On a humid evening in June 2019, 18-year-old Joel Salvi stepped onto the stage inside a dimly lit Catholic church in Pune, a city in India’s Maharashtra state, as nearly 50 teenagers filled the pews, murmuring with anticipation. The moment the beat dropped—deep, thumping bass vibrating the church walls—Salvi grabbed the mic. Rapping in Hindi, he launched into “Mera Khuda Aayega” (“My God Will Come”), his voice cutting through the air with urgency and conviction. With every verse, he urged the crowd to turn to God in moments of despair, as he proclaimed that even in disappointment, the Lord remains faithful.
Afterward, he remembers a young man approaching him in tears. “He felt seen and loved by God for the first time,” Salvi said. “That moment wrecked me. I knew then this wasn’t entertainment; it was ministry.”
Salvi, who comes from in a Christian family in Pune, grew up listening to American Christian rappers such as Lecrae, KB, Propaganda, Tedashii, and Sho Baraka (who is also the editorial director of CT’s Big Tent Initiative). In 2019, Salvi started writing and performing his own rap songs in churches and Christian concerts.
Today, Salvi is part of the growing number of Christian hip-hop artists in India. With distinct Indian rhythms, languages, and experiences, the pioneers of the art form are pushing against Christians more accustomed to traditional worship-band music, as well as facing the growing anti-Christian sentiment in the Hindu-dominated country. Using social media platforms and rapping at youth group meetings, these artists hope to influence a new generation of Christians.
“I grew up immersed in rhythm and poetry, but it was Christ who gave it purpose,” Salvi said.
India was first introduced to hip-hop in the 1980s through break-dancing films like Beat Street, and it grew in urban hubs like Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai. In the early 2000s, homegrown artists like Bohemia, Baba Sehgal, and Yo Yo Honey Singh localized hip-hop with regional dialogue and exposure in Bollywood films. More recently, gully rap, a socially conscious style of rap that started in Mumbai, is growing in popularity with rappers like Divine and Naezy.
By 2023, about a third of India’s top 50 songs on the audio streaming platform Spotify were hip-hop, and more than 70 percent of the country’s hip-hop listeners are Gen Z.
Varsha and Sherin Peter, twin sisters who also go by the name Hosanna Twins, said they first discovered the genre through Indian rappers Honey Singh and Raftaar in 2012.
“We were fans, but we sang devotional songs at school,” said Varsha, recalling the Christian school she and her sister attended.
The daughters of a pastor, they decided to start rapping themselves, fusing beat-driven verses with the gospel message. They performed their songs at youth group meetings, churches, and schools. In 2018, Varsha and Sherin released their first single, “Yeshu Naam” (“Jesus’ name”).
Varsha remembers that many in the Christian community were initially shocked to see girls rapping—most well-known rappers in India are male—but others were curious. The sisters viewed the novelty as an opportunity to introduce young people to Jesus.
Their father, Lambert Peter, pastor of Assemblies of God Prarthana Bhawan in Delhi, was also skeptical. Members of their church criticized their endeavor, thinking the music form was unfamiliar or worrying about rap music’s association with sex, drugs, and violence. Others believed worship music should have traditional choirs or acoustic sets.
“I used to think, How can the Lord be glorified through these things?” Peter said. But seeing how rap engaged and transformed young hearts, he embraced it: “God’s name can be glorified through hip‑hop too.”
Today, the sisters are often invited to perform at church youth group meetings and camps, where they seek to encourage Gen Zers, many of whom are dealing with high levels of stress and anxiety, to trust the Lord. For instance, in another popular single, “Kyun Darna”(“Why Fear?”), they sing about God’s presence in both the easy and the hard times. “He is my song in sorrow, in illness, in worries, in adversity,” they rap in Hindi.
The sisters, who now have 13,000 subscribers to their YouTube channel, are each pursuing a master of divinity while leading Hosanna El Shaddai Ministry, a youth outreach in the slums of Delhi, an area notorious for crime, drugs, and prostitution.
“Rap culture is not growing in church fast, but where there’s youth, there is interest—and the church is beginning to understand our culture,” said Lambert Peter, who is now a big supporter of his daughters’ group.
Other Christian rappers, many of whom also rap in Hindi and English, have drawn a following online, including Raushan Bhairamadgi (or RJBMADZ), Roshan Tony, Joy Punekar, Isaac Dailey, Sheldon Bangera, and Prabhu Pammi (who raps in Telugu).
Yet Salvi is one of the best established, with nearly 50,000 followers on Instagram. His first song to go viral, “Yoddha”(Warrior), is based on the verses in Ephesians 6 about putting on the armor of God. Since its release in 2022, the song has garnered over 550,000 views. The exposure led other artists to approach Salvi to collaborate. A year later, he released his first self-produced album, Repent, on YouTube and Spotify.
While the Christian hip-hop movement is steadily growing “online, on the streets, in colleges,” Salvi noted, rapping doesn’t provide a fixed flow of income. Although sometimes the shows he performs at are sponsored, sometimes they aren’t.
Still, he sees the value in his ministry, as he hopes to reach young people all over the country through collaborating with Christian rappers across regions and languages, including Tamil and Marathi. He sees a future where Christian rappers and the church work together to produce songs in more Indian languages.
From his position as a Christian influencer, Salvi noted the importance of accountability; he regularly attends his local Assemblies of God church and meets with spiritual mentors. He said he feels responsible for his followers and makes sure that his song lyrics and social media posts are grounded in the Scriptures.
Beyond seeking acceptance within the church, Christian hip-hop artists exist in an environment where persecution is increasing. In 2024, Christians in India faced 834 attacks nationwide, a jump from 734 a year earlier, according to a report from the United Christian Forum. The actual number is likely much higher, as many may not report due to fear of retaliation. The Evangelical Fellowship of India documented 640 verified incidents in 2024, including 4 murders, church vandalism, forced conversions, and wrongful arrests.
In this context, Christian hip-hop artists see their music as a tool of protest. The Hosanna Twins have positioned their music as gospel‑based resistance to persecution and injustice. Their songs, including “Yeshu Naam” and “Kyun Darna,” contain lyrics about standing firm in Jesus amid societal criticism and spiritual threats.
The sisters have faced this firsthand, as they often receive hateful comments on their YouTube videos calling them anti-Indian or “rice-bag” Christians (a slur alleging they converted for material gains) and blaming them for forcefully converting Hindus to Christianity. Initially, the sisters said, reading the comments would upset them, but as they continued their musical career, they decided to focus on producing quality music and ignoring the comments.
Meanwhile, in Christian rappers RJBMADZ and Suraj Sahoriya’s “Mera Yeshu Yeshu” (“My Jesus Jesus”), they sampled a song that Hindu nationalists turned into a viral meme several years ago to mock Christianity. The artists used the song to rap about the power of God to forgive sins and to save. “Why shouldn’t I sing the name of Jesus? / Why shouldn’t I think of only one name?”
Salvi noted that although his songs don’t mention the persecution directly, he tries to infuse his songs with both “lament and hope.” For instance, in his song “Godfidence,” he raps in Hindi:
Let them say anything; it doesn’t matter.
Whether you hate me or love me, I know
I will keep walking on God’s path because
The heavenly God sees my heart.
As rap grows in popularity among young people, Christian rappers hope that more will encounter Jesus as they come across the artists’ music online.
“Hip‑hop could be a weapon for truth, healing, and revival,” Salvi said.
