India: Christmas celebrations disturbed or canceled over Hindu nationalist violence

NEW DELHI (OSV News) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Christmas visit to a Protestant cathedral in New Delhi has drawn renewed criticism from Christian leaders, who say symbolic gestures are no substitute for action amid rising anti-Christian violence.

“It is not enough that the prime minister visits churches for Christmas and Easter. He must break his silence against the bravado of his own folks assaulting hapless Christians and caution them with tough action,” A.C. Michael, a Catholic and national coordinator of the United Christian Forum, told OSV News Dec. 26.

But instead, he “remains silent,” Michael lamented, after releasing a letter to Modi earlier in the day urging the country’s leader to stop “targeted violence and hostility against the Christian community in India.”

As incidents of anti-Christmas violence started pouring in, Syro-Malabar Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Trichur, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, or CBCI, sent a Christmas Eve video appeal Dec. 24 to Modi and chief ministers across the country to “unequivocally condemn these acts of hatred and violence.”

“Today … it is with deep pain and concern that I speak over the disturbing rise in attacks on Christians in several parts of our country. During this holy Christmas season, we are pained to hear about it,” Archbishop Thazhath said in his video message.

“Peaceful carol singers and faithful gathered in churches before crypts for prayer … have been targeted, causing fear and distress among law-abiding citizens, who seek only to celebrate their faith in peace,” said Archbishop Thazhath.

Human and religious rights advocates claimed dozens of assaults on Christians in different parts of the country, with celebrations disrupted, caroling groups threatened, Nativity cribs damaged, and even blind children attacked at a Catholic center in Gorakhpur in Hindu nationalists-ruled Uttar Pradesh state.

Several schools in Kerala state canceled Christmas celebrations and returned funds collected from the students for the celebration. Even the government employees’ Christmas celebration was called off after Hindu fundamentalists insisted on singing their song at the celebration.

Expressing “deep pain” over the “disturbing rise in attacks on Christians,” Archbishop Thazhath said, “Such incidents deeply wound the spirit of our constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion.”

The United Christian Forum recorded a total of 834 incidents of violence against Christians in 2024, revealing a disturbing trend in religious persecution. The data show an increase from the 733 cases recorded in 2023, warning that targeting of a specific religious community can “seriously harm social harmony and deepen inequality within society.”

Author Anto Akkara writes for OSV News from Kochi, India.

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