On Friday (August 19), a Shivling was recovered by a fisherman, from the Kopotakkho river in Paikgachha Upazila in the Khulna district of Bangladesh. The fisherman was identified as Jagadish Biswas, the son of the late Satish Biswas. As per locals, Jagadish had gone to the river to catch fish when he saw a part of the Shivling floating above the water level.

An overwhelmed Jagadish brought the sacred Hindu figurine to his house. By that time, the news had spread in the neighbourhood. This prompted a rush of Hindu devotees to his house.

However, a local leader suggested that he hand over the Shivling to the police. On his advice, Jagadish and his wife Anjana Biswas handed over the Shivling to the police at around 11:30 am on Saturday (August 20).

This has created a feeling of unease among the local Hindu population, who now fear that the Shivling will not be returned to them. Hindu rights activist Avro Neel informed, As far as I know the Shiva idol is in police custody. If there is no protest, this statue will be placed in the museum.

While taking to Facebook, Goutam Halder Pranto remarked, Shivlinga embodies conveys our emotion, feelings, existence, faith, devotion, respect, and love. Only Hindus should have the right to its idols found in different parts of the country!

He added, Because these are not just precious metal statues, but are deities worshipped by Hindus. Only Hindus can protect the sanctity of these idols and ensure the existence of Sanatana Dharma.

If the idols of different Hindu gods and goddesses are kept in museums of the country, then Hindus will one day become limited to museums! Currently, the Shivling found in Khulna is under police custody, he emphasised.

Goutam Haldar Pranto is a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance.

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Bangladesh: Fisherman discovers Shivling in a river, local Hindus fear they will lose its custody - OpIndia

Hinduism should be practiced according to the laws of nature. This cultural heritage has been handed down from the sages. It is a good sign for the whole world that today the youth are attracted to these cultural things. Hindus should be able to live as Hindus.

Every Hindu needs to perform Panchamahayagya. Coming to one's Guru for spiritual enlightenment is the real Sravani. PadmashriVibhushitDharmabhushanSadguruBrahmeshanandacharyaSwamijienlightened all the Hindu religious people through his blessings that it is necessary to preserve this science-based spiritual tradition started by our sages over the years.

Sri DuttPadmanabhaPeetha, SrikshetraTapobhumiGurupeetha- Goa The "ShravaniVidhi" organized under the divine guidance and guidance of spiritual leader,PadmashriVibhushitDharmabhushanSadguruBrahmeshanandacharyaSwamiji successfullycompleted the occasion on Thursday 11th August 2022.

MLA of PatodaConstituency ShriVijay Sardesaiand MLA of MayeConstituency ShriPremendraShetwere present on this occasion. The aura of the festival was so blissful. Manydevotess had the divine feeling while many get to know more about the culture ofhinduism as well as theSanatanDharma.They also focused on the part of nature which is an intrinsic medium to connect with the One.

On the occasion of this Shravaniritual, Bhavikanahad the privilege of seeing thousands of Hindu devotees at Tapobhoomi.Thousandsof Hindu religious people from Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka as well as national and international levels gathered under thebanner of Main Hindu and Hindu representatives from various fields participated in thisShravani ritual. Rituals likeYajnopavitharan,Havan,Tarpan,Marjan,Sabhadeepdan werecompleted.The program concluded withAartiPasaidan and Mahaprasad.

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Hearing spiritual knowledge from the Guru is the real hearing - Sadguru Brahmeshanandacharya - The Week

A special ardas samagam (prayer congregation) was organised in memory of the people who lost their lives during Partition at Akal Takht.Prayers were also held at other major gurdwaras under Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) management. Earlier, Akhand Path (the continuous and uninterrupted recitation of Guru Granth Sahib) was also carried out and the hazuri ragis jathas Golden Temple performed Gurbani Kirtan.

Hindu and Muslim representatives also attended prayers at Golden Temple.

Gangveer Rathur, who had approached Jathedar with idea of offering prayer, said, It is big step in understanding the pain of partition and its impact on the present and future of Punjab. The future generations need to understand why partition took place.

Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh said that the governments of India and Pakistan should pass condolence resolutions in their Parliaments for the of people who lost lives during Partition. Visas should be granted to them so that they can easily visit their ancestral and religious places. Panjabis suffered the most in Partition followed by Bengalis. People of these two states fought the British fiercely but they were punished by dividing their states and their properties were seized, he said, adding that the pain is still there.

