Indian Christians Alarmed by Passage of Religious Conversion Law

New Delhi (CNSNews.com) - The parliament of India's Gujarat state on Wednesday passed a controversial bill purportedly to protect religious freedom but that requires anyone wanting to convert from one faith to another to get prior permission from a district magistrate.

The Freedom of Religion Bill aims to prevent religious conversion by force or bribery, and it provides for three-year prison terms and fines of $1,000 for law-breakers.

Even for those who convert without threats or inducement, failure to get approval beforehand can result in imprisonment for a year and a small fine.

State officials insist that the law is not aimed at any particular religion, but leaders of the Christian minority are bitterly opposed to it, saying it will restrict Indians' freedom to follow their faith of choice.

The ruling party in the state - which also heads the federal government - the Hindu nationalist BJP, introduced the law.

It had promised during a recent state election to bring the law into effect.

When the bill was introduced in the state legislature Wednesday, members of the opposition Congress Party reportedly shouted in protest and demanded the resignation of the state's chief minister, Narendra Modi.

Militant Hindu groups, some of them allied with the BJP, are strongly opposed to Christian missionary activities in India, accusing them of bribing poor Hindus to become Christians by offering them food, education or other incentives.

The general-secretary of the BJP in Gujarat, Jayanti Barot, predicted similar laws would be passed across India. Already, three other states - Orissa in the east, Madhya Pradesh in the center of the country and Tamil Nadu in the south - have passed similar bills.

"Everybody in India understands that one should live and die in the religion one is born into. Nobody should have the right to disturb this tradition," he said.

That view, while held among adherents of some religions, runs contrary to the strong drive within Christianity to "preach the Gospel to all nations," in the words of Jesus Christ.

Christians also believe that conversion is a life-changing experience that an individual chooses and therefore cannot be forced on anyone.

Christian organizations and churches do run hospitals, schools and other facilities in many developing countries, but whether this is a demonstration of Christian charity or a scheme to lure converts away from other faiths is a matter of continuing debate in some societies.

The passage of the law comes hard on the heels of a related controversy in Gujarat.

Christian leaders recently complained that state police were conducting an illegal survey of their community, asking questions such as when and how people converted to the faith.

They accused the state authorities of collecting these statistics in order to justify passing the conversion law, a charge the government denied.

Father Babu Joseph, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, said in response to the legislation that the church has been "very clearly telling the whole world that we Christians do not believe in what is called forced conversion. It's simply a contradiction of terms to say that someone can be forcibly converted."

He said the forced conversion allegations were absolutely baseless.

"We think conversion is a matter of personal choice and cannot be forced."

Babu pointed out that India's constitution respects individual freedoms, including freedom of religion.

Christians make up just 2.5 percent of India's more than one billion, mostly Hindu, population.

David Samuel, a Gujarati Christian now living in New Delhi, said the state government should instead focus on far more pressing issues there, such as unemployment, illiteracy and access to clean water.

"Religion is something very personal between an individual and his Maker," said Jacob Thomas, who works for a non-governmental organization in Gujarat.

"In a democratic and secular country, if one finds peace in professing a particular faith, why should the government or others concerned feel threatened?"

John Mathew, a friend of Thomas, pointed out that the size of the Christian minority - 2.5 percent of the total population - had not changed since India became independent more than half a century ago.

This belied the claims of "all these so-called forced conversions."

Mathew said he could not understand "why the majority community is so scared of the minorities."

Late last year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the State Department to add India - along with five other countries - to its list of "countries of particular concern" because of religious freedom problems involving Hindus, Muslims and Christians.

The Commission, an independent expert body that gives recommendations to the U.S. government, said the authorities failed to hold people accountable for abuses of religious freedom.

However, when the State Department issued its current list of "countries of particular concern" in early March, India was not named.

Countries that are on the list are Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Sudan.

(CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief Patrick Goodenough contributed to this report.)

Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.