Parishes Empty As Christians Forced To Become Hindus In Orissa
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Nika Pradhan is 71 and very tired. However, the Protestant says it is not age but what he underwent at the hands of Hindu fanatics that has sapped him. The extremists put a sword to his throat, shaved his head, bathed him in a river and declared him a Hindu. Several others in his Panasapadi village in Orissa state’s Kandhamal district went through the same ordeal. –
UCAN reports “I’m a Christian since birth, but have to fight to practice my
faith,” Pradhan told UCA News in Cuttack, an ancient city in Orissa,
1,725 kilometers southeast of New Delhi. He fled there seeking help
from the Church.
Catholic and Protestant Church workers say hundreds of Christians
were forcibly converted to Hinduism amid the anti-Christian violence
that has wracked the state since Aug. 24. In some cases, mobs forced
entire parishes to embrace Hinduism.
India Express reports In the aftermath of the Bajrang Dal-sponsored
attacks on Christian places of worship, the community has been left to
fend for itself because it apparently did not make up for a vote bank.
Spero reports Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, President of the CBCI, firmly condemned
the attacks and said that “the heightened attacks on Christians, their
dwellings and places of worship in different parts of the country are
the manifestation of the growing intolerance of certain sections of
society that blatantly defy the constitutional rights
of the citizens of this country. We ask them to desist from such
provocation of religious minorities in India and follow a path of
dialogue and dignified approach to sorting out any social, religious
and political issues.”
The Bishops reiterate their stand that they abhor violence as it
undermines civilized form of living, “and we, as a nation, cannot allow
ourselves to be drawn into the vortex of primitive instincts of
conflict and destruction. The Christian community in India has been
conducting itself in a peaceful manner all this while, and even under
extreme provocation it has exercised restraint.
The Morung Express reports The anti conversion laws/acts enacted by some of the States in India
which were/are ruled by the BJP are anti constitutional, anti secular,
anti Christians and other religious minorities. The choice for the
people of India is either secular India or theocratic India. There is
no other option. We the people of India have chosen to live as one
Nation, as one people and as one country, in a democratic, socialist
and secular country. Only such a system would contain the size of
India, its multiplicities of national, social, ethnic, cultural,
religious and linguistic communities.
It appears now that the last days of a secular India are looming around the door.
NDTV reports After A Series Of Attacks On
Churches In Orissa And Karnataka Sources Have Told NDTV That The Home
Ministry Is Seriously Considering Issuing A Warning To These States
Under Article 355 Of The Constitution.