6 points on why India is in a better position demographically than China, perhaps, to take advantage of the fruits of globalization.

1. India’s population is presently second largest, but is slated to move into first place in the near future. Better, the population is not aging (as China is). Half of its population is under the age of 25, but it is experiencing moderate aging: this means that it has, for the moment, a maturing young-adult and middle-class population ideal for work and leadership.

China and India both see the need for resources, manpower and energy, and both seem to see Africa as crucial to this future.  Indian Prime Minister Singh has offered a $5 billion credit line to African countries over the next three years to help them achieve development goals. The goal is to attract students from Africa to study in India.

India’s Urban Awakening (McKinsey Global Institute) projects that, by 2030:

• The number of megacities (1 million+) will rise from 42 today to 68 (twice Europe’s total).
• This doubling represents only a small potential of future urbanization. Today, only 30% of Indians live in cities.
• Indian cities could be responsible for three quarters of new employment and India’s GDP.
• Urbanization could lead to a quadrupling of national per capita income.
• A larger middle class could develop: from 22 million households today to 91 million households by 2030.
• Significant urban infrastructure problems will need to be dealt with.

“The greatest thing anyone can do for God and for man is to pray. It is not the only thing. But it is the chief thing.” – S.D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Prayer

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Here are some issues for intercessory prayer I would like to share with you. Thanks so much even when you are able to pause for a few moments and lift these concerns to the Lord in the midst of your busy schedules. Frank Laubach, known for his extraordinary efforts in the realm of literacy development and also for his profound experience of prayer, wrote about the great power of momentary “flash prayers” with which he would cover people on the street or around the world. Be encouraged, it makes a great difference just to flash a prayer for a certain situation or person to the One with all power!

From a prayer leader in Pakistan: “Thank you very much for your prayer support for our dear country, Pakistan.  Yesterday most of the schools under the Christian management and co-education systems in Lahore have received the threats from the terrorists that their next target will be these institutions. Most of the schools are closed in emergency … till 14th of this month. The school children are really afraid and frightened to go to their schools. Please pray that the Lord may control this entire situation and bring peace in our country.”  Pray for terrorist paralysis!

From prayer leaders concerned about the Indian Election beginning tomorrow: “Our team is traveling extensively in many parts of India to mobilize prayer for the elections, the response is very much encouraging.”  Over 700 million voters will vote in the world’s largest democracy from 16 April – 13 May. Pray that religious extremists will not be able to get power again.

International Children at Risk issue: Viva Network, an advocacy organization for children at risk, reports that tragic and extreme cases of abuse of children wrongly accused of being ‘witches’ or ‘sorcerers’ with horrific stories and torture are increasing. Viva’s prayer leader writes that this is “the antithesis of the Children in Prayer movement” and that “the enemy is making a counter attack on this generation and this abuse is against spirit, soul and body…Nigeria media (NOLLYWOOD) are producing films which show children being taken up in the spirit – eating flesh- mixing with witches and doing all kinds of evil. These films are selling like hot cakes perpetuating the deception playing on the minds of people who are eager to have an explanation to unexplained deaths, poverty, sickness and many of the increasing troubles that are coming on the earth. How demonic that the explanation is that the children are causing it through being so called sorcerers! Scotland Yard here in the UK is coming across the issue more and more, and it is spreading to Asia and Latin America.”  Let’s pray that government officials and the media as well as the Church will be mobilized to take action to stop this horrific abuse of children.

Funding for the International Prayer and Mission Movements: Please pray for the Lausanne Resource Mobilization Working Group meeting later this week, April 19-21, to find ways to encourage a culture of greater generosity in the global Church.  May they listen to and be led by God with great wisdom and creativity. Ask the Lord for a significant release of funding for the mission movement in its various dimensions and also for the international prayer movement with several key initiatives needing strong financial undergirding.

