c. 2006 Religion News Service

CHENNAI, India _ Religious conversion has emerged as a volatile social and political issue in India, where a pro-Hindu ruling party in several states is pushing legislation to restrict what it characterizes as forced Christian conversions that disrupt national harmony.

The moves have prompted an outcry from Christian leaders, who deny forcing any conversions. They say such legislation would be an egregious violation of religious freedom protected by the Indian constitution and recognized internationally as a fundamental human right. Christians comprise less than 3 percent of the Indian population, which is predominantly Hindu.

“We have not converted anyone by force, fraud or by allurement,” said Roman Catholic Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi, in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. He added: “The new law will not stop our work. … No power in the world can stop God’s work for his people.”

The legislative assembly of Rajasthan, a major state in northern India, passed a bill April 7 aimed at checking missionary activities in rural areas, where Hindu groups allege Christians lure poor villagers to their religion with material offers. Anti-conversion laws are also being considered in Jharkhand state.

The Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA) reported that on Monday (April 24), the executive committee of the Catholic Council of India _ a consultative body of the Catholic Church in India _ met in the southern city of Bangalore and asked the state government of Rajasthan to withdraw anti-conversion legislation there. It is expected to become law soon.

Hindu nationalist groups, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and supported by allied extremist organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have fueled the anti-Christian sentiment. The BJP is the ruling party in several major states in northern and western India, including Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Lal Krishna Advani, considered to be the most influential leader in the BJP and presently the opposition leader in the Indian parliament in New Delhi, has criticized “organized, foreign-funded conversion campaigns by evangelical groups.” In early April, at the end of a two-day visit to the Hindu temple town of Tirupati in southern India, he said these activities posed “a grave threat” to Hindu society by undermining national integration and social harmony.

Advani, a former deputy prime minister and interior minister of India, noted that in recent times there had been a “spurt” in the activities of evangelical organizations. Such activities are ominous, he said, when they are facilitated by foreign-funded organizations, ostensibly under the garb of social service for the underprivileged.

The national president of the BJP, Rajnath Singh, has also criticized Christians. He addressed about 15 public meetings during an April 10-14 tour of Jharkhand state, and at all those meetings he reiterated his party’s demand to enact laws to check “forcible conversions” to Christianity, the ICPA reported.

The anti-conversion bill passed by the Rajasthan assembly has prompted much concern, with Christian leaders saying such a law would be used as a means to harass not only Christians, but other religious minorities. The bill, which provides for up to five years in jail for conversion “crimes,” can become law only after it has received the state governor’s assent, which is usually a formality. However, Indian Christian organizations have urged the governor to withhold consent to the “Rajasthan Freedom of Religion Bill, 2006.”

Commenting on Singh’s remarks during his Jharkhand tour, Toppo challenged Singh to bring forward “a single instance” of the church using force or fraud to convert. “They cannot,” said the prelate. “They themselves know their allegation is baseless.”

What is at stake in the controversy is religious freedom and human rights, Toppo told the ICPA. No law can violate the basic human right to follow a religion of choice, asserted the prelate, who is the first Asian cardinal from a tribal community.

Also commenting on the Rajasthan anti-conversion legislation, the Anglican Church of North India said in a statement: “The truth of the matter is that this bill has been introduced especially to target Christians and Muslims who are doing a lot of work for the uplifting of Dalits, the so-called `untouchables’ in Indian society. … However, it must be said that there are a large number of Hindus who have goodwill towards Christians, and it is only a minority of anti-social elements who are patronized by political powers to spread the poison of religious fundamentalism.”

MO/PH END RNS