The report shows that since Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, the number of violent acts against India’s religious minorities have increased. (Photo: World Watch Monitor) A report by a religious freedom watchdog shows a dramatic increase in the number of attacks on Christians and Muslims in India in the last four years and “the situation … is at a tipping point”. The number of reported incidents in the first three months of 2018 was greater than the total number of attacks in the whole of the year 2014, according to the report “We’re Indians Too” by Open Doors. This year India entered for the first time the top 10 of the same organisation’s World Watch List, an index of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to live as a Christian. The report’s incident analysis shows that since Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, the number of violent acts against Christians, Muslims and tribal Dalits (members of the India’s lowest caste) have increased. Most incidents were reported in the Indian states of Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, followed by Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand. The report identifies four “drivers” of persecution: “Hindutva ideology, Anti-conversion laws, the misuse of PESA law [The Panchayatiraj Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, 1996]

Days after Hindu extremists in northern India marched in protest to file a false claim against a Christian mother, her government employer transferred her to a district more than 100 miles away, sources said. Members of a Hindu-awakening movement in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh state on Wednesday (Feb. 13) staged a protest against conversions to Christianity that began at the headquarters of the Hindu Sanghatan, a coalition of Hindu extremist groups, and continued as they shouted angry slogans against Christians. Led by their district secretary, Sandeep Sachdeva, they marched to the Baddi police station and filed a complaint against Archana Jaiswal, a state education board employee and former Hindu who put her faith in Christ. The complaint alleges that Jaiswal offered money for Hindus to convert. In the complaint, boutique owner Sonu Devi claims that Jaiswal offered her 300,000 rupees (US$4,200) to convert to Christianity and pressured her to divorce her husband. Devi called for police to take action against Jaiswal, claiming she posed a threat to Hindu families. “I never converted anyone – who am I to tell anyone to convert?” Jaiswal told Morning Star News. “I am an ordinary person, I don’t preach or teach any religious teachings. I’m not a religious person.

The faithful were interrogated and later released. Far-right activists accused them of illegal gathering. Sajan K George: "In 2018 so many pastors were harassed. 2019 does not bode well ".  Police in Uttar Pradesh arrested and then released four Christians on charges of forced conversions. This was announced by Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), who denounced "the detention of Christians in Kasimaba, in the district of Gazipur". The incident occurred in recent days, but it was only reported today. The detainees are Sonu Kumar, Rakesh Maurya, Satnam and Shribaghwan aka Munna. The Christian leader said that the men were arrested on the false charge of conducting "forced conversions" in the village and organizing prayer meetings without permission. "They were placed in custody - he reports - while some rightwing activists accused them before the police of carrying out missionary activities". The police interrogated the Christians, then released them the same evening. The pastor who organized the gathering could not even show authorization to the agents. Sajan K George emphasizes that "Christians enjoy the constitutional right of worship and prayer. They were not doing anything illegal, nor did they disturb public order. " The president of the GCIC complains

A Catholic priest has been arrested on Jan. 15 on charges over the suicide of a teenage girl in Madhya Pradesh. Fr Prakash Damor of Jhabua Diocese was arrested more than a week after the schoolgirl was found hanging at her village home in Ranapur in MP, leaving a suicide note saying the 33-year-old priest forced her to change religion and marry him. Fr Rocky Shah, Diocesan spokesman told ucanews.com that the church officials believe the priest was framed and arrested for no fault of his own. "He will be exonerated in a court of law," he said. The non-Chrisitan teenage girl belongs to indigenous Damor community. The arrested priest also belongs to the same community. He came to the parish as its assistant vicar a year ago. The girl was a student in the 11th grade at a Catholic school in Jhabua district. She joined the school last year after completing her 10th grade at another church-run school in Ranapur parish, which covers her village. Police officer Kailash Chouhan said that the priest has been charged with the abetment of suicide and also under the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Fr Julian Toppo, another diocesan priest, said that the allegations contradicted the Damor community's culture. "As

At least 98 Christians belonging to 23 tribal families have been "reconverted" to Hinduism in Tripura on Jan. 20, a far-right Hindu group claimed. Uttam Dey, president of the Hindu Jagran Manch, said that the people, mostly tea garden workers hailing from Bihar and Jharkhand, had been converted to Christianity in 2010. "It is as if the lost family members had returned home," Dey added, according to Hindustan Times. The session of "ghar wapsi" that indicates the "return home" to Hinduism happened in the district of Kailashahar, about 180 km from the capital Agartala. The mass conversion ceremony was sponsored by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). Praising the ceremony in front of the press, Dey said, "They were Hindus, but were lured into Christianity after the Sonamukhi tea garden in Unakoti district, where they were working, was closed in 2010." One of the former Christians, Birsa Munda, said: "We are very poor people. Christians converted us. They often treat us badly. We have freely decided to reconvert ourselves to Hinduism ". However, experts claim that most of the conversions to Christianity occur among tribal groups that follow animist religions, not Hindus. Therefore ghar wapsi would not be justified. The alleged confirmations of the nationalist and of the former

