The right to propagate religion cannot lead to undermining of faiths
2 years, 1 month ago

The right to propagate religion cannot lead to undermining of faiths

Hindustan Times  

Even as the vexed issue of religious conversions is being heard in the Supreme Court, it continues to roil the country, as Mahatma Gandhi had once warned. On January 2, a church was vandalised, and six police personnel, including a senior police officer, were injured in Narayanpur district in Chhattisgarh, during a protest by a group of tribespeople against an alleged incident of religious conversion. He considered their habitat “Satan’s stranglehold” and wrote in his diary, “I think it’s worthwhile to declare Jesus to these people.” Such intrusive activities are out of sync with the modern value system, which recognises an individual’s right to decide what to eat, wear and believe, or not believe, in. … insistence on a particular form or repetition of a credo may be a potent cause of violent quarrels leading to bloodshed and ending in utter disbelief in religion, i.e., God himself.” How prophetic. In another despicable incident, Graham Stuart Staines, an Australian missionary and his two sons were burnt to death in 1999 by Bajrang Dal activists, led by Dara Singh.

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History of this topic

New UP conversion law reinforces curtailment of citizens’ rights
7 months, 2 weeks ago

New UP conversion law reinforces curtailment of citizens’ rights

Hindustan Times  

Uttar Pradesh, no stranger to draconian state action against the citizenry, just got a harsher upgrade on a law that was already skating on the thin ice of unconstitutionality. Article 25 in Part III of the Constitution, which delineates ‘Fundamental Rights’, provides that ‘… all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice …

'India's Majority Population Will Be Minority If...': Allahabad HC On Religious Conversions
8 months, 3 weeks ago

'India's Majority Population Will Be Minority If...': Allahabad HC On Religious Conversions

News 18  

The Allahabad High Court on Monday observed that if the current trend of religious conversions carries on then the majority of India’s population will find itself in the minority one day. Hearing the bail plea of a person, who is accused of taking people from a village in Uttar Pradesh to a religious congregation in the name of the ceremony …

Legally Speaking | Are laws that prevent forced conversions really about freedom to practise religion?
1 year, 1 month ago

Legally Speaking | Are laws that prevent forced conversions really about freedom to practise religion?

Hindustan Times  

Article 25 of the Constitution of India recognises freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practise and propagate religion. Last month, the Allahabad high court dismissed petitions filed by eight interfaith couples seeking protection for their lives, noting that their marriages were not in compliance with the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion …

Political Storm Over Religious Conversions: Does India Need a National Law? - News18
1 year, 9 months ago

Political Storm Over Religious Conversions: Does India Need a National Law? - News18

News 18  

The possible repeal of the Karnataka Freedom of Religion Act, 2021, enacted under the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government has created a political storm. Amid the sharp political narrative between the Congress and BJP, the intricate issue of religious conversions in India has never found the serious attention it deserves. The absence of empirical data or any study on religious conversions, …

Explainer: Anti-conversion laws
1 year, 10 months ago

Explainer: Anti-conversion laws

Hindustan Times  

“India is a melting pot of civilisations, cultures, religions, and languages”: this proposition of the Supreme Court is unfailingly underlined whenever the long-standing debate over the fundamental right to “propagate” one’s religious faith presents itself. Even as the legislative history and judicial precedents have remained wary of the tipping point when the fundamental right to propagate religion transforms into “illegal …

Missionaries Take Advantage when People Lose Faith in Society: RSS Chief Bhagwat on Religious Conversions
1 year, 11 months ago

Missionaries Take Advantage when People Lose Faith in Society: RSS Chief Bhagwat on Religious Conversions

News 18  

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat has said missionaries take advantage of the situations wherein people feel the society is not with them, in an apparent reference to religious conversions. Deceptive people raise some questions about religion to waver the faith, he said, adding, “Our society never faced such people earlier, so people get sceptical…We have to remove this weakness.” …

Muslim body challenges religious conversion laws of five States in Supreme Court
2 years, 2 months ago

Muslim body challenges religious conversion laws of five States in Supreme Court

The Hindu  

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to declare the religious conversion laws of five States as unconstitutional, saying they bring the personal decision of an individual to adopt another faith under state scrutiny. The Acts have said that any form of allurement given to convert would amount to exercising “undue influence” over a person to change faith and …

Anti-conversion law | Not all religious conversions are illegal, Supreme Court remarks
2 years, 2 months ago

