Magic Statistics

After decades of sex-selection abortions, some areas of Asia have far more unmarried men than women.  With a shortage of marriageable women, thousands in northern India have been sold to men who are unable to find wives.  Many women are bought and sold several times.

The wrinkles on Sumari's face betray her troubled past, making her look far older than the nearly 40 years she believes she is.

Widowed young, she was brought from her native village to northern India and sold to a man who abused her sexually and physically, and imprisoned her and her daughter in his house.

"It went on for three or four months, until he sold us off to another man," says Mumtaz, Sumari's daughter, who is now about 20.

Sumari is one of the more fortunate ones: After being sold numerous times, she ended up with a husband who treats her decently.

Experts say abortion of female foetuses because of the traditional Hindu preference for sons in this male-dominated society has led to a severe shortage of women in Haryana [state], and upset the sex balance nationwide.

The problem is compounded by the custom of youthful marriage, leading to a high rate of maternal mortality during childbirth and, thus, even more young unmarried men.

The going price for a bride ranges from 5000 to 20,000 rupees (approx. $125 to $500).

Previous related posts:

• Indo-Canadians having sex-selection abortions
• 30 million Chinese men will not find a bride
• Global war against baby girls

Catholic bishops in India describe the campaign of violence and intimidation that Hindu extremists have inflicted on Christians in Orissa state as an “authentic Calvary”.

The Bishops Conference announce 8 days of prayer following the Christmas attacks. Numerous fugitives still seek refuge in the forests living without food and shelter. A memorandum from the National Commission for Human Rights sent to the State Governor lists the loss and damage done to Christians and demands action against police who stood by and watched.

Many Christians are still missing and unaccounted for.  It is also reported that local police have prevented an investigative team from entering the area to assess damages and arrange for delivery of aid.

The team also noted that no Church group has been allowed to visit the area, and therefore Christian leaders were unable even to "provide psychological support to the traumatized victims." Senior Christian leaders who had reached Phulbani, the district headquarters, were "expelled under police escort and prevented from talking to victims," the report asserted.

The government reportedly began distributing relief material, but in many villages, officials reportedly were not giving relief to women. "The women are asked to come back with their husbands or sons. We fear it may be a ruse to arrest the men folk," the fact-finding team said in the state capital.

A statement from the Global Council of Indian Christians briefly summarises the events of the past ten days and refers to a campaign of “ethnic cleansing against Christians in Orissa”.

Although overt violence seems to have subsided, tensions remain very high and thousands of Christians have been left homeless and without food.

Previous related posts:

• Hundreds of Christians flee to jungle to escape violence
• Anti-Christian violence in India enters third day
• “Worst ever Christmas” for Christians in Orissa, India

Anti-Christian violence in Orissa, India, continues into its seventh day.  It is being reported that several are dead or missing, hundreds of churches and houses have been torched, and thousands have fled for safety to government relief camps and even into the jungle.

Over one thousand Christians, including priests, nuns, women and children, have fled to the jungles of India's Orissa State where deadly anti-Christian violence entered its seventh day, a church official told BosNewsLife Sunday, December 30.

"The situation is still under tension," in Orissa's communal clash-stricken district of Kandhama, said Leena Joseph a missionary nun of the Catholic St. Joseph order in Orissa, after Hindu extremists' attacks killed at least nine Christians this week and injured many more.   

"Church leaders and minority Christians have lost faith in the government and police for having failed to protect the minority community," she added, referring to the Christians hiding in jungles. "The government has always passive, inactive and apathetic when it comes to Christians and their welfare," the nun added.

Associated Press reports that police are searching for seven Christian teenage girls who have gone missing.

Yesterday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for an independent inquiry into the rampage, saying it is the latest manifestation of a long-standing anti-Christian campaign by extremist Hindu groups.

“The Orissa government should have addressed this problem before it became violent,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, senior researcher for the Asia division of Human Rights Watch. “The authorities are still failing to react quickly enough, and now ordinary people are being attacked.” Right-wing Hindu organizations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal have been promoting anti-Christian propaganda in Orissa because they want the state’s Christians, most of them members of tribal groups, to convert to Hinduism. These groups accuse Christian missionaries of forcing tribal people and low-caste Hindus to convert to Christianity. In January 1999, Hindu militants in Orissa trapped Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in their car and burned them alive.  

HRW suggests that, if the central government does not act to stem the violence, punish the instigators, and check religious hatred, India’s status as an officially secular state will be put at risk.

