Tag Archives: Country: India

Eureka Alert: “In the next 20 years in large parts of China and India, there will be a 10% to 20% excess of young men because of sex selection and this imbalance will have societal repercussions, states an analysis in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj.101368.pdf”

Religion Clause Blog: “According to India Today, the All India Shia Personal Law Board is taking action to counter the growing problem of domestic violence.”

AP: “India’s Supreme Court ruled Monday that in rare cases a terminally ill patient can be removed from life support, a major shift in a country where such acts have long been illegal.”

Christian Post: “Barnabas Fund is appealing to the United Nations to intervene after India refused to grant refuge to six Afghan converts. The converts were named only as Rahimullah and Rita, who have three children, another couple Mohammad and Aisha, who have two children, and two sisters Shazia and Sunita.”

CNBC: “China should overtake the US to become the largest economy in the world by 2020, then be overtaken by India by 2050,” he predicted.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/yet-another-delay-in-dalit-christian-affirmative-action-case-49129/

LifeNews: “Two people have been arrested by local police in southeastern India, near Bangladesh, after a woman died in a failed abortion Sunday night.”

Religion Clause Blog: “In Goradia v. Union of India, (India Sup. Ct., Jan. 28, 2011), India’s Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to India’s Haj Committee Act of 2002 under which the government provides air fare subsidies for Haj pilgrims.”

Times of India: “A woman acting as surrogate mother in India cannot be less than 21 or over 35 years. Also, she cannot give more than five live births, including her own children. With India fast emerging as a hotspot for rent-a-womb phenomenon, the Union health ministry has now finalised the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) Regulation Bill 2010, which has been sent to the law ministry for its approval.”

DNA India: “Government subsidy to Muslims for Haj pilgrimage or similar benefits for other religions is not violative of the Constitution, the Supreme Court today ruled. The apex court rejected the argument that grant of subsidy for Muslims undertaking the Haj amounts to violation of Articles 14 (equality), 15 b (non-discrimination) and 27 (no public taxing for promoting any religion).”

Religion Clause: “According to Cath News, India’s Supreme Court today withdrew on its own initiative a paragraph in an opinion it handed down last week that had created significant concern among Christian leaders and human rights groups.”

Asia News: “While confirming the life sentence for the main culprit of the heinous crime, the court added a few remarks on non-existent forced conversions that seem to justify sectarian and anti-Christian violence. Cardinal Gracias, ‘I’m worried about the interpretations that may be given to this view, and especially for the implications that this ruling could have in the future.’”

Religion Clause: “In India yesterday, a two-judge panel of the Gujarat High Court heard arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of a Hindu ceremony in which the Gujarat governor, the chief justice of the High Court and other judges had all taken part last year.”

Sify: “A residential complex cannot be used as a religious building, the Gujarat High Court has ruled and stated that doing so would amount to a breach of the Bombay Provincial Municipalities Act.”

NDTV: “The police has filed a chargesheet against 27 accused in the brutal attack on Professor T. J. Joseph, a private college lecturer in Kerala. His right hand had been chopped off allegedly by activists of the radical outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) on July 4, 2010.”

Times of India: “According to Mangej Singh, deputy director (DDA), the religious structure was built illegally on DDA land and was demolished after a committee approved it.”

Radio Australia News: “Muslim traders in India have welcomed a new share index of companies that comply with Islamic law. The Bombay Stock Exchange launched the index of sharia-compliant firms on Monday, to open stock-trading to more Muslims.”

Indian Express: “Though Section 377 of the IPC was amended last year which has decriminalised non-heterosexual sex between consenting adults, civil rights for homosexuals have a long way to go: this is the underlying theme of a new initiative started by the Indian Law Society’s Law College (ILS) in Pune along with Samabhavana Society, an NGO for gay men which will commence next year.”

Telegraph: “For six months, Minati Khatua, 27, from Rourkela, Orissa, India, was told by her husband, who gave the name Sitakant Routray, that they could not consumate their marriage because ‘he’ was observing a religious ritual.”

