On July 25, 2025, two Catholic nuns – Sister Preethi Mary and Sister Vandana Francis – were arrested at the Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh while accompanying three young tribal women on a journey to Agra. Bajrang Dal activists, a hardline Hindu nationalist group, confronted the nuns on the platform, alleging that the women were being trafficked and forcibly converted to Christianity. The activists staged an aggressive demonstration and lodged a written complaint with the Government Railway Police (GRP), after which the nuns and a local aide, Sukhman Mandvi, were taken into custody. The incident quickly escalated beyond a routine police matter; the arrest of the nuns under dubious charges of “forced conversion and human trafficking” sent shockwaves through the Christian community and wider public. Many began to question how two women devoted to a religious life could be branded criminals simply for escorting willing passengers on a train.

Members of the Christian community protest in Chhattisgarh, demanding the release of the arrested nuns. The arrests have triggered widespread outrage. Many see the case as a blatant injustice, prompting street demonstrations and even political protests for the sisters’ release. Lawmakers from opposition parties have raised the issue, and members of the Christian community held rallies denouncing the police action as a brazen example of religious persecution. Chhattisgarh’s Chief Minister, however, defended the arrests, claiming that an “investigation” found the girls were lured with promises of nursing training and jobs as part of a conversion-cum-trafficking scheme. This official stance – effectively treating the nuns as perpetrators rather than caretakers – has only intensified the public outcry and fears of a broader agenda targeting minority Christians.

“Innocent and Framed”: Victims’ Testimonies One of the tribal girls traveling with the nuns, 21-year-old Kamleshwari Pradhan, has come forward to refute the accusations and expose the disturbing truth behind the incident. Speaking to journalists by phone from her village, Kamleshwari emphatically stated that the nuns are “innocent” and are being framed. All three young women, she explained, were headed to Agra of their own free will for skills training and employment opportunities – “willingly going to get some job” with full consent from their families. “No one was taking us forcibly. There was no allurement or temptation given to us,” Kamleshwari insisted, expressing dismay that the sisters who were helping them now languish in jail. Her testimony directly contradicts the Bajrang Dal’s claims and the police case built on those claims.

According to Kamleshwari, it is not the nuns who behaved wrongfully that day, but the self-appointed “rescuers.” She recounted how Bajrang Dal members descended on them at the station and began assaulting Sukhman (the local escort) and even the girls themselves, all while pressuring them to make false statements. Kamleshwari alleges that a woman activist, Jyoti Sharma, slapped her and the others, threatening that if they didn’t parrot the narrative of being “taken against our will,” their families would face harm. “Not only me, but the other two girls were badly treated and slapped… [we were told] if we don’t follow them as dictated, all of us will land in jail,” she recalled of the harrowing encounter. Under duress, the girls initially gave statements aligning with the activists’ story – statements Kamleshwari says were literally dictated to them as police looked on. In fact, when the girls were giving their official statement, Kamleshwari noticed the officer writing something entirely different from what they were actually saying. When she objected to the distortion of their testimony, the Bajrang Dal men silenced them and insisted they “narrate the details as per [the activists’] line of thoughts”. It was a coordinated effort, she says, to fabricate a case of forced conversion where none existed.

Crucially, Kamleshwari also points out that her family had converted to Christianity six years ago of their own accord. The young women were already practicing Christians – so the very notion of “forcible religious conversion” in this situation is absurd. “Where does the question of forced conversion arise?” she asked, given that her faith was not new or imposed. There was no “kidnapping” or trickery at play: their parents knew about and had agreed to the trip for training, hoping it would lead to respectable jobs for their daughters. Far from being victims of the nuns, the girls see themselves – and the nuns – as victims of an extremist agenda. “The nuns should be released from jail and justice should prevail,” Kamleshwari pleaded, stressing that the sisters had only been trying to help them build a better future. Despite these revelations, the two nuns remain behind bars. A lower court and a special fast-track court both denied them bail, forcing the sisters to seek relief from a higher court. At the time of writing, their bail plea is pending before a National Investigation Agency (NIA) special court – an unusually high level of judicial scrutiny for a case that, by all accounts, stems from baseless allegations. For the duration of these proceedings, Sister Preethi Mary and Sister Vandana Francis have been lodged in jail, their reputation tarnished and their freedom take away, even as the young women they were accompanying insist that no crime ever occurred.

The spectacle of Catholic nuns being hauled off to prison under false charges has deeply unsettled India’s Christian minority – but sadly, it is only the latest episode in a much larger pattern.

A Pattern of Persecution Against Christians The ordeal of the nuns in Chhattisgarh is not an isolated incident. It comes amid a sharp rise in religious atrocities against Christians across India, especially over the last decade. Civil society tracking groups have documented an alarming trend: 834 violent incidents targeting Christians were recorded in 2024, up from an already high 734 incidents in 2023. This averages to over two attacks every single day – a staggering figure that underscores how unsafe the environment has become for a community that makes up barely 2% of India’s population. These attacks take many forms: churches and prayer halls have been vandalized, worship services disrupted by mobs, pastors and nuns harassed, and believers beaten or humiliated. Just as in the Durg station case, false criminal accusations – particularly of “forced conversions” under draconian state laws – are frequently used to justify arrests of clergy and intimidation of Christian families. In fact, a slew of stringent anti-conversion laws in at least ten states (most of them ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party) have become a weapon in the hands of Hindutva extremists and even authorities to criminalize ordinary acts of Christian worship and charity. Under the pretext of preventing fraudulent conversions, these laws are often invoked on the thinnest of pretexts to raid churches, jail pastors, or, as we see in Chhattisgarh, lock up nuns escorting adult women.

