>"This ['verified incidents of violence against Christians in 2024 alone'] >represents a 500-550 per cent increase since 2014, when the UCF [United Christian Forum] recorded 127 incidents. That is systematic persecution in real time."
>"The violence is no longer limited to churches." >"Praying requires armed guards." >"Of the 73 incidents the UCF recorded in December 2024 alone, 25 targeted Scheduled Tribes and 14 targeted Dalits. These are not privileged converts living comfortable urban lives. They are already the most marginalised people in Indian society, now being attacked for their faith on top of their caste identity. They are being beaten, displaced, and forced to renounce their beliefs." >"We do not make memes from their holy texts [referring to 'Sikhism and Hinduism'] We do not queue up comedy songs about their gurus at parties. Could you imagine vendors being harassed for selling Diwali diyas or being investigated for 'promoting Hindu culture'? The absurdity of that scenario tells you everything you need to know about the double standard at play." >"But Christianity? Fair game. Because we have internalised the narrative that it is 'foreign', 'Western', less authentically Indian despite being here since the first century CE." >"India ranks 11th on the Open Doors World Watch List 2025, which ranks the countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution. The world’s largest democracy, a nation that prides itself on secularism and diversity, is in the top eleven countries where being Christian can get you killed." >"And that is the real tragedy. Not just that Christians are suffering. Not just that violence is escalating. But that we, young and educated and supposedly progressive Indians, can know about it and still choose not to care. We can witness systematic persecution and respond by making it into content. We can watch the forest burn and ask for marshmallows to roast." --------------------- By: Aaditya Pandey [Aaditya Pandey is a poet and freelance writer based in New Delhi.] Published in: *Frontline* Date: Deceember 27, 2025 Source: https://frontline.thehindu.com/news/indian-christmas-anti-christian-violence/article70442531.ece#:~:text=Leading%20the%20Debate,BACK%20TO%20TOP Jesus memes got millions of views this year. The 834 attacks on Christians got almost none. What does that say about us? The Christmas feast was laid out, drinks were flowing, and a small Jesus figurine sat at the centre of the table. Someone wanted to queue up the playlist: Gazab Hai Yeshu Maseeha, Yeshu da Janam, Happy Birthday To You Yeshu, Hallelujah Yeshu. All those songs that have become collective cultural currency this December. People were excited, scrolling through saved reels, ready to play the hits. Then someone paused and said, “I was just thinking that we all are sitting here and mentioning these memefied songs about Jesus. What if it was Sikhism or Hinduism and not Christianity? Would we be making the same jokes, same songs, almost dumbing down Guru Nanak or Lord Ram like that?” Someone else answered, “That’s because no one among us is a Christian.” The room went quiet. Here we were, a gathering of Hindus and Sikhs and the occasional agnostic, memifying Jesus Christ into oblivion. Yeshu Da Janam Hoyaa Bhaga Wali Raat Nu has become the soundtrack to every Instagram reel, every WhatsApp forward. Punjabi Christmas carols have gone so viral that Christianity has become content, Jesus a vibe, Christmas pure aesthetic. The internet runs on remixes and regional spins. That is how culture works now. The numbers behind the memes While we were sharing those Jesus birthday memes, Christians in India experienced 834 verified incidents of violence in 2024 alone, according to the United Christian Forum (UCF). That is more than two attacks every single day. Uttar Pradesh recorded 209 incidents, Chhattisgarh 165. Punjab, where all these viral Punjabi Christmas songs originate, saw 38 incidents, including the death of Pastor Bhagwan Singh. He was attacked during a prayer service in Jalandhar and succumbed to severe head injuries in February 2024. This represents a 500-550 per cent increase since 2014, when the UCF recorded 127 incidents. That is systematic persecution in real time. The violence is no longer limited to churches. In Odisha, days before Christmas 2024, street vendors were heckled for selling Santa caps. Men claiming the State was a “Hindu rashtra” told them “Christian items” could not be sold there. “If you have to sell anything, sell Lord Jagannath’s merchandise,” one of them said in a viral video. The vendors, Hindus who had come from Rajasthan to earn a living, pleaded that they were poor and selling hats to support their families. They were told to leave. In Madhya Pradesh, right-wing outfits stormed churches, disrupting services with conversion allegations. In several States, Christians held Christmas prayers under police protection because mobs might attack them. A foam red hat is now considered cultural aggression. Poor vendors trying to make holiday money are targets. Praying requires armed guards. The most common trigger for these attacks is accusations of “forced conversions”. This narrative has become a convenient pretext for mob violence, often with police complicity, according to the People’s Union for Civil Liberties. The pattern is predictable: Christian communities are attacked first, then first