On Aug. 1, A 9-year old girl that belongs to the Dalit community, India’s lowest caste, was murdered after being gang-raped. Her body was forcibly cremated by the same men who committed the gruesome crime. The crime occurred in a Delhi Cantonment in southwest Delhi.
On July 24, a group of Saamidyas was alleged to have eaten human flesh during an annual festival in the Sakthi Pothi Sudalai Madasamy Temple. Fourteen individuals were questioned regarding the incident. Only eight people were arrested in relation to the consumption of human flesh and alleged grave robbing. The detained individuals are part of a community called “Samiyadi.”
*** Trigger Warning***
The video below contains graphic images.
On July 6, the 14th and current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, turned 86. As the Dalai Lama grows older, the pressure for his succession has become more mounting. Tibet, China, India, and the rest of the world prepare for the plunge when the Dalai Lama has no choice. He will either name a successor or leave the world behind, especially Tibet, more vulnerable to China's aggression.
In a heart-wrenching video taken in Deoria City in the Uttar Pradesh State, India, police are seen trying to retrieve the body of Neha Paswan as onlookers stand by. The 17-year old was beaten by her extended relatives, including her grandfather and her uncles, on Monday, July 19th. The severe beating rendered her unconscious. This prompted Neha’s assailants to say that they were bringing her to the hospital.
On July 22, 2021, the Atheist Republic received a letter containing a legal complaint filed by Akhilesh Vyas, a lawyer based in Punjab, India. The legal complaint named Nirmal Sharma, a law student and a resident of Nawanshahr in the Punjab State, as the complainant. Vyas issued the notice on June 22, 2021.
An app called Sulli Deals has been posting personal information and pictures of Muslim women in India, tagging them, and posting them as “deal of the day.” The slew of posts and auctioning happened as early as the first week of July, until recently when the app was taken down.
A new Pew Research Center face-to-face survey of around 30 thousand Indian adults conducted in 17 languages between late 2019 and early 2020 (before the COVID pandemic) takes a closer look at religious identity, nationalism, and tolerance in Indian society.
On June 7, the Madras High Court in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu banned any medical attempts to "cure" or change the sexual orientation of a person in a significant upholding of LGBTQIA+ rights in the state. The court has also issued directives to sensitize society and various branches of the state, including police and judiciary, to remove prejudices against them.
The incident took place when the student, Mahadev Sharma, was passing by the tea stall owned by the BJP worker, Mahadeb Pramanik, husband of Mithu Pramanik, the local chief of the BJP Mahila Morcha, the women's wing of the party, at Phulia in Nadia.
On Thursday, March 4th, a man walked from his village home en route to the local police station in northern India — carrying a severed head. His neighbors in the community were shocked at the sight and called the police ahead of his arrival.