North Indian state of Rajasthan considers anti-conversion law
Most anti-conversion laws aim at Christian missionaries and churches. The Indian government claims the purpose of these laws is to prevent forceful religious conversion.
Rajasthan submitted a statement to the Supreme Court about proposing a law against religious conversions. This happened in response to a 2022 public interest lawsuit requesting “stringent steps to control fraudulent religious conversion and religious conversion by intimidation, threatening, deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits”.
Extremist Hindu groups and other anti-Christian organisations claim religious conversions are false or forced. They pressurise the Indian government to implement anti-conversion laws in states that do not yet have them. 28 Indian states have already enacted these bills, for example, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.
Since the rigorous Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, Christians in India have been facing increased persecution. The vague anti-conversion laws provide a platform for legal prosecution. Nearly 400 Christians have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh in the past three years. The majority are Protestant pastors and followers of neo-Christian groups. Those jailed include 318 males and 80 females, besides a Catholic priest.
According to Priya Sharma, a local Open Doors UK representative: “attacks against Christians have been very systematic and have only increased. Pastors are imprisoned on false charges, churches are closed, and there is forced reconversion to Hinduism.”
Based on a report created by Release International, these laws contributed to “the arrests of hundreds of Christians”. The organisation warns how “the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in India increases dramatically with each passing month.”
Source: https://www.persecution.org/