International Prayer Initiative for the United Nations and Global Cities, September 8-12, 2009: Pray for arrangements being made for the second IPC prayer initiative at the U.N. and that those God is calling who are leaders in prayer ministry (adults, youth and children), the marketplace and diplomatic/political realms will be moved to register in time and come for this crucial event.  (If you know people, including yourself, who fit these criteria that you would like to recommend, please send their names, your reason for nominating them, and their  email and phone contact information to Nita, our IPC administrator, at   office@ipcprayer.org as quickly as possible since registration is closing May 1.)

Central Asia: A colleague writes that Central Asian countries seem to be closing to the Gospel: “Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are already high on the list of nations where Christians are persecuted.  There are virtually no foreign mission workers remaining in these countries and churches are losing registration… an Uzbekistan pastor is presently in prison for his faith.  Kyrgyzstan recently passed a law that, if enforced, will greatly limit religious freedom.  Tajikistan is also considering such a law…We feel that this is a critical time for this region.  If Christians do not pray, the church could be forced to go underground again.”  Please join brothers and sisters in Christ who are a small minority in the region, praying that this trend will be reversed, that religious freedom will be restored, and that the Gospel will advance vigorously in spite of these recent restrictions.

Iraq and possible revival of Al Qaeda attacks: In a string of killings, certain to raise fears of a new wave of violence, four Assyrian Christians have been killed recently in areas ranging from Northern Iraq to Baghdad. Pray that Al Qaeda’s attempts to cause havoc will again be brought to naught.

Thanks so much for flashing prayers from your heart to the Lord for these situations. May you be filled with His joy and thrilled by the prerogative we have been given in Christ, even to affect the course of life on this planet through intercession. Wow, what an amazing privilege and resource we have in our hands to use now!

Best regards,

John Robb

International Prayer Council

Shamala and Livingstone (names changed) are dedicated missionaries, serving God faithfully in Orissa through a mission agency. Tragedy struck when Shamala was detected with breast cancer and the malignancy forced her to undergo surgery. The chemotherapy took a severe toll on her. The tiresome process, the complete loss of hair coupled with incessant pain in her calf muscle, which is symptomatic of loss of blood, ravaged her emotionally. Prior to her sickness, Shamala had a reputation for being bold and she was a source of encouragement to all who knew her personally. Her characteristic smile disarmed everyone. But now the sickness brought despair and proved a testing time for Shamala and her husband. Livingstone recently lost his mother and his wife’s sickness only aggravated the grief he was going through. The daughters, who had applied for leave to be with their parents, were now unable to bear the anguish of seeing their parents suffer. To make matters worse, the steady increase in the medical expenses had put the family under tremendous strain, pain and misery. The mission agency, already burdened with the task of sustaining the ministry operations was unable to provide the sizable amount for them. Apart from the immediate financial help, the family desperately needed spiritual and emotional support. Completely left in the lurch, they had to fend for themselves. Until MUT stepped in.

A story such as this is commonplace among missionaries who serve through mission agencies and work oftentimes in far flung and inhospitable terrains. An estimated 40,000 missionaries and their family members operate under the umbrella of different mission organisations in India. The sheer number of missionaries and the magnitude of needs in mission organisations have unwittingly created a gap in the care of its members. Some missionaries are fortunate enough to be taken care by the organizations or other sources, but most of them do not have any form of support. With their measly resources, most missionaries are unprepared to meet any eventuality in the course of their daily lives.

Barring few exceptions, missionaries have had to fend for themselves in other areas of need. This prompted the birth of Missionary Upholders Trust. Missionary Upholders Trust (MUT) was formed in  1993 as an off-shoot from Missionary Upholders family (MUF). Leaving behind his career in the corporate world, J.J. Ratnakumar, MUT’s General Coordinator, volunteered along with his wife, as full time honourary workers of MUT. Ratnakumar has provided the leadership impetus for the movement since MUT’s inception. The organisation’s vision statement reads: “As followers of Christ, we care for, share with, and meet some of the common unmet needs of missionaries, at their affordable cost, working beyond all man-made boundaries, in a spirit of Christian love.” The photo above is of some of the staff and volunteers who work at MUT headquarters in Vellore. With over 100 missionary organisations as members, and serving well over 11,000 missionaries in different parts of India, MUT has truly lived up to its vision. The projects cover medical help, calamity relief, rest house facilities, training and post retirement assistance, precautionary steps such as preventive health education and master health check up assistance and medical assistance in times of sickness. Besides providing a slew of projects, MUT conducts consultation meetings regularly with mission organizations, missionaries, churches and leaders to deliberate on various member care issues, exchange ideas and encourage missions to make a concerted effort in implementing the projects.

