Violence against Christians across India in recent days further demonstrates the difficulties facing believers in the most populated democratic nation in the world.
The ruling party in the Indian state of Kerala is the Communist Party of India. The government has passed a law which will end the independence of religious education in the state. Under the new law, Christian colleges will only be able to choose fifteen percent of the student body. The remainder will be filled by students from a state-wide list. When some Christian schools appealed the new law, a court granted a temporary injunction, allowing them to maintain last year's admissions and fee structure. This decision angered youth supporters of the Communist government. On July 19, they staged a series of attacks on Christian colleges throughout the state. Office equipment, vehicles and furnishings were smashed. Student records were destroyed. There were some injuries in the attacks. Four people were arrested but released on bail. The colleges affected in the attacks were: Tiruvalla Pushpagiri College of Nursing, Trivandrum Mary Matha Engineering College, Nandancode Mohandas Engineering College, Kollam T.K.M. Engineering College, Chertala K.V.M. Nursing College, Kozhikkodu Kuttikkattoor A.W.H. Engineering College, Mukkom K.M.C.T. Engineering College.
On July 17, three Bible College students from the Harvest Full Gospel Church were visiting patients in the Megan Government Hospital in the city of Shimoga in the state of Karnataka. The three students, Daniel (17), Manju (21) and Umesha (27), were praying for the patients and giving out literature to those who were interested. Hindu militants discovered what they were doing and twenty members of the Rama Sena and Hindu nationalist BJP party forcibly took the students to the police station where they accused the Christians of being in the hospital without permission and converting the patients. The police immediately arrested the three and sent them to jail. They were released on bail on July 22 and are to appear in court on July 31.
On the same day, in Bagalkote, Karnataka, four students - Jaganath, Simon, Santosh and Vijay - from the Gospel for Asia Bible College in Bijapur, were visiting homes in the community and distributing copies of the Bible. Members of the militant group Rama Sena beat the youths and dragged them to the local police station where they were arrested. When local pastors requested their release, police claimed that the students were in custody to protect them from the Rama Sena members. The four were released two days later.
On July 16, police arrested lay pastor Om Prakash Pandey while he was leading worship at an independent church in the village of Daksinwara in the Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh state. Police told Compass Direct that villagers were accusing Pandey of preaching Christianity to children. VOMC sources in India report that Pandey, a former Hindu, was detained overnight without food and was beaten by a police constable for converting to Christianity. Local Christians lodged a complaint but police refused to register it. Written statements have been sent to state and national authorities and politicians, asking for action against those responsible and that the rights of religious minorities would be protected.
Praise God for the courage and evangelistic zeal of these students from Bijapur and Shimoga. Pray that they will be an example of Christ-like love, faith and purity (1 Timothy 4:12). Pray that there truly would be many conversions as a result of their testimony. Pray that all believers who are facing opposition will take comfort in the fact that God commends those who suffer for doing good (1 Peter 2:20-21). Pray that they would follow Christ's example and entrust themselves to the One who judges justly (1 Peter 2:23). Ask God to give local church leadership wisdom to know how to shepherd the people through these times (James 1:5).
For more information on the persecution of Christians in India, click here. A video report on the persecution facing India's Christians is also available on VOMC's multimedia website, https://www.vomcanada.com/.
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