Vikrant Maheshwar, a Christian Dalit in his late 30s, worked for the Andhra Pradesh government in Southern India for 11 years. His salary from the state’s agriculture department not only allowed him to comfortably provide for his wife and children but also quietly supported his evangelism work. Maheshwar became a Christian in primary school after his family heard the gospel from neighbors in Andhra Pradesh. The message of Jesus’ love for everyone resonated with him and his family, as they had long faced discrimination for belonging to the lowest caste in Hinduism. Christianity Today is not using Maheshwar’s real name, as Christian Dalits can face attacks from Hindu nationalist groups for speaking out. Sunday school and daily Bible reading became part of his upbringing. By the time he was about 20, he felt a call to serve the Lord. He began preaching as an evangelist in churches across the region on Sundays while working for the government on weekdays. But last November, Maheshwar’s life came to a halt when a fundamentalist Hindu group complained to his employer that he was a preacher and thus illegally holding a Scheduled Caste (SC) status. The status offers Dalit citizens—except for those who follow Christianity or Islam—education

Indian Christians have sought President Droupadi Murmu’s intervention to end the rising religious persecution against them by hardline Hindu groups in many parts of the country. Christians of different denominations, united under the banner of the national front Rashtriya Christian Morcha, handed a memorandum addressed to Murmu to the district collector of Jabalpur in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on June 9. Atul Joseph, who led the 50-member delegation, said the top district official assured them that he would forward their petition to the president for her consideration. “We were forced to write to the honorable president as Christians continue to face violent attacks and false cases of conversion in different parts of the country daily,” Joseph told UCA News on June 10. The four-page memorandum stated that Christians, who comprise 2.3 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people, “always upheld the constitutional values” and “secular and democratic principles” of the country. “Despite this… right-wing Hindu groups constantly targeted us to the extent that in many states, even holding a routine prayer meeting has become troublesome for us,” it said. The memorandum further highlighted the plight of Christians of Dalit (former untouchables) and indigenous origins, saying, “they have been discriminated against and forced to bear

Bhubaneswar, Odisha, June 10, 2025: Christians in nearly all 30 districts of Odisha staged peaceful protests on June 9, 2025, calling upon the central government to safeguard their religious freedom, end the ongoing persecution of their community, and address systemic discrimination faced by them in areas such as education and employment. Coordinated by the National Christian Front (NCF), the demonstrations culminated in the submission of memoranda to collectors in all districts of the state. The memoranda listed the various issues faced by Christians in Odisha. In the state capital, Bhubaneswar, a delegation comprising Bishop Dr. Pallab Lima, head of the United Believers Council Network India (UBCNI) in Odisha; Jugal Ranjit, convener of the United Minority Forum–Odisha; and Amiya Pandav, a well-known writer-turned-politician, submitted a detailed memorandum to Odisha Governor Hari Babu Kambapati, intended for delivery to the President of India. All three are members of the Central Committee of the NCF. Speaking to Catholic Connect, Bishop Lima characterised the protests in Bhubaneswar as peaceful and highlighted the strong cooperation from local authorities and law enforcement officials. "The police were very cooperative this time. All the administration in Odisha, including the SPs, was quite supportive. They even assured us that if we noticed

The mood inside Nirjuli Town Baptist Church one evening in late March was somber. Around 170 people, mostly young congregants from local churches, had gathered to rally against the revival of a long-dormant law that could suppress the growth of the Christian community in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. “I have to go to any extent to defend my father’s faith,” said James Techi Tara, general secretary of the Arunachal Christian Forum, an organization at the forefront of the agitation against the law’s enforcement. He urged the crowd to rally against the legislation. On the stage, a projector displayed a message from the Bible’s book of Matthew: “But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” The state’s Freedom of Religion Act bans religious conversion through “force, inducement or fraudulent means.” There was severe public backlash when it was passed in 1978, which resulted in the law being all but ignored since then. But in 2022, Tambo Tamin, a lawyer affiliated at the time with the Indigenous Faith and Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh, filed a petition to revive the law — a move that has reanimated decades-old debates about faith, religious identity and indigeneity in Arunachal Pradesh,

The Rashtriya Christian Morcha, or the National Christian Front (NCF), organized nationwide protests that will occur on June 9 throughout India in response to the ongoing and escalating violence against Christians. The NCF, which collaborates with BAMCEF (All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation) and Bharat Mukti Morcha for the welfare of Christians, sent a letter to Christian leaders nationwide, urging them to stand united against violence and participate in the rallies. Apart from the protests, the NCF aims to build solidarity between Christian communities and indigenous peoples of India, like the Schedule Castes (SC), Schedule Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Castes (OBC), all of which are marginalized populations in India. The National Backward Class Front, National Tribal Unity Council, and National Muslim Front also support the NCF’s efforts to stand for minority religions in Hindu-majority India. With the tagline of “stand up for justice” and “stand together in faith,” the goal of the protest rally is to get the federal government — the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — to see that Christians are united against the increasing violence and atrocities being perpetrated against them. “Our Christian brothers and sisters are enduring brutal attacks and growing intolerance from anti-social elements,” a statement issued

