Manipur’s Interfaith Forum for Peace and Harmony (IFPH) has organized rally appealing for an end to the ongoing violence and for initiating dialogue between the two warring ethnic groups.
Some 500 people belonging to diverse religious and faith traditions, ethnic and spiritual communities participated in the July 11 rally at Palace compound in Imphal, capital of the northeastern Indian state where clashes between Meitei and Kuki groups began on May 3.
Five Members of Parliament from Kerala and Tamil Nadu also joined the rally to express their solidarity with the interfaith initiatives.
Addressing the media in the campus of Bal Vidya Mandir, convener, IFPH Deben Bachaspatimayum said, “People of all age and sex who participated in the rally are concerned citizens of India who also represented the core values of humanity across diverse religious, faiths and spiritual communities in the state.”
Stating the purpose of the rally, he said, “We collectively mourned deaths caused by violence; extended prayers of healing for victims; expressed solidarity with the displaced; and extended solidarity with women and citizen groups calling for ceasefire and dialogue.”
Members of the forum comprised of All Manipur Buddhists Association, All Manipur Christian Organisation, Art of Living, Bhakti Seva Lub/Ekta Parishad, Brahmakumaris, Catholic archdiocese of Imphal, Divine Life Society, Federation of Madrasahs, International Society of Gaudiya Vaishnavas, International Society of Krishna Consciousness, Jain Samaj, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Lainingthou Sanamahi Temple Board, Mahatma Seva Ashram, Manipur Baptist Convention, Meitei Christian Church Council, Manipur Cultural Integration Conference, Naga Christian Forum, Rongmei Naga Baptist Association, and Tinkao Ragwang Chapriak, Phom.

After his US visit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a significant stop in Cairo, where he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
This is the first visit to Egypt by an Indian prime minister in 26 years. During his stay, Modi officially invited al-Sisi to attend the G20 summit in New Delhi in September.
Egypt is one of the countries that have officially asked to join the BRICS group (a global forum that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa set up as an alternative to the G7).
The summit in Cairo also provided the two leaders with the opportunity to sign a series of bilateral agreements on issues ranging from agriculture to the protection of their archaeological heritage.
Culture and religion also played an important part in Modi’s visit, particularly as it might affect India’s domestic affairs. In fact, the prime minister visited Cairo’s 11th century al-Hakim mosque, which was recently restored thanks to Dawoodi Bohra, an Indian Ismaili Shi’a group.
Originally from Egypt, the community of about half a million is concentrated in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, where he started his political career that led him to the prime minister’s office.
Relations between Hindus and Muslims in the state remain tense, especially since communal riots broke out in 2002 causing major bloodshed.

Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore on June 15 comm-ended the Karnataka government for repealing the controversial Anti-Conversion law, enforced by the previous Hindu nationalist government.
“On behalf of the Christian Community, I express my pro-found gratitude and satisfaction towards the government of Kar-nataka for its decision to repeal the anti-conversion bill,” the archbishop says in a press state-ment issued after the state cabinet decided to withdraw the Act.
Karanataka’s Congress led government, which defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party, June 15 decided to repeal the anti-con-version law and proposed to take steps to officially remove the law in the state legislative assembly’s next session starting July 3.
The Anti Conversion Bill, also known as the Karnataka Pro-tection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, 2022, was enacted, ignoring opposition from the Congress party and others, including Archbishop Machado.
The anti-conversion laws in Karnataka and other states have led to an increase in attacks on Christians. They have also fueled doubts, mistrust and disharmony between communities, lamented the archbishop, who heads the Catholic Church in Karnataka state.
Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash, a human rights and peace activist, welcomed the Karnataka govern-ment move “as a great step to restore freedom enshrined in the Indian constitution.”

