Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh: In the week preceding Christmas, it was not unusual to suddenly hear the strumming of a guitar or snatches of animated conversation in the middle of the night in Kanpur. Despite the cold, a small group of cheery carol singers on foot would visit Christian homes to sing carols.
Carols are the harbinger of Christmas. But as 2023 ends, streets remain quiet late at night like the years preceding. The few who still sing carols ensure they return home by ten at night.
“Many churches of Kanpur this year decided to do away with carol singing, fearing being confronted by fanatic Hindu mobs in the night,” said Chhote Bhai Noronha, president of Kanpur Catholic Association.
Noronha said that before Christmas, the pastors of Kanpur met with the police commissioner, R K Swarnkar, regarding Christmas celebrations.
“The police commissioner assured of adequate protection, but many churches decided against carol singing,” said Noronha.
“In Uttar Pradesh, Hindu mobs have become more aggressive against Christians as Yogi Adityanath became the chief minister of the state in 2017,” Noronha said.
On average, at least two Christians are attacked every day in India, according to the New Delhi-based United Christian Forum, an umbrella organisation of Indian Christians formed in 2014.
The statement released by UCF on 14 December 2023 said, “It is a matter of fact that our country has been witnessing a sharp increase in targeted violence against Christians since 2014. 2014 was the year when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. The annual ranking by the Open Doors of the World Watch ranked India as the eleventh worst country on earth for the persecution of Christians.”
Data released by the UCF on 14 December said attacks on Christians rose 367% over nine years, from 147 in 2014 to 687 in 2023.
There were 177 incidents of violence against Christians in 2015, 208 in 2016, 240 in 2017, 292 in 2018, 328 in 2019, 279 in 2020, 505 in 2021 and 599 in 2022.
According to UCF, from 2023 till November, the highest number of cases was reported from Uttar Pradesh (287), followed by Chhattisgarh (148). As many as 49 attacks took place in Jharkhand, 47 in Haryana, and 35 in Madhya Pradesh.
Twenty-one incidents of violence were reported from Karnataka, 18 from Punjab and 14 from Bihar. Eight attacks took place in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Jammu and Kashmir, seven each in Rajasthan and Orissa. Six are in Delhi and Maharashtra, four are in Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh, two are in Assam, and one is in Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Chandigarh and Daman and Diu.
According to the UCF, “In almost all incidents reported across India, vigilante mobs comprising religious extremists have been seen to either barge into a prayer gathering or round up individuals that they believe are involved in forcible religious conversions. With impunity, such mobs criminally threaten and/or physically assault people in prayer before handing them over to the police on allegations of forcible conversions. Often communal sloganeering is witnessed outside police stations, where the police stand as mute spectators.”
Article 14 has consistently reported on attacks on Christians, churches, and schools in UP and neighbouring Madhya Pradesh (here, here and here).
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Hindu nationalist political arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has been in power at the Centre since 2014 and in Uttar Pradesh since 2017, where the Adityanath government enacted the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. This law further emboldened Hindu fundamentalist groups to harass Christians with baseless allegations of religious conversions. Working with the police, these once-fringe groups now successfully get false cases registered against them.
Article 14 reported earlier this year that most of the complainants in these cases are members of these Hindu groups. This is contrary even to the draconian law's provisions, allowing only affected parties, not third parties, to file complaints.
“The most common accusation against Christians is of converting Hindus to Christians. The moment four Christians congregate for their Sunday prayers in a church, they are accused of conversions,” said Noronha.
In June 2023, Hindu fundamentalists broke the wall of a missionary school and prayer hall church that was being constructed in the Akbarpur neighbourhood in Kanpur, allegedly without the proper authorisation from the Kanpur Development Authority. While a police case was registered against 93 people, no one was arrested.
Indian Christians had been targeted for decades, but now the hate was in the open and went unpunished, said John Dayal, a journalist and a former national president of All India Catholic Union.
“Complaints go unregistered or unheard, as I can vouch from personal experience as a target of hate and threats of violence. The reason is clear. The non-state actors listen to and respond to the dog whistle-blowing by those in authority,” said Dayal. They have no fear, as we have seen in the attacks on churches, the arrest of pastors on charges of conversion, and the declaration of Christmas as Good Governance Day.”
In 2021, Hindu fundamentalists burnt effigies of Santa Claus in Agra while chanting, “Santa Clau Murdabad”. (Death to Santa Claus.)
‘We Start Early & End Early’
A native of Kerala, R George, 55, a retired media professional who has lived in Kanpur for 30 years, said his church did not stop singing carols. In a group of 15-20 people, including women and children, he visited homes to sing carols but came home early.
“We ensured we started by 6 pm and finished by 10 pm. We earlier continued hopping from home to home till the wee hours of the morning,” he said.
George said he had not faced a mob yet, but a fear persisted in his heart.
