There is hand in the image that is holding a silver bejewelled Christmas bauble

Treasuring Up

With Christmas round the corner, carols cannot be far behind. In an old BBC programme on Christmas carols that I was listening to the other day, the anchor asked the singers what Christmas meant to them. The response usually was, ‘It is a time to be with family and friends.’ The season resonates with such …

Practice of Religion under the Constitution

Constitution of India gives every person the right to freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice and propagate religion. Freedom of conscience denotes a person’s right to entertain belief and doctrines concerning matters regarded by the person as conducive to spiritual well being. Conscience also refers to the moral compass guiding the …

Whom Has Education Failed During Lockdown

Let me begin with an acknowledgement that this has been a hard time. Everyone is trying to navigate the pandemic and its uninvited challenges the best we can. Stresses of the pandemic have been felt by everyone alive – including every child, student, teacher and parent. However, this paper will focus on challenges in India’s …

Did We Fail Fr. Stan Swamy: Carrying His Legacy Forward

Introduction The 84 year old, Fr. Stanislaus Lourduswami SJ, fondly known as Stan Swamy, was arrested by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) from the Jesuit social center he founded, Bagaicha, Ranchi, on 8 October, 2020, and sent to Taloja jail, near Mumbai. He was charged with sedition, supporting the banned Maoist organization, waging war against …

Personal Data for Profit: A Christian Response to Digital Capitalism in the 21st Century

Dr Timothy Stoneman and Dr Ashok Maharaj Introduction There is a high probability you had agreed to a set of terms and conditions that you never read while downloading an app this month. I recently did, with a clear knowledge, that whatever I signed up is watching me. A virtual panopticon in motion only that …

Putting Justice at the Heart of Faith: Reflecting on Ecumenism from an Asian Perspective

Introduction: This presentation seeks to answer the question, what does it mean to speak of faith and justice from an Asian perspective? What is uniquely Asian about an Asian Faith? And to perhaps reflect on how Asians have imagined faith and contributed to the larger ecumenical discourse. If one were to speak about Asian ecumenism …

Survey: Gender Violence against Women in Indian Christian Families

We are sharing links to a set of survey forms, in an attempt to study domestic violence against Christian women in India, especially the response of the Church towards this issue. It is an all-India study, but limited to Christians.  If you are a _Christian woman in India who has faced violence at home in …

Father Stanislaus Lourduswamy – A Baton of Hope and Life

“But we will still sing in chorus. A caged bird can still sing.” Fr. Stanislaus Lourduswamy  On the Chota Nagpur Plateau of the Indian subcontinent lies a dense and rich forest track, spoken as Jharkhand. The State of Jharakhand is one of the recent States added to the Union of India, carved out of the …