by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - The Religious Liberty Commission of Evangelical Fellowship of India (RLC) warns in a new report that Christians in India faced an “alarmingly steep rise” in violent persecution against them in the year leading up to the spring elections of 2024. The RLC gave its assessment in its latest annual report titled “Hate and Targeted Violence Against Christians in India, 2023.”
India has been ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party almost continuously since 2014. The country now ranks 11 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
Noting that the number of violent incidents against India’s Christians rose from 413 in 2022 to 601 at the end of 2023, the RLC emphasized an unwillingness on the part of the authorities to hold perpetrators to account. “The year leading up to the general elections in the spring of 2024 has seen an unfortunate increase in divisive rhetoric and inflammatory language,” the RLC says in the report.
“The same was not adequately addressed by official channels and sometimes it seemed to have been condoned in large and sensitive states of the Union.”
“The resulting sense of immunity in sections of society has led to a painfully large number of incidents of violence against the Christian Community, and religious minorities in general,” the report reads.
The RLC reports that a primary tool of persecution is the increasingly widespread abuse of harsh anti-conversion laws used by Hindu extremists to suppress Christianity and other minority religions. “For Christians, the main whip hand is the false bogey of proselytisation which is used to justify horrific crimes against the community,” the RLC said.
Calling on both the Indian government and the international community to take action to protect Christians and other religious minorities, the RLC said: “The escalating violence against Christians in India demands immediate attention and action from both national and international stakeholders.
Upholding constitutional rights and combating intolerance are essential steps towards fostering a more inclusive and harmonious society.”