About India
Position on the World Persecution Index 2019: Place 10 / 83 points (WVI 2018: Place 11 / 81 points)
- Leader: Prime Minister Narendra Modi
- Government: Federal republic
- Population: 1,354,052,000 (65,061,000 Christians)
- Main Religion: Hinduism
- Persecution Level: Extreme
- Source of Persecution: Religious Nationalism
Since May 2014, India has been governed by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Continued violence against Christians and churches
Since the current ruling party took power in 2014, attacks have increased, and Hindu radicals believe they can attack Christians with no consequences. As a result, Christians have been targeted by Hindu nationalist extremists more and more each year. The view of the nationalists is that to be Indian is to be Hindu, so any other faith—including Christianity—is considered non-Indian. Additionally, in some regions of the country, converts to Christianity from Hinduism experience extreme persecution, discrimination and violence.
How Christians are suffering
Because radical Hindu nationalists view followers of Jesus as alien to the nation, all Christians in India are suffering persecution. Driven by a desire to cleanse their country from Islam and Christianity, nationalists do not shy away from using extensive violence to achieve their goals.
Converts to Christianity from Hinduism bear the brunt of the Christian persecution in India and are constantly under pressure by the state, their community and their families to return to Hinduism (especially via campaigns knows as ghar wapsi, which means “homecoming”). These Christians are often physically assaulted and sometimes killed.