On 2nd January 2023, a violent crowd of tribal people vandalized a Church and smashed the statue of Saint Mary in Narayanpur district, Chhattisgarh, India. The group, armed with wooden sticks, iron rods, and stones, forced open the main gate of the Sacred Heart Church, in the heart of district headquarters, and started to pelt stones at the Church.
Father Jomon TD, the parish priest, told Matters India, “nothing is left. Everything is destroyed.” The more than five decades old Church was rebuilt five years back, and now everything inside is ruined.” The incident happened because of the false accusation of faith conversion.
Chairperson of Voice for Justice Joseph Jansen strongly condemned a wave of brutal attacks on Churches, pastors, and individuals belonging to the Christian community. Smashing the statute of Mother Mary and everything in the church in the Narayanpur Chhattisgarh state is another evidence of violence by the extremist tribal group who took the law into their own hands. It is alarming for the Indian authorities to take serious and urgent action to protect religious minorities. The constitution of India guarantees every individual and group the freedom of religion to profess, practice, and propagate one’s faith.
”The ongoing violent attacks against the Christian community prompted urgent action from the Indian authorities to protect Christians and other religious minorities. Especially those who convert to Christianity and punish the perpetrators falsely accusing their citizens of greed or forced conversions” said Joseph Jansen.
A recent report released by a fact-finding team comprising members from the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism partnering with All India Peoples Forum, All India Lawyers Association for Justice, United Christian Forum, and other eminent members of the civil society says that there is an organized campaign to convert Christian Adivasis to Hindu religion forcibly. This is obvious as suddenly, from December 9-18, there was a series of attacks in about 18 villages in the Narayanpur district and 15 villages in the Kondagaon district, displacing about 1000 Christian Adivasis from their villages.
Many Christian Adivasis were gravely assaulted and beaten with lathis, tires, and rods. At least two dozen people had to be hospitalized with injuries like fracture of the collar bone and other such injuries”, it noted after interacting with the displaced persons, police, and others.
According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), it is inexplicable that the U.S. Department of State did not include India in its latest designations of “Countries of Particular Concern.” It is tremendously disappointing and turning a blind eye to the country’s particularly severe religious freedom violations.
The Youth President of the Punjab Christian Movement, Sudhir Nahar, said that religious intolerance, systematic discrimination, and one-sided political well had destroyed the harmony between different faith groups. Therefore we urged religious and political leaders to come forward and condemn such attacks on churches and their religious individuals, ensuring their safety who are afraid to go to their religious places.
Pastor Jitendra Singh, Association of Utter Pradesh, mentioned that the police managed to disperse the crowd and control the situation. Still, somehow, extremists entered the compound and vandalized the church, which brought fear to the Christian community. We demand a fair investigation and the culprits into justice.
Human rights activist Robert Masih says it is shocking and disappointing for the entire Christian community to see the barbaric attack with a large crowd on a decades-old Sacred Heart Church in Narayanpur and on the defense forces. As a Punjabi Christian Community, we strongly condemn this insane activity. We urged the Home Minister and relevant authorities to protect religious minorities from discrimination based on their religious belief.
