Following Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the state government of Gujarat is considering implementing a new anti-conversion law to strictly thwart “love jihad,” reports from the Times of India suggest.
Anti-conversion laws have been passed in at least nine states across India, but Release's partners in the country warn that the Madhya Pradesh legislation is particularly tough, permitting police to arrest suspects without warrant and holding them without bail, with the onus on the suspect to prove their innocence.
In one part of the syllabus, entitled, “What famous people said about the cow,” it is claimed that "Jesus Christ said that killing a cow is like killing a human being."
Police officials in Karnataka prohibit a group of about 50 Christians from meeting for worship services, arguing that they were not Christians from birth, but must have been converted to Christianity through force or fraud.
After over a month-long investigation, the interfaith marriage that took place on 9 November between a Christian bride and a Muslim groom in a parish church in Ernakulam-Angamali Archdiocese in Kerala has been declared invalid.
Twenty-five people were killed and 15 others were injured in a roof collapse on January 3 at a crematorium in the town of Muradnagar in Ghaziabad district, Uttar Pradesh.
Three Indians and a Korean Christian accused of fraudulent conversion attempts were imprisoned under Uttar Pradesh’s new anti-conversion law that came into force on November 28.
Persecution has been widespread across India and China even during the pandemic, but things are only likely to get worse in 2021, Release International has warned.
On December 20, in the Archdiocese of Pondicherry-Cuddalore, Dalit Christians held a protest against the discrimination they faced in 45 Catholic parishes demanding equal rights for their group in the Church.
Hardline Hindus have petitioned the authorities in India to stop Christians from celebrating Christmas.
Many people travel to the Holy Land throughout the year to visit places of religious importance – whether in Jerusalem, Nazareth or around the Sea of Galilee. But when did Christians start to consider places as holy and begin travelling to them on pilgrimage?
The Maharashtra government on Tuesday declared a 14-day night curfew from December 22, 2020 to January 5, 2021, from 11 pm to 6 am, as a precautionary measure against the new coronavirus strain from the UK.
