Reports of rising Christian persecution in India have reached the country’s Supreme Court, which last week directed eight Indian states to verify the claims of Christian groups that filed a petition for protection.
The petition, which was filed by Archbishop Peter Machad, the National Solidarity Forum and the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), noted approximately 500 reported attacks against Christians in 2021 and about 200 attacks just within the first five months of 2022. The Christians pleaded for both a government investigation and for police protection of churches.
The Indian government dismissed such claims as based on “half-baked and self-serving facts and self-serving articles and reports… based upon mere conjecture,” and speculated on “some hidden oblique agenda” driving the petitioners, according to the Hindustan Times. Before rendering a judgment, the high court therefore ordered the chief secretaries of eight Indian states to compile information on the incidents and send their report to the federal interior ministry within four months.
The petition from the Christians in India comes amid increased attacks against them from far-right Hindu groups as multiple Indian states have passed so-called “anti-conversion” laws. Such laws ostensibly aim to prevent forcible conversion from one religion to another, but critics claim they are being used to violate the freedom of religion guaranteed in the Indian Constitution.
A report published Dec. 13, 2021, by EFI’s religious liberty commission claimed that continuous talk from the government about anti-conversion law has emboldened anti-Christian vigilantes and created “an atmosphere of fear and apprehension” among the Christian community in India.
At 80% of the population, the vast majority of India’s 1.4 billion people are Hindus, and more than 10% are Muslims. There are an estimated 30 million to 70 million Christians in India – about a 5% minority – but the government does not release accurate statistics about its Christian population, according to international humanitarian nonprofit Voice of the Martyrs.
In the prayer guide it releases each year, Voice of the Martyrs labeled India a “hostile” country, where “Hindu-nationalist informants live in nearly every village and report on the activities of Christians, resulting in attacks and arrests.”
According to the persecution watchdog, Christian churches in India are subject to demolition or arson, worship services are disrupted, Bibles are confiscated, and pastors have been beaten, imprisoned or even killed. The clergy who face legal trouble often face accusations of forced Christian conversion that later prove to be false.
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