Earlier in August, thousands of protesters, many of them Christians, marched nearly two miles through Narayanpur’s weekly market in India’s state of Chhattisgarh. Catholics, evangelicals, and members of other Protestant groups stood together in solidarity with the two Kerala-based Catholic nuns and a Protestant man from the Gond people group whom local authorities arrested on fraudulent charges of human trafficking and forced conversion.
The three tribal Protestant women at the heart of the case walked among the demonstrators. They claim the Hindu extremists forced them to make false confessions that the nuns had trafficked and converted them to Christianity against their will. Those charges led to the nuns’ imprisonment. Now the three women are demanding justice.
The 3,000 to 4,000 protesters submitted a memorandum to the chief minister of Chhattisgarh, Vishnu Deo Sai, demanding charges against Hindu nationalist activists under India’s anti-caste violence laws.
The massive demonstration reflects a pattern in India’s religious landscape: evangelical Christians rallying to defend Catholics against persecution, and vice versa. Shared threats from Hindu nationalists have reshaped the relationships between India’s Christian communities.
“Every attempt Christians make to do good work is being misunderstood and twisted into accusations of conversion,” said Peter Machado, the Catholic archbishop of Bangalore. “Despite the good work we do in this country through our schools, hospitals, and social centers, instead of being recognized, we are being denigrated.”
He also criticized institutional failures: “We expect police to provide protection, but instead they joined with the accusers rather than defending the sisters.”
It all began July 25 when a local tribal Protestant, Sukhman Mandavi, and three young women between the ages of 19 and 21 arrived at the Durg railway station in central Chhattisgarh to meet with two nuns, Preeti Mary and Vandana Francis. The sisters planned to bring the women by train to their new jobs working in the kitchen of a Catholic hospital in Agra in the nearby state of Uttar Pradesh. The nuns carried written parental consent and proper documentation.
Yet a bystander overheard the conversation between the three women and the ticket collector and contacted local members of Bajrang Dal, a militant Hindu nationalist group.
As the group was about to board the train, several dozen activists surrounded the group. They chanted slogans like “Jai Shri Ram” (“Hail Lord Rama”) and “Bajrang Dal is the pride of the nation” and pulled Mandavi by the ear, slapping him repeatedly on the railway-station platform. The mob pressured the police to detain the group. Police then took them into the station for questioning.
“We went with the permission of our family,” said 19-year-old Sukhmati Mandavi (no relation to Sukhman Mandavi), one of the three tribal women. “We were only going for a job, and that is not a crime. We do not get any jobs here.”
Sukhmati, 19-year-old Lalita Usendi, and 21-year-old Kamleshwari Pradhan all came from impoverished families from the Narayanpur district in Chhattisgarh. Usendi had lost both her parents and was living with a cousin who had previously worked for the nuns.
Hindu nationalists got inside the police station to intimidate the Christians. “If you don’t want to speak, I will smash your face,” said Jyoti Sharma of the Hindu nationalist group Durga Vahini Matrushakti threatened the nuns in a now-viral video.
Sukhmati recalled that “Jyoti Sharma and Bajrang Dal people manhandled us, beat us, and outraged our modesty” and the police did nothing. Sharma, who is female, and about 15 Bajrang Dal men took Sukhmati and the two other young women into a room, where they called them caste-based derogatory names, slapped them, and touched their private parts, Sukhmati said. She noted that Sharma had ordered the men not to record the abuse and physical assault on their phones.
“The men inside the room threatened to rape us if we did not give statements against the nuns and confess before the police that we are being taken forcefully by the nuns,” said Usendi. “Sharma slapped us until we agreed to sign on the document that said an entirely false story about the nuns and Sukhman bhaiya [older brother].”
By then, about 100 to 150 members of Bajrang Dal had stormed the police station. Terrified, Pradhan said they felt they had no choice but to sign the document. Authorities took Sukhman and the nuns to jail while sending the three women to the local Sakhi center, a government-run facility for women affected by violence.
Arun Pannalal, president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum and a member of the Church of North India, said that as Sharma interrogated the group, “the policemen in the police station sat as mute spectators, allowing Jyoti Sharma to do as she pleased.” He added that “she tried to slap the nuns, snatched their bags and mobile [phones], rummaging [through] their bags. She threw the Bible—our Holy Book—on the policeman’s table and declared that it was a human trafficking case.”
As news of the incident spread, Catholic leaders received support from Protestant organizations, including National Council of Churches in India, the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), and the Church of South India Synod.
In Andhra Pradesh, nuns and pastors organized a candlelight vigil, though police stopped the demonstration. Political leaders from India’s Christian-majority northeastern states also intervened, with Nagaland deputy chief minister Yanthungo Patton emphasizing that “India, as a democratic and secular country, guarantees every citizen the right to practice their faith without fear or discrimination.”
When a National Investigation Agency court granted the nuns and Mandavi bail after nine days in custody, it delivered a scathing assessment: The case was “primarily based on a mere apprehension and suspicion.” The court noted that two of the three alleged victims had stated they “have been followers of Christianity since childhood,” completely undermining conversion allegations.
The fabricated charges only point to broader persecution patterns affecting India’s Christians. EFI’s Religious Liberty Commission documented 334 incidents targeting Christians so far this year across 22 states and territories. Chhattisgarh recorded 86 incidents, second only to Uttar Pradesh’s 95 cases. The commission concluded that “anti-conversion laws, ostensibly designed to prevent coercive conversions, are being systematically exploited to criminalize legitimate religious activities and social service work.”
Cooperation between Catholics and Protestants is not new. Decades of shared persecution have led to dialogue and cooperation, including initiatives like the National United Christian Forum, which has brought together Protestant and Catholic leaders since 1998.
The legal case against the nuns continues. Questions persist about how Hindu nationalists and local governments are weaponizing anticonversion laws—now active in 11 Indian states—against Christians doing humanitarian work. Such violations “create serious consequences extending beyond immediate victims to entire communities and the constitutional promise of religious freedom,” according to EFI’s Religious Liberty Commission.
The three tribal women sheltered at a private home after their release from the Narayanpur Sakhi center on July 30. “We will fight for justice till the end and will not rest until we get justice,” Sukhmati said.
