On March 8, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav shocked everyone by proposing the death penalty for religious conversion, equating it with the rape of minors. He added that the State’s Freedom of Religion Act would be amended to include capital punishment, similar to the penalty for the rape of minors. Asserting that voluntary religious conversion is a constitutional right, the opposition Congress dubbed Yadav’s statement a tactic to divert attention from more serious issues plaguing the State.
The tightening of the Freedom of Religion Act, particularly in BJP-ruled States, is not a new phenomenon. It is often justified with the polarising phrase “love jehad”, a term that is conspicuous by its absence in any statute book of repute or Central government nomenclature. There is no Central law regulating or restricting conversions, nor is there any Central repository of conversions, forceful or otherwise.
Regulating interfaith marriages on the grounds that girls from the majority community are “lured”, tricked, and converted by people from the minority communities has been one of the favourite tropes of the right-wing fringe, although it has now acquired a certain legitimacy, with governments proposing legislation using the fig leaf of “unlawful conversion”.
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Whether through such laws or the Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code (which some have described as neither civil nor uniform), consensual relationships, including interfaith ones, are being subjected to regulation, breaching constitutional norms of privacy. Uttarakhand’s shoddily drafted UCC, which has been challenged in court, may well become the national template. The enactment of stringent anti-conversion laws in the last decade, and more actively in recent years, is an extension of such trends and another expression of regulatory overreach.
In 2021, the Madhya Pradesh government promulgated an ordinance with elaborate procedures regulating conversions, similar to the ordinance promulgated by the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh in 2020. In July 2024, the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Bill was enacted.
Rajasthan joins the club
Now, in February, Rajasthan joined other BJP-led State governments such as Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand that have already enacted anti-conversion laws. In Karnataka, the former BJP government had enacted the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, 2022, which was repealed once the Congress came to power in 2023.
The Rajasthan Assembly passed the Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill, 2025, criminalising what it called unlawful conversion from one religion to the other by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any other fraudulent means or by marriage. According to the Bill, “allurement” refers to gifts, material benefits in cash or kind, and includes employment or free education run by any religious body, promises of a better lifestyle, and divine displeasure. Conversion by solemnisation of marriage or any relationship in the nature of marriage are also included.
Interestingly, if a person reconverts to their previous religion, even if guided by elements of coercion, allurement, and so on, it will be considered “voluntary”. This anomaly seems deliberate in order to justify the growing trend of reconversion, called ghar wapsi (literally, returning home), helmed by the Hindu Right.
The Rajasthan Bill defines previous religion as one in which a person had belief, faith or was practised by the person voluntarily and freely. It is taken for granted that the “previous religion” of the person before conversion was the one practised voluntarily and freely and that the subsequent conversion was “coercive”.
The Bill completely overlooks the fact that under the Constitution all adults have the right to practise and propagate the religion of their choice. It gives a wide berth to anyone who is “aggrieved”, whether parents, blood relatives, and even those related by adoption, to file a complaint. Those found guilty of unlawful conversion face imprisonment for a year, extendable up to five years and are liable to pay a fine of Rs.15,000. If the person wrongfully converted is a minor, a woman, or a person belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities, the guilty may face imprisonment for a term of 2 years extendable up to 10 years and fined Rs.25,000. There is no explanation why the punishment for converting a woman is much higher.
Further, those found guilty of the “crime” of mass conversion will be punished for a term of 3 years extendable up to 10 years with a fine of Rs.50,000. Also, the courts are empowered to award compensation payable by the accused to the victim of up to a maximum of Rs.5 lakh in addition to paying the fine. Under the Bill, family courts are empowered to declare as null and void marriages conducted for the sole purpose of unlawful conversion or vice versa.
Similar to the enactments in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the Rajasthan Bill stipulates that advance notice of 60 days and 1 month be given by the person who wishes to convert and the converter, respectively, to the district authorities. People who wish to convert will have to give an undertaking that they are doing so without any coercion, allurement, or influence. The District Magistrate will then direct the police to conduct an inquiry to ascertain the reasons behind the conversion.
