By M L Satyan Bengaluru, April 3, 2023: I received the below mentioned WhatsApp message: “Kindly do not miss WATCHING & SHARING this powerful documentary in Easter times, illustrating how persecutors are embracing the faith they tried to banish from Kandhamal. Christ is indeed ALIVE at the ground zero ofContinue Reading
By Matters India Reporter Bhubaneswar, Aug 10, 2022: An ongoing prayer campaign for Truth and Justice for Kandhamal has been formulated into a 14-day special prayer ahead of the 14th anniversary of Kandhamal bloodshed and persecution. “Nobody can stop us from praying,” said journalist author Anto Akkara who has beenContinue Reading
By Anto Akkara Thrissur: Come Lent, the memory of a German Jesuit missionary comes alive in the church in the southern Indian state of Kerala, which he served three centuries earlier. Father Ernst Hanxleden, popularly known as “Arnos Padri” (“Father Ernest” in Malayalam) penned in the early 1700s the ChristianContinue Reading
By Matters India Reporter Phulbani, August 11, 2020: A 12-day community prayer was launched in many parts of India August 11 to remind Christians and others the anti-Christian violence in the Kandhamal district of Odisha, eastern India. August 23 marks the 12th anniversary of the unprecedented Christian persecution in Kandhamal.Continue Reading
By Matters India Reporter Jharsuguda, March 2, 2019: Anto Akkara has won this year’s Loius Careno Award for his relentless campaign for justice for the survivors of anti-Christian violence in Odisha’s Kandhamal. “It is befitting to honor Akkara for his crusade for Kandhamal,” said St Paul Father Alfonse Elenjikal, presidentContinue Reading
New Delhi: The delay in disposing of the appeal of the seven Christians of Kandhamal in Odisha, who have been languishing in jail for the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, came in for wide criticism at a function organized by the Delhi Minorities Commission. “Humanity is being undermined at theContinue Reading
By Uddalak Mukherjee The night was not quite a night of long knives. Ten years ago, the knives — a metaphorical allusion to murder, rape and arson — were unsheathed for months, from August to December, in Odisha’s hilly Kandhamal region. It was one of the worst instances of targetedContinue Reading
By Matters India Reporter Bhubaneswar: The Odia translation of the book “Who Killed Laxmanananda?” was released on Sept 19 by the illiterate wives of seven people languishing in jail for allegedly killing the Hindu religious leader. Goldman prize laureate Prafulla Samantara, human rights activists Dhirendra Panda and Narendra Mohanty ofContinue Reading
By Anto Akkara Call it destiny or coincidence, Kuldip Nayar – the patriarch of journalism in independent India – passed away at the age of 95 on August 23, 2018 – on the 10th anniversary of Kandhamal. It was on this day a decade ago that Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati ofContinue Reading
Kandhamal anniversary falls in AugustContinue Reading