India: Attacks against Christians on the increase

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India | 09 April 2018

Two annual surveys have recently been published that provide evidence that the persecution of Christians increased in India in 2017 compared to 2016. The first survey, published on 16 February 2018, was made by the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), the second was published a few days later by Persecution Relief (an ecumenical forum that records Christian persecution in India). According to EFI, the year 2017 has been one of the most traumatic for the Christian community in India since the mass violence of the Kandhamal pogrom in the state of Orissa in 2007 and 2008. The Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFIRLC) documented at least 351 cases of violence in 2017. According to Persecution Relief, 736 incidents of attacks against Christians were recorded in 2017 compared to 348 in 2016. ‚ Rolf Zeegers, persecution analyst at World Watch Research (WWR), believes the differences in the two surveys" statistics can either be explained by different definitions of what counts as a violent incident, or more simply by the difference in (and size of) their reporting networks: "There is no bookkeeping organization that travels around India to register minutely what violent incidents have happened. Both EFI and Persecution Relief depend on the information handed to them by local Christians and this is why they differ. What is important to note is that both sources have a common message: Levels of violence perpetrated by radical Hindus against Christians in India was much higher in 2017 than in 2016. This is supported by WWR research and gives added confirmation to the rise of India in the Open Doors World Watch List (WWL) from a score of 73 points in WWL 2017 (rank 15) to a score of 81 points in WWL 2018 (rank 11)." Rolf Zeegers adds: "It may even get worse. Hindu attackers are increasingly enjoying impunity when they harass Muslims or Christians. The fact that the government (dominated by Hindu radicals under Prime Minister Narendra Modi) is looking away when religious minorities are attacked is likely to encourage an increase in violence in the coming years. As a result, the level of fear and uncertainty among the majority of Christians in India is rising."