Hindus don’t always have equality with minorities
10 years ago

Hindus don’t always have equality with minorities

Live Mint  

An article written by former police officer Julio Ribeiro, initially headlined I am on a hit list, has ignited a debate concerning India’s Christians and their security under the Narendra Modi government. Even today, top ranked institutions like St Stephen’s College, Christian Medical College in Vellore, St Xavier’s College and countless missionary schools across India clearly declare themselves to be minority institutions and admit Christian students through explicit quotas; all of this is done at a subsidy, implicit and explicit, from Indian taxpayers, who are largely Hindus. When premier schools and educational institutions funded by public money have large religious quotas - and protectionism through government regulation certainly helped these institutions achieve their premier position - it’s a clear incentive for Hindus to convert, for becoming Christian increases one’s chances of getting admission to some of India’s top schools and colleges. Why should a college that draws so heavily on the public exchequer be allowed to choose 40% of its students from 2% of the country’s population?” Today, because there is a government in New Delhi headed by a man and a party they despise, the intellectuals maintain a calculated silence and merrily bandy Ribeiro’s victimhood-filled article as evidence of a state conspiracy against minorities.

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History of this topic

The Constitution on minority rights
3 months ago

The Constitution on minority rights

The Hindu  

The debate on minority rights should be lifted from its current framework of communalism versus secularism and placed in the theoretical field of democracy and substantive equality. Recognising the importance of minority rights, the UN General Assembly adopted a declaration on the ‘Rights of Persons Belonging to National, or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities’ on December 18, 1992. Origin of …

'India's Majority Population Will Be Minority If...': Allahabad HC On Religious Conversions
8 months, 3 weeks ago

'India's Majority Population Will Be Minority If...': Allahabad HC On Religious Conversions

News 18  

The Allahabad High Court on Monday observed that if the current trend of religious conversions carries on then the majority of India’s population will find itself in the minority one day. Hearing the bail plea of a person, who is accused of taking people from a village in Uttar Pradesh to a religious congregation in the name of the ceremony …

Political Storm Over Religious Conversions: Does India Need a National Law? - News18
1 year, 9 months ago

Political Storm Over Religious Conversions: Does India Need a National Law? - News18

News 18  

The possible repeal of the Karnataka Freedom of Religion Act, 2021, enacted under the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government has created a political storm. Amid the sharp political narrative between the Congress and BJP, the intricate issue of religious conversions in India has never found the serious attention it deserves. The absence of empirical data or any study on religious conversions, …

Insistence on 'Hinduphobia' as a reality will divert attention from real purveyors of anti-Hindu propaganda
1 year, 10 months ago

Insistence on 'Hinduphobia' as a reality will divert attention from real purveyors of anti-Hindu propaganda

Firstpost  

My article questioning the notion of Hinduphobia appears to have unsettled an established consensus that it definitely exists as a phenomenon. Besides, the constant accusations of Islamophobia, which recognition of Hinduphobia will avowedly legitimate, are ultimately directed against India, not Hindus in general everywhere. US Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar’s attempt to create a legal obligation on the US State Department to …

Why Hindu Faith is the Reason for India’s Success - News18
2 years, 1 month ago

Why Hindu Faith is the Reason for India’s Success - News18

News 18  

As we near the general elections of 2024, politically motivated propaganda by the Opposition parties against the Bharatiya Janata Party is on the rise, only to spread fear, insecurity, unrest and anxiety in the minds of the non-Hindu electorate. The Muslim community, the easiest to be swayed by rumours of the rising Hindu sentiments in a BJP-led country that will …

75 Years After Partition, Hindus Still Treated Like Second-Class Citizens in Indian Subcontinent
2 years, 2 months ago

75 Years After Partition, Hindus Still Treated Like Second-Class Citizens in Indian Subcontinent

News 18  

On 5 January, Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance tabled its annual report of atrocities on Bangladeshi minorities. Pakistan didn’t even have a legal provision to register Hindu marriages until 2017 when a law was passed in the Pakistani senate. Seventy-five years have passed since Partition but even today certain rights such as divorce, adoption and inheritance evade Hindus of Pakistan. …

Forced conversions may ultimately affect national security, freedom of religion, Supreme Court tells Centre
2 years, 4 months ago

Forced conversions may ultimately affect national security, freedom of religion, Supreme Court tells Centre

The Hindu  

The Supreme Court on Monday said religious conversions by means of force, allurement or fraud may “ultimately affect the security of the nation and freedom of religion and conscience of citizens” while directing the Centre to “step in” and clarify what it intends to do to curb compulsory or deceitful religious conversions. “Giving of rice, wheat, clothes, etc., etc., can …