Previous related posts:

• Anti-Christian violence in India enters third day
• “Worst ever Christmas” for Christians in Orissa, India
• Another UK Hindu leader tells Christians to stop evangelising in India
• Christian converts “lose their right to be Indian”
• Hindu extremists acting more like Islamic jihadists all the time

The third day of anti-Christian violence in Orissa, India, began early this morning with arson attacks on eleven more churches and prayer houses.  The Global Council of Indian Christians reports that hundreds of homes belonging to Christians were set afire, killing at least three believers.

A Hindu mob burned down the house of a prominent local Christian leader, Radhakant Nayak, who is also a member of the upper house of India’s parliament.

The Associated Press reports that Christians have retaliated by torching houses belonging to Hindus.

Police-imposed curfews appear to be ineffective in stemming the fighting.

Christian and Hindu organizations blamed each other for sparking the latest violence.

The fundamentalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, or World Hindu Council) accused Christians of trying to attack one its leaders, 80-year-old Laxmanananda Saraswati, and said the clashes began when Saraswati's followers prevented the attack.

However the All India Christian Council (AICC), a coalition of Christian denominations and groups, said in a letter sent to Indian President Pratibha Patil on Christmas Day that Saraswati's vehicle had been attacked after an earlier clash instigated by local Hindus opposing a Christmas event.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Balasore (Orissa), Msgr Thomas Thiruthalil, says much of the blame for the tense situation between Christians and Hindus lies with the state’s anti-conversion law.

The widespread violence that marred Christmas Day in Orissa tarnishes India’s image as a democratic and secular nation. Fundamentalist forces are bent on threatening and terrorising Christians in a state like Orissa where Christians are a poor and marginalised minority. In this state the Church is endlessly accused of converting non Christians and Swami Saraswati, who was behind yesterday’s violence, is a leader of the anti-conversion movement.
. . .
Ostensibly adopted to protect people from forced conversions, the aforementioned Act has really been a legislative tool to prevent people from exercising their freedom of religion and freedom of thought. This and other laws can be easily manipulated by Hindu fundamentalists becoming “legal” tools to act violently against religious minorities by falsely charging them with all kinds of foul deeds.

Nevertheless, continues Msgr Thiruthalil, the church has always grown during times of persecution and he looks for the same now.

Orissa’s anti-conversion law requires everyone wishing to change religion to obtain police permission.

Previous related posts:

• Pope Benedict: Martyrdom is “an act of love”
• “Worst ever Christmas” for Christians in Orissa, India
• Hindu extremists acting more like Islamic jihadists all the time
• Christians denounced for offering “moral comfort” to suffering Indians
• Christian conversions present “grave threat to Hindu society”

Last Friday, Hindus , Jains, and Sikhs around the world celebrated Diwali, the Hindu “Festival of Lights”, in honour of the “victory of good over the evil within every human being”.  In India, where Diwali is a national festival, some militant Hindus celebrated by assaulting and terrorising a Christian family who prayed at home instead of joining the festivities.

The family consist of Pritam Arse (53 yrs) and his family his Wife Priyadarshini (45 yrs) his son Ravi Arse (24 yrs) second son Prakash Arse (22 yrs), a fully Blind Boy and Daughter Mamta Arse 18 yrs old. The believers were having Family Prayer in their house and they heard a deafening sound of Fire crackers inside their house yard. They were terrified by the sound and when they came out they were confronted by over twenty Young men fully drunk . . .

The trespassers abused the family using very vulgar language for praying instead of celebrating Divali [the festival of the Hindus]. Then they caught hold of their Eldest Son Ravi Arse who was on Fast and slapped him on his face and pushed him into a gutter outside their house.  Then they started threatening the family with murder and even threatened that they will kidnap Pritams 18 year old daughter Mamta.

This went on for two hours on the evening of 10 November.  The family went to a local  police station the next morning, but the police refused to register their complaint.

Hindus attacked Christians in other parts of India around the time of the festival:

• Hindu extremists disrupt worship service in Karnataka state
• Indian Pastor beaten up in Karnataka
• Priest beaten up in Maharastra state
• India Evangelist Killed And "Sacrificed" For Hindu 'goddess'

In Hinduism, Diwali commemorates the return of the Lord Rama to his capital after a 14-year exile and a war in which he defeated demon Ravana.  Confusingly, other Hindu myths are associated with Diwali, while Sikhs and Jains have different myths entailing different reasons for celebrating.  See Wikipedia for the bewildering details.

