Goanet Digest, Vol 21, Issue 192

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Today's Topics:

   1. Read: "In Punjab, The Top Court's Ruling That Christians
      Cannot be Dalit Sparks Disquiet (Vivek Pinto)
   2. Read: "In Punjab, The Top Court's Ruling That Christians
      Cannot be Dalit Sparks Disquiet (Vivek Pinto)
   3. Read: "India's religious minorities face harsher anti-
      conversion laws" (Vivek Pinto)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2026 05:31:43 +0900
From: Vivek Pinto <[email protected]>
To: Goanet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Read: "In Punjab, The Top Court's Ruling That
	Christians Cannot be Dalit Sparks Disquiet
Message-ID:
	<CAH3OY9y4h029aw=JmVLVQDwi=kC5XTVgbqDRdT12_k7yTCewPQ-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

By: Kusum Arora
Published in: *The Wire*
Date: April 9, 2026
Source:
https://thewire.in/rights/in-punjab-the-top-courts-ruling-that-christians-cannot-be-dalit-sparks-disquiet
*Note:  *Please access the source to read the entire article

"Punjab has the highest proportion of Dalits among states, and many are
Christian by faith or through cultural practices. They are banking upon
existing legal challenges in the Supreme Court to accept and recognise them
as members of Scheduled Castes."


------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:45:35 +0900
From: Vivek Pinto <[email protected]>
To: Goanet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Read: "In Punjab, The Top Court's Ruling That
	Christians Cannot be Dalit Sparks Disquiet
Message-ID:
	<CAH3OY9ybPtYbJURgSsuLRV-Q_TdQA715uRLDLKmW6nPL0sabkA-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

By: Kusum Arora
Published in: *The Wire*
Date: April 9, 2026
Source:
https://thewire.in/rights/in-punjab-the-top-courts-ruling-that-christians-cannot-be-dalit-sparks-disquiet
*Note:  *Please access the source to read the entire article

"Punjab has the highest proportion of Dalits among states, and many are
Christian by faith or through cultural practices. They are banking upon
existing legal challenges in the Supreme Court to accept and recognise them
as members of Scheduled Castes."


------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:24:14 +0900
From: Vivek Pinto <[email protected]>
To: Goanet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Read: "India's religious minorities face harsher
	anti- conversion laws"
Message-ID:
	<CAH3OY9yx50jxA8Y9QDA=ZXri1sRDPCCattXo7gCrWjviVL-6Eg-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Published in:* The Economist*
Date: April 9, 2026

EVEN IN THE grave, Chamru Ram Salam found no peace. After a mob gathered to
protest against the Christian manner of his burial, the police dug up his
corpse and sped off with it. His family?s performance of the last
rites?caught between tribal custom and the dead man?s religious
faith?spiralled into a village dispute.

Other such exhumations have been captured in harrowing WhatsApp videos in
the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. To stop Christian burials, locals
have vandalised prayer halls and torched homes. Police sometimes intervene
by removing the offending body. The deceptively welcoming term for the
movement behind such clashes is ghar wapsi, Hindi for ?homecoming?. The
idea is that, because the deceased?s ancestors were originally Hindu,
conversion to ?foreign? religions like Islam or Christianity denies their
?real? Indian identity. In Badetevda, the scare tactics have worked: seven
Christian families have ?come home? to Hinduism.

AdvertisementScroll to continue with content
In March Chhattisgarh passed one of India?s most restrictive
anti-conversion laws. As elsewhere, it is dubbed a ?freedom-of-religion
law?, and ghar wapsi is not seen as conversion at all. Maharashtra also
passed one last month, bringing to 14 (out of 28) the tally of states with
such laws. These new laws, more aggressive than their predecessors, have
been passed since 2017 by state governments led by the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), which also rules nationally. They invite government and police
intrusion, set harsh penalties and curb marriage rights.

A key measure punishes ?allurement? to convert, a term that can be
stretched to cover pretty much all forms of proselytising. It is now
illegal to promise converts ?a better lifestyle??a ban partly aimed at
stopping appeals to the resentment felt by lower-caste Hindus at the
discrimination they suffer. Would-be converts must give months of notice
and register publicly, with fellow citizens invited to object and thereby
prompt a police inquiry, where the convert has to prove they were not
coerced. In Chhattisgarh a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a fine
of 2,500,000 rupees (almost $26,000) await those responsible for ?mass or
forced conversions?.

Authorities say the laws protect vulnerable communities from pressure and
trickery. In Chhattisgarh the danger is, they say, Christianity and the
victims are members of tribal minorities. ?Conversion is becoming very
clandestine and systematic,? claims Arun Dev Gautam, Chhattisgarh?s police
chief?so much so that he calls conversions to Christianity the biggest
emerging security threat in his state. Mr Gautam worries that Christians
are ?exploiting the vulnerabilities? of those too innocent to understand
what conversion means.

Elsewhere, a common worry is ?love jihad??a conspiracy theory alleging that
Muslim men lure Hindu girls into marriage, in order to convert them to
Islam, and thus tip India?s demographic balance in Muslims? favour.
Maharashtra?s law, for example, bans ?unlawful conversions through
marriage?, allows third-party complaints on interfaith marriages, and
decrees that the children of interfaith unions must adopt their mother?s
religion.

Far from protecting the vulnerable, India?s anti-conversion laws intrude
into their lives. ?The BJP wants to subjugate the people?they want to make
India a Hindu rashtra (nation),? says Kamlesh Dhruv, a young Christian
priest from Chhattisgarh. Gazing up in his spartan prayer room you can see
the stars. Villagers recently battered holes into its roof with bricks. BJP
workers, he says, stood guard.

Anti-conversion laws may soon face legal trouble. India?s Supreme Court is
considering whether they flout constitutional rights to privacy and freedom
of conscience. Its ruling will help shape the role of religion in an
increasingly Hindu-nationalist India. For now, however, India?s
freedom-of-religion laws will continue to make a mockery of the very concept
they claim to protect. ?


End of Goanet Digest, Vol 21, Issue 192
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