The Evangelical Fellowship of India in early March published a report of persecution against Christians in India during 2015.
A summary reveals the scale of the violence and injustice against India’s believers.
Major target of violence
With 177 cases documented in 2015 after careful scrutiny, the Christian community, which is a mere 2.3% of the country’s population (2011 Census), continues to be a major target of violence. The actual volume of violent persecution is not known. State agencies are reluctant to speak on this matter and governments do not keep records unless local police register formal cases.
Frightening aspects of this violence are an increasing number of rapes, particularly of Catholic nuns, and other gender violence. Recent months have seen an increasing trend to polarise the people in villages, leading to social exclusion, ostracisation and denial of employment and social services.
Three rogue states
Topping the list are the states of Madhya Pradesh, with 36 cases, and its neighbour Chhattisgarh, 20 cases, both in Central India, and Uttar Pradesh, with 22 cases. While the Bharatiya Janata party has been in control of the national government for 22 months only (it earlier ruled from 1998–2004), the party has been in control of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh for three terms.
Physical violence, including assaults by mobs, beatings and torture, were the most common (68 cases), followed by stopping of worship in churches (18 cases) and attacks on churches (18 cases). Arrests of pastors and their companions was a major issue with 18 cases, which does not include those who are rounded up by the police and let off after some time, or others who were in the custody of mobs for various lengths of time.
At least three cases of rape were recorded, including on nuns.
Protests by Christian groups against persecution, especially in New Delhi, have been brutally crushed. State impunity, political arrogance of the ruling groups in various states of the Union, and increasing complicity of local police and sometimes the media aggravate the pressure on terrorised communities in remote villages and small towns.
In many cases, justice has been denied to those arrested on trumped-up charges – mostly pastors or their associates – and detained in police stations or having their liberty curtailed in other manners.
Feeling helpless
Government organisations, including the National Commission of Minorities, have expressed their helplessness in the matter. Many government structures and functionaries, including in the State Minority and human rights organisations, are enmeshed in bureaucratic red tape. Most such organisations consist of political appointees reluctant to take affirmative action.
Human rights and Freedom of Faith organisations, including the Evangelical Fellowship of India, the Alliance Defending Freedom India and Christian Legal Association, have had to mobilise legal assistance to ensure the freedom of the people, and the security of the pastors and members of churches. A national helpline by the United Christian Forum backed by members of the EFI, ADF, CLA and others is an immediate channel of communication and assistance.
Bigger picture
The persecution of Christians is also seen within the larger context of sustained violence and persecution of India’s very large Muslim community – at more than 14% of the population, the second largest in the world after Indonesia. The sustained hate campaign against Muslims by several Union Ministers and cadres of the ruling Bharatiya Janata party and its ideological group, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, with its myriad specialised organisations known as the ‘Sangh Parivar’, radicalises people at all levels, and more so in rural areas. The cadres are a ready base for violence against Christians. Both Muslims and Christians have in recent months been also branded as ‘anti nationals’, adding another layer of targeted hate.
The persecution of Christians in India is also rooted in highly bigoted laws that have invited international scrutiny, including by the UN Human Rights Council. Prime among them is Article 341 Part 3, which effectively criminalises conversion of Indian citizens to Christianity and Islam.
Anti-conversion laws
Laws against conversions in six of the largest states of the Union not only rob trib-als and Dalits of their rights to Freedom of Faith, some of them have punitive measures against pastors connected with the people. Most dangerously, the anti-conversion laws seem to provide a ‘carte blanche’ or licence to non-state actors such as members of the larger ‘Sangh Parivar’ and some other ideologically-aligned groups of the RSS, but also the police and local governments to target Christians and their institutions.
The continuing and adverse government focus on national and international civil society and human rights organisations also nurtures the environment of hate against minority groups, especially the Christian community which has a large number of institutions at the grassroots in areas of health, education and the welfare of women and children. The persecution list does not cover such laws being used against Christian not-for-profit and voluntary groups whose funds have been stopped, international funding curtailed or licences cancelled. Licences for accepting foreign donations under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act are due for revalidation in 2016.
