Pope Francis declared Devasahayam, also known as Lazarus, a saint on May 16, thus making him the first Indian layman to be canonized.
Devasahayam was born into an upper-caste Hindu family in 1712 in the south Indian town of Kanyakumari. He was baptized in 1745 in Travancore (modern-day Kerela), fought against caste discrimination, and advocated for social equality.
In Kerala, India, a statewide Youth Caravan by Solidarity Youth Movement Kerala, a Muslim organization affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, seeks legislation to prevent Islamophobia by demanding legal protection for Muslims from hate crimes.
In Pune, India, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Vichar Manch (The Opinion Forum of Martyr Bhagat Singh), an atheist organization, had members receiving threats on Twitter from Hindu nationalists in objection to their seventh annual conference in April during Ramnavami, the birth anniversary of the Hindu god Ram, which fell on the same day.
On May 7, 2022, Haribhushan Thakur Bachau, BJP Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the eastern State of Bihar, said that Muslims “should be set ablaze just as Hindus burn Ravana effigies during the festival of Dussehra.”
A professor at a university in Uttar Pradesh was suspended for a test that asked students about similarities between fascism, nazism, and right-wing Hindutva.
Sharda University, located in Noida in Uttar Pradesh, suspended Waqa Farooq Kuttay, an Assistant Professor, while investigating the matter. The university also issued a show-cause memorandum to Kuttay, asking for an explanation.
On May 4, a Dalit man was beaten and stabbed to death by a group of individuals in Hyderabad, Telangana.
According to a local news agency, The News Minute, the attack was due to the victim marrying a Muslim woman against their family's wishes. The victim, 26-year-old Billipuram Nagaraju, died due to the blunt attacks, The News Minute reported.
In Punjab, India, a university professor was fired over an alleged offensive comment regarding the Hindu god Ram. In an Instagram post published by the university on April 23, the professor was terminated “effective immediately.”
Gursang Preet Kaur is an assistant professor at the Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar, northern Punjab. Kaur allegedly referred to Ram as a “cunning person,” putting the Hindu god in a bad light.
On April 21, seven individuals were arrested in Uttar Pradesh, a state in Northern India, concerning the desecration of several mosques. According to the local police, the suspects wanted revenge for the violent clashes in Jahangirpuri during the Hanuman Jayanti parades.
The suspects threw torn pages of the Quran and pig meat, attacking two mosques in Ghosiyana and Kashmiri Mohalla. The suspects also desecrated Gulab Shah Baba, a local Mazar.
Both items used in the attacks are considered offensive by the Muslims.
