Three global rights groups have urged the Indian govern-ment to stop targeting rights acti-vists by abusing counterterrori-sm and financial laws and called on a major terror financing and money laundering watchdog to intervene.
The Indian government is “weaponizing” the laws to detain and punish rights activists, Hu-man Rights Watch (HRW), Am-nesty International, and the Cha-rity & Security Network said in a joint statement on Nov. 3.
The counterterrorism law has been used to level “unfounded charges” against activists, said Aakar Patel from Amnesty Inter-national India.
“Authorities are using bogus foreign funding and terrorism charges to target, intimidate, harass, and silence critics, in clear violation of Financial Action Task Force [FATF] standards,” Patel added.
The FATF, which India joined in 2010, is a 40-member country body mandated to tackle money laundering, terror finan-cing, and other threats to the inte-grity of the global financial sys-tem.
The rights groups’ statement came just days before the FATF’s fourth periodic review of India’s record on tackling illicit funding on Nov. 6.
Varanasi Christians, Hindus light lamps in Muslim areas
Christians and Muslims joined Hindus for an interreligious celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in the northern Indian city of Varanasi, Hinduism’s most sacred place.
“The lamp does not burn, but the wick does. Similarly, the external factors do not spread love, true love is unseen, and is ready to die for the other,” said Surendra Charan, a renowned Christian lawyer and co-founder of Kashi Qaumi Ekta Manch (United Forum of Communal Harmony in Kashi).
Kashi is another name of Varanasi and Diwali falls on November 12 this year.
The November 10 program at Hukulganj, a Varanasi slum where Muslims and Hindus live together was titled Chirag-e-Muhabbat (Lamp of Love) and it consisted of songs, drama and mushaira (poetry recitation) that conveyed the message of love, harmony and peaceful co-existence.
Taufiq Ansari, a peace activist working with Vishwa Jyoti Communications of the Indian Missionary Society, a Catholic congregation, said the best part of the program he liked was the lighting of earthen lamps in front of all the houses in the area.
Indian Christians refute Hindu group’s ‘mass conversion’ claim
Christian leaders have refuted a Hindu group’s claim that it converted more than 300 Christians to Hinduism in northern Uttar Pradesh state, where a sweeping anti-conversion law is in force.
According to Panchjanya, the mouthpiece of the pro-Hindu Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) helped 310 Christians from 36 families to reconvert to Hinduism in Sa-rsara village in Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh on Nov. 5.
Hindus who once came under pressure or greed to become Christians are now back to the Sanatan Dharma (Hindu religion), the weekly quoted the Hindu council as saying.
Uttar Pradesh-based Pastor Dinesh Kumar said they are “aware of the reconversion in Jaunpur but the number given by the group is not correct. They have exaggerated it to get the attention of the government.”
The actual number is less than 30, Kumar told on Nov. 9.
The Hindu groups’ claim that those who attended the ceremony converted to Christia-nity decades ago also is not correct because “there are no official documents to prove that,” the pastor observed.
According to the Panchjanya, the Chri-stians opted for the “homecoming” and went through the “purification” process before they recanted their faith.
Christian activist Minakshi Singh asked the Hindu groups to substantiate their claims with valid proof.
The Hindu council spearheads a nation wide re-conversion campaign under the ba-nner Ghar Vapsi (homecoming).
The Panchjanya said people who under-stood the “greatness and importance of the Sanatan Dharma” returned to Hinduism.
The Hindu groups justify converting people to Hinduism saying they do not violate the law on conversions because they are in-volved in “re-conversion” and not “conver-sion.”
Goa: protests against plans to build a resort at sites dear to Saint Francis Xavier
Last week more than 5,000 people signed a petition against the construction of a luxury eco-resort in Old Goa (Velha Goa), a city in the State of Goa, western India. Among the signatories there are also several political and religious leaders.
The project encroaches on areas around the Chapel of Our Lady of the Mount, one of the oldest Catholic churches in the region and an important religious site, which should be protected by the state.
Two-day inter college mega fest dedicated to global peace
In the face of wars, violence, death and destruction prevailing in the region and across the world, a college in north Bengal dedicated its two-day inter college mega music and cultural fest for global peace and harmony.
