Christians who worshipped privately in their homes in a village in eastern India were dragged to local leaders in June and forced to bow to a goddess idol.
The mob action on 14 June followed an announcement two days earlier by the heads of Mahuatoli village, Gumla District in Jharkhand state, that 12 Christian families would be banished if they did not return to the tribal Sarna religion. Also threatened with death, most of the Christian families have fled the village.
Escalation
Area pastor Boyen Munda said: ‘Threats have always been there in this area in Gumla District, but it had never escalated to this point that the Sarna extremists vowed to take lives. They are not in a right state of mind now. The Hindu extremist forces have joined hands with them and have been inciting them against the believers.’
The mob of 20 villagers broke into the home of Jogiya Munda and pushed him and his widowed mother out of their house. Munda and his mother, who have been Christians for 17 years, were dragged to the village leaders and forced to sit and bow to the goddess idol.
Pastor Munda said: ‘They poured buckets of water on them [as a purification rite] and made them do a ritual which is believed to be a procedure to renounce Christ. They fled to a safer place very far away. The village heads have plotted to kill the mother and son if they find them praying any day after the “reconversion ritual”.’
Not an isolated event
In a separate incident on 14 July, Christians were seriously injured in an attack in Belchori Village in Jharkhand state by Hindu radicals. The incident took place when eight Christian families from Friends Missionary Prayer Band refused to recant their Christian faith when threatened.
