India

A pastor has been falsely charged with forced conversion of a Hindu man. On Dec. 8, 2025, Pastor Rakesh was heading home after working on his farm when stranger approached him and began asking him questions. The man then demanded that Rakesh say “Jai Sri Ram” (a Hindu slogan used for worship). When Rakesh refused, the man became more aggressive. That night, the stranger filed criminal charges against Rakesh, claiming Rakesh tried to convert him.

In western India, as restrictive laws targeting Christian ministry have gone into effect, Christians have faced challenges in maintaining fellowship. A 300-member church has been partially closed since Hindu radical groups began to oppose it. The pastor conducts early morning services and house visits to navigate the challenging situation. Another church has completely stopped services since radicals barred anyone not related to the pastor from entering the building; its members scattered to other churches in different villages.

A pastor and his family remain faithful to Christ despite persecution from radicals and police. When Bhaskar placed his trust in Christ, he immediately started witnessing in the villages around his hometown in West India. He was attacked seven times for the sake of his faith, including once when he was brutally attacked by Hindu radicals before being sent to jail for six months. In October 2025, the police came to Bhaskar’s home and found several copies of the New Testament. They beat him until he was unconscious before taking him into custody and jailing him for two days.

When Tanmay, a tribal Christian in western India, and his household gathered with another family to pray at his house, their meeting was disrupted by Hindu extremists who burned down his house and shop. All the family’s belongings were destroyed, and they had to move into Tanmay’s brother’s house. The global body of Christ is helping rebuild the house and store at the same location, and Tanmay expressed a bold desire to begin a fellowship at his new house despite the opposition he and his family have endured.

Four Christians, including a former extremist, are in hiding after being harassed. As a young man, Mukesh joined a Hindu extremist group but became interested in dating a Christian woman who shared the gospel with him. After he placed his trust in Christ, they married and began a church that grew to more than 60 Christians. In 2025, Mukesh, his wife and two associates were returning home from a ministry trip when three vehicles followed them. The men in the vehicles were armed with bamboo sticks and forced the four to stop, accusing Mukesh of changing the religion of other men and harassing Mukesh’s wife.

Christians in western India have experienced ongoing persecution since the arrest of a faithful pastor on conversion charges. Pastor Lakshya and his family moved to a remote village to begin a church that, over three years, grew to include house fellowships in 12 nearby villages. In December 2025, police arrested Lakshya during a family celebration and jailed him for three days. After he received bail, police arrested him again the same evening and filed other false charges.

Nine Christians were arrested after a mob attacked their pastor and destroyed their church. Pastor Aravind and his wife, Anjali, have served among a tribal group in western India for 15 years. Since 2014, police have worked with the Hindu militant group Bajrang Dal to oppose their gospel work, and Aravind has been beaten several times. In October 2025, their church service was interrupted by a mob who beat Aravind severely and destroyed the temporary church structure and the couple’s house.

Two Christian couples in northern India were assaulted by a Hindu mob when they visited another Christian family to pray for them. Pastor Jehovah Das, 65, and Vinod Masih, 42, and their wives visited another family’s home to pray for their new baby. A group of radical Hindus found out about the visit and gathered a mob of about 50 people. They broke into the house and dragged the Christians out, slapping, punching and kicking them for several hours. They then searched the visitors’ car, pulled out Bibles and Christian literature, and forced the Christians to set fire to the materials.

Villagers in Chhattisgarh state reacted violently against local Christians who buried a non-Christian man on their property. The burial of Chamru Ram Salam on Dec. 16, 2025, was conducted according to the rites of a traditional tribal religion. However, because half of Salam’s family, including three of his five sons, are Christian, the mob called the burial an insult to their deities. More than 500 villagers with wooden sticks and slingshots attacked mourners at the grave. Several people were injured, and the family and other Christians fled the village for weeks.