A mob attacked about 50 Christian worshippers gathered for a Sunday church service Feb. 16 in India’s Rajasthan State, an international religious freedom watchdog organization reported.
About 200 people entered the church building in Bikaner toward the end of the worship service. They began to vandalize the property and beat Christians with iron rods, leaving three worshippers severely injured and most of the others with bruises all over their bodies, Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported on Feb. 20.
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The pastor — whose name was withheld due to security concerns — told CSW a new member who attended the worship service was seen sending messages minutes before the attack, and he ran out of the building when the crowd entered.
Accused of ‘forced conversions’
Members of the mob — who dispersed quickly when police arrived at the scene — told officials forced conversions were occurring at the church. When police questioned victims of the beating, they were accused of forced conversions, and the pastor’s children were warned not to turn out like their father, CSW reported.
The pastor, his wife and several other Christians were taken to the Mukta Prasad police station, but they were not charged with forced conversion. Members of the church did not file a complaint out of fear of reprisal, and the police took no action against those who perpetrated the attack.
The state’s legislative assembly tabled the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill 2025 on Feb. 4. The bill would require individuals who voluntarily want to convert to apply to a district magistrate 60 days in advance. It would make forced conversion a nonbailable offense that would carry a hefty fine and a 10-year jail sentence.
If the bill becomes law, the burden of proof will shift, and those who are accused of forceful conversion will be required to prove their innocence.
Twelve of India’s 28 states have anti-conversion laws in place, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reported.
Increased violence against religious minorities
Last December, more than 400 individual Christians and 30 church groups — including several Baptist conventions, councils and associations — sent a letter to Indian President Draupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop violent mobs who have targeted Christians and other religious minorities.
In January, a report from United Christian Forum — a New Delhi-based monitoring group that operates a helpline — said incidents of anti-Christian violence rose from 127 in 2014 to 834 in 2024.
Mervyn Thomas, founding president of CSW, expressed concern about the rising numbers of reported attacks on Christians and other religious minorities in India.
“In recent years, Christians have been increasingly subjected to assaults, humiliation and the loss of their livelihoods and belongings by far-right religious nationalists who make clearly baseless accusations of forceful conversion. Meanwhile, those who carry out these attacks enjoy complete impunity,” Thomas said.
“We urge the local authorities to be proactive and take firm and swift action against the perpetrators of such crimes.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Ken Camp and originally published by Baptist Standard.
