Odisha has long carried the scars of anti-Christian violence. The burning alive of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons by Bajrang Dal leader Dara Singh in 1998 and the 2008 Kandhamal violence remain among the darkest episodes in the state’s history. Low-intensity divisions between Christian converts and Hinduised Adivasis have long simmered. But as bishop Pallab Lima has observed in a Scroll article, prejudice against Christians in Odisha is not new. What has changed, he argued, is the degree of political backing and impunity enjoyed by Hindutva organisations. Both survivors and local observers also testify to us in our recent travels in the state that both the frequency and intensity of attacks have escalated sharply since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in the state less than two years earlier. Odisha was also the first state in India to enact an anti-conversion law through the Odisha Freedom of Religion Act, 1967. For decades, convictions under the law remained negligible but in recent years, the law has increasingly become a tool for harassment, intimidation and disruption of Christian prayer gatherings.So, how has a state that once appeared – apart from the explosions of the late 1990s and 2008 – relatively insulated from the overt communal polarisation seen elsewhere, arrived at this moment?To understand this, in the opening week of May 2026, a people’s tribunal organised by Karwan-e-Mohabbat and a collective of concerned citizens travelled across Odisha to document the rise in anti-Christian violence in the state. Over four days, the tribunal visited Nabarangpur, Jeypore, Balasore and Baripada, recording testimonies from nearly 300 individuals from districts including Koraput, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal and Sambalpur. The Sangh’s vicious playbookDuring the tribunal hearings, one justification repeatedly surfaced for attacks on Christians: that Christianity is a “foreign religion” threatening Hindu civilisation. This narrative has circulated in Odisha for decades. In her 2009 book Violent Gods, anthropologist Angana P. Chatterji argued that the Sangh Parivar’s mobilisation among Adivasis – who constitute nearly 70% of Odisha’s Christian population – has been deeply strategic. Also read: RSS Mouthpiece Terms Cockroach Janta Party a ‘Politically Engineered Operation’, Part of ‘Left-Leaning’ EcosystemConversion to Christianity among Dalits and Adivasis, Chatterji noted, is framed by Hindutva organisations as a betrayal of the Hindu fold. “Reconversion” campaigns seek to absorb tribal communities into a broader Hindu identity, while Christian institutions are portrayed as foreign intrusions.Chatterji also documents how Hindu nationalist organisations expanded their presence in impoverished tribal regions through schools, welfare programmes and relief work, gradually building social legitimacy. Central to this project was the reframing of Adivasis as “vanvasis” – forest Hindus – while depicting Christians and Muslims as outsiders threatening indigenous culture.The political effect of this strategy has been significant: tribal and marginalised communities are symbolically incorporated into a Hindu majoritarian identity even as entrenched caste hierarchies remain largely undisturbed.The forms of violence endured by ChristiansThe tribunal documented four recurring forms of anti-Christian violence across Odisha. The first involved the denial of burial rights to Adivasi and Dalit Christians. In districts such as Nabarangpur and Koraput, Kandha and Gond Adivasis traditionally bury their dead regardless of religious affiliation. Yet multiple families testified that Christians were denied access to common burial grounds and, in some cases, prevented from burying relatives even on privately owned land. Several families said they had to wait days before being allowed to conduct last rites.One such testimony came from Jagli Santa of Andri village in Nabarangpur district. According to a complaint filed at Umerkote police station, villagers obstructed the burial of an elderly Christian woman and allegedly demanded that the family first “reconvert” to Hinduism before burial would be permitted. The family further alleged that they were denied access even to a separate Christian burial ground and that police officials pressured them to accept the demands of the mob. During the intervening night of April 14 and 15, their village church was attacked in the presence of police personnel, they said.Representational image: Members of the Christian community light candles as they offer prayers on the eve of Easter. Photo: PTI.Nearly two days after the death, the family was finally allowed to bury the deceased in their backyard – but only after signing a written “agreement” reportedly stating that Christian families would not be allowed to conduct future burials, that the church would remain closed, and that no religious symbols would be placed on the grave.The complaint enquiry report later issued by the police showed that no FIR had been registered despite allegations of coercion, intimidation and mob violence.Alongside restrictions on burial rights, the tribunal repeatedly heard testimonies describing social boycotts and attacks on churches, which constituted the second and third forms of violence documented during the hearings. Across Rayagada, Malkangiri, Koraput and Nabarangpur districts, survivors described a recurring pattern: Christian families praying in small house churches were ordered to stop worship, and when they refused, their homes and places of prayer were attacked.In Jeypore, the tribunal met a recent convert from Kantabada village in Rayagada district who had built a small hut as a house church – vital spaces of prayer for Adivasi Christians in Odisha’s tribal belt. Among roughly 130 families in the village, only four were Christian. After repeated pressure to abandon the faith, he said, villagers demolished the prayer hut and destroyed Christian homes, forcing the families to flee. Even relatives who remained Hindu were allegedly threatened with expulsion if they sheltered them.Similar testimonies emerged from other villages in Rayagada district. One displaced family told the