Since the Hindu nationalist BJP came to power in 2014, radical Hinduism has increased steadily. Several states outlaw proselytism, and there have been efforts to impose such so-called “anti-conversion laws” at a national level. The violence of radical Hindu groups or angry mobs of villagers is often allowed by local, state and national authorities dominated by the BJP. This means the Hindu radicals can act with increasing impunity.
India: Violence against Christians continues in run-up to 2019 elections
Hindu nationalists vandalised two Christian places of worship in the northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Assam in the last two weeks, reports AsiaNews. On 29 September a statue of Saint John Bosco, also known as Don Bosco, was desecrated in the city of Tezpur, Assam, northeast India. It […]
Ten years after arrest of their illiterate husbands, Indian wives wait for justice
It was around midnight on 4 October 2008 that Durjo Sunamajhi and Munda and Sanathan Badamajhi were arrested by dozens of police in their shanty homes in India’s eastern Odisha state. Ten years on, these three illiterate Christians, from the remote Madaguda area of Kandhamal, are yet to return home. Four other Christians – […]
Kandhamal riots were result of Hindu political conspiracy, says activist
Ten years after the worst case of anti-Christian violence in India’s history, seven innocent people are still in prison, convicted of a crime that was the result of a larger political conspiracy, says Catholic journalist and activist Anto Akkara in an interview with Indian news platform The Wire. Almost 100 […]
India: 271 Christians charged with converting Hindus through lies and drugs
Two hundred and seventy-one Christians in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh have been charged with a range of crimes including attempting to convert Hindus through the use of drugs and by spreading lies about Hinduism. Of the 271, just three were named – pastors Durga Prasad Yadav, Kirit […]
India: 2 years after Supreme Court order, no investigation into ‘shocking’ number of Kandhamal acquittals
The man spearheading the campaign for “justice” for the victims of the worst case of anti-Christian violence in India’s history has denounced the failure of the Odisha state government to follow up on a Supreme Court order to investigate why there have been so few criminal convictions despite nearly 6,500 […]
India: Kandhamal Christians still waiting for justice one decade after massacre
Ten years after the worst case of anti-Christian violence in India’s history, the local community continues to struggle, with reparations from the government slow in coming and seven reportedly innocent Christians still in prison. Nearly 100 Christians were killed, 300 churches and 6,000 Christian homes were damaged, and 55,000 people […]
Modi speaks out against ‘menace’ of mob attacks for first time
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has for the first time condemned violence against minorities, saying that everyone has a duty to fight the “menace” of mob lynchings. But his critics say that, after four years in power at the head of a Hindu nationalist government, the comments have come too […]
Nine-year-old Indian girl from convert family reported raped, then murdered
A nine-year-old girl from an Indian family that had recently converted to Christianity was murdered (and possibly raped before that) on Sunday, 5 August, in Punjab state. The girl was playing with her friends in the city of Gurdaspur, near the Pakistan border, when a 15 year old boy is reported to […]
Indian Christians protest after part of church demolished to make road wider
Part of a Protestant church in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, has been demolished to make way for a wider road, despite the local court being yet to announce its verdict on the proposal, AsiaNews reports. A wing of the Emmanuel Church, which belongs to the Church of South India, and some […]
We’ll close one church every week, Indian Christians told
Christian villagers in a rural district of India’s Maharashtra state have been told that one church will be closed down every week because they have been “destroying” local tradition and culture by “luring” others to convert to Christianity. Since June, over a dozen houses belonging to Christians have been attacked […]