Cultural Corner: Leading News Stories in India

Dowry death in Lucknow
Posted: Tuesday, December 27, 2005, TIMES NEWS NETWORK

LUCKNOW: A newly-wed woman was found strangled inside the house of her in-laws' neighbours on Monday. She was married in February last and was allegedly being harassed for dowry.

A case of dowry death was lodged with the Alambagh police in connection with the incident.

Daughter of Brij Raj Singh Bhadauria, Ritu (22) was married to one Vinay Singh of VG colony in Alambagh on February 25.

However, soon after the marriage, Ritu's in-laws began to harass her and started asking for more dowry. The situation came to a point where Brij Raj brought Ritu home fearing that his daughter might be killed.

However, on September 16, Vinay Singh came to meet Brij Raj and after assuring him that he would not harass Ritu any longer, took her back.

On Sunday, Brij Raj was informed that his daughter had been murdered. Initially when Brij Raj reached Vinay's house, the later's parents informed him that Ritu had taken ill and hence been rushed to the PGI.

Failing to trace Ritu at PGI, Brij Raj returned only to be informed that his daughter's body was lying inside an unoccupied house in the neighbourhood.

Strangulation marks were found on the neck of the deceased suggesting that she was throttled to death.

Woman maimed for refusing to drop 'rape' charge
Posted: Sunday, December 11, 2005, The Indian Express

BHOPAL, DECEMBER 10: “They dragged her to the courtyard, Manmod pinned her (down)... and Premnarayan Raghuvanshi axed her hand...” says Mamtabai, pointing to sister Kamlabai at Hamidia Hospital here.

The attack was allegedly sparked by Kamlabai Irpache’s refusal to withdraw a rape complaint against some upper caste farmers and one of her relatives. Kamlabai, a tribal who alleges she was raped in Nigri village yesterday, said: “They barged into the hut around 4 am, abused me and later chopped off my hand... I fell unconscious.”

Queering the pitch, however, police have refused to register the sisters’ complaint, questioning their credibility and character instead. Kamlabai and Mamtabai have allegedly filed at least three separate rape complaints in the past against the accused.

The Superintendent of Police says: “It’s true that the woman’s hand was chopped off but we are not sure who did it. We are not ruling out foul play. We will investigate the matter before arriving at any conclusion.”

Woman kidnapped, raped and murdered in Bangalore
Posted: Saturday, December 17, 2005, The Hindu Online Edition

BANGALORE: The chilling details of how a criminal kidnapped and murdered call centre employee Prathiba have raised a number of questions with regard to safety in the time of business process outsourcing and the logistic challenges involved.

Prathiba regularly worked in the 3 a.m. to 1 p.m. shift. A driver named Jagadish engaged by the call centre used to collect her from home for the 25-km trip to the workplace. On December 13, another driver, Shiva Kumar, called Prathiba on her mobile phone saying that Jagadish was not coming to work and so he would take her to the office. He took the address of her house and collected her at 2 a.m. He took her towards Kanakapura Road instead of Electronics City, saying he had to pick up another employee.  Shiva Kumar took Prathiba to an isolated area in Anjanapura, threatened her with a knife and tried to molest her. When she resisted, he dragged her into a ditch, raped her, and slit her throat. He robbed Rs. 300 in cash and a mobile phone that she carried, the police said.  Acting on a complaint lodged by the girl’s relatives, the police obtained the details of the call traffic to Prathiba's mobile phone and traced Shiva Kumar.

Shiva Kumar, who had by then joined another firm, confessed to the crime, the police said. A native of Nanjapura village in Ramanagaram taluk in Bangalore Rural district, he is married.

Infanticide: Man held for killing infant daughter
Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 TIMES NEWS NETWORK

NEW DELHI: A man who smothered his one-month-old daughter in Kotla Mubarakpur last week was sent to police custody by a city court till December 22.

The shocking case of alleged female infanticide came to light after the dead body of the child was found by his wife.

Metropolitan magistrate S K Sharma, accepting the investigating officer's (IO) request for interrogation, remanded Gopal to police custody after the IO sought more time for questioning him.

Gopal, a native of Bhagalpur district in Bihar, who was arrested from Naraina area in south-west Delhi, had been missing since December 13, the day of the incident.

He committed the crime when his wife went away to buy groceries.

Anti-Christian violence on the rise in India -
Indian Christians have expressed deep concern over the increasing attacks on Christian community
Posted: Friday, December 16, 2005, Christian Post

New Delhi - The minority Christian community of India has expressed deep concern over the increasing attacks on Christian churches by violent mobs across India.

On December 4, an unidentified mob attacked a Catholic Church called Jalalkhali in Nadia district of West Bengal, destroying furniture, tearing pages of the Holy Bible and setting them on fire.

The assailants also desecrated the communion bread and stole silver chalices, Reuters reported.

The objective behind the attack is unknown, but it is probably related to a recent anti-crime campaign led by the priests of the Church, a local police officer, Biswarup Ghosh, told the Reuters.

Despite having been threatened by the attack, the head of the Church has not given up the initiative. As Fr. Antony Kariyattil told the Associated Press (AP), "Some of the local youths used to get drunk and trespass on the church compound. They also teased the girls in the village. I tried to put an end to all that and sought cooperation from local village leaders."

Exactly one week before this attack in West Bengal state, three Bible distributors were brutally attacked in Panvel district of Maharashtra, a report by the Pakistan Christian Post unveiled.

The three members from the Panvel Brethren Church – Biju Jacob, Reji Paul, and Shaji Samuel – were beaten up by over 30 young people. They were distributing Bible and Gospel tracts on the street in Panvel district from their vehicle on the evening of Nov. 26.

