2021 Report on International Religious Freedom

In News

• Recently, The US State Department report on religious freedom alleged India by highlighting issues of concern.
  • India rejected the criticisms saying the observations are based on “motivated inputs and biased views”.

More about the Report

• It is the annual report on international religious freedom by the US State Department.
• The report gives its own perspective on the status and violations of religious freedom across the globe and has separate chapters on each of the countries.
• About India:
  • Minorities:
    • It alleged that attacks on members of the minority communities, including killings, assaults, and intimidation, took place in India throughout 2021.
    • Terrorists targeted and killed civilians and migrants from the Hindu and Sikh minorities, including Hindu migrant laborers from Bihar, in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. 
    • It also added that terrorists had killed 39 civilians including two schoolteachers from the Hindu and Sikh communities.
    • The report said that the police arrested non-Hindus for making comments in the media or on social media that were considered offensive to Hindus or Hinduism.
  • Religious conversions:
    • The report stated that 10 of 28 states in India have laws restricting religious conversion.
    • It spoke of complaints filed against religious minorities like Christians and Muslims on the basis of religious conversion acts.
  • Cow vigilantism:
    • These included incidents of cow vigilantism against non-Hindus based on allegations of cow slaughter or trade in beef.
  • NGOs and Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA):
    • The report also touched upon criticism reportedly leveled by NGOs operating in India, against the amendments made to the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) in 2020.

Criticisms

• Indian government criticised the report by citing the following issues:
  • The report is made on the basis of “Motivated inputs and biased views”.
  • Vote bank politics is being practiced through such reports.
• India previously rejected the US religious freedom report, saying it sees no locus standi for a foreign government to pronounce on the state of its citizens’ constitutionally protected rights.
• Motivated Inputs:
  • The report is based on the allegations of various non-profit organisations, and minority institutions on attacks on them. 
  • It also documents various aspects of it as appeared in the Indian press and the Indian government reports. 
• Silent on important issues:
  • It is silent on the results of the investigations being undertaken by the officials, responses of the government.

Religious Conversions in India

• After independence, Parliament introduced a number of anti-conversion bills which were not enacted for want of majority approval. 
• Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have laws restricting religious conversion. 
  • Some of the laws provide for stiffer penalties if women, children, or members of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) are being converted. 
• Odisha was the first State to enact anti-conversion legislation, the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967.
• Recently, the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021 was cleared by the Karnataka Cabinet.
  • It aims to prohibit conversion by misrepresentation, force, fraud, the allurement of marriage, coercion and undue influence.
  • Protection of the right to freedom of religion
    • It provides for the protection of the right to freedom of religion and the prohibition of unlawful conversion from one religion to another.
• Haryana Prevention of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill, 2022 – The bill is against religious conversion through force, undue influence or allurement.

Way Ahead

• All the convergent opinions of the world run through Indian society – Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Secular, Stalinist, Liberal, Moist, Democratic, Socialist and Gandhian. 
  • India’s massive population is diverse as well as devout.
• Not only do most of the world’s Hindus, Jains and Sikhs live in India, but it also is home to one of the world’s largest Muslim populations and to millions of Christians and Buddhists.
• The role of the courts in India in determining the ambit of the right to freedom of religion is more active as compared to that in the United States. 
• The multiplicity of religions in India warrants the need for an exhaustive enumeration of restrictions to the right to religion as compared to the United States where the society is comparatively less diverse. 
• One thus, comes to the conclusion that based on similar doctrines, the constitutional restrictions on the right to religion in India and that in the United States are apt for their own country respectively and both circumscribe the right to religion in their particular scenario appropriately.

Source: TH