A young Indian climate activist has urged Pope Francis to help bring peace in Manipur, her troubled state in northeastern India.
Licypriya Kangujam on June 5 met the Pope and briefed him about the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur.
The 11-year-old girl also submitted a memorandum to urge the rich nations to pay the loss and damage caused by the climate crisis to the global south.
An ethnic clash erupted May 3 in Manipur between the majority Meitei people, who live in the Imphal Valley, and the tribal community from the surrounding hills, including the Kuki and Zo peoples. More than 70 people were killed and hundreds wounded in the violence that remains unabated. Hundreds of churches belonging to all Christian denominations were torched or damaged in the violence.
Licypriya was among 5 young people selected from all around the world to meet the Pope in his residence in the Vatican. The Pope assured her of every possible effort to bring peace in Manipur.
The young India was in Rome for a five-day official visit. On June 5, she addressed the Green and Blue Festival organized by the biggest media group in Italy as a part of celebrating World Environment Day 2023 at the World’s famous The Colosseum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Bharatiya Janata Party government’s predictable move to reignite the controversy over the Uniform Civil Code has invited predictable responses.
Opposition leaders have flayed this move. Questioning the need for the Law Commission to take this up again, several opposition leaders have effectively positioned themselves against the UCC. Muslim organisations have gone a step further and condemned it as a sinister move that is against minorities and the Constitution.
The stage appears set for an ideological battle, both tragic and ironic, with the BJP pushing for the constitutional promise of a UCC and the secular politics arrayed against it.
This is exactly how the BJP must have scripted this debate. It is a mark of our times that secular politics retreats from whatever ground the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP illegitimately encroach upon—Hinduism, traditions, nationalism, and now the UCC.
If this retreat must be halted, secular politics must reclaim the principled and progressive position on the UCC. It must assert that the UCC has nothing to do with customs and practices of any one religion; it is about asserting the uniform primacy of constitutional principles of equality between and within religious communities and uniformly ensuring gender justice. It must realise that opposing the idea of a UCC is poor politics. Besides, it is a bad political strategy in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

“The silence of the prime minister, the incompetence of the interior minister even after his visit to the state, and the indecisi-veness of the local government in ending the violence are worrying. The authorities cannot escape responsibility and shift blame.”
In the face of violence that has now been going on continuously for a month and a half in Manipur State, he is calling the government of Narendra Modi to its responsibilities by the Archbishop of Imphal, Msgr. Dominic Lumon.
He does so in a detailed report issued to all of India’s brother bishops on the situation in the battered northeastern Indian state rocked since early May by serious fighting between the Meitei and Kuki.
“The violence and fires,” writes Msgr. Lumon, “continue unabated, especially in the suburbs of the region. Precious lives have been lost, homes and villages burned or destroyed, property vandalized and looted, places of worship desecrated and burned. More than 50,000 people have lost their homes and are languishing in camps for the displaced. Many have left the capital Imphal and the state to safer places in neighboring Mizoram State, other northeastern states, and metropolises. There is a complete collapse of the constitutional apparatus in the state. In short, there is fear, uncertainty and a general sense of hopelessness.”
The archbishop points out that in the clash between the two communities it is the entire Manipur community that suffers, regardless of affiliations. “In a month and a half,” he denounces, “the elected state government and the central administration in New Delhi have been unable to restore the rule of law and put an end to the insane violence. It can be said that we are facing the collapse of the state machinery at the local level. One wonders why President’s Rule (direct administration by the federal government in New Delhi, provided for in serious cases by Article 356 of the Indian Constitution ed.) is still not considered as an option.”
The prelate speaks of many more casualties than the 100 deaths in the official figures, “Violent activities in the suburbs outside the capital are greatly underestimated,” he writes. “But still house fires continue to occur, even in the heart of the city of Imphal.

Bishop George Palliparambil of Miao diocese in Arunachal Pradesh is the postulator of the cause for the beatification of the Paris Mission Society missionaries Nicolas Michaël Krick and Augustin-Étienne Bourry, who are inseparable from the history of evangelization in the region, one of the most remote areas in north-eastern India.
The French missionaries were murdered in 1854 by local tribal people on the Chinese border. More than a century and a half later, the local Catholics claim their spiritual patronage to the missionaries and work for their beatification. Fathers Krick and Bourry were declared “servants of God” in 2010.
I think Christianity becomes global in the sense of people connect it with the global Christian community
The true Catholicity of Catholicism tells us to go deeper into reality
The cause of sainthood started when the Diocesan Commission of Inquiry was opened in 2019 by the Diocese of Miao. Salesian Bishop Palliparambil, 69, followed the process as postulator of the cause for beatification of the missionaries. The bishop, who served this border region with China and Burma for over 40 years, tells about these two central figures for the local Church.