Catholic Culture: “A week ahead of Christmas, half a dozen brutal attacks on Christian targets by Hindu fundamentalists have been reported from different parts of India.”

Hindustan Times: “The Icelandic Parliament, after much persuasion from the couple and heated debates back home, decided to give the baby a social security number. This means Joel could be the first surrogate baby to be granted citizenship of Iceland.”

Montreal Gazette: “Canada’s fertility laws are driving infertile couples who are desperate for babies into the black market or abroad and need to be reformed, critics say. The 6-year-old law prohibiting payment for sperm, eggs or surrogacy services has Canadians seeking paid surrogates in India.”

DNA India: “Three weeks ago in Mumbai, opponents of the legislation formed the Maharashtra Temple and Religious Institution Federation (Mandir ani Dharmik Sanstha Mahasangh) which, among other things, will oppose plans to give the state more control over the management and finances of the state’s Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhists shrines.”

Washington Post: “Police fired tear gas and swung batons to disperse hundreds of Muslims participating in religious processions in the Indian portion of Kashmir on Wednesday. At least six people were injured, police said.”

AFP: “A Muslim group in India on Tuesday filed a petition with the Supreme Court challenging a ruling that divided a bitterly-contested religious site between Hindus and Muslims.”

Indian Express: “Uttar Pradesh has sanctioned prosecution of BJP leader Varun Gandhi in the cases registered against him for making ‘hate speeches’ at public meetings in Pilibhit in the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha election. Varun was later elected from Pilibhit.”

DNA: “The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), along with the city police, has chalked out a time-bound action plan to demolish 532 illegal religious structures, which are obstructing roads. It has already demolished 12 temples in two days.”

Christian Today: “Organised by the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), the consultation will bring together leaders cutting across religious lines to study the outcome of anti-conversion laws that have been implemented in at least six states.”

Sydney Morning Herald: “An Islamist militant group, the Indian Mujahideen, has circulated an email claiming responsibility. It said the attack was to ‘avenge’ the 1992 destruction of the 16th-century Babri mosque by Hindu mobs in the Uttar Pradesh town of Ayodhya.”

AP: A bomb hidden in a metal canister exploded Tuesday evening as thousands gathered for a Hindu ceremony, killing a toddler and triggering a stampede that left many others wounded in a holy Indian city . . . The Press Trust of India reported a Muslim terror group allegedly claimed responsibility for the blast . . . ”

BBC: “A court in India’s northern Punjab and Haryana state has dismissed a petition seeking details of Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi’s religious beliefs.”

Seek 4 Media: “Thousands of gay activists celebrated in Delhi streets on Sunday to mark the first official gay pride parade since gay sex was legalized in India.”

The Raw Story: “The CEO of one of the two companies licensed to sell full body scanners to the TSA accompanied President Barack Obama to India earlier this month, a clear sign of the deep ties between Washington politicians and the companies pushing to have body scanners installed at all US airports.”

Times of India: “Things are finally looking up for the gay and transgender community in the state. In its first step forward, the state government has issued a GO bringing the transgender community under the purview of the minorities welfare department . . . As per current estimates, there are about 1.2 lakh gay and transgenders in Andhra Pradesh, and a massive 80 per cent of the transgenders are into sex work.”

MSN India: “The Kerala government today informed the High Court that an Islamic bank is established on the secular principles of Shariat law and irrespective of religion anyone can become a stakeholder.”

BBC: “One of India’s leading Muslim groups has appealed against a ruling over the Ayodhya holy site, where a Hindu mob destroyed a mosque 18 years ago. Two months ago, Lucknow High Court said the land should be divided, and that the razed 16th century mosque should not be rebuilt.”

Deccan Herald: “An Egyptian national was today arrested for allegedly distributing pamphlets and booklets at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) here, inviting people to convert to Islam, police said.”

DNA: “Taking a serious note of the mushrooming illegal roadside religious places, the Rajasthan high court has directed the state government to come out with a plan within a month for the removal of 58,000 such structures in the state.”

