India: '20 per cent increase in atrocities against Christians'

Amid growing extreme Hindu nationalism in India, dozens of speakers have called for concerted action to uphold the country’s constitution and fundamental rights, at a conference to mark four years of government led by Prime Minister Modi.

Amid growing extreme Hindu nationalism in India, dozens of speakers have called for concerted action to uphold the country’s constitution and fundamental rights, at a conference to mark four years of government led by Prime Minister Modi.

“There is a grave threat to plurality,” Professor Ganesh Narayan Devy, a scholar on India’s religious and linguistic diversity, told the ‘Citizens’ Conclave’ on ‘Building an Inclusive India’ in New Delhi, attended by over 800 delegates from across the country. “We are living at a time when you are questioned about the food you eat, the god you worship and branded as anti-national for expressing a different view [to Hindu nationalism].”

“2017 saw a 20 per cent increase in the number of atrocities against Christians,” said Tehmina Arora, a lawyer and director of rights group ADF India. “When you go to police, they hardly cooperate and often refuse to register complaints. There is a growing culture of impunity. We could file only 25 criminal cases, as against the 240+ incidents reported in the year.”

Children forced out of Christian-run hostel

In May, 74 children had to leave their Christian-run hostel in Rajasthan state, after the high court dismissed a petition challenging the child welfare committee’s seizure of the central office of Emmanuel Mission India.

Dramatic scenes, captured on video, of parents and guardians trying to restrain police from shifting their children to a bus to take them away, were shared widely over social media. In the video, an EMI staff member says, in Hindi, that the children are being taken away against their will and that of their parents.

In the court order, the judge stated that the EMI had ‘[kept] children in hostels, without registration’. But an insider at EMI said that the society had several times applied for registration, only to be rejected, so they had ‘given up’.

India is number 11 on the 2018 Open Doors World Watch List. Open Doors partners are significantly stepping up their support for the church in India.

Please pray:

• For God’s protection for the children and His provision for their futures
• For courage and influence for those defending the rights of India’s Christians and other minorities.
• For Open Doors partners giving advocacy support to Christians in India.