Last March, local residents found well-known Christian apologist Praveen Pagadala dead on the roadside near Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh. The 45-year-old was on his way to a gospel convention on his motorcycle.
Police claimed he had been driving drunk, which led to the fatal accident. Yet the Christian community questioned the account. Pagadala had previously received numerous death threats for criticizing the caste system and crediting Christianity with liberating India’s marginalized people.
Kaveti International Law Firm, which has taken up the case pro bono, questioned why footage from the scene showed no visible injuries except on his face, why his helmet remained intact, and why there were no skid marks or damages to his bike. The inconsistencies lead “to speculation that his death was not accidental but a targeted attack,” according to Kaveti Srinivas Rao, the lawyer on the case.
Thousands of people attended the apologist’s funeral procession in Secunderabad on March 27. In the weeks that followed, Christians in the two Telugu-speaking states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana held protests, with hundreds calling for a reinvestigation into Pagadala’s death.
Police warned Christians against questioning their official determination in the case, claiming that such comments disturb communal harmony in the state. In April, police in Hyderabad arrested a pastor for spreading “propaganda” about Pagadala’s death. Two Christians filed a petition in June to Andhra Pradesh High Court asking the Central Bureau of Investigation to reopen the case.
The controversy around Pagadala’s death brings to light the concerning increase of violence against Christians in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana—states once considered relatively tolerant toward the Christian community. Yet now, the nationwide rise of Hindu nationalism has spread to this part of the country.
“Every week, there’s a new incident,” said Oliver Rayi, the chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Christian Leaders Forum. “What we have been seeing in northern India since 2014—coordinated attacks against religious minorities—is now being replicated in Andhra.”
Born to a Catholic mother and a Muslim father in the city of Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, Pagadala often attended his mother’s church to learn to play the guitar, according to testimonies Pagadala shared online. Yet as a teen, he started drinking, smoking, and doing drugs. Police arrested him after he and his friends beat up a boy from a rival gang and threw him into the bushes.
His family was able to keep his record clean through a relative who worked in the police department, and around the age of 20, they sent him to live in Hyderabad. There, one of his friends invited him to church, which he started attending reluctantly. During one meeting, God convicted him of his sins, and he gave his life to the Lord.
In 2000, Pagadala said he had a vision to move to Indore in Madhya Pradesh state to preach the gospel. Although he didn’t speak Hindi, he quickly picked up the language and began evangelizing to locals. An older Christian couple took him in, and he later married their daughter Jessica. The Pagadalas had two daughters and adopted 12 orphaned girls, as India’s cultural preference for boys has led to orphanages filled with girls. Pagadala often said he was a “proud father” to 14 daughters.
Part of a homegrown apologetics network called Sakshi Apologetics, Pagadala often focused on the freedom and equality found in the kingdom of God, contrasting it with the caste system and the subjugation of women in the Hindu worldview. He grew in popularity as he debated Hindus and Muslims on television. With a deep understanding of the Quran and Hindu religious texts, he reeled out verses to passionately defend Christianity and the teachings of Jesus Christ.
His debates drew him a large audience among Telugu Christians, who shared clips of his arguments widely on social media. Pagadala often credits Christian missionaries in India for the progress Dalits and other marginalized communities have made in society. He also petitioned the Supreme Court to declare the anti-conversion laws in 12 Indian states unconstitutional, arguing that they violated the freedom of religion guaranteed in the Indian constitution.
His outspokenness also gained him enemies. The evangelist received death threats from both Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists. After Pagadala’s death, Christians wondered if his critiques had gotten him in trouble.
Their concerns are not ungrounded, as Christian persecution has been growing in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the past few years. Historically, the Telugu-speaking region has tolerated Christianity as Dalits converted to the faith en masse in the 19th and 20th centuries. The anti-caste movement in the area viewed Christianity and missionaries as allies, unlike in other states where they faced Brahmanical backlash.
Missionaries in Telugu regions learned the language, translated the Bible, and promoted the local culture. They also built schools, colleges, and hospitals. Christianity became embedded in Telugu cultural identity, making it more accepted than in Hindi-speaking states, where less Dalits converted to Christianity.
Hindu nationalist groups had limited presence in the region until 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, won a majority of parliamentary seats. Unlike elsewhere, caste, not religion, is a primary marker of identity in Telugu states. Mainstream political parties in Telugu states speak out about Christian issues.
Yet lately the number of incidents against Christians has increased. In Andhra Pradesh, where the BJP is part of the ruling coalition, Christian leaders say fundamentalist Hindu groups have grown emboldened.
Data from the United Christian Forum (UCF) supports the claim. In Andhra Pradesh, UCF documented 37 incidents in 2024, up from single digits in 2014. The neighbouring Telugu state of Telangana reported 25 such incidents in 2024, up from 17 in 2014. Leaders say the real figures could be much higher, as most incidents go unreported due to fear of retribution.
In March, mobs attacked three churches in Andhra Pradesh. At the same time, the government issued a controversial order asking authorities to crack down on “illegal” churches. The directive was withdrawn 23 days later.
One case from Kajuluru village near Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh reveals the worsening plight of Andhra Christians.
In December 2023, a group of villagers, instigated by a Hindu nationalist group, stormed a church inauguration, beat up believers and pastors, and vandalized the building. The mob accused the congregants of demeaning Hinduism and building the church illegally. In the end, the police filed a case against the Christians.
“We have all the permissions, proper land titles, everything. But they are painting us as criminals,” said a church elder who asked to remain anonymous as he fears reprisals from authorities and Hindu groups. “To them, Christianity is a foreign religion. They want to erase us.”
The church is now locked, forcing congregants to worship inside of homes.
The situation is equally grim in Telangana, where church buildings have been vandalized, churchgoers and pastors have been assaulted, and Bibles have been burned.
According to a Christian rights activist from Telangana (CT agreed to keep him anonymous as he fears being targeted by Hindu nationalists), the incidents can no longer be seen as “one-off incidents.”
“The Hindu fundamentalist outfits have a well-coordinated approach,” he said. “They instigate locals to launch these attacks on churches in their neighborhoods on the pretext of nuisance, sound pollution, and permissions.”
The hostility on the ground is amplified by anti-Christian propaganda online. Telugu social media is rife with trolls and hate speech portraying Christians as “conversion mafias” funded by “foreign donations.” Widely circulated videos by Hindu fanatic groups demean pastors as “perverts” and “beggars” and call the Bible a “book of lies.” Some of these videos carry the disclaimer: “Conversion mafias pose grave danger to the country.”
“Christians have to become shrewd and discerning in a hostile world, as God instructs us in Matthew 10:16,” said Chittem Vijaya Kumari, a Christian leader in Hyderabad and president of Dalit Women Forum. “Besides fasting and praying, the community needs to launch a united fight against online hate. It is no longer an individual case and individual fight.”
