New Delhi: A group of Christian women leaders, along with religious heads, community representatives, and Christian organisations, have written to the President of India, Droupadi Murmu seeking protection against escalating persecution after a six-month pregnant tribal woman in Chhattisgarh suffered a miscarriage after being attacked over her Christian faith.
On January 2, 2025, 25-year-old Kunika Kashyap, was in Bade Bodal village in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, praying for a sick relative when she was assaulted by village headman Ganga Ram Kashyap, his wife and their adult daughter for professing her Christian faith, as per the letter.
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The headman had followed her and began recording her conversation with her relative on his phone, suspecting she might pray. When the woman objected to this, he got annoyed and allegedly launched a violent assault. His wife and daughter joined in, beating her with a wooden bamboo stick, kicking her in the abdomen, chest, and head.
She was hospitalised with severe injuries. Later, she suffered a miscarriage.
“Of the approximately 120 families in the village, 50 are Christian, including Kunika and her husband, who have been practicing their faith for over 20 years. This incident has stunned our sensibilities. But this is not the first incident of its kind,” read the appeal to the president.
The letter goes on to list a series of reported incidents of violence against Christians in states including Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Manipur. “The situation in Manipur deserves special attention, where violence against Christian women has taken on devastating proportions since May 2023 and continues to affect our community,” it stated.
Rise in attacks on Christians in India
The Wire has previously reported that there has been a sharp increase in the number of such incidents since 2014, when the BJP under Narendra Modi first formed the Union government. Further, a recent data released by the United Christian Forum (UCF) revealed that 2024 witnessed 834 such incidents of violence against Christians, up 100 incidents from 734 in 2023.
Also read: 834 Attacks on Christians in India in 2024, 100 More Than 2023: Rights Group
A series of reports by Omar Rashid for The Wire further highlighted how Hindutva activists have also filed false conversion cases against people from marginalised castes who choose to follow the Christian faith.
“These systematic attacks demonstrate an alarming pattern of targeted violence that threatens our community’s existence,” the appeal stated.
“The violence has seemingly gone unnoticed by the wider population of the country, and by its political authorities, the judiciary, the bureaucracy and even civil society, perhaps because it is overtaken by the news of the massive violence on the Christian community as a whole in which children, women, and men have all been victimized for no other reason than following Jesus Christ,” it highlighted.
The undersigned women leaders of the Christian community, religious heads and representatives, have urged the president to intervene in asking judiciary, administration and police to work jointly to ensure prompt investigation of all reported cases, protection to vulnerable Christian women, action against perpetrators of violence as well as the implementation of existing constitutional safeguards.
“Above all, such violence insults the Constitution of India which guarantees not just freedom of faith, but human dignity,” the letter read.
On December 31, 2024, a group of over 400 senior Christian leaders and 30 church groups had appealed to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Modi to address the rising violence against the community.
Many such appeals have been made in the past but it remains to be seen whether the president or the prime minister take note of the matter.
