torn state in north-east region was brought under direct federal rule days after its chief minister resigned.
Chief Minister N Biren Singh from the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) quit on Feb. 9 after facing pressure to step down for failing to stop the continuing violence in the state for nearly two years. The ethnic clashes bet-ween the state’s majority Meitei and minority Kuki communities broke out in May 2023 over economic benefits, land rights and job quotas.
More than 250 people have been killed and over 60,000 displaced, most of them indigenous Christians from the Kuki-Zo group. The office of President Droupadi Murmu on Feb. 13 announced President’s rule, which allows the Delhi-appointed gover-nor to administer the state on behalf of the federal government. Murmu’s office said in a state-ment that the federal rule was imposed because of the situation in which the governance of that state could “not be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of India.”
A Church leader in the troubl-ed state told that “the federal government can work towards healing wounds and restoring peace, provided it is sincere.” Christians have been demanding the chief minister’s dismissal since the violence began almost two years ago.
“The chaos cannot continue indefinitely. There should be an end [to violence],” added the Church leader who did not want to be named, fearing retribution. He said the discriminatory atti-tude towards indigenous commu-nities adopted by Singh, a Meitei, has “divided both the communities to such an extent that they do not like to see each other or share the same space.”