Tag Archives: Country: India

Christian Today: “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was last week urged to oppose the decriminalizing of homosexuality in India.”

Religion Clause Blog: “The report suggests amending the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 and various other marriage statutes to bar a person who was married as a non-Muslim from marrying again even after converting to Islam, unless the first marriage is dissolved or declared null and void.”

AFP: “India’s Supreme Court suggested legalising prostitution as a solution to the rampant sex trade that has flourished despite a raft of laws, a report said Thursday.”

AP: “An Indian government investigation released Tuesday into the 1992 demolition of a mosque by a raging mob reportedly accused top Hindu nationalist politicians of complicity in the attack that sparked nationwide ethnic riots, leaving 2,000 people dead.”

Christian Telegraph: “President of Mission India of Grand Rapids, Michigan Dave Stravers says the evidence comes from hardline Hindu groups. ‘We [received] a power point presentation from a Hindu extremist group warning people in the state of Karnataka that the Christians are growing so fast that they’re worried that the state might actually become a majority Christian state.’”

Reuters: “‘Girls are gradually saying “no” to child marriage,’ said Anil Gulati, a spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which works with authorities to fight child marriage.”

WorldNetDailya: “More topically, the activist group Alliance Defense Fund is agitating for a 14th murder charge against Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Islamist terrorist who “allegedly” killed 13 people during the shooting at Fort Hood that left 30 other people wounded. One of Hasan’s victims was a pregnant woman; the ADF wants Hasan held culpable for that unborn child’s death . . . There is a common thread to all of these news stories . . . all discussion of abortion revolves around the implication, the begged question and conclusion, that an unborn baby is a baby.”

CBC.ca: “The Indian government on Thursday has refused to allow foreign journalists to cover the Dalai Lama’s visit on Sunday to a region at the heart of a border dispute with China.”

Baptist Press: “After more than a decade of severe persecution, India’s Christian minority is growing increasingly concerned over the mushrooming of newer, more violent Hindu extremist groups.”

The Daily Beast: “Samson, a native of India, started Surrogacy Abroad in 2006, when one of his sisters was having trouble getting pregnant . . . [his] agency is one of the few to specifically target gay couples . . . Of course, using Indian surrogates raises ethical issues. An article in a recent issue of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics called into question some of the assertions by clinic operators and surrogacy agencies regarding the women who are surrogates.”

Religion Clause: “In Madireddy v. Madireddy, (NY App. Div., Oct. 6, 2009), a New York state appellate court dismissed a divorce complaint because the case required the civil courts to determine whether the parties’ were validly married in a Hindu ceremony in India in 1952.”

Ruchira Gupta, founder and president of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, writing in the Wall Street Journal: “The fact that the numbers of the trafficked are going up and the ages coming down displays the failure of those government and non-government strategies which only focus on HIV/AIDS management and half hearted rescue operations combined with shelters for victims. These ignore the root cause, which is the demand for women and girls for sexual exploitation.”

Press Trust of India: “The National Heritage Academies (NHA), which runs its schools in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, Indiana, North Carolina and New York, has allowed Sikh children to carry ‘Kirpan’ in the institutions, a statement issued by the United Sikhs, a Sikh advocacy group, said.”

Kirpan = a small dagger worn by orthodox Sikhs.

Christian Today: “Fearing severe backlash from religious-right conservatives, the government has decided to avoid consenting on the decriminalization of gay sex by the Delhi High Court. On Thursday, following a union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, it was decided that the government would remain mum on the gay issue, leaving the Supreme Court to decide for itself the final verdict.”

LifeSiteNews: “India’s feminists and population control-pushing government are ‘stumped’ by the dramatic drop of female births among the wealthier classes due to sex-selective abortions, reports the Globe and Mail’s Indian correspondent Stephanie Nolen.”

WorldNetDaily: “A mother and father are going public with details about how Swedish social-services officials had police halt a plane en route to takeoff in order to take custody of their 7-year-old son after they had argued with local school officials about his homeschooling.”

Religion Clause Blog: “The education minister of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh last month ordered that beginning Sept. 5, all students in schools that participate in the state-run lunch program must recite the “bhojan mantra” before their mid-day meals.”

