The holiday season has just passed. While most of the world rang in the New Year with messages of peace and renewal, for many in India, the winter chill brought a much harsher reality. Christmas 2025 has come and gone, but the shadows of intimidation and violence cast by RSS-backed BJP state machinery continue to loom large over the country’s religious minorities. A recent, scathing article titled ‘The Hindu Attacks on India’s Christians’ was published by Tunku Varadarajan in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). This piece has laid bare what many have feared: India’s secular foundation is being systematically dismantled, replaced by a “Hindutva” ideology that leaves little room for anyone who doesn’t fit the nationalist mould.
For India’s Christian community-a mere 2.3% of the population-the festive season was anything but merry. According to Mr Tunku’s article, Christmas 2025 became a “national flashpoint for majoritarian assertion” or, if I may say so, ‘religious extremism’. The statistics are jarring: anti-Christian incidents have skyrocketed from 139 in 2014 to a staggering 834 in 2024. By November 2025 alone, over 700 attacks were recorded. The article details a harrowing pattern of organised violence. In Chhattisgarh, shopping malls saw their festive decorations torn down and Santa Claus effigies demolished. In Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, mobs gathered outside churches shouting death threats at “missionaries,” while even the blind were not spared from violence during church raids. The most critical takeaway from the WSJ opinion piece is the role of the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is accused of practising a deliberate silence. While the PM might occasionally visit a church for a photo op, the report notes a glaring absence of condemnation for the actual violence occurring on the ground.
This silence is interpreted by extremist factions as a state green light. When the leadership refuses to speak out against mobs, the mobs feel empowered. Furthermore, the weaponisation of anti-conversion laws and the blatant inaction of the police have created an environment where the victim is often the one arrested, while the perpetrator walks free.
From discrimination in housing and employment to the erosion of their right to vote, the article suggests that being a minority in India today means living in a state of constant fear.
Mr Tunku Varadarajan emphasises that this isn’t just about one community. Since 2014, India’s Muslim population has faced a systemic “othering” process. From discrimination in housing and employment to the erosion of their right to vote, the article suggests that being a minority in India today means living in a state of constant fear. India’s claim to being the “world’s largest democracy” is being interrogated on the global stage. The piece in WSJ argues that under the current regime, India has shifted from a “full-class democracy” to a “majoritarian state.” The secularism that once defined the nation’s identity is now being dismissed as a mere slogan, hollowed out by fascist ideologies that prioritise Hindu supremacy above all else.
The international community is taking notice. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has already recommended that India be labelled a “Country of Particular Concern” for allowing “egregious religious freedom violations” to go unchecked and unpunished. Diplomatically, India risks isolation as its internal human rights record begins to overshadow its economic ambitions.
As we move further into 2026, the question remains: Can India reclaim its pluralistic soul? Or will the “Hindu Rashtra” envisioned by the BJP continue to isolate and marginalise the very people who have called this land home for centuries? For now, this perilous and grim reality serves as a haunting reminder that in the world’s largest democracy, the light of secularism is flickering dangerously low.
The writer is an alumnus of QAU, a Research scholar & a freelance columnist, based in Islamabad. He can be reached at [email protected]