Scores of mission agencies can vouch for MUT’s unique contribution to member care development, which goes beyond merely being a catchphrase, and that has made a significant difference in missions. Samuel Prabhakar, General Secretary, National Missionary Society of India (NMSI) says, “In the past, a mission organisation such as NMSI had an inadequate understanding of missionary welfare. MUT has opened our mind and forced us to think clearly in the direction of providing better member care for our missionaries. They have been a great source of blessing for the mission community.” As an inter-denominational body indigenously supported by several churches and approved by the CSI Synod, NMSI has more than 350 full-time missionaries and workers. MUT’s facilities such as rest houses, master health check ups, IMPACT and Love Your Brother schemes have greatly benefited us”.

Similarly, one of the oldest mission organisations in India, Indian Missionary Society (IMS), is no less an admirer of MUT’s unique member care programmes.  D. Vedhanbu, General Secretary of IMS, states: “MUT has given us a frame of thinking to understand the real plight of our missionaries and provided us with practical schemes to help them collectively.” With more than 650 missionaries, spread across 20 states, IMS has been taking interest in missionary welfare development. “Member care as a concept was something I learnt from Ratnakumar, an advisor  in our IMS Board”

Some of the MUT Programmes

Rest Houses

Meant exclusively for the personal use of missionaries, the rest houses are a big draw for MUT with three rest houses functioning in Vellore, Chennai, and Odanchatram (in southern India). The houses are well furnished with all the required facilities for missionaries to stay with family, when they go for medical check up or treatment in Christian Medical College Hospital in Vellore or for spending quality vacation with family. These homes are also meant for those who have admitted their children in boarding schools and are able to be with their wards only for a month or two in a year. Several missionaries are making use of these facilities and have found great spiritual, physical and emotional benefits.

The Odanchatram Project is a Rest House, Retirement Homes and Counselling/Training/Retreat Centre that is being built at Odanchatram in a 6.4 acre land (see photos above). Considered a dream project for the MUT family, the purpose is to provide full time Christian workers especially missionaries, a large comfortable facility, at affordable cost. Missionaries can seek professional counselling/debriefing, have prolonged rest after physical illness, receive continuing education, training and development in pastoral care, attend retreats to strengthen their spiritual life and obtain training to become Christian counsellors.

Training

Missionaries have expressed a strong need for effective programmes in personal development. Several Christian counsellors and trainers point to the lack of training and development facilities in many mission organisations. Most agencies, Samson Gandhi points out, have ministry orientation or evangelistic training programmes but hardly any priority given to all round personal development training. “The ratio between the care giver and the care receiver is too disproportionate. Counseling and personal development interventions in mission organisations are too few and far between,” rues Gandhi, who heads the Hyderabad- based Person to Person, a Christian counselling ministry and works in sync with MUT when counselling missionaries. Kamaleson makes a telling comment on the vital need for holistic training for missionaries: “My experience with Friends Missionary Prayer Band over these many years has made me appreciate the need for the missionary in India to be competent in spiritual skills, professional skills and managerial-relational skills.”  Here are examples of the training offered or co-sponsored by MUT.

