Bengal: Now Christians too in the crosshairs of Hindutva goons

A mob attack on a partially constructed church in Subhasgram (South 24 Parganas). Disruption and vandalism by a 100-strong crowd on motorcycles in Majer Para (also South 24 Parganas) — a private house broken into, Pastor Pintu Polley and worshippers assaulted, a cross broken. An attack during Sunday service in Faridpur, Purba Bardhaman, as reported by Pastor Surajit Ghosh. A pastor abducted from a prayer service; a Presbyterian house church vandalised by a mob in Medinipur.

A private thanksgiving prayer meeting for a newly married Christian couple disrupted in Paschim Medinipur. A house in Hingalraj (North 24 Parganas) stormed into; those praying, including foreign visitors, accused of conversion. A burial disrupted in Sahanagar, Purba Bardhaman, by a group of men demanding documents to prove the land is actually a cemetery. All this in just two months of Hindutva vigilantism on steroids.

The deceased woman, says Father Samuel Hembrom, had to be removed to another cemetery in Bardhaman town. “Her body had already been lowered into the grave; the mob took it out.” His complaint to the superintendent of police and the block development officer had no effect. The SP claimed the deceased woman was not from the area, making her ineligible for burial there.

Victims say the Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal are responsible for the violence, with police complicity. In the rarest of cases, the mob is dispersed with a police ‘warning’; typically, it is the pastor who is arrested. The identity of the attackers isn’t a mystery: these are mobs in saffron scarves shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

Attacks on Christians were unheard of in West Bengal until the BJP won the Assembly election in May. Christians account for less than one per cent of the state’s population (0.72 per cent according to the 2011 Census).

While some of these incidents were recorded on video and shared on social media, media reports started appearing between July and September, with none reported between April and June. What changed? Are Hindutva’s foot soldiers being asked to prove their loyalty to the cause?

Oddly, the attacks against West Bengal’s Christian community are being reported at a time when the Centre, as well as some BJP-ruled state governments, have signalled a tactical retreat on the persecution of Christians.

On 12 August, the Central government sent the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment (FCRA) Bill, 2026 to a joint parliamentary committee rather than ramming it through Rajya Sabha. On 31 August, the state Assembly shelved the Goa Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill, 2026 within a week of the state cabinet clearing it. Also on 31 August, the Odisha government rejected the premature release plea of Dara Singh, serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons.

The Bangiya Christiya Pariseba (BCP) has documented 36 cases of assault, vandalism and persecution over the last three months, including 11 cases where FIRs were registered. BCP founder-secretary Herod Mullick says these are more than isolated skirmishes. Miscreants are filming the attacks and sharing the videos over social media with impunity. “The chief minister has enacted the ‘goonda daman’ law. We expect him to find a way out of this,” Mullick added. Meanwhile, the BCP is providing legal aid to the victims, who are, quite naturally, scared.

West Bengal RSS secretary Jishnu Basu claims that these are “local disputes, neither mandated by the RSS or the BJP nor encouraged by the state government”; that there are “vested interests” in blowing them up. Minister Kshudiram Tudu piously adds, “Our government does not believe in disturbing anyone’s personal belief. But if forced conversions are taking place, the law will take its own course”. The law, yes but marauding mobs?

Right-wing activists have rationalised vigilante violence against Christians as ‘public outrage’ against acts of conversion from Hinduism to Christianity, apparently taking place all over West Bengal.

“Conversions with monetary inducement are rampant in Uluberia and other places. It cannot be allowed to continue,” said Debdatta Majhi, president of the Hindu right-wing Singha Bahini.

“The Hindutva brigade wants to intimidate Bengal’s minority communities, including Christians, before introducing an anti-conversion law in the state,” human rights activist John Dayal told National Herald. “We plan to organise a public hearing in Kolkata, with the participation of a large number of Christian organisations, including the All-India Catholic Union.”

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Muslim police officers aren’t spared either

Drunk on power, BJP supporters are crawling out of the woodwork on a daily basis. From throwing eggs at TMC MP Mahua Moitra to assaulting TMC workers, their newfound freedom seems to be spiralling out of control.

On 22 September, a mob assaulted Humayun Kabir, former joint commissioner of police in Kolkata (now a TMC leader), outside a police station. The policemen saw it happening but did not intervene. The retired IPS officer had to go inside and stream a Facebook live call for help. “I have served in the police for 31 years and have never seen policemen behave like this,” said Kabir.

The assault came close on the heels of Mahua Moitra publicly alleging that serving Muslim IPS officers were kept out of events attended by Union home minister Amit Shah. In a complaint to the National Commission for Minorities (the State Minorities Commission has been comatose) Moitra alleged that Siliguri Police commissioner Syed Waqar Raza was asked by the DGP to leave a meeting for the SPs of all border districts in July. The complaint stated that Raza sat for the duration of the meeting in his IAS officer wife Shama Parveen’s chamber. The IPS Association is yet to react to this public humiliation of a colleague.

Two other bureaucrats, IPS officer Jawed Shamim, director-general of the Special Task Force (STF) and IAS officer Khalil Ahmed, additional chief secretary of fire and emergency services, were also told to stay out of sight, Moitra alleged.

Yet another IPS officer, Bushra Bano, was transferred ‘in public interest’ within two-and-a-half months of being posted in Kharagpur. A Hindutva outfit flagged her use of common Arabic words — Inshallah (if God wills), assalam-alaikum (peace be upon you) and Jazakallah (may God reward you with goodness) — in her motivational address to students as ‘offensive’ and ‘unpatriotic’.

On the floor of the state Assembly, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari has bragged about pushing 10,000 Bangladeshi Muslims out of West Bengal (a declaration not supported by fact). Outside the Assembly, he has menacingly said that the Assembly by-polls in Nandigram and Rezinagar on 6 October would be a ‘test’ for Muslims.

While numerically not significant in Nandigram, without Muslim support, the BJP cannot win Rezinagar in Murshidabad. The saffron party is, of course, confident of winning both.