Are Christians getting a bad deal in India?

Christians are the third-largest religious group in India with about 27.8 million followers who constitute about 2.3 % per cent of the population as per the 2011 census.

According to Pew Research Center

Also Read: Muslims may equal the number of Christians by 2050

To express their solidarity with the Christians in India, a group of civil servants from All India and Central Services who claim to be non-political, neutral, impartial and have faith in the Constitution of India which they served till recently have written an open letter to the Prime Minister.

“We write to you today because we are deeply perturbed by the continued harassment, through speech and criminal action, of minority groups in the country by persons associated with your government, your party, organisations connected to it, and by mischief makers from amongst the public. While we are concerned about the hate crimes and speeches against all minorities, we write to you today about the steadily increasing ugly words and actions against a small religious minority, the Christians. Our Constitution clearly spells out that all citizens, irrespective of religion, are equal and have equal rights, but we are compelled to protest to you against the increasing incidents of outright discrimination against Christians occurring in recent times,” the letter reads.

According to the former bureaucrats, Christians constitute but 2.3 per cent of India’s population, and this percentage has remained more or less the same since the census of 1951. Yet, in the minds of some, this minuscule number poses a threat to the 80% of the population that is Hindu!  The principal allegation against Christians is one of the forcible conversions, and because of this accusation, they have been subjected to attacks – verbal, physical, and psychological, against both their persons and against their institutions. It is an unfortunate but inescapable fact that there are elements amongst us who may feel that the denigration of others enhances themselves.

“It is an acknowledged fact that the role of Christians towards building our nation has been immense. The participation and leadership of Christians in the civil services as well as in the armed forces stand testimony to the community’s national commitment,” the letter added.

According to former civil servants, Christians in India are particularly active in education, health and social reform in remote and inaccessible areas and serving the most deprived sections, namely the Dalits and tribal peoples irrespective of their beliefs or faiths.

Christianity is associated with values like discipline, sacrifice and service. During the pandemic more than one thousand Christian – run hospitals provided treatment to needy patients. Not a single Christian institution in the field of education or health restricts its benefits to Christians alone and thirty per cent of India’s nurses are Christians, the letter reads.

According to the 93 signatories, Christians have been high performers in almost every field, but still, they are being accused of forcible conversion and subjected to physical violence. For instance Jesuit priest, Father Stan Swamy who was closely working with the Adivasis, Dalits and other underprivileged in Jharkhand, was driven to death. Churches and homes of tribal and Dalit Christians were destroyed, graveyards vandalised, and educational and health institutions attacked.  Similar such attacks also happened in Chhattisgarh, Assam, UP, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Maharashtra,  the former Civil servants alleged.  

The signatories added that more than a thousand tribal Christians were banished from their villages in Narayanpur and Kondagaon in Chhattisgarh in August 2022, because they refused to convert to Hinduism. Again, on January 2, 2023, a mob of fifty people barged into a church in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district and vandalised it, even attacking the SP and other police officers. The people arrested for this mayhem included a BJP leader.

Once again a group of hoodlums owing allegiance to a Hindu radical outfit attacked teachers from a Catholic school whom they mistook for trying to convert people to Christianity in January 2023. A few back a sadhu exhorted people attending a ‘dharma sansad’ at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to slaughter Muslims and Christians.  

According to the signatories, India has been the home to Christianity since the first century CE, long before its introduction in other parts of the world that are predominantly Christian today. In spite of this Christians and other minorities, are made to feel like strangers in their own country, and guilty for following their faiths – with the tacit approval of political or law enforcement authorities.

“It is the duty of the State to safeguard the secular character of our country, to protect every citizen, and ensure the enjoyment of his or her fundamental rights, regardless of religion. But it is doing little to protect religious minorities. As Prime Minister of our country, and all of its people including Muslims, Christians and other religious minorities, and as a leading member of the BJP, we ask you to speak out against these outrageous acts, and to ensure that the police and other officials prevent such incidents from recurring. Christians, today, and, all other minorities, need to be reassured that they are no fewer citizens of India than their Hindu brethren,” the former civil servants added.

 “Hate speech has serious consequences. And the arc is swinging visibly from anti-Muslim to anti-Christian, not in one gory riot but in a series of provocations like church vandalism, defiling of statues, beating up worshippers, the bogey of conversions, and public calls for genocide from the nation’s capital. These together with the various anti-conversion laws intimidate and create a climate of fear among Christians and marginalize them. This may not be the case in the north-east, with its well-organised Christian communities, but exhibits itself repeatedly in the rest of the country to achieve partisan political gains,” the former civil servants asserted in their open letter to the Prime Minister.

“All violence can be stopped immediately with just a word from the top leaders of the BJP, the Union government and each state government. As former civil servants, we also know that silence will beget only more violence.  Christians, like all Indians now, need to be assured of equal and unbiased treatment by the executive and before the law.  It is imperative that you, Mr Prime Minister, give them this reassurance” they pleaded.

The 93 signatories who claimed to be part of a Constitutional Conduct Group included the following: