The bogey of ‘Love Jihad’ continues to be kept centre-stage! An insidious strategy to ‘de-focus’ on real issues plaguing society in India, says Cedric Prakash SJ. in this hard-hitting piece: A Bishop from Kerala, and a Chief Minister from Gujarat are both wrong Recently, a Bishop from Kerala directly accused Muslims for making ‘Catholic’ girls […]
Tributes and condolences are pouring in from all parts of the country as the Indian Christian community and national political and civic leaders mourn the death of 80 year old Oscar Fernandes, a prominent Catholic politician from Karnataka State and former Union minister, on September 13. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his grief over the […]
Swaraj is my birth right, and I shall have it” – This well know quote is often attributed to Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a stalwart of the Indian Independence Movement. However, the truth is that it was not Tilak, but Joseph ‘Kaka’ Baptista, his close associate and fellow freedom fighter, who coined the phrase. Throughout the […]
A 21-year old tribal boy from the Ooladbari tea gardens of North Bengal, survivor of a near fatal accident, two years and nine months ago, can now lead a normal life, thanks to the intervention of two Salesian priests and an ‘angel’ from Italy. Darshan Oraon, abandoned by his parents, lives with his ailing grandmother […]
By Cedric Prakash SJ The institutional murder of 84-year-old Jesuit priest Fr Stan Swamy,who died on 5 July 2021 while still in judicial custody, has shaken the very foundations of democracy in India. The need and the urgency to defend democracy and all that is precious in the Constitution of India against repressive and anti-people […]
Never giving up the struggle for justice and reparation of those killed, displaced, and imprisoned on fake charges, these awards will keep the Kandhamal story alive – a bizarre bloodbath of right wing hate fomented in an Indian state whose founder was a Christian named Michael Madhusudan Das. National Solidarity Forum (NSF), comprising over 70 […]
India voted in favour of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the condition that after independence all Indians are indigenous. Therefore, it does not consider the concept of “indigenous peoples”, and therefore the UNDRIP, applicable to India. In India, there are 705 ethnic groups officially recognized as “Scheduled Tribes,” although there are […]
Call it bad timing, political naivete, or simply a blinkered attitude to reality, but one thing is certain, a Kerala church is stirring up a hornet’s nest that is making a lot of Christians in North India jittery. A Syro-Malabar Catholic diocese in Kerala has announced a family welfare scheme for its faithful that flies […]
“My country is on fire, there is none to put it out,” he said. Even as he lamented, he was perhaps unaware of another kind of fire that has begun smouldering within the Catholic Church in India. Stanislaus Lourdaswamy’s death has brought the Church to a crossroads. The fire to call out injustice and spread […]
The Congregation of the Sisters of the Little Flower of Bethany, popularly called, ‘Bethany Sisters, ’is celebrating their centenary year by building 100 houses for the poor. Father Raymond Francis Camillus Mascarenhas of Mangalore diocese founded the congregation on July 16, 1921, at Bendur, Mangalore (now Mangaluru,) to cater to people on the margins, according […]
Yesterday night, the 15th of July a mob attacked patients, nurses, and a nun in the only functioning ward of a hospital. Read on: An Open Letter to the Well Wishers of Mokama Nazareth HospitalWith a heavy heart I wish you all a very Good Morning! For Nazareth Hospital it is not a good morning […]
Dear Fr. Stan Swamy, On 5 July, you completed your pilgrimage here on earth! Thousands feel your loss everywhere; a light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere! There is spontaneous outrage because of what led to your death; most regard it as institutionalised murder! I am sure that you will […]
