Sutahata is a rural place in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, which has been ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since the May 2026 state elections. There, on August 26, about 50 people gathered at Goutam Bera’s residence in Ranichak village. It was a house fellowship gathering that involved Bible study and prayer. Many attendees were Hindus, mostly friends and acquaintances of the Bera family.

The news of the gathering reached members of Hindu supremacist organizations. One of them broadcast a live video on Facebook while on his way to Bera’s place. They had heard a Christian priest had gone there to convert Hindus. “Let’s see what they are up to,” he said. By the time the livestreamer reached Bera’s house, some of his fellows were already there. They barged into the house, abused those present and threw people out, before allegedly manhandling the rest of the attendees.

“You are Hindus. You have idols of Hindu deities at home. How could you bring in a Father and practice Christianity?” one can be heard shouting. “They have started this Jesus business now. See, we have recovered a Bible! My God, they have a Bible here!” 

One video shows the intruders – carrying saffron flags – ordering the prayer attendees, rather rudely and loudly, to chant “Hare Krishna, Hare Ram” and “Jai Shree Ram.” Another video shows the cops taking the prayer attendees to a police vehicle. At one point, people from the crowd can be heard shouting: “Thrash them, thrash them!” 

According to Joy Kumar Ghughu, the pastor who was reading from the Bible, the police first took 17 prayer attendees, including him, to the Sutahata block primary health center for treatment and a medical check-up. They were then taken to the Sutahata police station, where everyone was interrogated about the intention behind the gathering. Their mobile phones were examined. At about 8 p.m., they were told they could go. 

“We did not lodge any police complaint against the attackers because Jesus teaches forgiveness. We will pray for their well-being,” Ghughu told The Diplomat. 

He, however, asked why propagating Christianity should be objected to, when Article 25 of the Indian Constitution says that all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right to profess, practice and propagate their religion freely. “We are not paying anyone to become Christians,” Ghughu said. 

The RSS Link 

Senior BJP leader Amit Malviya described the incident, along with two others, as “isolated local objections to prayer gatherings… peacefully resolved by the police.” However, videos posted on social media platforms by those involved in the attack tell a different story.  

The intruders identified themselves as members of Shree Ram Janmotsab Samity (Lord Ram birthday celebration committee). The Samity does not hide its links to the RSS, the BJP’s ideological and organizational parent. Its Facebook page regularly posts invites to events of the RSS and its affiliates, like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). 

At Sutahata, a person recording on the spot identified himself and his fellows as belonging to the VHP. Showing videos of the organizers of the prayer gathering and the pastor present there, one of them told the video’s audience: “Beat them up with brooms whenever and wherever you see them. They are worse than terrorists.” 

In another video from the incident, uploaded to a Facebook page of Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the VHP, the intruders said: “We are from VHP Chaitanyapur unit… Sanatan Dharma is the world’s greatest religion. Whenever you spot people we identified in our videos, just inform us.” The Hindu supremacists usually refer to Hinduism as Sanatan Dharma (eternal religion). 

A few hours later, in a Facebook post, the Samity said, “Let this serve as a warning to those who spread religious propaganda under the guise of ‘God the Father’: if we catch you, you will face severe consequences.”

Its based on actions like these that a recent database described the RSS family of organizations, popularly called the Sangh Parivar, as “the largest far-right network in history.”

Modi called the RSS the world’s largest NGO (non-governmental organization).

That discrepancy gets to the heart of the RSS’s attempt to paint a very different picture of itself abroad.

Home and Abroad: A Contrasting Approach 

Hindu civilizational identity rests on the idea that diversity and unity can coexist, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said in London at the beginning of September. “We must never lose sight of the fact that we are one.”

During a September 6 event in London as part of a U.S.-Canada-U.K. tour marking the organization’s centenary, Bhagwat said, “I heard some people say intense hatred is the basis of our work. It is just the reverse. ‘Shuddha Satvik Prem’ (pure and divine love) is the basis of our work.” 

Before landing in London, he had visited New York and Toronto. In New York, while addressing  a “Universal Oneness Celebration” at Madison Square Garden on August 29, Bhagwat said, “To call oneself Hindu, one must believe that all paths lead to the same destination and that every human has dignity, with no difference between human beings.” He described diversity as a “decoration for our innate unity” that has to be accepted: “It has to be respected. It has to be protected.”

In West Bengal, the next day, activists belonging to different RSS-linked organizations disrupted three separate Christian prayer gatherings and abused and heckled the prayer participants.

Here are some of the incidents, in just one Indian state, that took place during the same weeks Bhagwat was spreading the message of love and oneness abroad: 

August 23: A mob broke into a church premises at Uluberia in Howrah district, vandalized the prayer room, and attacked several prayer attendees. Bajrang Dal activists went to close down a Christian house prayer ceremony at Baniberia area in Mograhat of South 24 Parganas district. 

August 30: Bajrang Dal activists thrashed a lawyer for hosting Christian prayers at his residence in Baripur, South 24-Parganas. Miscreants stormed the Sunday prayer gathering at Jagatballabhpur, Howrah district. Another prayer venue was vandalized at Hingalganj in North 24 Parganas.  

September 1: Hindu Jagran Manch, another RSS affiliate, locked up a school run by Christians at Hasnabad Rupomari bazar in North 24 Parganas district. Protesters told the media: “Their walls are full of Jesus’ photos! No Hindu deities at all! Why should it be so? Why are they teaching kids about Jesus’ life? This school must be closed down.”

