A disturbing new report launched at present by the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s Non secular Liberty Fee (EFIRLC) has documented a dramatic rise in violence and discrimination towards Christians throughout India, with verified incidents almost quadrupling over the previous decade.
The annual report, titled “Religion at Threat: Inspecting Violence and Discrimination Towards Christians in India,” verified 640 incidents of focused persecution in 2024 alone, in comparison with simply 147 incidents in 2014. The fee famous that though they obtained studies of over 840 incidents, useful resource constraints and difficulties accessing distant areas restricted their capability to confirm all instances.
“The dimensions and depth of persecution has reached disaster ranges,” stated Rev. Vijayesh Lal, Common Secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, talking to Christian Right now. “What we’re witnessing isn’t remoted or sporadic discrimination, however a scientific sample of violence that threatens the very material of India’s constitutional dedication to non secular freedom.”
“Most regarding is that these verified instances possible symbolize solely the tip of the iceberg. Many victims, significantly in rural areas, are too frightened to report assaults for worry of retaliation or additional marginalisation. The precise variety of incidents is nearly definitely considerably increased,” Rev. Lal added.
The report identifies Uttar Pradesh because the state with the very best focus of anti-Christian violence, documenting 188 verified incidents in 2024. Chhattisgarh adopted with 150 instances, whereas Rajasthan (40), Punjab (38), and Haryana (34) have emerged as new hotspots of non secular persecution.
In accordance with the EFIRLC’s evaluation, Christians face a number of types of persecution, together with bodily assaults, disruption of worship providers, church vandalism, social boycotts, denial of group assets, arbitrary arrests below anti-conversion legal guidelines, and compelled displacement from their houses.
The report presents a number of disturbing case research, together with that of Pastor Shivbharan from Fatehpur district in Uttar Pradesh, who was crushed, forcibly shaved, and paraded by his village on 27 December. Fairly than receiving safety, he was charged below the state’s anti-conversion regulation.
In one other tragic case from Punjab’s Jalandhar district, Pastor Bhagwan Singh was attacked whereas conducting a prayer service on 23 January. He succumbed to extreme head accidents almost a month later, on 19 February 2024.
The fee’s findings spotlight how anti-conversion legal guidelines, ostensibly designed to stop compelled conversions, are often misused to focus on Christian communities. The report paperwork quite a few instances the place pastors conducting routine prayer providers have been arrested and charged with “compelled conversion” with out proof.
“On common, 4 to 5 church buildings and pastors face assaults every day throughout India, with incidents almost doubling each Sunday when believers collect for worship,” Rev. Lal advised Christian Right now. “This sample suggests focused intimidation aimed toward disrupting spiritual observe and making a local weather of worry.”
The EFIRLC notes that victims typically face important obstacles to justice. Many are afraid to file complaints as a consequence of worry of police inaction or retaliation. Even when instances are registered, they often lead to delays, acquittals, or wrongful imprisonment of victims as a substitute of perpetrators.
In its suggestions, the Evangelical Fellowship of India has known as on the Indian authorities to offer speedy police safety for Christian communities dealing with imminent threats, maintain extremist teams accountable, reform the implementation of anti-conversion legal guidelines, strengthen authorized safeguards for victims, and guarantee truthful authorized proceedings.
The Non secular Liberty Fee of the Evangelical Fellowship of India has been documenting incidents of persecution towards Christians in India since 1998. The organisation works to advertise spiritual freedom and advocate for the rights of non secular minorities in accordance with India’s constitutional ensures.
Evangelical Fellowship of India, based in 1951, represents over 54 Protestant denominations encompassing greater than 65,000 church buildings throughout India. As a constitution member of the World Evangelical Alliance, which serves greater than 600 million evangelicals globally, EFI has been instrumental in constructing capability for Christians to take part in nation-building while defending their constitutional rights to freedom of faith.
The complete report is obtainable at this hyperlink and on the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s web site, with the organisation encouraging involved residents to assist efforts selling spiritual concord and constitutional protections for all religion communities in India.
