Over 300 US Christian leaders are pressing the State Department to label India as a "Country of Particular Concern" due to increasing assaults on religious freedoms under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.
In a letter sent in August, the leaders, spanning various denominations and including 18 bishops and three archbishops, responded to the intensified persecution that religious minorities have faced since 2014.
They said: "This surge in violence is propelled by a Hindu ethno-nationalist or Hindutva supremacist political ideology...leading to alarming levels of state-sanctioned violence against Christians, lower-caste Dalits, and other religious minorities."
The Federation of Indian-American Christian Organisations in North America spearheaded the initiative, echoing a January 2024 petition by over 3,000 Indian Christian leaders condemning the Indian government's alleged complicity in human rights abuses against religious minorities.
Highlighting a disturbing trend, the United Christian Forum reported a significant rise in attacks on Christians, from 127 incidents in 2014 to 720 in 2023.
The letter stressed the dire consequences of such persecution: over 65,000 displaced individuals in Manipur and more than 400 churches damaged or destroyed by May 2023.
The letter's signatories demand several actions from the State Department, including holding Indian officials accountable for infringing on religious freedoms and contemplating targeted sanctions.
They argue that "the U.S. silence on these issues contrasts sharply with its geopolitical alliance with India", urging the State Department not to overlook these grave violations.
Referencing legislative actions taken by the Indian government, the letter notes: "The Indian government has cut off funding to hundreds of Christian schools and hospitals...International support is severed by draconian application of India's Foreign Contribution Regulation Act."
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticised India for enabling violence against minorities without consequence. The letter also points out that "anti-conversion" laws in at least ten Indian states have led to thousands of Christians being arrested.
In response to these concerns, US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain remarked during a press conference: "Christian communities reported that local police aided mobs that disrupted worship services over accusations of conversion activities or stood by while mobs attacked them and then arrested the victims on conversion charges."