Displaying items by tag: Uttar Pradesh

On 19 April Indians commenced voting  for their next parliament, with Narendra Modi seeking a third term. Opinion polls favour his BJP party and its allies over an opposition alliance of over two dozen parties including Congress. The election is unfolding amidst bitterness, with opposition leaders alleging an unfair playing field. The numbers are mindboggling: a staggering 969 million voters (almost one-eighth of the world’s population) are eligible to vote, electing 543 MPs. The process will run in seven phases over six weeks: results will be announced on 4 June. Election commissioner Rajiv Kumar has vowed to ‘take democracy to every corner of India’, with some polling booths in the unlikeliest of places. Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, is seen as a key battleground. The outcome of this monumental electoral process will shape India's political landscape for the next five years.

There has been an epidemic of violence toward Christians in Uttar Pradesh. In one attack, radical Hindu nationalists destroyed the church, burned everything especially the Bibles and injured the congregation. They demanded the Christians leave the area, warning the police would not protect them. Sure enough, the police stood back at first, then arrested them, but released them to go to another village and attack Christians. Traumatised and hungry, the Christians returned to repair the damaged village. ICC heard about the attacks and came to aid the small Christian community of 30 with food packages, rent for their stay, medical attention where needed and building materials to repair the church. ‘When we saw things that were brought to us like groceries and the items for the church repair, I felt scriptures being fulfilled in our lives. When one part of the body suffers, the other part shares and helps’, said one member of the congregation.

Last week a Christian pastor was arrested on false charges of conversion activities in Uttar Pradesh and tortured for 24 hours. ‘I could not walk out of the police station. My two legs were swollen badly. There was so much pain. I could not move from one place to the other. Whenever there was a phone call about my arrest, the police increased the intensity of lashes with the belt and sticks. They beat me on three occasions while demanding I say “Jai Sriram” (Glory to Lord Rama).’ Local sources said the pastor and his family were visiting relatives and worshipping with them when a police van arrived after a neighbour complained. The police abused the family and arrested the pastor and his uncle. They took turns physically torturing them at the police station. At midnight his uncle was released when officers learned he was not a Christian.

A congregation of 100 Christians celebrating a Maundy Thursday service in Uttar Pradesh’s Fathepur District were threatened by a radical Hindu mob who surrounded the church and subsequently locked the doors. A First Information Report was lodged against 36 of the Christians on alleged forced conversion charges based on Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion laws after the mob’s leader, Himanshu Dikshit, complained that the church was working to convert Hindus to the Christian faith. Most of the congregation were freed from the locked church, but the 36 remained in jail until the wider Christian community raised their bail amount. One of the congregation said, ‘This is a perfect portrayal of Jesus’ suffering 2,000 years ago. We know Jesus endured, and we will.’

As of 9 November there were 89 new cases of the Zika virus in the city of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh (UP). This is the first time they have found Zika in UP. Health officials said it can quickly spread through the population of 204 million. Mosquitoes spread Zika, and it can also be sexually transmitted. There is no cure, so they must rid the area of mosquitoes quickly. Symptoms include fever, joint head and muscle pain, rash and conjunctivitis. Pregnant women who catch Zika can have babies born with severe disabilities, such as abnormally small heads or underdeveloped brains. Zika is also linked to an auto-immune disease that causes the body to attack its immunities. Pray for healthy babies to be born to women in UP. Several teams are trying to contain the spread with very aggressive contact tracing, and there are additional teams eliminating the mosquitoes’ breeding grounds.

A new wave of Christian persecution began after two Muslim men were arrested and charged under the new anti-conversion law. Hindu nationalists, including BJP members, claimed they had been involved in forceful conversion of 1,000 people. Using the arrests as an opportunity for political gain, BJP politicians publicly warned against illegal conversions of Hindus to non-Hindu faiths. Since then, International Christian Concern has documented at least thirty Christians in Uttar Pradesh being attacked by radical Hindu nationalists. In each of these incidents, perpetrators justified their attacks by falsely accusing their Christian victims of engaging in fraudulent conversions. ‘This is a grave situation for Christians in the state,’ a church leader, requesting anonymity, said. ‘There is zero response from the Yogi administration, which empowers the attackers to do more. The attacks are perpetrated by the hardcore Hindutva activists who are supported by politicians.’

Year after year, Uttar Pradesh is identified as the state where most Christian Indians are persecuted. 86 of the 366 violent attacks on Christians recorded in 2019 took place in Uttar Pradesh, and 2020 has seen little improvement. While the pandemic probably reduced the rate of persecution, recent reports indicate the number of attacks on Christians is increasing as India emerges from lockdown. ‘I would have been killed if God hadn’t been with me,’ Pastor Alok Tomar recently told International Christian Concern. ‘I was worried that I would not survive as the torture was so intense. Different ones took turns as I was beaten with lashes from the police belt.’ Pastor Tomar was telephoned and told to report to the police station immediately. ‘I felt safe because I was going to the police station.’ He was accused of forced religious conversions and kept in custody and tortured for three days by the police. It was another four days before he was given bail.