Christians in central India accused of illegally practicing medicine spent Christmas Eve and Christmas in jail, later discovering that the charges against them applied to prayers for healing in which they had engaged.
Three Bharatiya Janata Party-affiliated people led an attack on a new prayer hall dedicated to Jesus in India’s West Bengal state Saturday, as a mob of 800 people, mostly non-Christians, surrounded the building’s inauguration ceremony.
A Christian community in Karnataka state, India was prevented from building a church on December 4 and later deprived of drinking water when they went to police, with members now fearing to celebrate Christmas in their town.
Christians in a tribal village in India had their bamboo hut church burned down by animists on December 1st, 5 days after their Bibles were confiscated and set to a bonfire.
In the past 7 days, 8 Christians were attacked in India and charged with forced religious conversions, radicals landing them in prison under an oft-misused law against religious coercion.
New legislation passed in India’s parliament grants citizenship to beleaguered Christian foreigners, among others, but the US Commission on International Religious Freedom says it is a dangerous move.
A Christian pastor in India called to minister to one of the country’s unreached people groups was beaten along with his congregation in November by a Hindu mob.
A group of Indian Christians who suffered in prison for 11 years under false charges were finally released on bail, as advocates claimed they had been scapegoated by Hindu nationalists.
A house church pastor in eastern India was accosted in his home by Hindu extremists while praying, leading to severe injuries for his whole family and accusations of witchcraft.
India’s Jammu and Kashmir state is now shrouded in a 105 day-long internet and communications blackout that has prevented Christians from assembling together without extreme harassment.
International Christian Concern (ICC) learned that Pastor Bryan Nerren, a Christian pastor from Tennessee, has been arrested and detained in India after being accused of violating the country’s Foreign Exchange Management Act. According to the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), Pastor Nerren and two other pastors from Tennessee arrived in India on October 5 to attend two conferences in India and Nepal. The ACLJ reported that Pastor Nerren was then targeted and arrested by Indian customs agents after he told them he was a Christian.
Human rights groups and groups that monitor persecution worldwide presented statistics to congress Wednesday testifying to the deterioration of the situation for Christians in India.
Disturbing statistics are coming out of India, where the fruit of nationalism has been an uptick in severe persecution against Christians.
Christians in eastern India marched in protest last month against what leaders are calling retaliatory government harassment for their attempt to protect tribal lands.
Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led government is reportedly crafting a sweeping national anti-conversion law that would place a ban not only on forced conversions but also on conversions made in good faith.
One of India’s nine states to have passed an anti-conversion law in recent years tightened restrictions last month on the choice Indians have to turn from one religion to another.
Christians in India are becoming more hard-pressed to find places where they can worship freely.
The oxygen is thinning for religious freedom in India following the reelection of the Bharatiya Janata Party in May, with six attacks on Christians recorded in Telangana State alone in July.
The Evangelical Fellowship of India called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the problem of rising persecution against Christians in his country, after a pastor was dragged from a prayer meeting by members of a nationalist organization.
Christians in Bihar state, India are afraid to report attacks by Hindu militant organizations to the police, according to two pastors, one who had his hand and foot fractured when extremists attacked him.