Laws on Religious Conversions

India is a country of many religions and Constitution of India, Article 25 to 28 give us the freedom of religion and there are many laws on religious conversions.

Freedom of Religion in Constitution

• India does not have any state religion nor it patronizes any specific religion. Religion is basically a matter of choice, faith or sets of belief.
• Articles 25 to 28 of the Constitution of India grant the Right to Freedom of Religion in India not only individuals but also religious groups in India.
• Article 25 (Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion):
  • Article 25 provides the freedom of conscience, the freedom to profess, practice, and propagate religion to all citizens.
  • However, these freedoms can be restricted on the basis of public order, health, and morality
• Article 26 (Freedom to manage religious affairs):
  • The right to form and maintain institutions for religious and charitable intents
  • The right to manage its own religious affairs
  • The right to own and acquire movable and immovable property
  • The right to administer such property in accordance with law
• Article 27 (Freedom from payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion):
  • No person shall be forced to pay any taxes, the proceeds of which are specifically used in payment of expenses for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination.
• Article 28 (Freedom to attend religious instructions):
  • No religion instruction shall be allowed in any educational institution wholly maintained out of State funds.
  • This condition shall not apply to an educational institution which is administered by the State but has been established under any endowment or trust that mandates that religious instruction shall be imparted in such institution
  • Individual attending any educational institution recognized by the State or receiving aid out of State funds shall not be required to take part in any religious instruction.

What is Religious Conversion?

• It can be defined as the adoption of any other religion or of a set of beliefs by the exclusion of other i.e. renouncing one religion and adopting another. And constitution of India defined laws on religious conversion in India.
• There are various reasons for which people do convert their religion like:

The Debate of ‘Right to Propagate’ Vs ‘Right to Convert’

• Historical background: Article 25 talks about the term “propagate” which means to promote or transmit or merely a freedom of expression.
  • At the time of drafting of the Indian Constitution, drafters used the word “conversion”.
  • But in the final draft they went with the recommendations made by the Sub-Committee on Minorities (M. Ruthnaswamy) and used ‘propagate’ in place of ‘conversion’ and left the debate open as to whether the right to propagate included conversion.
• Judicial pronouncements in this regard:
  • Rev Stanislaus Vs Madhya Pradesh, 1977: The Supreme Court concluded that the right to propagate does not include the right to convert.
  • Recently, a Supreme Court bench led by Justice M.R. Shah said charity by religious groups is welcome but the intention of such acts cannot be religious conversion. It also held that forced religious conversion is a “very serious issue” which can affect national safety, freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.

Laws of Religious Conversions in India

• Pre-independence: Laws restricting religious conversions were originally introduced by princely states headed by Hindu royal families during the British colonial period — particularly during the latter half of the 1930s and 1940s.
  • These states enacted the laws “in an attempt to preserve Hindu religious identity in the face of British missionaries”.
  • The states that had such laws include Kota, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Raigarh, Patna, Surguja, Udaipur, and Kalahandi etc.
• Post-independence:
  • No Central Law: Currently, there are no central laws restricting or regulating religious conversions. Following India’s independence, Parliament introduced a number of anti-conversion bills, but none were enacted.

• State Laws: Over the years, several states enacted “Freedom of Religion” legislation to restrict religious conversions carried out by force, fraud, or inducements.
  • “Freedom of Religion laws” are currently in force in eight states — (i) Odisha (1967), (ii) Madhya Pradesh (1968), (iii) Arunachal Pradesh (1978), (iv) Chhattisgarh (2000 and 2006), (v) Gujarat (2003), (vi) Himachal Pradesh (2006 and 2019), (vii) Jharkhand (2017), and (viii) Uttarakhand (2018).
  • The laws passed in Himachal Pradesh (2019) and Uttarakhand also declare a marriage to be void if it was solemnised for the sole purpose of conversion, or a conversion was done solely for the purpose of marriage.
  • In November 2019, citing rising incidents of forced or fraudulent religious conversions, the Uttar Pradesh Law Commission recommended enacting a new law to regulate religious conversions. This led the state government to promulgate the recent Ordinance.

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