Marbom Tasar’s story is well known among the Christian community in Arunachal Pradesh, a state in Northeast India that shares a disputed border with China.
Tasar and his business partner, Tai Tatu, became Christians in 1968 while staying with Tasar’s Christian relatives in Roing, a town in northeastern Arunachal Pradesh. They then made the 160-mile return trip their village, Lete, to share the gospel with their fellow Gelo tribesmen who practiced animism.
Soon after they arrived, Tasar found that homemade wine had caused severe dysentery in several villagers. Tasar went from house to house, praying for the sick and witnessing miraculous healings, according to his daughter, Bomto Paipodia. The families of those who were healed accepted Christianity, and Tasar began the work of building a church for three local villages.
Two months later, tribal leaders and villagers, upset over the conversions, burned down the church. To curb further spread of Christianity, the police arrested Tasar, Tatu, and another believer.
“For us, persecution started right from the time we carried the gospel to our village and the neighboring villages,” Tasar said.
In the 1970s, Tasar faced more arrests and harassment. He fled deep into the forest and slept in trees to evade capture. Authorities tortured some of his fellow believers. To counter the spread of Christianity, the state government passed the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act in 1978, which largely banned religious conversions. Yet opposition from Christian legislators and locals prevented the law from taking effect.
Christian leaders in the state said that through miracles, the translation of the Bible into local languages, and the work of bold evangelists like Tasar, the Christian faith continued to spread rapidly. In the 50 years since his initial persecution, Tasar and other leaders have shepherded a growing Christian network that includes more than 80 churches across the state.
This success story may soon face a serious setback, as the government plans to enforce the anticonversion law in March, following a court directive. This push comes as the influence of Hindutva, a political ideology that advocates for Hindu supremacy, grows throughout the country and is championed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Christians in Arunachal Pradesh fear a new wave of repression is on the horizon.
Tasar, now 78, said the recent move made him think of the persecution in the 1970s, including when he saw villagers strip a Christian woman naked and humiliate her in front of the entire village to force her to renounce her faith. She refused.
“It was never the backing of the church council nor the funds from wealthy businessmen that encouraged us to share the gospel,” Tasar said. “It was only God and his Word that was with us.”
Today, Christianity is the largest religious group in the state of about 1.4 million people. According to the 2011 Indian census—the most recent one to date—Christians make up 30 percent of Arunachal Pradesh’s population, Hindus make up 29 percent, and indigenous religions make up 26 percent.
Christian leaders believe the real number is even higher. Tagang Gelo, the general secretary of Nyishi Baptist Church Council, estimates that Christians comprise more than 40 percent of the population due to the significant growth of the church since 2011.
Arunachal Pradesh’s Christian roots trace back to the early 19th century, when Scottish Presbyterian and American Baptist missionaries first ventured into Northeast India. Missionaries introduced Christianity through evangelism, medical aid, and education to the Indigenous tribes living in the region. However, conversions were slow. Opposition from animist local rulers and British authorities fearful of unrest forced the American Baptists to relocate to Assam state.
In 1920, missionaries baptized the earliest recorded converts of what is now considered Arunachal Pradesh: Dugyon Lego and Tamik Dabi in the eastern part of the state, and Sensu Nar, a Nyishi tribesman, in the west. Around the same time, missionaries like John Firth established Christian schools in North Lakhimpur (present-day Assam), furthering education and faith in the region. Many students who attended these schools carried the gospel back to their villages, leading to more conversions.
By the 1970s, Christianity had become too visible to ignore. Government authorities and local leaders were concerned that Christianity threatened indigenous and Hindu beliefs, and they responded with harsh persecution. Between 1968 and 1974, police burned churches, looted homes, and attacked Christian families. In a particularly brutal campaign in 1974, authorities torched 47 churches in a single region. Some Christians faced executions, hangings, or beatings. Others, like Tasar, fled to the forests and survived on roots and leaves.
One police officer who led crackdowns on the Christian community, Takeng Taggu, converted to the Christian faith in 1984 after he was sent to arrest a missionary. When he saw the missionary absorbed in prayer, he felt God’s conviction. He renounced his past and eventually founded the Arunachal Pradesh Christian Revival Church.
