The proposed Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 have created deep apprehension among Christian institutions across India, particularly in Nagaland and the North-East. While the Government states the objective is transparency and national security, the manner and timing of the amendment is viewed by the Christian community as disproportionately targeting a community that constitutes only 2.3% of India’s population as per 2011 Census – 2.78 crore out of 121.09 crore (now stands at 148 crore).
The data tabled in Parliament by the Ministry of Home Affairs shows a steady shrinkage of civic space through FCRA cancellations. Since the MHA started maintaining data in 2012, 52,159 NGOs were granted FCRA licences. As of 2024, only 14,455 (27.7%) remain active. 22,498 registrations have been cancelled and 15,206 are deemed expired for not applying for renewal.
Between 2011 till 2022, more than 20,600 registrations were cancelled for violation of provisions. In the three years 2019-2021 alone, 1,811 registrations were cancelled and renewal of 783 NGOs denied.
Between 2018-2022, 1,827 certificates were cancelled under Section 14. Since 2015, more than 16,000 cancellations have taken place on account of violation. In the last 5 years alone, more than 6,600 cancellations.
In April 2024, among the 5 organisations whose FCRA was cancelled were prominent Christian bodies:
- CNI Synodical Board of Social Service,
- Voluntary Health Association of India,
- Indo-Global Social Service Society,
- Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), and
- Evangelical Fellowship of India.
MHA does not publish a regular state-wise cancellation list, but its annual data shows Tamil Nadu tops the list of cancelled/expired licences, followed by other states with high concentration of Christian NGOs. In 2023, the Ministry itself noted that nearly half of fresh FCRA registrations under the religious category are for Christian NGOs and in 2023 alone, out of 69 religious category registrations, 26 were Christian and 27 Hindu, indicating Christian organisations are active applicants and hence more vulnerable to denial.
In Nagaland, where NBCC and the Diocese of Kohima have made representations, field reports suggest a number of small Baptist churches and education societies operating in remote districts have faced renewal delays of 9-18 months and deemed expiry after 2022 when nearly 6,000 NGOs nationally lost validity as MHA refused renewal or they did not apply. The exact Nagaland figure is not separately published by MHA, which is itself part of the demand for more transparency.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju’s statement that “Only 16% of FCRA belongs to Christians, rest belongs to Hindus” is central to the community’s question. He also said. “Abhi JPC mai gaya na! Saab Pani ka pani, doodh ka doodh ho chaika.” (mind my Hindi spelling). If Christian institutions hold only about 16% of total FCRA registrations, and have received Rs 55,741.51 crore collectively by 13,520 associations between 2019-20 and 2021-22, why is the new Bill’s most stringent clause – linking registration to specified purposes and approved States/UTs and excluding proselytisation from permitted religious activity – perceived to hit Christian mission hospitals and schools hardest?
The concern is not about percentage, but about impact. In Nagaland, about 90% population is Christian. Foreign partnership for many schools and primary health centres is not an expansionary project but a survival lifeline.
The RSS and FCRA – Is there a double standard? It is a matter of public record that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as an organisation is not registered under FCRA. Its affiliated Seva organisations like Seva Bharati, etc. do have separate registrations.
The apprehension expressed by church leaders is: if the objective is national security and transparency, why is scrutiny intensified only on organisations that file quarterly returns, maintain SBI-NDMB designated accounts, and cap administration expenses at 20% after the 2020 amendment, while large cultural organisations that receive indirect foreign support through other routes remain outside the FCRA net? Whether RSS receives maximum foreign contributions cannot be verified from FCRA public data because it is not an FCRA-registered entity. That lack of parity is what is being called hypocritical.
Journalist Arnab Goswami claims Christians will vanish like dinosaurs without FCRA. The sentiment captures a real fear. Christianity has survived and grown for 2000 years, with or without foreign money. As per 2011 Census, its decadal growth was 15.5%, lower than the national average of 17.7%, and it even recorded negative growth in Nagaland (-2.8%) during 2001-2011. The growth of Christianity in India is not dependent on foreign funds. To equate FCRA with the survival of Christianity is factually incorrect. What FCRA sustains is not faith, but infrastructure, like that of Christian Medical College, Vellore which treats lakhs of Hindu majority patients. To say they will vanish without foreign money is false.
There is no documented evidence of forced or coerced conversions by NBCC affiliated and other churches in Nagaland, where the population is already overwhelmingly Christian. Using conversion as a blanket ground for renewal rejection violates the principle of individual examination demanded by Chief Minister Dr. Neiphiu Rio in his letter dated 9th August 2026.
Why the 2026 Bill should be reconsidered? The Christians at 2.3% have built institutions that serve the 79.8% majority. This is minority serving the majority – the very definition of secular nation-building.
The earlier amendments of 2010 and later 6 times minor amendments of 2012, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, already created:
- Mandatory SBI main account,
- Aadhaar of all office bearers,
- Ban on sub-granting,
- 20% cap on admin expenses.
What the 2026 Bill adds – takeover of assets through a Designated Authority when registration lapses or is cancelled, and purpose-and-geography locking – is seen as violative of Article 19(1)(c) right to form associations, Article 26 right to manage religious affairs, and Article 30 right of minorities to establish educational institutions.
It proposes to vest assets built over 150 years of Baptist mission work in Nagaland and over 400 years of Catholic Missionaries’ work in India with a government-appointed authority. This is confiscatory, not regulatory.
Therefore, the demand raised by CM Rio and NBCC is legitimate. Now that the Bill should is being pushed through a Joint Parliamentary Committee, there should be a wider stakeholder consultations and white paper on how many of the 20,693 cancellations in the last decade were actually for activities detrimental to national interest, and how many were for technical filing lapses.
FCRA reform of 2020 and earlier reforms were enough. Another amendment will not stop a single anti-national activity, but it will stop thousands of Churches, classrooms, hospital beds and destitute homes and orphanages.
S. Akho Leyri
Upper Agri., Kohima