CNA: “The archbishop’s comments came on the first anniversary of the attacks carried out against Christians by Hindu extremists in the state of Orissa, leaving 70 people dead and hundreds of Christian homes destroyed.”

BBC: “India’s capital, Delhi, recorded more female than male births during 2008, for the first time in many decades.”

Religion Clause Blog: “In a press release announcing its action, USCIRF said that the new concern about India stems from ‘the disturbing increase in communal violence against religious minorities– specifically Christians in Orissa in 2008 and Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 – and the largely inadequate response from the Indian government to protect the rights of religious minorities.’”

Related:

Extremist attacks on Christians spur ADF funding for legal defense project in India

Glen Lavy: “Christians should have their legal rights protected no matter what country they are in. The persecution of Christians in India calls for a concerted legal effort to deter future attacks and to bring about justice. . . ”

Times of India: “Gynecologists are handling a sharp spike in such cases of menstrual complications among young adult women who are arbitrarily and repeatedly using OTC EC pills and abortion pills (for foetuses upto 45 days old).”

Christian Post: “A Catholic priest was found murdered in a remote place on the side of a road in a village near Mangalore in the southern Indian state of Karnataka on Thursday.”

Thaindian News: “Maintaining that homosexuality is against Indian culture, religious leaders at a [New Dehli] meeting passed a resolution Thursday opposing the Delhi High Court judgement decriminalising gay sex.”

Press Trust of India: “The Supreme Court today stayed the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court directing termination of the pregnancy of a mentally challenged orphan who was raped at a Nari Niketan in Chandigarh.”

BBC: “The Supreme Court has asked the government and human rights groups which campaigned against the law to respond to the petition. Two judges said they would resume deliberations on 14 September.”

Chuck Colson writes at Breakpoint: “In a profession where ‘diversity’ borders on an obsession, religion is the exception. People who ‘identify with the lives of believers’ and ‘treat religion with respect’ and, when warranted, skepticism, are rare in our newsrooms. In the absence of such people, religion is often viewed through the lens of politics, which does a disservice to both the subject of the stories and to the readers.”

Associated Press: “India’s Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear a petition from a Hindu astrologer who is seeking to annul a recent landmark ruling that decriminalized gay sex.”

AP: “The Delhi High Court ruled that treating consensual gay sex as a crime is a violation of fundamental rights protected by India’s constitution. The ruling, the first of its kind in India, applies only in New Delhi.”

Google (AP): “Hundreds of gay rights supporters waved flags and danced past traffic during marches through three Indian cities Sunday to celebrate gay pride and call for the decriminalization of homosexuality in this deeply conservative country. The New Delhi parade passed near the Delhi High Court, which is reviewing a law that prohibits gay sex — and can punish it with up to 10 years in prison.”

SSRN: “This paper concludes by suggesting that the Supreme Court of India should take an ‘active,’ informed approach, while referring to international human rights norms, and should enforce international human rights norms by reading them into customary international law where needed; rather than its ‘passive’ approach of referring to international human rights norms for statutory interpretations. The Supreme Court should look at the relationship between international and domestic legal norms as a ‘co-constitutive, or synergistic,’ and should utilize these norms actively as a participant in the dynamic process of developing international law. The Supreme Court must be able to apply customary law on human rights exhaustively and in a fully independent way, in particular, it must be able to verify that the violations of human rights recognized by customary international law are not committed by the executive. While the Supreme Court has been known for its judicial activism, it is time that it is also known for its informed approach and respect towards international human rights norms.”

Christian Telegraph: “Thousands of women marched in Coimbatore, southern India this week to protest the practice of sex-selective abortion.”

Sam Dolnick reports in the Washington Post (AP): “Hundreds of gay rights supporters waved flags and danced past traffic during marches through three Indian cities Sunday to celebrate gay pride and call for the decriminalization of homosexuality in this deeply conservative country.”

Christian Post: “Finally, there might be some good news for Christians in states where anti-conversion laws are in force. The newly elected government has agreed to repeal bills that have restricted the freedom of religion in India.”

