The firsthand information about the persecutions and assaults endured by the Christian community in the country, particularly in BJP-ruled states, shared by civil society members at a press meet in Delhi, explained how Christians were being socially excluded and attacked, and how the trend of normalising right-wing attacks on prayer meetings, pastors and priests was endangering the constitutional right to freedom of worship due to institutional failures.
Addressing a press conference at the Press Club of India following the People’s Tribunal on Violence Against Christians in India, convened by Karwan-e-Mohabbat, activists, lawyers, researchers and community representatives painted a grim picture of mounting hostility against Christians across several states.
The tribunal, which followed field visits and hearings in Chhattisgarh and Odisha earlier this year, heard extensive testimonies from survivors, human rights defenders and community leaders documenting what participants described as a systematic pattern of violence, discrimination and civic exclusion directed at Christians, particularly among Adivasi and Dalit populations.
Testimonies from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Odisha recounted attacks on churches and prayer gatherings, assaults on pastors and priests, arbitrary arrests under anti-conversion laws, social and economic boycotts, expulsions from villages and the denial of burial rights.
Witnesses also described the closure of places of worship, forced displacement and sustained intimidation allegedly carried out by organised right-wing groups.
Veteran journalist and human rights activist John Dayal cautioned that the constitutional guarantees of freedom of conscience and religion were facing an unprecedented challenge.
He argued that the evidence presented before the tribunal pointed not merely to isolated acts of violence but to a broader pattern of institutional failure, wherein authorities entrusted with safeguarding constitutional rights had repeatedly failed to act.
A.C. Michael of the United Christian Forum warned that peaceful prayer meetings and places of worship were increasingly being portrayed as threats to public order, contributing to a climate in which hostility towards Christians was becoming normalised.
Lawyer Siju Thomas highlighted what he described as the weaponisation of social exclusion, citing cases involving ostracisation, denial of access to community resources, restrictions on burial rights and the misuse of legal provisions affecting Christian Adivasis.
The tribunal’s members, including Pamela Philipose, Syeda Hameed, Irfan Ali Engineer, Tanika Sarkar and Harsh Mander, collectively expressed alarm over what they characterised as a systematic erosion of fundamental freedoms. They warned that the cumulative evidence revealed not sporadic prejudice but an entrenched architecture of exclusion threatening the constitutional promise of equality, dignity and religious liberty.