New Data Shows Violence Against Christians Persists In Modi's India
Women fetch water in Koraput District, Odisha in June 2021. Fifteen Christian families faced ostracization at the hands of the villagers and were displaced from the village this year. They moved to live in the nearby jungle, where there is no road, no electricity and no running water. Women go down deep to the 350-foot water canal to fetch water for consumption, cooking and all their other needs. Photo provided by EFI.
NEW DELHI— India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the massive paramilitary organization that drives the ideology of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), met recently in a small hill town in Madhya Pradesh, central India, where they created a new slogan: “Chadar aur Father Mukt Bharat” – which translates to: “An India Liberated of Muslims and Christians.”
The word “chadar” refers to a cloth sheet to symbolize Muslims and “father” in English refers to priests.
While critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have pointed to rising violence against Muslims and Christians since 2014, the meeting’s display of Hindu nationalism reinforces the most recent data, released this week, finding that Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of religious persecution incidents of any state, at 30 incidents since January 2021. Uttar Pradesh, a populous state with widespread right-wing support that has for years topped persecution lists, followed with 22 incidents.
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The report by the Religious Liberty Commission of Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFIRLC) detailed incidents of hate and violence against Christians in the first half of the year, including 43 arrests of Christians falsely accused of crimes, 24 events of threats or harassment, 21 physical assaults, 20 incidents of village-wide ostracization of Christians, and other incidents of shutting down worship services, vandalization of churches and even three demolitions of churches. The tally is greater than the same time period in 2020.
EFIRLC relies on local church leaders and members to report incidents of violence and discrimination to their hotline, and then assigns workers to verify the reports with the police and other witnesses. The reports are indicative of trends but understate the extent of violence and hate targeted at Christians.
“The Christian community is usually in small numbers in different geographical pockets, and they remain fearful,” said Dr. John Dayal, a veteran Christian leader and well-known human rights activist in India. “The community’s legal literacy is grossly inadequate plus the police almost as a rule do not want to register cases. Even if a case is registered by the police, the assailants seldom face prosecution in a court of law. On the other hand, the complainant runs the risk of retributive action.”
Nationwide, EFIRLC reported 145 cases of hate and targeted violence, including three murders in the period from January through June 2021. January recorded the highest number of incidents (46), followed by February (32), March and June (21 each), April (17) and May (8).
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Madhya Pradesh recorded the most incidents in April while the COVID-19 pandemic surged to its peak in India. In fact, nationwide, the report found that Christians in India, about 2.3% of the population, faced a spike in persecution while under lockdown.
Rev. Vijayesh Lal, general secretary of Evangelical Fellowship of India and the President of the Religious Liberty Commission, told ReligionUnplugged that a clear pattern emerged.
“As soon as a pastor leaves his house to visit a church member, whether to pray for the family or lend a helping hand, a group of right-wing members appear from nowhere and accuse the pastor of breaking lockdown norms and get him arrested,” said Rev. Lal.
“There is noticeable activeness amongst the right-wing groups even during lockdown restrictions,” said a prominent Christian leader in Northern India who wishes to remain anonymous due to safety concerns. “They have gone in groups and have troubled pastors and Christians even when all the churches were closed due to restrictions.”
The pastor said right-wing groups began spying on Christians and breaking into their homes to interrogate Christians and the families they have visited, often accusing pastors of criticizing Hindu gods and goddesses (outraging religious sentiment can be criminal hate speech in India) or alluring families to convert to Christianity (some state anti-conversion laws in India are strict about the terms of evangelizing). Often, these groups successfully lead the police to arrest pastors.
“Slogans that are offensive towards Christianity are being promoted in a major way,” the pastor in North India said. “They are trying to create an anti-Christian, anti-minority wave, with the complicity of the media. Muslims are also being targeted.”
So-called Freedom of Religion Acts, which are anti-conversion laws designed to restrain evangelism, have expanded in many BJP-run states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand. Christians fear expanding anti-conversion laws are a solid step closer to the BJP’s campaign promises to create a nationwide law that restrains Christian missionaries, whom they accuse of a Western conspiracy to Christianize Dalits, tribal Indians and others in rural areas.
Manu Damore called the police for protection when a mob attacked his Easter church service on April 4 near Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The police protected Damore, his wife Asha and their three children under 5 by giving them shelter in the police station for the night.
But the Damores were shocked when the police presented them before the court the next morning and jailed them. The magistrate stated that Pastor Damore had promised to pay a woman 3,000 rupees [$40 USD] each month if she converted to Christianity.
“While we were thinking that we are safe inside the police station, there was a big conspiracy being planned,” Asha said. “During the night, a report was registered against us, of which we had no clue.”
Manu Damore spent one month in jail before he was released on bail, while Asha was released on bail a week later. During that week, Asha gave her children to a church member to care for, including her 18-month-old baby she had been breastfeeding. She feared catching COVID-19 inside the jail.
“I had never left them even for a day,” Asha said. “They had stopped eating food. My 18-month nursing child would cry all night without me.”
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A villager attacked and murdered Pastor Vinod Kumar of Sangoi village in Karnal District, Haryana with a wooden roof beam.
“My husband’s only fault was that he was zealous for the Lord and he was sharing the love and forgiveness of Christ with the killer,” Pastor Kumar’s wife Sunita Kumar told ReligionUnplugged.
Pastor Kumar was brutally attacked and killed on June 30. He came to visit the sick in the village, and the killer ambushed him, beating Kumar until his skull cracked open. Police have made no arrests, and the killer appears to be missing, Sunita said.
Evangelical Fellowship of India, a charter member of the World Evangelical Alliance, was founded in 1951 as an Indian national alliance of evangelical Christians. EFIRLC was formed in 1998 and since 2009 has released an annual list of documented hate and targeted violence on the Christian community. Their reports are widely used by the U.S. State Department and human rights organizations.
The RLC helps empower victims of religious persecution practically and legally and advocates for better government responses to violations of religious freedom in India.
The report also contains appeals and recommendations from the EFIRLC to the government of India.
“We especially appeal to the State Governments of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh to deal stringently with the various right-wing organizations operating in these states whose primary agenda is to create an atmosphere of fear among the Christian community and other religious minorities,” Rev. Lal said.
He added that EFIRLC met with the government minister John Barla, who is the first Christian Minister of State in the central Ministry of Minority Affairs.
“He did assure us of investigating these cases and ensuring that the victims get justice,” Rev. Lal said.
Surinder Kaur Lal is a freelance journalist based out of New Delhi. She has been writing on religion, politics and spirituality for the past 20 years. Her articles have appeared in Christianity Today, Compass Direct, World Watch Monitor, Morning Star News (South Asia Correspondent & India Correspondent), Open Doors International, Evangelical Fellowship of India, Indian Currents and AIM Magazine. In the past she has also worked as Bureau Chief (South Asia) for Global Christian News.