Totally false to say Indians have freedom of religion: not free to choose their faith – National Herald

In 2003, under Narendra Modi, Gujarat passed a law that essentially removed all freedom of religion for Gujaratis. It requires individuals changing their faith to take the permission of the government. They had to fill out a form explaining to the District Magistrate the reasons they were choosing to convert; their occupation and monthly income; how long they had been in the religion they were converting out of; to reveal whether they were Dalit or Adivasi; the date and time of their conversion; the names, addresses and ages of themselves and all in their family; the names and addresses of all guests attending the ceremony. If they did not do so within ten days of their conversion, they faced one year in jail.

The person who is converting them has to fill out another form with all of the details referred to above and must submit one month before the conversion, an application to the District Magistrate seeking permission. The bureaucrat has one month in which to approve or deny permission. This denial of propagation obviously also affects the right of the person who wants to change their faith. One had to remain in the faith they were born in unless the government approved.

The District Magistrate must also maintain a register that has the number of applications received, approved, denied or pending which he must report every quarter. The coercion can be imagined.

Gujarats Assembly was told in January 2020 that in the previous five years a total of 1,895 applications for conversion had been filed in the state. Gujarat had denied permission to convert to 889 individuals.

The government gave permission to 1,006 applicants, almost all of whom were Dalits in Surat converting to Buddhism. The number of Dalit applicants to convert to Buddhism had swelled because in 2014, they had been denied permission to convert in a mass ceremony.

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Totally false to say Indians have freedom of religion: not free to choose their faith - National Herald