By Abdul Masih —
India has experienced a 500% of persecution of Christians since 2014, according to the United Christian Forum.
“We wish that the atrocities against Christians would stop and that India would once again be known for our communal harmony as in the past,” Minakshi Singh, an organizer of the National Christian Convention that hopes to capture the attention of India’s parliament.
Five states account for more than three-quarters of all documented cases over the past decade. Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, leads with 1,317 recorded incidents, followed by Chhattisgarh with 926, Tamil Nadu with 322, Karnataka with 321 and Madhya Pradesh with 319 cases.
India’s persecution of all religious minorities has spiked due to new anti-conversion laws, which resemble Islam’s anti-conversion laws. These laws were ushered in originally in the 1960s in a pushback of Indian national identity but surged since 2014 when nationalist Narendra Modi became prime minister.
Religious minorities may report crimes to police, but typically they get sand-bagged by Hindu cops. Community organizations reported that police filed First Information Reports (FIRs) in only 39 of the 579 incidents documented this year through September.
“The people who persecuted, the people responsible for the violence, have not been punished. Even those who are responsible for killing Graham Staines have been released. The people who persecuted the Christians in 2007 and 2008 are now in power,” said John Dayal, spokesman of the All-India Catholic Union.
In September 2022, the Chief Justice of India demanded that the attorney general provide a list of “forced” conversions, since these are alleged to be reason Christians are beaten. “The government has not been able to submit such a list because there is no such list,” said A.C. Michael, convenor of the United Christian Forum and former member of the Delhi Minorities Commission.
Just weeks ago, India’s Supreme Court of India upheld the dismissal of Lt. Samuel Kamalesan from military service for professing his Christian faith.
On Jan. 23, 1999, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young son were burned and killed by Hindu nationalists.
In 1998, 36 churches were destroyed in the Dang.
In 2007-’08 violence in Kandhamal, Odisha, brought the death dozens of Christians and displacement of thousands.
“Justice has eluded the Christian community for 75 years of India’s independence, now 77 years,” Dayal said. “We have to pray and work for the Christian heart and mind to exorcise, like the devil, the fear in their hearts, so that they’re brave to speak their minds, to profess their faith, to protest, to ask, to write.”
One Christian, jailed for evangelizing, continued sharing the Gospel in jail; the bad situation became a good one, an opportunity. “It was an occasion for me to share about Jesus to the jail inmates,” the person said.
The National Christian Convention formalized their concerns in a document titled “The Delhi Declaration 2025” to be submitted to India’s president, prime minister, union home minister, minister for Minority Affairs and chief justice.
The declaration also calls for legislation to end discrimination against Dalit Christians and protections for tribal Christians facing threats of delisting from Scheduled Tribe status.
The event marked the second major Christian convention in recent years. In February 2023, an estimated 20,000 Christians gathered for a similar event, the first such large-scale assembly in nearly two decades.
Christians constitute approximately 2.3% of India’s 1.4 billion population.
India’s treatment of its Christian minority has drawn international attention in recent years. The country ranks 11th on Open Doors’ World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution, a dramatic rise from 31st place in 2013.
Sources: Christian Daily International news, others.