Marriage Enrichment

This three-day seminar helps missionary couples to develop the tools Health Care Health care for missionaries and their families is a core MUT emphasis. Smaller mission organisations lack the infrastructure to provide basic medical check up for their missionaries. Other organisations find it very hard to give the required support for medical care of their missionaries. “Most missionaries work in cross-cultural contexts and work in areas far removed from any health centre where there are high incidences of diseases such as malaria and TB. Lack of knowledge, faulty theology and disregard for preventive care are some factors why we find missionaries on the receiving end,” says Violet Jayachandran, co-ordinator, for the medical unit at MUT. In response, the Master Health Check Up project was launched in 2003 and now involves around 26 mission hospitals in various regions in the country that partner with MUT. MUT pays half the cost of the check up and the other half is met by the respective mission organisation. Through its health bulletins and special health care manuals MUT has keeping mission organisations informed on MUT health schemes and educating missionaries on preventive care.

Love Your Brother (LYB)

This programme provides an opportunity for missionaries to help each another in the event of major illness, accidents or complicated child birth. Each member missionary contributes Rs.10 per month. The maximum that can be availed is Rs.10,000. However, if the amount required is more than Rs.10,000, MUT will still try to assist through another programme. D.B. Kulothungan, who heads the Maharashtra Village Ministries, a pioneer ministry that specifically focuses on missions in Maharashtra puts it in perspective: “Both the IMPACT and the Love Your Brother schemes have proven very beneficial to our missionaries.” Under this scheme MVM has claimed sizable medical assistance for its missionaries affected by illness or accidents.

Shelter for Retired Missionaries

MUT’s plan is help missionaries in their old age after having spent their lifetime working with a registered mission organisation. The target group are those who do not have any property/land/own house, who do not have children to support them, who do not wish to spend their retired life alone, and those who have the desire to continue their ministry in some form or the other as long as they are healthy and have the energy.

Member Care Consultations

Every two years a consultation is held with leaders of member missions as well as other leaders of umbrella bodies and churches. The purpose is to increase organisational excellence through systems and procedures, methods to encourage and motivate staff for effective ministry, human resourcedevelopment, etc. The consultations have seen the active participation of mission leaders through panel discussions, plenary sessions, keynote addresses, debates, case studies, and reports.

Volunteerism and Sustainability

A growing movement such as MUT is sustained and driven by the collective passion of its voluntary workers. Most of the full-time leaders at MUT are volunteers who do not receive any remuneration from the organisation, many of whom had left promising careers in order to be part of the movement. MUT has deliberately encouraged voluntary work in order to limit its operational costs and administrative expenses which currently stand at six per cent. MUT’s financial policy helps assure donors and supporters that money received will be used for ministry.

Inner Healing Seminar: Designed to enable the participants to discover inner damages and lead into fullness of life, the seminar enables them to lead themselves and others also into healing. The seminars facilitate reconciliation with God, the worker’s past, and others.

Life Revision Seminar: This seminar is a time set apart in order to focus on the needs of the inner person. It is a time for sharing and learning from fellow missionaries and growing in intimacy with God.  Dr. K.O. John and Dr. Kuruvilla Varkey, who facilitate this training, are veteran doctors who work at Christian Fellowship Hospital, Odanchatram. The seminar has also recently been offered in the USA.

Interpersonal Skills: The Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills (SYIS) workshops are designed to enhance the knowledge, attitude and skills of a missionary in how they relate to one another, family, students, co-workers, friends and those from other cultures. These are taught all over the world and have been co-sponsored in India by various groups including MUT and the India Mission Association.

*****

Calamity Relief (note: currently 50 Indian rupees = $1 US)

IMPACT (Inter Mission Plan of Assurance during Calamity Times) is MUT’s primary project. The highlight of the scheme is the assistance it provides to the bereaved family during the death of the missionary. Around 106 missions including sub groups with a combined strength of over 11,000 missionaries have joined this scheme contributing Rs.10/per death. Through this, each bereaved missionary family receives an immediate financial assistance of Rs.5,000 as funeral help, later Death Relief of Rs.1,00,000 followed by sustained annual care in child support & Christmas celebration gift. MUT also sees to it that the bereaved family receives sustained support after the death of the family member. This is critical as most mission organisations are not in the position to help them on a long term basis. The family of deceased missionary receives an annual support per child to assist with their education. During the year 2006-07, a total of 128 children from 68 bereaved missionary families received this benefit. Partial loan assistance up to Rs.25,000 is offered per annum per student for higher education beyond standard 12.