Previous related posts:

• Christian converts “lose their right to be Indian”
• Hindus attack Christian for accidentally damaging mud idol
• Indian Christians carry a heavy cross

It has been reported that a young Christian evangelist and shepherd was murdered by Hindu priests at a temple dedicated to the goddess Kali.  The priests are said to have been angered by his conversion to Christ and, for that reason, gave him as a sacrifice to the Hindu deity.  His body was dumped in a lake, but there was blood all over the temple.

The Global Council of Indian Christians(GCIC), an advocacy group representing church and mission groups, said Vipin Mandloi, 27, was shot dead near Aamkut village in the Jhabua District of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
 
Mandloi had reportedly been missing since October 14 when he left his house to a nearby mountain to graze his goats and sheep near a Hindu temple. "There was a new temple of Kali the 'goddess' of the Hindus [and he] was in its premises…Three ‘Pujaris’, or ‘Hindu Priests’ came there and they shot [and killed] Vipin Mandloi with a…pistol," GCIC President Sajan K. George told BosNewsLife.

The priests admitted responsibility to the police but claimed that Mr Mandloi stole coconuts and money offered at the temple.

Previous related posts:

• Christian converts “lose their right to be Indian”
• Indian Christians carry a heavy cross
• Hindu extremists acting more like Islamic jihadists all the time

Last May, Jay Lakhani, Director of Hindu Council UK warned Christians to reduce missionary activity in India or else inter-faith relations in Britain would be jeopardised.  Now the general secretary of the same organisation has attacked Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) for the same reason.

Anil Bhanot, the general secretary of the Hindu Council UK (HCUK), has described CSW as a missionary group aiming to 'destroy Hinduism and convert the continent to Christianity'.

In fact, CSW is not a missionary agency at all.  Acting as a “voice for the voiceless”, it monitors and publicises persecution of Christians, as well as encouraging religious liberty.

Writing in a report entitled the Advancement of Dharma, which he has sent to all the major faith leaders in the UK, Mr Bhanot has expressed his growing concern at divisive elements between different religions, and called for an end to 'predatory' missionary activity.

"Predatory missionary activity" apparently refers to evangelising people who already adhere to another religion.  Christianity believes that, although other religions may have valid insights into the divine, salvation is found in no other name than Jesus.  So, naturally, Christians, motivated by love, witness to his unique saving power.

In response, Mervyn Thomas, Executive Director of CSW, pointed out to Mr Bhanot that the real destroyers of religion in India are Hindu extremists who are waging a relentless war of persecution and violence against Christians.

“If Mr Bhanot thinks we’re intolerant he should look at the fundamentalist Hindu groups in India.”

Copies of Bhanot’s report have been sent to leaders of all major religious groups in the UK.  I trust they will dispose of it appropriately.

Previous related posts:

• Christian converts “lose their right to be Indian”
• Hindus attack Christian for accidentally damaging mud idol
• Indian Christians carry a heavy cross
• British Hindu tells Christians to stop evangelising in India

So says a leader of a Hindu organisation in South Africa.  His remarks have provoked a major controversy among Indians at home and abroad.

Thillayvel Naidoo, an executive member of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha and a Tamil linguist, made the remarks after a Christian convert, Deena Muthen, urged people to maintain their language and culture even if they convert.
. . .
But Naidoo said Muthen's comments were "tricks" to entice gullible people to convert to Christianity.

"Those who reject their religion lose the right to be completely Indian. He (Muthen) is distracting people with his Tamil preaching and hymns. Just because he preaches in Tamil does not mean anything, and I condemn it," he said.

Militant Hindu fanatics have made life very difficult for Christians in India, but Hindus continue to repent and believe in Christ and the church keeps on growing.  Is Mr Naidoo’s remark a sign of increasing desperation on the part of Hindu leaders?

Previous related posts:

• Hindus attack Christian for accidentally damaging mud idol
• Indian Christians carry a heavy cross
• Hindu extremists acting more like Islamic jihadists all the time
• British Hindu tells Christians to stop evangelising in India

A textbook example of blind religious fanaticism.  A Christian businessman in India who accidentally damaged a mud idol on his own premises was beaten by a mob and arrested.  Incredible.

On 22nd August 07 at around 9 pm Bro. Justin , a Christian business man was attacked by neighbours and RSS/BJP activists and was taken to the nearby #1 Town police station in Medak, Andhra Pradesh.

He had bought a shop for lease to establish his business in Medak. When he was cleaning and setting the place, he inadvertently tripped and fallen on a mud idol installed in front of the shop and a part of it was broken. On seeing this all the neighbours gathered along with the RSS/BJP radicals around him and beaten him badly.  They accused him of converting people and of destroying the idol and insulting the Hindu religion.

