Anti-Christian violence is on the rise in India, much of which occurred in Karnataka. Especially on the eve of the winter session of the assembly in Belagavi, Southern India. Basavaraj Bommai, Chief Minister of Karnataka, hinted at the possibility of banning religious conversion altogether.
On December 14th, local Indian police in Vadodara City began investigating accusations of forced conversion by the Makarpura facility for Missionaries of Charity (MOC), the charity famously started by Mother Teresa in 1950. The charity was started in Vadodara, in the Makarpura area of the state of Gujarat, which is also the home state of the Hindu Nationalist Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
On Monday, December 6, a mob of Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) members, two notoriously militant right-wing Hindu groups, attacked St. Joseph’s School in Ganj Basoda, India. The incident happened around 12:10 at noon when more than 300 protesters started gathering outside the school’s compound.
The attack happened while the school was administering exams for their grade 12 students.
A Tweet posted on November 30 by the user Rakesh Prakash showed people praying over a pothole in Bangalore city, Karnataka, India. They surrounded the pothole with flowers while two priests performed religious ceremonies.
On Saturday, November 27, Vishesh Dhuria, director and founder of Curtain Call, received a letter from the Ashokanagar police office. The police officers of the Ashoknagar in Bangalore city requested Dhuria and his production to cancel Munawar Faruqui’s show.
Christian groups in Belagavi City in Karnataka, India, were told by police to avoid meetings and gatherings for prayer until the end of the Winter Session. Belagavi will be hosting the Karnataka legislative session scheduled for December 13 to 24. A controversial anti-conversion bill will be discussed during the session, according to the police.
On Monday, November 15, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and several right-wing media shared a seven-second video of what they call “evidence of Thook Jihad.” Hardline right-wing groups in India are using the video and several other similar footages to accuse Muslim minorities of attacking Hindus by spitting on their food.
On Monday, November 15, a group of right-wing Hindus set fire to Salman Khurshid’s house in Satkhol Village, near the Nainital district in the Uttarakhand state. In October, Khurshid, the former Foreign Minister of India, published a book where he compares extremist Hindutva groups to Islamist groups like ISIS and Boko Haram.
