India: Pastor and His Wife Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Alleged Forced Conversion of Hindus

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A pastor and his wife in India’s Madhya Pradesh state have each been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and a $300 fine after being found guilty of forcibly/ fraudulently trying to convert a Hindu couple to Christianity, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. 

Ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party for almost a decade, India ranks 11 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted; prior to the BJP’s ascension to power in 2014, the country ranked 31 on the WWL.

Pastor Ramesh Ahirwar and his wife Sakshi Ahirwar of Viveknagar Bhansa village near Sagar, Madhya Pradesh were arrested in October 2021, MSN reports. The arrest followed an accusation by the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) party that the couple had abducted a woman from a neighboring village in order to convert her and her husband to Christianity by force or fraudulent means.

The couple were convicted under the state’s anti-conversion law by a district court on March 11. “I am shocked at the conviction, the charges against us are baseless and utterly untrue,” Pastor Ahirwar told MSN. “I am not discouraged, because whatever is happening to us is according to the Bible. But, when we look at the children, we fear what will happen to them when we are sent to jail.”

Madhya Pradesh is one of 12 Indian states which have anti-conversion laws that have been abused to persecute Christians and other minority groups. “Christians around the nation of India find themselves increasingly under threat,” the Open Doors international Christian advocacy organization reports in a website statement. “This hostility is often driven by an ongoing belief among some Hindu extremists that Indians ought to be Hindu—and any faith outside of Hinduism is not welcome in India.”

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