A human rights group that monitors atrocities against Christians in India says it has confirmed 154 incidents of violence in 17 states in the first half of the year.
The New Delhi-based United Christian Forum (UCF) said that perhaps a new ministry of cooperation may bring a better understanding of other faiths, especially among those who oppose Christianity.
“This year hasn’t been any different for Indian Christians except that Indian Christians across the globe came together to establish an exclusive day for themselves on July 3 and launched a decade of celebrations (2021-30) to honour the 2,000th anniversary of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ,” the UCF press note said.
The press statement dated July 10 said 154 incidents of violence were reported on the UCF toll-free helpline number against Christians across India.
The UCF is an inter-deno-minational Christian organization that fights for the rights of members of the Christian minority, mainly through protest.
Other states which witnessed violence against Christians for their faith are Madhya Pradesh (15), Odisha (12), Maharashtra (nine), Tamil Nadu (six), Punjab (six), Bihar (six), Andhra Pradesh (four), Uttarakhand (three), Delhi (three), Haryana (two), Gujarat (two) and one each from Telangana, West Bengal, Assam and Rajasthan.
Some 1,137 calls were received by the UCF helpline and callers were given help through advocacy and assisting in forwarding their grievances to authorities.

The demolition of a church in south Delhi has upset the Syro-Malabar Catholics living in the national capital.
Fr Jose Kannukuzhi, parish priest of Little Flower Church in Lado Sarai, said that on July 12 morning officials of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation came with three bulldozers and some 150 police personnel.
“They told me they would only demolish a hall adjacent to the church building. So I did not remove the sacred things from the church building,” the priest told.
As the news of the demolition spread through social media, parishioners came to the demo-lished church to protest. People from other parishes also gathered at the church compound and joined a Mass and a candle light protest late in the evening.
Monsignor Joseph Odanat, vicar general of Faridabad Syro-Malabar diocese, said the demoli-tion was a “calculated hidden agenda of the local administration and the land mafia to evacuate us from there.” He claimed the diocese had obtained a stay order in 2015. “We will go ahead with legal actions,” Monsignor Odanat told.

The tragic death of Father Stan Swamy has triggered an unprecedented outburst of grief and fury against a system that unleashed a reign of cruelty to let an innocent champion of the poor die so miserably. The rallying cry over a victim of the state’s terror from across India and the globe has once again put the spotlight on the dangers of speaking up for the exploited and the neglected.
Father Stan was a Jesuit missionary who stood with India’s tribal people to oppose state policies that they thought went against their constitutional rights as tribal people and Indian citizens.

An international alliance of civil rights groups has blamed the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the death of an 84-year-old Jesuit social activist who died under detention.
Human rights defender Father Stan Swamy’s death on July 5 while awaiting trial has deeply shocked and outraged global civil society alliance CIVICUS.
The priest’s death “is a result of the persecution he has faced by the Modi government after revealing abuses by the state,” the group said in a press state-ment.
Father Swamy worked among tribal groups and other minorities of eastern India’s Jharkhand state for over four decades, creating awareness among communities about their tribal and civil rights.

A Dalit Christian woman in the southern Indian state of Telangana has died in custody after allegedly being tortured by police.
Maid Ambadipudi Mariyamma of Yadadri-Bhongir district was booked along with her minor son Udaykiran on June 17 by Addagudur police after a complaint of theft by her employers, according to media reports.
Her relatives and daughter Swapna alleged that she was tortured by police while in detention.
Mariyamma, 44, was found collapsed early on June 18 at the police station and was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared her dead.
“When people in America protested after a black man was killed and started a campaign — Black Lives Matter — some people here voiced Dalit Lives Matter. The time has come to intensify it,” Father Z. Devasagaya Raj, former secretary of the Indian bishops’ office of Dalits and backward classes, told.
“Dalits and minorities community are always at the receiving end at the hands of people of so-called high society, elite groups, administration and government, hence police brutality upon them is nothing new. Anyone who speaks up for Dalits and the downtrodden is subject to attacks or branded anti-national.”
Pastor Sudarsan Masih of the Apostolic Christian Assembly Church in Khammam told UCA News that members were shocked to learn about the incident.
“Our prayers are with the family of the woman and we pray that there will be a fair and unbiased investigation and the culprit will be booked,” he said.
“The government should do justice to poor and underprivileged people, otherwise it will give them the wrong message and cause insecurity among them.”

