Karnataka, another state in India, has passed an anti-conversion bill that specifically targets Christians.
While the Christian minority in India is already feeling threatened by escalating attacks, the state of Karnataka has approved a contentious “anti-conversion” policy that has been used as justification for anti-Christian violence in other states.
According to NDTV, the upper house of the state of Karnataka in southern India enacted the “Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill” this week on concerns that “forced” religious conversions were on the rise there.
Though a different anti-conversion ordinance published in May has already been in place, once the governor signs the measure into law it will take effect immediately.
Just days before the bill’s passage, the Supreme Court issued an order to eight states, including Karnataka, requiring them to investigate the allegations of Christian organizations seeking protection after over 200 incidents were recorded in the first five months of 2022.
The court ruled that the government’s assertion that accusations of Christian persecution in India rest on “half-baked and self-serving facts and self-serving publications and reports… based upon mere supposition” necessitated more investigation.
Last month, in response to a petition from Christian groups, the federal interior ministry said, “There appears to be some hidden oblique agenda in filing such deceptive petitions, creating unrest throughout the country, and perhaps for getting assistance from outside the country to meddle with internal affairs of our nation.”
Nearly a dozen states in India have implemented anti-conversion legislation on the grounds that Christians “force” or provide money to Hindus to encourage them to convert to Christianity, despite the fact that Christians only make up 2.3% of the population and Hindus make up roughly 80%.
A common provision in anti-conversion legislation prohibits the employment of the “threat” of “divine wrath,” which effectively prohibits Christians from discussing Heaven and Hell for fear of being accused of “luring” others to convert.
A few of these statutes have been on the books in various states for decades. Christians are sometimes falsely accused of being coerced to convert by radical Hindu nationalist organizations, and assaults are then launched under the guise of enforcing the legislation against conversion.
In an effort to rid India of Christian influence, Hindu radicals are increasing their persecution of the faith, according to a fact sheet published by the human rights organization Open Doors USA. “Hindutva is the driving force behind this; it is an ideology that rejects Christians and other religious minorities in India as real Indians on the grounds that their loyalties lay outside the nation, and that insists India should be purged of their presence.”
To that end, Christians and other religious minorities are being subjected to systematic, sometimes violent, and meticulously coordinated targeting, with tools like social media being used to propagate misinformation and incite violence.
According to the United Christian Forum, 2021 was the “most violent year in the country’s history,” with at least 486 incidences of violent persecution of Christians.
According to UCF, crowds are able to “criminally intimidate, physically abuse persons in prayer, before turning them over to the authorities on claims of forceful conversions,” which leads to a rise in Christian persecution.
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