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Law against conversions threaten Christian relief work, say churches
2002-241-6
10/18/2002
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[Episcopal News Service]
Indian Christians have warned that legislation introduced in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, banning religious conversions by 'force, allurement or fraudulent means,' could put Christian relief work at risk. The Tamil Nadu state government claimed the measure was aimed at preventing attempts by 'some religious fundamentalists and subversive forces to create communal disharmony in the name of religious conversion.' It follows the conversion of 250 Dalits--members of India's lowest economic and social class--to the Seventh-day Adventist church in August at Madurai, Tamil Nadu's second-biggest city.
Hindu groups welcomed the emergency, which provides for a punishment of up to three years in prison and a fine. But the National Council of Churches in India, which groups 29 Protestant and Orthodox churches, said the law threatened to undermine constitutional rights and would create mistrust between religious communities. 'The law will also make it difficult for the churches in Tamil Nadu and religious NGOs [non-governmental organizations] to work for social and economic justice and even for humanitarian relief,' the council said, calling on the state government to repeal the measure.
Nearly 70 per cent of India's 24 million Christians are Dalits, and many of them have converted from Hinduism to other religions in protest at the discrimination they faced from upper-caste Hindus.
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