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Heart and Soul: Dying to worship: The Christians of India

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07/02/2020 GMT

Dying to worship: The Christians of India

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Dying to worship: The Christians of India

Zubair Ahmed meets Christians who have refused to renounce their faith despite the risks

Zubair Ahmed meets Christians who have refused to renounce their faith despite the risks.

In just two years India has leapt up the table into the top ten of the most dangerous countries to be a Christian.

At the same time, there’s a rise in an extreme version of Hinduism which is linked to the recently re-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

There are 65 million Christians in India, and they make up just over 2% of this vast country, but instead of being able to live and worship under the radar, in the last five years there’s been a huge increase in serious incidents against Christians.  There are hundreds of cases of Christians being physically attacked, harassed, discriminated against, people being forced to flee their villages and Churches being destroyed.

Zubair Ahmed reports for the BBC Hindi Service and is in Uttar Pradesh where many of the reported incidents of violence against Christians are taking place. 

Eight states in India have introduced anti-conversion bills to limit conversions from Hinduism to another faith. For the extremists who carry out the attacks the new laws are used as a way to legitimise their violent actions against Christians and Muslims.

The government officially distances itself from the violent mobs that are attacking churches and mosques but the new Citizenship Bill, which was passed just after the elections last year, has defined what it is to be Indian even more vividly.
 
Zubair meets Christians who have flatly refused to renounce their faith despite the risks.
 
Presented and produced by Zubair Ahmed

(Photo Credit: Zubair Ahmed)

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