Threatened with eviction from their homes, some 600 families, mo-stly Catholics, have vowed to conti-nue a 16-month-old hunger strike in Kerala state, in southern India. The protesters resolved to continue their fight after a court last week stopped a government-appointed commission tasked with finding ways to protect their land rights, their leaders said. The court stated that the government lacks the authority to appoint such a commission. Last December, the government established a commi-ssion to propose solutions for the dispute, which began after a Muslim organization claimed that the villa-gers lived on some 400 acres of land donated to it for charitable purposes many years ago. The court ruling “is a setback for us. But the people will continue their struggle,” said Fr. Antony Xavier, the parish priest of Velankanny Matha Church in Munamban, in Ernakulam district. The priest told on March 21 that the state government, the respondent in the case, “has agreed to appeal the single bench ruling. We want the government to appeal.” The 610 affected families, all from his parish in the Kottapuram diocese, purchas-ed the land at market rates, paid for it, and registered the deeds following all state legal systems. “We will conti-nue the fight until our legal rights to the land are recognized.”