Release International reports on the tightening grip of Hindu nationalism.

In Uttar Pradesh fanatics who accused a Christian of converting Hindus, shaved off his hair, eyebrows and moustache and paraded him through the town.

Also in Chhattisgarh, a gang raped and murdered a 14-year-old Christian girl who was on her way to school. Villagers had excommunicated her family for accepting the Christian faith. The authorities have yet to take any action against the culprits.

In Odisha, the body of a 64-year-old pastor was found near a railway bridge. His throat had been cut. The murder weapon, a long handled knife, was found near his body.

Some attacks appear to be a reaction against what reads like a Christian revival in parts of India.

In September 2016 in Bihar, police moved in to arrest four pastors after villagers complained to the local police about their preaching.

According to reports, a man who had been paralysed for three years started to walk again, many people were delivered of demons and the wife of the village head was healed from illness.

Release International Chief Executive Paul Robinson says, 'For some years now, we have watched the alarming rise of religious intolerance in India. This is highlighted by moves to impose anti-conversion laws, not only at state level, but across the country.

'Some of these attacks and accounts of God at work read like stories out of the Book of Acts. The message from the Bible is that persecution will never stop the spread of the Church or the gospel. Many Dalits are coming to Christ, partly because for the first time they are finding love and acceptance. No law can ever prevent that.'

The All India Christian Council is defending Christians in the courts who have been attacked or wrongly accused. With the growing number of cases, it is an uphill struggle. AICC leader, the Right Rev Dr Joseph D'Souza says, 'Justice is what we look for, though the justice system works at a snail's pace.'

One hopeful sign in the report was a reduction in the number of attacks after Dr D'Souza invited the Home Minister Sri Rajnath Singh to speak at a conference in New Delhi last October.

He says, 'The minister made a clear and strong message that no atrocity against Christians will be tolerated in India. The message went far and wide [in the media].'

'Whether that will halt the rising trend of attacks against Christians, which has been growing year on year, remains to be seen,' says Paul Robinson of Release.