Indian Christians have sought President Droupadi Murmu’s intervention to end the rising religious persecution against them by hardline Hindu groups in many parts of the country. Christians of different denominations, united under the banner of the national front Rashtriya Christian Morcha, handed a memorandum addressed to Murmu to the district collector of Jabalpur in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on June 9. Atul Joseph, who led the 50-member delegation, said the top district official assured them that he would forward their petition to the president for her consideration. “We were forced to write to the honorable president as Christians continue to face violent attacks and false cases of conversion in different parts of the country daily,” Joseph told on June 10. The four-page memorandum stated that Christians, who comprise 2.3 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people, “always upheld the constitutional values” and “secular and democratic principles” of the country. “Despite this right-wing Hindu groups constantly targeted us to the extent that in many states, even holding a routine prayer meeting has become troublesome for us,” it said. The memorandum further highlighted the plight of Christians of Dalit (former untouchables) and indigenous origins, saying, “they have been discriminated against and forced to bear increasing hostilities and violence.” The Christians also sought Murmu’s intervention in stopping the gross misuse of anti-conversion laws in many states, such as Uttar Pradesh in northern India, and central states like Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Christian churches and prayer gatherings are targeted by hardline Hindu mobs by wrongly labelling them as religious conversion activities.
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