Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

 

The 800-member Catholic community in a village in India is facing a “social boycott” for refusing to follow traditions to appease Hindus gods. Following the spread of cholera in the village, Hindu leaders special fasts and the banning of regular work on all “inauspicious days” to appease their gods and ward off evil. “We are Christians and we are not bound to follow Hindu religious practices,” said Father Philip Rock, pastor at St. Sebastian Parish in Mangalawada village. Angry Hindu village leaders called a meeting and declared a “social boycott” against the Christians in late August. Since then, Hindus have stopped buying from small Christian shops, selling to Christians or using vehicles owned by Christians. Hindu farmers have quit hiring Christian workers, and the church-run kindergarten that had 51 students now has only five because all the Hindu children have been withdrawn. “Christians and Hindus have been living together here for decades, peacefully, without any such problem,” said the priest who heads the remote parish. “But this year, it is a total boycott against our people. We want the government to intervene and end this boycott.”

 

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Despair is easy for anyone who takes seriously the call to love your neighbor as yourself. But hope can come in two ways.
Thomas J. ReeseJuly 16, 2025
A Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Father Terrance Klein
Terrance KleinJuly 16, 2025
The majority of survey respondents cited their Marian devotions as having played an important role in the discernment and living of their call to religious life.
A young woman kneels and prays at a pew, looking toward the altar of a Catholic church. (iStock/roman_sh)
I have questioned the ethical implications of belonging to an institution with so many members sympathetic to MAGA politics. But I can still rediscover the hope of the Eucharist in my parish.
Kathleen BonnetteJuly 16, 2025