Woman tortured for not adopting husband's religion

source: http://www.indiaenews.com/religion/20070801/63477.htm

A Muslim woman in Orissa has alleged that she is being tortured for refusing to adopt her Hindu husband's religion.

Mana Khatun, 19, of Haladia village in Kendrapada district, about 100 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, married Kalindi Sethi, 25, a Hindu youth of the same village last month at a local temple.

'Soon after the marriage, my husband and in laws pressurised me to adopt Hinduism. When I refused to convert, they physically tortured me and drove me out of the house,' Mana said Tuesday.

The woman also alleged that she sat in front of her husband's house for hours asking to be let in but in vain.

'At the time of the marriage, the girl was aware of my son's religion. She has no right to remain a Muslim after marrying him,' said Kulamani Sethi, 53, Kalindi's father.

'On the occasion of the holy Ratha Yatra (chariot festival) last week, members of our community decided to change her name from Mana Khatun to Manasi Sethi after performing a purification ritual as per Hindu religious practice. But she did not agree to change her religion or her name,' he said.

Mana says that even after marriage she continued to offer the Namaz and perform other Muslim rites but her husband and father-in-law strongly opposed this and asked her to worship Hindu deities.

'My husband and father-in-law have been pressurising me to change my religion. Last week, they severely assaulted me after I refused to embrace Hinduism,' she said.

'I am ready to die. But I will not change my religion,' Mana added.

She is now in a very difficult situation as her father has also refused to let her stay in his house because she married a Hindu.

'On Monday, both Mana Khatun's father and her husband came to the police station to sort out the dispute. We are trying to resolve the matter peacefully,' said police officer S. Das.

Thousands of Christians, Dalits court arrest in Delhi

New Delhi, May 29 (IANS) At least 3,000 Christians, Dalits and rights activists from across the country courted arrest here Tuesday while protesting against the "silence" of the government on the alleged rise in anti-Christian attacks.

At a rally, "Stop Violence on Christians", held at Jantar Mantar here, Christian and Dalit leaders, including All India Christian Council (AICC) president Joseph Dsouza, National Integration Council member John Dayal, Justice Party president Udit Raj and Mount Carmel School principal V.K. Williams, warned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that his silence could lead to killing of innocent people at the hands of communal forces.

"The protest is in the wake of attacks on Pastor Walter Masih in Jaipur, Rajasthan on April 19 and priests Ramesh Gopargode and Ajit Belavi on May 7 in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, and a high incidence of communal assaults this year thus far," Madhu Chandra, an AICC leader, told IANS.

Chandra said that in 2006, the AICC recorded at least one incident of anti-Christian attack every third day, "but this rose to one attack every alternate day during the first four months of this year".

The participants, who were from several states including Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, shouted slogans against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, saying, "UPA government, wake up and stop atrocities on Christians."

Also present at the rally were victims of communal violence, including Masih and two Christians from Himachal Pradesh, Bernard Christopher and Ravinder Gautam, who were allegedly tonsured and forcibly "reconverted" to Hinduism in Kullu district May 23.

Dayal said Christianity had been reduced to a "daylight religion", because "the people of the community feel unsafe after sunset".

Expressing disappointment with the Congress party that leads the UPA, Dayal added that it was no longer only the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that should be blamed for anti-Christian agenda. "Look at the Congress-government in Himachal Pradesh, which enacted the anti-conversion law," he said.

Dalit leader Raj told the Christians not to trust any political party including the Congress saying, "You must have hopes only from yourselves."

Offering Dalits' support to the Christian community, Raj added that they should "learn to identify their friends".

The crowd left the Parliament Street police station, where they courted arrest, at 2.15 p.m. after an official announced that there were not enough jails to keep such a huge number of people.

Christians in Mumbai also staged a rally at Azad Maidan to show solidarity with the protesters here.
read full news here : http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=44634

In India, 2,000 Hindus `reborn'

BUDDHISTS WELCOME LOW-CASTE CONVERTS
By Aijaz Ansari
Associated Press
Article Launched: 05/28/2007 02:48:30 AM PDT

MUMBAI, India - About 2,000 low-caste Hindu Indians bowed before orange-robed monks and recited prayers as they converted to Buddhism in a ceremony Sunday that they said would bring them dignity in a society that considers them "untouchables."

"I feel like I have been reborn," Mahi, a farmer who uses only one name, said at the ceremony in Mumbai. "This is my rebirth."

Organizers said the ceremony was conducted in the spirit of B.R. Ambedkar, an untouchable, or dalit, who fought British colonial rule and injustice in Indian society. Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Indian Constitution that outlawed discrimination based on caste, renounced Hinduism for Buddhism in 1956 because he believed it treated people equally. He died that same year.

Buddhists form a small minority in mostly Hindu India.  read full news here. http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_6004822

Thousands of Hindus convert to Buddhism to be treated as “human beings”

At least 5,000 people mass convert in Mumbai. They are Dalits and Tribals, members of groups at the bottom of the Hindu caste system, who hope to gain greater social and human dignity.

New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Thousands of Tribal Hindus and Dalits converted to Buddhism in a mass ceremony in Mumbai yesterday in order to escape from the rigid caste system and thus be treated as ‘human beings’.

Shravan Gaikwad, a representative of the Dalit group Samatha Sainik Dal, estimated that about 5,000 people took part in the ceremony, which was held to mark the 50th anniversary of leading Dalit leader Bhimrao Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism.

Delegates from several countries with large Buddhist communities, including Sri Lanka, Thailand and Japan, attended the event.

For many mass conversion appears to be only way to escape the rigid Hindu caste system, which places Dalits and Tribals at the bottom of the social hierarchy, and, as one Dalit activist put it, start being treated “as human beings”.

At least one sixth of India's 1.1 billion people are classed as low caste.

Despite job reservation (affirmative action) for members of Dalit and Tribal communities, their social status and economic conditions have not greatly improved.

Hindu nationalist are opposed to Hindu converting and in several Indian states (especially those ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party) laws against conversion have been adopted, in particular if it involves Hindus converting to Christianity or Islam.

Converting to Buddhism does not however elicit much negative reaction, since many in India believe Buddhism to be an extension of Hinduism. By contrast, two weeks ago two Catholic priests were publicly beaten after being accused of proselytising.

source : http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=9389&size=A