BENGALURU, India – Church leaders in India have expressed disappointment and concern over the Indian government’s rejection of the 2026 report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) amid rising atrocities against minority Christians.
2026 USCIRF Annual Report Urged the US government to designate India as a “country of particular concern” for allegedly “engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing and serious religious freedom violations” regarding situations related to religious freedom in 2025.
The report also calls for targeted sanctions on India’s external intelligence agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, translated “Rashtriya Swayamsevak Corps”), known as sources of Hindu nationalism.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “We have taken note of the latest report… We unequivocally reject the motivated and biased characterization of India. For many years, USCIRF has engaged in presenting a distorted and selective picture of India.” 16 March.
“Instead of continuing to selectively criticize India, USCIRF should consider the disturbing incidents of vandalism and attacks on Hindu temples in the United States, the selective targeting of India, and increasing intolerance and intimidation towards members of the Indian diaspora in the United States, which require serious attention,” Jaiswal said.
Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash, who lives in western Gujarat state, reacted to the government’s denial of the USCIRF report, telling EWTN News on March 17: “The Indian government is in its usual denial mode. The politicians of the ruling regime and their caged parrot bureaucrats have brought the art of lying into the mainstream.”
He explained: “What USCIRF has said and has done all these years is irrefutable fact. There is ample documentary evidence to prove their allegations.”
Despite government denials, worldwide United Christian Forum (UCF), which is documenting atrocities against Christians, has reported a steady increase in the number of atrocities against Christians since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, from less than 140 in 2014 to 834 in 2024.
“It is no secret that RSS splinter groups are involved in creating an atmosphere of hatred against religious minorities, especially Muslims and Christians,” Catholic and UCF coordinator AC Michael told EWTN News.
Following widespread violence against Christians, the UCF had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in early 2026. “In 2024, UCF recorded a total of 834 incidents of violence against Christians, revealing a disturbing trend in religious persecution. As of November 2025, a shocking 706 incidents targeting Christians have been recorded,” the letter said.
Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi, India, Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, addresses the National Christian Conference against Torture in New Delhi on November 29, 2025. | Credit: Anto Accara
As incidents of anti-Christmas violence began to emerge, Archbishop Andrews Thazath, President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), sent a message. Christmas Eve Video Appeal Modi and chief ministers across the country “to ensure strict implementation of the law and provide proactive protection to Christian communities.”
“Today, I speak with deep pain and concern over the alarming increase in attacks on Christians in many parts of our country. During this holy Christmas season, we are saddened to hear about it,” Thazath said in his video message.
India’s biennial gathering of more than 200 bishops in Bangalore on 3–10 February also reiterated this concern in its final statement: “While many innocent individuals have been jailed based on baseless allegations of forced religious conversion, we strongly demand the repeal of laws that are inconsistent with the right to religious freedom and privacy.”
“All persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and to freely profess, practice and propagate religion,” the CBCI said, citing Article 25 of the Constitution.
However, hundreds, including nuns and priests, have been arrested under stringent anti-conversion laws.
On March 16, the Supreme Court of India quashed a religious conversion case against a young man for praying inside his house with his friend. According to the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF India), the young man was held in captivity for several days in northern Uttar Pradesh state in 2023. Later, the man’s father was also accused of religious conversion, and the family petitioned various courts for three years, eventually reaching the Supreme Court, where the case was thrown out.
Michael said, “The so-called Freedom of Religion Act, commonly known as the ‘anti-conversion law’, is being implemented in most BJP-ruled states under pressure from the RSS in the name of forced conversions. Till date there has not been a single conviction in any court in India.”
According to Michael, “Calls to ban the activities of the RSS are nothing new” – India’s first Home Minister, Sardar Patel, as well as Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Narasimha Rao banned the RSS, citing “dangerous activities and acts of violence including arson, dacoity and murder”.
Prakash, who has continuously spoken Victims of 2002 attack On Muslims after setting fire to a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, he said, “On every global parameter, India has reached an extremely low level. The government is so angry that it even tries to defend people like the RSS.”
“The government should at least accept the truth with all humility and honesty and take immediate corrective steps,” he urged.