Salesian College Siliguri hosted the inter college cultural and music fest ‘Innovision’, for the first time as autonomous college, on November 8 – 9, 2023.
Kerala nun’s sainthood process enters second stage
A 19th century nun, considered the “mother of consecrated women in Kerala,” has reached the second stage of the four-phase canonization process in the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis on November 8 approved the heroic virtues of Eliswa of the Blessed Virgin Mary, founder of the first indigenous congregation for women in India.
Mass exodus of Afghans underway in Pakistan
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans living in Pakistan faced detention and deportation on November 2 , as a government deadline for them to leave sparked a mass exodus.
Thousands joined a snaking queue that stretched seven kilometers (four miles) at the busiest border point, with officials reporting at least 29,000 people crossed into Afghanistan the day before.
Hyderabad’s garbage collectors demand social security, dignity
Official recognition as essential workers, registra-tion, identity cards, and sett-ing up a helpline app to address workplace harass-ment were some demands from the garbage collectors of Hyderabad.
More than 500 garbage collectors met November 5 to highlight their pressing demands and the lack of their basic rights and entitlements as they keep the southern Indian city clean and healthy.
The meeting decided to present their de-mands as a memorandum to the Telangana chief mini-ster. The memorandum also demanded the garbage pi-ckers enumeration by the municipal and state labor department authorities.
The meeting was organi-zed by the Montfort Social Institute, India Network for Basic Income Foundation, and Work FREE, a research project based at the University of Bath, United Kingdom.
Brother Varghese Theckanath, director of the Montfort institute that hosted the convention.
Nuns shelter girls from Manipur conflict
Laughter and singing re-verberated through a girls or-phanage in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, as violence raged on the streets outside.
“Not that we are not affe-cted by the violence, but we feel safe and secure here,” Anjali Khouchung, a 12-year-old resident of Snehabhavan (“Home of Love”), told Global Sisters Report.
The ethnic violence in Manipur, which began May 3, is a conflict between the Meitei community, who are Hindus and the majority community of the state, and the Kuki, a minority tribe who are mostly Christians. Nearly 200 civili-ans, mostly Kukis, were killed in the violence. Many churches and villages were also burned.
The violence was still ra-ging when GSR visited the Manipur capital of Imphal the last week of September.
The state government had cut off the internet but, pre-suming the situation had im-proved, restored it after four months – only for it to be disconnected again as fresh violence hit Imphal following social media rumors about the murder of two students of the Meitei. The state government also reimposed indefinite cur-few in Imphal, the capital city.
“Our sisters take good care of us here,” said Khouchung, a member of the Naga, a mino-rity tribe in Manipur that is not involved in the conflict.
The sisters had to send the Kuki students back from their Imphal center for security rea-sons, as the majority commu-nity of Meiteis were targeting Kukis, but sisters continued to take care of the orphaned Kuki children in refugee camps thro-ugh their outreach programs.
Scholar recalls Jesuits’ contribution to Jaipur’s Jantar Mantar
Jaipur’s Jantar Mantar, an iconic scientific marvel, was created in 1734 with ideas from astronomy scholars of various reli-gions, including Jesuit pri-ests from Goa, says a sci-ence historian in India.
The site is “truly an innovation far ahead of its time” and intrinsically secular in nature, said Dhruv Raina Nove-mber 5 while delivering a lecture at the MOG Sundays, an initiative of the Museum of Goa, Pilerne.
The Jantar Mantar is a collection of 19 astronomical instruments built by Sawai Jai Singh, the founder of Jaipur in the present day Rajasthan state.
“Many Jesuits who came to India from France were astronomers. They interacted with local traditions and ways of doing astronomy. Jai Singh II wrote to the Governor of Goa to tell him that he needed some astronomers and the governor sent some Jesuit priests,” Raina said.
Hence, Jai Singh II’s endea-vour facilitated interactions between Muslim, Brahmin and Christian astronomers, making it a secular space, he added.
The site that features the world’s largest stone sundial now holds UNESCO World Heritage status. The Rajput king built the Jantar Mantar in pursuit of accurate scientific knowledge and its production. The sun dial is colloquially known as the ‘Samrat Yantra’ or ‘King of Instruments,” Raina explained.