Persecution of Christians in India: Christianity has been in India since apostolic times, brought there by St. Thomas the Apostle in A.D. 52, as attested by St. Ephraim, St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory the Theologian, among others. St. Thomas was martyred in India in A.D. 72. Today the Malankara Orthodox Church of the East still survives there, an apostolic Church that broke with Holy Orthodoxy over the Council of Chalcedon in 451. There also remains a small number of Orthodox Christians under the jurisdiction of the the Holy Metropolis of Singapore. Roman Catholics and Protestants came to the Indian Subcontinent much later. As this article shows, Christians are frequently persecuted in India, treated as “Untouchables” by the Hindu majority. This persecution occasionally turns violent.
Christians of the ancient apostolic Churches are less often subjected to this treatment than are evangelical Protestants, but this persecution is a matter of concern for all Christians, and for all people of good will who believe in the dignity of every human person and in every person’s freedom to worship as his or her conscience dictates.
For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in India, see here.
“Disturbing Uptick in Violence Against Christians in India, 5 More Believers Killed for Their Faith,” by Tré Goins-Phillips, Faithwire, July 30, 2020:
A young woman in the Khunti district of Jharkhand has become the fifth victim in a string of Christians killed in India because of their faith.
The woman, 25-year-old Suman Munda, was found dead on July 19 in a deserted place near her home, according to Vatican News. Just one month earlier, on June 24, another Christian, 27-year-old Ramji Munda, was killed outside a village in the Khunti district.
Speaking out about Munda’s murder, Bishop Binay Kandulna said, “It is a matter of serious concern because the state witnessed a Christian man killed only last month in the same district.”…
In 2019, Persecution Relief, a group dedicated to helping persecuted Christians in India, recorded 527 cases of persecution against Christians, compared to 447 cases in 2018.
