Damning US report cites religious violence on India's minorities under Modi

The US State Department's 2023 religious freedom report on India has noted violent attacks on minority groups, especially Muslims and Christians, including killings, assaults and vandalism of houses of worship.

The report on international religious freedom released on Wednesday said that in 2023, senior US officials continued to "raise concerns about religious freedom issues" with their Indian counterparts.

Human rights experts say India has seen a rise in attacks on minorities under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who recently won a third term, and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"In India, we see a concerning increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, demolitions of homes and places of worship for members of minority faith communities," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said when the report was released in a rare direct rebuke of India.

Criticism of India by the US is usually restrained due to close economic ties and New Delhi's importance for Washington to counter China, political analysts say.

The US report listed dozens of incidents.

Among them was a fatal shooting of a security official and three Muslims on a train near Mumbai by a suspect who was a railway security official. A probe by Indian authorities into that case is ongoing, and the suspect was in jail, according to the Indian Express newspaper.

The report cited examples of attacks against Muslims based on allegations that Muslim men were participating in the slaughter of cows or beef trading.

The report also included attacks on non-Muslims, citing the United Christian Forum, which said there were 731 attacks on Christians in the year, compared with 599 such incidents in 2022.

The Indian embassy in Washington had no immediate comment.

The Indian government denies discriminating against minorities and says its welfare policies — like food subsidy schemes and electrification drives — aim to benefit all Indians.

Attacks against non-Hindus

Rights advocates contest that and point to anti-Muslim hate speeches, the revoking of disputed India-administered Kashmir's special status, a citizenship law that the UN calls "fundamentally discriminatory", and the demolition of Muslim properties in the name of removing illegal construction.

The State Department report also cited violence in the northeastern state of Manipur that started in May last year between minority, mostly Christian, Kuki and majority, mostly Hindu, Meitei ethnic groups.

Hindu and Christian places of worship were destroyed in Manipur.

Citing a local tribal leaders' forum, the report said over 250 churches were burnt down, more than 200 people were killed, and over 60,000 were displaced.

Christians and Muslims in the Bastar area of Chhattisgarh petitioned local authorities to take action against local leaders of the BJP, the VHP, and other organisations that called for an embargo of Christian and Muslim businesses at a rally on April 10, the report said.

The report also mentioned that Christians and Muslims were arrested under laws banning forced religious conversions, which religious groups said in some cases were used to harass and imprison members of religious minority groups on false and fabricated charges or for lawful religious practices.

Hindus make up about 80 percent of India's 1.4 billion population. Muslims include 14 percent and Christians over 2 percent.