US religious freedom report spotlights persecution in India

The latest Religious Freedom Report from the US State Department voiced particular concern at attacks on minority groups in India.

It noted violence against Christians and Muslims in India, anti-conversion laws, hate speech, and the alleged targeting of minorities’ homes and places of worship, while also warning of rising bigotry worldwide against both Jews and Muslims.

Publishing the 2023 report on 26 June, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said: “In India, we see a concerning increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, demolitions of homes and places of worship of members of minority faith communities.”

The report said that last year, senior US officials continued to “raise concerns about religious freedom issues” with their Indian counterparts.

Blinken said that the United States was also facing a sharp increase in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia exacerbated by the war in Gaza.

The report cited dozens of incidents of persecution in India, including violence in the north-eastern state of Manipur that started in May last year between Christian Kuki and Hindu Meitei ethnic groups.

However, the Indian government claimed the report was “deeply biased”.

Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, called it “a mix of imputations, misrepresentations, selective usage of facts, reliance on biased sources, and a one-sided projection of issues”.

A.C. Michael, national coordinator of United Christian Forum, an ecumenical Christian persecution watchdog, refuted Jaiswal, saying that “government is always on denial mode”.

“It’s a fact that we in India are witnessing an onslaught of misuse of laws against innocent citizens, especially peace-loving Christians who are being harassed with false allegations of forceful conversions without any evidence, after Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party assumed power,” he said.

“Mob attacks, demolition of homes, churches, places of worship and physical violence take place regularly under the watchful eyes of police. They stand as mute spectators and then arrest the victims on false allegations of forceful conversions.

“US government authorities have been rightly regularly pointing out to these atrocities against minorities in our country and we as victims feel relieved to get such supports.”

Michael set out the year-on-year increase in incidents of violence against Christians: there were 147 incidents in 2014, 177 in 2015, 208 in 2016, 240 in 2017, 292 in 2018, 328 in 2019, 279 in 2020, 505 in 2021, 599 in 2022, 731 up to November 2023 and 248 incidents since then up to April this year.

These incidents are not limited to physical violence, but include verbal attacks and legal aggression. Recently, the Supreme Court of India has observed that Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion law is against Article 22 of the constitution, raising the possibility that the court could rule anti-conversion laws in 10 other states unconstitutional as well.

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