Indian police are probing a charity started by Mother Teresa, officials said on Tuesday, in the latest example of growing pressure on Christians under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government.
Authorities in the western state of Gujarat told AFP they were investigating whether the Missionaries of Charity forced girls in its shelter home there to wear a cross and read the Bible.
Modi’s home state is one of several in Hindu-majority India where vaguely worded rules against “forceful conversion” have been put in place, or more strictly enforced, in recent year District social officer Mayank Trivedi told AFP that his complaint to the police was based on a report by child welfare authorities and other district officials.
According to the complaint, 13 Bibles were found in the library of the institute and girls stay-ing there were forced to read the religious text.
The Missionaries of Charity, founded in 1950 by the late Mother Teresa — a Roman Catholic nun who lived and worked in Kolkata for most of her life and won the Nobel Peace Prize — denied the allegations.