The people want to see their birthplace and want to visit the holy shrines. If stopping Muslims from going to Haj, Hindus from visiting Katas Raj is a crime, Sikhs should also not be stopped from visiting Nankana Sahib and other shrines in Pakistan. Both the countries should take up the matter and grant visas generously to people of every faith to visit their religious shrines, the Jathedar added.

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Hindus, Muslims take part in prayers in memory of lives lost during Partition - The Indian Express

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar addresses mediapersons in Patna

Photo : IANS

It should be noted that the main entrance of the world famous Vishnupad temple of Gaya has a 'non-Hindu entry barred' written on it. But Nitish Kumar took the Muslim leader along with him.

The pictures triggered much outrage on social media while BJP attacked the Bihar chief minister for taking such a step. Vishnupad temple secretary Gajadhar Lal Pathak said, "Chief Minister Nitish Kumar visited the temple along with Muslim minister Mansoori which is against our law. It is clearly written that a non-Hindu is not allowed inside the temple premises."

"Nitish Kumar has hurt the sentiments of crores of Hindus. He should apologise to everyone, further action will be after meeting with temple committees," he added.

Taking an opportunity to hit out at its former alliance partner JD(U), BJP MLA Haribhushan Thakur Bachaul said that Mansoori should immediately resign for violating the rules of a holy structure. Nitish Kumar has committed a sin by allowing a Muslim to enter the temple."

At the same time, Mansoori told media said that he was fortunate to have entered the sanctum sanctorum of Vishnupad temple with CM Nitish Kumar.

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Bihar CM Nitish Kumar takes Muslim minister to temple that bars entry of non-Hindus; BJP accuses them of 'hurt - Times Now

With 20 months left for the general elections, a group of seers have drafted a new constitution for a Hindu rashtra, shifting the national capital from New Delhi to Varanasi and disenfranchising Muslim and Christian Indians. With the 11 convicts who raped a pregnant Bilkis Bano and killed her daughter walking out of Godhra jail, preceded in 2018 by former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani being acquitted after first being sentenced to 28 years in jail in the 2002 Narodia Patiya massacre of 97 Muslims, this new constitution may imply that religion overrides justice.

What is even more disturbing is a senior Supreme Court advocate and a so-called defence expert were part of those who drafted this constitution showing a map of akhand (=unified) Bharat which comprises Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar as a single entity. Drafting a Hindu constitution which deprives Muslims and Christians of their right to vote is a criminal offence which attracts three years in jail under sections 153 (a) and (b) of the Indian Penal Code, apart from other penal laws. But the police are keeping mum.

Although it seems farcical, the mechanism for replacing our Constitution with the Hindu one is mystifying. Under this Hindu constitution, Muslims and Christians can work, study, and enjoy all rights except the right to vote. Only the Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs can vote after turning 16 years or contest elections on turning 25. This Hindu constitution totally ruptures the basic structure of our existing Constitution, so those who drafted it have committed a criminal offence.

Criminalising triple talaq obliterated Islamic obscurantism, criminalising beef-eating and conversion to either Islam or Christianity, while allowing reconversion to Hinduism or ghar wapasi were further steps in making India a de facto if not a de jure Hindu state. The alleged dilution of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 by raising the Gyanvapi mosque dispute and the toppling of the Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra on the grounds he had jettisoned hardcore Hindutva already proved India of 2022 is not India of 1950. We are a Hindu state.

Apart from Nepal which was a Hindu monarchy till 2008, there has never been an official Hindu state in Asia. A Muslim has never become prime minister in India nor completed a five-year-term as a chief minister of any Indian state. But India has had a Muslim President and Chief Justice but never a Christian. In a Hindu rashtra, however, only a Hindu will be considered eligible for these top posts.

This Hindu constitution declares 543 members will be elected to the Parliament of Religions which will abolish the British parliamentary system of democracy so that government and parliament will be conducted on the basis of the varna system while the judiciary would have to follow the Treta and Dvapara yugas which seem absurd because all the law records will have to be rewritten in Sanskrit. The varna system is anti-thetical to our Constitution which ensures reservations for the deprived castes and classes. That is why Constitutional morality is the opposite of religious morality.

