National
Radical Hindu Attacks Shatter Lives in India
The normalization of social hostility against religious minorities is a critical factor in India’s decline of religious freedom.
Violent attacks on Indian Christians have more than doubled in recent years, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI). In 2014, the year the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rose to political power, EFI recorded 147 violent attacks on Indian Christians. In 2019, after five years of BJP rule, EFI recorded 366 violent attacks.
EFI’s data is backed by a report released by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) India. ADF reported at least 328 incidents of targeted violence against Christians in 2019. Similar to EFI, ADF’s 2019 data represented an increase in violence when compared to recent years. And similarly, United Christian Forum reported 486 incidents of violence against Christians in 2021, a 300% increase since 2014.
However, the incidents reported by EFI and ADF likely only represent a portion of the violence India’s Christian community experiences. Most incidents go unreported due to a fear of reprisal and lack of confidence in India’s justice system.
The data collected by EFI and ADF shows a clear pattern of increasing social hostility facing Indian Christians. However, what the data doesn’t show is how genuinely terrifying it is to endure these incidents of violence.
“They came prepared to burn us.”
“They came prepared to burn us,” Pastor Hanok Steven recently told ICC in an interview. “I saw someone from the group taking petrol out of the fuel tank of [a] motorbike and heard others shouting for the petrol to be used to burn us.”
On Nov. 4, 2020, five Christians were brutally attacked by radical Hindu nationalists in the Meerpet neighborhood of Hyderabad, India. The attack resulted in the Christian victims sustaining multiple serious injuries.
According to Pastor Hanok, a Christian woman named Sadhya invited several church members to a prayer meeting. Before the meeting, Sadhya received permission from her Hindu landlord to hold the meeting in her home.
Around noon, only five minutes after the Christians gathered at Sadhya’s home, 15 nationalists broke into the house and attacked the Christians with wooden clubs and sticks. The landlord joined the nationalists and helped drag Pastor Hanok out of the house, where he was further assaulted and threatened with being set on fire.
“I was panicked as all of this was going on,” Pastor Hanok recalled. “For 30 minutes, the attack continued, but we eventually managed to run in different directions and reached the police station.”
As a result of the attack, three Christians were seriously injured, and Pastor Hanok’s car was damaged. A Christian man named Janaiah had his eardrum completely shattered, and a Christian woman named Annamma lost six teeth.
“We are completely cut off.”
In another incident, this time in India’s Jharkhand state, six Christian families had the electricity cut from their homes and were banned from accessing the village’s well for more than five months. All of this happened after the Christians refused to publicly recant their faith at a village meeting.
On July 5, 2020, the village council of Petrudu, located in the Latehar district, demanded that the six Christian families recant their faith. When they refused, they were attacked and brutally beaten.
After the attack, the devastating social boycott was instigated against the Christian families.
“We walked for miles to fetch water for almost six months,” Joginder, one of the victims, told ICC. “Most of the time, our phones don’t work as we do not have electricity. We have to walk to neighboring villages to charge our phones.”
“We are completely cut off,” Joginder
continued. “No one gives us daily wage working in the village, and we are not allowed to have any association with the other villagers. This has been a painful experience.”
Joginder and his fellow Christians have taken legal action against the people who attacked them on July 5. They are also fighting for the court to declare that they are legally allowed to practice the faith of their choosing in the village without social consequence.
Protecting Religious Freedom
Across India, similar reports of social hostility against Christians are being reported on almost a daily basis. Unchecked inflammatory rhetoric used by political leaders and widespread impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators are among the leading reasons why social hostility against Christians continues to rise across India.
If Indian Christians are to fully realize the religious freedom promised to them in the constitution, authorities must protect Christians and punish those responsible for attacks. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the direction India is currently heading. Instead, India’s leaders are allowing the constitution’s promise of religious freedom to slowly fade from reality for hundreds of millions of religious minorities.
Sources:persecution
National
ഐ.പി.സി. നേര്യമംഗലം സെന്റർ യുവജന ക്യാമ്പ് പെരുമ്പാവൂർ കീഴില്ലത്ത് വച്ച് ഞാറാഴ്ച 6 pm ന് ഉദ്ഘാടനം നടത്തപ്പെടുന്നു
IPC നേര്യമംഗലം സെന്റർ PYPA യുടെ ആഭിമുഖ്യത്തിൽ ഞാറാഴ്ച 6 pm ന് കീഴില്ലം ഇവാഞ്ചലിക്കൽ റീ ട്രീറ്റ് സെന്ററിൽ വച്ച് സെന്റർ ക്യാമ്പ് സെന്റർ പാസ്റ്റർ: സണ്ണി മാത്യൂ ഉദ്ഘാടനം ചെയ്യുന്നു: PYPA സെന്റർ പ്രസിഡന്റ് പാസ്റ്റർ: ഫ്രീ ജോ ഫ്രാൻസിസ് ആദ്ധ്യക്ഷത വഹിക്കും.