MUMBAI, India – In India, two anti-Christian incidents in the state of Odisha have disturbed the peace-loving Christian community, which has already been traumatized by harassment by right-wing extremists. On Sunday, Sister Rachana Nayak was travelling with four women candidates and two male youths from Odisha when she was intercepted by Bajrang Dal activists on a train. The Christians were asked to disembark at Khurda, near Bhubaneswar, amid allegations of “conversion activities.” The suspected Bajrang Dal activists forced them off the train and they were detained for 18 hours at a police station in Odisha on fabricated charges of trafficking in women and illegal conversions. Nayak was released after she proved that her six companions were all Christians by birth and were travelling for enrolment in training courses. “They had boarded the Rajya Rani Express from Berhampur on Saturday evening. One of the young men happened to be the nun’s younger brother,” Sister Sujata Jena, an advocate on the team of Women Lawyers who rescued them, told Crux. “They were headed for Jharsuguda, from where they planned to travel to Chhattisgarh where the girls would have received training in various skills and in spoken English,” she said. Jena said the four young women had been selected

Raipur: The Chhattisgarh High Court dismissed a writ petition filed by 20 petitioners, primarily from the Tribal Christian community, who alleged systematic communal violence, displacement, and destruction of property against them in villages across Sukma district. The petitioners sought setting up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the cases, a commission of inquiry and compensation. A division bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Bibhu Datta Guru ruled that the mentioned reliefs sought under the Act, 1952, could not be directed in a petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The petitioners claimed they were subjected to targeted communal violence, including assaults, displacement, destruction of homes and property, sacrilege of religious materials, and threats to their life and liberty for practising Christianity. They alleged that despite repeated oral and written complaints, police and administrative authorities failed to register FIRs, provide protection, conduct fair investigations, or rehabilitate victims. They said that some officials even refused to acknowledge their complaints or rebuked the petitioners for their faith. Sanbha Rumnong and Samuel David, counsels for the petitioners, presented the case. R S Marhas, additional advocate general, appearing for the state, submitted that an FIR was already registered for one of the

ON MARCH 8, THE MADHYA PRADESH CHIEF MINISTER, at an event organised to mark International Women’s Day, announced that the Government of Madhya Pradesh would make a provision for death penalty to those involved in the religious conversions of women, along the lines of punishment for rape of minor girls. Religious conversion has been a matter of debate in India for a long time. Many states in India already have legislations to regulate religious conversions in their states. Madhya Pradesh is one of the states with existing laws criminalising the forceful religious conversion of girls in the state. The new proposal, however, escalates the punishment to the most extreme form, i.e., capital punishment for forced conversion, particularly of women and girls. The government proposed an amendment to The Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021 (‘MPFRA’), to include provisions prescribing the death penalty. Constitutionality of anti-conversion laws remains in limbo The Madhya Pradesh government’s move to introduce the death penalty for forceful conversion violates the fundamental right to freedom of religion guaranteed by the Constitution under Article 25. Article 25 not only protects an individual’s beliefs but also includes acts of religious expression and propagation of religion to expand religious outreach. As per the

Volunteer work by local Christians for its construction. Gudrikia (AsiaNews) - For Christians in Kandhamal, still scarred by the pogroms in Orissa in 2008, it represents a ‘sign of hope’, as well as a reminder of the dramatic violence suffered at the hands of Hindu fundamentalists. It is the new church strongly desired by the community in the eastern Indian state, built on the site where one of the many victims of the massacres was burned alive by the crowd: Mathew Nayak, a young teacher and Anglican pastor of the Church of North India (CNI), whose sacrifice is still alive. ‘It gives me great courage and hope that God has never abandoned us. A firm faith in Jesus has been rebuilt in the lives of hundreds of people,’ Benansio Pradhan (Bhagaban) tells AsiaNews. He also serves as itinerant catechist for the parish of Padang, which is responsible for the Gudrikia substation. ‘We have waited 17 years to get closer to our church, where our dear Christian teacher was brutally burned alive during the anti-Christian violence between 2007 and 2008,’ Pradhan continues. Mathew Nayak, a government teacher from Udayagiri belonging to the CNI, is one of hundreds of victims belonging to religious minorities killed at

Refusing burial space to Christians has become a new trend in villages in central and eastern India to pressure Christians into abandoning their faith and to discourage others from associating with missionaries, say Christian leaders. “Christians, irrespective of any denomination, are aware of repeated cases of denial of burial space to tribal Christians in their own villages. It has become a trend now and a serious concern,” Archbishop Victor Thakur of Raipur told UCA News on May 22. The latest reported case was that of Ankalu Ram Potai, who died on May 13 in the village of Havechur, in Chhattisgarh state’s Kanker district. Reports said villagers opposed his burial in the local graveyard because he was a Christian. Potai, who was 55 years old, had converted to Christianity a few decades ago, which upset the Hindu villagers. They kept watch outside the dead man’s home throughout the night on May 13 to prevent his relatives from burying him in the darkness, local media reported. In the last two years, Chhattisgarh and Odisha states alone have reported at least 25 cases of Hindu villagers refusing to bury Christians because of their faith, Christian leaders say. According to Christian activist Arun Pannalal, Chhattisgarh has reported at least