Christian workers in India fear proposed legislation will accelerate a government crackdown on foreign-funded mission groups, especially those supporting Dalits, viewed as “outcasts” in the country’s ancient Hindu social hierarchy.
A new anti-conversion law in India’s Chhattisgarh state is drawing sharp criticism from Christian leaders and human rights advocates, who warn it could intensify persecution against religious minorities.
Two church leaders are recovering after they were reportedly nearly killed by Hindus while evangelizing in southwest India’s Karnataka state, underscoring growing hostility toward Christians in the world’s largest Hindu nation.
A group of radical Hindu nationalists violently attacked a small Christian congregation in Maharashtra, India, on February 10, leaving a pastor seriously injured and forcing believers to flee their village.
A pastor was recovering Wednesday after being beaten unconscious when a mob of Hindu nationalists attacked a house church gathering in central India, assaulting worshippers that included women and children, Christians familiar with the case said.
Christians in India voiced concern after lawmakers in the northern state of Bihar suggested introducing an anti-conversion law similar to legislation adopted in several other states.
An injured Christian pastor in eastern India says recalling Bible verses gave him strength to survive hours of brutal abuse by a Hindu mob that accused him of converting Hindus to Christianity.
Eight police officers in northern India’s Jammu and Kashmir region have been suspended “for their failure” to stop an attack on Christian missionaries by Hindu nationalists last week, according to Christian human-rights investigators.
Christians in more than 20 villages in central India were without the possibility to bury their loved ones in a dignified way on Thursday after Hindu nationalists reportedly stripped them of that right as part of a crackdown on spreading Christianity.
A Christian pastor has become the first person to be acquitted under the “anti-conversion” law of India’s state of Uttarakhand after a four-year legal battle, Christian sources confirmed Thursday.
Civil society groups in Rajasthan are raising alarm over a sharp rise in attacks on Christians just weeks after the state assembly passed one of India’s harshest anti-conversion bills.
Christians expressed concern Tuesday after Uttarakhand approved India’s most severe anti-conversion legislation, prescribing life imprisonment and steep fines for what the Hindu nationalist-ruled state calls “forced conversions.”
A Christian ceremony to bless farm crops in India’s eastern Odisha state turned into “a brutal assault,” leaving at least 30 Christians injured, 10 of whom were hospitalized with critical wounds, Christians said Thursday.
More than 30 Christians were injured in a brutal mob attack during a peaceful prayer gathering in Odisha’s Malkangiri district, with no arrests made nearly two weeks after the incident, according to multiple rights groups and local sources.
More than a month after coordinated attacks on Easter Sunday by Hindu nationalist groups, several Christian churches in Gujarat remain closed, exposing a rising tide of religious persecution even as India experiences significant Christian revival over the past two decades.
Pastor Praveen Pagadala, one of India’s most well-known Christian evangelists, has been found dead under alleged suspicious circumstances in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, Worthy News learned Wednesday. He was 46.
Christians have appealed for prayers after the chief minister of India’s central state of Madhya Pradesh announced plans to impose the death penalty on those convicted “of forced or fraudulent religious conversions.”
Hindu nationalist mobs attacked three churches in Southern India Sunday night, leaving the local Christian communities distraught, a leading Christian advocate group reported.
Authorities in northeast India are under pressure after at least tens of thousands of Christians protested against the expected implementation of an “anti-conversion” law that they say unfairly targets the Christian minority.
In 2024, Christians in India experienced significant levels of violence and discrimination, with 640 reported cases, a surge in cases since 2014, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s Religious Liberty Commission (EFIRLC).