On Thursday, September 7, the United Christian Forum (UCF) – a civil society organisation focused on Christian issues, based in Delhi – released a stunning statistic: there have been 525 attacks against Christians in India just in the first eight months of 2023. If this trend were to continue, this would prove to be one of the most violent and difficult years the Christian community in India has ever seen, breaking the recent record set by 2022, and 2021 before that. Vigilante violence against Muslims and Dalits has been accompanied by a sharp rise in attacks against Christians in India in recent years, often managing to escape the headlines. The numbers for this year are likely to be particularly high, given the violence in Manipur – where hundreds of churches have been destroyed in the last four months. A petition in the Supreme Court puts the figure of places of worship destroyed at 642. The Archbishop of Imphal in June said 249 churches were destroyed in just 36 hours. The UCF data does not include incidents from Manipur. “All these incidents of violence are by mob violence led by so called vigilante groups of particular faith who are allegedly receiving support from people in power,” the

A Christian teenager in India has stood firm in the face of terrorist violence. According to NBC, 16-year-old Abhishek Donald suffered severe injuries, including broken knuckles on his right hand, when an anti-Christian mob attacked the Prarthana Bhawan Church in the Indian capital territory of Delhi on Aug. 20. “They came straight inside and started beating up people," church pastor Satpal Bhati said of the attackers. "They broke a chair, tore our Bible, busted the drums, and beat the kid’s hand with a rod." Bhati estimated that themob numbered about 30 people. “They said, ‘This can’t go on, you can’t do this, this is a Hindu nation,’” Bhati added. The NBC story described the attackers as a "right-wing mob." While this immediately raises suspicions based on the establishment media's left-wing U.S. domestic agenda, the description appears technically accurate in at least one sense. If "right wing" means merely "nationalistic" -- as opposed to the broad and indiscriminate manner in which the establishment media uses it as an epithet -- then the Hindu mob qualifies as "right wing." In fact, a few weeks before the attack on Prarthana Bhawan Church, Hindu extremists also brought violence to Muslim neighborhoods. Those attacks, in which seven people

Christian groups from northeast India have urged the country's president to end more than four months of sectarian strife in Manipur where six people were killed on Sept. 1 to take the toll to 181. “We are writing to you to urgently appeal for your intervention to end the ongoing conflict in Manipur,” five Christian groups, all based in Manipur’s neighboring Nagaland state, said in a memorandum to President Draupadi Murmu, India's first president from a tribal community. Manipur, bordering civil war-hit Myanmar, has witnessed unprecedented violence since May 3 between Kuki tribal Christians and the Meitei Hindu community. The sectarian strife over granting tribal status to the Meitei Hindu community has seen the burning of more than 350 Christian churches. The Nagas, as the people from Nagaland are called, form the third major community in Manipur and have maintained a distance from the ongoing violence. Along with Nagaland and Manipur, five other states form India’s northeastern region. “We earnestly request your support in rebuilding the churches and religious institutions that have suffered extensive damage due to the violence,” the Nagaland Joint Christian Forum, Christian Forum Dimapur, Nagaland Theological Colleges Association, Dimapur Baptist Pastors Fellowship and Dimapur Baptist Women Union said in the memorandum, submitted to La Ganesan, the Nagaland

Five Christians including a pastor were granted bail after spending over two months in jail on suspicion of alleged religious conversion activities in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. A court in Azamgarh district on Aug. 30 granted bail to Pastor Poonam Bind, Sheel Bind, Vijay Bahadur, Sonvarsha and Asha (identified with their single names), their lawyer Ashish Kumar told UCA News on Sept. 1. All five were in jail since June 29. “My clients were in Azamgarh jail for over two months on conversion charges. I can’t share more details right now as I have to see the court order,” Kumar added. The lawyer said the case against the five Christians “is not yet closed” and investigations will continue. Media reports said they were arrested in Azamgarh for organizing a house prayer service after a complaint was filed with the police by local residents. Persecution of Christians continues in the district although there have been no religious conversion activities, Pastor Dinesh Kumar told UCA News on Sep. 1. On Aug. 13, the police registered a case of alleged conversion against three Christians including a woman and her daughter in Sadatpur village in the district. The two women were detained by the police for inquiry, he said. In neighboring Jaunpur