At a time when the political and judicial discourse on forcible conversions is moving with animated political fervor in various States around the country, Chhattisgarh is witnessing a somewhat perplexing political phenomenon. Nearly 18 villages in Chhattisgarh have faced attacks after fringe Right Wing forces attacked and drove them out of their homes, villages, and the fields they cultivate. The[Read More…]

A Brief Report on the violence against the Church‐going Adivasi Community of Narayanpur and Kondagaon in Bastar, Chhattisgarh Summary A 6‐member team of CBA visited the church‐going community2 of Narayanpur and Kondagaon on 24.12.2022, who had been driven out of their traditional villages and had taken shelter in the Indoor Stadium at Narayanpur following large scale violence against the community[Read More…]

Like many other nations globally, India has been navigating through an economic crisis while battling an onslaught of Covid-19 and its variants. However, one may find it hard to pin down a leadership anywhere bent upon augmenting that misery for its own people through arbitrary and quirky actions. That is probably what the Modi administration has done by canceling about[Read More…]

‘The Quint’ (3 January 2022) has an article ‘Events on Christ will end with “Jai Sri Ram”: Behind Church Attacks in Haryana’. The article speaks about the slew of anti- Christian attacks in Haryana during the Christmas Season. It details a Christmas Celebration of some followers of Jesus in Kurukshetra which was disrupted by the goons of the local Bajrang[Read More…]

It was the rarest of rare ‘Christmas gift’ that the Christians in India never bargained for. Several Churches and their institutions were vandalized across the country, especially in BJP-ruled States, reportedly by the Hindutva forces during the Christmas week. The hooligans went around wreaking havoc, damaging churches, razing statues, disrupting Christmas celebrations and thrashing Christians. They ran amok with a[Read More…]

It has been happening with frightening regularity all over India and particularly, in states run by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP): the bashing of Christians! It is a well-orchestrated campaign to denigrate and demonise the Christians. Their design is devious: a method in their ‘madness’! The divisive agenda is clearly to polarise sections of the majority community against the Christians.[Read More…]

As sectarian nationalism is becoming more assertive and strong, the religious minorities are being subjected to intimidation and violence on regular basis. As such there is an increase the frequency of this phenomenon during last decade in an alarming way. The anti-Muslim violence is noticed and partly reported but the anti-Christian violence, for various reasons is not brought to fore[Read More…]

Sanjay Macgee a soldier fighting for the Persecuted guided Nirmal E. Browne and his wife, an old retired couple, to Persecution Relief, regarding the persecution they are facing from the neighbourhood where they are living in an apartment in the city of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. As it is now custom in India, they cannot live in peace because of[Read More…]

Jetel living in a village at Jagdalpur district of Chattisgarh state, has been incriminated for his faith in Jesus Christ. He had been receiving many warnings and threatening to recant his faith, and adopt his older ways when he was a Hindu. A mob of around 25-30 people went to his home, verbally abused and threatened him to forsake Christ.[Read More…]

Persecution Relief registered yet another attack to christian worship meetings that happened on October 11 at Babupur Village in Sabour C.D. Block, Bhagalpur district of Bihar. “Around 10 AM we were going to start our Sunday Worship at a leased hut in Babupur, Bhagalpur district of Bihar. Soon enough, few fanatics barged in shouting “you can’t conduct the meeting!” They[Read More…]

On October 7, a group of religious fanatics including members of the same village, attacked more than 7 Christian homes in a village Hirma under Jharsuguda district in Odisha State of India. Christian families were dragged out of their houses and were beaten up by these fanatics, without even sparing the Women and Children. They want to force more than[Read More…]

Persecution Relief has recorded more than 90 cases of Hate Crimes against Christians in Uttar Pradesh alone, since January to September 2020. It is shockingly factual that false conversion charges are so easy to be made against innocent Christians. One such case of False Complaint of Conversion by force was registered against Pastor Moti Lal in a village at District[Read More…]

Mr. Satyapal Singh, the BJP MP, while speaking in Lok Sabha on amendments to FCRA went on to support the forthcoming restrictions to the foreign contributions. While making his arguments, to buttress his point, he put forward the case of Pastor Graham Stewart Stains. In the process he poured venom on the late Pastor by saying that the Pastor had[Read More…]

Around 30 Christian families living in Omardho, a village in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, are being hounded by a large group of religious extremists. This action is being carried out in an attempt to force Christians to recant their faith. “On the 20th of September 2020 at around 2 pm, a few policemen along with the fanatics came[Read More…]

In a brutal attack, a pastor and his family were hunted down with swords and butcher’s knives by a gang of religious goons. This incident took place on the 17th of September 2020 in TaranTaran, a district in the Indian state of Punjab. “We were on our way back from a prayer meeting at around 10 pm, late in the[Read More…]