Christianity grew from less than 1 percent in 1971 to more than 4 percent in 1981. To combat this growing trend, the state established the aforementioned religious law, which prohibited conversions or attempts to convert by force, inducement, or fraudulent means. It also mandated government scrutiny of religious conversions. Under the law, authorities could send anyone guilty of conversion to prison for two years or apply a fine of up to 10,000 Indian rupees (about $115 USD), which was nearly two years’ salary at the time.
Yet the law faced opposition on the national level, including from Bakin Pertin, a Christian member of parliament from Arunachal Pradesh, as well as the Nagaland Legislative Assembly, which passed a resolution against it. Christians in the state banded together to form the Arunachal Christian Forum (ACF) to protest the law. Because of the pushback, state officials never framed the rules implementing the law.
In 2018, Chief Minister Pema Khandu publicly announced that his government might repeal the anticonversion law, stating that it “could undermine secularism and is probably targeted towards Christians.” He acknowledged concerns that it could be misused by authorities and promised to bring it before the assembly for repeal.
However, after backlash from Hindutva groups and pressure from the BJP, Khandu reversed his stance. Hindutva organizations, such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vivekananda Kendra, began establishing Hindu schools, promoting cultural nationalism, and reviving indigenous tribal faiths in Arunachal Pradesh to counter Christianity.
One of the most successful efforts was the formalization of Donyi-Polo, a traditional animist practice that the RSS helped institutionalize as a structured faith to compete with Christianity. They developed prayer centers and religious texts to reinforce tribal identity within a Hindu framework. The RSS also sought to reinterpret local myths—such as linking the Idu Mishmi tribe to the Hindu deity Krishna’s wife—to integrate Arunachal Pradesh into India’s sacred geography.
Another significant religious movement that has emerged is Rangfraa, a syncretic faith that blends indigenous animism with elements of Hinduism. While originally rooted in tribal spiritual traditions, Rangfraa also received support from Hindutva groups like the RSS.
According to Gelo, indigenous faith groups and pro-Hindutva factions have already started interfering with Christian gatherings. In some cases, local organizations have “blocked healing meetings and prevented churches from holding meetings in public spaces,” he said.
The law also started to reflect anti-Christian sentiment. By 2022, the same government that had, four years earlier, toyed with repealing the anticonversion law was now seeking to frame rules for the law’s enforcement.
A lawsuit filed by a former Indigenous Faith and Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh (IFCSAP) leader accelerated the push as the Gauhati High Court directed the state to finalize the law’s implementation by March. IFCSAP contended that the law was needed to protect indigenous traditions, alleging that conversion rates had reached 90 percent in some districts.
Interestingly, it was a former English missionary who first introduced the idea that Christianity threatened indigenous identity. Harry Verrier Elwin arrived in Central India in the 1920s with a passion to evangelize, but over time he abandoned his faith and became an anthropologist who advocated for preserving tribal cultures.
Elwin played a key role in shaping India’s approach to the Northeast, promoting laws that kept missionaries out. His work influenced the Inner Line Permit System, which restricted nontribal people—including Christian missionaries—from freely entering and working in Arunachal Pradesh. Elwin’s policies helped create the environment in which later crackdowns on Christians took place.
The revival of the Freedom of Religion Act raises troubling questions about religious liberty, not just in Arunachal Pradesh but in the nation. The Indian Constitution guarantees the right to freely profess, practice, and propagate faith. However, in many states, authorities have used anticonversion laws to selectively target Christian communities.
Christian organizations in Arunachal Pradesh are preparing to challenge the law’s implementation. However, uncertainty remains over whether the appeal should be directed at the government or the judiciary, which instructed the government to frame the rules, Gelo said.
Although there may not be an immediate large-scale crackdown, Gelo said, arrests could begin after the rules are framed. A case in Tawang, a town in the eastern part of the state, already hints at future oppression. In June 2022, authorities halted the construction of a new church building even though a church had existed at the site previously. Gelo is concerned that such restrictions could become more frequent.
ACF is spearheading efforts to prevent the law from being used against Christian communities. Attempts to engage with government officials have proved fruitless, so ACF is organizing protests, including a week of prayer and fasting, to call for the law’s repeal. They plan to gherao, or surround, the state assembly building on March 6 when legislators discuss the law.
Christian leaders who lived through persecution are watching as the state once again turns its gaze toward them. “We have faced persecution before, and we stood firm,” said Tasar, who has joined the ACF’s prayer week. “This time will be no different.”
