The recent outrage by International Christian Concern (ICC), a U.S.-based Christian advocacy group, accusing the Indian government of ‘intentional complicity’ in so-called ‘persecution of Christians,’ is not only misleading but it is a playbook case of selective outrage rooted in colonial-era missionary bias.
What the West conveniently ignores and what Indian media rarely says out loud is that many of these so-called ‘persecuted’ groups are not just preaching faith but aggressively targeting India’s most vulnerable communities: the poor, the tribals, and the socially marginalized, often using monetary benefits, social pressure, and false promises to engineer mass conversions.
Evangelism Masquerading as Welfare
In the name of education, health, or charity, missionary organizations many with foreign funding operate with one unstated goal: religious conversion. And they don’t go to urban centers or well-educated middle-class areas. No. Their target is mostly remote villages, tribal belts, and Dalit populations, where faith can be manipulated in exchange for food, schooling, or jobs.
It’s an open secret. From Bastar to Jharkhand, and from Odisha to parts of the Northeast, these groups have deliberately set up shop in areas that are economically backward but culturally rich, trying to uproot centuries-old traditions and faith systems with a foreign religious worldview.
Anti-Conversion Laws Are Protective, Not Persecutory
States like Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat have passed anti-conversion laws not to suppress faith, but to protect communities from coercion and deceit. These laws simply require that any religious conversion be voluntary and transparent, which is a reasonable expectation in any secular society such as India’s.
But when these laws are implemented, the same Western advocacy groups suddenly cry ‘religious persecution’. Is questioning deceitful conversions now an attack on human rights? Or is the real concern that foreign-funded networks are losing their grip over India’s tribal belts?
PM Modi’s Silence Is Strength, Not Complicity
ICC’s bizarre accusation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence equals complicity is both laughable and insulting. Modi’s governance model is rooted in constitutionalism, not theatrics. He doesn’t play to Western galleries. Under his leadership, minority communities have benefited equally and more from welfare schemes like Ujjwala, Jan Dhan, and PM Awas, without discrimination.
India doesn’t need lectures on religious freedom from countries where minorities face hate crimes daily, or where religious conversion is tightly regulated or even banned.
The Global Narrative Game
Let’s not be naïve. This isn’t about faith. It’s about control. The same Western ecosystem that tried to demonize India during the CAA protests, farmers’ agitation, and abrogation of Article 370, is now trying to weaponize ‘Christian persecution’ as a new tool to tarnish India’s image on the global stage.
They won’t talk about how Kashmiri Pandits still await justice. Their outrage is not based on facts but it’s driven by politics, ideology, and the old missionary mindset of ‘civilizing the natives’ or bearing ‘the white man’s burden’.
Let it be clear: India is apologetic for protecting its civilizational roots. It will not allow foreign-funded entities to exploit poverty to spread religion. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion but not the freedom to proselytize.
And no amount of Western propaganda will change that.