Indian pastor attacked for alleged religious conversion

A Protestant pastor in a northern Indian state has been attacked for allegedly conducting religious conversions.

Pastor Shyju Joseph was conducting Sunday worship on Aug. 6 at his place in Bihar state's Nawada district. Members of the Bajrang Dal (brigade of Lord Hanuman), a Hindu nationalist organisation, disrupted the service after accusing him of converting people to Christianity. 

“They asked him to accompany them and made him sit on a motorcycle. Later, he was beaten up badly,” Christian activist Minakshi Singh told UCA News on Aug. 7.

Singh, general secretary of Unity in Compassion, a charity based in neighboring Uttar Pradesh state, said, “As of now, no complaint has been filed.”

We have contacted our people in Bihar to help the victim register a police complaint, Singh added. 

Police took him to Sharif Sadar Hospital in Nawada district where he was undergoing treatment for his injuries, she added.

“Pastor Joseph’s condition is serious but he is stable now,” the Christian lay leader said.

A member of Persecution Relief, an inter-denominational organization in India, criticized the state government for not filing a case against the pastor's attackers.

“Are the attackers above the law of the land?” the member, who did not want to be named, said.

He said he has urged the state government to take tough action against the attackers.

Hindus make up 88.53 percent of Nawada district’s population and Christians a mere 0.6 percent.

According to the United Christian Forum (UCF), a human rights group that keeps track of violence against Christians in India, Bihar, ruled by the Janata Dal (United) party, recorded nine cases of violence against Christians in the first six months this year whereas Uttar Pradesh, led by the pro-Hindu party, witnessed 155 cases in the same period.

New Delhi-based UCF said 400 incidents of violence were reported from 23 states in the first half of this year.

UCF said 274 incidents of violence against Christians were reported in the first six months of last year.

Out of India’s 28 provincial states, 13 states, most of them ruled by the  Bharatiya Janata Party, the pro-Hindu party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have enacted a sweeping anti-conversion law.

Though Bihar has not enacted the draconian law, we have been getting reports of persecution in the state, Singh said.

She called on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to take appropriate action against the perpetrators.

Singh said that none of these governments, where the law has been enacted, have been able to prove that forceful conversions are taking place in their respective states. 

“After all, conversion is an individual choice,” she added.

Christians make up less than 0.5 percent of Bihar’s population. Most people in the state, about 83 percent, are Hindus.