Loud screams woke up a Pastor and his family from a deep sleep at the dead of night on the 9th of September 2020. Religious fanatics had set his car and the church on fire in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. “At approximately 12:45 am, my father and sister ran outside after hearing the locals yelling and shouting outside[Read More…]

A Christian family was chased away after their home was demolished by local religious fanatics in Chhattisgarh. The fanatics made this move although the family holds all legal documents of ownership of the said property. “*Bhushan, *Bani, and their three children used to live in a 7×9 sq. ft room which belonged to *Bhushan’s parents. When the family accepted Christianity[Read More…]

‘We will shoot you’, ‘Stop religious conversion’ & ‘This is a Hindu Rashtra’. These were the slogans yelled out by a mob of religious fanatics, who stood outside a Church in Rajasthan, India. This incident took place on the 11th of September 2020 at roughly 5:30 pm. “Around 50 men stood outside our gate, creating a huge commotion and threatening[Read More…]

On the 6th of September 2020, a news channel by the name of Pahad TV made a short video about how Christian missionaries from the south have ‘deviously’ come to the north and are ‘in the business’ of converting people there. A group of fanatics, led by a man identified as Gyan Singh Rana is seen threatening a group of[Read More…]

Numerous videos of Christians being persecuted by religious radicals are being widely circulated on social media, with Facebook alone having a network of 33 million users in India. These videos are especially uploaded on groups run by the fanatics themselves and then spread to other social media platforms like twitter and WhatsApp. These videos aim at inciting hatred and defaming[Read More…]

Pr. Sangeeta and her husband Chandra Shekhar Upadhyay were unjustly arrested and imprisoned in Indore a district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, by the Police after the complainant wrongly accused them of forcing her to convert to Christianity. “This is a dishonest accusation. My Mother has been a devout Christian and a faithful Pastor. My parents would never[Read More…]

‘The Grace Prayer House’ was demolished at the dead of night by religious fanatics on the 2nd of September 2020, in Khammam, a district in the southern Indian state of Telangana. The attack is the aftermath of a Police complaint made against the fanatics who have been harassing the Church since 2019. “At around 2:00am, my wife woke up with[Read More…]

A gate was deliberately installed to prevent Christians from visiting a prayer house at a residential and commercial colony in the Indian state of Telangana. Persecution Relief was alerted about the incident on the 31st of August 2020, by *Andrew, a Christian resident of the colony. “Over the past year, the colony members have been purposely creating one issue after[Read More…]

“You Christian’s will never change” said *Inspector Kumar, as he lashed his belt on *Pastor Rupesh’s back. “I am fed up of trying to stop you Christians” he exclaimed. For the next couple of hours, Pr. Rupesh and a fellow believer endured the fury of the Inspector as he mercilessly beat them with a (lathi) wooden rod and his belt.[Read More…]

“What’s all this nonsense going on here?” Two angry religious fanatics yelled at a Pastor’s family, after they forcefully entered their home at around 4pm in the evening and began creating a commotion. The family was shocked and taken aback by the unexpected visit as there was no prayer meeting going on then. “They immediately started accusing us of religious[Read More…]

A Church at a village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh was completely demolished by religious fanatics at midnight on the 25th of August 2020. The tin roof and fortifications made of bamboo cane were broken down and ruined during the incident. *Pr. Purohit who leads the Church in this village told Persecution Relief that he received the startling[Read More…]

Fabricated Charges leading to the imprisonment of innocent Christians has become increasingly common and is on a steep upsurge. Since 2018, Persecution Relief recorded 194 cases of false charges and arrests made against Christians of which 57 cases were documented in the first half of 2020 alone. Arrests based on ‘forced conversion’ is the most widely used allegation by religious[Read More…]

Villagers influenced by fanatics have ganged up against a local Church opposing the construction of a Church building at a village in the Indian state of Odisha. They are threatening to demolish the Church building, claiming that it has angered the gods of their village. “The Sarpanch and the villagers were completely aware of the construction work ever since it[Read More…]

A 72-year-old woman, her son and daughter-in-law were mercilessly beaten to a state of unconsciousness by religious fanatics in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The elderly mother was left with a broken hand while the head injuries that her son sustained required stitches. “Early in the morning, on the 14th of August, my mother and wife were busy with[Read More…]

More than 60 Christians including women and children were locked up inside their Church building by a mob of over 50 religious fanatics in Davangere, Karnataka. 2 policemen dressed in civil dress were also present during this mob attack that took place on the 16th of August 2020 at 10:30 am. “Our Church gathered together for the Sunday Worship service[Read More…]

A mob of religious extremists severely assaulted a Christian Pastor and his wife in a village named Pinjore in the Panchkula district in Haryana, India. On the 14th of June, a Christian family living in Pinjore requested Pastor Tomy Joseph and his wife, Veena to visit them. Within 5 minutes after reaching the home of the believer, a mob of[Read More…]