This new constitution may have the RSS tacit approval but Dr BR Ambedkar in his essay The Annihilation of Caste pointed out the impracticality of enforcing caste or varna in modern government as per the ancient Hindu texts like Manusmriti. This would prove detrimental to the Hindus themselves because not all are Kshatriyas or Brahmins. The ancient Hindu texts insist the Kshatriyas advised by the Brahmin sages must rule the people.

This Hindu constitution declares the Gurukul education system will teach ayurveda, mathematics, nakshatra, bhu-garbha (whatever that might mean) and astrology while it is not clear if western physics, chemistry, biology or medicine will be taught. Every citizen will get compulsory military training like Israel, just as the youth of the Bajrang Dal are trained to use weapons. Agriculture will be totally tax-free. Whether the penal law of this utopian Hindu state will follow that of the ancient dharmasastras or that of the law-giver Manu remains unclear.

What makes all this fascinating is the fact that an advocate from the Supreme Court had earlier petitioned the judges to delete the word secular from the preamble of the Constitution because it was introduced by Indira Gandhi in 1976. This petition is still pending in the apex court but this advocate has been rewarded by the Sanathan Sanstha at Ponda in Goa as a saint for working selflessly for the Hindu cause. His son is an advocate-on-record in the apex court which implies this father-son duo have a sound grasp of modern law.

There is no doubt that India is now a Hindu state, which has departed from Nehruvian socialism as the preamble proclaims, because the existing fundamental rights such as freedom of religion for Christians was diluted by criminalising propagation of their faith under the Freedom of Religion laws. Poor Muslims right to livelihood was effaced by banning cattle slaughter even before 2014 during the Congress regime. Today, the so-called secular Constitution with its laws and policies eroded the rights of minorities in innovative ways.

Theoretically, these changes are reversible because the basic structure of the Constitution remains intact. The emphasis on individual freedoms, civil liberties and fundamental rights has shifted away from the citizen contravening the wishes of the first Constituent Assembly. But with a Hindu government in power at the centre and in the states, the state has been given power to curtail even the fundamental right to life and liberty which is why the 11 rapists have had their life sentences commuted by the Gujarat government. They were seen being feted and garlanded.

We have to accept that Hindutva is a sinister species of Hinduism because it is Hindutva and not Hinduism which demonises Muslims as the eternal enemy within, followed closely by the Christians. This new Hindu constitution has done what our sovereign Parliament cannot do which is to override the Constitution enacted 75 years ago with 395 articles, eight schedules and 22 parts.

This is why religion is regarded by the poor as true, by the wise as false and by those who govern us as a useful tool to fool everybody.

The writer holds a PhD in law and is a senior journalist and advocate at the Bombay High Court

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Religion overrides justice in the Hindu constitution - Free Press Journal

In the Hindu majoritarian atmosphere of India today, liberals have been scorned as out-of-touch, Westernised elites, alienated and disconnected from the pulse of a country of nearly 1.4 billion people. They have been branded as being inauthentically Indian, hostile towards Hinduism, and anti-national.

Indian liberals have long suffered from crises of identity and legitimacy. Architect of the Indian Constitution BR Ambedkar wondered aloud whether liberal democracy would be only a top-dressing on an Indian soil, which is essentially undemocratic.

However, as India celebrates its 75th anniversary of independence, it is important to remember that the nation was built on a solidly liberal foundation. Liberalism constitutes modern Indias original political ideology.

Its champions were not self-serving elites: they constructed an increasingly universal and democratic vision of rights and freedoms which would bridge Indias religious, ethnic, and linguistic faultlines. These politicians nurtured liberal roots in Indian society, which are far deeper, stronger, and more pervasive than meets the eye.

To understand these roots, we must return to the 19th century, well before the generation of MK Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru which led India to independence. It was here that Indian leaders steered emerging politics onto a thoroughgoing liberal trajectory.

The 19th century was a moment of horror, humiliation, and hopelessness for most Indians. Indias textile manufacturing economy largely collapsed, leading to mass impoverishment. Indian political authority and agency crumbled as the British Raj consolidated its control of the subcontinent. Tens of millions died from a spate of devastating famines: the British journalist William Digby estimated that the death toll was at least 28.8 million for just the period between 1854 and 1901.