Associated Press: “Suspected Islamist rebels fatally shot two Indian paramilitary soldiers guarding a busy marketplace in India’s portion of Kashmir on Wednesday, an official said.”

Sify.com: “The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will ask the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headed Jharkhand government for a law to ban religious conversions in the state, a leader said Sunday.”

Via Religion Clause, a response from President Obama to a question on his “opinion about jihad” [full text]: ‘Well, the phrase jihad has a lot of meanings within Islam and is subject to a lot of different interpretations. But I will say that, first, Islam is one of the world’s great religions . . . I think all of us recognize that this great religion in the hands of a few extremists has been distorted to justify violence towards innocent people that is never justified.’”

KWTX: “Thomas Farr, who was the first director of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, says President Barack Obama’s administration treats religious rights with indifference.”

AFP: “President Barack Obama will not be protected by a vast armada of 34 US warships when he visits Mumbai this weekend, officials said, calling reports from India on security preparations ‘comical.’”

NDTV: “The White House will, of course, stay in Washington but the heart of the famous building will move to India when President Barack Obama lands in Mumbai on Saturday.”

Anjaneva Das, Gay and Transgender Rights in India: Naz Foundation V. Government of NCT of Delhi (August 19th, 2009). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1701077

“Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a figment of colonial creation, has criminalised ‘unnatural sexual acts’ since its application as law in 1862. Homosexuality falls within such acts and may attract punitive measures. In the previous century, legislatures and judiciaries across the globe have upheld laws criminalising homosexuality and transgender behaviour, justifying them on grounds of public decency and morality. With the advent of the contemporary epoch, the movement against the repressive and oppressive nature of Section 377 grew exponentially and reached its culmination in Naz Foundation v. Government of NCT of Delhi, wherein the Delhi High Court recognized the anachronism associated with Section 377 and interpreted it to exclude sexual acts between consenting adults, thus decriminalising homosexuality. Although the ramifications are limited and may be quelled by an act of Parliament, the judgment is a landmark in civil liberties’ litigation and may be regarded as one of the stepping stones to the emancipation of the sexual minorities in India from tyranny and coercion at the hands of the law. This paper is an attempt to extricate the significance and far-reaching effects of this judgment in the face of systemic abuse of homosexuals and transgenders, by enforcers of the law under the facade of upholding Section 377, prior to this judgment. This paper shall examine the constitutional aspects of the judgment i.e. the constitutional validity of the impugned statute against Article 14, 15(1) and 21. The author has attempted to include case law from other common law systems of the world to substantiate the sound nature of the judgment. The debates between Lord Devlin and H.L.A. Hart have also been used for the same.”

Asia News: “This morning, Sister Meena, the nun beaten and raped during the violence, recognized another of her 10 assailants. The man, Santosh Patnaik, has been defined by the religious sister as the main author of the rape. The identification was made just hours before the sixth session of the trial against the authors of the violence in the District Court in Cuttack. To date, Sr. Meena has recognized 5 of her 10 rapists.”

MBTV: “The US would be spending a whopping $200 million per day on President Barack Obama’s visit to the city.”

Kashmir Dispatch: “Mutaheda Majlis-e-Ulema, a body of Islamic scholars and clerics, Monday passed a resolution against the repeated curbs imposed by the government on Friday prayers at the Jamia Masjid and other major mosques during the past four months of unrest, terming it as ‘brazen interference in the religious affairs of Muslims’.”

TIME: “Declarations of solidarity and the $2 billion in promised military aid received by a high-level Pakistani delegation in Washington last week belie the hardening of U.S. attitudes toward Islamabad . . . ”

The Daily Rising Kashmir: “Alleging that authorities did not allow Friday prayers at historic Jamia Masjid for the 8th consecutive week today, Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar has called for a meeting of Islamic scholars on November 2 to discuss the counter strategy against restrictions on religious freedom.”

