The priests, Fr. Dean Thomas Soreng and Fr. Emmanuel Baghwar, were beaten with batons when approximately 12 men stormed St. Joseph Church in Tumdegi, Simdega district, Jharkhand state, in the early hours of Oct. 1.
Following the attack, the priests were taken to a health center, where they were reported to be in a stable condition. Photographs released by the local Simdega diocese showed the clerics receiving medical treatment. Long bruises were visible on Fr. Baghwar’s back.
The assailants, whose identity is unknown, stole around $3,400 in cash stored on the church premises. But local Catholic officials have cast doubt on whether theft was the sole motive for the attack, suggesting that dislike of the Church’s social and educational work could be another factor.
Simdega district is an area with a strong Christian presence in Jharkhand state, which has a large Hindu majority. A similar incident took place in the district in June 2025, when armed men assaulted three priests and stole money at St. Teresa Church in Bolbo block.
Jharkhand, an eastern Indian state, shares a border with Chhattisgarh state, where members of a Christian family were reportedly forced to flee their village Sept. 28 after a mob attacked their home.
The U.K.-based human rights group CSW said the incident occurred in Mukaram village, Sukma district, when a group of around 60 villagers broke into the home of Sodi Deva, who converted from Hinduism to Christianity four years ago.
The mob reportedly demolished the house and uprooted crops, which provided food for the family of four, who sought sanctuary in a neighboring village.
India’s Association for the Protection of Civil Rights released a 16-page report in September recording 141 hate crimes and 102 hate speech incidents from June to August 2025.
The advocacy group reported that 36 of the incidents targeted Christians, while 202 were directed at Muslims, India’s largest religious minority.
The group said the figures highlighted “a growing crisis surrounding the safety, dignity, and rights of religious minorities in India.”
“This crisis is represented not only in the number of individuals being targeted for their affiliation to a minority religious group like Muslims or Christians, but also by the surge in attacks targeting religious symbols and places of worship,” it said.
Human rights groups have reported a rise in incidents targeting Christians in Rajasthan state, northwestern India, since the state assembly passed an anti-conversion bill at the start of September.
Following the passage of the Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill, Rajasthan became the 12th Indian state to pass an anti-conversion law, after Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
Observers argue that anti-Christian incidents surge after anti-conversion laws are introduced, typically by Hindu nationalist parties who allege that Christian missionaries are undermining India’s historic Hindu identity.
Only 2% of India’s roughly 1.4 billion population is Christian. The country’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion. But in practice, Indian Christians must exercise their faith with considerable discretion, given that the country is 80% Hindu and Hindu nationalism is a major cultural force.
India’s ruling coalition is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which insists that Hindutva, or “Hindu-ness,” is the bedrock of the country’s culture.
The advocacy group Open Doors has ranked India as the 11th worst country in the world in which to be a Christian. According to India’s United Christian Forum monitoring group, there are an average of two anti-Christian incidents a day in the country.
The All-India Catholic Union recently appealed to Modi to block the revival of the anti-conversion law in Arunachal Pradesh state, which has remained dormant since it was passed in 1978 because it lacked detailed regulations explaining how it would be applied.
The lay organization said that moves to implement the 1978 Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act posed “a threat to the constitutional right to freedom of religion and personal liberty.”
India’s more than 20 million-strong Catholic community was shaken in July by the arrest of two nuns at Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh state.
Sr. Vandana Francis and Sr. Preeti Mary, members of the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate, had traveled to Durg July 25 to meet with three young women who were reportedly due to be employed by the sisters in Agra.
The nuns were accused of human trafficking and religious conversion. But the young women were reported to be members of the Protestant Church of South India, rather than Hindus, and had parental consent letters.
Following a national outcry, the nuns were released on conditional bail Aug. 2, but continue to face charges.
On Aug. 6, shortly after the nuns’ release, two priests, two nuns, and a catechist were attacked by a mob in the eastern state of Odisha amid spurious claims that they were seeking converts.
Cardinal George Koovakad, the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, called for perseverance in interfaith dialogue in an Oct. 4 address in Mumbai, India’s most populous city.
Koovakad, the most senior Indian prelate at the Vatican, said that dialogue was “a necessary condition for peace.”