When it comes to international media reporting about India, the 44-day general election process has been taking center stage as the incumbent Narendra Modi seeks a third term as prime minister. The self-declared Hindutva leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been unashamed in pushing for his nation to “return” to its Hindu roots; only a few months ago during the inauguration of a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Ram, he declared, “today our Lord Ram has arrived; he has been waiting for centuries.” 

The nationally televised comment came against the backdrop of 12 of the 28 states in India having anti-conversion laws that criminalize people who change their religious beliefs, at least half of which have only been enacted during Modi’s administration, and increasing attacks on non-Hindu religious minorities that the government has remained silent to.

Yet India’s ever-fractured religious freedom landscape holds another painful story that has not received the global attention that it demands. From May 3 to 6, the northeastern Indian state of Manipur commemorated one year since a shocking onslaught of violence resulted in hundreds of people being murdered, hundreds of places of worship being destroyed, and tens of thousands of people losing their homes and livelihoods. Although multiple factors underpinned the violence, including longstanding ethnic and tribal tensions and disagreements over ancestral lands, the targeted attacks on Christians cannot be ignored.