In Mumbai, India, around 50 Hindu nationalists barged into St. Peter Higher Secondary School, located in the Jhabua diocese of Madhya Pradesh state, demanding the removal of Christian statues.

The Catholic Herold reported how these activists, linked to the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), insisted that statues of St. Peter and the Virgin Mary be replaced with portraits of Hindu deities Saraswati and Bharat Mata.

This incident followed a prior confrontation at St. Thomas Higher Secondary School in Mansuar district, where ABVP members retaliated with vandalism for being denied permission to host a Hindu nationalist event.

On 22nd July, Vandana Convent School in Guna faced a similar intrusion, with the principal allegedly being coerced into apologising for enforcing English communication, perceived as an affront to Hindu values.

According to the outlet, since BJP's ascension to national power in 2014, there's been a notable rise in harassment against Christians and other minorities throughout India, especially in Madhya Pradesh where Christians constitute less than 0.3 per cent of the population.

“This is a serious matter of concern,” Bishop Peter Rumal Kharadi of Jhabua told UCA News on 29th July, speaking about the latest attack on a Catholic Church.

The bishop said he condemned the “targeted attacks on a Christian school that has been imparting education” for over a quarter of a century.