The Parish Magazine October 2022

the parish noticeboard — 4
The Parish Magazine - October 2022 13
The Persecuted Church by Colin Bailey
Disinformation and hatred drives the persecution
of Hindu converts to Christianity throughout India
November 2019: Christians praying in a Roman Catholic church in Kerala State, South West India
In the Open Doors’ World Watch
List, the annual ranking of the 50
countries where Christians face
the most extreme persecution,
India ranked number 10 this year.
The country has a majority Hindu
population, with the number of
Christians standing at just under 69
million — 5% of the population.
Open Doors reports that the driving
force for persecution of Christians by
Hindu extremists is the ideology of
Hindutva.
Hinduism is the name given to
the most ancient and persistent
religion on the Indian subcontinent.
Hindutva is the name by which
the ideology of the Hindu right is
known, represented by the political
party BJP (Indian People’s Party).
In an Open Doors blog this
summer it was noted that anticonversion
laws are on the rise in
India and that they are often used
as a weapon to harass and persecute
believers from a Hindu background.
They have been introduced in 11
Indian states and while the wording
of the law is different in each, they
generally state that ‘no person should
convert or attempt to convert, either
directly or indirectly, any person from
one religion to another by means of force
or by allurement or by any fraudulent
means’.
In practice, these laws are used
in making false accusations of
coercion against those who have
come to Christianity from a Hindu
background and against those who
have told them the good news about
Jesus. This is despite a constitutional
promise of religious freedom,
to ‘profess, practise and propagate
religion’.
At the time of the publishing of
the blog in June this year there were
nine states with anti-conversion
laws and in those states there were
more incidents of violence against
Christians than in all the other 20
states combined.
An Open Doors spokesperson
on persecution in India said that
attitudes were hardening and that it
was no longer small extremist groups
attacking converts but rather entire
communities ‘attacking and expelling
them, beating them or handing them
over to the police on false accusations’.
Open Doors asks us to pray for
India:
Aliaksandr Mazurkevich, dreamstime.com
— For the persecuted Christians
there to stand strong in their faith
and 'shine as stars' (Philippians 2:15)
in their local communities
— For the Lord’s love and power to
be manifested through healing and
miracles
— For social media companies to
do more to combat the use of their
platforms to spread disinformation
and hatred
— For influential local leaders’
hearts to be softened towards
Christians so that greater protection
is given to them.
Amen!
REFERENCES & GIFTS
Open Doors World Watch List and
opportunities to give a gift:
https://www.opendoorsuk.org/
persecution/world-watch-list/india/
Anti-conversion laws in India:
https://www.opendoorsuk.org/news/
latest-news/anti-conversion-laws-india/
Violent persecution spiralling in India:
https://www.opendoorsuk.org/news/
latest-news/persecution-indiaprecipice/