For more info on MUT, and to receive the MUT publication Care and Serve contact:  email-jjratnakumar@gmail.com web site-www.membcaremutin.net

Reflection and Discussion Items for the Ethne-Member Care Update

1. Which member care organisations are offering similar programmes in your region?

2. What additional programmes, similar to MUT’s, are needed for your region, organisation, or setting?

3. How could you encourage the development of programmes in your region, organisation, or setting?

NEW DELHI, October 17 (AFP): At least 60 Christians have been killed over the past two months in eastern India in a brutal backlash to the murder of a revered Hindu holy man, a national bishops’ body said Friday. The figure is nearly double the official toll of 35 given by government authorities in the eastern state of Orissa.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India said scores of Christians were continuing to flee their homes in Orissa and called for action to stem the religious violence in the coastal state’s troubled Kandhamal district.
“Christians are afraid to return to their villages as threats of death have forced many of them to flee to the forest or to live in dehumanizing conditions,” the group said. ”The fear that has driven thousands into the forests for shelter and safety is a living reproach to those who should provide safety and security and not
leave the law and order situation to mob rule,” it added. The comments came less than a week after Pope Benedict XVI renewed his condemnation of the attacks on Indian Christians.

There was no immediate reaction to the figures from Orissa state government officials. The bishops’ group demanded a federal probe into the rape of a Catholic nun in Kandhamal, the epicentre of the violence. The 29-year-old nun was assaulted two days after Hindu religious leader Swami Laxamananda Saraswati was killed by unidentified gunmen in Kandhamal on August 23. ”Christians of Kandhamal have lost faith in the state government and they feel their fundamental right to live has been taken away by the constitutionally elected-elected government,” the bishops added. The Orissa government, administered by a political party allied with India’s main Hindu nationalist grouping, says it has deployed enough troops to quell the violence. A missionary-run school was set on fire in the southern state of Kerala’s Kottayam district on Friday but there were no casualties, the Press Trust of India quoted police as saying. Attackers in Orissa have also targeted churches, prayer halls and Catholic-run schools in the region. At the root of the unrest are accusations by hardline Hindus that missionaries lure tribespeople and low-caste Hindus to convert to Christianity by offering free education and health care. The Hindu holy man had been associated with a radical group opposed to Hindus converting to Christianity. Christians account for 2.3 percent of India’s billion-plus Hindu majority population.[/lang_en]

NEW DELHI, October 17 (AFP): At least 60 Christians have been killed over the past two months in eastern India in a brutal backlash to the murder of a revered Hindu holy man, a national bishops’ body said Friday. The figure is nearly double the official toll of 35 given by government authorities in the eastern state of Orissa.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India said scores of Christians were continuing to flee their homes in Orissa and called for action to stem the religious violence in the coastal state’s troubled Kandhamal district. “Christians are afraid to return to their villages as threats of death have forced many of them to flee to the forest or to live in dehumanizing conditions,” the group said. ”The fear that has driven thousands into the forests for shelter and safety is a living reproach to those who should provide safety and security and not leave the law and order situation to mob rule,” it added. The comments came less than a week after Pope Benedict XVI renewed his condemnation of the attacks on Indian Christians.

There was no immediate reaction to the figures from Orissa state government officials. The bishops’ group demanded a federal probe into the rape of a Catholic nun in Kandhamal, the epicentre of the violence. The 29-year-old nun was assaulted two days after Hindu religious leader Swami Laxamananda Saraswati was killed by unidentified gunmen in Kandhamal on August 23. ”Christians of Kandhamal have lost faith in the state government and they feel their fundamental right to live has been taken away by the constitutionally elected-elected government,” the bishops added. The Orissa government, administered by a political party allied with India’s main Hindu nationalist grouping, says it has deployed enough troops to quell the violence. A missionary-run school was set on fire in the southern state of Kerala’s Kottayam district on Friday but there were no casualties, the Press Trust of India quoted police as saying. Attackers in Orissa have also targeted churches, prayer halls and Catholic-run schools in the region. At the root of the unrest are accusations by hardline Hindus that missionaries lure tribespeople and low-caste Hindus to convert to Christianity by offering free education and health care. The Hindu holy man had been associated with a radical group opposed to Hindus converting to Christianity. Christians account for 2.3 percent of India’s billion-plus Hindu majority population.

