In central India, a local Christian recorded a mob assaulting Christians after a burial. screenshot from video
The violence began after a local mob, allegedly provoked by Hindu nationalists, claimed that a Christian burial insulted their deity and violated tribal land rights. The buried man was the father of Rajman Salam, the elected village head of Bade Tevda in Kanker district. He had been buried with Christian rites on December 15. Villagers led by a man identified as Sukdu Ram then accused the family of defiling sacred land and demanded the body be removed.
To pacify the crowd, officials eventually exhumed the body and moved it to another location.
Widespread attacks and displacement
Video footage from the area shows Christian tribal residents being assaulted with sticks and dragged from homes on the morning of December 17. Police were also pushed and shoved by mobs. A pastor’s home was among those burned, and several Christian families are now sheltering at a local police station, too afraid to return home.
The government hospital in Kanker admitted multiple victims with serious injuries, according to medical staff. Some may require transfer to private facilities for advanced care. Local field workers reported that many injured were left without immediate aid after the attacks.
The unrest triggered large-scale displacement. Dozens of Christian families, including women and children, fled the region, abandoning homes, fields and livestock.
Threats of renewed violence and regional mobilization
Local Hindu nationalist groups have reportedly threatened to return in larger numbers, escalating fears of renewed attacks.
Across the surrounding villages, village council meetings are being convened to build further opposition against Christian families. Field observers say these gatherings have become platforms for anti-Christian mobilization, increasing the risk of coordinated violence.
Supreme Court verdict misused to justify attacks
Activists also report that Hindu nationalist groups are using a recent Supreme Court split verdict in a case related to a tribal Christian, Ramesh Baghel, from January 2025 to justify their actions.
Although the court did not uphold a right to bar burial based on religion, and instead facilitated burial with police protection, the judgment has been distorted on the ground to claim that Christians have no burial rights in villages where they are in the minority. The misuse of the verdict has emboldened majoritarian actors to weaponize legal ambiguity, fueling attacks on funerary rites, displacing families and deepening a climate of impunity.
Dozens of cases across central India
The United Christian Forum (UCF) has documented at least 23 burial-related incidents in 2025 so far, including 19 in Chhattisgarh, two in neighboring Jharkhand, and one each in the states of Odisha and West Bengal, the four adjoining states that form the central Indian tribal belt.
The previous year saw about 40 such cases, with 30 in Chhattisgarh alone. These include threats, forced exhumations and denial of burial space, often followed by violence.
In November, Christians in Jewartala village, in Chhattisgarh’s Balod district, were also denied burial rights. Around the same time in Koderkurse, Kanker, police were unable to find a burial site for another Christian man for three days, as surrounding villages refused access.
In 2022, in Krutola village, Chhattisgarh, the family of an elderly Christian woman named Chaitibai buried her on their own land after being denied space in the village cemetery. Four days later, her body was allegedly forcibly exhumed and relocated, with the police initially standing by and later carrying out the act themselves.
More recent incidents show a continuing pattern. In Odisha state’s Nabarangpur district, a 20-year-old Christian man named Saravan Gond was denied burial in his village after his family refused to renounce Christianity in April 2025. His relatives were assaulted, the burial site vandalized and the body later disappeared.
In November 2025, a 13-year-old girl named Sunita died in the Brehebeda area of Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district. Her family was told burial would be allowed only if they left Christianity. They eventually buried her 10 kilometers (more than 6 miles) away near the district center.
Community harassment and state inaction
Other cases include villagers refusing to allow the burial of Keshav Santa in Odisha in March 2025 because his son had converted to Christianity. Even burial on private land was blocked until the son publicly disavowed his religion. Following that burial, the family was harassed, their water and electricity cut, and officials then issued a “breach of peace” notice against the Christian family instead of those responsible for threats and intimidation.
In a press statement sent to CSI, the UCF said, “The government’s first obligation is to protect life, liberty, and dignity, especially when a family is most vulnerable. If police and local authorities cannot ensure a lawful, peaceful burial and instead allow mobs to dictate who may grieve and how, the State, by failing to protect communities, is enabling impunity.”
Systemic targeting of tribal Christians
Attacks on tribal, or indigenous, Christians have intensified since 2020, when radical Hindu groups launched a campaign to prevent indigenous communities, who are constitutionally entitled to protections and benefits due to their historically marginalized status, from converting to Christianity. These groups have also pushed for a ban on access to education and job benefits for those who change their faith.
Although most tribal communities follow distinct traditions and nature-based belief systems, the national Census continues to classify them as Hindu, further fueling tensions over religious identity and rights.
