India's internal security and its National Minority Commission officially list more than a hundred religiously motivated attacks against Christians each year, but the actual number is actually higher, as Indian journalists estimate that only about 10% of events are ever reported. These attacks include ransacking of churches, monasteries, and other Christian institutions, and burning of the Bible, desecration of cemeteries, murdering of priests and missionaries, and sexual assault on nuns.[3]
From 1964 to 1996, at least 38 incidents of violence against Christians were reported. In 1997, 24 such incidents were reported. Since 1998, Christians in India have faced a wave of violence.[13] In 1998 alone, 90 incidents were reported.[2] As per the Indian Parliament, between January 1998 and February 1999, there were a total of 116 attacks on Christians around the country. Much of the attacks have taken place in the north and west, where the Christian community is smaller and has strong Hindu nationalistic sentiments.[5] A November 2001 survey by the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) reported 27 attacks on Christian institutions and Christians in 1997, 86 instances in 1998, 120 instances in 1999 and 216 attacks in 2000. According to the NCM, the "persecution" of Christians had increased since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 1998.[14] In 2001, the All India Christian Council reported that an attack against Indian Christians occurs every 36 hours.[14]
Multiple news organizations reported an increase in incidents of violence against Christians after the new BJP government under Narendra Modi came to power after the general election in April–May 2014.[15][16][17][18] In 2014 the Ministry of Home Affairs reported a “steep 30 per cent rise in the number of communal violence incidents in 2013 as compared to 2012, with the maximum number of cases being reported from Uttar Pradesh.”[19] Reported incidents of abuse carried out against Christians in India went up to 177 in 2015, and escalated to 300 in 2016, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI).[20] In 2017 EFI reported an increase in attacks by right-wing activists on churches on Sundays and other significant days of worship, such as Good Friday, Palm Sunday, Christmas and Easter. The police are being used to disrupt and prevent worship in churches and homes, particularly Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Christian children travelling to Bible camps were put into detention and held for days on suspicions of conversion.[21]
The persecution of Christians in India increased sharply in the year 2016, according to a report by Open Doors.[22] India was ranked 15th in the world in terms of danger to Christians, up from 31st four years earlier. According to the report, it is estimated that a church was burnt down or a cleric beaten on average 10 times a week in India in the year to 31 October 2016, a threefold increase on the previous year.[22] According to the All India Christian Council, there was an attack on Christians recorded every 40 hours in India in 2016.[23] In a report by the Indian organization Persecution Relief, the crimes against Christians increased by 60% from 2016 to 2019. There were 330 incidents in 2016, 440 incidents in 2017, 477 in 2018 and 527 incidents of hate crimes in 2019. The organization reported there has been a direct link between BJP gaining power in a state and increase in the attacks against Christians in the state.[24]
Mainstream Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christians are targeted far less frequently than Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians.[9]
Source wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_Christians_in_India