Indian Express: “In the year since the Delhi High Court passed a landmark judgment overturning a 150-year-old law and legalising consensual homosexual relationships between adults, more and more women stuck in unhappy marriages have filed for divorce on the grounds that their husbands are ‘homosexual’.”

Karen Sloan writes at the National Law Journal: “Other countries face much larger problems when it comes to regulating the number of law students and quality of legal education. Legal educators from India, China, Japan and France spoke at Harvard Law School Friday during a panel discussion about the challenges they face in producing an appropriate number of good lawyers.”

Religion Clause Blog: “The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom this week sent a letter (full text) to President Obama urging him to highlight the importance of religious freedom during his upcoming visits to Indonesia and India.”

Koenraad Elst writing in The Brussels Journal: “[T]he mere fact that the Rama Janmabhumi (Rama’s birthplace) site in Ayodhya is well-established as a sacred site for Hindu pilgrimage, is reason enough to protect its functioning as a Hindu sacred site, complete with proper Hindu temple architecture. Ayodhya doesn’t have this status in any other religion . . . So, the sensible and secular thing to do, even for those sceptical of every religious belief involved, is to leave the site to the Hindus . . . a group of ‘eminent historians’ started raising the stakes and turning this local communal deal into a clash of civilizations . . . In Western academe, dozens chose to toe this party-line of disregarding the evidence and denying the obvious, viz. that the Babri Masjid (along with the Kaaba in Mecca, the Mezquita in Cordoba, the Ummayad mosque in Damascus, the Aya Sophia in Istambul, the Quwwatu’l-Islam in Delhi, etc.) was one of the numerous ancient mosques built on, or with materials from, purposely desecrated or demolished non-Muslim places of worship.”

CNN: Indian court splits holy site in three

Haveeru: “An Indian female teacher suspected of spreading Christianity among Shaviyani atoll Foakaidhoo students was moved to safety after parents tried to cast her out of the island.”

CNN: “A disputed holy site in India will be divided in an attempt to satisfy competing religious claims to the site, the Allahabad High Court ruled Thursday. Muslims, Hindus and a local sect will all get part of the land at Ayodhya, the three-judge panel said.”

Associated Press: “India has imposed a nationwide ban on sending bulk text messages amid concerns that a potentially explosive court judgment on who should control a disputed holy site could spark unrest, a top official said Wednesday.”

Associated Press: “The Indian Supreme Court rejected Tuesday a plea to delay judgment on whether Hindus or Muslims should control a disputed holy site, clearing the way for a verdict in the explosive case later this week.” Today: Indian court to deliver verdict on temple dispute tomorrow

Asia News: “A Pentecostal pastor Shivanda Siddi was arrested in Karnataka yesterday, with the false accusation of forcing conversions to Christianity. Sajan K. George, chairman of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) told AsiaNews that he was simply celebrating Sunday services at his Church Gnanodaya (‘Dawn of Knowledge’) in the Umachagi village, Mundgod Taluk.”

Associated Press: “BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. says it has no way of providing government officials with the text of encrypted corporate e-mails its devices serve up. But if the companies that employ BlackBerry phones want to hand over the encryption keys to their e-mail, it won’t object . . . ”

The Hindu: “The Bharatiya Janata Party has suggested that religion and religious practices be left to the ‘private domain of players’ and that it would not be wise to depart from the secular tradition of the Commonwealth Games by using religious music during any function associated with it.”

Syed Tazkir Inam, Role of Supreme Court in Protection of Muslim Divorced Women (February 24, 2009). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1681527

“With the passage of time, mankind has clamoured for special privilege and treatment, and societies across the world have looked towards the courts for benevolent interventions. For this purpose sociological jurisprudence has come a long way from being a theoretical stream towards being consulted for mass reforms by the courts. The Supreme Court of India has played a major role, as the final arbiter of the Constitution. In its performance of this role the Supreme court of India has bring about equality and social change, building way for an advanced and modern outlook. The perspective has been entirely societal oriented and therefore ‘social change,’ has been made the focal point. The approach is to analyze the decisions of the Court, as the reflection of its opinion and contribution towards the attainment of this egalitarian objective. Supreme Court has even played a major role in the upliftment of the conditions of women in India through its landmark judgements.”

