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A north Indian town is preparing for a mega event next week, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a grand Hindu temple that symbolizes the country’s surging Hindu cultural nationalism, a movement also known as Hindutva. The inauguration of the grand temple in Ayodhya, India is set for Monday, January 22. The temple is dedicated to the Hindu deity Lord Ram and stands on the site of a demolished 16th-century mosque. Some Hindu leaders have begun calling the town a "Hindu Vatican." Many Hindus claim that Ram was born in Ayodhya, in the state of Uttar Pradesh — exactly...

This week’s kickoff of India’s multi-stage election was marred by violence carried out by Maoist rebels, but for many of the country’s Christians, Hindu extremists are of greater concern. The communist insurgents killed at least 16 people, including security and polling officials, in three northeastern states – Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Bihar – on Thursday, one of five election days spread over the next month. Around 140 million people out of a total electorate of some 714 million were eligible to vote on the first day of what is described as the world’s biggest democratic electoral process. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s...

The mindless and brazen attacks against Christians are not new. The difference is in the dimension. Today, at any excuse, Hindu fundamentalist organisations let loose their goons on the community with the police acting as mute spectators. In most cases, the reaction of the church and the community is nothing more than to provide the victims with aid and prayers. When I visited Father Edward Sequeira of Orissa in the Holy Spirit Hospital, I also met Bishop Cheenath, in whose diocese the worst atrocities were committed last Christmas and were repeated this year. When I told him that the All...

A Maoist leader has again claimed responsibility for the death of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, whose assassination unleashed the pogrom against Christians in Orissa.He affirms that the authors of the killing left two letters at the scene of the crime, but the government kept them quiet in order to blame the Christians and allow them to be killed "for electoral purposes." ...

"Pray for the Christians of India, pray for our people . . . so that they may understand that God is greater than anything, and can overcome evil with good": this is the message that Sr. Nirmala Joshi, superior of the Missionaries of Charity, has given to AsiaNews during her visit to Orissa, where for more than a month radical Hindu groups have unleashed a pogrom against Christians. The Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa's order, have been struck by the wave of violence; orphanages and hospices for lepers where they welcomed the abandoned have been destroyed. The brutality of the...

Days after he fled his home, there was something that stood between Hari Chand Digal and his home, his paddy field, two cows and 15 goats. He had to give up his faith if he wanted his home. So one morning 15 days ago, Digal, 42, finally gave in and lowered his head. A barber shaved off his hair, holy water was sprinkled on him, and in a chatter of mantras, he was made a Hindu again. He could now have his life back, village leaders said. Mobs of hundreds of Hindu chauvinists have ravaged villages in Orissa’s hilly central...

India sets sights on cruise missile market By Siddharth Srivastava NEW DELHI - Long considered among the top importing nations for defense hardware, India is now looking to access the fast-growing international market for cruise missiles, considered a lethally efficient weapon. US forces used almost 1,000 such missiles when they first entered Iraq in 2003, and the total worldwide market is expected to be more than US$10 billion in the next decade. An inventory of more than 80,000 such missiles is estimated already to exist around the world. Indian Defense Minister A K Anthony has said New Delhi is holding...

Remembering 9/11......and reaffirming that Liberty and Freedom shall prevail to defeat and destroy the terrorism of Jihad that seeks to plunge the world into a second Dark Age ______________________________________________________________________________ Analysis of the Latest Global Happenings Robin MacArthur, New Jersey. Tuesday, February 7, 2006 11:29:00 PM With Codi, Bolton, Wolf on the job… will Falwell, Armold, Boykin and Pat follow?President Bush deserves to be congratulated on his announcing Paul Wolfowitz, the hardline Neocon who led the “attack Iraq” campaign, as the US nominee to be the head of the World Bank The President is following a trend in having hardliners...