The variety of violent anti-Christian incidents in India jumped to 601 in 2023 in comparison with 413 the previous 12 months, in line with a latest report from the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s Religious Liberty Commission (EFI-RLC).
“Despite constitutional protections and India’s long-standing tradition of non secular diversity, the rise of divisive rhetoric and inflammatory language, often condoned or inadequately addressed by official channels, has emboldened sections of society to perpetrate acts of violence and discrimination against religious minorities, particularly Christians and Muslims,” said Vijayesh Lal, general secretary of EFI.
India is home to about 28 million Christians, or about two percent of the country’s population of 1.4 billion. The majority of attacks on Christians were categorized as threats and harassment (201) followed by 146 instances of false accusations and subsequent arrests.
EFI-RLC’s report highlights several troubling trends, including regional hotspots, primarily concentrated within the northern a part of the culture, where violence against Christians is especially severe. Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state and a major political battleground, recorded the best variety of incidents at 275. The state also leads in arrests of pastors and believers, often on allegations of forced conversions, despite lacking substantial evidence.
Chhattisgarh, a state in central India, is one other hotbed of targeted violence against tribal Christians. It witnessed 132 incidents of coordinated attacks along with several Ghar Wapsi (“returning home” programs of reconversion to Hinduism or ancestral faith) and ostracism incidents that usually are not recorded.
Haryana, a landlocked state in northern India where Christians make up .02 percent of the population of 25 million, had 44 cases, indicating a widespread pattern of targeted violence against the Christian community across various regions of India.
The report follows and reinforces the narrative of the 2024 World Watch List released earlier this 12 months by Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors, which ranks India at number 11, noting the sustained rise of Hindu nationalism:
Any Christian who does convert from Hinduism is most definitely to come back under intense pressure and even violence. They can face constant pressure to surrender their latest faith, face job loss/discrimination, endure physical assaults, and even be murdered. Church leaders are also in peril in lots of parts of India: extremists goal them (together with their families) to create fear and chaos within the Christian community.
The list also notes that in comparison with the 2023 report, attacks on Christian homes doubled to 180, Christian fatalities increased ninefold to 160, and attacks on churches and Christian schools rose from 67 to 2,228. Many of those increases were on account of last May’s deadly attacks in Manipur.
These reports come weeks after the United Christian Forum (UCF) announced that it had documented 161 incidents of violence against Christians between January 1 to March 15 of this 12 months. UCF states that the info was collected by its toll-free helpline and, as per information available, 161 Christians, including 122 pastors, have been arrested on allegations of forced religious conversions despite lack of evidence.
False Accusations and Contentious Conversions
Hindu nationalists have regularly and falsely accused Christians of forced conversion under duress and have used these claims as a pretext for violence. Though activists have debunked this as an unfounded claim, these charges proceed to fuel violence and discrimination against Christians, particularly against those of vulnerable groups like Dalits, Adivasis, and girls.
“The bogey of conversion is a really convenient one and is essentially misused to focus on the Christian community in states where these laws are in operation, and in states where these laws don’t exist, they’re deemed to be in operation, causing the identical harassment,” said Lal.
The conversion of individuals belonging to lower castes, including Dalits, away from Hinduism—a historically non-proselytizing religion—to proselytizing religions, especially Christianity, has been a contentious political issue in India. About half of Indians support legal bans on religious conversions, in line with a 2021 Pew Research Center report.
As of today, 10 of India’s 28 states have anticonversion laws in place: Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, and Haryana. All of those are Hindu-majority states, and 6 out of the ten are governed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The state of Arunachal Pradesh drafted but never enacted such a law, while Rajasthan’s attempts in 2006 and 2008 didn’t get final approval. Tamil Nadu passed an anticonversion law in 2002, however it was revoked after protests.
Even when states lack anticonversion laws, there are brutal consequences for those alleged to have proselytized Hindus, tribals, or those of every other faith. EFI-RLC noted a story of 1 pastor and others who were brutally attacked during a 2023 prayer gathering within the state of Maharashtra after extremists accused them of non secular conversion activities. Similar incidents have been reported from other parts of the country, where Christian institutions and individuals have faced violent assaults and harassment.
The report highlights an incident that took place in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, in March 2023, when a bunch of Hindu extremists barged right into a church during a service, locking 250 Christians inside. They then interrogated them about conversions, tearing up Bibles and assaulting 10 people.
‘The Potential to Incite’
Beyond direct violence, the report highlights broader structural changes that threaten the rights and well-being of non secular minorities, including the presence of Hindutva ideology in public education. EFI-RLC fears “infiltration and manipulation by extreme right-wing political entities aligned with the present regime’s preferences.”
EFI-RLC also noted that BJP legislators have begun to make good on a long-standing campaign promise to introduce a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which seeks to have one law determine matters like marriage, divorce, inheritance, and adoption within the state, as a substitute of various laws for various religious communities.
Though the structure states that the federal government should work toward implementing a UCC across the country, “Such a code could potentially undermine the legal protections and affirmative motion measures provided to those minorities under the Indian structure,” in line with the report. (This change was recently introduced within the state of Uttarakhand.)
The report also notes the intentions of other states like Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and Chhattisgarh to enact similar laws in 2024. Though it acknowledges that the main points of those laws remain unclear, such laws, it claims, could impede the rights of Christians to freely profess, practice, and propagate their faith, that are guaranteed by the structure.
“These laws and statements have the potential to incite non-state actors and vigilante groups to intimidate and assault religious minorities, worsening tensions and threatening social harmony,” the report elaborates.
Upcoming Elections
India’s seven-phase national elections will kick off on April 19 and conclude on June 4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party won the previous two elections in 2014 and 2019. They are hoping to win a 3rd consecutive election and current polls suggest they’re heading in the right direction to win nearly 70 percent of the seats within the Lok Sabha, India’s lower parliamentary chamber.
Earlier this month, the leader of INDIA (the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), a coalition of 26 parties difficult the BJP, was jailed. Rahul Gandhi, a member of parliament for the Indian National Congress, the biggest opposition party, and the grandson of India’s third prime minister Indra Gandhi, was sentenced to 2 years in jail in a defamation case related to remarks he made about individuals with the last name Modi.
Concerned over the policies and actions of the BJP’s national leadership, EFI has appealed to the Indian government and state administrations to guard religious minorities and uphold the rule of law, especially in states like Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh.
“As Christians, we pray for our nation, our leaders, and fellow residents. No one needs to be targeted or persecuted due to their faith. Normalization of hatred will only take us backward and, ultimately, harm everybody,” said Lal. “Our constitutional values are beautiful and price pursuing, and we pray that these values of justice, equality, liberty, and fraternity might be true within the lifetime of every Indian. Only then can we be a united and resilient nation.”