Los Angeles Times: “In a last-minute move, the Supreme Court agreed Thursday to delay a verdict involving a dispute between Muslims and Hindus over who has the right to a controversial religious site.”

CathNews India: “The Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh has set Sept. 24 to pronounce its verdict on the ownership of a plot of land in the state’s Ayodhya town, where a disputed 16th century mosque stood. Hindu zealots demolished it in December 1992, sparking off nation wide Hindu-Muslim riots. Protracted legal battles continued over the ownership of the land.”

Barun S. Mitra writing in The Wall Street Journal: “The mosque in question is in the small Indian town of Ayodhya, in northern Uttar Pradesh state. Six decades ago the mosque became the subject of a contentious lawsuit. The conflict sparked some of the most vicious riots in modern Indian history and the mosque was torn down. Yet now, with a verdict in the lawsuit over ownership of the former mosque’s site due this week—yes, it has taken 60 years—not many seem to care. This lack of interest is a sign of progress for India.”

Bloomberg: “The U.S. has fallen behind emerging markets in Brazil, China and India as the preferred place to invest, a Bloomberg survey shows, though the world’s largest economy still ranks highest of all major developed countries.”

CatholicCulture.org: “The death toll from the September 13 anti-Christian rampage in Kashmir has reached 19, according to Vatican Radio. Following false reports that a Florida Protestant minister had proceeded with his plans to burn the Qu’ran, Muslim protestors bombed a Catholic school and attacked two Protestant schools. The bishops of India had condemned the planned Qu’ran burning.”

Associated Press: “Indian police opened fire Wednesday on Muslim demonstrators in a town near Kashmir, killing four people and wounding 30 as leaders of India’s main political parties debated how to end months of separatist protests in the region.”

The Times of India: “First the good news: the number of medical termination of pregnancies (induced abortions) has started to dip in India. The bad news , however, is that the country still records a large number of such abortions — in 2008, India saw 6.41 lakh abortions across 12,510 institutions, approved to carry out MTP.”

SIFY News: “The Supreme Court Tuesday said the chief secretaries of state governments that have not furnished details of unauthorized religious structures in public places will have to appear in person to answer their failure to comply with the court’s directions. Granting the defaulting state governments yet two more weeks, the apex court bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma said there would be no extension of time to file details of unauthorised structures in public places.”

AP: ” . . . The Himalayan region has been wracked by anti-India protests throughout the summer, but the chaos Monday – exacerbated by reports of a Quran desecration in the United States – was the deadliest since large-scale demonstrations began in June.”

Christian Post: “Hundreds of Muslims in the divided region of Kashmir took to the streets Monday night in violent protest over the reported desecration of Qurans in the United States. Over a dozen people have reportedly died in the clash that ensued between police and protesters, and a Christian private school was set ablaze in the volatile Himalayan region.”

Courier Mail: “A gay couple in Cairns are so desperate to have children they are paying two women in India $300 for every day of pregnancy to give birth to the couple’s surrogate babies. They are believed to be the first gay dads in Queensland to pay Indian women to carry their children, with the total bill costing up to $80,000.”

UCanNews.com: “A Catholic priest has urged Indian religious leaders to help protect girl children following news of a man leaving his newborn in a gutter. ‘Religious leaders, be they Christian, Muslim, Hindu or others,’ must provide their followers ‘with the necessary attitude and courage to save and celebrate the girl child,’ said Jesuit rights activist Father Cedric Prakash.”

CatholicCulture.org: “Mahatma Gandhi University ordered Newman College to reverse the firing of Professor T. J. Joseph, saying that the administration of Newman Collage ‘failed to follow procedures.’ Newman College, a Catholic school, is an affiliate of Mahatma Gandhi University.”