ICC Perspectives: Indian Christians Continue Appealing to the Government for Protection

The trend of a weaponized government and citizen mob violence against India’s Christian minority has only grown worse in recent months, and believers continue to live in fear that they will be the next victims.

Last week, multiple house church prayer meetings were cut short by police raids, resulting in several arrests. The accusations were predictable — the arrested parties were “forcing” the conversions of Hindu citizens, although no evidence exists to support the arrests.

In Northern India, a small group of believers in a rural area, the Meitei, are facing intense discrimination to the point that they are being threatened with mass execution. During the last several months, hundreds of their churches have been burned, and many families have lost their homes. Their community demands the immediate halt of their practice of Christianity, or these consequences will only get more extreme.

In both cases, appeals are being made to the government on behalf of the persecuted, though it is unknown if they will result in any meaningful change or protection. On June 26, a memorandum went to the Indian president demanding intervention in the case of the Meitei believers, asking for the government to stop the mass displacement taking place. On June 24 in Chhattisgarh, Christians took to the streets in protest of the continued discriminatory arrests being made on false pretenses. They hoped to bring attention to these arrests and the mob violence against Christians that the government often ignores.

So far, it appears that no one involved in these protests has faced immediate consequences, but it also appears that no change will result from them. The Indian government has a long history of discriminatory behavior toward religious minorities. There is hope that appeals and protests like these might continue to increase in frequency, eventually resulting in small changes, but that remains to be seen.

This article is originally published on https://www.persecution.org/2024/06/28/indian-christians-continue-appealing-to-the-government-for-protection/