Catholic Culture: “An Indian cardinal believes that Hindu fundamentalists– whom he estimates at 11% of the nation’s population– persecute Christians because they fear the prospects of a mass conversion to Christianity among dalits (untouchables). ‘In the eyes of the fundamentalists, the Muslims are also enemies of India, but Muslims retaliate so they are leaving them alone. The Christians they see as a threat they can eliminate . . . ‘”

Baptist Press: “An Indian surrogate is giving birth to a baby for a British couple every two days in one Mumbai doctor’s practice, according to the London Evening Standard. The report demonstrates the growing popularity of a phenomenon in which Indian women are carrying babies conceived by in vitro fertilization performed with the sperm and eggs of British couples. The women deliver the babies and surrender them to the genetic parents, who take them home to rear them.”

The Religion Clause Blog:
“The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is planning to visit India this month, with a particular focus on past violence against Christians in the state of Orissa and Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002.”

LifeSiteNews: “The Indian government has rejected western-style sex education programs, saying they do nothing to solve the problem of teenage pregnancy but only exacerbate the problem by promoting sexual promiscuity.

SSRN: “This paper looks into the problems of immoral trafficking and looks into the various models approached by countries to prevent sex trafficking. It also takes into account that criminalizing buying of sex would be a much better option and efficient option than legalizing it in India.”

Religion Clause Blog: “In India, the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in Kaur v. State of Punjab, (High Ct. P&H, May 30, 2009), upheld the decision of a Medical College to refuse to admit petitioners under the quota set aside for members of the Sikh minority community because the applicants did not observe a major tenet of the Sikh religion– keeping their hair unshorn.”

ChristianToday: “Two incidents of assault and one incident of vandalism against Christians and their properties were reported by three Indian states this week.”

Christian Today: “There have been reports that voters in Orissa State in India have been subjected to intimidation and have been forced to vote for the Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).”

Christian Post: “The Evangelical Fellowship of India expressed outrage and condemned the use of hate speech by BJP candidates to fan communal feelings in Orissa. With the election just around the corner, the Christian group said the attempt to further polarize the voters is deeply disturbing.”

GayPolitics.com: “Peter Burleigh . . . will serve as America’s top diplomat in India until a permanent ambassador is named, according to reports in the Indian press . . . Burleigh said he was open about his sexuality within the State Department once the policy changed.”

International Journal of Law in Context: “This article examines how the adoption of children under Hindu law in India is regarded by British private international law and immigration law.”

Religion Clause Blog: “In India, the battle over the candidacy of Varun Sanjay Gandhi, grandson of former Prime Minister Indira Ghandi, continues. Varun Ghandi, a member of the BJP, is a candidate for the lower house of India’s Parliament, running from a district in the state of Uttar Pradesh. BBC News reported last week on the March 22 Order of the Election Commission (full text) recommending that Ghandi not be nominated as a candidate because of two speeches he made last month that contained highly derogatory references to the Muslim community.”

Indian Catholic: A Baptist lay leader was allegedly murdered in Orissa, which some Church people say is proof that anti-Christian violence continues. The body of Hrudyananda Nayak, 45, was found in the jungle near Rudangia, his village in Kandhamal district, …

CNA: “Catholics in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have expressed their grave concern over threats made against Christian schools by the Hindu fundamentalist group Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarti Parishad (Abvp).”

The editor and publisher of a major Indian newspaper have been arrested for “hurting the religious feelings” of Muslims after they reprinted an article from The Independent. Ravindra Kumar and Anand Sinha, the editor and publisher of the Kolkata-based English daily The Statesman, appeared in court yesterday charged under section 295A of the Indian Penal Code which forbids “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings”.

The 38-year-old abortion law was on Friday challenged in the Supreme Court which sought a response from the government for continuing with a provision prohibiting termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks even if there was a fatal risk to the mother and the foetus.

BBC: “The editor and publisher of a top English-language Indian daily have been arrested on charges of ‘hurting the religious feelings’ of Muslims.”

AP: “Police in eastern India have charged 10 men with gang raping a Catholic nun during weeks of anti-Christian violence last year, an official said Thursday. The violence between Hindus and Christians in Orissa state followed the killing of a …

Concerned over the increasing number of child trafficking cases, the Delhi High Court on Thursday ordered senior police officials to investigate the case and present the results by Friday.

