India: Reports of increased Christian persecution
With elections only weeks away in the world’s most populous country, local human rights organizations are warning of a rise in religious intolerance and attacks on religious freedom.
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) expresses its deep concern over reports emerging from India, pointing to an increase in the persecution of Christians.
According to the United Christian Forum for Human Rights (UCF), an Indian ecumenical organization that tracks incidents of persecution against Christians of all denominations, at least 161 cases were reported in just the first three months of 2024.
The document that UCF sent to ACN notes that the country is only weeks away from the start of national elections, which will run from April 19th to June 1st – a time when social tensions already tend to run high. UCF is therefore appealing to national authorities, to ensure equal protection and rights for all citizens, regardless of their faith. “As UCF, we request that our leadership put an end to this violence by taking strict action against perpetrators of all such crimes, and we hope and pray for a peaceful and fair election,” reads the UCF statement.
The text also says that there are 19 states in India where “Christians face threats to their lives for practicing their faith.” The state with the most assaults against Christians, with 47 cases reported, is Chhattisgarh, “a state notorious for the social ostracization of Christians. In this state, there have even been cases of villagers denying their Christian neighbors the right to bury their dead according to Christian rites.
Among the issues raised by the UCF is the alarming number of Christians arrested due to false allegations of illegal conversion: 122 in the first 75 days of the year. These arrests are particularly common in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
Bleak prospects for religious liberty
India is one of the countries of highest concern in ACN’s 2023 Religious Freedom Report, with an authoritarian government and ethno-religious nationalism cited as the main forces of persecution.
“The Christian community in India continues to face targeted violence and hate crimes,” the report states, adding that “the spread of Hindutva philosophy espoused by the Hindutva group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is, to a large extent, a principal cause of this growing persecution against Christians. Hindutva, a right-wing form of Hindu nationalism, is intolerant of other religions or cultures. The BJP, which took power in 2014, subscribes to this ideological approach, and its political success has facilitated religio-nationalist rhetoric and action.”
The report goes on to explain that “India is an example of ‘hybrid persecution’ where both pseudo-legal measures and bloody attacks are perpetrated against Indians with the ‘wrong’ religion,” concluding that “prospects for religious freedom, therefore, continue to appear negative.”
ACN calls on its friends and benefactors to pray that the elections in India run as well and as safely as possible, and especially that religious minorities, including Christians, see their human and citizen’s rights fully respected.
—Filipe d’Avillez
