By Diana Chandler - Posted at Baptist Press:
Published December 5, 2025
NEW DELHI (BP) – Two thousand Christians gathered in India in November to urge the government to protect religious freedoms as violence and legalized discrimination increase in the world’s most populous country.Representatives of more than 200 Christian denominations including evangelicals advocated for religious freedoms at the day-long National Christian Convention Nov. 29, spotlighting a 500 percent increase in targeted attacks against Christians from 2014-2024, religious persecution watchdog CSW reported.
More than 830 attacks against Christians were recorded in 2024, based on a report from the United Christian Forum (UCC), represented an increase from 139 such cases in 2014.
Physical assaults on pastors based on unverified allegations of forced conversions, and mobs vandalizing churches were among reported incidents. Anti-conversion laws and concerns over the Presidential Order of 1950, which continues to deny Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Christians and other Dalits, were also discussed.
“Speakers emphasized that this policy continues to trap millions in generational poverty by denying access to education reservations, employment opportunities and land rights,” CSW said in a press release. “Delegates from tribal communities highlighted mounting pressure in mineral-rich belts like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha where tribal Christians are at risk of being delisted from the Schedule Tribe list.”
Dalits in India are historically considered “untouchable” and broken, and have suffered decades of persecution in the system that puts them at the bottom of a rigid caste system, despite constitutional protections outlawing such persecution.
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