HYDERABAD, FEB. 17. The All-India Christian Council has condemned the tonsuring of six women in Orissa for embracing Christianity. The incident took place in Kilipala village in Jagatsinghpur district on February 6.
In a statement here, Joseph D'Souza, president, and other office-bearers said the State Government had been a passive spectator and "often connived, by its deliberate inaction, in the violence against Christians." Apart from ignoring the distress calls of the community, the Central Government had nurtured a hate campaign against it.
Dr. Joseph sought a halt to the "calumny" unleashed by the BJP and the Sangh Parivar leaders.
Christian Council assails harassment of converts
Monday, May 22, 2006
Indian Christians feel targeted by Rajasthan's anti-conversion bill
Chennai, India, 10 April (ENI). Christians are expressing anguish over draconian provisions they see in an anti-conversion bill passed despite a boycott by opposition parties in the legislature of Rajasthan state ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Secular human rights activists joined Christians and Muslims at a meeting in the state capital of Jaipur on 8 April to denounce the bill the day after it was passed. They fear it could be misused to hound religious minorities especially Christians who have been facing harassment at the hands of Hindu fundamentalists.
"Everyone was unanimous that this bill has an ulterior motive," Roman Catholic Bishop Oswald Lewis of Jaipur, who attended the meeting, told Ecumenical News International on 10 April.
Christians in Rajasthan number less than 100 000 of the state's 57 million people.
The Global Council of Indian Christians in a statement said the bill rushed through the legislature without debate could "cripple the right of religion" that is enshrined in the Indian constitution.
The bill provides for a jail term of two to five years and a fine of up to 50 000 rupees (US$1115) for conversions by "allurements, fraudulent means or by force". However, it has exempted "home-coming", or the reconversion of Hindus back to their original faith, from provisions laid down in the bill.
"This is a blatantly partisan legislation," Bishop Lewis told ENI. Powerful Hindu fundamentalist groups regularly pressured Christian converts scattered in remote areas to reconvert to Hinduism by physical threats and social boycott, he said, noting that, "Now they have been exempted from the purview of this bill."
As well as this, bail is prohibited for people charged with unlawful conversion, Bishop Lewis said, evoking fears of people being imprisoned without a hearing on false charges until the case came to court.
Christians will decide on their strategy to counter this law when a delegation from the National Council of Churches in India, a grouping of 29 Orthodox and Protestant churches, visits church leaders in the state later in April, said Bishop Lewis.
Indian Christians feel targeted by Rajasthan's anti-conversion bill
Secular human rights activists joined Christians and Muslims at a meeting in the state capital of Jaipur on 8 April to denounce the bill the day after it was passed. They fear it could be misused to hound religious minorities especially Christians who have been facing harassment at the hands of Hindu fundamentalists.
"Everyone was unanimous that this bill has an ulterior motive," Roman Catholic Bishop Oswald Lewis of Jaipur, who attended the meeting, told Ecumenical News International on 10 April.
Christians in Rajasthan number less than 100 000 of the state's 57 million people.
The Global Council of Indian Christians in a statement said the bill rushed through the legislature without debate could "cripple the right of religion" that is enshrined in the Indian constitution.
The bill provides for a jail term of two to five years and a fine of up to 50 000 rupees (US$1115) for conversions by "allurements, fraudulent means or by force". However, it has exempted "home-coming", or the reconversion of Hindus back to their original faith, from provisions laid down in the bill.
"This is a blatantly partisan legislation," Bishop Lewis told ENI. Powerful Hindu fundamentalist groups regularly pressured Christian converts scattered in remote areas to reconvert to Hinduism by physical threats and social boycott, he said, noting that, "Now they have been exempted from the purview of this bill."
As well as this, bail is prohibited for people charged with unlawful conversion, Bishop Lewis said, evoking fears of people being imprisoned without a hearing on false charges until the case came to court.
Christians will decide on their strategy to counter this law when a delegation from the National Council of Churches in India, a grouping of 29 Orthodox and Protestant churches, visits church leaders in the state later in April, said Bishop Lewis.
Indian Christians feel targeted by Rajasthan's anti-conversion bill
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