“The fear of being confronted by a group of, say, 50 fanatics in the night in a desolate street always lurks in my mind,” said George. “How can we explain the basics of Christmas to the hooligans? Will they understand even if we try? We are too vulnerable.”
“That’s why we start early and end early to avoid any trouble,” he said.
George said he does not have faith in the police.
“Will the police help us if we face a mob?” he said.
‘The Days Of Hanging Out Till The Wee Hours Are Over’
P Frederick, 65, who retired from the Kanpur Municipal Corporation and lived in Nawabganj neighbourhood, said that different carol singers would visit his home from midnight to two or three in the morning.
“The first group would arrive at, say, 12.10 am. We would once again hear the tinkling of bells at 1 am. The third group would be there an hour later. The last group would leave at 3 am,” said Frederick.
“Only one group, the official one from our church, visits our home now, usually by 11 pm, and then we retire for the night. For the carol singers, the days of hanging out till the wee hours are over,” he said.
Even celebrations in churches in Kanpur on Christmas Eve have been toned down. The midnight mass begins just before midnight and continues for at least half an hour.
“Nowadays, people visit churches by 8 pm and leave by 11 pm,” said Noronha. “People earlier would arrive by 10 pm and leave at 2 am. People do not want any trouble.”
George said there was no threat inside the church on Christmas Eve, but families feel vulnerable when they return home. “People, therefore, leave early when there is still some traffic in the streets,” he said.
No More Picnics
H Thomas, 49, who works in a private transport company, lived in the Aminabad neighbourhood of Lucknow till 2022 before moving to Mumbai, said churches in Lucknow set up tableaux depicting the birth of Christ a week before Christmas.
“My nephew was keen to see the tableaux, and we went to the church nearest to our home. I became jittery in the church. I feared what if a mob barged into the church, raising slogans and started vandalising the church and attacking us,” said Thomas. “I sighed with relief when we left the church.”
Thomas said his church in Lucknow always organised a picnic, usually on the first Sunday following Christmas, but no longer.
“December in Uttar Pradesh is the most suitable month for picnics—it’s cold but sunny. We enjoyed it, but picnics are now no longer organised. Because of fear, I need not elaborate fear of them,” he said.
Thomas said he did not feel as uneasy living as a Christian in Mumbai.
Tales From The Neighbouring State
Some 600 km south of Kanpur, in Sehore, a district adjoining Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal, devotees had gathered at the Lourdes Mata Catholic Church for the Sunday Mass on the morning of 10 December.
A mob of Hindu fundamentalists swooped on the small church, disrupted the mass and roughed up the Christians, said Richard James, the spokesperson of Rashtriya Isai Mahasangh, an organisation of Christians based in Bhopal.
The mob accused the Christians of conversion.
Christianity is not new in Sehore. The All Saints' Church there is almost 200 years old.
James said the pattern of targeting Christians was the same.
“Christians gather in a church for the Sunday Mass. A mob of 50-60 fanatics suddenly descends on the church and accuses the Christians of converting the Hindus, vandalises the church and thrashes the 10-12 Christians. Police arrive and book a dozen or so Christians under anti-conversion law and send them to jail,” said James. “Even getting bail is difficult.”
MP has been governed for nearly twenty years by the BJP and, before that, for decades by the Congress Party, which was in power when the state passed its first law to control religious conversions in 1968 and replaced it with a more stringent one in 2021.
James said Christmas celebrations had not been toned down in the bigger cities of Madhya Pradesh, “but Christians definitely face a threat in towns and smaller cities.”
A*, a Christian woman who has been teaching in a church-run school, said leaders of Hindu fundamental organisations had asked the Hindus not to visit the churches on Christmas Eve.
“Many Hindus visited one of the old churches on Christmas. In 2021, just before Christmas, I heard some Hindu organisations ask the Hindus not to attend the church on Christmas Eve,” said A, who was so afraid to speak that she asked neither her name nor location be mentioned.
A, who carols with her family every year, said her church told them not to go to remote areas.
“We Have Always Lived In Fear”
Hindu fundamentalists use allegations or religious conversions to interfere with the day-to-day activities of the schools run by Christian organisations of different denominations, which have a history of providing quality organisations in the country, attack them and call for their closure.
“The fanatics in 2017 insisted that India, our country, should be worshipped in every Christian missionary school in Madhya Pradesh as a deity. We are equally patriotic as the fanatics, but who will dictate the schools?” They had become so aggressive that it had become hard for the management to run schools,” said James.
James said it would be wrong to say the fear that Christians living in MP felt was new, even though it may have deepened because of the latitude given to Hindu fundamentalist groups in recent years.
“We have always lived in fear,” he said.
(Rohit Ghosh has been a journalist for 25 years and lives in Uttar Pradesh.)
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