AFP reports: India’s high rate of child marriage is a major reason for its large number of maternal and infant deaths, said a UNICEF report released Thursday. Child brides “become mothers long before their bodies are physically mature for pregnancy”, …

The Christian Telegraph reports: Gospel for Asia missionary Yashpal Bhuta Masih remains in custody today after his arrest January 5 in Madhya Pradesh, India, reports MNN. The police charged him with violating anti-conversion laws, and he will now face trial. …

The Christian Post: “India’s Supreme Court ordered this week the state government of Orissa to protect the tens of thousands of Christians being targeted by Hindu extremists in the worst sectarian violence since the country’s independence from Britain.”

LifeNews.com reports: According to a new article circulated by the abortion advocacy organization Ipas, widespread access to ‘safe abortion’ trumps concerns over the gender imbalance stemming from ‘sex selective’ abortion . . . “

Asra Q. Nomani, a Muslim, writes in the LA Times: Indeed, the government report I read about in the newspapers two years ago acknowledged that Muslims in India had become “backward.” “Fearing for their security,” the report said, “Muslims are …

Religion Clause Blog: In India, at least one Muslim cemetery is refusing to bury the bodies of the slain Mumbai terrorists. Yesterday’s London Times reports that the Jama Masjid Trust said it will not bury the men in its Badakabrastan …

The Christian Newswire carries this report that begins: Analyzing five days of coverage of the Mumbai massacre, Boycott The New York Times editor Don Feder decried The Times’ “politically correct coverage” and its refusal to describe the terrorists who perpetrated …

Christian Today reports: “Hindu militants in India are offering rewards of money, food and liquor to mobs to kill Christians and destroy their homes, according to partners of human rights organisation, Release International.”

Speaking to thousands of the faithful gathered in the city of Bharananganam in India, the prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, called for an end to the anti-Christian violence, “as a sign of authentic respect for the religious freedom of all the sons and daughters of India.”

It may be recalled that, last month chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh announced to appoint four member committee to probe the allegations and fears of villagers and Warkaris who apprehend, Dow’s facility will pollute the area which is sacred to Warkari sect as it is a land of Sant Tukaram (17th centaury sage).

AsiaNews.it reports: “Christians are not allowed to pray even in government-run refugee camps. The ground on which homes and churches once stood are taken over and ‘cleansed’ of every trace of violence. Hindus tell raped nun to marry her rapist. …

The Delhi High Court directed the Government to produce some evidence to prove their stand that HIV deaths were caused due to homosexuality and removing section 377 from the Indian Penal Code (IPC) will lead to more such cases.

The New York Times reports: . . . India, the world’s most populous democracy and officially a secular nation, is today haunted by a stark assault on one of its fundamental freedoms. Here in eastern Orissa State, riven by six …

The Independent reports: “Mrs Panda and thousands of others like her are victims of the worst communal violence between Hindus and Christians that India has seen for decades. For a country that boasts of its mutual religious tolerance, the long-simmering …

ICNS reports: “In renewed attacks against Christians, mobs of Hindus have vandalized a church and attacked over 20 houses Orissa’s Tikabali and Daringbadi areas, police said on Thursday.”

The Christian Post reports: Following the persecution of Christians in Orissa and Karnataka, the Government of India on Thursday criticized the state governments for their failure to control the violence by Hindu radical groups. The Ministry of Home Affairs issued …

Catholic Culture reports:  Hindu-Christian tension mounted in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka, where 14 churches were attacked on Sunday. UCA News’s T. S. Thomas reports, ‘Police drove around 500 protesting Catholics inside a church and locked them in from …

Reuters reports on Yahoo News: “Hindu mobs ransacked a church and clashed with Christian villagers in eastern India on Thursday, police said, as Italy said it would summon India’s ambassador to demand ‘incisive action’ to prevent more attacks.”

Anthony Lin reports in the New York Law Journal: The American Bar Association has waded into the debate over legal outsourcing with an ethics opinion blessing the outsourcing trend as “a salutary one for our globalized economy.” A growing number …

LifeNews.com reports: “A woman in India has been killed who refused requests from her husband and his family to undergo a sex-selection abortion on her unborn baby girl. Neelam Kumar, who lives in Samaspur village in northern India, was allegedly …

USA Today reports: “Suspected Hindu hard-liners set fire Monday to an orphanage run by Christian missionaries in eastern India, killing one woman and seriously injuring a priest, police said.”

In the above context, the proposed paper seeks to explore the nebulous precincts of the constitutionality of Affirmative Action for Muslims in India.