Howard M. Friedman (LexBlog India)

In the Indian holy city of Ayodhya, the politically and religiously controversial dedication of the Ram Mandir, a Hindu Temple, took place this morning. An article last week in Time explains the significance of the event. Here are excerpts: A decades-long flashpoint in India’s sectarian politics is poised to reach a climax next week. The...

In Supriyo Supriya Chakraborty v. Union of India, (Sup. Ct. India, Oct. 17, 2023), a 5-judge bench of India’s Supreme Court, in 4 opinions spanning 366 pages, refused to recognize same-sex marriages, but called on the government to study and implement further rights for same-sex couples. As summarized by BBC News: The petitioners had argued...

Last week, Michigan Congressman Shri Thanedar announced formation of the 28-member “Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain US Congressional Caucus.” According to India West Journal: “The group will address cultural misunderstandings, promote interfaith dialogue and harmony, and support initiatives to promote the well-being, education, and empowerment of the Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, and Jains in the US.”...

Yesterday, President Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is making a state visit to the United States held a joint Press Conference (full transcript) at the White House. Reporters raised questions regarding India’s treatment of religious minorities. Here is the relevant portion of the questions and answers: Q    So, as you raise...

In Upadhyay v. Union of India, (Sup. Ct. India, Feb. 27, 2023), the Supreme Court of India dismissed a petition brought by a leader of a Hindu nationalist party seeking to require the government to research and publish the “original names of ‘ancient historical cultural religious places’, named after barbaric foreign invaders.” According to the court:...

The Guardian reports that on Christmas Day, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs refused to renew the license allowing Missionaries of Charity to continue to receive financial support from abroad.  Missionaries of Charity, which runs a network of charities across India, was founded by Mother Theresa in 1950. Accusations, denied by the Charity, are that it...

Deccan Herald reported yesterday on the India’s most recent religious-cultural controversy– the sale of eggs by food cart operators. A recent raid by authorities in Ahmedabad confiscated eggs and supplies from street vendors. According to the report: The place of the humble egg in the street food culture of Gujarat, a state in western India...

In an unusual 107-page opinion earlier this month, a Justice of the Madras High Court in India handed down a wide ranging series of directives to be undertaken by various government agencies to protect the safety of the LGBTQIA+ community, and to eliminate prejudice against them.  In Sushma v. Commissioner of Police, (Madras High Ct.,...

In India, the High Court of the State of Tripura dismissed a complaint filed against petitioner claiming that he violated Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code through a Facebook post. That section prohibits deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings by insulting religion or religious beliefs. In Gosh v. State of Tripura, ...

New York Times reports that in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has postponed offering a widely criticized exam on cows for which 500,000 people had already registered: Critics said the curriculum, devised by the National Cow Commission set up by Mr. Modi’s government, was an especially bold move by his ruling party to...

 From SSRN: Timothy Lubin, Dignity and Status in Ancient and Medieval India, (Human Dignity in Asia: A Dialogue between Law and Culture, edited by Jimmy Chia-Shin Hsu (Cambridge University Press, Forthcoming). Neil James Foster, Statutory Construction and Biblical Hermeneutics- Law in the Service of the Gospel?,  ((2020) 252 St Mark’s Review 106-128). From BYU Law Review,...

India West reported yesterday that for the first time, Sikhs can be counted in the ongoing 2020 census as a separate group, despite the legal prohibition on the census asking questions about religion.  The Census Bureau will consider Sikhism to be a cultural or ethno-religious category.  As explained by India West: Sikhism does not appear...

In a June 30 press release, the California Department of Fair Employment & Housing announced the filing of an unusual employment discrimination lawsuit against Cisco Systems, Inc. and two of its managers: The lawsuit alleges that managers at Cisco’s San Jose headquarters campus, which employs a predominantly South Asian workforce, harassed, discriminated, and retaliated against...

From SSRN: Nicholas Aroney, Federalism: A Legal, Political and Religious Archeology,(March 6, 2020). Kyle Velte, Errant Exceptionalism, (March 6, 2020). Sabah Mofidi, Religion and Political Culture in Eastern Kurdistan, (Journal of Middle Eastern Research 2 (2019) 45-65). Anne Levesque, Assessing Litigation Strategies by Government Respondents to Human Rights Complaints, (Canadian Journal of...

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom held a hearing yesterday on Citizenship Laws and Religious Freedom. The hearing focused on the use of citizenship laws to deny rights to religious minorities, with emphasis on developments in India and past actions in Burma. The written statements submitted in the hearings are available on USCIRF’s website.

