Indian Christians’ trust in the government has become shaky in the wake of increased attacks on Christians and members of the clergy, says Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

The cardinal was addressing the media in New Delhi on Dec. 20 after visiting a central Indian city where Hindu activists attacked two Catholic priests and 30 seminarians accusing them of attempting religious conversion.

The Christians, who were in a village singing Christmas carols, were attacked and their car torched just outside a police station. Police in Madhya Pradesh State kept them in custody for a night. The administration acted under pressure from Hindu groups, Cardinal Cleemis claimed.

Modi’s pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) runs the government in 18 of 29 Indian states, including Madhya Pradesh, where Christians leaders say the administration is unwilling to act against Hindu fanatic groups.

“The anxiety of the religious minorities is increasing because of the lack of confidence in the administration. So the onus is on the government to bring back the confidence of religious minorities,” Cardinal Cleemis said. Frequently, Christians are attacked on allegation that they violate laws that regulate religious conversion. These laws also make it a criminal offence to attempt to convert anyone using fraud, inducement or allurement. Often Christian work in the fields of education and health care of villagers can be interpreted as inducement or allurement.

A Hindu group has warned Christian schools in Aligarh area of Uttar Pradesh State not to celebrate Christmas in schools alleging that such celebrations are aimed at converting majority Hindu students in these institutions.

Hindu Jagaran Manch state secretary Sanju Bajaj said his organization will issue letters to all Christian schools to refrain from Christmas celebrations. “If the schools fail to follow our directives, we will stage protest outside the institutions,” the Times of India quoted him as saying. Sonu Savita, local leader of the group, claimed Christian schools ask Hindu students to bring toys, gifts and celebrate the Christmas.

“This is the easy way to lure them to Christianity,” he said. The organization is also taking to parents and appealing them to oppose these celebrations, he said adding such activities influence the Hindu students. The Manch’s move has “shocked Christians in Aligarh,” said Advocate Osmand Charles in a statement.

For survivors of one the early 21st century’s worst spasms of anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal in eastern India in 2008, the nine Christmases they’ve marked since have taken on a special meaning, as a reminder of the origins of the faith for which they suffered. Arguably no one has reflected more deeply on that connection than Sr Meena Barwa, the niece of Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, who was raped amid the violence and then paraded naked in the village by her attackers, in a final act of humiliation. Overall, the carnage in Kandhamal left at least 100 people dead, thousands injured, hundreds of churches and other Christian sites destroyed, and an estimated 50,000 people taking refuge in a nearby forest for weeks, where more died of snakebite, thirst and hunger.

Barwa said she finds herself thinking and praying over what happened to her in a special way during the Christmas season. “After the incident, many times I celebrated Christmas alone with baby Jesus, and those moments that I spent with my master [have been] the best moments of my life I’ve been experiencing in exile ever since the incident,” she said, in a Christmas letter written for Crux.

Siji Antony was initially thrilled when, after many hurdles, she received her visa for a medical nurse’s job in Saudi Arabia in 2013. A handsome salary and the lure of a big city added to the excitement. But her joy was short-lived.

The restrictions on the practices of her Catholic faith in the kingdom was a major cause for concern. In her home state of Kerala in southern India, she attended Mass daily. “The prospect of living without Sunday Mass was horrifying for me,” she said. Siji belongs to the Syro-Malabar rite, one of the three rites that make up the Catholic Church in India. Based in Kerala, they trace the origin of their faith to St Thomas the Apostle who, according to tradition, visited India in the first century and where it is said he died.

Starved of a religious practice she was accustomed too, Siji thought of inviting her Christian colleagues on Sundays for group prayer in her hostel room.

“I can only pray silently in my room. I have done so for the last four years. I speak of my miseries to God directly,” Siji told. She is now searching for a job in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the rulers permit people to practice their different faiths.

Of these, church records list some 400,000 Catholics of the Syro-Malabar rite. A 2013 church survey revealed some 75 percent of the migrants are young people aged between 20 and 32. Fr Shaji Kochupurayil, secretary of the Syro-Malabar Church’s Commission for Evangelization and Pastoral Care of the Migrants, said the migrants have spread across nations such as Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The situation in Saudi Arabia “is very difficult” regarding religious practices of Christians, Father Kochupurayil told.

Archbishop Susapakiam of Thiruvananthapuram and Kerala Regional Latin Catholic Council representatives have demanded Rs 3500 crore package from the Centre for the Ockhi-affected people in Kerala. “The package should include protection of coastal area, basic development of fishermen community, availability of communication facility and house construction.

Fishermen should be given 25% representation in Navy, Coastguard and Marine police. The disaster management facility in the eastern coast of India should be made available in Kerala. The Centre should start Fisheries ministry,” they demanded.

They said a memorandum would be submitted to the Prime Minister including the above demands.

Hundreds of disgruntled fishermen and their family members blocked the national highway for over five hours on Dec 9 demand-ing the government agencies take additional steps to find the fishermen who are still missing in the sea.

The protest under the banner of Kerala Regional Latin Catholic Council started at 10am and lasted until 3.30 pm. The agitation was called off after the state government assured them that more fishermen would be taken aboard the vessels going for search and rescue operations from December 9 onwards.

Fishermen in Paruthiyoor and Pozhiyoor coastal villages had been alleging apathy on the part of authorities in carrying out search and rescue operations to trace fishermen from the area.

Fr Eugine Pereira, vicar general of Trivandrum Latin archdiocese, said a few local fishermen who were not satisfied with the search and rescue activities of the government ventured into the sea on Dec 7. They went up to 172 nautical miles off the coast and spotted wreckages of several country boats and a couple of bodies. “After returning to the sea, they had been demanding more search and rescue operations, but there was no response from the part of the government. That is why they were forced to block the highway,” the vicar general said. So far 56 persons are found to be dead.

Catholic dioceses in the southern Indian coastal regions have appealed to help people devastated by cyclone Ockhi that hit the Trivandrum and Kanya-kumari districts on Nov. 29. Several hundred fishermen are feared missing, Fr Deepak Anto, executive secretary of the media commission of the Latin Arch-diocese of Trivandrum, wrote in an email to the Vatican’s Secre-tariat for Communication urging for help.

Fr Deepak said the affected Trivandrum Archdiocese and Tamil Nadu’s Kottar Diocese “are very much engaged in the rescue operation and relief work” in collaboration with the state and central governments.

Trivandrum Archdiocese has appealed to draw attention to the emergency that the international and national media have “unfortunately” “not given enough coverage,” Fr Deepak said.

The Latin Catholic Church has decided to intensify its agitation until all fishermen left stranded in the outer sea by cyclone Ockhi are rescued.

A meeting of the pastoral council under the Thiruvanantha-puram archdiocese of the Church, convened by Archbishop Soosa Pakiam M., decided to launch day-and-night agitations at various places including Thiru-vananthapuram, Kochi and Tuti-corin on December 11.

A demonstration will also be taken out to the Raj Bhavan in protest against the delay in rescuing those missing.

Secretariat siege: Vicar-General Eugene H. Pereira told media persons that the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard were hesitant about expanding their search in the outer sea. The Church demanded that the Centre deploy defence aircraft in the rescue effort. The agitation will continue until the last person is rescued.