The Catholic bishops in India have urged the federal and Madhya Pradesh governments to stop “the age old bogey of conversion” to repeatedly tarnish “the dedicated services” of its people.
“The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) is deeply saddened at the recent happenings in the state of Madhya Pradesh and particularly in the Catholic diocese of Jabalpur,” says a press statement issued by conference secretary general Archbishop Felix Machado of Vasai.
The May 31 appeal came a day after Bishop Gerald Almeida of Jabalpur and Sister Ligy Joseph, in charge of an orphanage, filed for anticipatory bail against their possible arrest in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The two were named in a case under the state’s stringent anti-conversion law.
The CBCI statement pointed out that the diocese of Jabalpur has witnessed the state machinery targeting three of its institutions. The first was on March 2 when members of state Commission of Child Rights and the commission’s district head visited St Joseph Boys and Girls Boarding in Ghoreghat along with some police-men. The following day, the same team visited JDES Boys and Girls Boarding at Junwani and the third incident occurred on May 29 at Asha Kiran Child Care Institute, Jhinjhari, Katni.
“What is common in all the three incidents is that the officials entered the premises without prior permission, searched the premises, took away some files and questioned the children if they were forced to go to church and if they were forced to read the Bible,” the statement explains.
The bishops’ conference points out that although the three boarding and hostels “cooperate whole heartedly in complying with all legal and government requirements,” the teams that visited them sought to unnecessarily harass the management and the children.
“They tried to make false allegations against the management and show how the children are getting converted to Christianity,” the press statement says.

A peace and solidarity pro-gram in the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya has addressed pressing national issues while promoting unity, justice, and peace.
“From the targeted violence against Christians and tribals in Manipur to the relentless attacks on Church personnel and institutions and the disturbing normalization of hate speeches, our country is witnessing a wave of alarming events,” lamented Chri-stian Brother Sunil Britto, the main organizer of the program that was held June 10 at Nongpoh in the RiBhoi district of Meghalaya.
More than 300 people, including priests, brothers, nuns and lay people from Meghalaya and Assam attended the program organized by the RiBhoi unit of the Conference of Religious India (CRI). The program also included a silent rally, where participants displayed posters advocating peace, solidarity, and justice for all. The rally served as a powerful reminder of the urgent need for collective action and social change, Brother Britto said.
The event featured peace songs and dances by Nathalie Warjri, St. Stephen Convent Hostel girls, Claretian aspirants, and Salesian aspirants expressing the spirit of unity and harmony thro-ugh their performances.

A court in a central Indian state has rejected the bail applications of two protestant pastors and a woman arrested on charges of alleged religious conversion. The district court in Satna, Ma-dhya Pradesh state, rejected the bail applications of pastors Roshan Faster, Mayaram Ningwal, and Aarti Saket on June 6.The accused will remain in police cu-stody till June 17, a police official said.
“It is a difficult time for us. We are working with our legal team for the next course of act-ion,” Minakshi Singh, a Christian activist, told on June 7.
The pastors and the woman were arrested from Motwa village under the Majhgawan police station in Satna district on June 4.
The arrests came after a local man named Manoj Kori complained to the Hindu group, Bajrang Dal (Brigade of Hindu god Hanuman), about a Christian prayer meeting being held inside a house. Members of the Bajrang Dal, accompanied by the police, reached the house and took Faster, Ningwal, and Saket into their custody.
Ashish Jain, a sub-divisional police officer of Chitrakoot, said a case has been registered against them under various sections of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021, which prohibits religious conversion through unlawful means.