ICC Note: Anti-conversion legislation has been rising in popularity among state governments in India. Uttarakhand is the most recent state to implement an anti-conversion bill. This legislation has had a significant impact on the ability of Christian ministries to operate in India, largely due to the complicated and expensive process that one must go through to legally change religion. Discrimination is common for Christian communities in the region already and this new legislation increases tensions, sometimes to the level of persecution when church communities and Christian leaders are accused of forcibly converting people.

05/25/18 India (Mission Network News) — It has been just over a month since Uttarakhand became the seventh state in India to pass an anti-conversion bill. The growing popularity of anti-conversion laws and charges in India don’t bode well for impoverished communities and religious minorities.

Abhijit Nayak, a ministry partner with Voice of the Martyrs Canada, shares, “This is basically another political and pro-Hindu fundamentalist technique to restrict Christian ministries or churches not to have access to people who would like to change their religion.

“For example, if I am a seeker or if I am seeking to change my religion from Hindu to Christianity and I am a poor person…I don’t want to go to a court of law and file an affidavit to change my religion because I don’t have money or I don’t know the legal processes to go to the magistrate or go to a court of law to change my religion.”

Nayak says sometimes an evangelist or pastor is willing to help those who would like to become Christians with the legal process, “But they are also afraid that they will be targeted once they go to court of law with [the new Christian] and they will be blamed for forcing [them] or luring [them] to become a Christian. So this has a very negative impact on Christian missions and Christian ministries.”

According to Nayak, the difficulty doesn’t lie in Indian Christians sharing their faith with others. Opposition starts to crop up when someone who is not a Christian decides to change their religion to Christianity.

“Let’s say I want to share my faith with my Hindu neighbor next door, it’s not a problem. Sharing is not a problem. But…it comes to my Hindu neighbor when he or she decides to become a Christian, go to a church, and take baptism.”

Because of this, Christian ministries often must have access to a lawyer or have solid legal knowledge to assist new Christians with the affidavit submissions for a formal religion change.

“That becomes very difficult for the Christian ministries because sometimes Christian ministries are not willing to be in the public domain. They don’t want people to identify them being engaged in these kinds of activities. That is number one,” explains Nayak.

“And number two, the Christian ministry may face opposition in the village. If one family is coming to a Christian faith and there are 50 more families,…they may accuse the Christian mission [of] converting and creating disturbances in the community.”

The changing culture in India can paint a grim picture for Christian ministry, but Nayak says it is evident that God is still moving amidst the difficulty.

…

For interviews with William Stark, ICC’s Regional Manager, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: [email protected]