Norbert D'Souza is a railway engineer and trainer from

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

who was president of the

All India Catholic Union The All India Catholic Union (AICU) represents almost 16 million Catholics in India: followers of the Latin Church, the Syro-Malabar Catholics and the Syro-Malankara Catholics. It has 120 diocese and district units. The AICU was established i ...

(AICU) for four years. The AICU represents almost 16 million

Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, including followers of the

Latin Rite Latin Rite may refer to: *The Latin Church, a ''sui iuris'' church of the Catholic Church *The Latin liturgical rites, a family of Christian rites and uses which includes the Roman Rite *The Roman Rite The Roman Rite () is the most common ritua ...

, the

Syro Malabar Catholic The Syro-Malabar Church, also known as the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic church based in Kerala, India. It is a ''sui iuris'' (autonomous) particular church in full communion with the Holy See and the worldwide Catholi ...

s and the Syro Malankara Catholics. He held office from 1996 to 2000, succeeding Peter G. Marbaniang and succeeded by Maria Emilia Menezes. In September 1992 as vice-president of the AICU western region D'Souza participated in a three-day conference that discussed changes to the Christian Personal Law relating to marriage, divorce and adoption. The current laws did not recognize a divorce granted by a priest, and did not allow Christians to legally adopt for succession purposes. Also, Dalit Christians were not treated as members of scheduled castes, although Sikhs and Buddhists of Dalit origin were. It was agreed to campaign for changes to these laws. As secretary of the AICU, D'Souza observed that Christians had traditionally been strong supporters of the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

party, but only because no other party had taken interest in them. He noted that the Hindu nationalist

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still claimed that Christians were anti-national because they had cooperated with the British. In March 1998 D'Souza was a member of a fact-finding committee of the Indian People's Tribunal on Environmental and Human Rights that investigated attacks on a group of 200 Christian pilgrims in

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

state. In February and March 1998 there were a series of attacks on Christians across India.

Hindutva Hindutva (; ) is a Far-right politics, far-right political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Da ...

organizations were claiming Christians were practicing "forced conversions" and called for additional laws requiring that any conversions be reported to a district magistrate. Such laws already existed in

Orissa Odisha (), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is a state located in Eastern India. It is the eighth-largest state by area, and the eleventh-largest by population, with over 41 million inhabitants. The state also has the thir ...

and

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

. Norbert D'Souza stated that "The experience of Orissa shows that such a legislation is completely superfluous because no cases in violation of the Act have been brought to the notice of the courts". He went on to say of Madhya Pradesh that "The cases of harassment against Christians include hauling the parents (second generation Christians) baptising their child to court. Therefore, now I will definitely allege that this legislation is malafide in intent". During D'Souza's term as President of the AICU the National Secretary for Public affairs was

John Dayal John Dayal (born 2 October 1948) is an Indian human rights and Christian political activist. He is a member of the National Integration Council (NIC) of India, Secretary-General of the All India Christian Council and a past president of the All ...

, who later became vice-president and then president of the AICU.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Souza, Norbert Indian Roman Catholics Living people Politicians from Pune Year of birth missing (living people)