Christians in India will look upon 2024 as a year that challenged their faith and resilience with increased hostility, internal conflicts, scandals, power struggles, and natural cala-mities. Attacks against and harassment of Christians swelled this year amid growing hostility, particularly against those in remote villages of Hindu-dominated northern states, Christian leaders say. January through Sept-ember, Christians suffered 585 incidents, an all-time high, according to the United Chri-stian Forum (UCF), which documents violence against Christians based on the information they receive through its helpline calls.
Northern Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, has become the worst place for Christians as the BJP-led state government added more teeth to its draconian anti-conversion law in August. The amend-ment added a provision of life imprisonment or up to 20 years in jail for religious conver-sion and toughened the bail provisions. It also allowed anyone to complain about a law violation, changing the earlier provision that allowed only a victim of conversion or a close relative to do so. Uttar Pradesh reported 156 of 585 anti-Christian incidents, the highest among India’s 28 states to report such cases. Scores of Christians are arrested on charges of violating the anti-conversion charges. Several of them continue in jail, waiting for bail. In northeastern Manipur state, an ethnic violence that erupted on May 3, 2023, conti-nues between minority indigenous Christians and the Meitei Hindu majority. Christian groups accuse the state’s BJP-led government of supporting violence against Christians. The violence has so far killed at least 250 and displaced some 60,000, most of them Chri-stians who live in government shelter homes, clueless as to when they can return to their homes that are either in ruins or burnt down. With Hindu groups holding a firmer grip on political institutions, antagonism of Christians has spread across governing systems, with many taking legal measures to harass Christians and deprive them of the benefits they have enjoyed thus far. India’s Supreme Court on Nov. 7 backed a 2014 federal Income Tax Department order requiring nuns and priests working in government-aided Christian schools to pay tax on their salaries. The top court dismissed 93 appeals against the order.