Maharashtra enacts anti-conversion law, becoming India's 13th state to do so
The western Indian state's Religious Freedom Act took effect on August 28 and has drawn legal challenges from Catholic leaders, while neighboring Goa withdrew a similar bill three days later
Maharashtra, one of India's most populous states with almost 130 million people, has enacted a new anti-conversion law known as the "Religious Freedom Act." Christian and civil rights organizations have described it as a clear attack on freedom of conscience and religion. The law took effect on August 28, prompting Catholic leaders to call for prayer and file legal challenges.
On August 31, the neighboring state of Goa withdrew a similar bill that its local government had just approved. Four days before the Maharashtra law took effect, some 20 civil rights, secular and Christian organizations made a final appeal for its repeal at a press conference in Mumbai. The state assembly, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), passed the law in March.
Criticism over fundamental rights
The coalition of organizations said the law "creates an unprecedented, intrusive system of state surveillance over personal faith, marriage and individual freedom of choice." Before the bill was approved, bishops in western India warned that the measure, "far from safeguarding religious freedom, actually undermines the right it claims to protect: the freedom to choose and profess one's own religion, guaranteed by articles 19, 21 and 25 of the Constitution of India."
Maharashtra is now the 13th Indian state with a law of this kind. Goa would have been the 14th, but its government backed down after strong protests from the Catholic Church and opposition from seven Catholic legislators within the BJP-led government, which holds 26 seats. Christians make up about a quarter of Goa's roughly 1.5 million residents.
New attacks documented in West Bengal
Two incidents took place in West Bengal on Sunday, September 6. A Protestant pastor was forcibly removed during a service, and a Presbyterian church was vandalized. The pastor was threatened and taken to local premises of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the same party that passed the law in Maharashtra, where he was assaulted and tortured.
The attack on the Presbyterian church took place the same day in the village of Rangilabasan, where more than 100 people broke in and smashed the cross. Each year 700 such attacks, and far more serious ones, are documented, though the real number is believed to be much higher.