Yet Indias first modern political leaders did not throw up their hands in despair. Instead of hate, they offered hope, looking to contemporary Western politics for solutions. Reformer Rammohun Roy was the first to imbibe Western liberal ideas of rights and freedoms and put them in an Indian context. With the encouragement of the philosopher Jeremy Bentham, he was even prepared to represent India as an MP in the British Parliament to pave the way for his countrymen. By the 1850s, Indians formed their first modern political associations, petitioning the British Parliament for political reform.

On paper, their demands could seem moderate, hemmed in with cloying language about the benefits of British rule. But it was clear that many of them had more ambitious goals in mind. As early as 1859, Bhau Daji Lad, a Bombay doctor and civic leader, declared at a public meeting that the time will surely come when that first principle of free governments shall be introduced with safety into India. India would be a nation of free men.

Indian liberals clamoured for representative government. Instead of marginalising certain groups or promoting majoritarianism, they sought out political systems which would reflect Indias diversity. Liberals therefore scrutinised governing models employed around the world.

In 1867, WC Bonnerjee, fresh from having qualified as a barrister from Londons Middle Temple, looked to the United States for inspiration. He suggested a bicameral Indian assembly which, per the American model, could have veto power over the executive branch in this case, the British viceroy.

Bonnerjee, who in 1885 would become the first president of the Indian National Congress, pointed to traditional panchayats to argue that ordinary Indians possessed the capacity for self-government. To understand the people, you must go to them direct, he stated. You will find that they possess a remarkable degree of intelligence.

He rubbished the idea, propounded by many colonial officials, that Indias religious diversity and Hindu-Muslim tensions in particular would make representative government unworkable. Indians, Bonnerjee maintained, were united by a common nationality.

While they did not advocate anything approaching universal enfranchisement hardly a mainstream idea in the 19th century Indian liberals envisioned a robust, expansive future electorate for the country. They did not simply advance the interests of their fellow English-educated elites.

Allan Octavian Hume the founder of the Congress, a Scotsman who identified as a native of India designed an electoral system for Congress representatives which incorporated a wide cross-section of the Indian peasantry and accommodated minority representation. By 1887, this electorate numbered three million more than the electoral turnout at British parliamentary elections, Hume was quick to point out.

At its 1889 session, the Congress included female delegates a radical departure, at the time, for any political organisation worldwide and featured a brief debate on Indian female suffrage. Despite deep-set patriarchal norms in India, many liberals expressed remarkably progressive ideas about womens rights.

Dadabhai Naoroji argued for gender equality in India and actively campaigned for female suffrage in Britain. In 1917, two years before the United States gave women the right to vote, the Congress selected as its president Annie Besant, the fiery Anglo-Irish matriarch.

The Congress advocated a multi-pronged agenda of comprehensive reform, keeping in mind the poverty and destitution of the average Indian. Its leaders railed against corruption in the police force, worked towards empowered municipal bodies, and fought against systemic discrimination in the judicial system.

Congress politicians championed universal education, vocational and industrial training, and policies to stimulate industry and commerce. They thought in big, bold terms, suggesting the establishment in India of cutting-edge educational institutions modeled on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the London School of Economics.

In contrast to India today, where the medias independence has eroded, liberals who cut their teeth as journalists and newspaper editors were staunch defenders of freedom of the press and freedom of speech. They pushed back against government censorship, and some of them, like Surendranath Banerjea, editor of the Bengalee of Calcutta, went to jail for their outspokenness. It was in newspaper columns that Indians spoke truth to power, attempting to hold their colonial rulers to account.

At the same time, liberals used the press to inform Indians about the rest of the world. While intensely proud of their country, they did not possess a smug satisfaction about Indias innate civilisational superiority.

Instead, they believed that India had much to learn from other societies. Sant Nihal Singh (who, with great literary flourish, anglicised his first name to Saint or St), became Indias first roving world correspondent, translating his travels into lessons for his fellow Indians.

Surveying Meiji Japans achievements, he impressed upon Indians the importance of universal education and womens rights. In the American South, he visited the Hampton Institute, the black college which counted Booker T Washington, a prominent Black leader and adviser to US presidents, among its alumni, and pleaded for a similar institution to be founded in India to promote agricultural and industrial education.

Liberals were not hostile towards Indias religions. Far from it: many were deeply religious, and several were authorities on Hinduism and Sanskrit literature. But they were, by and large, not bigots. They celebrated the glories of Indias past, but they could be quite clear-eyed and realistic about pseudo-historical fantasies, the kind of which have gained increased traction in recent years.

