Christians in India are bracing themselves for more of the same after Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected to another five-year term last Thursday, having garnered a 303-seat parliamentary majority—a 31-seat gain from his initial election in 2014.
Christians at Praise the Lord Church in Kanjapalli, a village in India’s persecution-ridden Tamil Nadu state, were ruthlessly attacked by a mob of Hindu radicals on May 3rd, following an identical instance of mob violence in February in which the church was told to close its doors.
Four Christian home meetings were disrupted in India’s Tamil Nadu state in the last two months, as persecution by Hindu nationalists intensifies in the run-up to national elections.
Churches in Tamil Nadu, India that had never experienced opposition now find Hindu extremists forcing them out of their places of worship, sources said.
Persecution in India is at its highest level in 70 years, a new report has warned.
Government restrictions on religious conversion in India’s Jharkhand State are the most recent attempt by the historically Hindu nation to retain political sway over its tribal peoples.
Christians in southern India are increasingly living in fear as the level of violence against them continues to rise, sources said.
At least 10 pastors were arrested with their families last Sunday as they worshiped in church services across the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, a leading persecution watchdog has reported.
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) severely injured three pastors in an attack on Saturday, September 8. The attack took place under the close watch of local policemen in Premnagar, located in the Barely District of India’s Uttar Pradesh State, where Christians were holding a two-day spiritual retreat. Pastor Ashok Benjamin, Pastor Vijay Masih, and Pastor Shivcharan were among those injured in the assault, sustaining wounds to their heads, hands, and lower backs.
International Christian Concern (ICC) has documented at least 15 separate anti-Christian incidents across India in the past 14 days. These incidents include physical assaults, a church demolition, forced conversions, false accusations of forced conversions, and social boycotts.
Authorities in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand have accused 25 evangelists of allegedly trying to convert tribal Hindu villagers to Christianity.
UK-based religious freedom advocacy Christian Solidarity Worldwide has called for the release of four Christians who were arrested in the Indian state of Jharkhand in late May on anti-conversion charges.
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 Narendra Modi.
Indian police say they have found the beheaded body of a popular Pentecostal pastor near a thick forest in the eastern state of Jharkhand.
Uttarakhand has become the seventh state in India to put ‘anti-conversion’ legislation in force.
In a village in northern India, pastor Rakesh Kumar Masih passed out from the pain of Hindu extremists beating his genitals, and they left him for dead.
Tribal animists upset that Christians tried to bury one of their dead in a village in eastern India seriously injured a 13-year-old girl and others who tried to protect a Christian woman the villagers threatened to burn alive.
The body of a pastor in southern India was found hung from the thatched roof of his house early Saturday morning (Jan. 20), a week after he complained to police about opposition from Hindu extremists, sources said.
When Hindu extremists in India told pastor Karma Oraon they would not stop beating him until he worshipped the monkey god, he felt Christ close to him, he said.
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that at least 23 religiously-motivated attacks took place during the 2017 Christmas season, including attacks on carolers and open threats against Christian celebrations. The attacks have led to several Christians’ hospitalization and imprisonment. The persecution created such fear among the Christian community that many Christians did not celebrate Christmas this year.