By Anugrah KumarChristian Mail Contributor Sunday, August 11, 2024

More than 300 Christian leaders in the United States, including denominational leaders, are calling on the US State Department to designate India as a “Country of Special Concern” amid increasing violations of religious freedoms, particularly against Christians.

A a letter sent earlier this month is in response to increasing violence and systematic persecution under the Hindu nationalist government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The signatories include a wide range of church leaders from various denominations, with 18 bishops, three archbishops and numerous clergy and leaders of theological schools and Christian organizations.

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The leaders say the persecution of religious minorities in India has worsened considerably since the Modi regime began in 2014. The letter marks the first concerted effort by American Christian leaders to address religious persecution in India.

“This increase in violence is driven by a Hindu nationalist or Hindu supremacist political ideology that fuses militant Hindu ideology with Indian civic identities,” the letter reads. “As a result, both the Hindu religion and India's constitutional secular democracy have been seriously distorted, leading to alarming levels of state-sanctioned violence against Christians, lower-caste Dalits, and other religious minorities both on the streets and within state structures.”

The letter, organized by the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations in North America, refers to a January 2024 petition signed by more than 3,000 ecumenical Christian leaders in India, condemning the Indian government's alleged state-sanctioned human rights abuses against religious minorities.

Citing a report by the United Christian Forum, the letter notes a drastic increase in attacks against Christians, from 127 incidents in 2014 to 720 in 2023.

The persecution has caused more than 65,000 people to be displaced in Manipur and more than 400 churches have been destroyed or damaged as of May 2023, the letter points out. Another report from Chhattisgarh noted that more than 2,500 Christians were forcibly displaced between December 2022 and February 2023 for their refusal to convert to Hinduism.

Showing the severity of the situation, the letter is based on international rankings such as the US persecution watchdog International Christian Concern, which places India as the third worst persecutor of Christians worldwide.

The signatories of the letter call on the State Department to take several actions, including the designation of India as a CPC under the International Religious Freedom Act. Countries designated as CPC face the possibility of negative consequences, including possible crippling sanctions.

The Christian leaders are urging the State Department to hold Indian government officials accountable for violations of religious freedoms, to consider targeted sanctions, and to support independent religious and human rights organizations in both India and the United States.

The letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken argues that US silence on these issues contrasts sharply with its geopolitical alliance with India and urges the State Department not to ignore these severe violations.

“The Indian government has cut off funding to hundreds of Christian schools and hospitals that educated and cared for all people regardless of caste or religion,” the letter notes. “International support is being cut off by rampant application of India's Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, affecting thousands of internationally respected organizations such as Amnesty International, Compassion International, World Vision and Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. This leaves Indian Christians isolated, fearful and fragile.”

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticized the Indian government for advocating violence against minorities with impunity. The letter also refers to the “anti-conversion” legislation enforced in at least 10 Indian states that criminalizes religious conversion, resulting in the arrest of thousands of Christians.

In January, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan commission that advises the federal government and Congress on international religious freedom issues, criticized the State Department for its refusal to include India and Nigeria on the CCP's list.

“We have met with the State Department on numerous occasions to sound the alarm about these countries, but not all of our recommendations have been followed,” then USCIRF President Abraham Cooper and Vice President Frederick A. Davie said in a January statement.

In its annual report on international religious freedom, the State Department addressed concerns about religious freedom in India. During a press conference in June to launch this year's report, Blinken discussed the “concerning increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, and demolitions of homes and places of worship for members of minority faith communities” in India. The report stated that at least 10 of India's 28 states have passed policies that restrict “religious conversions for all faiths.”

“Christian communities have reported that local police have assisted mobs who disrupted church services on allegations of conversion activities or stood by while mobs attacked them and then arrested the victims on conversion charges,” US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain said at the press conference. a conference