തുടർന്ന് 24, 25 തീയതികളിൽ പാസ്റ്റേഴ്സ്: ഉമ്മൻ പി ക്ലമെന്റ് സൺ, ബിനു വടശ്ശേരി ക്കര, മാത്യൂ വർഗ്ഗീസ്, ഇവ: പി.സി. ജെ ബു, ഷാർലെറ്റ് പി. മാത്യൂ തുടങ്ങിയവർ വിവിധ സെക്ഷനുകളിൽ ക്ലാസ്സ് എടുക്കുന്നു.ഗാനശുശ്രൂഷകൾക്ക് നേതൃത്വം നൾക്കുന്നത് പാസ്റ്റർ സോജൻ സി.എസ്, ജീസൺ ജോർജ്ജ് എന്നീവരാണ്.
സമയം വിണ്ടെടുക്കുക (Redeem the time) എന്നതാണ് ചിന്താവിഷയം.
ഇവാ: ജെയ്സൺ സാബു (സെക്രട്ടറി), ജോബ് പി. ഏലിയാസ് (ട്രഷറാർ ) ബിബിൻ ബി ജ്ജു (പബ്ളിസിറ്റി ) തുടങ്ങിയവരുടെ നേതൃത്വത്തിൽ വിവിധ കമ്മറ്റികൾ പ്രവർത്തിച്ചു വരുന്നു.
25 ന് 1 pm ന് നടത്തപ്പെടുന്ന സമാപന സമ്മേളനത്തിൽ ഐ.പി.സി കേരളാ സ്റ്റേറ്റ് കൗൺസിൽ അംഗങ്ങൾ, സെന്റർ എക്സിക്യൂട്ടിവുകൾ തുടങ്ങിയവർ പങ്കെടുക്കും സെന്ററിലെ 21 സഭകളും പ്രവർത്തന മണ്ഡലങ്ങളും ഏറണാകുളം, ഇടുക്കി ജില്ലകളിലായി സ്ഥിതിചെയ്യുന്നു.
Sources:cchintha.in
ആരോമലായി അരോമ, പുന്നമടയിൽ പുതിയ താരോദയം! കന്നിയങ്കത്തിൽ ഫോട്ടോ ഫിനിഷിൽ നെഹ്റു ട്രോഫിയിൽ മുത്തമിട്ടു.
72-ാമത് നെഹ്റു ട്രോഫി ജലമേളയിൽ അരോമ ചുണ്ടൻ ജേതാക്കളായി. പുന്നമടക്കായലിൽ നടന്ന വാശിയേറിയ ഫൈനൽ പോരാട്ടത്തിൽ ഫോട്ടോ ഫിനിഷിലാണ് അരോമ ബോട്ട് ക്ലബ്ബ് തുഴഞ്ഞ അരോമ ചുണ്ടൻ കന്നി കിരീടം ചൂടിയത്. 4 മിനിറ്റ് 23.328 സെക്കൻഡിൽ ഫിനിഷ് ചെയ്താണ് അരോമ ജലരാജാക്കന്മാരായത്. 4.23.44 സമയത്തിൽ ഫിനിഷ് ചെയ്ത നടുഭാഗം ചുണ്ടൻ രണ്ടാം സ്ഥാനവും, വീയപുരം, മേൽപ്പാടം ചുണ്ടനുകൾ യഥാക്രമം മൂന്നും നാലും സ്ഥാനങ്ങളും നേടി. ചമ്പക്കുളം മൂലം വള്ളംകളിയിലെ വിജയത്തിന് പിന്നാലെയാണ് സ്വന്തം ക്ലബ്ബിന്റെയും ചുണ്ടന്റെയും കന്നി സീസണിൽ തന്നെ അരോമ നെഹ്റു ട്രോഫിയും സ്വന്തമാക്കുന്നത്.
