Source: Religion News Service, February 15, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A decade ago the residents of Kesalingayapalli, a village in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, succeeded in building a temple to the Hindu god Ram, modeling their home as a place \u201crooted in Indian culture and tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three years later, during the festival commemorating Ram\u2019s birth, Bandi Venkatramana, a local farmer, erected an urgent red-and-white sign, known here as a saffron board, at the entrance to the quiet village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It read: \u201cIn this village, everyone is a Hindu, hence people of other religions can\u2019t propagate their faith here. If someone violates this warning, stern action will be taken against them. If you convert to a different religion, it’s akin to changing your mother.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we see anyone carrying or distributing the Bible or Qur\u2019an we first give them a couple of warnings,\u201d said Sai Charan, a student living there. \u201cIf they don\u2019t heed our warnings, we just beat them up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read Hindus Only: How Religious Nationalism Has Spread Through India\u2019s Villages<\/a> for insights into the fears and concerns of these villagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stories about inter-religious conflict seem everywhere these days. Read about ongoing pressure on Israel\u2019s migrant churches<\/a> (Middle East Concern). On the other hand, see Abrahamic Family House Serves as a Symbol of Opportunity in the UAE<\/a> (INcontext Ministries).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Religion News Service, February 15, 2023 A decade ago the residents of Kesalingayapalli, a village in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, succeeded in building a temple to the Hindu god Ram, modeling their home as a place \u201crooted in Indian culture and tradition.\u201d Three years later, during the festival commemorating Ram\u2019s birth, … Continue reading India: \u201cHindus Only,\u201d Says Village in Andhra Pradesh<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11872,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11871\/revisions\/11872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}