Punishment for non-compliance
Anyone failing to give advance notice will be punished with a jail term plus a fine. Incidentally, the “converter” attracts a heavier fine and jail term. All offences under this law are non-bailable.
After converting, one is required to send a declaration form to the District Magistrate’s office, even if the conversion was done as per law. Worse, the District Magistrate is required to publicly display the declaration, which contains all kinds of details pertaining to the individual including the “original” religion and the nature of process involving the conversion.
Thus, anyone wishing to convert to another religion is faced with a process tangled in bureaucratic control and intimidation.
The converted will have to appear before the District Magistrate within three weeks to confirm the bona fides of the declaration as well as their own identity. If the converted defaults on any of the requirements pertaining to the declaration, the conversion could be declared null and void. Further, any institution or organisation found violating the provisions risks losing registration and state funding. The burden of proof that the conversion was not done in contravention of the Bill lies squarely on the person carrying out the conversion and the facilitators of the process.
Curiously, in its statement of objects and reasons, the Rajasthan Bill recognises the fundamental right to practise, propagate, and profess one’s religion. And yet it reasons that the individual right to freedom of conscience and religion cannot be extended to construe a collective right to proselytise, and that the right to religious freedom belongs equally to the person converting and the individual sought to be converted.
The statement further says that “in the recent past many such examples had come to light where gullible persons had been converted using fraudulent means” and justifies the Bill on the grounds that there was no statute in Rajasthan, unlike in other States. Interestingly, the previous BJP government under Vasundhara Raje introduced similar Bills in 2006 and 2008, which lapsed since they did not get the assent of the Governor and President.
Saleem Engineer, national vice president of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, expressed concern at these developments. Engineer, a former office-bearer of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Rajasthan, said: “These kind of Bills are against the spirit of the Constitution. Our Constitution gives the freedom of expression and freedom to choose one’s own religion. Criminalising it is going against the Constitution. The definition of what is forced or allurement is very broad.
“Forced conversion itself is propaganda. How can someone be forced? If a Muslim or Christian converts to Hinduism, it is not conversion. These Bills are tools to harass the Muslim and Christian communities. Even without such laws, there is harassment. If such laws are made, it will become serious. Anyone can complain about anyone. Such laws should not be encouraged as they are against the spirit of the Constitution. Hindutva elements don’t consider all religions equal.”
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Rajiv Gupta, former professor of sociology, University of Rajasthan, is worried that all secular state apparatuses are being converted into communal apparatuses. The Rajasthan Bill, he said, is also a part of this process. “All religious conversion laws passed by various States are against minorities in general and against Christians and Muslims in particular. There is no thought at all about the rights of young people. All non-state agencies are being mobilised in this propaganda against conversion. The lengthy advance notice period is a sure-shot tool for harassment by non-state actors. Sadly, there is not much opposition to these trends, including by opposition parties.”
According to the 2011 Census, Muslims make up 9.1 per cent of the population in Rajasthan, much lower than the national average, while Christians are close to 0.1 per cent. Hindus form an overwhelming majority at 88 per cent. The bogey of conversion, therefore, is false.
There is a visible reduction in the gap between the fertility rates of Muslims and other religious groups, including Hindus, as revealed by the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (2019-21) data. Yet, in his 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign, the Prime Minister of India railed against the community saying: “Muslims have a large number of children”.
Be it anti-conversion laws, threats to impose a uniform civil code, or amendments to the Waqf Act, legislative bulldozing has become a cause for concern. While many of these laws, including anti-conversion laws, have been challenged in court, once these inherently undemocratic laws come into force, there is little scope to restrain the executive and non-state actors.
Source:https://frontline.thehindu.com/social-issues/india-anti-conversion-laws-death-penalty-madhya-pradesh-rajasthan-bill/article69352418.ece