India: Adoption of the banning conversion law

Another Indian state has passed a law banning conversion. The bill to prevent the illegal conversion of religion was approved by the Haryana State Assembly. Haryana became the tenth state in the country to pass a law banning conversion.

The new law will be one more step to validate what they have been doing to Christians. The law can be misused to target innocent Christians.

Christian human rights group Release International said the law was really aimed at "limiting the freedom of Christians to share their faith and the right of Hindus to convert freely". 

Based on a report by the United Christian Forum (UCF)  2021 was the "most violent year for Christians".According to the report, there were 486 recorded instances of violence and harassment against Christians, an increase of 71% on the previous years.

India is the world's largest democracy. Yet these laws which find the accused guilty until proven innocent and that deny constitutional rights to the country's citizens are profoundly anti-democratic.

Anti-Christian vigilantes are sweeping through villages, storming churches, burning Christian literature, attacking schools and assaulting worshipers. In many cases, the police and members of India’s governing party are helping them, government documents and dozens of interviews revealed. 

To many Hindu extremists, the attacks are justified — a means of preventing religious conversions. To them, the possibility that some Indians, even a relatively small number, would reject Hinduism for Christianity is a threat to their dream of turning India into a pure Hindu nation. Many Christians have become so frightened that they try to pass as Hindu to protect themselves.

 

_{Source and Credit: CN, UCF}