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500 churches and synagogues were desecrated in India, says USCIRF

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended that the U.S. government designate India as a “country of particular concern” (CPC), citing a worsening climate for religious freedom under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindu nationalist government.

In its annual report released Wednesday, USCIRF accused the Indian government of reinforcing “discriminatory nationalist policies, perpetuating hateful rhetoric, and failing to address communal violence,” disproportionately affecting Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Jews, and Adivasis (Indigenous peoples).

The commission, relying on reports from local NGOs, highlighted that in 2023 alone, 687 incidents of violence were directed at Christians, many of whom were detained under state-level anti-conversion laws. In January, Hindu mobs attacked Christians in Chhattisgarh state, vandalizing churches and attempting to “reconvert” individuals to Hinduism. Thirty people were reportedly beaten for refusing to renounce their faith, and two Christians were detained without bail, accused of forcibly converting people from Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes.

The report also pointed to violent clashes in Manipur state in June 2023, during which over 500 churches and two synagogues were destroyed, displacing more than 70,000 people.

USCIRF further condemned the continued use of stringent laws like the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and various anti-conversion and cow slaughter laws, which it said led to “the arbitrary detention, monitoring, and targeting of religious minorities and their advocates.”

The commission also noted increasing restrictions on media and NGOs reporting on religious minorities. In February 2023, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs suspended the FCRA license of the Centre for Policy Research, an NGO that reports on social issues, including religious discrimination. Similarly, journalists and activists, such as Teesta Setalvad, were targeted for their coverage of anti-Muslim violence, including the 2002 Gujarat riots.

USCIRF also criticized the Indian government’s continued suppression of dissent in Kashmir, particularly after the 2019 abrogation of the region’s limited autonomy. The report detailed arrests and harassment of Kashmiri journalists, religious leaders, and human rights defenders, including the March 2023 arrest of journalist Irfan Mehraj for his coverage of marginalized religious communities.

Throughout 2023, Indian Muslims and their places of worship remained vulnerable to attacks. Several mosques were reportedly destroyed, often under police watch, and Hindu vigilantes targeted Muslims under the pretext of protecting cows. In July, communal violence erupted in Haryana’s Muslim-majority Nuh district during a Hindu procession where participants carried swords and chanted anti-Muslim slogans. The violence resulted in the deaths of at least seven people, including a mosque’s imam.

One prominent instigator of the violence, according to USCIRF, was Monu Manesar, a well-known cow vigilante accused of murdering two Muslim men in January. Manesar, reportedly supported by the BJP, publicly called for participation in the Hindu procession that led to the violence. On the same day, an Indian railway guard killed three Muslim men on a train to Mumbai, reportedly after asking their names to confirm their religious identity.

The commission also accused Indian authorities of engaging in “acts of transnational repression” against religious minorities abroad, citing the alleged involvement of Indian officials in the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada and an alleged plot to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the U.S. in November 2023.

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I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.

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