Indian cardinal rejects electoral proposal to ban religious conversions

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay (India), rejected the proposal to implement a strict law restricting religious conversions in the Indian state of Maharashtra, arguing that it violates fundamental rights.

The state’s ruling alliance, led by the Indian People’s Party, a Hindu nationalist group, included in its electoral manifesto the commitment to enact this law if it wins re-election.

In one interview with UCA Newsthe cardinal stated that “no civil authority has the right to interfere in the sanctuary of each person’s conscience, much less to decide what that conscience should dictate.”

The Constitution of India guarantees religious freedom and promotes secularism that equally respects all religious traditions. However, since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Indian People’s Party came to power in 2014, this principle has been losing strength.

“For Christians, conversion is a personal transformation of the heart. No government can enter my soul and tell my conscience: ‘You cannot change your religion; you must worship God in this way,’” said the cardinal.

The state of Maharashtra, with 96 million voters, will hold elections on November 20 to elect 288 Congress representatives. According to the Election Commission of India, more than 4,136 candidates will participate, although the main fight is between the official alliance led by the Indian People’s Party and the secular alliance led by the Indian National Congress Party, which led the fight for the independence of the country.

The Church in India calls for voting

On November 15, Cardinal Gracias published a pastoral letter urging Christians to fulfill their civic duty by voting in these elections. “We vote for peace, progress, harmony, unity and care for those in need,” indicates the letter, which also emphasized that each Christian vote represents active participation in the democratic process. However, the text did not endorse any political party.

Father Nigel Barett, the cardinal’s spokesman, explained to UCA News that the Church maintains a consistent position of not supporting any particular party. “Voters must exercise their vote according to their conscience,” he stated. Furthermore, he criticized the Indian People’s Party’s proposal for violating the constitutional principles of religious neutrality and religious freedom.

Currently, eleven of India’s 28 states, mostly governed by the Indian People’s Party, have anti-conversion laws, notes UCA News. These regulations impose prison sentences for converting people through fraud, coercion or inducements. However, Christian leaders denounce that these laws are often used to criminalize evangelization activities.

Mumbai-based activist and lawyer Cyril Dara told UCA News that “religion is a personal choice of each individual, and the state has nothing to do with it.”

“Christians are constantly attacked with unfounded accusations of conversion in many Indian states where anti-Christian laws exist,” Cardinal Gracias concluded in his interview.

In Maharashtra, UCA News points out, Christians represent just 0.96% of the population, with just over a million faithful, of which one million are Catholics from the Archdiocese of Bombay. Nationally, Christians make up only 2.3% of India’s 1.4 billion people.