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India: Christians widely considered to be “second-class citizens”

February 13, 2019

This story confirms many others from India, indicating that Hindu extremists regard Christians as an alien and foreign element that must be resisted. This is odd in light of the fact that the Christian faith has been in India for nearly 2,000 years; nonetheless, it threatens Christians of all faith traditions. Please pray for safety and peace for the Christians of India.

“Christian persecution: Expert reveals Christians became ‘SECOND CLASS citizens’ in India,” by Gerrard Kaonga, Express, February 13, 2019:

CHRISTIAN persecution expert reveals that in India Christians are considered “second class citizens” because of Hindu extremists and an increase in “toxic” nationalism.

Senior Policy Officer of the Christian Persecution charity Open Doors, Mathew Rees, revealed that in countries around the world Christians are violently abused because of their faith. The Open Doors charity release an annual list of countries where persecution of Christians is most prevalent – the surprising addition to the top 10 this year was India. Mr Rees explained the rise in Hindu extremism and strict national identity conformity pressures have resulted in the nation seeing a substantial increase in harm towards followers of the Christian faith.

During an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, the Charity Policy Officer revealed that persecution of Christians is getting worse and unlikely to change quickly.

Mr Rees said: “It is definitely a surprise to lots of people that India is so high up on our list.

“India is the biggest democracy in the world and it is also a country that is looking to put Man in space by 2022.

“So it is really surprising to people that India is on our list and it is so high.

“Unfortunately, what we have seen, again it is interesting because it is really in the last five years that we have seen this escalation and we have seen a really toxic environment about the way people are talking about the what it means to be Indian.

“So, unfortunately, there is a lot of Hindu extremism that has developed in India and it is also a lot of nationalism and connecting national identity of being Indian with Hinduism.”

The Charity worker added that a narrative Christianity was not part of the Indian identity was beginning to develop with a lot of high profile politicians which then filtered down into society….