We cannot afford to be dreamy and self-contained, and turn back from our present opportunities to a past which cannot be recalled, judge and reformer Mahadev Govind Ranade, himself a noted expert on Maratha history, remarked in 1893.

Admittedly, Indian liberalism had numerous blind spots. Public enthusiasm for social reform and womens rights did not always translate into practice in their homes. Despite strenuous efforts to broaden their base, the liberals achieved nothing like Gandhis success after 1919 in generating popular enthusiasm for nationalism.

Most egregiously, liberals could be quite dismissive about caste discrimination and the plight of lower castes and Dalits. In my own research, I have been struck by the sheer absence of these issues in the writings and correspondence of many liberal leaders.

That being said, liberals did accomplish one remarkable achievement: setting out a vision for India which was inclusive, democratic, and relatively open-minded. This vision was further nurtured by Gandhi, Nehru, and Ambedkar. It survived the horrors of Partition, the many unfulfilled promises of Indian independence, and lurches towards authoritarianism like Indira Gandhis Emergency.

On the 75th anniversary of its independence, however, it remains to be seen how much longer that original liberal vision of India will last.

Dinyar Patel is Assistant Professor, History, at SP Jain Institute of Management and Research.

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In the 75th year of Independence, let us not forget the deep liberal roots of modern Indian society - Scroll.in

On August 8, six Dalit Christian women were arrested by police in Uttar Pradeshs Azamgarh on charges that they were forcefully converting people of the Hindu faith into Christianity. The police acted on a complaint filed by a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) member who accused them of luring others with money to take up the Christian faith.

What happened in Uttar Pradesh is nothing new or unusual, nor will it be the last such incident. Be it Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, or anywhere else in the country, Hindutva outfits are ever ready to cry wolf over what they call forced conversions or forced mass conversions.

Also read: Over 300 Instances of Violence Against Christians Were Reported in Nine Months of 2021: Report

Every time the question of someone accepting the Christian faith comes to the fore in India, even the popular perception is that the person concerned has converted either only under duress or due to some inducement. This view is not just held by zealous Hindu fundamentalists, who unleash violence on members of the Christian community, but even by those who swear no allegiance to the Hindutva ideology. In popular parlance, therefore, the word converted assumes a pejorative connotation, for the crossover to the Christian faith in India is always believed to have taken place unconsciously and unwillingly by converts.

A March 25, 2015 photo shows a protest against anti-Christian violence in the country. Photo: Reuters

At one level, the reason for such a view to gain currency is the myth peddled by the anti-Christian brigade which alleges that mass conversions would result in a sizeable number of Hindus accepting Christianity. On the other hand, implicit in such a view is a casteist angle, the perception of it being a foreign religion, andthe ignorance of the evolution of the faith and its contemporary form in India.

Dent to the Hindu demography?

The view that mass conversions are affecting the preponderance of Hindus in the country is a factoid rather than a fact.

According to the data available from Census, the size of the Christian community relative to the countrys population has either been static or been on the decline since 1971. The 1971 Census estimated that Christians accounted for 2.6% of Indias population. By 2001, this figure dropped to 2.3%. While the religious composition of 2011 Census figures has never been released, leaked data has shown that there has been a further decline in the size of the community.

On the contentious issue of religious conversion, a Pew research report released in June 2021, notes that it is rare for someone in India to make a switch from one religion to another.

An overall pattern of stability in the share of religious groups is accompanied by little net change from movement into, or out of, most religious groups. Among Hindus, for instance, any conversion out of the group is matched by conversion into the group, the report underlines.

The report was based on a survey carried out among nearly 30,000 Indians from various religious backgrounds. Among Hindus, for instance, any conversion out of the group is matched by conversion into the group: 0.7% of respondents say they were raised Hindu but now identify as something else, and roughly the same share (0.8%) say they were notraised Hindu but now identify as Hindu, the report notes.

Also read: Complicity of Police; Forced Conversion a Myth: PUCL on Attacks on Christians in Karnataka

However, these estimates still do not convince many about the myth of mass conversions. Nobody, including Christians themselves, believes the official figures, nor what surveys portray on the size of the community in the country. This is because a large number of them are crypto Christians, for they officially present themselves as Hindus while practicing their Christian faith privately. This dual identity is essential for Christians populating Indias hinterlands to face a host of social and economic challenges that arise from the time they accept the Christian faith.

