India: Christian Watchdog Group Reports Surge in Violence Against Believers

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A watchdog group which monitors persecution against Christians in India has reported a surge in violent incidents against believers there, Christian Today India (CTI) reports.

In a new report the United Christian Forum (UCF) said there had been an average of three incidents of persecution against believers in India per day in the last week of 2023, CTI reports. In Andhra Pradesh, for example, a mob of Hindu nationalists attacked congregants during a church service. In other examples, a pastor was physically assaulted in Karnataka, while three Christians were arrested in Uttar Pradesh on Christmas Day under the Freedom of Religion Act.

There had already been an average of two incidents per day in the run-up to Christmas last year, totalling a massive 720 incidents throughout 2023, CTI reports.

“India is a diverse, democratic country with religious equality enshrined in law – but in 2023, in some states, it’s a scary place to be a Christian,” the Open Doors international Christian advocacy group explains in a current website report.

“In recent years there has been a big increase in Hindutva, an ideology that believes only Hindus are true Indians, and that Christians, Muslims and other religious minorities have ‘foreign’ roots and must be expelled,” Open Doors reports.“Increasing numbers of states are implementing anti-conversion laws, supposedly to stop Hindus being forcibly converted to other religions, but in reality they are often used as an excuse to harass and intimidate Christians who are just doing things like distributing aid or having a private church meeting,” Open Doors said.

Ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, 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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