The top court in southern Indian Tamil Nadu state has ruled that persons marrying under the Christian personal law should be considered to have converted to Christianity and abandoned their eligibility for caste-based social benefits. The ruling came in a case seeking the court’s order to disqualify the “illegal” election victory of a lower caste woman to a local body seat that is reserved for lower caste people, officially referred to as Scheduled Castes. In October 2022, Prime Mini-ster Narendra Modi appointed a three-member panel to exa-mine the implications of exten-ding benefits to Christians of lower caste origin, following the court’s request for the go-vernment’s view on the issue. The hearing is halted again due to the panel’s failure to submit its report to the government. Out of India’s 1.4 billion people, 201 million belong to the Dalit community, and nearly 60 percent of India’s 25 million Christians trace their origin to Dalit and tribal communities.
From a Railway Platform to the Altar: Abandoned Child Becomes a Priest
Twenty-eight years ago, a frightened five-year-old boy was found alone at Shoranur railway station. He had no memory of his parents or a family to