The man dented a Hindu idol and is accused of converting people?  Yah, that makes perfect sense.

He was taken to a police station where, at last report, he had been held in custody for two days.  Brother Justin needs prayer for justice and the people in the mob need prayer for sanity.

(Note: Typographical errors have been corrected in the blockquote.)

Previous related posts:

• Indian Christians carry a heavy cross
• Victims of religious persecution gather in Bangalore, India
• Nationalist Hindus want Christian missionaries arrested

The state assembly of Uttarakhand, northern India, has passed legislation providing jail time for slaughtering cows.  The house was in an uproar during the contentious debate.

Under the bill, the slaughter of the cow in Uttarakhand would be an offence punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may be extended up to 10 years but not less than three years and a fine which may be extended up to Rs 10,000 but not less than Rs 5,000.

When the Uttarakhand Protection of Cow Progeny Bill, 2007 was tabled, opposition Congress members protested the move and trooped into the well of the House.

However, the bill was declared passed by the Chair amid pandemonium with the ruling BJP and Uttarakhand Kranti Dal members raising their hands in support.

The Act states that a penalty would be imposed on anyone found selling beef or possessing it.

In pushing the bill through the assembly, the BJP fulfilled a campaign promise.  The opposition Congress Party pointed out that similar schemes to protect sacred cows have failed in other states.

Previous related post: Catholic MP tossed from Indian Parliament for “misusing religion”

Former Nepalese soldiers, police, and victims of Maoist guerillas have joined together to form the self-styled Nepal Defence Army to attack Communists, Muslims, and Christians with the aim of establishing a Hindu state.  The band of some 1200 fighters is headed by a former policeman and Communist who has turned against his old comrades.

The ex-cop, who today calls himself 'Parivartan' (change), claims his band has nearly 1,200 trained soldiers who possess arms and have the expertise to manufacture explosives.

Earlier this year, the Nepal Defence Army made its debut with a couple of blasts, including at the well-guarded office of the Maoists in Kathmandu.

On Wednesday, a Nepali tabloid carried an extensive interview with the shadowy leader, saying he had walked into the tabloid's city office to talk about his organisation.

"Nepal Defence Army has been founded to fight for Hinduism," Parivartan told Nepali weekly Ghanata R Bichar. "Hindus worldwide support us, including the families of top Maoist leaders. Our soldiers are being trained across the border in India and we get the ingredients for manufacturing explosives from India."

Parivartan alleges that, “like al-Qaeda”, his army includes five trained suicide bombers able to strike at the heart of Nepal’s government.

h/t: Persecution Update India

Previous related post: Hindu radicals bomb Christian orphanage in Nepal

After touring the US to promote a documentary about the Kumari goddesses of Nepal, the divine status of ten-year-old goddess Sajani Shakya has been revoked.

A 10-year-old girl who is worshipped as a living goddess in Nepal has been stripped of her title for defying tradition and visiting the US.

Sajani Shakya was one of the three most-revered Kumaris, who are honoured by Hindus and Buddhists alike.

Chosen after undergoing tests at the age of two, she had been expected to bless devotees and attend festivals until she reached puberty.

Her offence?  Visiting the United States.  The three top ranking goddesses are forbidden to leave the country.

Elders said the visit had tainted her purity, adding that they would now begin the search for a successor.

Only last week, Ms Sajani told an American reporter that being a divinity was the bee’s knees.

"There's nothing I don't like about being a goddess," Sajani said through an interpreter. Then, thinking about her typical day, when she has to rise early for her family and others to pray to her, she added, "It was difficult when I was younger to get up at 4 to bathe for the morning prayers."

Now maybe she can sleep in.

The whole child goddess business is under scrutiny in Nepal.  Many believe that the Kumari custom exploits girls and deprives them of a normal childhood.  Some former goddesses lament their years of isolation and reject the tradition as “inhuman superstition”.

Former Kumari Rashmila Shakya, now 24 years old, recently spoke with AsiaNews.

At the age of 4 she was taken from her family to become a divinity.  “During childhood I was confined within a Kumari Ghar (the temple dedicated to the living deities) without any formal education and now I am young but why I can’t marry?”. The girl remembers: “There was no formal education system then. An old tutor used to come everyday to teach me for an hour. But that wasn't sufficient in any way”.

Kumari goddesses are pensioned off at first menstruation.  As a final insult, the tradition holds that men who marry former Kumaris will die within six months.

h/t for Chicago Tribune: TitusOneNine