INDIA COUNTRY PROFILE
SELECTED INCIDENTS MAY 2023 Archbishop Dominic Lumon of Imphal told ACN “about 249 churches belonging to Meitei Christians” were destroyed within 36 hours of tribal violence starting. The attacks were carried out by other Meiteis. Archbishop Lumon said: “We can see that they were also acting out of hatred of Christianity, because the Meitei churches were also destroyed and because the non-Kuki religious leaders also had to flee from Imphal." SEPTEMBER 2023 Nine people were charged, including Christian minister Ajay Lall, after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) claimed irregularities in a Christian orphanage. NCPCR Chairman Priyank Kanoongo posted on X (Twitter), alleging “human trafficking, religious conversions of children, tribal children made pastors, and orphan children adopted only by Christian families." 100 NOVEMBER 2023 Christians were prevented from burying their dead on at least five occasions in Chhattisgarh State’s Narayanpur District, according to local Christian civil society leader and politician Phulsingh Kachlam. He said: “The latest incident was [on the 20 th ], wherein police officials and the Tehsildar [revenue department official] engaged in violence and forcibly took away the body of Sukhram, a local tribal Christian from the village Koliyari, after local Hindus and other villagers objected to his burial.” 101 FEBRUARY 2024 20 Christians, including children, were wounded when a 200-strong mob attacked Janwada village’s Methodist Church in Rangareddy District, Telangana State on the evening of Tuesday the 13 th . The attackers, reportedly members of nationalist organization Bajrang Dal, attacked the church while the Dalit Christians were praying there. 102 JUNE 2024 32-year-old Bindu Sodi was killed by her uncle, who was part of an extremist mob that attacked her family in Toylanka village, Dantewada District, Chhattisgarh State on Monday the 24 th . Ms. Sodi’s uncle previously pressured them to renounce Christianity. 103
2023 ended with 720 attacks or other incidents of persecution against Christians reported in 23 states 93 – with at least 287 incidents occurring in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh alone. According to the United Christian Forum, the total number of violent incidents has been increasing gradually since 2014. 2023’s 720 was up from 599 in 2022. 94 Of 161 incidents in the first 75 days of 2024 (to March 15 th ), 47 occurred in Chhattisgarh, where Christians were denied access to water from a village bore-well; were refused Christian burial; were physically assaulted; and were chased out of their homes or had them vandalized. 95 Anti-conversion laws, which 12 states have on their statutes, were used as a pretext to pressure Christian institutions. Schools and orphanages have been searched, and priests and were Sisters accused of converting children. 96 Between the anti-conversion laws being enacted in Uttar Pradesh in 2020 and May 2023, over 855 people were detained under them. 97 While the conflict in Manipur is to a certain extent an ethnic and territorial clash between Meitei and Kuki groups, extremist groups have exploited tensions to drive religious attacks, destroying 500 churches. 98 Meitei Christians were pressured to convert to the tribe’s traditional Sanamahi religion and burn Bibles. These attacks were reportedly driven by groups militantly reasserting Sanamahism. BJP politicians stood accused of encouraging them for political ends. 99
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