As conservative Christian groups in America protest against the Air Force Academy’s decision to investigate complaints of institutionalized proselytisation at its Colorado Springs campus, questions arise about the status of religious freedom in that country. Samuel Huntington, in his expansive Who Are We, admits America has employed highly coercive techniques … Read More
Christian missionaries have added a new dimension to the national debate over conversions with their objections to an unexpected Judaic threat to their flock in the north eastern States of Mizoram and Manipur. With the century-old church under threat of a mass exodus, Christian theologians are working overtime to counter … Read More
Though it is nearly two decades since the agitation for the Ram Janmabhoomi questioned the meaning of secularism, there has since been little serious discussion of the concept. Growing Hindu unease over heightened pro-missionary activism by Congress-led regimes in various States, however, demands that the community’s views be articulated to … Read More
As leaders of all Western nations descended upon Vatican City early last month, there was little doubt they had come as much to pay respects to the departed Pope as to ensure that a White European succeeded as Bishop of Rome. In the weeks preceding Joseph Ratzinger’s elevation, some Cardinals … Read More
The honour of the Himalayas is at stake. Just four years after Pakistan’s ignominious defeat at Kargil, its military oligarchy appears set to achieve its goals by other means. The UPA’s ‘Open Borders’ policy is creating an untenable situation in the country and in the absence of a sharply articulated … Read More
Now that the hullabaloo over the US denial of a visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi [Images] has died down, it would be worth our while to scrutinise the actions and motivations of Narendra Modi’s tormentors, which resulted in this denouement. Because while political analysts admit that the post-Godhra … Read More
At a time when it is fashionable to repose confidence in inter-faith dialogue, it is not easy to prick the feel-good factor this evokes and question the utility of such an enterprise. Peaceful coexistence between different faiths, howsoever large or small the number of their adherents may be, can never … Read More
Seemingly, all roads led to Vatican City last week. Virtually all political eminences of the Western world, as also national and spiritual dignitaries of other countries and religious traditions, flocked to pay respects to the Bishop of Rome, shepherd of the Roman Catholic Church, who had one of the best … Read More
On 6 December 1992, when top BJP leaders expressed panic over the collapsing Babri edifice, I was one of the few to perceive that the Hindu movement was in deep trouble because those riding to the pinnacle of public esteem for espousing a centuries-old civilizational contest had no genuine desire … Read More
America’s decision to deny Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi a diplomatic visa and revoke his tourist/business visa on the pretext of the demands of its International Religious Freedom Act, 1998, raises critical questions about what constitutes religious freedom. The statement that the Act authorizes the President to deny entry to … Read More