Even if we were to include the crypto Christians, the population size of the community would still not be anywhere near what the peddlers of the mass conversion myth portray. According to statisticians Todd Johnson and Kenneth Ross, Christians account for 4.8% of Indias population. Some, including Jason Mandryk, puts it at 5.84%. At best, the community in India can be termed as a mini or minuscule minority, relative to other minority religious groups.

However, for many Indians, their flawed perceptions about the community blind them from seeing the reality on the ground. As a result, they make outlandish claims and raise a false alarm about the Christian missionary mafia taking over India.

For instance, recently an English-educated upper caste Hindu young man from a metro city, who presented himself as a liberal (I-have-Christian-and-Muslim-friends), told this writer that Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy (a practicing Christian) was giving Rs 50,000 per person in his state to convert Hindus into Christianity. Not only is this a falsehood, but it is laughable, for it even defies any common sense. It is surprising that a politician as shrewd as Reddy would be more interested in increasing the headcount of Christians by putting his political future at stake at a time when extra vigilant Hindutva outfits are eagerly ready to expose any such attempts. In reality, such a view is reflective of the contempt a large section of our society has for a practicing Christian who is a chief minister.

This anti-Christian sentiment, therefore, is not just confined to Hindu fundamentalists but runs deep in our society, portraying Christians as a community whose sole purpose in their lives is to proselytise and see their numbers grow.

Members of Christian community and supporters hold placards during a protest rally against the Anti-Conversion bill, which was tabled yesterday during the Winter Session of Karnataka Legislative Assembly, in Bengaluru, Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021. Photo: PTI.

Social realities of the community

This suspicious and contemptuous view of the community is also reflected in various judgments and laws passed in Independent India. From 1977 when the Supreme Court in Rev Ft Stanislaus v State of Madhya Pradesh case upheld Madhya Pradeshs anti-conversion law to a string of such laws enacted in 14 Indian states with more teeth recently, the practice and propagation of Christian faith in India can attract criminal charges. The fact these laws clearly violate Article 25 of the Indian constitution which allows individuals the liberty to profess, practice and propagate their religion freely does not seem to apply in the case of the Christian community.

Also read: India 10th Most Dangerous Country to Live in for Christians: Report

Whether by design or otherwise, such laws are paradoxically called the freedom of religion act in most states where such laws exist. Something as simple and private as accepting and practicing faith now requires potential converts to go through a convoluted bureaucratic process. They now have to give advance notice to district magistrates explaining the real intent behind such conversion. The proof of burden strangely rests with the person who wishes to convert rather than with those who accuse them of forced conversion. Failing to do so can attract criminal charges which make it a non-bailable offence, requiring them to cough up hefty penalties and serve jail terms.

The rising attacks against Christians can be safely described as attacks on Dalits and the marginalised of this country. As many as 74% of Indian Christians belong to lower castes, and Dalits and Tribals together account for 57%. Given that Dalits who accept Christianity are stripped of their access to reservations as they lose Scheduled Caste status (only officially, but socially still face the humiliation as Dalits), they face double discrimination both for their faith and their social location.

What many get wrong about Indian Christianity today is that they still view it as a foreign religion, relying excessively on overseas contributions for its survival. However, a large part of the contemporary Indian Church has long delinked its connections with the West.

A number of churches and prayer halls in remote parts of India do not in any way claim association with any pope or papacy, or any diocese or archbishop. They are established with limited means pooled in from the small faithful congregations in their own villages. All they can promise is a sense of community and spiritual well-being but nothing in terms of material benefits (inducements). Most of them hold prayer meetings in makeshift tents or tin-roofed rooms, reflecting their own socio-economic conditions. No doubt large-scale Christian organisations still do exist, but their hold and influence on the Indian Christian community have declined greatly.

This is because these charismatic or new-age churches are an outward projection of the democratisation that has taken place in the Indian Christendom. Unlike in Hinduism where the priesthood is still an exclusive privilege of one community, in Christianity, one does not have to belong to or have a certain level of educational qualifications to become clergy in their churches. Often, they empower men and women of all age groups and social statuses to interpret the Biblical doctrine and preach to their brethren in their local language and idiom and connect it to their own physical world. However, one must also bear in mind that this is limited to the spiritual realm while their social lives are still plagued by caste realities.