At his press conference (full text) in New Delhi, India yesterday, President Donald Trump responded to a question about religious freedom in India: Q    While you’ve been here in the country, in the capital, the northeast part of Delhi, there have been violent clashes.  Police have been killed, some demonstrators.  Nine deaths so far,...

In India, the state of Kerala has filed suit in the Supreme Court challenging as discriminatory the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, and various prior rules on citizenship for members of certain religious minorities who entered the country illegally. The complaint (full text) in State of Kerala v. Union of India, (India Sup. Ct., filed 1/14/2020), alleges in...

In Rafique v. Managing Committee, Contai Rahamania High Madrasah,(India Sup. Ct., Jan. 6, 2020), a 2-judge panel of India’s Supreme Court in a 151-page opinion upheld a law in the state of West Bengal under which a government appointed Commission selects teachers for Islamic Madrassas. The Court held that the Act does not infringe on the right...

On Dec. 12, India’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (full text) that was passed by Parliament received assent of the President.  The controversial new law  allows migrants who came into India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, or Pakistan on or before December 31, 2014, and who belong to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, or Christian religious communities, to...

Yesterday the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a report titled The Religious Freedom Implications of the National Register of Citizens in India. The report says in part: On August 31, 2019, the government of the northeastern Indian state of Assam released an updated National Register of Citizens (NRC), originally introduced in 1951 as...

Last Thursday, the House of Representatives Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held hearings on Jammu and Kashmir in Context. The Committee sets out the context: The Indian government’s decision to change the legal status of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, announced in August and effective as of October 31, 2019, has attracted intense attention due...

In M Siddiq (D) Thr Lrs v. Mahant Suresh Das & Ors, (India Supreme Court, Nov. 9, 2019), in an opinion that spans 1,045 pages, the Supreme Court of India ruled on a decades-old dispute over a piece of land claimed by both Hindus and Muslims.  BBC summarized the decision: India’s Supreme Court has ruled that the...

Hindustan Times of Oct. 19 reports: After hearing two separate petitions filed by persons whose marriages were annulled by a so-called church court, the Bombay high court at Goa has struck down Article 19 of a Portuguese edict that gave legal sanctity to rulings of ecclesiastical tribunals in the former Portuguese colony The high court...

In Bhattacharjee v. State of  Tripura, (Tripura High Ct., Sept. 27, 2019), a 2-judge panel of the High Court in a state in northeast India prohibited the sacrifice of animals or birds in any temples in the state. In its 72-page opinion, the court held that only practices which are an “essential and integral part of religion”...

From SSRN: Hashika Durai & K. Niranjana, A Study on Religious Laws and Religious Crimes in India, (August 26, 2019). Cyra Akila Choudhury, Reflections on the Christchurch Massacre: Incorporating a Critique of Islamophobia and TWAIL, (TWAILR: Reflections – 9/2019). Perry Dane, Echad: A D’var Torah on Parshat Vaetchanan, (August 17, 2019). Mark Kelman, What is in...

India’s Parliament yesterday gave final passage to The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019 (full text) (bill summary). The bill now goes to the President for his assent. The new law outlaws “triple talaq”, the procedure under which a Muslim husband divorces his wife by uttering the word “talaq” three times to her.  The...

From SSRN: Zainab Ramahi, Veiled Muslim Women: Challenging Patriarchy in the Legal System, (Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice, Vol. 33, 2018). Sumit Sonkar, From Shah Bano to Shayara Bano: Itinerary of Gender Equality of Muslim Woman in India, (Indian Bar Review, Vol.45 (1) 2018). Satang Nabaneh & A.S. Muula, Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in...

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel last week announced: Five men who were priests have been charged with a total of 21 counts of criminal sexual conduct, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced at a news conference this morning in Lansing.  Four of the men have been arrested; one awaits extradition in India. A sixth Michigan...

A trial court in India has held that a marriage between a man and a transgender woman, both of whom profess the Hindu religion, is valid under the Hindu Marriage Act and the Registrar of Marriages is required to register the marriage. In Arunkumar v. Inspector General of Registration, (Madras High Ct., April 22, 2019), the...

From SSRN: Puranjay K. Vedi, Working Paper: Muslims, Their Identity and Discontent in India, (October 1, 2018). Puranjay K. Vedi, Working Paper: Decoding Anandpur Sahib Resolution, (November 19, 2018). Puranjay K. Vedi, Working Paper: A Brief Introduction to Old Russia, (November 19, 2018). Kathryn Chan & Howard Kislowicz, Divine Intervention, Part I: A Study of...