According to the Pakistan Christian Post, the beatings lasted for over 15 minutes. Shaji was seriously injured on his face and was unable to talk or breathe. Later, it was found that all the Christian literatures were missing from the vehicle as well.

In speaking with the Pakistan Christian Post, Shaji explained that the Bible distribution was not illegal by the Indian law: "No one is compelled to buy it. We are sorry that the attackers have misunderstood us as anti-nationals. As Indian citizens the constitution has given us rights to ‘profess, practice and propagate’ our faith. We are doing it like any other religious groups."

Shaji added that the church members had already forgiven the attackers and had made no complaint to the police, according to the Pakistan Christian Post.   In another incident, on December 4, at least 25 members of the Hindu extremist group Dharma Sena attacked a church in Raipur, Chattisgarh, "severely" beating five Christians, Compass Direct reported.

After beating Christians in the church, the attackers took four believers and a pastor from another congregation into a Hindu temple, where they tried to force them to bow down to idols.

The same day, a group of 15 activists from the right-wing Hindu outfit, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), reportedly attacked a pastor in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh. Police declined to arrest the militant Hindus and instead detained the pastor, Anil Mehra of Indian Evangelical Team, for several hours on charges of "disrupting public peace," Compass Direct reported.

The attacks on individuals or churches across many states of India have been worsening, forcing the human rights groups and church advocacy organizations to urge the central government to protect the Christian community.

The motives behind the crimes are often being reported as religious hatred, given the evidences that the hard-line Hindu political party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have been tying to restrict Christian minorities by implementing some anti-conversion laws.

The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) has already sent an open letter to the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in September, urging the Indian government to launch urgent measures to curb the alarming trend.

According to a statement from GCIC on its website, the organization is "anxious about the trends of intolerance triggered by religious fundamentalists in the Indian society."

GCIC has added that these incidents of anti-Christian violence "have been happening in various parts of the country" and the culprits invariably are "religious fanatics."

TSUNAMI: A YEAR AFTER
Posted: Monday, December 26, 2005, The Hindu

Keeping memories alive.

Remembering the dead is a way of life in the mourning hamlets along Tamil Nadu's coast. In the villages of Nagapattinam and Kanyakumari, where hundreds died in the tsunami, memorials rise faster than new homes.

Each family and community has found a way to remember its dead, adding to the State's efforts to pay homage to the victims.

In Nagapattinam, a pillar with a clock whose hands stand at 9.20 a.m. — three minutes after the tsunami struck the district — has been built at the Collectorate. Two boats have been mounted on pillars at the entrance to Samanthanpettai. A total of 6,065 decorative plants have been planted in memory of each victim in the district. A commemorative pillar is coming up over the mass burial ground close to Velankanni. These are just a few of the many memorials in the district.

In Kanyakumari, a massive memorial built by the State sits on the beach — a 16-ft hand stops a wave, while another holds up a lamp. The Catholic Diocese has built an impressive memorial over the mass grave in Colachel.

People have built small shrines, and planted casuarinas and coconut tree saplings in memory of friends and families they lost.

In Aryanaatutheru, just behind the lighthouse in Nagapattinam, small coloured shrines have come up where houses once stood.

Masilamani and Punitha have converted their two-room house into a colourful shrine for their two children, Sanjay (5) and Sivaranjani (3). Everyday the fisherman and his wife go to the shrine from their temporary shelter in Kadambakkam. They light incense sticks in front of framed images of the children. "I leave the sweets and fruits that my children used to love. I stay here all day," says Punitha.

All around her, four-foot tall shrines stand solemnly against the sky. All in memory of families that were washed away on December 26, 2004.

Dowry Death: Ex-Serviceman Held
Posted: Deccan Herald News, Sunday, July 11, 2004

BANGALORE, DHNS:
An ex-serviceman-turned-civil contractor has been arrested by Byappanahalli police in connection with the death of his wife. The accused, Ramakrishna (32), a resident of GM Palya, used to harass his wife, Manjula (25) for dowry.

On Saturday morning, when the accused asked her to get Rs 10,000 from her parents, she ended her life by hanging. The victim’s father, Dasappa, has lodged the complaint, according to police.

Indian State Annouces Repeal of Anti-conversion Law
Posted: The Christian Post, Thursdayday, May 27, 2004

An official of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has announced the repeal of the state anti-conversion law shortly following India’s Congress Party defeated the previous pro-Hindu government in national elections, Compass Direct reported May 25.

In a five-page statement announced May 18, Chief Minister Selvi J. Jayalalithaa noted, “I have ordered that the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Act 2002 be repealed at once.”

Jayalalithaa heads the local branch of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazakham party (AIADMK), which was soundly defeated in the general elections. While she maintains her current position as Tamil Nadu’s chief minister until assembly elections in 2006, opposition members who won 35 of the 39 local seats in Tamil Nadu have called for her resignation, according to Compass Direct.

The Tamil Nadu anti-conversion law was enacted on Oct. 5, 2002, despite large-scale protests by the Christian minority and opposition parties. It contained loose definitions and required all conversions to be registered with the state government. Without proper registration, both “converter” and “converted” could be jailed and fined.

Christians, who comprise approximately 6 percent of Tamil Nadu’s population, contend that the law was passed with the intent to harass religious minorities and restrict missionary work in the state.

Defending her original decision to enact the law, Jayalalithaa said in her statement, “It was only with the good intention of further promoting religious harmony among all religions that my government enacted the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Act.”

She also claimed that her state government had “always been the strongest champion of the rights and welfare of every minority community, be it Christians, Muslims or others.