Therefore, in reality, the bogey of mass conversion is indicative of collective frustration and insecurity on the part of Hindutva outfits at the perceived injustice to and rejection of the Hindu faith by some converts. The stark reality, however, is that Christianity in India in no way poses a threat to the demographic and philosophical might of Hinduism. But the political ideology of Hindutva leverages this paranoia for electoral purposes to consolidate Hindus (often divided along caste lines) in the name of religion.

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The Bogey of 'Forced Conversions' Has Long Diverted Us from the Realities of Indian Christians - The Wire

New Delhi Majnu ka Tila area in Delhi is inhabited by Hindus who came to India from Pakistan. These Hindus moved here in 2011, Since then many leaders came and made various promises. Since then, many leaders came and gave various promises but none of them were fulfilled, the refugee Hindus said. On the one hand, there was talk of providing flats with all facilities to the Rohingya Muslim infiltrators, but nothing was given to us. Such regret is being expressed by them. 145 Hindu families are living in this place.

1. In India, however, Hindus who own farms in the Sindh provinces are now forced to sell mobile phone covers. They say that the Government has not helped us in the last 10 years. Basic facilities such as water, electricity, etc. have not been provided. After the Court order, electricity has started 3 months ago and water has started last year. They said that 1-2 Hindu organizations have helped.

2. Some said that they were able to come to India after getting a visa from Pakistan. Many of them who could not get visas are suffering torture in Pakistan.

3. Women here refuse to allow their photographs to be taken by journalists, fearing that if their photographs are published, they will be identified and their relatives in Pakistan will suffer.

Will the Government that does not help the Hindus in India ever help Hindu refugees from Pakistan ?

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Hindu refugees who came to Delhi from Pakistan expressed disappointment over the Government and administration's negligence - Sanatan Prabhat -

The cryptocurrency market, which continues to tackle uncertainties around it, has seen the usage of stablecoins multiply in last couple of years. According to data by European Central Bank, stablecoins market capitalisation increased from 23 billion to around 150 billion in the Q1, CY2021. In September, 2021, around 75% of trading on cryptocurrency platforms involved stablecoins. Market behaviour suggests that stablecoins are being used to trade cryptocurrency assets. Stablecoins act as intermediary when cryptocurrency investors want to exit a market position and re-enter it later. Stablecoins can help with trading between different cryptocurrency exchanges, and can also help investors with their financial stability when cryptocurrency markets are bearish in nature, Sathvik Vishwanath, co-founder and CEO, Unocoin, a cryptocurrency exchange, told FE Digital Currency.

Reportedly, stablecoins such as Tether, USD Coin and Binance USD account for close to 90% of the total stablecoin market. According to experts, stablecoins can be used as a currency because of its collateral value being associated with the United States Dollar (USD). Information from Federal Reserve, a government body, mentioned that a two-tiered banking system, where banks are supervised under state and federal levels, can support both stablecoin issuance and maintain traditional forms of credit creation. As stablecoins are backed by financial services authorities, it can be a frontrunner in the cryptocurrency space. In the longer-term, I believe interoperability between stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will take place, Anndy Lian, chief digital advisor, Mongolian Productivity, a governmental organisation, said.

It is believed that stablecoins can help to bridge the gap between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies, due to their relatively low price volatility. Stablecoins can be used to ensure monetary balance as companies can pay salaries and conduct transactions between different geographies. As stablecoins can be tracked, governments can implement regulations to excercise control over it without their complete ban, Aliasgar Merchant, lead developer of relations, Akash Network, a decentralised cloud platform, stated.

Also read: 75 years of Independence: Looking back, looking forward on how social media evolution has touched lives

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What is the role of stablecoins in digital assets ecosystem - The Financial Express

Pro-choice Americans have a serious fight on their hands. Since the Supreme Courts decision in June to strike down Roe v Wade, which held that the right to abortion was protected by the constitution, abortion has once again become a question for state legislatures. And so now begins the hard work of winning the democratic argument for choice of persuading the people in those anti-abortion states of the case for womens reproductive freedom.