ഉച്ചയോടെ മുഖ്യമന്ത്രി വി.ഡി. സതീശൻ ജലമേള ഉദ്ഘാടനം ചെയ്തു. കർണാടക മുഖ്യമന്ത്രി ഡി.കെ. ശിവകുമാർ, കേന്ദ്രമന്ത്രി ഗജേന്ദ്ര സിംഗ് ഷെഖാവത്ത്, രമേശ് ചെന്നിത്തല, കെ.സി. വേണുഗോപാൽ എം.പി. തുടങ്ങിയ പ്രമുഖർ ചടങ്ങിൽ പങ്കെടുത്തു. മന്ത്രി പി.സി. വിഷ്ണുനാഥാണ് ചടങ്ങിൽ പതാക ഉയർത്തിയത്.
http://theendtimeradio.com
In Keralam, Aroma Chundan has won the 72nd Nehru Trophy Boat Race in a nail-biting finish at Punnamada Lake in Alappuzha. In one of the closest contests in the history of the legendary water festival, Aromal Chundan crossed the finish line in 4 minutes, 23 seconds, and 328 milliseconds to secure the coveted trophy.
Nadubhagom Chundan finished a close second with a time of 4 minutes, 23 seconds, and 448 milliseconds, while Veeyapuram Chundan took third place, clocking in at 4 minutes, 23 seconds, and 770 milliseconds.
The high-octane race was the highlight of a grand event that featured 71 boats, including 22 traditional snake boats, competing across various categories. Thousands of spectators, including race enthusiasts and foreign tourists, gathered along the backwaters to witness Keralam’s iconic sporting and cultural spectacle, for which a local holiday was declared across government offices and educational institutions in Alappuzha district.
http://theendtimeradio.com
Church leaders have welcomed a ruling by a provincial top court in southern India allowing a Christian woman to seek dissolution of her marriage in a family court where she currently resides after moving out of her matrimonial home.
The Kerala High Court’s Aug. 19 ruling came on an appeal filed by a Christian woman seeking legal separation from her husband due to domestic violence.
The woman, who resides at her parental home in Kerala state’s Wayanad district, had challenged a family court order directing her to file her application in Kasargod district, where her estranged husband and his family live.
Global Catholic
The British-era Indian Divorce Act of 1869, which governs judicial separation and marriage dissolution, among other things, for Christians in India, makes it mandatory for women to approach a family court in the place where “the marriage was solemnized, or the husband and wife reside or last resided together.”
In her appeal to the High Court, the Christian woman argued that this restriction resulted “in serious prejudice to Christian women who intend to file for divorce.”
The woman had earlier challenged the family court order before a single bench of the Kerala High Court on the grounds that she was not in a position “to travel long distances, in protracted litigations in a hostile jurisdiction.”
She pointed out that women were allowed to approach family courts where they resided under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, as well as the Special Marriage Act, 1954, which enables marriages between individuals of any religion, caste, or nationality, but not under the law governing Christian marriages.
The single-judge bench, in a June 30 ruling, agreed with her contentions but refused to grant her relief, holding that amending the law was the only solution and leaving it to the Indian Parliament to decide.
The judge, however, directed that the order be sent to the federal government, recommending it to amend the 1869 law.
The High Court’s division bench of Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Preeta A K, whom she approached later, allowed her appeal.
It ruled that she could file her application before a family court “having jurisdiction over the place where she is currently residing, even if that place is different from where the marriage was solemnized or where the couple last lived together.”
Church leaders hailed this Aug. 19 ruling as a “landmark decision” based on “a wise interpretation of a contentious clause.”
Father Ebigin Arackal, secretary to the Commission for Canon Law of the Kerala Region Latin Catholic Bishops’ Council, said, “We are glad that the top court, through its wise interpretation of a contentious clause, has ended decades-old discrimination against Christian women.”
Aleykutty P T, a lawyer in Kerala’s Idukki district, said Christian women were often forced to travel to places where their husbands were based, which made them insecure and sometimes even posed a threat to their lives.
“Now with this order, they can obviously choose a place where it’s safer and they get support,” she told UCA News on Aug. 20.
Govind Yadav, a lawyer at the Supreme Court in New Delhi, said this order for Kerala can become a precedent for other states to follow.
“But as long as the federal government fails to amend the colonial-era law, this discrimination against Christian women will continue,” he added.
Christians make up 2.3 percent of India’s more than 1.4 billion people; about 80 percent of whom are Hindus.
Sources:ucanews
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ഐ.പി.സി. നേര്യമംഗലം സെന്റർ യുവജന ക്യാമ്പ് പെരുമ്പാവൂർ കീഴില്ലത്ത് വച്ച് ഞാറാഴ്ച 6 pm ന് ഉദ്ഘാടനം നടത്തപ്പെടുന്നു
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