In Depth:  India

Iain Taylor

A leading Christian human-rights organisation working in south east Asia is demanding action by Sir Keir Starmer following the brutal murder of a Christian woman by her own Hindu relatives.

Bindu Sodhi, 46, from the village of Toylanka in Chhattisgarh, was assaulted with arrows and axes by fanatical Hindu relatives who opposed her conversion to Christianity four years ago.

The Legislative Assembly of the South Indian state of Karnataka has passed a law that criminalises religious conversions through force, fraud or allurement. It is the tenth state in India so to do. Penalties range from fines of £250–£300 to prison for three to ten years.

Some suggest the legislation is to curb Muslim organisations who lure non-Muslim girls to marry Muslim men and oblige the bride to convert to Islam.

Tribal animists have forced more than 50 Christians from three villages to flee their homes and take shelter in the jungles of eastern India. But when they notified the police about the attacks, instead of receiving help, they were told to renounce Christ to resolve the conflict.

One Christian said: ‘They told us that we should step back, deny our Christian faith and come back to our tribal fold; only then peace will return. But what is the use of such a faith?’

Christians across India are living in constant fear as a systematic campaign of violent harassment, rape and murder is waged against them.

This is the finding of a disturbing new report ‘Destructive Lies’ by the London School of Economics, commissioned by Christian charity Open Doors and presented to Parliament in July.

Iain Taylor

22million cases. Almost 250,000 deaths. Funeral pyres burning in car parks. And, most recently, the partially-burned bodies of 40 people or more washed up on the banks of the ‘sacred’ River Ganges. These are the terrifying numbers and distressing scenes we have seen on our TV screens as the Covid disaster in India has unfolded.

But how are churches in India responding to this epic disaster? Pastor Devender Verma is senior pastor of Delhi Bible Fellowship Church and director of the School of Biblical Teaching which trains pastors all over North India, in both rural and urban areas.

Mohini Christina, as she now calls herself, comes from a high-ranking Brahmin priestly family, but through a series of events, knew she needed a saviour. Jesus miraculously revealed himself to her in a dream where she found salvation, love, and rescue for her floundering marriage.

Mohini had always had religion at the centre of life. However, from the moment of becoming engaged to Bharath Krishna, she began to experience unexplainable bouts of depression and loneliness, suffered nightmares and developed cervical spondylitis. It transpired that another woman had consulted witches to curse Mohini due to jealousy of her marriage to Bharath.

Under pressure from an official in the ruling Hindu nationalist political party, police in Uttar Pradesh state released a suspect without charges over the attempted killing of a pastor in May.

‘When we entered the police station for the identification process, the attacker was treated like a VIP, not as a criminal,’ said Deepak Kumar, the brother-in-law of the pastor. ‘He was released the same day, even after we insisted that he is the one.’

A pastor in northern India, who was beaten and paraded through streets with his head half-shaved as crowds called for him to be cut to pieces, said he is thankful that he was counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ.

On 29 January, Hindu extremists posing as policemen picked up Avdhesh Savita, a 35-year-old father of four, from his home in Rendhar village in Uttar Pradesh state and took him to Orai, Jalaun District. They beat him, shaved half of his head, one eyebrow and one side of his moustache, and put him on a donkey as they led him in a procession through Orai. They and others in the frenzied crowd mocked him, falsely accusing him of forcible conversion.