Over 300 Reported Cases Of Violence Against Christians In India So Far In 2021

On Sunday, a video had surfaced online showing a group of Bajrang Dal men who forced their way into a church in Karnataka's Hubbali, accusing them of forced religious conversion.

Later, following a complaint by BJP MLA Arvind Bellad the pastor, Somu Avaradhi was arrested by the police.

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Just a week before that Bajrang Dal men had attacked and vandalised a church in Roorkee, Uttarakhand during a Sunday prayer meeting, claiming that they suspected forced religious conversion there.

These are two recent high-profile incidents reported in India where Christians have come under attack, but community members say the number of un-reported and cases are much higher.

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United Christian Forum, a minority religious group has claimed that the number of cases of violence against the Christian community in India is on the rise.

305 cases of violence this year

According to UCF, there were 305 incidents of violence in 273 days of 2021 from across the country, targeting Christians and the community's institutions.

The data collected by UCF showed that September 2021 witnessed the highest number of incidents with 69 cases, followed by 50 in August, 37 in January, 33 in July, 27 in March, April, and June, 20 in February, and 15 in May.

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Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh recorded 169 incidents of Violence in total in the last nine months with Karnataka with 32 incidents of hate incidents against Christians.

Out of the more than 300 cases, 28 were incidents of causing damage to the places of worship.

Police or other authorities disallowed 85 times the assembly of people for religious activities under one pretext or the other. Ten Fresh cases were filed under the Freedom of Religion Act this year, UCF, along with Unity in Compassion and United Against Hate which released the data from their findings in Delhi on Thursday said.

Rise in hate crime

The Fact-Finding Report also records the testimonies of victims of 89 other incidents of hate crime against Christians.

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Pearl, Sadhana, and Eva, who were witnesses to the attack on the church in Roorkee on October 3, described the horrific incident. According to them, a mob of around 300 people, barged in the church and vandalised it, CCTV cameras were destroyed, Christian worshippers were molested and beaten.

They pointed out that the attackers were people from the neighbourhood and well educated. No arrests have been made and the harassment hasn¡¯t stopped even after two weeks of the violence.

Accusations of religious conversion

Religious conversion, both forced and lured with money is an allegation the Christian community has long faced in India.

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Minakshi Singh, President of Unity in Compassion, however, said that the Christian community is being accused of carrying out ¡®conversions¡¯ on a large scale but numbers state otherwise. Over the years, a reduction in the Christian population has been noted. She pointed out the police atrocities against minorities.

Recently Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh has accused Christian missionaries of running programmes for forced conversion of Sikh families in border villages of Punjab.

¡°Christian missionaries are carrying out massive programmes for forced conversions of Sikh families and Scheduled Caste Sikhs in the border belt of Punjab. Missionaries are using money and all possible means to force Sikh families of the border belt to adopt Christianity,¡± alleged the Jathedar of Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs.

He said, ¡°conversions of innocent Sikhs into Christianity fold is a direct attack on internal matters of the Sikh community and this is intolerable.¡±

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Earlier this month, the Karnataka government had said that it will carry out surveys of churches and Christian missionaries to find out about forced religious conversions.

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