Anti-conversion law | Not all religious conversions are illegal, Supreme Court remarks

The Hindu  

The Supreme Court on January 3 observed that all religious conversions cannot be presumed by a State to be illegal while agreeing to hear a Madhya Pradesh government appeal against a High Court decision freezing a mandatory provision requiring a person who desires to convert to another faith to give 60 days’ prior intimation to the local District Magistrate. Shah …

Blow to Madhya Pradesh’s anti-conversion Law
2 years, 3 months ago

Blow to Madhya Pradesh’s anti-conversion Law

Hindustan Times  

Recently the high court of Madhya Pradesh directed the MP authorities not to take coercive steps against any individual who converted to a different religion without informing the district administration. Many people filed writ petitions before the MP high court challenging the constitutional validity of various provisions of the MP Freedom of Religion Act, 2021, including Section 10 which requires …

Explained | What are the existing laws on religious conversions?
2 years, 3 months ago

Explained | What are the existing laws on religious conversions?

The Hindu  

The story so far: The Supreme Court’s recent remarks on religious conversions cast a spotlight on the long-standing debate about what the fundamental right to “propagate” one’s religious faith entails. Ray, heading a five-judge Bench,dissected Article 25 to hold that “the Article does not grant the right to convert other persons to one’s own religion but to transmit or spread …

Freedom of religion does not include right to convert people: Gujarat in SC
2 years, 3 months ago

Freedom of religion does not include right to convert people: Gujarat in SC

Deccan Chronicle  

NEW DELHI: The Gujarat government has told the Supreme Court that freedom of religion does not include the right to convert others, and requested the top court to vacate a High Court stay on the provision of a state law that mandates prior permission of the district magistrate for conversion through marriage. The Gujarat High Court had through its orders …

Tribes in Arunachal Pradesh feel push to resist conversions to Christianity
2 years, 5 months ago

Tribes in Arunachal Pradesh feel push to resist conversions to Christianity

The Hindu  

Published : Oct 20, 2022 10:40 IST Arunachal Pradesh, the abode of 26 major tribes and 100 subtribes, is a treasure trove of rich and vibrant tribal cultural practices. Their aim is to help the indigenous people of Arunachal Pradesh protect, preserve, and practise indigenous faiths and document their rituals,” he said. Inaugurating the boys’ hostel of one such school …

Explained | Karnataka’s anti-conversion legislation
3 years, 3 months ago

Explained | Karnataka’s anti-conversion legislation

The Hindu  

The story so far : Amid vociferous opposition, the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, was introduced by Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Tuesday during the winter session of the Assembly in Belagavi. The Basavaraj Bommai led government wants to prohibit conversion by “misrepresentation, force, allurement, fraudulent means, or marriage.” What does the Protection of Right …

Over 6 religious conversions in one-and-a-half month in MP
3 years, 3 months ago

Over 6 religious conversions in one-and-a-half month in MP

India TV News  

Over 6 religious conversions in one-and-a-half month in MP Following a fresh episode, the Madhya Pradesh police claimed to have arrested a couple in Barwani district for allegedly trying to lure tribal women to convert to Christianity. Following a fresh episode, the Madhya Pradesh police claimed to have arrested a couple in Barwani district for allegedly trying to lure tribal …

MP School Attack: Ransacking Churches & 'Conversion Allegations' a Pattern Now
3 years, 3 months ago

MP School Attack: Ransacking Churches & 'Conversion Allegations' a Pattern Now

The Quint  

Although it's been a week since the actual incident happened, why we are talking about it now is because unfortunately this kind of an attack against the Christian minority is not a one-off event. It is becoming a grotesque pattern with churches being frequently ransacked across the country and prayer meetings being disrupted by Hindutva mobs on mere suspicions of …

Changing faith or propagating one's religion: Is it a right or a crime in India?
3 years, 4 months ago

Changing faith or propagating one's religion: Is it a right or a crime in India?

