INDIA
Christians and other minorities fear that Hindu nationalism and religious intolerance will continue to grow during 2021.
Hindu extremists attacked churches and individual believers throughout 2020. According to India’s Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Christians suffered 225 incidents of religiously motivated violence during the first ten months of 2020 – compared to 218 incidents in the same period in 2019. Many of these attacks were by vigilante mobs.
In September 2020, for example, Hindu extremists incited mobs of up to 3,000 people to attack Christians in three villages in Chhattisgarh state.
Since the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) took power in 2014 – and especially following the landslide victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2019 – there has been a significant rise in the number of attacks against Christians.
The coronavirus has also affected persecuted Christians. ‘It has been a challenging task to reach out to the victims of violence during the outbreak of the pandemic,’ said Release partner the All India Christian Council. ‘A number of frontline workers were infected with Covid-19 during the second wave in the middle of 2020.’ Release International.
