Indian State of Bihar Considering Anti-Conversion Legislation

The government in the North Indian state of Bihar recently announced a plan to review the anti-conversion laws of other states and, if required, implement one in Bihar as well.

The announcement was made in the State Legislative Assembly by Speaker Prem Kumar during a debate on a “Calling Attention Motion” moved by 18 legislators of the ruling party, known as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The motion allows legislatures to raise issues of public importance.

The NDA is a coalition of parties that includes the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling Hindu nationalist party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The 18 legislators included Maithili Thakur, Mithilesh Tiwari, Janak Singh, Sanjay Kumar Singh, and Baidyanath Prasad, who demanded an anti-conversion law like those in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Gujarat.

They claimed that “demographic changes” in certain parts of Bihar warranted legislative intervention.
Tiwari, a BJP legislator, said that in Buxar district, more than 1,000 Dalit families had converted to Christianity.

Tiwari also said, “Uttar Pradesh has strict anti-conversion laws, and a similar law should be enacted in Bihar, too. The demography of Seemanchal has changed, and therefore, this law is needed in Bihar, and the government should consider it.”

Other BJP legislators, such as Anil Singh and Sanjay Kumar Singh, raised the issue of Christian and church growth in Bihar and alleged that conversions were taking place through “inducements.”

“The national growth rate of Christians is around 15.52% while in Bihar this is 143.23%,“ said Anil Singh.

Bihar Tourism and Arts and Culture Minister Arun Shankar Prasad, who is a BJP legislator from Khajauli constituency in Madhubani district, said the Bihar government has no proposal to introduce legislation related to religious conversion.

“The Bihar government will certainly review anti-conversion laws of other states that prohibit forced religious conversion and forced inter-faith marriage, and if required, the same law will be implemented in this state as well,” said Speaker Kumar.

However, another legislator, Alok Mehta, a former minister, vehemently opposed the ruling party members and said that the issue was being unnecessarily raised when the state government had already clarified that there is no such proposal to bring an anti-conversion law.

Earlier in June 2022, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had categorically said that there was “no need for any anti-conversion law” in Bihar, where members of different religious communities live in peace and harmony.

But, if implemented, Bihar could become the 13th state in India to have an anti-conversion law after Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

This article was originally published on  https://persecution.org/2026/03/03/indian-state-of-bihar-considering-anti-conversion-legislation/