Bajrang Dal is a Hindu nationalist militant organisation that forms the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). It is a member of the right-wing Sangh Parivar. The ideology of the organisation is based on Hindutva. It was founded on 1 October 1984 in Uttar Pradesh, and began spreading more in the 2010s throughout India, although its most significant base remains the northern and central portions of the country.
The Sangh Parivar refers, as an umbrella term, to the collection of Hindutva organisations spawned by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which remain affiliated to it. These include the political party Bharatiya Janata Party, religious organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad, students union Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), religious militant organisation Bajrang Dal that forms the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), and the worker's union Bharatiya Kisan Sangh. It is also often taken to include allied organisations such as the Shiv Sena, which share the ideology of the RSS.
Halal is an Arabic word that translates to 'permissible' in English. In the Quran, the term halal is contrasted with the term haram. It is used to refer to actions, behaviors, or items that are allowed under the teachings of Islam. Halal applies not only to food but also to various aspects of life, including finance, clothing, and behavior. The concept of halal is central to Islamic practices and is derived from the Quran and the Sunnah. The guidelines for what is considered halal or haram are laid out in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), and scholars interpret these guidelines to ensure compliance with Islamic principles.
Surendra Kumar Jain is the international Joint General Secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). He has retired from Principal, Hindu College Rohtak (Haryana) in India in 2013. He was the third president of the Bajrang Dal after Vinay Katiyar and Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya. He was succeeded as president of Bajrang Dal by Prakash Sharma on 12 June 2002. He graduated from the Shri Ram College of commerce in New Delhi and obtained a post graduate degree from the Delhi School of Economics.
Naveen Patnaik is an Indian politician, writer and former Chief Minister of Odisha who served as the 14th Chief Minister of Odisha from 5 March 2000 to 12 June 2024. His 24-year reign is the second longest for a chief minister of any Indian state, after Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim. He is the first president of the Biju Janata Dal since 1997. He served as the Union Minister of Steel and Mines from 1998 to 2000 and a member of the Lok Sabha from Aska from 1997 to 2000.
The 2006 Malegaon bombings took place on 8 September 2006 in Malegaon, a town in the Nashik district of the Indian state of Maharashtra, some 290 km northeast of Mumbai. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) initially blamed the bombings on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), but in a chargesheet filed in 2013 the NIA and ATS joint investigation and involved evidences pointed towards the involvement of eight members of extremist group Abhinav Bharat, who were later released from charges due to lack of evidence.
Dara Singh is an Indian convicted murderer and a Bajrang Dal activist. He was previously a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was convicted for leading a mob and setting fire to the station wagon in which the Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were asleep, burning them all alive, in Orissa.
Anti-Christian violence in India is religiously motivated violence against Christians in India. Human Rights Watch has classified violence against Christians in India as a tactic used by the right-wing Sangh Parivar organizations to encourage and exploit communal violence in furtherance of their political ends. The acts of violence include arson of churches, conversion of Christians by force, physical violence, sexual assaults, murders, rapes, and the destruction of Christian schools, colleges, and cemeteries.
The 2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka were the wave of attacks directed against Christian churches and prayer halls in the Indian city of Mangalore and the surrounding area of southern Karnataka in September and October 2008 by Hindu nationalist organisations such as Bajrang Dal and Sri Ram Sena. The attacks were widely perceived by Christians in southern Karnataka to be revenge from right-wing Hindu nationalist organisations, because Mangalorean Christians had been outspoken about the 2008 anti-Christian attacks in Orissa.
Pramod Muthalik is the chief of the Rashtriya Hindu Sena, the parent organisation of the Sri Ram Sena.
Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) is an Indian right-wing Hindu organisation based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "to organise, consolidate the Hindu society and to serve and protect the Hindu Dharma". It was established to construct and renovate Hindu temples, and deal with matters of cow slaughter and religious conversion. The VHP is a member of the Sangh Parivar group, the family of Hindu nationalist organisations led by the RSS.
Mahendra Kumar was the convener of the Karnataka, India, branch of the Bajrang Dal, an Indian Hindu youth organisation. He was reportedly involved in the 2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka on 14 September 2008. He claimed that he was incarcerated for 42 days in Mangalore before being released on conditional bail by Karnataka High Court Justice Ashok B. Hinchigeri on 25 October 2008, and was used as a scapegoat by the Bharatiya Janata Party regime to "save the government from further embarrassment after the church attacks and on instructions from the Sangh Parivar leaders."
Suryanarayana was the state convener of the Karnataka branch of the Bajrang Dal, an Indian Hindu nationalist youth organisation. He is the successor to Mahendra Kumar, Bajrang dal was blamed for involvement in the 2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka in September 2008 post which Suryanarayana gone undergone.
Subash Chouhan was the national President of the Bajrang Dal, a Hindutva organization in India that is the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
The Truth: Gujarat 2002 was an investigative report on the 2002 Gujarat riots published by India's Tehelka news magazine in its 7 November 2007 issue. The video footage was screened by the news channel Aaj Tak. The report, based on a six-month-long investigation and involving video sting operations, stated that the violence was made possible by the support of the state police and the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi for the perpetrators. The report and the reactions to it were widely covered in Indian and international media. The recordings were authenticated by India's Central Bureau of Investigation on 10 May 2009.
Bajrang Punia is an Indian politician and a freestyle wrestler. He is a member of the Indian National Congress serving as the Working President of the All India Kisan Congress. Punia joined Congress party along with fellow wrestler Vinesh Phogat in September 2024. In his new role with Congress, Punia is involved in raising the issues of farmers in Haryana as well as in other states.
Pratap Chandra Sarangi, was the Minister of State in the Government of India for Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. He is a Politician from Balasore, Odisha and serves as a National Executive member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He won Odisha Legislative Assembly, two times: from 2004 to 2009 and from 2009 to 2014, both times from Nilagiri constituency.
The 2008 Kandhamal violence refers to widespread violence against Christians purportedly incited by Hindutva organisations in the Kandhamal district of Orissa, India, in August 2008 after the murder of the Hindu monk Lakshmanananda Saraswati. According to government reports the violence resulted in at least 39 Christians killed. Reports indicate that more than 395 churches were razed or burnt down, between 5,600–6,500 houses plundered or burnt down, over 600 villages ransacked and more than 60,000 – 75,000 people left homeless. Other reports put the death toll at nearly 100 and suggested more than 40 women were sexually assaulted. Unofficial reports placed the number of those killed to more than 500. Many Christian families were burnt alive. Thousands of Christians were forced to convert to Hinduism under threat of violence. Many Hindu families were also assaulted in some places because they supported the Indian National Congress (INC) party. This violence was led by the Bajrang Dal, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the VHP.
Nachyn Sergeyevich Kuular is a Russian breakdancer and freestyle wrestler who represents Kazakhstan on the international circuit.
The 1998 attacks on Christians in southeastern Gujarat refers to the wave of attacks against Christians mostly around the Dangs District of Southeastern Gujarat from late 1997 to early 1999. The attacks reportedly started at the end of 1997 before peaking during the Christmas of 1998 after the anti-Christian rallies in the Dangs District by the Hindu Jagaran Manch. The attacks included assaults on and killings of Christians, attacks against Christian schools, institutions and shops, damages, demolition and burning down of Prayer Halls and Churches mainly by members of the Bhartiya Janata Party, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Hindu Jagran Manch.