September 7: A group of activists claiming to be from the VHP and BD interrupted a prayer gathering at a tiny, makeshift church in Bally of Howrah district and told them that preaching Christianity will not be allowed. 

September 9: People identifying themselves as VHP and BD organizers reached a house at Mograhat area in South 24-Parganas district, aggressively quizzed people about who they worship, and objected to praying before Jesus. 

September 11: Bajrang Dal activists threatened the organizers of another prayer gathering at Mamudpur in Mograhat, South 24 Parganas. 

September 12: VHP activists threatened members of a house prayer gathering at Taldi, Canning, South 24 Parganas, ordered them to tear all of Jesus’ photos apart and sternly told them to stop the gathering for good. “Why Jesus? Why Jesus? Why Jesus?” they kept shouting. “Whoever you may be going to complain to, tell them that we are from VHP and Bajrang Dal. We’ll see who holds how much power.”  

The next day, another video went viral on social media that showed a Hindu supremacist mob violently abusing prayer gatherers and publicly tearing apart books on Param-pita (God the Father). “What the hell is ‘God the Father’? Why don’t you read the Gita or chant Hare Krishna?” the attackers shouted as they tore apart books on Christian faith.  

Samirul Islam, a parliamentarian of the Trinamool Congress, which lost power to the BJP in the May 2026 election after ruling the state for 15 years, alleged that the constitutional rights of Christians to freely practice, preach, and propagate their religion were being violated. “It’s an affront to India’s constitutional spirit of unity in diversity,” he told The Diplomat. 

Hoping Against Hope 

Herod Mullick, secretary of the Bangiya Christiya Pariseba (BCP), a Christian community organization in West Bengal, told The Diplomat that they are “deeply moved and encouraged” by the messages Bhagwat spread from the United States and United Kingdom. “He heads the Sangh Parivar, which is the driving force behind the central government and ruling party in the state. So, we are hopeful that the local administration will ensure that the spirit of love, harmony and coexistence will find practical implementation on the ground,” Mullick said. 

They plan to meet the state’s minority welfare minister, seeking a prompt and active state response against “systematic attacks and vandalism” during prayer meetings, particularly in house churches, under false allegations of forced conversion. 

“Incidents are many, but police complaints have been filed in only a few. In the rest of the cases, the victims were too afraid to take any legal course,” he said. He added that in cases when pastors and worshippers had been beaten up, the police detained and harassed the victims instead of apprehending the miscreants. 

Most of these attacks happened during house prayer gatherings, often called independent churches or free churches. In places where few people follow the Christians faith, there are no formal churches and prayer gatherings take place in houses.  

Mullick argued that spreading the essence of one’s religion is a natural and sincere urge for believers and pointed out that in ancient times, Hindu and Buddhist missionaries from India traveled across the world to propagate their faiths. Their organization held a protest rally in the state capital, Kolkata, on August 23. 

Another pastor who had recently faced harassment told The Diplomat, requesting anonymity, “They are targeting house church gatherings and house fellowship meetings, asking why Hindus are listening to Bible reading. Do people in the U.S. ask why Christians are attending different Hare Krishna chanting events?” 

New Trend

Anti-Christian hostility has surged in different Indian states, especially those ruled by the BJP, since Modi, himself an RSS volunteer, came to the helm of India’s affairs in 2014. But they are completely new in West Bengal, where Christians form a minuscule minority and play an important role in running educational and charitable institutions. 

“It has become a Sunday horror show. Over the past four months, there have been one or more incidents every Sunday,” said Arpan Rana, a BCP member from East Midnapore district. “If there are specific allegations of forcible or deceptive religious conversion, the government should investigate. But why are mobs taking laws into their hands?”  

It all started soon after the change of government. On May 6, two days after results were announced, a group of BJP activists allegedly vandalized the Murshidabad home of Barnali Chatterjee, a Christian widow, and demanded she hand over her property to be converted into a temple. On the same day,  in Bankura district, a Protestant prayer meeting was allegedly disrupted, and Bibles were seized. 

The list has since kept growing. As a result, Christians have suspended house prayer meetings in several districts — a retreat from religious practice in a state where, per the 2011 Census, Christians make up just 0.72 percent of the population. “The attacks are aimed at destroying West Bengal’s tradition of religious tolerance, coexistence, and syncretic culture,” alleged Subhankar Sarkar, the state unit president of the Congress, India’s main opposition party.

According to Mohammed Salim, secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s West Bengal state unit, these low-intensity and localized attacks targeting the smaller, informal prayer set-ups have a dual aim: to terrorize the downtrodden followers of Christianity without creating major news headlines. “They know attacks on prominent churches can become major news abroad,” he told The Diplomat. 

That the change of government in West Bengal created the atmosphere for carrying out such offensives against Christianity propagators is understandable from a video of the August 26 incident at Sutahata: “These people were propagating other religions even after the change in the [state] government. Therefore, we have handed them over to the police,” said one of those involved in disrupting the prayer gathering. 

The Diplomat has sent questions to the state’s minority affairs minister, Kshudiram Tudu, asking for the government response to such allegations. Biplab Roy, an RSS spokesperson in West Bengal, has also been asked for comment. The story will be updated if responses are received.