Scores of Christians have converted to Hinduism in Orissa’s Kandhamal district in the past few weeks to save their lives and properties, a government official admitted Friday.

“We have received over 50 complaints where people alleged that Hindu villagers are forcing them to convert to Hinduism if want to save their lives and properties,” a senior district administration official told IANS. ”Over 30 people have informed us in writing that they changed their religion to Hinduism on their own and without any force,” he said, adding that all the complaints were being investigated and action would be taken as per law. However, Sajan K. George, president of the Global Council of Indian
Christians (GCIC), said that the number of people who converted to Hinduism forcibly would be more than 600. ”The villagers tonsured my head and forced me to drink cow dung water,” a victim claimed in a relief camp in this town, the district headquarters of the volatile Kandhamal district. ”We need to practice a religion what others too in our village are practicing,” Krishna Nayak, a resident of Sarangad where over a dozen Christians converted to Hinduism had said. “The barbaric killings of Swamiji who worked for decades for Dalits and tribals in the region has shocked people,” said a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader.

The villagers were now returning to Hinduism because they realised that Christianity promotes violence and killing, he claimed.The region has borne the brunt of the communal violence following the killing of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his aides Aug 23 at his Jalespata Ashram.Hindus in the region blamed Christians for the killing and went on a rampage against the community. The state government says Maoists were behind Saraswati’s murder. At least 36 people, mostly Christians, were killed and thousands of homes burnt in the district during the violence. Over 20,000 people, mainly Christians, have taken shelter in relief camps after their houses were torched by rampaging Hindu mobs. Although there has been no violence since past over two weeks, tension continues in the region over religious conversions. While night curfew is in force in nine towns in Kandhamal, prohibitory orders banning any gathering of four and more people are in force across the district.

Contact: www.membcaremutin.net

On March 17, militant Hindus gained entry to YWAM’s training centre in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh by pretending to be officers of a government investigation agency.  Once inside, they began destroying furniture and office equipment. Compass Direct reports that at least six students received minor injuries in the attack.  According to a report in the Pakistan Christian Post, the militants attempted to force the eight-year-old daughter of Mukesh Jacob, YWAM’s Central India Director, to recite a prayer to a Hindu god.  When the girl refused, saying she will worship only Jesus, they threw her to the floor. Police have arrested five members of the Hindu organization Bajrang Dal.  Mukesh Jacob and his wife Sarla have also been arrested, charged under the state’s anti-conversion legislation. They have since been released on bail. Pray that Mukesh and Sarla will continue to stand firm in faithfulness to God’s call on their lives. Pray that they will have a strong sense of the Lord’s direction as they move forward from this point. Pray that the students will grow to become mature disciples of Christ through what they have suffered.

[lang_en]In October there were sudden communal riots and clashes between Hindus & Muslims in Mau (Eastern Uttar Pradesh), which resulted in massive violence, and many deaths in urban and rural areas. The riot destroyed many homes and shops of both groups, seeing the situation immediate actions were taken by police to control the situation but still for continuous seven days there were situation out of control, curfew has to be announced by the police administration.

The effect of the riot spread to adjacent districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. The train passing the Mau route are cancelled specially the Varanasi-Gorakhpur route. The communal violence has affected the entire purvanchal (eastern) region and hit the major headlines in all the newspapers.

A high alert was announced by the district administration. Many people are suffering since the routes are blocked and they have to stay in different places. Many tourists are being inconvenience as there is no proper information available. In Varanasi the effect can be seen as many people protested against the riot of Mau. In Varanasi and Lucknow, the majority of Hindus came out on the streets through the rally, traffic jam, exhibitions etc.

