INCREASING THE maximum punishment from 10 years to life imprisonment; widening the ambit to allow any person to file a complaint; making bail more difficult — these are among the key changes proposed in the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2024, tabled in the Assembly on Monday. Saying that the existing provisions under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, are “not sufficient”, the government sought to make its anti-conversion law more stringent. “Keeping in mind the sensitivity and seriousness of the crime of illegal religious conversion, the dignity and social status of women, and the organised and planned activities of foreign and anti-national elements and organisations in illegal religious conversion and demographic change, it has been felt that the amount of fine and penalty provided in the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act should be increased and the bail conditions should be made as stringent as possible,” said the Bill’s statement of reasons. “As the existing penal provisions of the Act are not sufficient to prevent and control religious conversion and mass conversion in respect of minor, disabled, mentally challenged person, woman or person belonging to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled

MUMBAI, India – A Pentecostal pastor in India has been accused of “illegal conversion” and then attacked in the central state of Chhattisgarh. Pastor Varghese Chacko was in the town of Dhamtari on 21 July, attending a house-warming prayer meeting at the home of one of his church members.According to a local source, the house is next door to a Hindu temple, from which a group of approximately 20 villagers, mostly young adults, had been watching the Christians gather. After they saw Chacko arrive in his car, the right-wing group barged into the house, making conversion allegations and demanding that they stop the prayer meeting, and proceeding to call the police and accuse the Christians of “illegal conversion.”The police arrived at the house and asked the pastor to leave. According to the 2011 census, over 93.25 percent of the state’s population practised Hinduism, above the national average of 80 percent. The Christian population is about 1.9 percent, below the national average of 2.3 percent. The state government is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu-nationalist party. Since 2014, India has been ruled by the BJP, which has strong links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a militant Hindu nationalist organization. Religious minorities have

Introduction In the memorandum dated July 20, 2024 and signed by the national president of United Christian Forum (New Delhi), Dr. Michael Williams, the Forum submitted its grievances to Minority Affairs minister, Kiren Rijiju, against increased violence and hostility against Christian community in India. It noted that in 2023, a total of 733 incidents of violence against Christians were reported to it, with an average of 61 incidents per month. It said the figures only includes incidents reported to it over the calls, and excludes any incidents from Manipur, which is embroiled in ethnic violence since May 2023. It also said that as of June this year, 361 incidents targeting Christians have already been reported to the Forum. Incidentally, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh have emerged as the leading states in targeted violence against Christians, with 96 and 92 incidents reported from these states, respectively. The memorandum has categorised incidents into four categories, namely, “Violent Attacks”, “Violence against Scheduled Tribes in Bastar Region, Chhattisgarh”, “False complaints and Third-party complaints”, and “Police Complicity and Failure to Verify the Veracity of The Incident”. The memorandum citing the PUCL report, “Criminalising Practice of Faith”, provided details about several reported incidents of targeted violence against the minority

As anti-Christian violence continues in India, Christian leadership there, including the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), has been putting pressure on the national government to address violence against Christians from Hindu nationalists as well as other concerns. A delegation under the ecumenical United Christian Forum (UCF) on July 20 called on Kiren Rijiju, minister for minority affairs, to curb “targeted violence and atrocities against Christians.” The UCF meeting with the key minister in the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government came a week after the entire leadership of CBCI — led by its president, Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, and secretary-general, Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi — met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 12. “It is with heavy hearts that we express our anguish over the growing attacks on Christians and their institutions by antisocial elements in different parts of India,” the CBCI leadership told Modi, who assumed the office of prime minister for the third in time early June. “There have been several instances of harassment and attacks under false allegations of forced conversions and the misuse of anti-conversion laws. We wish to clarify that the Church firmly opposes forced conversions,” the CBCI pointed out. The ecumenical UCF, which had been consistently monitoring

PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court has observed that the right to freedom of religion does not include the right to convert others. The court gave the observation while denying bail to a person accused of religious conversions. Rejecting the bail plea of Shriniwas Rav Nayak on Tuesday, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal opined that the Constitution of India permits citizens the right to profess, practice and propagate their religion, but does not allow conversion of religion. “The Constitution confers on each individual the fundamental right to profess, practice and propagate his religion. However, the individual right to freedom of conscience and religion cannot be extended to construe a collective right to proselytize,” the bench said and added that the right to religious freedom belongs equally to the person converting and the individual sought to be converted. Nayak, a native of Andhra Pradesh, was booked under the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 for converting some Hindus to Christianity, promising relief from pain and an improved life. While some villagers accepted Christianity and began praying, the informant, Brijlal, escaped and reported the incident to the police. According to the prosecution, the informant had been invited to the house of a co-accused in UP’s

Naga group National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) cautioned Arambai Tenggol, a radical Meitei organisation, over the treatment of Christians in Manipur. In its statement, the NSCN-IM said that ever since the Meitei-Kuki-Zo ethnic conflict started in May last year, although the group has maintained neutrality, it has been cautiously following day to day developments. The NSCN-IM alleged that those operating Arambai Tenggol hold strong convictions or extreme principles to bring about fundamental socio-political reforms. Saying that violent extremism as allegedly followed by Arambai Tenggol is a threat to peace and tolerance, the NSCN-IM said it would “take the stand to guard the interest and safety of the Christians in Manipur, given the fact that Arambai Tengol bears strong animosity towards the Christians, both in spirit and actions”. This article is originally published on https://indianexpress.com/article/india/naga-group-arambai-tenggol-treatment-christians-manipur-9470789/

Pastor Sushil Kumar and his wife rose at 3 a.m. on July 8 in their village in northern India as always to pray. They came out of their house 90 minutes later to find their 22-year-old son’s body hanging from the bamboo ceiling of a nearby animal shed. Nilesh Kumar had been tortured and strangled to death in Satpura village, Arwal District in Bihar state, Pastor Kumar said. A medical examination concluded that the attackers broke his arms before strangling him. They later tied a cloth around his neck and hung his body to portray it as a suicide, the pastor said. “Our hearts are engulfed with grief at the kind of torture he went through before his last breath,” Pastor Kumar said. Manohar Sharma, suspected along with accomplices of the murder, has been arrested and investigations are underway. He had fought with Nilesh Kumar two years prior for daring as a lower-caste Christian to object to the higher-caste Hindu crossing his yard where cow dung had just been spread according to local practice, the pastor said. After finding his son’s body, Pastor Kumar and his wife Ravita Devi wept and wailed so much that day that they lost consciousness by evening, a fellow

A delegation of Christian leaders has urged India's federal government to ask 11 states to repeal the sweeping anti-conversion laws, which they say target Christians. “The anti-conversion law has been weaponized to target religious minorities,” an eight-member delegation from the United Christian Forum (UCF) told federal minority affairs minister Kiren Rijiju. The delegation met the minister in his office on July 20 and asked him to “issue an advisory to the state governments to repeal the anti-conversion law.” Stringent laws that criminalize conversion have been enacted in 11 states, most of them ruled by the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Christian forum monitors anti-Christian violence in the country and its delegation presented a memorandum to the minister highlighting the rising persecution against Christians. “The minister agreed to look into our grievances,” said A C Michael, a delegation member. Michael told UCA News on July 22 that they would discuss the issue further with the federal government and the provincial states concerned. The memorandum has the details of persecution, including murder, false cases, social boycotts, and denial of burial grounds. There were 727 incidents of violence against Christians in 2023, the memorandum said, and termed them “as a disturbing trend.” In the current

On June 4th, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), or the Popular Party of India, won its third election, extending Narendra Damodardas Modi’s tenure as leader of the country. What are the consequences of these results for the Christian community? In this interview, Father Pradeep, a Jesuit from the state of Jharkhand, shares his thoughts with the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Prime Minister Modi recently won the elections. What was the reaction of the Christian minority in India? Yes, Modi did win, but in doing so, he obtained a lower number of votes than he expected. For us, this was a strong sign of victory for a population that dared to express its opposition to the BJP. Modi has constantly told us that he is invincible, yet for the first time, we have understood that he is not that invincible after all. In the end, he did win the election, but it wasn’t a landslide, despite the constant propaganda that urged us to vote for Modi! What consequences might this election have for the minorities in your state? Our fear is that the party, having obtained fewer votes than five years ago, will now resort to reprisals and