The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in a new report states that India’s anti-conversion laws violate international human rights standards and worsen already-poor religious freedom conditions in India.
“India’s state-level anti-conversion laws violate international human rights law’s protections for the right to freedom of religion or belief,” the commission concluded in a report issued on March 14.
Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, worship and observance.”
India’s laws “impermissibly limit and punish an individual’s right to convert and right to persuade or support another individual to convert voluntarily,” the commission report states.
Anti-conversion laws “enable and embolden existing government harassment, vigilante violence, and discrimination against religious minorities, as well as crackdowns on civil society organizations,” the report notes.
“Issue Update: India’s State-level Anti-conversion Laws” reports 12 of India’s 28 states have legislation that criminalizes religious conversions: Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.
“An increasingly common feature of India’s state-level anti-conversion laws are provisions aimed at preventing so-called ‘Love Jihads,’ a derogatory term for conversions occurring in the context of interfaith marriages,” the report states.
Anti-conversion laws in 10 Indian states require individuals who intend to convert, individuals involved in the conversion plan of someone else, or both, to notify the government.
For example, the anti-conversion law in Karnataka State required the district magistrate, once notified of an individual’s intent to convert, to issue a public call for any objections to the conversion. If an objection is lodged, it triggers an official government investigation.
If the conversion is found to violate any provision of the state’s Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, the matter is referred to the police to initiate criminal action.
Seven Indian states provide that the burden of proof for violations of anti-conversion laws lies on the person who is accused, even though international human rights law prohibits the presumption of guilt for accused individuals.
“Repealing India’s state-level anti-conversion laws is necessary to comply with international human rights law for the right to freedom of religion or belief and to help prevent the country’s religious freedom conditions from further deteriorating,” the commission report concludes.
The anti-conversion law has been in full force in states like Uttar Pradesh since November 2020, With Two Indian pastors belonging to a new religious movement influenced by the Church of God in South Korea recently being arrested by police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh for allegedly luring people into changing their religion.
Pastor Rajat Kumar Shah, a resident of the capital Delhi, and Pastor Abhijeet Mesih, hailing from Chakeri, a town near Kanpur city, were arrested on March 4, police said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Ravindra Kumar told the media they were alerted about an event being held inside a building in Shyam Nagar in Chakeri town to allegedly force poor people to convert.
The alert came from members of the Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or world assembly of Hindus, and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal, according to some media reports.
The pastors, Shah and Mesih, are associated with the World Mission Society Church of God, which is said to be influenced by the Church of God, which originated in South Korea in 1964.
Media reports quoted police claiming to have found books written in the Taiwanese language from them.
A case under the Indian Penal Code and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act has been registered against the duo.
The Kanpur police also detained four others, but they were later released.
This is not the first time Christians, including pastors, are being arrested in the state. Police have initiated action against more than 100 people in the last six months under false conversion charges, Pastor Jitendra Singh, general secretary of the Pastors’ Association of Uttar Pradesh told the press in a recent interview.
He said more than ten churches have been shut in Kanpur, Fatehpur, and Bareilly.
Singh, who is a member of the New India Church of God, said Christians are living in constant fear due to repeated threats from Hindu nationalist groups who are backed by the police.
He recalled the previous arrest of Pastor Santosh John along with his wife on Feb. 26 from their residence at Indrapuram town in Ghaziabad district after a false complaint by Bajrang Dal. Both were still languishing in jail and the next hearing of their case in court was which was recently heard on March 10.
In its 2022 annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended the U.S. Department of State-designate India as a “Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act.