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Statistics from recent years reveal that attacks on Christians are both widespread and intensifying. In 2024, the highest number of anti-Christian incidents were reported from Uttar Pradesh (209 incidents) – India’s most populous state and a hotbed of Hindu nationalist politics – followed closely by Chhattisgarh (165 incidents). That Chhattisgarh ranks so high is telling: it is a state with a significant tribal population, and many of those tribals have adopted Christianity, drawing the ire of fundamentalist groups. Often these attacks occur with impunity. Human rights observers note that police in many cases refuse to even file an FIR (First Information Report) when Christians report being attacked. In some instances, police have been seen siding with the perpetrators – or even filing counter-cases accusing the victims themselves, mirroring what happened to the nuns and girls at Durg. This creates a climate where mobs feel emboldened to target minority worshippers, convinced that the law is on their side.

The profile of victims in this wave of persecution often underlines the power imbalance at play. Those being targeted are frequently from the most marginalized segments of society – tribal communities, Dalits, and the poor. For example, in just the month of December 2024, out of dozens of recorded incidents, a large share of the victims were tribal Christians or Dalits (formerly “untouchables” in the caste hierarchy). Many women have also been among the victims of these hate crimes. The case of the Chhattisgarh nuns encapsulates all these elements: tribal girls who chose Christianity, women trying to improve their lives, all caught in the crossfire of an anti-minority frenzy.

At times, anti-Christian violence has exploded into full-scale pogroms or large communal clashes. In 2023, the northeastern state of Manipur witnessed horrific ethno-religious violence between the predominantly Christian Kuki tribal people and the majority Meitei community, resulting in a humanitarian tragedy. Over the course of that conflict, at least 160 Christians were killed and an estimated 2,000+ churches and Christian buildings were destroyed in just weeks, as rampaging mobs burned down villages and places of worship. While the Manipur crisis had ethnic dimensions, the scale of church destruction underscored the depth of anti-Christian sentiment that can be stirred up. Earlier, in 2008, the Kandhamal violence in Odisha saw dozens of Christians murdered and hundreds of churches and homes torched by mobs – one of independent India’s worst anti-Christian riots. Even individual acts of terror have sent shockwaves: the 1999 burning alive of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two little sons by a Bajrang Dal militant remains a searing memory of how hate can lead to heinous atrocities. Today, observers fear that the frequency of “smaller” attacks has created an atmosphere of constant intimidation, even if not every incident makes national headlines. Ostracism, social boycotts, and “ghar wapsi” campaigns (forced re-conversion ceremonies to Hinduism) add another layer of trauma for Christian converts in villages. It is a relentless pressure to hide one’s faith or face the consequences.

India’s slide toward sectarian intolerance has been noted internationally as well. The country now routinely features among the worst-ranked nations for Christian persecution – ranked #11 worldwide in 2024, according to the Open Doors World Watch List, indicating “very high” levels of anti-Christian violence and repression. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has repeatedly raised red flags and even recommended India be listed as a “Country of Particular Concern” for its treatment of religious minorities (a recommendation India’s government strongly rejects). Domestic Christian organizations, such as the United Christian Forum and the Evangelical Fellowship of India, continue to ring alarm bells with each quarterly report of new incidents, but meaningful action or convictions of perpetrators remain rare. The result is a palpable sense of vulnerability among India’s 28 million Christians, who have contributed to the nation’s fabric for generations yet now increasingly fear openly practicing their faith.

Secular Values and Government Promises Under Scrutiny Faced with the blatant injustice of cases like the imprisoned nuns of Chhattisgarh, Indians are compelled to reflect on the state of the republic’s core values. This issue is not about blaming one rogue group or another – it is about what kind of nation we aspire to be. India proudly calls itself a secular democracy, but what does that mean when innocent nuns can be jailed on invented charges simply for doing social work? The Constitution of India promises all citizens the freedom of religion and equal protection of the laws, yet those very laws are being twisted to penalize citizens for their choice of faith. Christian leaders have appealed to the highest authorities – in late 2024, over 400 clergy and lay leaders wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi begging for action against the rising violence– but such pleas have gone largely unanswered. Meanwhile, the signals from the top have been ambivalent at best. In a much-publicized gesture, Prime Minister Modi attended a Christmas celebration with church leaders in December 2024 and spoke of harmony – yet tellingly, when he condemned religious violence, he spoke only of incidents abroad (like attacks in Germany and Sri Lanka), and not a single word about the ongoing attacks on Christians in his own country. Veteran Christian activist John Dayal called out this silence as “duplicity”, noting that by ignoring the two daily hate crimes against Christians in India, the leadership is effectively encouraging the belligerence of Hindu fundamentalists.

It is hard to miss the painful irony: even as the government proclaims slogans of unity and “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” (development for all), minorities feel ever more excluded and demonized. Ultimately, the arrest of Sister Preethi Mary and Sister Vandana Francis raises a series of searing questions for the nation’s conscience. Is this the achhe din (“good days”) our government promised us? Is this how the world’s second-largest democracy, which the world looks up to, upholds the secular values enshrined in our Constitution? What does it say about “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” (“Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter”) – a flagship campaign ostensibly to empower girls – when young women and their female mentors are left traumatized and imprisoned instead of supported? And is this how we honour the legacy of heroes like the Rani of Jhansi, in the land of that warrior-queen who symbolized courage and justice – by allowing the daughters of our country to be bullied and persecuted for their faith? These are uncomfortable questions, but they must be asked. The plight of the two nuns is a litmus test for India’s democracy: Will we choose the path of justice, tolerance, and true “achhe din” for all our citizens, or will we allow fear and fanaticism to undermine the very foundations of our republic? The answer will define the soul of India in the years to come, and the world is watching.

(Fr. Innocent sdb, is currently serving as the Principal, Don Bosco Higher Secondary School, Kohima)