Image from Danish European Mission's work for lepers in India
Several Indian groups and Christian news agencies have reported over 30 incidents per month since the beginning of the year, and Tomson Thomas, coordinator of Persecution Relief India, says the situation is getting worse in states ruled by the BJP, the all-India Hindu nationalist ruling party, according to World Watch Monitor.
This trend contrasts with what Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the BJP himself has said that his government will "ensure the right to keep or join a religion of choice," and that the government "cannot accept violence against any religion on any pretext."
Between July 17-22, three major attacks against Christians were reported. The first took place on July 17 when a large gathering of Hindu fundamentalists attacked a college student Umesh Patel, his father Sudhama Patel and their friend Kiran Vishwakarma at Kamarud village in Damtari district in the BJP-controlled state of Chhattisgarh. The three were brutally attacked because of their professed Christian faith and were hospitalized. The attackers also looted the Patel family's house.
Six months earlier, Umesh had been arrested and imprisoned for distributing Bibles. This in itself is not illegal, but if the court finds evidence of distributing Bibles with the intent to convert non-Christians to Christianity, you risk imprisonment under the state's anti-conversion laws.
The second incident, on July 22, was far more serious, as a 14-year-old Christian girl, Sangeeta Siri, was raped and murdered, according to World Watch Monitor. Her body was found in a forest near Jattarbeda village in Kondagaon district, also in Chhattisgarh state. The motive for the killing is likely to be that the family is Christian. The parents converted from Hinduism 18 years ago and have since lived under pressure from local Hindu leaders to return to Hinduism.
The third incident took place in the neighboring state of Madhya Pradesh, also ruled by the BJP. Here, a priest and a member of his congregation were abducted, tortured and arrested by police and the court denied them bail. The priest's name is Rampal Kori (38) and the church member is Nand Lal (49). They were dragged out of a prayer meeting on the evening of July 21 in an area of Rewa district. They were allegedly tied to a tree by their abductors, who beat them with sticks, kicked them and punched them, accusing them of converting Hindus to Christianity. Police arrived the next morning, but instead of helping them, they arrested them and put them in jail on charges of hurting Hindu religious sentiments and violating Madhya Pradesh's anti-conversion law. Initially denied bail, they were finally granted bail on July 27.
Tomson Thomas believes that "the state apparatus is being used to persecute Christians." - "First the fundamentalists beat up the Christians, and then they use the police to torment them even more. It's becoming a daily occurrence," says Thomas. On July 31, another priest was attacked. It happened during a Sunday service in Panipat, in the northern state of Haryana near Delhi. Haryana is also ruled by the BJP.
So far, Danish European Mission's projects in India have not been directly affected by this development, but one of our partner churches has experienced growing resistance, also from the authorities, for example in connection with the celebration of a church anniversary, where the church almost had to cancel a major event at a local stadium. The event went ahead, but the authorities said the church should not expect to be able to do anything similar in the future.
