India Country Profile The outbreak of ethnic conflict between the Kuki and Meitei ethnic groups during the year in India’s northeastern state of Manipur resulted in significant human rights abuses. Media reported at least 175 persons were killed and more than 60,000 displaced between May 3 and November 15. Activists and journalists reported armed conflict, rapes, and assaults in addition to the destruction of homes, businesses, and places of worship. The government deployed security forces, implemented daily curfews, and internet shutdowns in response to the violence. The Supreme Court criticized the failure of the central government and the Manipur state government to halt the violence and appointed officials to investigate incidents of violence and to ensure the delivery of humanitarian assistance and the rebuilding of homes and places of worship. Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; enforced disappearances; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; political prisoners or detainees; transnational repression against individuals in another country; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; punishment of family members for alleged offenses by a relative; serious abuses in a conflict, including reportedly unlawful

NEW DELHI — As India gears up for the largest national elections ever conducted on the planet, the Christian community, although a minority, faces unique challenges that underscore the significance of its political representation. The issues range from religious persecution to the enforcement of anti-conversion laws, with the recent unrest in the Christian-majority state of Manipur spotlighting the urgent need for Christian voices to be heard. Making up approximately 2.3% of India’s population, the Christian community is an integral part of this Asian nation’s pluralistic society. However, this community often finds itself navigating a complex landscape of religious freedom and cultural integration. Despite constitutional protections, incidents of persecution continue to surface, making the political empowerment of Christians not just beneficial but necessary for safeguarding their rights. In a recent report released by the United Christian Forum, a civil society organization based in Delhi and dedicated to Christian concerns, it was uncovered that in the initial three months of this year, there had been a significant decline in the fundamental rights and protections of Indian Christians. The 2024 Indian election has been a lengthy process. Voting began on April 19 and has proceeded in seven stages until a conclusion on June 1. The UCF reported that

Bhupat Bhai Sekhaliya, a rickshaw driver from Gujarat, a state in western India known for its economic progress and as the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, faces significant challenges due to his background. He belongs to the Dalit community, which is at the bottom of India’s caste system — a rigid social hierarchy rooted in religion that has historically marginalized certain groups. Sekhaliya’s daily life is fraught with constraints that prevent him from experiencing what many would consider a normal life, including the ability to run errands without the threat of unprovoked violence. Despite his hard work and dedication, Sekhaliya often encounters disrespect, especially from individuals of “higher” castes. For him, and many like him in the Dalit community, everyday activities that others take for granted — for example, wearing decent clothes — can be fraught with difficulties and discrimination. In some cases, standing up against such treatment can lead to physical assault. This issue is not isolated to Sekhaliya alone. In Gujarat, violence against Dalits has become alarmingly common, with reports indicating an average of four cases each day. Between 2015 and 2021, more than 9,000 incidents were documented in Gujarat alone, according to India’s National Crime Records Bureau, The New Indian Express

Nearly 70 Christians arrested under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance of 2020 are languishing in jails in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) as authorities delay or deny their bail applications on flimsy grounds.  According to Pastor Bishnoi, who has helped free detained Christians, the most common reason to deny a believer’s bail is to complete the formalities for bail under various pretexts.  “Since the time the national elections for the Lower House of Indian Parliament have been announced, we have seen that the process for bail applications to move forward and bail hearings have all become slow. I can say that around 70 pastors are still in jail,” said Pastor Bishnoi, who lives and works in UP’s Varanasi city, considered the main pilgrimage center for Hindus.  In December 2023, more than 50 pastors and believers were detained simultaneously in two adjacent UP districts. Most were released in a day or two, but authorities sent nine pastors to prison.  At that time, Bishnoi and high-ranking Christian lawyers helped secure the release of eight of the nine pastors in a tough legal battle that lasted more than a month.  “I am directly involved with lawyers trying to obtain bail for

(RNS) — My family has lived in India for generations, practicing Christianity for as long as anyone has kept track. They worked as public servants in the civil service agencies that built the country, led medical missions that went from India all the way to Afghanistan, served as teachers for people who otherwise had no access to education and held positions as social workers in some of the nation’s harshest mines. We come from Gujarat state, where Hindus and Christians and Muslims historically lived side by side. In 1960 my father moved to the United States, and in 1990 I became a United Methodist minister. In all of my years talking with friends and relatives from India, I have never seen the country led by leaders so radically intolerant, so full of fear of minority faiths, so contemptuous of democracy, and so dangerous to activists, journalists and other critics of the ruling party. The time of peaceful coexistence between faiths appears to be vanishing. In addition to the appalling rise in Islamophobic policies and violence that has accompanied Narendra Modi’s rise to power (the prime minister has deployed anti-Muslim hate relentlessly in his ongoing election campaign), India has seen waves of increasing anti-Christian persecution. As The New

