India: Hindu nationalists close churches, jail pastors in Uttar Pradesh

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Pastors have been jailed, and churches have been closed in India’s Uttar Pradesh state by Hindu nationalists intent on stifling Christianity and the spreading of the Gospel in their region, Morning Star News reports.

In a statement to Morning Star News, attorney, and rights activist Dinanath Jaiswar said churches in the Ghazipur District of Uttar Pradesh were attacked by Hindu extremists every Sunday in April this year. Moreover, pastors were falsely accused of forcibly converting Hindus and were jailed on trumped-up charges. “Local right-wing groups identified each church in the district and prepared a list,” Jaiswar said. “According to the list, they attacked churches and, levying false allegations of forced conversion, sent the pastors to jail. In this way, they have been successful in shutting down the churches in the district,” he added.

Morning Star News separately reported that the number of incidents in which Uttar Pradesh Christians were persecuted rose sharply after the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, originated as Ordinance 2020 that came into effect on Nov. 27, 2020.

Jaiswar himself recorded 115 Christian persecution incidents in Uttar Pradesh this year alone, MSN reports.

“The hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, against non-Hindus, has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014,” MSN quoted religious rights activists as reporting.

Ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party since 2014, India ranks 11th on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2023 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

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