As Christmas approaches, church leaders across India have urged heightened vigilance within Christian communities, while appealing to authorities for stronger protection and firm action against perpetrators of anti-Christian violence.
This concern comes at a time when the European Union (EU), seeking to counter Washington’s tariff push on European goods, is showing renewed interest in concluding its long-pending Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India. The EU’s outreach continues despite its own repeated expressions of concern over what it describes as “escalating violence and discrimination faced by Christian communities” across India.
Under the 1993 Treaty on European Union, human rights and democratic principles form a core component of the bloc’s external agreements, allowing for “appropriate measures,” including suspension, if violations persist.
Days after a high-level EU delegation met Indian officials in November, Members of the European Parliament and human rights advocates convened in Brussels on 4 December for a meeting on targeted violence against Christians in South Asia. The event was organised by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International. Speakers warned that since the BJP came to power in 2014, attacks on minorities – Muslims, Christians and Dalits – have become increasingly widespread and systematic.
India’s Christian population, estimated at about 32 million or 2.2 per cent of the country’s 1.46 billion people, remains particularly apprehensive during the Christmas season. Hindu extremist groups affiliated with the RSS, including Bajrang Dal, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Hindu Mahasabha, have repeatedly targeted Christmas celebrations. Churches have been vandalised, prayer services disrupted, and schools stormed to tear down decorations. Priests, nuns, teachers and worshippers have faced intimidation and physical assaults.
The EU has been especially alarmed by the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur, which erupted in 2023 between the majority Hindu Meitei community and the minority Christian Kukis.
In a sharply worded resolution, the European Parliament urged Indian authorities to take all necessary measures to protect religious minorities, particularly Manipur’s Christian community.
At the Brussels meeting, speakers highlighted data from the United Christians Forum documenting a sharp rise in attacks against Christians – from 127 cases in 2014 to 834 in 2024, averaging more than two incidents a day.
Twelve Indian states now enforce anti-conversion laws, which critics argue are routinely misused to intimidate and criminalise peaceful religious activity. This year alone, 123 criminal complaints have been filed against Christians, and several believers remain in prison across the country.
“Christians in India are punished not for wrongdoing, but for simply gathering, praying or helping their neighbours,” said Tehmina Arora of ADF International. She noted that even the Supreme Court of India has acknowledged the misuse of anti-conversion laws.
In October, a Supreme Court bench strongly rebuked authorities while quashing multiple criminal cases against Christians in Uttar Pradesh. The judges warned that criminal law “cannot be allowed to be made a tool of harassment of innocent persons” based on “incredulous material”. The ruling vindicated a pastor, hospital staff, university officials and others charged under the state’s anti-conversion law. Earlier, a Christian
pastor in Uttarakhand was acquitted after a four-year legal battle, becoming the first to be cleared under that state’s law.
Reports also point to a climate of impunity, with perpetrators often facing little or no police action. In Odisha earlier this year, police allegedly assaulted priests and minor girls inside a Catholic church under false accusations of forced conversion. Fact-finding teams documented serious violations, yet authorities reportedly targeted the victims instead.
While metropolitan areas such as Mumbai have remained relatively tolerant, tensions persist. Christians staged large protests after a BJP legislator allegedly offered cash bounties for violence against priests and missionaries. The Archdiocese of Bombay also expressed concern over proposals for stricter anti-conversion laws, warning that such legislation risks undermining Article 25 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion.
Despite appeals from the Vatican, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, and repeated nationwide protests, violence and intimidation continue. As India prepares to celebrate Christmas, church leaders insist the message remains clear: festive halls should be decked – not destroyed.