'Taking Different Stands Doesn't Help', SC to Centre on Plea Seeking Minority Status to Hindus in Some States
2 years, 10 months ago

'Taking Different Stands Doesn't Help', SC to Centre on Plea Seeking Minority Status to Hindus in Some States

News 18  

The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that the Centre is uncertain and has not taken a clear stand on a plea seeking a direction to it to lay down guidelines for the identification of minorities at the state level, saying the Hindus are in minority in 10 states. However, in a previous affidavit, the ministry had said: “State governments can …

Hindus must uphold unequal secularism via continued concessions while Muslims get the licence to use violence as leverage
2 years, 11 months ago

Hindus must uphold unequal secularism via continued concessions while Muslims get the licence to use violence as leverage

Firstpost  

Regardless of their actions, Muslims have a monopoly on victimhood while Hindus are the perpetual perpetrators because their very existence is provocative The anti-encroachment drive by the BJP-led civic body in Delhi on “illegal structures” on Wednesday has triggered apoplectic rage in liberal circles. Since Mehta enjoys papal authority over India’s ‘public intellectuals’, let’s examine his assertion of Hindus’ “raw …

Off-centre | Why Hindus should not be punished for being the biggest ‘minority’ in India
2 years, 11 months ago

Off-centre | Why Hindus should not be punished for being the biggest ‘minority’ in India

Firstpost  

The division between minorities and majorities should ultimately go. When Justice Kaul said that it had already appeared in newspapers, Mehta is reported as having said smilingly, “I have not read it…I am not aware of the view of the department.” In his formal reply, the learned Solicitor General submitted “that he will place the stand on the matters on …

Nehruvian Secularism Condemns Muslims Not as Equals but as Permanent Minority to Hindus: Kerala Governor
3 years ago

Nehruvian Secularism Condemns Muslims Not as Equals but as Permanent Minority to Hindus: Kerala Governor

News 18  

As the Karnataka high court is set to deliver its verdict on whether women students should be allowed to enter educational institutions in a hijab, Kerala governor Arif Mohammad Khan said he believed that the controversy is a “conspiracy”. The most fundamental folly of Nehruvian secularism is that it condemns Muslims not as equals but as a permanent minority to …

Nehruvian secularism places Muslims not as equals but as a permanent minority to Hindus: Arif Mohammad Khan
3 years ago

Nehruvian secularism places Muslims not as equals but as a permanent minority to Hindus: Arif Mohammad Khan

Firstpost  

The Kerala Governor says that the kind of secularism pursued in India creates distrust among Hindus and Muslims, placing one against another as competitors for national resources Since the early 1980s, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan has been consistently fighting against the fundamentalist forces of the country, whether it was in the Shah Bano case during Rajiv Gandhi’s regime or …

I am an Indian Christian and I do not feel persecuted in my motherland
3 years, 2 months ago

I am an Indian Christian and I do not feel persecuted in my motherland

Firstpost  

A few, isolated cases of Christian persecution cannot be generalised to be the plight of all Christians in India. Last week I disagreed with yet another Archbishop, this time from Karnataka, on my TV show, when he said: “Not a good time now to be a Christian in Karnataka.” The reason I disagree with some of the messages of the …

Changing faith or propagating one's religion: Is it a right or a crime in India?
3 years, 4 months ago

Changing faith or propagating one's religion: Is it a right or a crime in India?

Deccan Chronicle  

The controversy about Sameer Wankhede’s Scheduled Caste certificate gives us the opportunity to examine two issues. Dalits and Adivasis who convert are vulnerable, because the State insists on registering them on official certificates as “Christian Adivasi”, making it difficult for the individuals in question to then access their rights, including reservations. In Gujarat, some Dalit converts to Christianity officially retain …

Dr BR Ambedkar's views on Islam: Read what the 'Liberals' would never want you to know
3 years, 5 months ago

Dr BR Ambedkar's views on Islam: Read what the 'Liberals' would never want you to know

Op India  

14 October 2021 marks the 65th anniversary of the day when the chief architect of India’s Constitution Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar undertook one of the biggest decisions of his life-giving up Hinduism and embracing Buddhism. It is a travesty of history then that BR Ambedkar, whose mortifying critiques of the caste system is routinely cited by ‘liberals’ to scorn and deride …

What the Indian Law Says on Conversion, Religious Identity of Scheduled Castes
3 years, 5 months ago

What the Indian Law Says on Conversion, Religious Identity of Scheduled Castes

News 18  

A recent judgment delivered by the Madras High Court ruled that displaying religious symbols cannot be the ground to cancel a classifying Scheduled Caste certificate. In 1985, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by then Chief Justice of India, PN Bhagwati held that individuals practicing religions other than Hinduism or Sikhism may not claim constitutional benefits for SCs. …

