say is aimed at ending the independence of religious education, church officials said.
The Day of Prayer came shortly after supporters of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) reportedly attacked several church-run schools across the state, smashing computers, vehicles, doors and windows.
"We are intrigued and surprised by the unwarranted attack and interference of the government in the affairs of Christian minority institutions in Kerala," said Sajan K George, the president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) in a statement to BosNewsLife.
The violence on Wednesday, July 19, came after a local court order seemingly favored self-financing professional colleges run by minority communities, said the news service of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India (CBCI).
AVAILABLE SEATS
Under the controversial Kerala Professional Colleges Bill 2006 Christian schools can fill only 15 percent of the available seats with students of their choice, while the rest should be filled with students from a state-wide merit list.
However the court said the admission process had started much before July 2, when the law came to effect, and therefore colleges can follow the procedure they followed last year.
"The ruling came following a petition from the Management Association of self-financing colleges, which included management of some Christian institutions in the state," the CBCI said. The Kerala government, led by an alliance of left parties, introduced the law saying it wants to help economically poor people get higher education.
But Christians and others who manage these colleges say the Communist government want to rake over of their institutions, as it tried, unsuccessfully, some decades ago. Christian protests forced out Communists in Kerala in 1959, when they tried to take over educational institutions in the state, church watchers recalled.
PASTORAL LETTER
In a special pastoral letter read out across churches Sunday, July 23, Kerala’s new law was described as “anti-minority,” and it urged Christians to start non-violent actions against the legislation. "Church organizations have been carrying out…services in the education sector in Kerala for centuries. But the new education act makes out services completely under the mercy of the government," the pastoral letter said, according to the CBCI news service.
Saying that the Marxists-led Left government in Kerala is trying to take over the minority run educational institutions in the state, the letter said it is a tragedy that suddenly the Left government does not want to consider Christians and Muslims as minorities.
The row over Christian schools in Kerala comes amid growing pressure on Christians across India not to be involved in education or spreading the Gospel to non-Christians, BosNewsLife monitored. Evangelicals are among those being targeted by militants, apparently sometimes with the support of local police.
On Sunday, July 23, an independent church in Uttar Pradesh state was weighing its options after police last Sunday ,July 16 arrested its Pastor, Om Prakash Pandey, while he was a leading worship, news reports said. His church in the village of Daksinwara in the state’s Sultanpur district was apparently closely monitored.
PASTOR BEATEN
The 27-year-old pastor was taken to the Kurebhar police station, where Police Inspector Jawahar Lal Saroj and others beat him "mercilessly", Christian news agency Compass Direct quoted sources as saying on condition of anonymity.
Pandey was released the next day Monday, July 17, without any charges filed against him.
Ram Gopal Varma, headman of Daksinwara village, was quoted as saying that Hindus had objected to Pandey conducting Bible classes for children of tribal people in the remote, Hindu-majority village. The headman said that villagers roughed him up to serve as a stern warning to stop his." (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from India).