The people have requested the state administration to take action to control the situation since this can grow rapidly and spread to other areas in India as well. At the same time there were also panchayat (village council) elections in which there were many disturbances in the villages. Many people were affected by the violence at different places and many were injured while few died in local places.

Source: local correspondents.[/lang_en]

In October there were sudden communal riots and clashes between Hindus & Muslims in Mau (Eastern Uttar Pradesh), which resulted in massive violence, and many deaths in urban and rural areas. The riot destroyed many homes and shops of both groups, seeing the situation immediate actions were taken by police to control the situation but still for continuous seven days there were situation out of control, curfew has to be announced by the police administration.

The effect of the riot spread to adjacent districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. The train passing the Mau route are cancelled specially the Varanasi-Gorakhpur route. The communal violence has affected the entire purvanchal (eastern) region and hit the major headlines in all the newspapers.

A high alert was announced by the district administration. Many people are suffering since the routes are blocked and they have to stay in different places. Many tourists are being inconvenience as there is no proper information available. In Varanasi the effect can be seen as many people protested against the riot of Mau. In Varanasi and Lucknow, the majority of Hindus came out on the streets through the rally, traffic jam, exhibitions etc.

The people have requested the state administration to take action to control the situation since this can grow rapidly and spread to other areas in India as well. At the same time there were also panchayat (village council) elections in which there were many disturbances in the villages. Many people were affected by the violence at different places and many were injured while few died in local places.

Source: local correspondents.

[lang_en]In October there were sudden communal riots and clashes between Hindus & Muslims in Mau (Eastern Uttar Pradesh), which resulted in massive violence, and many deaths in urban and rural areas. The riot destroyed many homes and shops of both groups, seeing the situation immediate actions were taken by police to control the situation but still for continuous seven days there were situation out of control, curfew has to be announced by the police administration.

The effect of the riot spread to adjacent districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. The train passing the Mau route are cancelled specially the Varanasi-Gorakhpur route. The communal violence has affected the entire purvanchal (eastern) region and hit the major headlines in all the newspapers.

A high alert was announced by the district administration. Many people are suffering since the routes are blocked and they have to stay in different places. Many tourists are being inconvenience as there is no proper information available. In Varanasi the effect can be seen as many people protested against the riot of Mau. In Varanasi and Lucknow, the majority of Hindus came out on the streets through the rally, traffic jam, exhibitions etc.

The people have requested the state administration to take action to control the situation since this can grow rapidly and spread to other areas in India as well. At the same time there were also panchayat (village council) elections in which there were many disturbances in the villages. Many people were affected by the violence at different places and many were injured while few died in local places.

Source: local correspondents.[/lang_en]

[lang_en]In October there were sudden communal riots and clashes between Hindus & Muslims in Mau (Eastern Uttar Pradesh), which resulted in massive violence, and many deaths in urban and rural areas. The riot destroyed many homes and shops of both groups, seeing the situation immediate actions were taken by police to control the situation but still for continuous seven days there were situation out of control, curfew has to be announced by the police administration.

The effect of the riot spread to adjacent districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. The train passing the Mau route are cancelled specially the Varanasi-Gorakhpur route. The communal violence has affected the entire purvanchal (eastern) region and hit the major headlines in all the newspapers.

A high alert was announced by the district administration. Many people are suffering since the routes are blocked and they have to stay in different places. Many tourists are being inconvenience as there is no proper information available. In Varanasi the effect can be seen as many people protested against the riot of Mau. In Varanasi and Lucknow, the majority of Hindus came out on the streets through the rally, traffic jam, exhibitions etc.

The people have requested the state administration to take action to control the situation since this can grow rapidly and spread to other areas in India as well. At the same time there were also panchayat (village council) elections in which there were many disturbances in the villages. Many people were affected by the violence at different places and many were injured while few died in local places.

Source: local correspondents.[/lang_en]