The odd barking dog was the only thing that cut through the silence as Jai Singh stirred in his bed in his unadorned two-room house in the sleepy, sun-bathed village of Bitchpuri.

After a simple breakfast with his wife the pastor led the morning prayers at his home for several of the village’s 120-strong Christian population.

But the peace was suddenly shattered as the air filled with the sound of anti-Christian slogans outside.

Flinging open the door, he was faced with an irate mob of around 200 people. Before he could reason with them, the crowd beat him and his 15-year-old son and dragged him to the village square.

“They hit me with their fists and then took me into the temple and beat me with sticks, before stretching my legs back as far as they would go,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. He suffered two broken feet, as well as permanent nerve damage in his legs.

Since Narendra Modi's government came to power in 2014 religious minorities have felt the force of the prime minister's Hindu nationalist agenda.