Tag: Hindu nationalism

India’s government ‘rewriting history’ to appear more Hindu

March 22, 2018 India BJP, Education, Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, India, Minorities, Narendra Modi

The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appointed a committee of scholars to rewrite the history of the nation in favour of Hindus, Reuters has reported. The news agency said that minutes of a January 2017 meeting of the 14-person committee and interviews with members indicated that the . . . Read More

Pro-Hindu BJP wins over Christian voters in northeast India

March 16, 2018 India Beef, Bihar, BJP, Catholics, Elections, Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, India, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Narendra Modi, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh

Christians gather for the general assembly of the National Council of Churches in India in Shillong, capital of the Christian-majority state of Meghalaya in the north-east. (May 2008)

India’s pro-Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is now the governing party in two Christian-dominated states in the northeast, following recent election successes in Nagaland and Meghalaya. But to do so, it had to betray its core values of Hindutva, according to John Dayal, former National President of the All India . . . Read More

India: Church leaders deplore bulldozing of hospital premises in BJP-ruled state

March 14, 2018 India BJP, Catholics, Hindu nationalism, India, Madhya Pradesh, Minorities, Ujjain

Church leaders in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have deplored an attack on a Catholic hospital, the premises of which was vandalised and bulldozed by a mob led by the personal assistant of a Member of Parliament, representing the ruling BJP. “Police have filed a case today [14 . . . Read More

Indian policeman joins 50-strong Hindu mob’s attack on churches

March 12, 2018 India Hindu Munnani, Hindu nationalism, India, Tamil Nadu

A Hindu mob raided five churches in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu yesterday (11 March), attacking and abusing Christians as they worshipped. Several women were stripped and beaten. The attackers, who according to witnesses were accompanied by a state-provided police officer, were part of Hindu Munnani, a Tamil . . . Read More

India: Six Christians injured following Hindu attack over baby’s burial

March 5, 2018 India Children, Elections, Hindu nationalism, India, Minorities, Odisha, Women

One of the victims of the attack on Christian families in Odisha that left some critically injured. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Six Christians were badly injured and a house torched in an attack by Hindu extremists in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, following the death and burial of a Christian baby. The incident occurred on 27 February in Tangaguda, a town in Malkangiri District, where three Christian families live alongside . . . Read More

India: Tamil Nadu continues to lead the way in violent attacks on Christians

March 2, 2018 India Hindu Munnani, Hindu nationalism, House churches, India, Tamil Nadu

After a year in which hate crimes against Indian Christians happened at a rate of almost one verified incident per day, the state which registered the most incidents in 2017 (over 50) – Tamil Nadu – continues to see outbreaks of violence. In the first two months of 2018, the . . . Read More

India: Videos show Hindu nationalists attacking Christians, burning Bibles

February 22, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Hindu nationalism, India, RSS, Telangana

Videos have emerged of Hindu extremists abusing Christians carrying religious literature. In one of the videos the extremists are seen setting alight a pile of Bibles. The two incidents, which were verified by Christians in the area, were filmed in southern India. They both show a mob of Hindu extremists . . . Read More

2017 ‘one of the most traumatic years for Indian Christians’

February 19, 2018 India Alphons Kannanthanam, BJP, Chhattisgarh, Hindu nationalism, India, Kandhamal, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Sangh Parivar, Uttar Pradesh

Hindu radicals burn a dummy replica of local Jharkhand Archbishop, Cardinal Telephore Toppo of Ranchi. (Photo: Catholic Bishops' Conference of India)

The Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) has described 2017 as “one of the most traumatic” years for Indian Christians in a decade after it recorded 351 verified incidences of hate crimes against Christians during the year. The Religious Liberty Commission of the EFI, which brings together Christians from more than . . . Read More

India: Catholic bishops warn against Hindu nationalism as religious hate crimes rise

February 15, 2018 India Bangalore, Baptists, BJP, Catholics, Digital India Day, Good Governance Day, Hindu nationalism, India, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh

An acknowledgement by India’s BJP-led government that there has been a rise in religion-based hate crime has coincided with a warning from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) about the dangers to the country of a Hindu-nationalist agenda. Statistics revealed in India’s parliament on 6 February confirmed a long-standing . . . Read More

Indian Christian complained of threats before he was found dead

January 23, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, Beef, BJP, Hindu nationalism, India, Jammu and Kashmir, Minorities, Narendra Modi, Punjab, Tamil Nadu

The body of Rev. Gideon Periyaswamy, 43-year-old pastor of the church of Maknayeem in Adayachery village, in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state, was found hanging from the roof of his house on 20 January. Church congregation members who discovered his body described his knees bent to the floor and his . . . Read More

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