10/15/2018 India (International Christian Concern) – India’s Christian community continues to face an ongoing escalation of religiously motivated violence. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, Christian persecution has more than doubled. The Evangelical Fellowship of India’s (EFI) reports on persecution show this with 147 incidents of persecution in 2014 increasing to 351 incidents in 2017.

Much of the anti-Christian violence is perpetrated by radical Hindu nationalists seeking to establish India as a “Hindu nation”. Those communities that do not fall into this vision of India are harassed and persecuted by Hindu radicals.

Many Christians fear this escalation in violence will only continue as India goes to the polls in 2019. The BJP has often used religiously divisive rhetoric and policies to invigorate its political base. Many fear this rhetoric will further inflame Hindu radicals and lead to more attacks on minorities.

Recently, a group of 250 Indian right activists wrote an open letter to the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, while he was visiting India at the beginning on October. In that letter, the activists noted how religious and political freedoms have significantly diminished under the current BJP government. This letter echoed findings from a UN report written in September that found the BJP had links to violence against minority communities.

For interviews with William Stark, ICC’s Regional Manager, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: [email protected].