ICC’s India Representative

03/15/2017 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) – “It is very painful that we had to shut down the church that we have been running for more than 13 years. Even praying in our own homes with our family is restricted and treated as [a] crime,” said Pastor Jacob Joseph. Pastor Jacob and his church were brutally attacked by the ultra-Hindu nationalists during their service on January 29, 2017. The radical Hindus accused the congregation of forcible conversions.

Prior to the attack, Pastor Jacob received a letter from the police to close down the church until further notice from the District Collector. The letter also told Pastor Jacob that the church was illegal and the District Collector will stop all Christian activity in the area.

The January 29 attack in Chhattisgarh is an example of a broader hate campaign led by radical Hindu organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrangdal. Over a dozen incidents of religiously motivated violent incidents have been reported in less than two months in Chhattisgarh alone. In addition to physical violence and legal pressure, other aspects of the radical campaign include social boycotts and denying Christians burial plots for their dead, an intentional act designed to inflict stress and exert power over Christians.

Kailash Markham, a 25-year-old Christian, experienced the pressure and persecution of being denied the right to bury a family member. His sister died in January and Hindus refused to allow him to bury her.

“We weren’t allowed to bury the dead body of my sister for three days. The only reason for that was because we practice Christianity,” said Kailash, who has experienced continual persecution for his conversion to Christianity two years ago.

“While the body was decomposing, we were running to the government offices and to the police station to get help to bury the body. The local BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) leaders told us not to bury the body in the village, unless we first gave up our Christian faith. We hardly had time to grieve over the loss of my sister,” Kailash continued.

After continual pressure, Kailash managed to gain the necessary approval from the local revenue officials and police, a rare occurrence in an increasingly hostile environment for Christians. Unfortunately, radicals attacked Kailash when they found out that Kailash went to the authorities.

In a similar situation, Hindus refused to allow a Christian to be buried unless the family converted to Hinduism. Bagathram Mandavi, a 55-year-old Christian, died in September 2016, but Hindu radicals denied his family access to a burial ground. Unlike Kailash, who was finally able to gain assistance from local authorities, Bagathram’s family was unsuccessful. The only way to bury Bagathram was for the family to convert. Even after the conversion, Bagathram’s son’s home was demolished in February 2017.

Raghuram Mandavi, Bagathram’s son, confessed to International Christian Concern (ICC) that “we [Christians] don’t have freedom to live as we want, all our movements are tracked closely by the Hindu radicals. Now that our houses are demolished, we do not have a place to live in the village, all our belongings including utensils and clothes became unusable. We are in this situation for no crime; except practicing the religion we like.”

Arun Pannalal, president of Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, told ICC that “Christians in Chhattisgarh are being discriminated in every aspect of their life particularly in rural areas where their level of vulnerability is higher. Whether it is education, social welfare, or the PDS (Public Distribution System), Christians have been systematically chipped out for their Christian beliefs…. There has been [a] shift in the traditional way of incidents of harassment of Christians to an institutional discrimination towards Christians.”

Christians live in an increasingly dangerous situation in Chhattisgarh. Physical violence, social boycotts, legal persecution, and denying Christians burial plots are symptoms of religious discrimination. Let’s hope that Article 25 of the Indian constitution, an article that guarantees freedom of religion, will be upheld across government structures at the local, state, and national levels.