The stench of smoke still rises from burnt churches in Manipur. In Uttar Pradesh, a pastor sits in jail on fabricated conversion charges while his congregation prays in secret. Across Odisha, Christian families flee villages where they have lived for generations.
This is not India’s past — this is India’s present. And the church’s response? Mostly silence, punctuated by gentle appeals for peace that fall on deaf ears.
There were seven hundred or more documented attacks on Christians in the last year. Each number represents a family terrorized, a church vandalized, a life shattered.
Yet these statistics barely scratch the surface of a systematic campaign to erase Christianity from the Indian landscape. While politicians speak of “unity in diversity,” the reality tells a different story — one where being Christian increasingly means being hunted.
The hunter’s tools are sophisticated. Anti-conversion laws have spread across Indian states, each craftily worded to sound reasonable while being vague enough to criminalize breathing while Christian.
In Uttar Pradesh, the law carries prison sentences up to ten years for “unlawful conversion.” The evidence required. Practically none. An accusation suffices. A rumor becomes gospel truth in the hands of zealots who have found legal cover for their hatred.
These are not random acts of village-level intolerance — they are part of a coordinated strategy.
The Hindutva project has always viewed Christians as foreign implants, cultural contaminants who must be purged or absorbed. What is new is the brazenness, the open celebration of violence, and the way perpetrators pose for selfies next to burning crosses. They no longer hide because they no longer need to.
In Manipur, this takes an even more sinister turn. The ethnic conflict between Meiteis and Kuki-Zos is not just about land — it is about faith.
The Kuki-Zo people are predominantly Christian, and their churches have become primary targets. Videos of women being paraded naked and of entire villages fleeing into forests — these images should have broken the nation’s conscience.
Instead, they barely register in national discourse. Christian suffering has been normalized, made invisible.
The church’s response has been tragically inadequate. For decades, Indian Christianity has operated under a misguided theology of suffering that confuses martyrdom with passivity.
Leaders speak of “bearing the cross” while their flocks are literally crucified by mob violence. They quote scriptures about turning the other cheek while ignoring the prophetic tradition that demands justice for the oppressed. This is not biblical faithfulness — it is spiritual suicide.
The time for polite requests has passed. When your house is on fire, you do not organize a seminar on fire safety — you fight the flames. Indian Christians need to understand that their survival depends not on others’ goodwill but on their own courage to resist.
This resistance must be smart and systematic. Document every attack, every threat, every discrimination. Use technology, social media, and international networks. Make persecution expensive for perpetrators by ensuring global attention.
The church has allies, including human rights organizations, international Christian bodies, sympathetic journalists, and secular Indians who uphold constitutional values. These allies need ammunition, and that ammunition is evidence.
Legal warfare is essential. Challenge every anti-conversion law, every discriminatory policy, and every instance of police complicity. Make the courts address the constitutional crisis these laws represent. Yes, the judiciary has biases, but legal victories create precedents and force conversations.
Political engagement cannot be avoided. The church’s traditional reluctance to engage in politics is a luxury it can no longer afford. This does not mean becoming a voting bloc for any party, but it does mean making politicians pay a price for their silence on persecution. Vote strategically, support secular candidates, and forge alliances with other minority groups.
In Manipur specifically, the church must choose sides — the side of peace and reconciliation. With the moral authority that politicians often lack, Christian leaders can build bridges between communities, offer sanctuary to all victims regardless of their ethnicity, and model the unity they preach. This is dangerous work that will invite attacks from all sides, but it is the only way to break cycles of violence.
International pressure matters enormously. Christianity is a global faith, and Indian Christians must capitalize on this reality. When American senators question trade deals over religious freedom, when European parliaments pass resolutions condemning persecution — these actions have consequences. The Indian government takes great care in maintaining its international image.
The church also needs internal reformation. Denominational divisions that make Catholics suspicious of Protestants and that keep mainline churches distant from Pentecostals are luxuries the community cannot afford. Unity does not require uniformity, but it demands cooperation. A house divided against itself cannot stand, especially when under siege.
Critics will argue that this approach risks escalating conflict, as aggressive advocacy may provoke further violence. They are missing the point — the violence is already here, already escalating. Appeasement has failed. Silence has failed. What has not been tried is organized, sustained, intelligent resistance.
The early Christians transformed Rome not through accommodation but through a stubborn refusal to disappear. They were called atheists and enemies of the state, yet they persisted. Indian Christians face the same choice — resist or vanish. The comfortable middle ground is disappearing.
The question is not whether Indian Christians will face more persecution — they will. The question is whether they will face it as organized resistance fighters or as scattered, helpless victims. The church must stop dying quietly and start living loudly. Its survival depends on it.
The article was published in the ucanews