Kawardha: A Christian family in Chhattisgarh’s Kawardha that runs a Christian school has been forced into hiding after enduring a violent attack by a Hindutva mob on May 18 during a Sunday church service. Videos of the attack circulating online were verified and they show Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) members storming into the Holy Kingdom English Higher Secondary School, assaulting the staff and alleging forced religious conversions – a claim for which the attackers did not provide any evidence. The victims, however, allege that the entire episode is a continuation of years of harassment and extortion, now escalated with police inaction and political complicity. ‘We’ve worshipped here for decades; now we’re criminals?” On May 18, around 11:40 AM, about 80-100 Bajrang Dal and VHP members barged into the school compound, where a Sunday church service was in progress. Shouting “Jai Shri Ram“, the mob allegedly broke into prayer rooms, beat members of the congregation, including women and minors, and “terrorised teenage girls hiding in washrooms”. The Holy Kingdom school’s principal, Pastor Jose Thomas, has served in Kawardha for over 35 years. His son, Joshua Jose Thomas, recounts, “Our family has been running this school with the aim to provide education to all

The Delhi High Court has refused to set aside the dismissal of a Christian officer of the Indian Army who had abstained from attending a pooja held as part of the regimental parade. The court held that commanding officers are to lead by example, placing unit cohesion above individual religious preferences. Samuel Kamalesan was commissioned into the Indian Army on March 11, 2017, in the rank of a lieutenant in the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, which comprises three squadrons of Sikh, Jat, and Rajput personnel. He was made the troop leader of Squadron B, which comprises Sikh personnel. It was his case that his regiment maintained only a mandir and a gurudwara for its religious needs and parades, and not a “sarv dharm sthal‟ (all-religion site), which would serve people of all faiths. He also highlighted that the term “sarv dharm sthal” is not used in the regiment, which otherwise refers to the weekly religious parades as “mandir gurudwara parade”. He also said there was no church on the premises. In its May 30 order, the court also held that keeping religion above a lawful command from a superior was “clearly an act of discipline”. In June 2017, after he respectfully refused the regiment’s commandant’s

Six Christian families from Karingundam, a village located in the Sukma district of Chhattisgarh state, were evicted from their homes on April 12th for refusing to renounce their faith in Christ. Opposing villagers loaded their belongings onto a truck – only to be hauled out of the village and dumped. The desolate families were forced to spend the night in the forest without any shelter. At least 25 individuals were affected by this dire situation. The next day, members of the Central Reserve Police Force attempted to help the believers return to their homes, but other villagers prevented them from entering. Consequently, the Christians had to seek refuge in a local church. On April 14th, police officers again addressed the situation with the opposing villagers, reminding them of the constitutional rights of all citizens and threatening legal action against them if they failed to comply. As a result, the Christian families were finally allowed to return to their homes. Several similar situations have taken place within the Sukma district over recent months. In another incident, ten Christian families, consisting of about 45 people, were reportedly assaulted and forced from their homes in Durandarbha village on April 24th. The hostile community members who

Christians in India’s eastern state of Odisha face a struggle to bury their dead amid widespread persecution across the country, according to a new report. At least eight recorded incidents since 2022 involved the denial of burial, desecration of graves and forced conversions to Hinduism in the state’s Nabarangpur district. The district has low literacy levels and widespread poverty. Tribal Christians are coerced to convert to Hinduism to bury their dead, violating the constitutionally-protected right to freedom of religion, Fr Ajay Kumar Singh, a lawyer and member of the investigative team, told The Tablet. The team, comprising lawyers, activists and researchers from the Odisha Lawyers Forum, visited the district in April. They had visited Gajapati and Balasore districts to document instances of burial denials, forced conversions and institutional apathy, Singh said. He noted that these violations occurred in the home district of Nithyanand Gond, Odisha’s Minister for Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes, and Minorities. The report cited the case of a young Christian, Saravan Gond, whose body was interred in family land after he was denied a public burial. Despite his father approaching the police and local authorities, the next day a 100-strong crowd gathered and forced the family to exhume the body and convert to