tribunal they had been living in nearby forests since April after being driven out of their village. Another said that even a temporary shelter erected in the jungle had later been destroyed. “We have nothing except a tarpaulin sheet over our heads,” one survivor said. Gangadhar, a Kandha Adivasi from Siunaguda village in Nabarangpur district, alleged that his family was subjected to a coordinated social boycott, including the disconnection of water and electricity supply. Several testimonies also described pressure on Hinduised Adivasi families to expel relatives who had converted to Christianity or face financial penalties imposed by village groups.Rajesh Jani, a leader of the Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch whom the tribunal met in Nabarangpur, echoed these findings. He alleged that Bajrang Dal members and other Hindutva activists pressure Christian families to “re-convert,” threatening them with social and economic boycott if they refuse. He described the situation as an “undeclared emergency” imposed on Christian families by Hindutva organisations.The most brutal testimonies emerged from northern Odisha, where survivors described direct physical assaults, sexual violence and attempted immolation.In Balasore district, Subhasini Singh of the Munda community from Bitasahi village recounted an attack that allegedly took place a day after Christmas in December 2024. She told the tribunal that while attending a Christmas gathering in a nearby village, she was assaulted by a group of upper-caste men and women. According to her testimony, she was stripped, beaten, tied to a tree alongside a photograph of Jesus, and sexually assaulted. She further alleged that kerosene was poured on the victims in an attempt to burn them alive before police intervened several hours later.Yet, she alleged, the police subsequently pressured the victims into signing a statement admitting they had “made a mistake” by attempting religious conversion. When she refused, she said, officers threatened her with dire consequences.Similar allegations surfaced in other testimonies. A Santhal Christian from Khordha district told the tribunal he was intercepted by a group of men, assaulted and doused with petrol after being identified as a convert. Pastor Santosh Kumar, a Dalit Christian from Balasore, described being attacked by vigilantes after attending a prayer meeting in November 2025. According to his testimony, he was beaten repeatedly, stuffed into a sack and left with severe hearing damage and lasting health consequences.State complicity and institutional silenceAcross testimonies presented before the tribunal, a troubling pattern repeatedly surfaced: survivors alleged that police often acted less as protectors than as mediators pressuring victims into “compromise” agreements in the name of maintaining peace. Several complainants alleged that attacks took place in the presence of police personnel, while others said officers threatened victims or discouraged them from pursuing formal complaints. The rise in communal violence and lynching incidents in Odisha – acknowledged by chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi in the legislative assembly – has deepened anxieties among minority communities about the state’s willingness to protect them. Many survivors told the tribunal they felt increasingly abandoned by the administration after the BJP came to power in the state.Also read: Bajrang Dal in Uttarakhand is Harassing Muslims For Content. Meta is Amplifying It.Equally troubling is the near absence of legal action by victims despite facing denial of burial rights, destruction of homes, displacement, and social boycott. Most of those targeted belong to marginalised Adivasi and Dalit communities and are part of largely independent congregations with little institutional support.Based on the testimonies and our analysis, it appeared that many victims were encouraged by sections of the established church leadership to forgive rather than pursue legal action, often in the name of Christian theology. Much of the mainstream clergy, drawn from socially privileged sections, seemed reluctant to confront a state machinery perceived to be complicit in such violence, particularly given their institutional and financial vulnerabilities. The leadership, it appears, has abandoned the community to save its own interests.The burden of invisibilityThe testimonies we heard revealed the staggering scale of atrocities faced by Christians in Odisha – a reality largely invisible to the rest of the country. Many incidents never reach a police station, let alone the national media. To look into the faces of the survivors is to confront a reality that should haunt the conscience of the India we claim to cherish.The harrowing statements of the survivors and witnessing the total lack of accountability, lays bare that “India’s best kept secret” is not Odisha’s tourism, as promoted by the state’s tourism department, but the near-complete invisibility of the horrific violence inflicted upon the Christian community.The very least that must be done is to acknowledge their suffering. Recently, the lynching of a GRP constable over allegations of sexual assault drew widespread national attention, with extensive media coverage and swift action from the state government, including a public condemnation by the chief minister and the transfer of the case to the crime branch.But why does similar recognition rarely extend to Christians facing targeted violence? Have they been reduced to lesser citizens in the public imagination? Our first-hand experience in Odisha compels us to say that while suffering may be universal, recognition of suffering is not. Empathy too it appears, is shaped by structures of power. We recognise that unconditional forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. As the Gospel of Matthew 6:14–15 states: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Yet forgiveness cannot be compelled, and must not come at the cost of justice.Omair Khan, born and raised in Odisha, is a peace and conflict studies researcher who documents and analyses hate speech and hate crimes at Karwan-e-Mohabbat.Ajaya Kumar Singh is a civil rights activist based out of Odisha.