Christian pastor attacked in India after being accused of ‘illegal conversion’

MUMBAI, India – A Pentecostal pastor in India has been accused of “illegal conversion” and then attacked in the central state of Chhattisgarh.

Pastor Varghese Chacko was in the town of Dhamtari on 21 July, attending a house-warming prayer meeting at the home of one of his church members.

According to a local source, the house is next door to a Hindu temple, from which a group of approximately 20 villagers, mostly young adults, had been watching the Christians gather.

After they saw Chacko arrive in his car, the right-wing group barged into the house, making conversion allegations and demanding that they stop the prayer meeting, and proceeding to call the police and accuse the Christians of “illegal conversion.”

The police arrived at the house and asked the pastor to leave.

According to the 2011 census, over 93.25 percent of the state’s population practised Hinduism, above the national average of 80 percent. The Christian population is about 1.9 percent, below the national average of 2.3 percent.

The state government is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu-nationalist party.

Since 2014, India has been ruled by the BJP, which has strong links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a militant Hindu nationalist organization. Religious minorities have complained of increased harassment since the party took power on a Hindu-first platform.

Incidents of harassment against Christians and other religious minorities have increased across India, with various Christians being detained or arrested for “attempted conversion,” and places of worship being vandalized.

There were fears Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have a sweeping majority in the 2024 elections and consolidate Hindu nationalist policies in India, which was founded with a secular government. However, the party lost its majority, although it still rules with support from other parties.

In the latest incident in Dhamtari, Chacko said that the villagers punctured one of his car tires before he could leave, but that he was able to drive the vehicle to a nearby mechanic to fix it.

However, the group then followed him to another temple nearby, where they stopped his car, pulled him out and proceeded to beat him with rods. He suffered bruises all over his body and injuries on his head. They then dragged him to another temple nearby and forced him to kneel down and bow his head before a Hindu idol.

“Pastor Varghese Chacko was brutally beaten on his head from behind. He had taken medication for his wounds and received two stitches,” Arun Pannalal, president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, told Crux.

“A CT scan at a hospital on July 22 revealed that there were no internal injuries. Varghese is now back home. The attackers also filed a case against him,” he added.

“I thank the Dhamtari fellowship group for protesting this attack,” Pannalal said.

He told Crux there was “no denying the fact” Christians of Chhattisgarh are facing lots of attacks from other communities.

“We have seen two murders in this current government’s regime and also witnessed four murders in the previous government’s regime: All because Christians believed in their own religion, which is ensured by article 25 of the Indian Constitution,” he said.

“Moreover, every day there are some attacks or small riots being done against our community. This is a very serious issue as it also touches the human rights of an individual,” Pannalal said.

“For this, we made a representation to the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh. Then we made a representation to the Home Minister of chhattisgarh State, and we pray and hope that it will receive due attention and we will receive some sort of relief from the attacks we are facing,” he said.

“Last week, I also met the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, and he listened to our pains and said he would take it up with our State Chief Minister and see that we get relief at the earliest possible [time],” Pannalal told Crux.