Anti-Christian violence and ‘anti-conversion’ laws make it a season of grim reflection

In its bid to deflect Washington’s tariff push on a wide range of European products, the European Union (EU) is showing renewed keenness to conclude the protracted Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India, which officially began in 2007, even overlooking its repeated censure of New Delhi for the ‘escalating violence and discrimination faced by Christian communities’ across the country.

Under the Treaty on European Union of 1993, the EU has included clauses in its international agreements prescribing ‘appropriate measures’ against a party, including suspension of an agreement, if it fails to uphold human rights and democratic principles.

Days after a visiting high-level EU delegation conferred with Indian counterparts over a week in November, members of the European Parliament and human rights advocates participated in a meeting on ‘Targeted Violence against Christians in South Asia’ organised in Brussels on 4 December by the Christian legal advocacy group, ADF (Alliance Defending Freedom) International.

Participants expressed concern that ever since India’s Hindu majoritarian BJP government came to power in 2014, attacks on minorities—Muslims, Christians and Dalits—have been widespread and systematic.

The Christian minority—estimated at around 32 million or 2.2 per cent of the overall 1.46 billion population—finds itself fearful of anti-Christian violence by RSS-affiliated Hindu extremist groups like the Bajrang Dal, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Hindu Mahasabha.

The EU has been particularly alarmed by the ethnic violence raging in Manipur since 2023 between the majority Hindu Meitei and the minority Christian Kukis. Over 250 people have lost their lives, a thousand others wounded, some 67,000 displaced, hundreds of churches and homes ransacked and destroyed. Many women were raped before being murdered.

A sharply worded resolution by the EP in 2023 exhorted the Indian authorities ‘to take all necessary measures … to protect all religious minorities, such as Manipur’s Christian community, and to pre-empt any further escalation’.

The Brussels meeting briefed policymakers on the urgent need for stronger EU engagement on freedom of religion or belief. Participants pointed to the United Christians Forum’s documentation of incidents of violence, including mob assaults, public humiliation, church disruption and demolitions of homes. The Forum reported a sharp increase in attacks against Christians across India, rising from 127 cases in 2014 to 834 in 2024, averaging more than two attacks per day. Reports indicated a climate of impunity where perpetrators often face little to no formal police action.

The speakers in Brussels noted that 12 Indian states now enforce anti-conversion laws that are often used to intimidate and criminalise peaceful religious activity. This year, 123 criminal complaints have been filed against Christians, and several believers remain in prison across the country.

“Christians in India are punished not for wrongdoing, but for simply gathering, praying or helping their neighbours,” explained ADF International’s Tehmina Arora. “Even the Supreme Court of India recently noted how the anti-conversion laws are misused to wrongly prosecute Christians.”

Quashing all criminal proceedings against Christians in October 2025, a Supreme Court bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra delivered a scathing rebuke to authorities, observing, “The criminal law cannot be allowed to be made a tool of harassment of innocent persons, allowing prosecuting agencies to initiate prosecution at their whims and fancy, on the basis of completely incredulous material.”

The judgment quashed all FIRs, along with all consequential proceedings, vindicating Evangelical Church of India Pastor Vijay Masih and staff members of Broadwell Christian Hospital in Fatehpur, officials of Sam Higginbottom University in Prayagraj, and others named since 2022 under Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion law. This followed the acquittal in neighbouring Uttarakhand of the first Christian charged under its ‘anti-conversion’ law—Pastor Nandan Singh who was cleared after a four-year battle.

Church leaders believe that if conversion was indeed taking place as widely as alleged, India’s Christian population would have risen dramatically, instead of holding steady between 2 to 3 per cent of India’s population in every census since 1951.  

Hindu vigilantes routinely deem Christmas festivities as provocations to attack churches and Christians, including priests and nuns, disrupt congregations, destroy property, storm schools to tear down Christmas decorations, vandalise classrooms and terrify teachers and pupils found celebrating.

Videos on social media show Hindutva activists brutalising principals of schools where pupils recite Christian prayers. Mobs, especially in north India, have been captured parading effigies of Santa Claus that they thrash with chappals before setting ablaze.

Goons systematically raid homes of people they believe are forcibly converted, thrashing them and seizing Bibles, crosses, rosaries. They force the victims to profane Christianity and chant Hindu prayers while pledging to be forever Hindu. In July 2024, BJP leader Gunjan Yadav, accompanied by a mob, led a raid on a Christian family’s home in Jharkhand. Acting on their complaint of ‘forcible conversion’, local police detained 12 individuals and seized Bibles and other religious material as ‘evidence’.

On 22 March 2025, three platoons of police reportedly barged into a Catholic Church in Odisha’s Berhampur diocese, assaulted minor girls cleaning the premises and two priests, who were abused and robbed. A factfinding team from the Odisha Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests Advocates documented the violations and filed complaints; instead of taking action, authorities labelled the victims disturbers of the peace.

Metropolitan India has generally been more tolerant, with Mumbai’s significant Christian population—East Indians, Koli Christians and others with historical roots—largely unthreatened.

Who can forget, however, the accusations against cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues’ father for allegedly misusing Khar Gymkhana for ‘forced conversion’ activities, which led to his membership being revoked in October 2024. Who can forget either Jemimah’s tears as she thanked Jesus for seeing her through the hard times in the flush of winning the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025.

On 17 June 2025, addressing a public meeting in Sangli, BJP MLA Gopichand Padalkar allegedly offered a bounty of Rs 3 to Rs 11 lakh for wilful acts of violence against Christian priests and missionaries engaging in ‘forceful conversions’. Christians came out in large numbers not only in Mumbai but across Maharashtra, demanding Padalkar’s resignation and an FIR against him.

 Around the same time, the Archdiocese of Bombay expressed “deep concern” over state revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule’s proposal to enact a strict anti-conversion law. “While we respect the government’s duty to uphold public order, we firmly believe that any legislation restricting religious freedom must be carefully evaluated against India’s constitutional framework,” stated the Archdiocese. “The choice of religion is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 25; we urge the Maharashtra government to reconsider this proposal, which risks fostering division and targeting vulnerable communities.”

SAROSH BANA is Executive Editor of Business India, Mumbai