Forced religious conversion cannot be measure of spread of any religion, says Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
3 years, 5 months ago

Forced religious conversion cannot be measure of spread of any religion, says Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

Firstpost  

Naqvi said both believers and atheists have equal constitutional and social rights and protection in India. New Delhi: Forced religious conversions cannot be the measure of spread of any religion in a nation like India, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Tuesday and asserted that both believers and atheists co-exist with equal rights in this country. In his …

Why Indians like to keep diversity in its own box
3 years, 8 months ago

Why Indians like to keep diversity in its own box

Live Mint  

Like many big surveys, the 2021 Religion In India survey of nearly 30,000 adults by the US-based Pew Research Center has something to please everyone. Fifty-three per cent see India’s religious diversity as a sign of strength. On the other hand, those who claim India is already the tolerance capital of the world will have to digest the fact that …

All Indians share the same DNA, cannot be differentiated on basis of worship, says RSS chief
3 years, 8 months ago

All Indians share the same DNA, cannot be differentiated on basis of worship, says RSS chief

The Hindu  

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, addressing a programme organised by the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, mentored by RSS associate Indiresh Kumar, asked the Muslim community in India not to get trapped in a cycle of fear that Islam was in danger in India and asserted that those who indulged in lynching were against Hindutva. The function was organised around the theme “Hindusatani …

Living together, separately
3 years, 8 months ago

Living together, separately

Hindustan Times  

The findings of the latest Pew survey on religion in India raise questions that lie at the heart of India’s contemporary political debates. While it is tempting to conclude that existing social barriers are insurmountable, it is also true that more Indians than at any point in history are defying caste and religion structures in making life choices, including marriage. …

What Indians think about religion and religious differences, in five charts
3 years, 8 months ago

What Indians think about religion and religious differences, in five charts

Live Mint  

Indians profess respect for all religions but want to live their own lives among co-religionists, a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre shows. Building Ghettos The majority of people across all religions say that the freedom to practise all religions freely is important to their own religion, and to their identity as Indians. 80% of Muslims say it …

Hindus should prove secularism by converting to Islam: Leftist website
5 years, 2 months ago

Hindus should prove secularism by converting to Islam: Leftist website

Op India  

Liberals have finally abandoned the domain of political disagreement and crossed over into the realm of the insane. This dispensation is unsurprisingly on an exclusionist rampage and will one leave no stone unturned till they are well on their way to attaining Hindu-Rashtra as they have purported to achieve directly and indirectly.” The author, after a long litany of propaganda, …

Why India’s citizenship law crosses the line (opinion)
5 years, 2 months ago

Why India’s citizenship law crosses the line (opinion)

CNN  

Editor’s Note: Akanksha Singh is a journalist based in Mumbai, India. CNN — Across India, people are protesting the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act, after the bill was passed in both the country’s upper and lower houses of Parliament. The CAA grants fast-tracked citizenship to undocumented migrants from the “Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, …

Here is what the Indian State wants Hindus to learn from Muslims
5 years, 8 months ago

Here is what the Indian State wants Hindus to learn from Muslims

Op India  

In the famous V for Vendetta comic, which eventually was made into a movie, Alex Moore made a profound statement: “People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. But, as implied in Moore’s statement, the Muslim community does gain a lot due to the fear it generates in the heart of the Indian state. Financial benefits and minority-specific schemes are the …

The outrage over Amit Shah’s statement on infiltrators shows how ‘liberals’ simply can’t treat Hindus as victims
5 years, 11 months ago

The outrage over Amit Shah’s statement on infiltrators shows how ‘liberals’ simply can’t treat Hindus as victims

Op India  

How did that become so controversial when discussing NRC? Recently, BJP President Amit Shah set the proverbial cat among the pigeons by promising that if voted to power, the BJP government would send every illegal immigrant out of the borders of our country. Here is another reason in the Indian context why ‘liberals’ who object to special treatment for Hindus …

Push for a Minority Tag for Hindus is a Redundant Gimmick
6 years, 1 month ago

Push for a Minority Tag for Hindus is a Redundant Gimmick

The Quint  

Can Hindus be considered a minority community in any part of India? On Monday, 11 February, the Supreme Court asked the National Commission for Minorities to consider these issues raised in a representation by advocate and BJP spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay. Upadhyay has asked for Hindus to be considered minorities in certain states in India where they don’t form the majority …

India Should Have Been Declared a Hindu Country: Meghalaya HC
6 years, 3 months ago

