Indian police probe Mother Teresa charity for ‘forced conversion’ — World — The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News

Indian police are probing a charity began by Mom Teresa, officers mentioned Tuesday, within the newest instance of rising strain on Christians below Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist authorities.

Authorities within the western state of Gujarat informed AFP they had been investigating whether or not the Missionaries of Charity pressured women in its shelter dwelling there to put on a cross and skim the Bible.

Modi’s dwelling state is one among a number of in Hindu-majority India the place vaguely worded guidelines in opposition to “forceful conversion” have been put in place, or extra strictly enforced, in recent times.

District social officer Mayank Trivedi informed AFP that his grievance to the police was based mostly on a report by youngster welfare authorities and different district officers.

Based on the grievance, 13 Bibles had been discovered within the library of the institute and women staying there have been pressured to learn the non secular textual content.

The Missionaries of Charity, based in 1950 by the late Mom Teresa — a Roman Catholic nun who lived and labored in Kolkata for many of her life and gained the Nobel Peace Prize — denied the allegations.

Activists say that non secular minorities in India have confronted elevated ranges of discrimination and violence since Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) got here to energy in 2014.

In 2020, the US Fee on Worldwide Non secular Freedom listed India as a “nation of specific concern” for the primary time since 2004.

Modi’s authorities rejects having a radical “Hindutva” (Hindu hegemony) agenda and insists that folks of all religions have equal rights.

Activists say there have been greater than 300 anti-Christian incidents this yr alone.

Final week, a Hindu mob of 200 to 300 folks barged right into a Christian college in Madhya Pradesh whereas college students had been taking their exams and pelted stones on the constructing, the college’s principal mentioned.

“We moved the kids from the auditorium to a different wing of the college. We saved them on the primary ground and gave them further time to complete the examination. However the college students couldn’t write, they had been crying and shivering,” Brother Anthony Tynumkal, principal of St Joseph College, informed AFP.