Tag: Dalits

70 years since universal declaration, human rights ‘ignored and abused all over the world’

December 7, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Andrew Brunson, China, Colombia, Dalits, Don Ossewaarde, Egypt, Ethiopia, Human rights, India, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, Myanmar, New York, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Syria, Turkey, UN

Ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Monday, 10 December, rights group ADF International has called for “recommitment” to the founding principles, which it says are being “consistently ignored and abused … all over the world”. Chief among those rights, ADF notes, is the . . . Read More

Nepal: 4 women arrested for ‘attempting to forcefully convert people to Christianity’

November 8, 2018 Nepal Anti-conversion law, Dalits, Kathmandu, Nepal, Proselytism

Nepal Entry, Meeting Sonam Tsering (guitarist, leads tours up to Annapurna, surprisingly a Christian Tibetan), Intro to everything, Pema Wangdi Lama recording studio, Boudhanath 1 (Flickr / Damien KR / CC)

Four Christian women were arrested earlier this week in Nepal on suspicion of attempting to convert people to Christianity by force, Asia News reports. The women – two of whom are Japanese – were accused by residents of proselytising door-to-door. They were followed and filmed, and the footage was passed . . . Read More

India: Kandhamal Christians still waiting for justice one decade after massacre

August 23, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Dalits, Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Odisha, Proselytism

Some 56,000 Christians fled their homes during the rioting and many stayed in camps such as this one in Raikia. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Ten years after the worst case of anti-Christian violence in India’s history, the local community continues to struggle, with reparations from the government slow in coming and seven reportedly innocent Christians still in prison. Nearly 100 Christians were killed, 300 churches and 6,000 Christian homes were damaged, and 55,000 people . . . Read More

Modi speaks out against ‘menace’ of mob attacks for first time

August 15, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, Bajrang Dal, Bihar, BJP, Dalits, Ghar Wapsi, India, Madhya Pradesh, Minorities, Narendra Modi, Pentecostals, RSS, Vishva Hindu Parishad

Attacks on Christians in India by Hindu extremists are on the increase and often their church buildings are destroyed as well, like this one in central India.

India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has for the first time condemned violence against minorities, saying that everyone has a duty to fight the “menace” of mob lynchings. But his critics say that, after four years in power at the head of a Hindu nationalist government, the comments have come too . . . Read More

Hindu extremist violence on the rise in southern Indian states

August 3, 2018 India Andhra Pradesh, Bajrang Dal, BJP, Caste, Churches, Converts, Dalits, Hindu nationalism, House churches, Hyderabad, India, Narendra Modi, Police, Religious freedom, RSS, Telangana

Good Fruit Ministries church in Sangameshwar village of Siddhipet District, Telangana state was demolished by a bull dozer on the directions of uppercaste Hindus who follow Vaastu shastra.

Religious freedom advocate ADF India has noted a rise in incidents of religiously motivated violence in India’s two Telugu language-speaking southern states, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, including the brutal murder of an elderly Christian woman. So far this year, ADF India says it has verified 17 incidents of anti-Christian persecution . . . Read More

India: 16 more Christians detained under Jharkhand’s ‘anti-conversion law’

July 10, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Caste, Dalits, Hindu nationalism, India, Jharkhand, Missionaries, Proselytism, Religious freedom, RSS

A number of the Christians who were arrested by police, after they held a prayer service at the house of a Christian family in Phulpahari, India. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A group of 16 Indian tribal Christians who visited another tribal family in the eastern state of Jharkhand to talk to them about Christianity are in police custody after the local village head accused them of “conversion by inducement”. Last year, Jharkhand became the seventh Indian state to introduce a . . . Read More

India ‘world’s most dangerous country for women’, as five activists gang-raped

June 27, 2018 India BJP, Caste, Converts, Dalits, India, Jharkhand, Rape, Women

Indian National Congress party activists hold placards and shout slogans during a protest against the abduction and gang-rape of five women in Jharkhand's Khunti district on 23 June 2018. (Photo: -/AFP/Getty Images)

Five women about to perform a play in a remote area in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, to raise awareness of human trafficking, were abducted and gang raped last week, as a new survey suggests India is now the most dangerous country for women. The incident occurred on Tuesday . . . Read More

India: case of murdered Dalit pastor not taken seriously, say victim’s friends

April 27, 2018 India Andhra Pradesh, Dalits, India

An elderly pastor in southern India has been found dead days after complaining to the police about a sum of money missing from his bank account. Neighbours of Vunnam Daniel, 65, from Tenali Mandal village in the south-eastern state of Andhra Pradesh, alerted police after they heard his mobile phone . . . Read More

India: Victorious Dalit activist shows increased opposition to BJP

December 21, 2017 BJP, Dalits, Gujarat, India, Pakistan, Ram Nath Kovind, Sweepers

The governing BJP under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership won elections in his home state Gujarat but opposition is growing. (Photo: SAM PANTHAKY/AFP/Getty Images)

Although India’s ruling party won last week’s elections in the western-most state of Gujarat, opposition is growing, becoming apparent in the win of an activist, Jignesh Mevani, who has been campaigning for land rights for the lowest Dalit caste (which means ‘broken’ or ‘oppressed’). Dalits account for two-thirds of India’s . . . Read More

India: Kandhamal victims wait, a year on, for government to obey Supreme Court

October 26, 2017 India Dalits, Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Odisha

In northeast India, local Christian leaders are calling on the Odisha state government to enforce a Supreme Court ruling that the compensation paid to victims of the 2008 Kandhamal violence, which left about 100 Christians dead, was “not enough”, reports Asia News. The August 2016 ruling ordered that Odisha should . . . Read More

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