Hindus vandalise church as intolerance towards minorities grows in India

Intolerance toward Muslims and other minority groups is on the rise in Narendra Modi-led India with Hindu groups using violence, intimidation, and harassment against minorities on daily basis in the country reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

In the latest incident, a church was vandalized and a statue of Mary was left damaged in India’s Chhattisgarh state.

A video clip that went viral on social media shows that a violent mob is busy dismantling a statute of Mary.

A Hindu supremacist mob vandalizing a church in Chhattisgarh, India! pic.twitter.com/SgPvo7QDJA

— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) January 2, 2023

There were 486 instances of violence and harassment against Christians in 2021, according to a report by the United Christian Forum (UCF), a rights body that maintains a database of incidents of violence and intimidation in India. This is an increase of 74% from 2020, when 279 such cases were reported on the UFC’s helpline.

The UCF said 2021 was the “most violent year for Christians” in India, with more than 104 violent incidents recorded in the last two months of the year. The report says Uttar Pradesh saw the most hate crimes against the minority group with 102 instances, followed by Chhattisgarh with 90. Four states – these two, plus Jharkhand (44) and Madhya Pradesh (38) – recorded 274 incidents of violence, 56% of the total, against Christians.

The UCF report says that in nearly all the cases, vigilante mobs of religious extremists were observed barging into prayer gatherings or rounding up individuals. “With impunity, such mobs criminally threaten, physically assault people in prayer, before handing them over to the police on allegations of forcible conversions. Often communal sloganeering is witnessed outside police stations, where the police stand as mute spectators.”