Anong Singpho had never imagined that his singing videos on social media would one day make him the first Bollywood star from Arunachal Pradesh.
The 27-year-old, who performs regularly at functions at Miao’s Government Higher Secondary School, used social media platforms to showcase his singing talents.
One such video caught the attention of Zee Music Company, a popular Indian music company and a subsidiary of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, and it offered him to sing for their label.
“It is dream-come-true moment for me,” said Singhpo, a resident of Miao Singpho village in Changlang district. “Growing up, I always used to have dreams about singing for a Bollywood music company. I never imagined that would actually happen to me through this famous music label.”
Singhpo’s music single, Laut Aao Maa, was released by Zee Music Company as a tribute all mothers on Mother’s Day this year and within a span of one month the video has been viewed by 1.4 million viewers on video sharing platform YouTube alone.
Picturized with the junior reality show cont-estant, Oupseng Namchoom, the single highlights the emotions a child goes through in the absence of his mother in this soothing number.
The single is a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. The song has been well received by people across the country. More than 1.4 million people have made positive comments on the video, singling out Singhpo’s voice for special appreciation.
The only son of Innao Ladoi Singpho and Jamai Thu Singpho, the singing sensation says the response from people across the country has been overwhelming. “I never thought I would receive such an overwhelming appreciation. I feel I am lucky to receive so much love,” said the graduate from Delhi University.

Vaccines are working well against the Indian (delta) variant of the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, according to a study on healthcare staff working at the Christian Medical College in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore town.
By April 30, at the height of the second wave of the pandemic in India, about 84.8 percent of the medical school’s employees received a shot of the Astra Zeneca vaccine with a smaller number getting the Indian-made Covaxin.
The medical school, managed by the Protestant Church of South India, has more than 2,600 beds and 10,600 employees.
Some 679 (9.6%) of the 7,080 employees of the Vellore hospital who received their second dose became infected by the virus within 47 days of the second dose. This is 65% lower than for the unvaccinated.
In addition, those who contracted Covid-19 also required fewer hospitalizations (-77%), less use of oxygen tanks (-92%) and fewer intensive care admissions (-94%).
“The only staff member who died since the beginning of the pandemic had multiple co-morbidities and had not taken the vaccine,” noted the study, autho-red by Doctor Joy J Mammen, professor at the medical school’s Department of Transfusion Medicine.

The pandemic has created a demand for portable crematoriums in Kerala with many churches relying on it as an alternative to burying those who succumbed to Covid-19.
Covid victims’ families and relatives see portable crematoriums as a viable solution as the units can be used either inside the cemetery of churches or even outside.
“It is after we faced difficulties in disposing of bodies of our parishioners who died of Covid-19 that we started to think of making a portable crematorium,” said Fr Francis Areeckal, vicar of St Antony’s Church at Kizhakkambalam in Ernakulam district.
“We worked out the plan in consultation with an engineering contractor who is also a parishioner,” said Father Areeckal, who has claimed that they are willing to offer its services to “anybody cutting across barriers of caste and religion.”
“In case they need assistance for cremation, we have a team. They would volunteer their service,” the priest said. The portable crematorium they have made weighs 650 kg and can be transported in a pick-up van or a mini truck.

The year was 1922 and the occasion a momentous one. V.V. John, former Vice Chancellor of the Jodhpur University, had just enrolled in a junior intermediate class of 125 students that functioned from a multi-story building in the vicinity of the Parayil Church in Changanacherry.
Feeling slightly nervous, he proceeded straight to a class room where a man called Kulandaiswami Pillai was teaching English. “We admit boys till the benches break,” remarked Pillai, welcoming the youngster to his class.
The occasion marked the be-ginning of the iconic St. Berchman’s College, which has lived through a century to emerge as a premier institution of higher education in Central Kerala.
Over the years, it has under-gone several progressive changes to become the first college in the State to secure autonomous status in 2014. It currently hosts about 3,200 students and 170 teachers across 18 departments, besides 80 non-teaching staff.
Meanwhile, the college management intends to roll out a slew of programs in the centenary year, including scholarship for 100 students and adoption of five villages in Changanacherry taluk, besides opening an interdisciplinary research department.

Top leaders of Mizoram Presbyterian Church, the largest denomination in the State has urged the State government to take measure to resolve border disputes with neighbouring States, an official statement said.
The church leaders called on Chief Minister Zoramthanga and urged him to resolve the border dispute with neighbouring States and to take measure for the inclusion of the Mizo language in the eighth schedule of the Indian constitution, the statement said on June 14 .