Marbom Tasar’s story is well known among the Christian community in Arunachal Pradesh, a state in Northeast India that shares a disputed border with China. Tasar and his business partner, Tai Tatu, became Christians in 1968 while staying with Tasar’s Christian relatives in Roing, a town in northeastern Arunachal Pradesh. They then made the 160-mile return trip their village, Lete, to share the gospel with their fellow Gelo tribesmen who practiced animism. Soon after they arrived, Tasar found that homemade wine had caused severe dysentery in several villagers. Tasar went from house to house, praying for the sick and witnessing miraculous healings, according to his daughter, Bomto Paipodia. The families of those who were healed accepted Christianity, and Tasar began the work of building a church for three local villages. Two months later, tribal leaders and villagers, upset over the conversions, burned down the church. To curb further spread of Christianity, the police arrested Tasar, Tatu, and another believer. “For us, persecution started right from the time we carried the gospel to our village and the neighboring villages,” Tasar said. In the 1970s, Tasar faced more arrests and harassment. He fled deep into the forest and slept in trees to evade capture. Authorities tortured some

As of this week, a newly enacted anti-conversion law requires people in India’s Rajasthan state to give two months’ notice to the government if they plan to change their religion voluntarily. Further, the “converter,” or the person performing the conversion ceremony, must also give the government a month’s notice of his intention to perform the ceremony. The Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill, 2025, has made the procedures for conversions exhaustive and lengthy to stop unlawful conversions. Failure to involve government authorities in voluntary religious conversions could lead to up to three years in jail and a minimum fine of 10,000 rupees ($115). The new law states that a prescribed declaration form should be submitted to the District Magistrate (DM) or the relevant authority 60 days before the person wants to convert voluntarily. If the converter violates the law, it could lead to up to five years imprisonment and a minimum fine of 25,000 rupees ($289). An officer not below the rank of Additional DM will “get an inquiry conducted through police with regard to real intention, purpose, and cause of the proposed religious conversion.” Then, within 60 days of conversion, the converted person must send a declaration in a prescribed form to the

Fifty Christians were attacked during a Sunday service in Rajasthan state in western India, when a group of about 200 people stormed a church building in Bikaner city. Several attendees sustained injuries after being struck with iron rods, and the assailants vandalized the property before police arrived. In the attack, which took place near the end of the service, three worshipers were severely injured on Feb. 16, while many others bore bruises across their bodies, reported the U.K.-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide last week. The pastor of the church, who asked to remain anonymous due to security reasons, said a new member had attended the service that day and was seen sending messages minutes before the mob entered the church, at which point he ran out of the building. The attackers left hastily when police arrived at the scene. Police questioned the injured Christians afterward and accused them of forced conversions. The pastor’s children were cautioned that they should not turn out like their father. Local authorities then escorted the pastor, his spouse and a few other Christians to the Mukta Prasad police station, where the mob’s accusations of forced conversion were examined. The pastor and his companions were not charged, as evidence of

India's federal body to protect religious minorities' interests has urged the government in the central Chhattisgarh state to ensure Christians' safety after a right-wing Hindu man allegedly mobilized a movement for anti-Christian genocide. The Feb. 25 letter of the National Commission for Minorities referred to the "disturbing call for violent attacks against Christians" in Chhattisgarh on March 1 and asked the state to protect Christians. "We are relieved now," said A C Michael, the Christian leader who brought the threat to the notice of the quasi-judicial federal body. Michael is the national coordinator of the United Christian Forum, an ecumenical body that records persecution against Christians in India. The commission said Michael highlighted an "incendiary" social media post attributed to Adesh Soni, a self-proclaimed cow protection vigilante, that called for sexually assaulting and murdering Christians in the state. The video also contained a snippet of Soni speaking at a gathering of religious leaders and referring to a planned March 1 rally in the state to protest cow slaughter, it said. The social media post and the snippet of Soni together gave the impression "that he was mobilizing a movement for genocide against Christians," said the letter addressed to the state. The federal body said Soni has

In a shocking turn of events, on January 17, 2025, a special court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ambedkar Nagar handed down a five-year prison sentence to a Christian couple, Pastor Jose Pappachan and Sheeja Pappachan, for their alleged crime of forced religious conversion. However, their offence? Engaging with Dalit families in Shahapur Firoz, urging them to shun the addiction of alcohol and adopt a more reformed way of life—a crime now punishable under India’s increasingly draconian anti-conversion laws. Alongside the prison term, the court had also slapped them with a Rs 2,000 fine each, in what appeared to be an attempt to further cement their “wrongdoing”. However, On Feb 7, in a swift and commendable move, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court not only agreed to hear the matter but also granted bail to the couple. This is not an isolated case. A few months earlier, on September 26, 2024, three others—Balchand Jaisawar, Gopal Prajapati, and one unnamed individual—were convicted under the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, receiving prison terms ranging from three months to six years for engaging in mass conversions. As India edges closer to a legal stranglehold on religious choice, other states are following

