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Indian police investigate Mother Teresa charity for “forced conversion” | New Religions

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Gujarat authorities are investigating whether Charity Missionaries forced girls in a shelter to wear the cross and read the Bible.

Indian police are examining the charity initiated by Mother Teresa in the latest example increasing pressure on Christians Under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Authorities in the western state of Vadodara, Gujarat, said on Tuesday that charity missionaries were investigating whether they had forced girls in the shelter to wear the cross and read the Bible.

The original state of Modi is one of several Hindu-majority Indians in India, where vague rules against “becoming a force” have been imposed or more rigorously enforced in recent years.

Mayank Trivedi, the Vadodara district social worker, told the AFP news agency that the complaint to the police was based on a report by the child welfare authorities and other district officials.

According to the complaint, 13 Bibles were found in the institute’s library and the girls who were staying there were forced to read the religious text.

Missionaries of Charity, founded in the late 1950’s Ama Teresa – A Roman Catholic nun who lived and worked in Kolkata all her life and won the Nobel Peace Prize – denied the allegations.

Activists say India’s religious minority has increased its levels of discrimination and violence since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to power in 2014, came to power.

In 2020, the U.S. International Committee on Religious Freedom listed India “country of particular concern” For the first time since 2004.

The Modi government rejects the “Hindutva” (Hindu supremacist) agenda of the majority and stresses that people of all religions have equal rights.

Activists say there have been more than 300 anti-Christian incidents this year alone.

Last week, a crowd of 200 to 300 people entered a Christian school in Madhya Pradesh while students were taking exams and threw stones at the building, the school principal said.

“We took the kids from the auditorium to another wing of the school. We kept them on the first floor and gave them extra time to finish the exam. But the students couldn’t write, they were crying and shivering, ”said Brother Anthony Tynumkal, principal of St Joseph’s School.



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