India Should Have Been Declared a Hindu Country: Meghalaya HC

The Quint  

The Court in its judgment requests the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Law Minister and Members of the Parliament to enact a law to allow the Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhist, Parsis, Christians, Khasis, Jaintias and Garos who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to live in India peacefully and to grant them citizenship. “Therefore, I request our beloved Prime Minister, …

Based On Religion India Should Have Been Declared A Hindu Country: Meghalaya HC [Read Judgement]
6 years, 3 months ago

Based On Religion India Should Have Been Declared A Hindu Country: Meghalaya HC [Read Judgement]

Live Law  

While considering a petition relating to refusal of Domicile Certificate to an army recruit, the Meghalaya High Court, on Monday, traced the events leading up to India’s partition and observed,“It is an undisputed fact that at the time of partition, lakhs and lakhs of Sikhs and Hindus were killed, tortured and raped and forced them to leave their forefather’s property …

Watch: Is the Indian state really secular? No, according to this Supreme Court advocate
6 years, 4 months ago

Watch: Is the Indian state really secular? No, according to this Supreme Court advocate

Op India  

UpWord, a not-for-profit knowledge platform co-founded by Ashish Dhar and Ajaey Sharma, produces well-researched content in the form of short videos. It published a new video on YouTube today, featuring Supreme Court advocate Kanu Agarwal elucidating the manner in which certain articles of the Constitution discriminate against the majority faith in the country. In the video, Mr Agarwal asks the …

Preferential treatment to minorities is fostering a sense of disenchantment with ‘secularism’ among Hindus, it is time to stop
6 years, 11 months ago

Preferential treatment to minorities is fostering a sense of disenchantment with ‘secularism’ among Hindus, it is time to stop

Op India  

Senior Counsel Rajiv Dhawan, arguing in favour of Babri Masjid at Ram Janambhoomi, made an argument that reveals the institutionalized minority appeasement in the country. Same is the case with preferential treatment to minorities.” The intriguing thing about the argument is that Mr Dhawan is not merely asserting that minorities in the country have rights guaranteed to them by the …

India to confront Pakistan about the issue of forced conversion of Sikhs to Islam
7 years, 3 months ago

India to confront Pakistan about the issue of forced conversion of Sikhs to Islam

Op India  

A few days ago we had reported that, the Sikh community living in Pakistan’s Hangu district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had complained that, it was being forced to convert to Islam. It’s our duty to help protect the Sikh identity and the @MEAIndia should pursue the matter at the highest levels.https://t.co/sRFjV1pk5Q — Capt.Amarinder Singh December 19, 2017 External affairs minister Sushma …

Plea to declare Hindus as minorities in 8 states
7 years, 4 months ago

Plea to declare Hindus as minorities in 8 states

Deccan Chronicle  

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has been moved for a declaration that Hindus are minorities in eight states in the country as per population figures from the Central Government. But, their minority rights are being siphoned off illegally and arbitrarily to the majority population because neither Central nor the State Governments have notified the Hindus as a ‘minority’. However, they …

Forced conversions, oppression leading to mass exodus of Hindus from Pakistan: report
7 years, 9 months ago

Forced conversions, oppression leading to mass exodus of Hindus from Pakistan: report

India TV News  

Forced conversions, oppression leading to mass exodus of Hindus from Pakistan: report Forced conversions, oppression and suppression has resulted in a drastic decline in the Hindu population in Pakistan – about 23 per cent in 1947 to only 6 per cent now, Islamabad’s leading newspaper The Nation reported Forced conversions, oppression and suppression has resulted in a drastic decline in …

Turning India into a land only for Hindus goes against our nation, writes ex-FS Nirupama Rao
7 years, 11 months ago

Turning India into a land only for Hindus goes against our nation, writes ex-FS Nirupama Rao

Firstpost  

I am a Hindu by birth and by enduring faith. The house that I was born into that my grandfather built, had no special puja room — but the plaster of Paris statue of a flute playing Krishna, the Ravi Varma oleographs of a Lakshmi rising from a lotus with elephants trumpeting their joy at her presence, the veena-playing Saraswati, …

State vs Hindus – how Indian politics has destroyed the notion of ‘secularism’
8 years, 1 month ago

State vs Hindus – how Indian politics has destroyed the notion of ‘secularism’

Op India  

A wise man once said “When you are used to privilege, equality seems like oppression.” Was reminded of this brilliant quote yesterday when a speech by Prime Minister Narendra Modi evoked hysterical outrage by the so-called left-liberals. That the “Idea of India” gives precedence to an imaginary puppy over actual flesh and blood Hindus killed in firing by the State …