An influential Hindu organization in India's conflict-ridden Manipur state has called for an escalation in protests against the state administration, which Christian leaders warn could jeopardize ongoing peace initiatives in the region. The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), the top body of the majority Hindu Meiteis, ended a 48-hour protest on May 24. The protest demanded an apology from the state governor, Ajay Kumar Bhalla, for what they called an “insult to the identity of the state” to appease their rival, the Kuki-Zo tribal people. “The Meiteis are targeting the governor, practically challenging federal rule. They want to restore a popular government under their leadership,” a local Church leader told UCA News on condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety, on May 27. In the latest protest, Meiteis held Bhalla responsible for insulting the state by concealing the state name — Manipur — written on the Manipur State Transport bus that carried media persons to cover a local flower festival — the Shirui Lily festival — in Ukhrul district, a tribal dominated area. They also decided to escalate their protest and called for a "civil disobedience campaign” against federal rule under Bhalla. Security personnel reportedly concealed the state name from the bus

Three independent fact-finding missions conducted in Odisha between March and April 2025 have pointed to an alarming rise in targeted attacks, coercion and violations of constitutional rights against Christians—especially Adivasi and Dalit communities.</p The teams, comprising lawyers, activists and researchers, visited Nabarangpur, Gajapati and Balasore districts and documented repeated instances of burial denials, forced conversions, police brutality and institutional failure, according to the reports sent to Newsreel Asia by Ajaya Kumar Singh, an independent law scholar and researcher who was part of the three missions. In each case, the reports found that Christians were being systematically intimidated, their religious freedoms curbed and their basic rights violated — often with no action from local authorities. Nabarangpur In Nabarangpur, the fact-finding team documented at least eight cases between 2022 and 2025 where Christian families were denied the right to bury their dead. In several incidents, bodies were exhumed, desecrated or forcibly “converted” to Hinduism before burial. In one case, the body of Saravan Gond, a young Christian man, was stolen after burial despite alleged police presence. His family was physically assaulted and driven out, and to date, they do not know what was done with the remains. “The deceased’s mother and minor sister, who tried to intervene, were

Police in Uttar Pradesh in northern India have arrested four Christians after they were accused of violating the state’s stringent anti-conversion law. “Our four faithful were arrested on May 12 after they were accused of attempting to convert gullible indigenous people with job offers and financial aid,” said a Church official providing legal help to the victims. They were arrested and taken to Chandan Chawki police station in Lakhimpur Kheri district in the state, which witnesses high levels of persecution against Christians, according to rights activists. The four were remanded in custody the following day. Efforts to secure their bail were still ongoing, according to the Church official, who did not wish to be named. This was the latest in a series of arrests of Christians for alleged violations of the anti-conversion law, which carries up to 20 years in jail. The arrests came despite the Indian Supreme Court on May 2 agreeing to hear a petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2024. “Even a simple gathering of our people in their homes for prayer has been portrayed as a violation of the anti-conversion law," the Church official said, adding that “our people are dragged

About 100 Christians who gathered for a regular weekly worship at the Full Gospel Church on the outskirts of the central Indian town of Jabalpur last Sunday never imagined they would be accused of illegal religious conversion, a charge punishable by jail terms and fines. The simple prayer meeting ended in chaos after a group of right-wing Hindus stormed the church in Madhya Pradesh state and threatened legal action against the pastor and others leading the service. The intruders also questioned whether those present were really Christians and accused the Protestant minister of staging a mass conversion of people from tribal groups and the Dalit community, a socially disadvantaged group. The hardliners proclaimed themselves as “warriors empowered to protect the Hindu religion” and warned of stern action against Christians if they staged such gatherings in the future. “We lodged a complaint with the local police against these activists,” said Atul Jacob, a local Christian leader. “As the police did not act upon our complaint, we also called on the Superintendent of Police, the top police official in Jabalpur district, seeking action against them, but to no avail”, Jacob told UCA News. The incident was one of many similar cases that occur almost every day in various