The Arunachal Pradesh government’s move to implement the state’s long-dormant anti-conversion law following a Gauhati High Court directive is facing stiff opposition not only from Christian bodies in the state but is also being viewed with apprehension by other states in the Northeast.
The Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act (APFRA) – the first such law in the region – had been passed by the first Assembly of the then Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh and received Presidential assent in 1978. However, it remained in cold storage for 46 years as Christian leaders opposed it.
In September last year, hearing a plea seeking its intervention against the state’s “failure” to implement the Act, the Itanagar Bench of the Gauhati High Court directed the government to finalise the draft for implementation within six months. With the deadline set to end this month-end, the Arunachal Christian Forum (ACF) has stepped up its efforts and is pushing for the repeal of the Act.
On Monday, following a meeting with Arunachal Pradesh Home and Indigenous Affairs Minister Mama Natung, ACF president Tarh Miri said the organisation will hold a rally against the Act on March 6. “The minister conveyed at the meeting that the Act cannot be repealed as it has Presidential assent and the government has been directed by court to implement it. However, he assured us that an inclusive committee would be constituted to oversee the issue. He also requested us to call off the March 6 rally, but we will go ahead with it,” Miri said.
While he added that the repeal of the Act was difficult “given the numbers in the Assembly”, Miri said: “The government is trying to implement it due to pressure from external communal forces.”
The BJP government in Arunachal has said that the Act is not directed at any particular religion, but that has not assuaged the concerns of Christian bodies.
Natung did not respond to queries from The Indian Express but issued a statement about his meeting with the ACF president. He said that the state government would hold “consultative meetings with all religious leaders and other stakeholders” over framing of the rules for the Act.
The APFRA prohibits religious conversion “by use of force or inducement or by fraudulent means” and entails a two-year imprisonment or a fine up to Rs 10,000 for the offence of “converting or attempting to convert forcefully from one religious faith to another”. The Act also mandates that every act of conversion be reported to the Deputy Commissioner of the district concerned, with a failure to report it by the person conducting the conversion attracting a penalty.
The Act comes against the backdrop of the rapid increase of Christian population in Arunachal since the establishment of its first church in 1957, triggering debates on threats to “indigenous religions and cultures”. From 0.79% of the state’s population in the 1971 Census, the Christian numbers had grown to 30.26% in the 2011 Census.
Apart from Christians, Arunachal has an array of different beliefs and rituals practised by its different tribes – from Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism to polytheistic nature worship and ancestor worship, of which the worship of Donyi Polo has taken an institutionalised form over the years.
Maya Murtem, general secretary of the Indigenous Faiths and Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh, is among those pushing for the Act’s implementation. Echoing the government’s views, Murtem said: “The Act is not against any religion. It applies to us as well. The rules will only be against forceful conversions and allurement. Those who are opposing it are showing that they have the wrong intent. We need it because currently conversions are not being recorded at all and we don’t have any data on it… The law will require each conversion to be reported.”
But the opposition to the Act has also spread to Christian groups outside Arunachal. Last month, the Naga Baptist Church Council – the apex body of Baptist churches in the state – wrote an open letter to chief minister Pema Khandu to express “deep concern”.
“The real intention of the APFRA was not to preserve traditional religion but to suppress a particular religious group of those days… On the ground that the Act is unconstitutional, your people and the region stood to oppose the Bill… Looking at the present situation in the country, a lot has changed, and we know very well what will happen to your people, especially those of the Christian community in your state. We do not need to mention how the law (anti-conversion laws) is misused to unnecessarily persecute Christians in other parts of the country. Our common sense tells us that the same will happen to your peace-loving people, and this will spill over to the whole region,” read the letter written by Naga Baptist Church Council general secretary Rev Zelhou Keyho.
In the Northeast, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram are Christian-majority states while Manipur also has a significant Christian population.
Allen Brooks, spokesperson of the Assam Christian Forum, said “apprehensions are high” across the region. “The assurances are not soothing because we have seen the behaviour across India. We have seen Christian worshippers being beaten up in the name of these laws. Actions do not match the words… In Assam too, when the law against ‘magical healing’ was introduced, the CM said it would stop evangelism and made it clear that it was targeted at Christians,” he said. (The New Indian Express)
