Source: www.vomusa.org
Date: January 8, 2021
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Special Report: India
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| India’s push for a purely Hindu nation led to the murder of five Christians in a recent two-month span, and many more believers are suffering. Church meetings are routinely targeted and pastors are violently attacked as the country’s leaders and laws increasingly recognize only Hindus as rightful citizens. One of the biggest threats to this Hindu nationalist ideology is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which frees Hindus from the bondage of trying to appease or earn the favor of millions of false gods. If the gospel continues to spread, India cannot become the land of the Hindus. In “Hindustan,” therefore, Christians must be treated as enemies. One of these believers, 27-year-old Kande Mudu, was a Hindu before coming to know Jesus in 2018. After he led his three brothers to Christ, Hindus pressured him to renounce his faith. When he refused, local Hindus attacked his home and sexually assaulted his mother-in-law. Following a second attack, Kande told his wife, Bindu, that the extremists would attack again. On June 7, 2020, the attackers returned to abduct Kande. “I may be killed tonight,” he told Bindu as they marched him away from his home, “but I will never attack these people. Never give up your faith, even if I am killed.” Kande’s body was found by a roadside the following morning. Although Bindu must now raise their two children alone, she is determined to honor her husband’s final admonition: She won’t give up her faith.
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| Four other Indian Christians were killed around the same time as Kande. Bijaya Mandavi’s body was found in Chhattisgarh on May 25; she left three children behind. Samaru Madkami was killed in Odisha on June 4; the teenager volunteered to lead Christian meetings in his village when their pastor was unable to return because of persecution. Pastor Munsi Thado, who was jailed as a Maoist rebel before coming to know Christ, was killed in Maharashtra on July 10. And Suman Munda, a 25-year-old woman, was killed not far from Kande’s village on July 19. While Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his radical Hindu-nationalist supporters continue their push to make India a purely Hindu nation, our Christian brothers and sisters continue to dedicate their lives — even if it means death — to the greater cause of expanding God’s kingdom in India. God is honoring their faithfulness and sacrifice as He continues to grow His church there. Join us in praying that “the land of the Hindus” will instead become known as a land filled with people who honor the one true, living God.
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