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.
For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in India, see here.
“Sikh in India Leads Pastor into Knife Attack,” Morning Star News, November 6, 2022:
HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – A Christian pastor in northern India who drives a taxi for a living didn’t think he had anything to fear when a well-mannered Sikh asked him to take a slight detour.
Pastor Sukhdev Mark, 47, had dropped him off the previous night at a hotel in Ambala, Haryana state after picking him up from a gurdwara, or Sikh place of worship. During their conversation, Pastor Mark gave him a gospel tract, which the Sikh politely accepted, he said.
The Sikh called him the next day, Sept. 15, requesting that he take him from the hotel to the airport in Amritsar.
“I said, ‘Fine, I have no problem,’ then he asked me again, ‘Are you a pastor?’” Pastor Mark said. “I told him, yes, I lead a small church and also share the gospel, and I drive a taxi for a living.’”
The Sikh told him to pick him up at the hotel at 4 p.m., he said.
“Throughout the journey to Amritsar, we didn’t talk much,” said Pastor Mark, a married father of two. “He was working on his laptop and had an iPhone, and so I thought he must be an educated man. I didn’t find him suspicious as he appeared to be a well-educated gentleman. He asked for my phone and set the location for directions to follow the route.”
As they approached the Celebrations Resort on the Majitha-Verka bypass road, the Sikh asked him to take a small by-lane, Pastor Mark said.
“There were some shops and, I thought he would want to buy some refreshments or snacks,” he said. “But he asked me to drive out of the by-lane, and as we got out of that route adjacent to the resort, three men came on a scooter and stopped the taxi on the main road.”
The Activa scooter didn’t have a license plate, he said. Pastor Mark asked the Sikh if he knew the men, and he replied that they were friends.
“I parked the taxi on the other side of the road and stood there,” he said. “He asked me to take his bags out of the trunk, and when I went to the rear side of the taxi to take the bags out, the three men pounced on me with knives. They had cutters and knives and started slashing me as the Sardarji [title used for Sikh men] looked on.”
The assailants cut his hands and caused internal injuries in his abdomen, he said.
“I was bleeding profusely, and I started shouting for help,” Pastor Mark told Morning Star News. “When I started shouting for help, the three assailants crossed the road and ran away, and the Sardarji also was trying to escape from the scene.”…
