A mob of 200 Hindu nationalists stormed Bethel Prarthana Bhavan (Bethel Prayer Hall) in Maharashtra’s Malegaon town, with police and revenue authorities in tow, to disrupt the ongoing Sunday service on July 20. Shouted slogans decrying “Christian conversion” replaced the typical praise and worship, the church’s pastor, Simon Raut, told CT.
Worshipers stood in disbelief as the mob, made up of people who belonged to the Hindutva militant group Bajrang Dal, confronted the pastor and church elders, claiming they didn’t have the government’s permission to worship in the building. They snatched gospel tracts from the Bibles where they were tucked, then tore them, Raut said. Police and other officials watched in silence until tempers cooled, only to serve a notice to the church leaders, forcing them to stop all activities.
Since 2019, about 300 believers have gathered to worship in this hall each Sunday. After beginning as a house church in 2017, the group expanded and moved to the new location. Raut denied allegations that the church had met illegally and that they had forcibly converted Hindus.
“I own the land,” he said. “I have all the permissions. This is just an attempt to stop God’s mighty work in our land.”
Since the mob came, the congregation has continued to hold services at the prayer hall. The church leaders also hired a Christian lawyer to challenge the notice.
Two days after the attack in Malegaon, a similar script played out 65 miles away in the city of Nashik. Police summoned six believers from a tribal church, which was established in 2009, to the local police station, according to the church’s pastor. The cops warned them not to congregate in the church or at anyone’s house in the village to pray. Since then, the 200 Christians in the church have splintered into six small groups to worship secretly. CT agreed not to disclose the specific details of the church and the pastor, as they fear arrest.
Since the landslide victory of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the western Indian state of Maharashtra in November 2024, attacks against Christians have surged. So far this year, the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s Religious Liberty Commission documented 11 cases of violence against Christians in the region. Over the same period last year, there was only a single incident.
Christian lawyer Wilson Nathan, who is part of a team providing pro bono legal aid to persecuted Christians, told CT there has been a sharp escalation of violence in recent months. He has received distressed calls from districts all over the state. House churches in tribal districts, especially in Dhule and Nandurbar, are often the target of Hindu fanaticism. Most new converts in the state are from marginalized tribal and Dalit hamlets, where Christianity is mushrooming.
The rising rhetoric against the Christian community comes amid the BJP’s push for an anticonversion law, which it pledged during its election campaign last year. The new law, slated to roll out this December, is set to curb religious conversions and to demolish “unauthorised” churches, particularly in tribal areas. If the law is enacted, Maharashtra will become the 14th Indian state to pass an anticonversion law, ironically called the Freedom of Religion Act. (The state of Tamil Nadu has since repealed its anticonversion law, while lawmakers in Karnataka have said they plan to repeal its law.)
Christian leaders told CT that the Hindu nationalists aim to reshape public opinion through anti-Christian speeches, attacks on worship spaces, and accusations of “forced conversions.” This would allow them to act with impunity and assault Christians at will. Many expect that the government would then pass the anticonversion law without any hurdles.
The impact is already palpable. “There is heightened fear among those who carry out any Christian activity,” said Arun Shinde, the retired pastor of Saint Andrew’s Church in Nashik. “I can no longer imagine sharing the gospel, praying for people, and distributing the New Testament in public places, as I did until last year.”
On June 21, Gopichand Padalkar, a BJP lawmaker, announced monetary rewards of 300,000 Indian rupees ($3,450 USD) for attacking a Christian priest, 500,000 rupees ($5,740 USD) for breaking a priest’s limbs, and 1,100,000 rupees ($12,640 USD) for killing a priest and his family. Despite protests, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), a federal body that protects religious minorities’ interests, did not initiate an investigation into Padalkar until August 6.
On the same day, the Bombay High Court, the top court in Maharashtra, accepted a public interest litigation against Padalkar from the secretary of the Association of Concerned Christians.
The state government has also announced its decision to increase scrutiny on Dalit and tribal converts. Tribal Christians now run the risk of losing the government’s welfare benefits. Similarly, the government is stripping Scheduled Caste status from Dalits who identify as Christians.
Amid such threats, about 15,000 Christians from across Maharashtra on July 11 converged at Azad Maidan—a sports field in the state’s capital, Mumbai—holding placards, singing hymns, and praying in protest against the proposed anticonversion law, attacks on churches, and hate speeches.
Among them was pastor Digambar Prakash Singh, a soft-spoken man who has received death threats from Hindu nationalists over the phone. “They tell me I will be killed if I don’t stop evangelizing,” he said. “I tell them, ‘You are welcome to my home. We can talk.’”
Yet he continues to hold on to hope. “Rising persecution is a sign that the gospel is spreading fast and deep,” he added. “It is only a matter of time before God gives us a rich harvest. All we have to do now is to follow [the] apostle Paul to bless those persecuting us.”
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