By Safa KT
Pastor Bahadur Singh stands beside a cow shed in a barren land. His hand gestures towards the site where his house once stood, and he moves under the cow shed. “This is where we were doing our prayers when they came to attack us”. In 2002, a mob came to Bahadur Singh’s house when he and others were attending their Sunday prayer, accusing him of converting tribals to Christianity. The mob vandalised his house and the prayer hall to rubble. He continued, “They attacked us, destroyed my house completely and then we were arrested on charges of forcible conversion.”
When we visited him, 23 years since the incident, the broken foundations of his house were still visible.
Members of the People’s Tribunal, constituted by Karwan-e-Mohabbat and the Collective of Concerned Citizens, to investigate anti-Christian discrimination and violence in India, travelled to Chhattisgarh and Odisha in April and May. We heard incidents dating back 30 years as well as incidents that happened just a few months before our visit. Yet all these stories have remained unheard or have gone unreported by mainstream media.
As an extension to the People’s Tribunal a group associated with Karwan-e-Mohabbat visited the tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh (MP) in May, 2026. We recorded the testimonies of victims of violence, met locals and community leaders to understand the issue in greater depth. This video documentary is the result.
MP has the largest tribal population in India, who are also major socio-economic contributors to the state. The anti-Christian violence in MP is largely against Christians from tribal communities. We spoke to around 25 victims across the state from the districts of Jhabua, Burhanpur, Khandwa, Alirajpur, Bhopal, and Mhow. Their stories were deeply disturbing and concerning.
After Odisha, Madhya Pradesh was the second state to bring an anti-conversion Freedom of Religion Act, in 1968 – “an Act to provide for prohibition of conversion from one religion to another by the use of force or allurement or by fraudulent means and for matters incidental thereto.” Hindutva-associated organisations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad allege that tribal Christians are forcibly converted to Christianity. Even if there is no evidence to support these allegations, many are arrested and jailed under the act.
Baliram, a pastor from Burhanpur told us repeatedly, “We don’t belong to Hindu Dharm or any religion, so how can it even be considered a conversion?”
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.