‘Enough is enough’: Indian Christians protest spiralling hate crimes

Violence against Christians surged from 139 cases in 2014 – when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power – to 834 in 2024, an average increase of 69.5 incidents each year.

A report recorded a 500 per cent increase in hate crimes against Christians in India, amounting to 4,959 incidents recorded in the past decade.

“Enough is enough. We are not going to take this lightly,” said Michael Williams, president of the United Christian Forum (UCF), an ecumenical watchdog monitoring persecution, as he announced the findings on 4 November.

“We will hold a national Christian convention on 29 November in New Delhi to draw the government’s attention to the growing concerns of the community.”

The convention, with the theme “Towards a self-reliant, progressive, and united India”, will bring together a coalition including parliamentarians, ministers, heads of churches, civil society leaders and inter-religious representatives.

It will address three key problems: escalating violence against individuals and institutions of the Christian community, the exclusion of an estimated 8-10 million Dalit Christians from Scheduled Caste benefits, and threats to tribal rights including potential delisting from Scheduled Tribe status.

Williams said the convention is structured around four pillars: the promise, the problem, the price and the pathway.

The promise is the convention’s commitment to honour the constitutional vision for Christians and safeguard constitutional guarantees.

The second is the problem: a litany of over 4,959 incidents recorded over 12 years representing systematic targeting of vulnerable groups including Dalits, women and tribal Christians. Violence against Christians surged from 139 cases in 2014 – when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power – to 834 in 2024, representing an average annual increase of 69.5 incidents.

Just five states accounted for 76.9 per cent of all documented incidents incidents in that time: Uttar Pradesh with 1,317 incidents, Chhattisgarh with 926, Tamil Nadu with 322, Karnataka with 321 and Madhya Pradesh with 319.

Between 2016 and 2020, over 21 Christians lost their lives, including a pastor who was “intentionally electrocuted” in Rajasthan, according to a statement by the organisers of the National Convention.

Though 579 incidents were recorded between January to September 2025, only 39 police cases were registered – a “justice gap” of 93 per cent, the UCF statement said.  

“We will seek mandatory police case registration for all reported incidents, establishment of fast-track courts for religious violence cases, and creation of state-level monitoring committees among other demands,” said Williams.

Dalit Christians suffer the worst discrimination. An estimated 8-10 million Dalit Christians are excluded from benefits like reservations in government jobs extended to Schedule Castes. A further 5 million tribal Christians face threats to their Schedule Tribe status and cultural identity.

Advocate Tehmina Arora spoke about the cruelties suffered by tribal Christians, routinely denied employment and burial rights, who endure social exclusion and attacks. She described cases in rural areas of assailants torching their houses, destroying their fields and snatching their livestock.

“There are about 7 million tribal Christians in India, mostly concentrated in remote locations and are vulnerable which is why they are classified as Scheduled Tribes,” Arora said.

Citing an example of a woman from Chhattisgarh, Arora said that “in January 2025, a pregnant Kanika Kashyap from Bastar, who had converted [to Christianity], was brutally assaulted and suffered a miscarriage”.

Anti-conversion laws passed by 12 states are mostly used to harass innocent Christians. Even nuns travelling by train in their habits with novices or acquaintances, or attending a dinner meeting or prayer gathering, can lead to allegations of conversion, Arora said.

Williams said that “besides human costs [of the violence] is the erosion of trust in a pluralistic democracy, and that is the price we pay” – the third pillar of the convention.

Violence tied to religious tensions costs India nearly Rs1.19 trillion annually, equivalent to 9 per cent of GDP or Rs 40,000 per person, according to economic impact data from the Institute for Economics and Peace.

The pathway, the fourth pillar of the convention, depends on recourse to constitutional guarantees for peaceful co-existence among all religions, said Williams, emphasising the need for dialogue between communities, policy makers and civil society.

There are 28 million Christians in India, making up 2.3 per cent of the population, who run over 50,000 educational institutions and 5,000 healthcare facilities serving all communities in India.

After its meeting later this month, the convention will submit a memorandum titled “The Delhi Declaration 2025” to the president, the prime minister, federal home and minority affairs ministers and the chief justice of India.

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