BANGALORE, India — Church leaders in India have expressed frustration and concern over the Indian government’s rejection of the 2026 report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) amid steadily increasing atrocities against minority Christians.
The 2026 USCIRF annual report about conditions related to religious freedom in 2025 urged the U.S. government to designate India as a “country of particular concern” for allegedly “engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations.”
The report also called for targeted sanctions on India’s external intelligence agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, translated “National Volunteer Corps”), known as the fountainhead of Hindu nationalism.
“We have taken note of the latest report… We categorically reject its motivated and biased characterization of India. For several years now, USCIRF has persisted in presenting a distorted and selective picture of India,” Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said March 16.
“Instead of persisting with selective criticism of India, USCIRF would do well to reflect on the disturbing incidents of vandalism and attacks on Hindu temples in the United States, selective targeting of India, and growing intolerance and intimidation of members of the Indian diaspora in the United States, which merit serious attention,” Jaiswal said.
Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash, who is based in western Gujarat state, reacted to the government’s rejection of the USCIRF report, telling EWTN News on March 17: “The Indian government is in its normal denial mode. Politicians of the ruling regime and their caged parrot bureaucrats have mainstreamed the art of lying.”
He pointed out: “What USCIRF has stated and has been doing so all these years are incontrovertible facts. There is sufficient documented evidence to prove their charges.”
Despite the government denial, the ecumenical United Christian Forum (UCF), which has been documenting atrocities against Christians, has recorded a steady increase in the number of atrocities against Christians since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power in 2014, recording 834 in 2024 compared with fewer than 140 in 2014.
“It is not hidden that the splinter groups of RSS are involved in creating an atmosphere of hatred against religious minorities, especially Muslims and Christians,” A.C. Michael, a Catholic and UCF coordinator, told EWTN News.
Following widespread violence against Christians, the UCF wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in early 2026. “In 2024, the UCF recorded a total of 834 incidents of violence against Christians, revealing a disturbing trend in religious persecution. As of November 2025, a staggering 706 incidents targeting Christians …. have been recorded by the UCF,” the letter said.
Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi, India, secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, addresses the National Christian Convention against atrocities on Nov. 29, 2025, in New Delhi. | Credit: Anto Akkara
As incidents of anti-Christmas violence started pouring in, Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), sent a video appeal on Christmas Eve to Modi and chief ministers across the country “to ensure strict enforcement of the law and provide proactive protection to Christian communities.”
“Today, it is with deep pain and concern that I speak over the disturbing rise in attacks on Christians in several parts of our country. During this holy Christmas season, we are pained to hear about it,” Thazhath said in his video message.
The Feb. 3–10 biennial assembly of over 200 bishops in India at Bangalore also reiterated this concern in its final statement: “As many innocent individuals are incarcerated based on unfounded allegations of forceful religious conversions, we strongly demand the repealing of legislations which are inconsistent with religious freedom and right to privacy.”
“All persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice, and propagate religion,” the CBCI asserted, quoting Article 25 of the constitution.
However, hundreds have been arrested, including nuns and priests, under the draconian anti-conversion laws.
On March 16, the Supreme Court of India quashed a conversion case against a youth for praying inside his house with his friend. The young man was imprisoned for days in 2023 in northern Uttar Pradesh state, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF India). Later, the man’s father was also charged with conversion, and the family petitioned various courts for three years, eventually ending up at the Supreme Court, where the case was dropped.
“The so-called Freedom of Religion Acts popularly known as ‘anti-conversion laws’ adopted in most of BJP-ruled states are being implemented under pressure from RSS in the name of forceful conversions. Till today there has not been a single conviction in any court of law in India,” Michael said.
According to Michael, the “call for a ban on the activities of RSS is nothing new” — India’s first home minister, Sardar Patel, as well as Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Narasimha Rao all banned RSS “citing dangerous activities and acts of violence, including arson, robbery, and murder.”
Prakash, who has spoken up consistently for victims of the 2002 attack on Muslims following the torching of a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, said: “On every global parameter, India has reached an abysmal low. The government is so rankled that it even tries to defend the likes of the RSS speaks volumes.”
“The least the government should do is in all humility and honesty to accept the truth and take corrective measures immediately,” he urged.
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