Apoorvanand 
What kind of country is this, where a person is not allowed to bury his dead father in his village only because he is a Christian? What kind of people prevent a man from burying his father next to his ancestors?
And what should we say about the state that not only refuses to protect the rights of the individual against the gangsterism of villagers, but accuses him of conspiring to create conflict in society through his insistence on burying his father in his village? And what do we say about that country where the Supreme Court proves to be helpless to implement the constitution since the ‘people’ might be offended by it?
What kind of country is this where a couple is punished for teaching good things to people and talking about Christ?
The name of this country is India.
What does the Republic of India look like on its 75th anniversary? These two news stories and a report by the United Christian Forum show that our republic is ailing.
One news item is from Chhattisgarh and the other from Uttar Pradesh. Both tell us about the oppression and disenfranchisement of Christians.
The report shows these stories are not exceptions; they are part of the violence that Christians in this country face daily.
According to the United Christian Forum’s report, reported attacks on the Christian community increased from 127 in 2014 to 834 in 2024.
The forum registered 149 cases of physical violence, 209 cases of assault on Christian property, 798 cases of threats and harassment, and 331 cases of attacks on prayers and religious programs. Only 392 cases were registered by the police as FIRs, showing how reluctant Indian police are to consider violence against Christians as crimes.
From President Droupadi Murmu’s home state, we received news of two tribal women – accused of trying to covert other tribals and one of whom was identified as a Christian – being tortured by being tied to a tree, beaten and disfigured. Murmu is a proud Odishan, but as the country’s president, she sits on a throne too elevated for these women’s cries to reach her.
When we see that the state’s chief minister had campaigned for the release of Dara Singh, who burned Graham Staines and his children to death, we understand the silence of the president, who belongs to the same BJP as the CM. High office does not necessarily elevate one’s thoughts.
In her Republic Day address to the nation, the president made no mention of violence against Christians. Perhaps she does not consider this unprecedented increase in attacks on Christians over ten years an achievement of their government.
Also read: How the False Conversion Case Against This Dalit Labourer Fell Apart
Many, however, think she should have acknowledged that one of the government’s achievements is the rise in violence against Christians. She should have said that her government has created an atmosphere of ease of violence against Christians.
Now, people can enter their houses, disrupt their birthday parties and prayer meetings, vandalise their places of worship and schools, beat up pastors and deny their dead burial places.
Nothing will happen to the perpetrators. Instead, the Christians will be arrested and punished.
But as human beings, we must ask: what kind of country is it where only Christians have to worry about attacks on Christians, and the rest of society remains deaf to their concerns? The prime minister of India issues statements about violence against Christians outside India, but in India, Christians are being attacked and arrested for having and distributing Bibles, and churches are being targeted.
During Christmas season, he visits churches and meets religious leaders, but lets the blood of Christians flow.
Are only Hindus allowed to preach their religion in India?
You must have heard that a court in Uttar Pradesh has sentenced a Christian couple from Kerala to five years in prison. According to report in The Wire, “On January 22, Special SC/ST Act Judge Ram Vilas Singh convicted Jose Papachen and his wife Sheeja to five years’ imprisonment under Section 5(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Law Against Prohibition of Religious Conversion Act and imposed a fine of 25,000 rupees on each of them.”
The report states,
“Judge Singh held the couple guilty of inducing poverty-stricken Dalits in Shahpur Firoz village in Ambedkar Nagar in eastern UP to ‘mass’ convert them from Hindu to Christian. The court said the couple used to impart lessons from the Bible, propagate about Jesus Christ, distribute religious books, organise bhandaras (feasts) on Christmas, and offer money and other allurements to the Dalits, asking them to follow Jesus in a bid to convert them.”
Justice Singh gave this judgment despite the Allahabad high court’s ruling 16 months prior that the BJP official who lodged an FIR against the couple had no legal standing as he was not an aggrieved person.
No Dalit has complained against the couple. Rather, most Dalits said that Papachen and Sheeja used to teach them good things, advised them to live amicably, encouraged them to study and to stay away from alcohol.
Yes, they also gave them pictures of Jesus and prayed with them, but the Dalits had no objection. It was the BJP official who made it an issue, and the court readily accepted his statement.
Also read: Do Indians Have Right to Freedom of Religion? Constitution Says Yes, but the Laws Say No.
How does distribution of the Bible and pictures of Jesus become a crime? In trains, buses and on the street, we are often approached by Hindu proselytisers offering copies of the Gita. Should I complain about them? Should they be arrested? Or are we trying to say that distribution of the Gita is acceptable in this country but the Quran and Bible are texts which fundamentally change us and are therefore criminal?
Are only Hindus allowed to preach their religion in this country? Do others become criminals if they talk about their religion?
The high court made it clear that the BJP official who lodged the FIR was not affected in any way and refused any action against the Christian couple. But the SC/ST court proceeded and accepted the plea of the BJP official. Have the courts now started accepting the BJP or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as the guardians of Hindus, as they had validated their status as the guardians of ‘Ram Lalla’?
Solicitor general’s arguments suggest it is a conspiracy to be Christian in India
The second news item is from a village in Chhattisgarh. Ramesh Baghel’s father died on January 7. His body was kept in the mortuary because villagers did not permit his burial in the graveyard. The panchayat did not support Baghel. The high court rejected his plea, citing potential law and order problems.
What we see is the state apparatus, including the courts, refusing to safeguard the constitutional rights of an individual against the dictates of communities.
Baghel had to approach the Supreme Court. The court said,
“Sorry to say that a man has to come to the Supreme Court for the burial of his father. We are sorry to say that neither the panchayat, nor the state government or the high court was able to resolve this problem. We are surprised by the high court’s remark that there will be law and order problem. We are pained to see that a person is unable to bury his father and has to come to the Supreme Court.”
But the solicitor general warned the court against being guided by humanitarian sentiments. He said that Baghel wanted to create conflict in the village by insisting on burying his father near his dear ones. He suspected a larger conspiracy in it, a nationwide conspiracy!
What we understood from the vicious statement of the solicitor general was that it was a conspiracy to be a Christian in India.
The Supreme Court succumbed to this nationalist argument even when one of the judges of the two-judge bench showed her constitutional firmness by ordering the burial in the village itself, but later in deference to the opinion of the other judge who felt that ‘public order’ is more important than constitutional rights, ultimately agreed that the body be buried in a burial ground 20 kilometres from the village.
We can understand when the BJP and the RSS say so because this is part of their ideology – when they say that your Christianity is a disturbing element – but if the state apparatus also starts believing this, we should be alarmed.
Are we? Or are Christians destined to grieve in their loneliness?
Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at Delhi University.