Christians demand Modi take a stand in India's conversion debate

Hindu nationalists’ attempts to convert large groups of Christians and Muslims, along with political rhetoric about making India Hindu again, continue to worry religious minorities in the country.

Before Christmas, Hindus with Dharam Jagran Samiti (DJS) were raising funds to “reconvert” Muslims and Christians back to Hinduism with a large ceremony on Christmas Day. After an outcry, it was postponed. But Christians fear they haven’t seen the last of these attacks on religious liberty, said William Stark, International Christian Concern’s (ICC) regional manager for South Asia.

“This is the issue all the Christians are following in the news these days,” Stark said.

Three large Christian churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak out against the reconversion programs that Hindu nationalists call “ghar wapsi,” or “homecoming,”The Times of India reported.

The Church of North India was one of the them. “Keeping silent on such a sensitive issue construes his silent approval,” P.K. Samantaroy, bishop of Amritsar with the Church of North India, told The Times of India. The three churches also threatened legal action against groups attempting to forcibly convert people to Hinduism, the paper noted.

Forced conversions are illegal in India, although some who have converted to Hinduism in these mass ceremonies claim they were tricked or pressured to convert, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Stark said calling it reconversion or “homecoming” implies those people were all originally Hindu. That is the narrative Hindu radicals promote, he said. ICC calls it conversion instead.

“Conversion is conversion is conversion,” Stark explained. “It needs to all be seen on an even playing field. That’s the context we’re trying to work from.”

A large Hindu conversion ceremony was supposed to take place in Bathinda on Jan. 2 but flopped when none of the promised 200 families showed up, according to The Tribune.

Even with such failures, Christians still fear the controversy will lead to a national anti-conversion law. This appears to be the agenda of some in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) majority, including BJP president Amit Shah, according to the Deccan Chronicle. Shah reportedly supports a federal anti-conversion law.

Currently, India’s secular constitution protects people’s right to convert to another religion. Just days before Christmas, India’s Parliament deadlocked when Modi’s opposition refused to cooperate until he clarifies his position on reconversion, The Hindu reported.

Modi did not respond, but Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu reaffirmed India’s constitutional rights.

“If people want to convert, they can convert,” Naidu said, according to The Hindu. “That right is there in the Constitution. The government has no role in conversion or re-conversion. The party has nothing to do with these [reconversion] programs. Individuals are taking the programs. If somebody violates the law … in any state, the law is very clear and it will take its own course.”