3/17/2025 India (International Christian Concern) — Hindu nationalist mobs attacked three churches during recent Sunday worship services, leaving the local Christian communities in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh shaken.
Church leaders said that this is the first time such attacks have occurred in Andhra Pradesh and said the attacks seem to be well-planned.
Hindu nationalist organizations have grown in number across the country since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the 2014 parliamentary elections and came to power.
The BJP has maintained the government at the federal level for more than 10 years now, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm. The BJP also won the elections in many states, with a majority bringing the party to power at the state level.
As the BJP gained ground, it increased its rhetoric against minorities, primarily Christians and Muslims, paving the way for the establishment and nurturing of many fringe organizations aligned with the Rashtriya Sevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological wing of the BJP.
One of the recent attacks occurred on March 9 at the church led by Pastor Dodda Ganesh in the Bapatla district of Andhra Pradesh. Police barged in during the worship service and demanded to see a worship permit.
Authorities told the pastor to stop leading the church and ordered him to meet with the deputy superintendent of police.
In another recent incident in the district of Satyasai, a mob of more than 25 people broke into a worship service at Jerusalem House of Prayer and ordered the pastor and believers to stop the service or move elsewhere.
The same mob went to Grace Church near the local police precinct and, in front of the police, told Pastor Vinod Dua to stop the church service.
“The situation is changing from bad to worse even in places which were once considered to be safe places like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra,” Pastor Jacob Chandan said, adding that police feign helplessness, claiming it’s impossible to arrest each member of a mob.
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