information reports (FIRs) are filed against the victims. Anti-conversion laws have become weapons. The system works against them. Of the 73 incidents the UCF recorded in December 2024 alone, 25 targeted Scheduled Tribes and 14 targeted Dalits. These are not privileged converts living comfortable urban lives. They are already the most marginalised people in Indian society, now being attacked for their faith on top of their caste identity. They are being beaten, displaced, and forced to renounce their beliefs. The double standard We would not do this to other religions. When was the last time you saw someone make viral songs about Guru Nanak and treat it as harmless fun? When did Lord Ram become a meme without backlash? The Sikh community’s reverence for the Guru Granth Sahib is absolute, and rightly so. Cases of sacrilege trigger massive community outrage, sometimes violence. We understand why. We respect it. We do not make memes from their holy texts. We do not queue up comedy songs about their gurus at parties. Could you imagine vendors being harassed for selling Diwali diyas or being investigated for “promoting Hindu culture”? The absurdity of that scenario tells you everything you need to know about the double standard at play. But Christianity? Fair game. Because we have internalised the narrative that it is “foreign”, “Western”, less authentically Indian despite being here since the first century CE. We mock Christian symbols because Christians in India, especially Dalit and Adivasi Christians, are among the most marginalised. They are easy targets. India ranks 11th on the Open Doors World Watch List 2025, which ranks the countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution. The world’s largest democracy, a nation that prides itself on secularism and diversity, is in the top eleven countries where being Christian can get you killed. In December 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended Christmas celebrations hosted by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India and expressed “pain” over violence. But he spoke of the Magdeburg Christmas market attack in Germany, not the two attacks per day happening in his own country. As Catholic activist John Dayal told the Catholic News Agency: “After expressing his ‘pain’ over incidents of violence, Modi did not mention a single incident from daily two cases of targeted hate violence in 2024 in the country.” The real vibe is this This is what my generation has become. We are the ones who made “brain rot” Oxford’s Word of the Year in 2024—a term describing cognitive decline from consuming excessive low-quality content. Its usage increased by 230 per cent between 2023 and 2024 because we are living it. We have created an information ecosystem where Yeshu Di Balle Balle memes get millions of views while cases of religious violence get a couple of thousand retweets. We engage with culture as content, not context. We see Jesus as a vibe, not as a figure whose followers are being forcibly “reconverted” to Hinduism, having their prayer meetings raided, their churches vandalised, their pastors beaten to death, their Santa cap vendors harassed. What “brain rot” means in practice is this: we have lost our capacity for empathy. We cannot connect dots any more. We cannot see patterns. We have been algorithmically conditioned to consume everything—human suffering, systematic persecution, state-sanctioned violence—as just more content for the feed. We have lost the ability to distinguish between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation that actively harms the people being “celebrated”. That question made everyone awkward. Nobody wanted to engage with the discomfort. Someone changed the song. Someone made a joke. The vibe recovered. We went back to having fun, pushing discomfort away, choosing comfortable numbness over painful clarity. And that is the real tragedy. Not just that Christians are suffering. Not just that violence is escalating. But that we, young and educated and supposedly progressive Indians, can know about it and still choose not to care. We can witness systematic persecution and respond by making it into content. We can watch the forest burn and ask for marshmallows to roast. So go ahead, play your Jesus meme songs. Make your reels about being more excited for his birthday than your own. But maybe spare a thought for the 834 people who were attacked last year. For Pastor Bhagwan Singh’s family mourning their father. For the vendor in Odisha who was threatened for selling foam Santa hats. For the Christians in Mandla who needed armed police just to pray on Christmas morning. For the 25 Adivasi and 14 Dalit Christians who were attacked in December alone. Think about whether Yeshu Di Balle Balle hits different when someone died worshipping that same Yeshu.— And if it does not hit different? If you can consume this content without cognitive dissonance? Then maybe the brain rot is not just about scrolling. Maybe it is terminal. Maybe we have succeeded in algorithming away our last remaining shred of collective conscience. One day we will have to reckon with the fact that while we vibed to Punjabi Jesus songs, actual Christians were pleading for their lives. And we will live with the knowledge that we heard them. We knew. We just did not care enough to stop scrolling. Aaditya Pandey is a poet and freelance writer based in New Delhi.
