Indian tribal village forces Christian families to abandon faith
Tribal-dominated village told 13 Christian families on Palm Sunday to rescind their faith or be expelled
Updated: April 17, 2025 09:59 AM GMT
Tribal villagers in central India‘s Chhattisgarh state forced seven Christian families to abandon their faith early this week, but six other families remain steadfast in their faith despite intense pressure, a local Christian leader said.
Pastor Chinnam Wycliff Sagar said that the 13 Christian families in Karigundam, a village in the Maoist-infested Sukma district, were ordered by the local village council to return to their animist tribal religion or get expelled from the village.
The village council issued the order on April 12, Palm Sunday, Sagar told UCA News.
Six families “stood firmly against the illegal order,” and it “has irked villagers,” Sagar told UCA News on April 17, three days after visiting the families in the village.
The village has 136 tribal families, totaling 660 people.
Villagers “threw household items belonging to the Christians out of the village” and told them to stay away. However, local officials and police helped them return on April 13, Sagar said.
“Now they are back in their homes, but their struggle to maintain their faith will be another challenge as the entire village is hostile to them”, he explained.
Sager said the villagers did not allow him to see the families that left the Christian faith.
The pastor said no police complaint has been filed as they “were allowed to regain access to their homes.”
Sukma district is part of the Bastar region, considered a hotbed of anti-Christian violence and a center for the forced ghar vapasi (homecoming) movement in which Hindu groups convert Christians, projecting Hinduism as their original home.
The state, ruled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recorded the second-highest number of attacks against Christians in 2024.
It recorded 165 incidents of violence, according to the New Delhi-biased United Christian Forum (UCF), an ecumenical body that records Christian persecution.
Christians make up less than 2 percent of Chhattisgarh’s 30 million people.
