Are Swiss-funded Christian NGOs unwelcome in India?
(Worthy News) – Christian charities supported by foreign donors, including Swiss ones, are finding it increasingly difficult to operate in India due to administrative hurdles. They allege selective implementation of regulations and blame this on the rise of Hindu fundamentalism.
“It is unfortunate, these days fundamentalism is growing in the country with our government itself supporting the ‘Hindutva’ agenda of the communal forces,” said Indian bishop Robert Miranda in his speech(PDF) in the Swiss city of Fribourg in October 2017.
He was invited by Missio Switzerland, the Swiss branch of the Pontifical Mission Societies that are under the jurisdiction of the Pope. Miranda leads a diocese of around 8,000 Catholics in the small town of Gulbarga in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. In 1982, when he was first sent to the region, there were only three Catholics families and a few Methodists. The congregation quickly grew when Dalits, who belong to the lowest caste among Hindus, began showing an interest in Christianity and converted to Catholicism. [ Source: Swiss Info (Read More…) ]