Saying Christian students were being forced to choose between their faith and their professions, Indian Christian groups have asked the Supreme Court to stop medical and dental school exams from being held on Easter Sunday, their lawyer said Tuesday.
Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil of the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council and three others filed a petition Monday demanding that the federal government and national education authorities change the date of examinations from April 11, Easter Sunday, said Vincent Panikulangara, the petitioners' lawyer.
The Easter Sunday date will "hurt the religious freedom of Christians in India," Panikulangara said. "Christian candidates who have applied for the exam ... are compelled to make a choice between their faith and the examination."
The Christians, who went to the Supreme Court after making requests to a number of government agencies and officials, did not specify what date they wanted the exams held.
While India's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, Christian activists say India's Hindu nationalist government and some states run by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies have been steadily marginalizing the Christian community.
"It's obvious the Christian community is not considered an important vote bank," said Dominic Emmanuel, a spokesman for the Catholic Bishops' Council of India.
Christians account for only 2.4 percent of India's 1.2 billion population, but their influence far exceeds their size, primarily because of their prominent role in education and health care. Most middle- and upper-class Indians _ no matter what religion _ have attended Christian schools.
Christians make up the majority of the population only in Nagaland and Mizoram, two small states in India's remote northeast. Christians form a third of the population in the southern states of Kerala and Goa.
In BJP-ruled Gujarat state in western India, representatives of Christian, Muslim and other minority groups were also on a daylong fast Tuesday to protest the state government's elimination of Good Friday as a non-working holiday, said John Dayal, secretary of the All India Christian Council.
Many non-Christians joined the protest to show their support for the cause.
There has been an upsurge in militant Hinduism since the BJP, led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, took office five years ago. Christians and Muslims have been attacked by Hindu nationalists in a number of parts of the country.