The Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill, 2025, marks yet another ominous milestone in the systematic erosion of religious freedom in India. It seeks to prohibit religious conversions achieved through misrepresentation, coercion, undue influence, allurement, or fraudulent means.
At first glance, such legislation appears to be safeguarding individual liberty. However, a closer examination reveals its draconian implications. The Bill, once passed, will place Rajasthan in the company of 11 other states – Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh – each of which has enacted similar laws that restrict religious conversion under the guise of preventing forced conversions.
Historical Context of Anti-Conversion Laws
Religious conversion laws in India are a legacy of the colonial era, first introduced by princely states to curb missionary activity. However, in post-Independence India, the constitutional promise of religious freedom, as enshrined in Articles 25 to 28, stood as a barricade against any legislative encroachment on an individual’s right to choose and practise a faith of their choice.
Parliament’s repeated refusal to enact a central anti-conversion law over the decades reaffirmed this fundamental right. Yet, emboldened by political majoritarianism, state governments have steadily chipped away at this constitutional safeguard, imposing laws that, in effect, criminalise religious choice.
The Rajasthan Bill: A Legal Straitjacket
The Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill, 2025, is replete with provisions that undermine religious liberty and invert fundamental principles of justice. Section 3 of the Bill criminalises conversion through misrepresentation, force, fraud, undue influence, coercion, or allurement. However, the Bill defines these terms in an alarmingly broad and ambiguous manner. For instance, “allurement” includes offers of “better lifestyle” and “divine pleasure,” rendering even a theological discourse or moral persuasion suspect. The punishment extends up to 10 years in cases involving minors, women, or members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Mass conversions – defined arbitrarily as involving two or more persons – invite a similarly severe penalty.
Moreover, the Bill mandates a 60-day prior declaration of intent to convert before the District Magistrate and a post-conversion confirmation. Such a measure places an undue burden on individuals, subjecting them to bureaucratic scrutiny and potential harassment. The provision allowing relatives, including distant kin, to lodge complaints against a conversion is a blatant invitation for vigilantism.
Reality of Religious Conversions in India
While the government is attempting to introduce legislation governing religious conversions, an important question arises regarding the reality of religious conversions and the threat posed by the same. Is religious conversion a serious issue that requires implementation of a law that could potentially violate fundamental rights, or is it just a Trojan horse being used by the government to fulfil hidden sinister agendas under the garb of protecting “gullible persons”?
In 2021, the Pew Research Centre released a report titled Religious Composition of India. The report examined the changing religious composition of India and the causes of religious change. According to the report, 99% of persons who claim to have been raised as Hindus still identify as such. Similarly, 97% of those who were raised as Muslims remain Muslims, and 94% of Indians who grew up as Christians remain Christians.
Furthermore, people who change their religions often balance each other out. For instance, of all Indian adults, 0.7% were raised as Hindus but do not identify as such at the moment, while 0.8% were raised outside of the religion but are now Hindu.
Additionally, interfaith marriage is highly uncommon. The same report found that 99% of married Hindus, 98% of married Muslims, and 95% of married Christians report having a spouse who shares their beliefs. Moreover, 92% of Christians and comparable percentages of Muslims and Hindus claim that their spouse was brought up in their present faith, says the report.
These findings raise questions about the true intentions of anti-conversion laws and the actual threat posed by forceful conversions. The false sense of insecurity regarding religion created by right-wing organisations has served merely as fuel to fan the flames of religious disparities in India.
While the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill, 2025, purports to prevent forced conversions, it actually poses the risk of violating the fundamental rights provided in the Constitution of India. The law fosters an atmosphere conducive to abuse by giving officials broad immunity, imposing undue procedural limits on voluntary conversions, and transferring the burden of proof to the accused. It exerts state control over individual faith choices rather than defending religious freedom, disproportionately harming religious minorities.
Furthermore, the narrative of widespread forced conversions is not supported by empirical data, raising concerns that such legislation serves political motives rather than providing genuine protection. In other states, similar laws have already resulted in increased communal divisions, harassment, and false allegations.
Laws such as this divert attention and are a means of policing individual liberty rather than tackling actual socio-economic problems. If the real intent is to uphold individual rights, the government must focus on establishing legislative protections that forbid coercion without violating fundamental freedoms. Otherwise, this law remains yet another step towards eroding India’s secular and pluralistic fabric.
Broader Pattern of Suppression and Constitutional Violations
The Rajasthan law does not operate in isolation. The laws enacted in other states follow a similar trajectory – most notably, UP and Madhya Pradesh, where the burden of proof has been reversed, compelling the accused to establish that a conversion was voluntary.
The absurdity of these laws becomes evident when juxtaposed with the fact that “re-conversions” to Hinduism – often conducted en masse under the banner of “GharWapsi” – are explicitly excluded from their purview. This selective application of the law lays bare its true intent: to suppress minority religious communities while offering impunity to majoritarian assertions of religious supremacy.
These laws violate multiple constitutional provisions:
- Article 25: Guarantees the right to freely profess, practise, and propagate religion. The restrictions imposed by anti-conversion laws curb an individual’s right to freely choose their faith, rendering this fundamental right meaningless.
- Article 14: Ensures equality before the law. By targeting conversions while allowing “re-conversions” to Hinduism, these laws discriminate against religious minorities.
- Article 21: Protects personal liberty and privacy. Mandating prior approval from authorities for religious conversions amounts to state interference in personal decisions, violating the right to privacy as upheld in the K.S. Puttaswamy judgment.
- Article 26: Grants religious denominations the right to manage their own affairs. These laws interfere with religious practices and administration, restricting communities from engaging in conversions that are integral to their beliefs.
- Article 19(1)(a): Protects freedom of speech and expression. The criminalisation of persuasion and discourse surrounding religious conversion limits this fundamental right.
Resisting the March Towards Theocracy
The steady proliferation of anti-conversion laws poses a grave challenge to India’s pluralistic fabric. By criminalising voluntary religious conversions and imposing onerous legal formalities, these laws serve as instruments of state-sponsored discrimination. The narrative that these laws “protect” individuals from forced conversions is a thinly veiled pretext for coercing minorities into silence and submission.
Legal challenges to such laws have gained traction, with several petitions pending before the Supreme Court. Organisations like Citizens for Justice and Peace have challenged the constitutionality of these laws, arguing that they infringe upon fundamental rights. It remains to be seen whether the judiciary will rise to the occasion and safeguard constitutional liberties against an increasingly authoritarian legislative landscape.
In a democracy, it’s imperative to resist these legislative encroachments before they become an accepted norm, eroding the very foundations of India’s constitutional democracy. Today, it is the right to convert. Tomorrow, it may well be the right to believe at all.
[The writer is Assistant Secretary, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.]