Christians in India are prayerfully awaiting the results of India’s 18th general elections to the country’s Lower House of Parliament, now in the fifth of seven phases.More than 900 million eligible citizens are voting for 543 seats of the Lower House, also known as Lok Sabha, for a five-year term. The polls close on June 4, when ballots will be counted, and a new federal government will be declared. Two main parties are vying to control the world’s largest democracy: the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the Indian National Congress (INC), a moderate party seen as friendly toward minorities. Both parties have many regional allies. The BJP, with its Hindutva ideology, has ruled with a brute majority for a decade, with two five-year terms playing to the predominantly Hindu population. At the same time, the INC is a moderate party that is more tolerant of Christianity. The consensus among the Christian community is that if the BJP sweeps to power for the third consecutive time since 2014, it will lead to new challenges for India’s minority populations, especially Muslims and Christians. “We have been praying earnestly and continuously that the INC should come to power

The situation remains dire for the thousands of people whose lives have been altogether altered, especially Christians.Refugees from Manipur in a displacement in June last year. Many remain in camps without adequate provisions or sanitation. A new report on ethnic violence in India’s north-eastern Manipur state called on the international community to recognise its religious dimension. The report for the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA) published earlier this month marked a year since the outbreak of fighting between groups from the Kuki-Zo and Meitei peoples on 3-6 May 2023, which has since caused over 100 deaths. It found that “the situation remains dire for the thousands of people whose lives have been altogether altered, especially Christians” from both peoples. Many thousands remain in displacement camps, where the ethnicities are separated to avoid further clashes. The IRFBA investigation found evidence of extremists from the Hindu-majority Meitei targeting the churches of the Christian-majority Kuki-Zo, and also attacking the small number of Meitei Christians and demanding their conversion. One Meitei Christian quoted in the report said that Christianity was seen as support for the Kuki-Zo, and that Meitei Christians face persecution from their own families. “They are struggling from their family, from their relatives, and those who

Violence against Christians in India’s Chhattisgarh state recently reached marked a new level of escalation with the brutal murder of a young Christian man. On May 4, 2024, 22-year-old Kosa Kawasi was fatally attacked by a mob of community members allegedly led by his uncle and cousin. After he converted to Christianity, Kawasi’s family and village attempted to evict him from the area and seize his assets. Some family members also pressured him to revert to his former faith, reportedly sending death threats. Despite Kawasi’s reports to authorities seeking intervention, no police action was taken. The police have labeled the murder a result of a “property dispute.” Witnesses claim that is only partially true, as they say Kawasi’s uncle was motivated by religious hatred.Kawasi’s wife, Jime, was also wounded in the attack, but escaped to a local hospital where she was treated for her injuries.Five other Christian families have fled the region due to the incident.Chhattisgarh is witnessing a progression of discrimination, violence, and persecution against Christians. On April 25, 2024, villagers protested the burial of Christian convert Ishwar Korram. Hindu radicals halted the funeral procession in the street, forcing police to intervene. Despite efforts to seek justice through the authorities, the family

The month of May marks two important anniversaries for two very different activists. One was born on May 10, 1915; the other died on May 25, 1928. These individuals led very different lives over the course of the 20th century – one was an outspoken Christian minister in South Africa, the other was an anti-caste activist in Maharashtra. These men shared one key similarity: they were born into privileged families, with incredibly influential fathers who held regressive attitudes, one about race, the other about caste. And yet, through the course of their lives, both these activists defied their family legacies to challenge the injustice they saw around them.In this current moment, when hate and bigotry of all forms seem to be on the rise across the world, the examples of Beyers Naudé (1915-2004) and Shridharpant Tilak (1896-1928) are worth revisiting today. Beyers Naudé Beyers Naudé (1915-2004) was a Christian minister who became one of the most prominent white activists in South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle. He was born in Johannesburg in 1915 into an influential Afrikaner family (descendants of primarily Dutch settlers) who were known to be “faithful members” of the Dutch Reformed Church, which later played a key role in justifying apartheid through

In normal times, it would be the sort of conspiracy theory cooked up in the “deep fakes” laboratories of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the mother of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and alma mater of its most famous cadre, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Core elements of these theories have abounded since independence, first peaking in 1956 in a swell so strong that even Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the founders of modern India and first prime minister, could not stop it. A senior leader of his Congress party and chief minister of the large Central provinces, Ravi Shankar Shukla, defied Nehru and set up the quasi-judicial Niyogi commission to probe the work of Christian missionaries in tribal areas.Other theories link Congress leader Sonia Gandhi with Vatican designs in sensitive border states of India, and creating enclaves of anti-national and traitorous communities. The notorious Niyogi commission, its membership carefully curated by religious right-wing members, indicted missionaries for enticing “innocent tribals” with money, and magic tricks. A “magic trick,” retired Justice Niyogi quoted, was to show how a wooden Cross floated on water while earthen idols of local gods soon dissolved, “proving the superiority of the Western god.” This insulted the native intelligence of the people