Spiritual diversity is dying in the cradle of its birth, not by any signs of progress or enlightenment but in the storm of fear and persecution. However, India, a country constitutionally guaranteed as secular, is falling apart under someone like Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is doing his best under the shadow of Hindutva, a driving factor of his governance, to unravel the country’s mesh of pluralism. The water is now at a critical boiling point with the rising wave of targeted violence against Christians. Where once the peals of the church bells rang across the nation as free as any other bells. Silence from the highest echelons of power — and from Modi himself in particular — has become deafening in the face of mounting human rights crisis.
The act is condoned by a climate of state complicity and put into practice by a system bent on ridding the country of its Christian presence
In the year 2024, about 800 anti-Christian attacks have been documented, a horrible record, with the escalation of the campaign against religious hatred. Blanket ideological impunity emboldens mobs who march openly with impunity to disrupt prayer meetings, destroy churches and threaten entire communities. The act is condoned by a climate of state complicity and put into practice by a system bent on ridding the country of its Christian presence. It is no longer isolated incidents: Rounds of 161 churches stormed, worship services stopped by force.
Law alone does not produce the machinery of repression, but it is fed by mobs. However, anti-conversion laws formulated to prevent coercion have been used as weapons of persecution. Now, these laws are used as blunt weapons against Christian minorities. Believers are jailed on baseless charges, dragged into the streets and prayer gatherings, new to prisoners in the morning and set free in the evening because of suspicion of forced conversions. In practice, these laws provide no protection to victims who suffer brutalities and are used as a pretext for such behaviour. One chilling truth is the presence of federal intervention is not demanded — it is put away and religious tyranny is institutionalized.
Words are irrelevant when this is not an action of a beleaguered administration but a strategic ploy of a government that considers minorities to be expendable
That Modi’s silence is not passive negligence of the government is not surprising. It is a tacit endorsement. Despite the repeated appeals to the President from Christian organizations and leaders for intervention, justice has come to nothing. Words are irrelevant when this is not an action of a beleaguered administration but a strategic ploy of a government that considers minorities to be expendable. Such is the case when public threats of genocide are issued and indifference to them is shown, which signals tyranny’s intent for persecution has always been its aim.
In states like Manipur, Odisha and Gujarat, past atrocities such as the 2008 Kandhamal massacre and the 2002 Gujarat massacre have exposed the wounds all over again, displacing over 50,000 Christians
The consequences are devastating. They live in the constant surveillance, under constant dread. In states like Manipur, Odisha and Gujarat, past atrocities such as the 2008 Kandhamal massacre and the 2002 Gujarat massacre have exposed the wounds all over again, displacing over 50,000 Christians. It is unmistakable: from the 1950 riots to the roughly 300 attacks during 2019–20 to the roughly 800 attacks already in 2024, every year of Hindutvas rise as a national party has come with Christian persecution as a new feature. These are no simple acts of hatred, but instead, the realization of an ideological project to create an Indian identity based only on Hindu terms.
What made Hindutva a fringe ideology is far from the case, rather the point where stocks are kept in the national symbolic register — wrapped in saffron rhetoric and now legitimized through the state’s apparatus. The rise of its emergence coincided closely with a steep drop in religious freedom and democratic norms. Pluralism is looked upon with suspicion under the Modi regime, and miraculously, religious minorities appear as enemies of national unity. In this new India, diversity is a flaw to be eradicated (violent, if need be).
In the world’s largest democracy, religious freedom is being throttled and there is little to be done by global powers to stop it
Normalizing persecution is chilling indeed and deserves attention from the international community. India can no longer be regarded as an emerging economy or strategic ally towards the world. In the world’s largest democracy, religious freedom is being throttled and there is little to be done by global powers to stop it. They must be acknowledged for what they are seen by most as a severe human rights violation that goes to the very heart of democracy in India and beyond.
International law would say that they [Christians in India] have the right to exist, and the right to worship. Unheard, their cries have no recourse from the judiciary, no protection from the police and no recognition from the state. Every time an Indian Church is destroyed, every time an Indian prayer is criminalized and every time an Indian believer is brutalized, it is a strike against the spirit of secularism as written in the Indian Constitution.
Until action is taken on the domestic and global fronts, the war on Christians in India under Modi’s leadership will go on with the nation’s soul at stake
The complicity of being complicit when in the face of orchestrated cruelty is to remain silent. Mobs are continuing to parade down streets unimpeded and pastors are languishing behind bars for preaching their faith and in 2024, not just accidentally, but by design, they are hunting in faith. Until action is taken on the domestic and global fronts, the war on Christians in India under Modi’s leadership will go on with the nation’s soul at stake.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.