Minorities with means mull over migration
9 years, 3 months ago

Minorities with means mull over migration

The Hindu  

With the Union government facing criticism for not doing enough to overcome the feeling of religious persecution, a section of people from Muslim and Christian communities with decent incomes have started weighing the option of moving abroad but are not fully convinced to make the move yet. The first round of migration among elite Muslim families — those who would …

Hindustan is for Hindus, certain ideologies posing threat to the country: Assam governor
9 years, 4 months ago

Hindustan is for Hindus, certain ideologies posing threat to the country: Assam governor

India TV News  

Guwahati: Assam Governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya has said that "Hindustan is for Hindus" and not a single Bangladeshi's name should figure in the National Register for Citizens. The Assam governor also said that Assam has nothing to fear about 'Hindu refugees' from Bangladesh settling in the state and there is nothing wrong in Hindus from other countries taking shelter in …

The challenge of religious conversions
10 years, 2 months ago

The challenge of religious conversions

Live Mint  

On 1 May 1947, Vallabhbhai Patel rose in the Constituent Assembly to move a Constitutional clause that dealt with the right to freedom of conscience and religion. In the case of Stanislaus vs State of Madhya Pradesh, the court made a clear distinction between the right to propagate one’s religion or faith and the right to convert. The court’s words …

Efforts will be made to increase the number of Hindus: Togadia
10 years, 3 months ago

Efforts will be made to increase the number of Hindus: Togadia

India TV News  

Bhopal: A day after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat described India as a "Hindu rashtra", senior VHP leader Praveen Togadia today said efforts will be made to "increase" the percentage of Hindus in the country, but skirted the issue of religious conversion. Alleging that innocent Hindus are "being converted" to other faiths by "allurement" including cash, Togadia said VHP will provide …

Caste is the constant
10 years, 3 months ago

Caste is the constant

The Hindu  

Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh’s election in 2009 from a constituency reserved for the Scheduled Castes was challenged on the grounds that he was baptised as Christian, and therefore had no right to claim to be a Dalit. In Mr. Suresh’s case, he could establish the caste that his forbears belonged to, but after several generations or after dislocation from one’s …

Nothing wrong in re-converting to Hinduism willingly: Yogi
10 years, 3 months ago

Nothing wrong in re-converting to Hinduism willingly: Yogi

India TV News  

Nothing wrong in re-converting to Hinduism willingly: Yogi Hajipur : Amidst raging controversy over alleged conversion in Agra, firebrand BJP MP Yogi Adityanath today said that there was nothing wrong if people re-convert to Hinduism if they are doing it willingly.“There is nothing Hajipur : Amidst raging controversy over alleged conversion in Agra, firebrand BJP MP Yogi Adityanath today said …

Religious conversion in Agra: Opposition attacks centre in Parliament
10 years, 3 months ago

Religious conversion in Agra: Opposition attacks centre in Parliament

India TV News  

Religious conversion in Agra: Opposition attacks centre in Parliament New Delhi: Opposition BSP and Congress today sought to corner the government in Rajya Sabha over the reported conversion of Muslims to Hinduism in Agra, saying changing religion by force and by allurement was illegal.The New Delhi: Opposition BSP and Congress today sought to corner the government in Rajya Sabha over …

Is religious conversion really a fundamental right, or can we ban it?
10 years, 6 months ago

Is religious conversion really a fundamental right, or can we ban it?

Firstpost  

By Jaideep A Prabhu To most observers, India appears a paradox - teeming with diversity of cuisine, dress, language, pigmentation, and faith under one flag, yet simultaneously simmering with communal tensions. As Jakob de Roover of Ghent University argues, the liberal principle of religious freedom implicitly endorses the Abrahamic view of the world that religion revolves around doctrines and truth …

Cultural identity of Indians is Hindutva: RSS chief
10 years, 7 months ago

Cultural identity of Indians is Hindutva: RSS chief

The Hindu  

If inhabitants of England are English, Germany are Germans and USA are Americans then why aren’t inhabitants of Hindustan not known as Hindus, came a poser from RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday. “The cultural identity of all Indians is Hindutva and the present inhabitants of the country are descendants of this great culture,” Bhagwat said while speaking at the …

Just a matter of belief?
12 years, 1 month ago

Just a matter of belief?

The Hindu  

A response to Madhu Kishwar’s article “Don’t like this temple? Choose another” in The Hindu, 17 January 2013) Dr. Madu Kishwar’s approach to the question of the entry of female devotees into the Sabarimala temple merits attention, as it is representative of a popular viewpoint. It is important to problematize the uncritical characterisation of a ‘community of believers’ vis-a-vis ‘non- …

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