New anti-conversion law in Indian state stokes fear among Christian worshippers
Churches around Mumbai are asking visitors to sign declarations that they came to pray voluntarily, after Maharashtra state's new anti-conversion law took effect. Critics warn the law's broad wording lets police scrutinise even voluntary religious decisions.
Since late August, some churches near Mumbai have been asking worshippers to sign written declarations stating they came to pray of their own free will, with no one forcing or enticing them. The forms carry no legal weight, but churches keep them in case a prayer meeting is later accused of facilitating religious conversion.
The practice began just before a new anti-conversion law took effect in Maharashtra state, whose capital is Mumbai. The law bans conversions carried out through force, fraud, coercion or inducement, and requires anyone converting voluntarily to notify authorities beforehand. Violations can bring up to seven years in prison, rising to ten for repeat offenders.
The state government says the law protects socially and economically vulnerable people from being pressured or deceived into changing religion. Critics counter that its vague definitions, harsh penalties and scrutiny of even voluntary conversions draw police into one of the most personal decisions a person can make.
While the law covers all faiths, anxiety is strongest among religious minorities, particularly Christians. A legal-aid worker in the Mumbai suburb of Vasai says he has increasingly heard accounts of prayer meetings being disrupted by strangers questioning attendees about their names and reasons for being there.
An investigation published in July documented five such disruptions of Christian prayer gatherings around Mumbai between April and July, leading to nine police cases.
Maharashtra is now among more than a dozen Indian states with such restrictions, several of which face challenges before the Supreme Court. Critics say the law also complicates interfaith marriages, since it allows relatives to file police complaints over alleged unlawful conversions, shifting the burden onto the accused to prove the conversion was lawful. A state minister has said the law does not restrict the right to change religion, but aims to establish whether a conversion was genuinely voluntary.