A Christian in Chhattisgarh state, India who endured opposition for three years was killed on Feb. 12, a day after a convert who faced persecution in neighboring Odisha state was slain. In each case, villagers angry at the Christians for converting were said to have influenced Maoist guerrillas to kill the Christians. The Maoists, known as Naxalites, may have had other reasons for killing the two men, though they also opposed their new faith, sources said. In Kohkameta village, Chhattisgarh, about 30 Naxalites began by looting the shop of Munglu Ram Nureti and his wife Minka, said area church pastor Prem Sagar, who learned details from Nureti’s wife. The intruders then ordered Minka to call her husband, a father of five who had left the animist practices of his tribal fellows three years ago to follow Christ. The rebels also asked after Pastor Sagar, who had planned to be there but had stayed home due to leg pain. The Naxalites found Nureti, who had been eating dinner, tied his hands and walked him out of the house, according to police. Nureti repeatedly asked the reason for targeting him without receiving an answer. His 18-year-old daughter, Divya Nureti, tried to rescue him, but one of the

 Violent attacks including public lynchings against Christians in India are reportedly becoming increasingly common, with international NGOs and the country’s Catholic bishops raising their voices in protest against mob violence. “The common man of the country is feeling insecurity in his own country due to the increasing cases of mob lynching,” Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal wrote Feb. 27. “In the past, the Supreme Court has taken cognizance of this problem. It is felt that

In the last one year, 325 incidents of hate crimes, violence, intimidation and harassment against Christians in India have been recorded, the Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) reported. The report showed that attempts at religious polarization are at an all-time high as general elections due in April 2019. Hate speeches have acted as a catalyst in the dividing of people along religious, ethnic and even linguistic lines. In the subcontinent, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Tamil Nadu (TN) have witnessed a sudden spurt of violence against Christians. Over 40 percent of the documented incidents (132) took place in UP making it the state where Christians were targeted the most. UP witnessed 94 incidents in total against Christians, between the months of September and December 2018 alone. In comparison, the number of incidents against Christians recorded in the state in 2017 were only 50 for the entire year. This increase can be attributed to the targeted campaign against Christians and Congregations in Eastern UP, particularly the district of Jaunpur which by itself reported 45 incidents against the community. TN registered 40 incidents while Telangana stood third with 24. Bihar and Jharkhand recorded 17 and 16 incidents respectively and Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh

Catholics of Delhi Archdiocese pray during the Feast of Christ the King in New Delhi on Nov. 24, 2018. Catholics in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are concerned that national election voting will fall on Maundy Thursday. (Photo by Bijay Kumar Minj/ucanews.com) Catholic bishops have urged authorities to change the April 18 date for parliamentary elections in India’s Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states as Maundy Thursday falls on that day. The federal Election Commission has announced a seven-phase schedule for national elections running from April 11 to May 19. While all 39 parliamentary constituencies of Tamil Nadu are scheduled to go to the polls on April 18, voting in Karnataka is set for April 18 and 23. The poll date falls in Holy Week and is one of the holiest and important days for Catholics as well as the Christian community, Archbishop Antony Pappusamy of Madurai, president of Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council, told ucanews.com. The archbishop on March 11 wrote to Tamil Nadu’s chief electoral officer to ask for a change of date to free up Catholics to observe the day appropriately. Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore has written to the Election Commission to ask it to move the election to any date after Easter Week. During long

Three pastors in western India have been criminally charged in retaliation for refuting a false account of a Hindu extremist attack on six Christians that left a teenage girl unconscious, sources said. Three of the six Christians beaten in Maharashtra state this month were also charged in retaliation for reporting the assault that left them with injuries requiring hospital treatment, said pastor Pandharinath Bhagya Gowri, one of the accused church leaders. Police who took exception to Pastor Gowri and two other pastors trying to correct a false report about the beating later charged them with the same accusations filed against the assailants, such as house trespass with intent to assault, even though the church leaders were not even present during the attack, he said. Hard-line Hindus in Bandhan village, Palghar District in February had cut the Christians’ water supply and warned them that worse would happen if they did not renounce their faith, Pastor Gowri told Morning Star News. On March 1 a mob of Hindu extremists showed up in the neighborhood of three Christian families, burst into their homes and started beating and kicking them, he said. “At least six Christians including women and children got injured in the attack,” Gowri told Morning