India

A church leader in India’s state of Madhya Pradesh remained detained Monday after being convicted “on false charges of forcing Hindus to convert to Christianity,” Christians told Worthy News.

A pastor in India’s Madhya Pradesh state has been found guilty on false charges of forcing Hindus to convert to Christianity and has been sentenced to five years imprisonment, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party since 2014, India ranks 11 on the Open Doors World Watch List of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

Indian Christian leaders are skeptical about the federal government's “road map” for peace in India’s conflict-torn Manipur state, where scores of Christians were killed and hundreds of churches and other properties were destroyed.

Amid ongoing persecution against Christians in India by Hindu extremists, a pastor and several other believers were assaulted during a Hindu nationalist attack on a church service in Odisha state on Sunday, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

In the last four years, authorities in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state arrested 1,682, people under an extreme anti-conversion law designed to suppress non-Hindu religious freedom, the International Christian Concern (ICC) advocacy organization reports.

More than 300 American Christian clergy and lay leaders have publicly called on the United States government to take action in holding the government of India accountable for ongoing, chronic human rights abuses against Indian Christians at the hands of Hindu nationalists.

Local Hindu leaders have forced more than 100 tribal Christians in eastern India’s Odisha state to undergo a formal ceremony symbolizing a rejection of Christianity and a return to Hinduism, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

A pastor in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state has been arrested by Hindu authorities who falsely accused him of bribing Hindus to become Christians, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

In a rare move of encouragement for Christians in India, the High Court of the south Indian state of Kerala ruled that two young adults can have the religion cited on their official documents changed from Hindu to Christian, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

Members of a house church congregation in India’s Uttarakhand state were violently attacked by a mob of around 150 Hindu extremists on July 14, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.