Deccan Chronicle  

The controversy about Sameer Wankhede’s Scheduled Caste certificate gives us the opportunity to examine two issues. Dalits and Adivasis who convert are vulnerable, because the State insists on registering them on official certificates as “Christian Adivasi”, making it difficult for the individuals in question to then access their rights, including reservations. In Gujarat, some Dalit converts to Christianity officially retain …

Forced religious conversion cannot be measure of spread of any religion, says Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
3 years, 5 months ago

Forced religious conversion cannot be measure of spread of any religion, says Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

Firstpost  

Naqvi said both believers and atheists have equal constitutional and social rights and protection in India. New Delhi: Forced religious conversions cannot be the measure of spread of any religion in a nation like India, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Tuesday and asserted that both believers and atheists co-exist with equal rights in this country. In his …

SC Message for Bajrang Dal: Propagating Religion Is Not a Crime
3 years, 11 months ago

SC Message for Bajrang Dal: Propagating Religion Is Not a Crime

The Quint  

While Article 25 grants the freedom to practise and profess religion, it doesn’t give the right to practise religious conversions. In the Stainislaus vs State of Madhya Pradesh case, while upholding the validity of anti-conversion laws of Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, the Supreme Court said, “Article 25 does not grant the right to convert other people to one’s own religion, …

Conversion For Marriage- "Can't Exercise Judicial Power Just Because No Law In Place, But Can Examine Validity Of Law If Enacted": Calcutta High Court
4 years ago

Conversion For Marriage- "Can't Exercise Judicial Power Just Because No Law In Place, But Can Examine Validity Of Law If Enacted": Calcutta High Court

Live Law  

Hearing a plea asserting that certain religious denominations are effectuating conversion under the guise of the institution of marriage, the Calcutta High Court last week held that in such matters, the policy-making instrument would not be the judiciary. The Bench of Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee further observed, "The pith and substance of all the issues …

Madhya Pradesh cabinet approves ordinance on bill against religious conversions
4 years, 2 months ago

Madhya Pradesh cabinet approves ordinance on bill against religious conversions

Firstpost  

As per the Freedom of Religion Bill, those in violation will attract a jail term of up to 10 years, which includes conversions for the sake of marriage Bhopal: The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday gave its nod to an ordinance on the bill against religious conversion through fraudulent means, including those for the sake of marriage, that …

How states are building a legal wall against religious conversions
4 years, 3 months ago

How states are building a legal wall against religious conversions

India Today  

On December 26, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Madhya Pradesh cabinet approved the Dharma Swatantrya Bill, 2020, aimed at curbing forced or deceitful religious conversions in the state. While both states have made forceful conversions and marriages cognizable and non-bailable offences, the Madhya Pradesh law spares a person converting on his own free will from giving advance notice to the district …

UP law panel moots legislation to check religious conversions
5 years, 4 months ago

UP law panel moots legislation to check religious conversions

The Hindu  

The Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission on Thursday submitted a report to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, suggesting a new law to check forcible religious conversions. “The report was submitted along with a draft legislation, Uttar Pradesh Freedom of Religion Bill, 2019,” said law commission secretary Sapna Tripathi. “The commission is of the view that existing legal provisions are not enough …

BJP CM wants anti-conversion law repealed in Arunachal Pradesh, tribal groups call it ‘Christian appeasement’
6 years, 8 months ago

BJP CM wants anti-conversion law repealed in Arunachal Pradesh, tribal groups call it ‘Christian appeasement’

Op India  

Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu had last week stated that the state government is planning to repeal the 4 decades old Anti-conversion law known as the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 1978. Speaking in an event organised by the Arunachal Pradesh Catholic Association, the CM had stated that the law could undermine secularism and is probably targeted towards Christians. …

Conversion and freedom of religion
10 years, 3 months ago

Conversion and freedom of religion

The Hindu  

One of the oft-repeated theories in the wake of the general election this past May was that Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed power by presenting a single-minded commitment to developing India’s economy. Article 25 states that subject to public order, morality and health, and to the other fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution, all persons are equally entitled to “freedom …

Propagation without proselytisation: what the law says
10 years, 3 months ago

Propagation without proselytisation: what the law says

The Hindu  

The Fundamental Right to “propagate” one’s religious faith has always trodden on slippery ground. Article 25 of the Constitution says “all persons,” not just Indian citizens, are equally entitled to the freedom of conscience and the right to profess, practise and propagate religion freely. Misra advised the Assembly that everybody should have the right to profess and practise their religion …

Is religious conversion really a fundamental right, or can we ban it?
10 years, 6 months ago

Is religious conversion really a fundamental right, or can we ban it?

Firstpost  

By Jaideep A Prabhu To most observers, India appears a paradox - teeming with diversity of cuisine, dress, language, pigmentation, and faith under one flag, yet simultaneously simmering with communal tensions. As Jakob de Roover of Ghent University argues, the liberal principle of religious freedom implicitly endorses the Abrahamic view of the world that religion revolves around doctrines and truth …

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