2025 proved a year of disappointments and exposures for India in many domains.
Besides facing diplomatic and military embarrassments, Christmas violence against the peaceful Christian community added further insult to the injuries of the Modi-led BJP regime. A re-cent report published in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reveals a disturbing trend of attacks on Christians in India during Christmas 2025. The report cites verifiable incidents around Christmas in several BJP-ruled states, highlighting the increasingly hostile environment for religious minorities.
These incidents included Hindu nationalist groups disrupting church services in Uttar Pradesh, chanting hostile slogans outside places of worship and vandalizing Christmas dis-plays in Chhattisgarh. In Madhya Pradesh, a BJP leader disrupted a church service and assaulted a blind woman, while in Chhattisgarh, mobs of extremist Hindu rioters vandalized Christmas decorations and decapitated Santa Claus statues. Such events are part of a broader pattern of violence, with 706 anti-Christian attacks recorded by November 2025, up from 139 in 2014. Experts attribute this alarming surge to the growing influence of Hindutva ideology under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Anti-conversion laws in 12 Indian states are increasingly being used to justify violence against Christians, while police often fail to intervene or protect victims. Attacks on churches and Christian gatherings have become shockingly common, reflecting the deeper penetration of Hindutva ideology in Indian society. Mobs in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and other states have disrupted services and accused Christians of forced conversions, revealing a widespread rejection of religious minorities as equal citizens.
Involvement of senior government officials in acts of anti-minority violence underscores that there is little fear of accountability under BJP rule. Street vendors selling Christmas items were threatened and harassed in Odisha and other states, while a visually impaired woman was assaulted in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, by a BJP leader. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended designating India a “Country of Particular Concern” due to these blatant violations of religious freedom.
While Muslims have also faced widespread discrimination and targeted attacks, Christians—who make up about 2.3% of India’s population and largely belong to poorer communities—are increasingly targeted through mob harassment, vandalism of worship places and accusations of forced conversions. Anti-minority violence under BJP reflects a gradual weakening of India’s secular ethos, even as previous governments had struggled to contain religiously motivated excesses.
The obsession of BJP’s top leadership with religious prejudice is undeniable. The forceful removal of a Muslim woman’s hijab in an official ceremony by the Chief Minister of Bihar exemplifies the depth of religious venom spiraling in ruling quarters against oppressed minorities. It would not be an overstatement to say that India has not only lost its diplomatic credibility after the misadventure of Operation Sindoor but also shed the veil of its so-called secularism. All credit goes to the RSS-influenced ‘Hindutva Brigade’ presently ruling the country under the BJP banner.
—The writer is contributing columnist.
