Global Christian Relief Red List 2025

​Analysis 
 
Faltering States and Growing Churches: Election Losses Set Back the Powerful Hindu Extremist Agenda
The world's most prominent, successful and charismatic Hindu nationalist - Narendra Modi - displayed far too much hubris by confidently expecting his party to maintain and extend their absolute majority for the third time in a row in India's May-June 2024 elections. To his shock, his BJP members were humbled by losing their absolute majority, forcing them to share power with two other parties to attain the 272 seats required to form a government. This might require them to temper their nationalist agenda, while Modi himself must accept that he has suddenly become, in the words of one in his circle, a "broken brand," especially within his own party who blames him for the poor showing.
 
This does not mean the Hindu nationalist agenda is over, however. Apolitical post-mortem was quick to blame BJP leaders for ignoring the warnings of the RSS, or National Volunteer Associations. The ideologues who guard the agenda of Hindutva, and have an outstanding on- the-ground presence, reported that vast numbers of younger Indian voters no longer trusted the BJP to run the economy in the interests of the struggling poor. Two billionaire cronies of Modi own a major portion of India's television media, and so few dared to suggest Modi might be heading for a reckoning. However, if the RSS returns to a position of influence, and chastened BJP elites start listening again, the Hindutva agenda may get back on track after all, as the recent Haryana and Maharashtra elections demonstrated, where the BJP swept the states.
 
It is not clear if the large numbers of Christ followers in India played a role in the result of the general elections, but there is no doubt that top Hindu nationalists are shaken by the sheer numbers deserting the Hindu religion in favour of a Jesus- centred faith, albeit choosing to retain their identity as Hindus culturally. RSS cadres have already redoubled efforts in the villages of Uttar Pradesh (traditionally their heartland) to disrupt the many Christian small group gatherings and do so in many instances with the aid of the law enforcement agencies, while in Chhattisgarh, RSS and its affiliates have successfully fractured the tribal society by mobilizing people against Christian tribals, thus displacing the age-old amity that the community once shared in the past.
 
The results are visible in physical violence, social ostracization and the fleeing of Christian tribals from their villages nearly every week. Based on the Violent Incidents Database statistics from the reporting period of November 2022-2024, India is a top perpetrator across more than one category of Christian persecution, with more than 60,000 displacements in Manipur and nearly 5,000 building attacks (mostly Christian homes as well as churches and Christian businesses). Additionally, the database noted 157 Christians killed and 150 arrested and/or sentenced in India.
 
The 2025 Global Christian Relief Red List. Washington, D.C.