News

India: Christians “living in fear”

October 3, 2019

For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in India, see here. Note, for example, this article: “India: Persecution of Christians spikes dramatically, with 77 incidents in January and February.” Please continue to pray that the Christians in India would by the mercy of Almighty God be strengthened to endure their suffering, and that the hearts of the Hindu radicals who are harassing and attacking Christians would be transformed, like that of Saint Paul, who also once persecuted the Church.

“India: Christians ‘living in fear,'” by Fionn Shiner, ICN, October 2, 2019:

Christians across India are “living in fear” because of acts of state-led violence and oppression, says the bishop of a region still recovering from one of the country’s worst outbreaks of persecution.

Speaking to leading Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Kishore Kumar Kujur of Rourkela described how the government in India is “causing problems” – with support from “right-wing” groups hostile to Christians and other minorities.

He said: “Christians are living mostly in fear at present – much more [so] in the north, where they are a minority.”

Underlining the severity of the threat, the bishop said his safety would be put at risk if he released key details about the oppression and persecution suffered by Christians and other minorities.

Bishop Kujur’s diocese covers part of Odisha state (formerly Orissa), where an anti-Christian pogrom in 2008 left 100 or more dead, 50,000 homeless, with attacks on 4,500 houses and 250 churches.

The bishop said: “Since 2002, there have been problems. There is a fear about how the government will react now the right wing has taken over. We have apprehensions it will not go well for the Christians.”

In 2018 there were 477 anti-Christian incidents in India, according to a US-based charity Persecution Relief, up from 440 in 2017….

In 2018, according to reports, 100 churches were forced to close following attacks and threats….