Christians in the Crosshairs of Hindutva Activists

Mob violence against Christians in India is growing. According to a recent report, there were over 300 instances of violence against Christians in the first nine months of 2021.

Attacks on Christians were reported in 21 of India’s 28 states and eight union territories, the report, titled “Christians under attack in India,” said. Most attacks were in the north Indian states. Uttar Pradesh topped the list with about 80 cases of violence against Christians followed by Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, and Kerala.

The data, which was collected by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, United Christian Forum, and United against Hate, reveal that most of the attacks were against Christians belonging to the Dalit (formerly called “Untouchables”) and Adivasi (Indigenous) communities.

Christians comprise 2.3 percent of India’s population and are the country’s second largest religious minority after Muslims. Like Muslims, Christians are being targeted by activists of the Sangh Parivar, an umbrella group of Hindutva organizations that includes India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Hindutva is a supremacist ideology. Its goal is to make India a Hindu state. Hindutva ideologues describe Christians and Muslims as “foreign races” as their “fatherland” and “holy land” are not in India but “in far off Arabia and Palestine.” Hindutva activists justify violence against Christians and Muslims by claiming it is self-defense, and in retaliation to the centuries of violence perpetrated on Hindus by Muslim invaders and Christian colonial rulers.

Hindutva mob violence targeting Christians and their places of worship has grown in recent decades. In 1999, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burnt alive by activists of the Bajrang Dal, a constituent of the Sangh Parivar, in the eastern state of Odisha.

However, it is Indian converts to Christianity who have borne the brunt of Hindutva fury. In 2008, Sangh Parivar activists went on a rampage in Odisha’s Kandhamal district, ransacking over 600 villages and setting ablaze around 5,600 houses. Scores of Christians were killed and 232 churches destroyed over several days of violence.

Violence against Christians has grown since the BJP came to power in 2014. Dozens of churches have been vandalized and nuns and priests attacked.

Hindutva activists allege that missionaries and priests are converting Hindus to Christianity in large numbers either by force or by luring them with offers of money, foreign trips, and medical assistance.

While religious conversions do take place and inducements are sometimes offered, a fact that Hindutva leaders like to ignore is that Hindus are choosing to convert to Christianity to escape the oppression of the caste system. Most converts to Christianity are Dalits and Adivasis, groups that have historically suffered extreme discrimination and exclusion.

Instead of righting the wrongs in Hinduism, like the caste system that is driving people out of the fold, Hindutva activists prefer to unleash violence.

Religious conversions are not illegal in India. Article 25 of the Indian Constitution guarantees “the freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice, and propagate religion.” An Indian has the right not only to practice a religion of her choice, but also to convert to another religion and even to convert others.

It is the violent attacks by Hindutva activists that are illegal. In tribal areas, the violence against those who have converted to Christianity comprises not only attacks on people and their property; some are forced to undergo ghar wapsi rituals (literally “returning home”) or reconversion to Hinduism.

Eight states have anti-conversion laws that seek to restrict religious conversions carried out by force, fraud, or inducements. Some have also banned conversion through marriage. Advance notice by a priest or “religious convertor” as well as the converted person is required. Uttar Pradesh has some of the strictest provisions: An individual has to inform district authorities of their intention to convert 60 days ahead of time. An interfaith couple intending to marry must provide the same advance notice.

While a section of the Christian community is protesting the violence of Hindutva activists, there are some who are joining hands with them against the Muslims.

In the southern state of Kerala, where Christians comprise 13.4 percent of the population, Christian churches – both Protestant and Catholic – have accused Muslims of waging “love jihad” and “narcotics jihad” against the Christian community. While “love jihad” refers to Muslim men supposedly marrying non-Muslim women in order to convert them to Islam, “narcotics jihad” refers to Muslim men allegedly selling drugs to non-Muslims to spoil their lives. These are conspiracy theories peddled by Hindutva organizations against Muslims, which some Christians have adopted and are now propagating.

Islamophobia has drawn Hindu and Christian fundamentalists closer.