Madhya Pradesh State in central India has replaced its more than 50-year-old anti-conversion law with a new and more stringent one that can criminalize even conversion for marriage.
The law notified on Jan. 9 says any attempt to convert a person from one religion to another through misrepresentation, allurement, use of threat or force, undue influence, coercion or by marriage is a punishable offense.
Violators can be jailed for up to 10 years under the new law called the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance 2020. Those abetting or conspi-ring such conversions can also be punished.
The new law replaces the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion act of 1968. However, it allows the reconversion of a person to one’s parental religion without violating the law’s provision.
Leaders of the state government-run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hold that Hinduism is the parental religion of religious minorities in the country such as Christians and Muslims.
In effect, the law allows Hindu groups to convert Christians and Muslims to Hinduism. But those Hindus who convert to Islam or Christianity for marriage can be punished along with their spouses, who can be accused of abetting and conspiring the con-version.
“This law is one-sided and against fundamental rights guaranteed in the Indian constitution,” said Father Maria Stephan, public relations officer of the Catholic Church in Madhya Pradesh.