The Christian community finds itself grappling with increasing threats to its existence and rights. Recent developments in Arunachal Pradesh, one of India’s most diverse and remote regions, have raised serious concerns among human rights advocates and religious organizations alike. The government’s decision to enforce a dormant anti-conversion law from 1978 and ongoing calls to strip Christian converts of their Scheduled Tribe status reflect a broader strategy to curtail the growth of Christianity among tribal populations. Anti-Conversion Law: A Long-Dormant Threat Revived Arunachal Pradesh, home to 26 major tribes and over 100 sub-tribes, is a melting pot of religious and cultural diversity. However, the state’s anti-conversion law, dormant for decades, is set to be enforced in 2025. Originally enacted to curb religious conversions “by force, inducement, or fraudulent means,” the law has resurfaced in a context where Christians make up over 30% of the state’s population, closely followed by Hindus and adherents of indigenous faiths. Critics argue that such laws, though framed in neutral language, are weaponized to target Christians and Muslims. The legislation requires anyone converting to another religion to report the act to local authorities, opening the door to potential harassment. Pastors and evangelists could face severe penalties, including up to ten

The unchecked persecution of Christians in India and the silence of the government in such cases will threaten the Christian identity, the civil society group United Christian Forum said on Friday. In a statement, the group said that attacks against the community had become more frequent, brutal and systematic. It referred to a report it released on January 10, which said that the number of attacks against Christians had increased from 127 in 2014 to 834 in 2024. The group said that if the trend was not stopped immediately by “political will and concerted government action, it will threaten the identity and existence of the Indian Christian community in their motherland much before 2050”. Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh recorded the highest number of attacks on Christians and had become “the hotspots of viral hate, brutal mob violence, rampant social ostracisation in which elements of the law and justice apparatus is complicit”, the group said citing its 2024 report. While Uttar Pradesh recorded 209 attacks against Christians in 2024, Chhattisgarh reported 165. The United Christian Forum on Wednesday said that the number of cases reported in the two states merely scratched the surface. “Across the country, the crimes that come to our notice may be from thrice

Police in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh arrested seven Christians in two separate cases following attacks by Hindu hardliners who accused of them of religious conversion on Republic Day on Jan. 26. Hardline Hindu group, Bajrang Dal (Brigade of Lord Hanuman), attacked Christians after a Sunday prayer service in Mowa, a town near the state capital Raipur, Arun Pannalal, president of Chhattisgarh's Christian Forum told UCA News on Jan. 27. They accused the Christians of illegal religious conversion, a common tactic to target Christians, he alleged. The attack came when Christians were participating in a national flag raising ceremony after the prayer service, he said. He also claimed that some Christians were injured and hospitalized, one remains in critical condition. Bajrang Dal members also ransacked a house Church, and filed a complaint with police in Pandri police station who arrested three Christians, Pannalal said. They have been charged under the state’s anti-conversion law. The local Christian community is shocked by these events as they were not even allowed to celebrate Republic Day, he added. Hindu hardliners have targeted Christians in the state for years accusing them of luring and converting people of various faiths including Hindus. Christians have vehemently dismissed the claims as anti-Christian propaganda. Earlier on

The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a split verdict on whether a deceased Christian, who had converted from the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community, could be buried in the common burial ground where his Hindu ancestors were buried. The Chhattisgarh government had insisted that the deceased should be buried in a separate burial ground for Christians, 20 kilometers away from the village, to avoid potential law and order issues. The deceased’s son, however, said that his father had a right to be buried in the same land as his ancestors, adding that he should not face such discrimination merely because he converted to Christianity. Noting that the deceased had been lying in the morgue since January 7, the Division Bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma did not refer the matter to a larger Bench and instead, issued directions under Article 142. While Justice Nagarathna proposed that the deceased be buried in his family’s private agricultural land, Justice Sharma upheld the Chhattisgarh High Court order, refusing permission to bury the deceased in his village grounds. Rejecting the Chhattisgarh government’s concerns that existing rules usually did not allow such an option, Justice Nagarathna termed the refusal to bury the Christian at the village burial