Indian archbishop demands ‘justice’ after court halts digging up of Christian graves

RAIPUR, India — The Catholic Church in India has welcomed an order by the country’s Supreme Court halting the forced exhumation of tribal Christians’ bodies in the central state of Chhattisgarh but says the ruling does not go far enough.

“We welcome this relief,” Archbishop Victor Henry Thakur of Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh, told EWTN News on Feb. 20.

The Supreme Court issued an interim order on Feb. 18 directing that no further exhumation of buried bodies take place in Chhattisgarh. The ruling came on a petition filed by the Chhattisgarh Association for Justice and Equality, which cited hundreds of cases over two years in which Hindu fundamentalist groups dug up Christian dead bodies buried in ancestral villages — a practice widely seen as part of a campaign to isolate Christians.

Though Catholics in the region do not bury the dead on village lands but in cemeteries, other Christian denominations in remote tribal villages often bury the dead in ancestral lands, Thakur noted.

“The burial of tribal Christians in their villages was never an issue, but for the past few years some illogical arguments are being presented by the politically motivated and sponsored groups opposing burial of tribal Christians,” the archbishop said. “It is not only against our constitution but also a very dangerous move against the unity and integrity of India.”

‘No rest even in death’

The ecumenical United Christian Forum (UCF), which monitors anti-Christian violence, welcomed the Supreme Court’s order, describing it as a “beacon of hope” for minority communities facing hostility over burial rights. The group held a news conference at the Press Club of India in New Delhi on Feb. 19 under the title “No Rest Even in Death for Christians in India.”

“The petition detailed how burial grounds that have traditionally been accessible to all villagers are now being informally restricted to certain religious groups, effectively excluding Christians,” UCF coordinator A.C. Michael, a Catholic, said at the news conference.

“Christian families are often forced to abandon Christian burial customs and adopt the practices of the majority religion as a precondition for interment in their own villages,” Michael told EWTN News.

“Hindu fundamentalists have turned belligerent in tribal Bastar area,” Arun Pannalal, an outspoken leader of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, told EWTN News on Feb. 22.

“Even a 20-year-old grave was dug up, bones collected and burnt. Even the family of the deceased was forced to dig out and burn the bones,” he added.

“The exhumation of the Christian bodies in tribal areas is carried out with a divisive political agenda,” Father Sebastian Poomattam, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Raipur, told EWTN News. This, he said, is “a new strategy initiated by the Hindu nationalists to marginalize Christians” in the state, where Christians account for less than 2% of the state’s 25 million people.

EWTN News reported in March 2025 about increasing incidents of opposition to Christian funerals and hate campaigns against the Christian community in neighboring Odisha state.

In late January, tribal relatives killed a convert Christian couple — Jitendra Soren and his wife, Malati — along with their 15-year-old daughter, Sasmita, in Keonjhar District, Odisha. Two younger siblings survived the attack.

‘Relief is not enough’

“Relief is not enough. We want justice,” Thakur replied when asked about a separate Supreme Court decision refusing to overturn a ruling on notice boards erected in tribal villages banning the entry of Christian pastors and priests.

“It is unfortunate that the Supreme Court dismissed the plea challenging the Chhattisgarh High Court ruling on village hoardings that ban the entry of Christian pastors, priests, and ‘converted Christians’ by the Gram Sabha were not unconstitutional,” the archbishop said of the Feb. 16 order.

Such notices, Thakur said, “seem very discriminatory, as it violates the constitutional rights of citizens to free movement and right to propagate religion.”

Several villages in tribal areas have erected notice boards declaring the entry of pastors and priests to be strictly prohibited.

“The refusal of the judiciary to stop such blatant violation of fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution will only aggravate the situation. This will only embolden the fundamentalists,” Poomattam cautioned.

The UCF has reported that Christians in Chhattisgarh face social boycott, including denial of access to public water sources and subsidized government rations, and face frequent assaults while police stand by.

“Chhattisgarh, a state notoriously known for social ostracization of Christians, is the No. 1 leading state in assaults against Christians with 47 incidents of reported violence,” the UCF said in its 2025 report.

Fresh tensions in Jagdalpur Diocese

Father Thomas Vadakkumkara, vicar general of the Syro-Malabar Diocese of Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh, shared with EWTN News details of fresh tensions in the state.

Bishop Joseph Kollamparambil, he said, had traveled to a remote tribal village to meet with officials after local Hindus complained to the government that their “goddess” had disappeared because of the Church’s presence.

“The Church has been there for 28 years. How does such a case crop up now?” the diocesan official asked.