The Anglican Church of South India Diocese of Madras has held a “Condemnation Protest Demonstration” against religious discrimination within the country.
Anti-Christian motion in India often takes the shape of social ostracism, mob violence, harassment and intimidation, often by Hindu nationalists.
Christmas in India was marked with an entire range of incidents, starting from Christmas hat sellers being harassed to Christmas events being violently attacked.
In their protest the Church of South India (CSI) denounced such acts, saying they “not only threaten the liberty of religion communities but in addition undermine the constitutional values of equality, fraternity and justice”.
Speaking on the protest was the General Secretary of the CSI, Adv. C. Fernandas Rathina Raja, who emphasised “India’s pluralistic ethos” and called for all religious communities in India to respect one another’s religious festivals and expressions of religion.
Although organised by Anglicans within the region, representatives from Catholic, Evangelical, Pentecostal and Lutheran traditions were also present on the protest.
According to Open Doors, which has just released its annual watch list of anti-Christian persecutors, India has fallen one place to twelfth worst persecutor on this planet and the organisation says that “the gravity of persecution stays much the identical” within the country.
As well as violence and intimidation from Hindu nationalist mobs, who often face little or no sanction, Christians also need to contend with so-called “anti-conversion” laws, lively in lots of Indian states.
Theoretically such laws are to guard people from being converted by force, coercion or bribery. In practice such laws are used to focus on Christians and other minorities and to stop people leaving Hinduism. No one has ever been punished or sanctioned for converting someone towards Hinduism.
According to Open Doors, the state of Chhattisgarh has banned the existence of house churches with a purpose to maintain “cultural harmony”.
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