The Christians Too

According to the Open Doors World Watch report, India has risen from number 31 to number 10 in persecution severity over the past few years, just behind Iran.

Though the incidents of violence against Christian minorities have occurred in nearly all parts of India, the epicentres have been the states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and the capital area of Delhi. Various churches were ransacked, vandalised and burned to the ground while graveyards were desecrated. In Rajpur, a nun was sexually assaulted while, in another incidence, a mob attacked a church during Sunday service, injuring men, women and children and damaged the statues of Mary and Jesus.

Converts from Hinduism to Christianity are more vulnerable to persecution due to harsh campaigns like “Ghar Wapsi” (homecoming). Most converts are not only physically assaulted but also killed, more so now when several states in India have adopted anti-conversion laws and the ruling BJP has made it clear that it wants to scale it up nationwide. Such radical claims are making it worse for the Christian minorities living in India to continue with their day-to-day lives.

In November 2019, the Baptist Press carried the harrowing story of the 68 year old pastor Basant Kumar Paul. He and his family members were attacked twice by Hindu extremists. The pastor was hit in the head by an axe and left to die in his home based church in Jharkhand, India. The pastor was quoted as saying, “My physical body is weak, but my spirit is strong and will not break with persecution.”

Not only Muslims, but also the Christians in Jammu and Kashmir, fear for their lives since the BJP-led government revoked the 1949 law, making it impossible for Christian congregations to meet. A gathering of four or more people is illegal in Jammu and Kashmir, whether they are Muslims or Christians.

So far, more than 100 churches have been closed down nationwide due to extremist attacks. In May 2019, the BJP led government demolished a church-run school and hostel in Odisha state due to the irrational claims of an extremist group saying that the church was evangelizing students.

India’s 28 million Christians are living in increasing fear. While President Donald Trump praised Narendra Modi as one of America’s “greatest, most devoted and most loyal friends” during the latter’s recent visit to the White House, he was met less enthusiastically by Christian groups in the US due to the rising trend in violence against Christians by the Indian government’s Hindu nationalist ideology. It is also pertinent to state here that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an extremist paramilitary group, which has led the persecutions against the Indian Christians as well as the Muslims, is a close ally of the BJP and Modi has long been a member of this organization. Although organizations like Open Doors, Religious Liberty Commission at the Evangelical Fellowship of India as well as USCIRF, believe much of the blame can be attributed to Modi due to a clear connection to his ideals and ideology and a rise of religious persecution in India, Modi himself has largely been silent.

In the current state of affairs, it is high time that the US and other nations have a public discourse on the religious bigotry, persecution of minorities and human rights violations in India on a daily basis and remind India that being the largest democracy in the world has a responsibility to protect personal and religious freedom.