Ankush Baryekar (pictured), general secretary of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum (CCF), reported that police in Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh state, told a meeting of nearly one hundred local Pentecostal pastors that house churches were to stop functioning.

At the meeting on 14 August police stated that no meetings could take place until each congregation received permission from the district collector. Police said they were receiving numerous complaints that illegal conversions were occurring in house churches. No written order was served and Christian activists and pastors describe the verbal demand as an “informal ban”.

“Legally speaking they didn’t give us any documents enforcing a ban, but verbally they did tell us to shut down,” said Ankush Baryekar, general secretary of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum (CCF). Pastor Dankeshwar Sahu, state secretary of the CCF, added: “We requested the police to provide us official documents either with guidelines regarding the running of a house church, or a ban on house churches. This would allow us to take legal recourse against this informal order, but they refused to do so.”

However, a pastor who attended the meeting, Rakesh Jeyraj, said, “Some people from the forum have approached the administration for permission. But nobody has received the permission yet.”

Pastors who attended the meeting said police suggested they could merge their house churches with established churches, but Ankush Baryekar explained, “Our customs and rituals are very different from other churches” and noted that congregations of established churches have been Christian for generations, whereas Pentecostal congregations come from non-Christian backgrounds.

Some house churches have shut down since the meeting, but others meet covertly. CCF president Arun Pannalal said, “We are devising different tactics to continue prayer meetings without drawing attention, so some churches have shifted their prayer meetings to weekdays instead of Sundays, while others are holding them very early in the morning.”

The closure of house churches comes at great personal cost for pastors, as Ankush Baryekar explained: “I had a successful career in housekeeping and then in gardening, but I gave it all up to preach daily. I am dependent on my church for a living.”

Hindutva attacks: house churches targeted

Anti-Christian violence has intensified in Chhattisgarh in recent years and Christian groups say violence has now become widespread throughout the state. Traditional denominations in Chhattisgarh have formal church buildings but Pentecostals, who only arrived in the state a few decades ago, mostly gather in house churches, and they have been increasingly attacked.

The Evangelical Fellowship of India’s Religious Liberty Commission recorded 86 cases of “systematic targeting” of Christians in Chhattisgarh between January and July this year. Many cases involved mobs storming house churches during Sunday gatherings and local Christians say the mobs were led by vigilantes from Hindutva organisations.

“The VHP and the Bajrang Dal have been going wherever there are meetings in house churches and creating a ruckus there,” said Ankush Baryekar. “They pass indecent remarks and beat up people.”

“In the past few months, almost every week there have been about five to eight attacks on Christians in house churches by the VHP or the Bajrang Dal,” said Arun Pannalal. He denied the attackers’ claims that forced conversions are happening in house churches.

A local Bajrang Dal leader in Raipur, Ravi Wadhwani, accused Christian pastors of targeting poor and vulnerable communities, saying: “They first approach people through service, but then they make people pray to Christian gods and not Hindu gods. That itself is conversion because people start leaving their Hindu gods behind.”

Chhattisgarh is one of eleven states in India where anti-conversion laws are in force. Extremists use the laws as a licence to attack Christians, claiming they are forcing Hindus to convert.

“They attack from every angle”

A recent report by International Christian Concern (ICC), “Targeted in Chhattisgarh”, states that Hindu nationalists in Chhattisgarh are driving Christians from their homes, stripping them of basic rights through social boycotts and denying them access to water, food, electricity and the internet. Since January, ICC staff have heard of around seventy Christian families chased out of their villages. “They attack from every angle,” a staff member said. “You can’t bury your dead, you can’t work, you can’t eat, you can’t drink, and you’re forced to live in the jungle.”

In the first of two cases in Chhattisgarh reported by ICC, on Sunday 10 August a mob of about sixty Hindu nationalists broke into a house in a remote village where a service had just ended and beat Christians who remained with sticks and clubs. The owner of the house said, “People forced their way inside and began beating us. They later dragged us outside and tortured us further.”

The mob then stormed the homes of seven Christian families, beat them and destroyed their property. Four women and two men were hospitalised with severe injuries. “I was shocked when I saw one of the church members faint from their injuries while the mob continued to beat up Christians,” said an eyewitness. “I tried to protect some women in our congregation, but the attackers pushed me as they continued to beat us. This is not the first time we have been opposed for attending the church. We have been warned several times prior to this attack by the village leaders. They told us to leave Jesus and stop going to church or face the consequences.”

In the second case reported by ICC, a man who became a Christian five years ago said villagers ridiculed him for leaving Hinduism and warned him that there would be consequences. “The villagers told me that I would lose my agricultural land if I didn’t recant my Christian faith,” he said. “Eventually, I may lose my house since I have built it on the land that I own.” He asked that people pray for him and added, “I will not leave Jesus. I am not going to change my stance on following Jesus. God is going to reward me, and I am willing to face these passing hardships and persecution. It is difficult because no one comes to our aid, but we have Jesus. He will give us strength and courage.”

His family and eleven other Christian families have lived in the village all their lives but local leaders accused them of abandoning their traditions and ancestral rituals by becoming Christians. They banned the families from the village and seized their property.

(International Christian Concern, Scroll)

Image Credit: Chhattisgarh Christian Forum