So it is more than a little disappointing to see many on the pro-choice side now seeking to shut down that debate. Last week, a public letter signed by over 600 US abortion providers and healthcare workers, and organised by Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH), was published by the feminist magazine Jezebel. The letter calls on the media to de-platform anti-abortion activists.

The letter claims that the media, in seeking to provide balance on the abortion debate, are giving too much airtime to anti-abortion extremists. And by doing so, journalists are enabling dangerous lies to spread.

One signatory, a PRH board member, tells Jezebel that she will no longer engage in media requests that either require her to debate an anti-abortion activist or even simply plan to present her views alongside anti-abortion views. My job is not [to] engage or debate, quite literally, white supremacists, says. She similarly accuses her anti-choice opponents of being connected to violent hate groups.

As well as deriding the opponents of abortion as beyond the pale and unworthy of engagement, the letters signatories even try to claim that abortion is not a legitimate subject of public discussion. Allow us to be clear: medicine and science are not up for debate, the letter declares.

This is wrong and counter-productive on a number of levels. For the pro-choice side to run away from debate would be a catastrophic error. Just because the current Supreme Court and many Republican lawmakers are bitterly opposed to abortion does not mean that the broader public cannot be brought around to a pro-choice view.

On the contrary, earlier this month, in Kansas, when the question of abortion rights was put directly to the people in a referendum, voters turned out in huge numbers for the pro-choice side. An amendment to the state constitution that would have eliminated protections for abortion rights was rejected decisively. Clearly, these voters did not need to be shielded from anti-abortion views to come to a pro-choice conclusion.

The Kansas vote fits a pattern we have seen around the world. Over the past 15 years, the pro-choice side has won referendums in Ireland, San Marino and Portugal all places that might once have been written off as too religious or traditional to support abortion rights.

Yet despite the pro-choice side passing these democratic tests despite all this proof that mobilising supporters via the ballot box is a winning strategy too many in the US pro-choice movement are still wary of democracy and debate. Instead of trying to win over the public with progressive arguments for womens bodily autonomy, they would rather shirk the debate altogether, either by de-platforming opponents or by insisting that the debate should be left to medical experts or the courts.

Even those of us who are staunchly pro-choice know that abortion is about far more than science and healthcare. Pro-choice views tend to be grounded in beliefs in freedom, equality and privacy. Whether a woman can access an abortion or not will determine whether she is able to excercise her moral and bodily autonomy.

Usually, it is the anti-choice side that likes to reduce all the ethical questions around abortion to a matter of ending human life. Yet in the case of the letter in Jezebel, it is the pro-choice side that is attempting to strip the argument for abortion rights of everything that makes it politically progressive.

The letter also tries to argue that by airing anti-abortion views, the media are encouraging harassment and even violence towards abortion providers. It is true that at many clinics, workers and women seeking abortions can face harassment and protests. Physicians, gynaecologists, receptionists and security guards who work at abortion clinics have even been killed by anti-abortion extremists over the years. Just last month, a man was charged with arson in Kalamazoo, Michigan for setting fire to a Planned Parenthood building after posting anti-abortion content on his YouTube channel.

But such violence is clearly not representative of mainstream anti-abortion activism. And it is certainly no excuse for the pro-choice side to vacate the arena of public debate.

After all, without robust debate, how will pro-choicers take on the dangerous lies that they attribute to anti-abortion campaigners? Theres no doubt that the anti-choice side makes numerous false claims from pseudoscientific assertions that abortion causes breast cancer to conspiracy theories about fetuses being tortured or harvested in abortion clinics. But surely it is better to rebut such myths in public and to correct the record, rather than letting these ideas fester underground.

The truth is that the pro-choice side needs to do far more to raise public awareness about the reality of what abortion services provide and why they are necessary. For instance, whenever I write about abortion on spiked, a typical response is that women simply need to learn how to use contraception. But the reality is that one in four women seeking an abortion in the UK were using contraception at the time they got pregnant. Unless pro-choicers engage in public debate, such misconceptions will go unchallenged.

Fighting for freedom is never easy. But the battle can only be won by engaging the public in a serious discussion. Only then will the argument for choice and autonomy stand a chance of winning out. Banning the other side or refusing to debate will get us nowhere.

Ella Whelan is the author of The Case For Womens Freedom, the latest in the Academy of Ideas radical pamphleteering series, Letters on Liberty.

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Why we need to win the argument for choice - Spiked