By N Hannan
On a humid Sunday afternoon in July last year, a small gathering of Christians inside a modest home in India‘s Uttar Pradesh state was interrupted by a mob.
“At least 50 to 60 people associated with a Hindu right-wing organization came when people were receiving a religious message,” said Jaynendra (name changed), the pastor leading the prayer.
What followed, he said, was chaos. The mob “created a ruckus and closed the prayer hall,” Jaynendra said.
The gathering, held inside his home in the Shahjahanpur district, was not unusual. Like many Christians in northern India, Jaynendra hosts what is known as a house church, a quiet form of worship common among small and impoverished Christian communities. But in recent years, such gatherings have increasingly drawn the attention of Hindu right-wing vigilante groups who accuse Christians of carrying out forced conversions.
India’s Christians make up just over 2% of the country’s population, compared to around 79% for Hindus and over 14% for Muslims, according to the 2011 census.
Data compiled by rights groups indicates a disproportionate rise in violence against Christians over the past decade. In 2025 alone, local monitoring groups documented nearly 900 incidents across multiple Indian states, including physical assaults, disruptions to church services, and threats targeting worshippers, as per a report by Christian Solidarity International, a global Christian rights organization based in Switzerland.
Pastor arrested after attack on home church
Jaynendra’s account is one among many that suggest a recurring pattern. Mobs descend on prayer meetings, raise allegations of forced conversion, and then the police are called. Often, victims say, it is the worshippers rather than the violent mob who are detained.
Following the attack in Uttar Pradesh, the police “took around 10 to 11 people to the police station and detained them,” Jaynendra said. “They kept my family and others the whole day.” Among those detained, he said, was a 13-year-old girl.
This story was originally published in dw.com. Read the full story here.