Five held for luring ‘rat-eating’ Indians to Christianity
Arrest of 3 Nepali nationals and 2 Indians follows news reports of attempts to convert Uttar Pradesh’s Musahar community
Updated: September 24, 2024 09:11 AM GMT
Three Nepali nationals and two Indians have been arrested by police in the northern Indian border state of Uttar Pradesh for allegedly luring a “rat-eating,” socially backward and marginalized community to embrace Christianity.
Police raided a Sunday prayer service in Bhedihari, a village on the Indian-Nepalese border and arrested Bhim Bahadur Gurung, his wife, Vishnu Gaya Devi, and Meena Kshatriya, all Nepali citizens, and local residents Mangal and Jagarnath on Sept. 22, said Newslivetv24, a Hindi language news channel.
According to news reports, Christian organizations involved in religious conversion are active in the Musahar settlement area in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous and largest state.
According to India’s national human rights commission, the Musahars, a declared scheduled caste of Dalits (former untouchables) under the Indian constitution, are living in the northern Indian states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. They are reported to be the poorest among the Dalits.
Musahar means “rat eater” in the Bhojpuri language, spoken in Bihar where they constitute 2.2 million of the state’s 104 million people.
“We came to know about it through news reports and local sources. The matter is under investigation. Hence, it is too early to say anything,” said Pastor Jiya Lal, based in Sultanpur district in Uttar Pradesh.
In February, the police arrested four Christians from the same locality, Lal added.
“However, we have no updates in that case,” the pastor told UCA News on Sept. 23.
Religious conversion is banned in Uttar Pradesh, where Christians constitute a mere 0.18 percent of its 200 million people.
Ruled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since 2017, the Hindu-majority state enacted the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act in 2020 introduced by monk-turned-politician Yogi Adithyanad’s government.
His right-wing government amended the draconian law in July this year which was passed by the state assembly in August.
Under the amended legislation anyone will be able to file a police complaint, unlike before when only conversion victims, their parents and other close blood relatives could do so.
Penalties will also get tougher with life imprisonment now a possibility in cases of forced conversions.
The law will come into force once the state governor Anandiben Patel gives her nod, which is just a formality.
“Since the [original] anti-conversion bill was passed in 2020, violence against the Christians has increased,” Uttar Pradesh-based Pastor Dinesh Kumar told UCA News on Sept. 23
Often allegations of religious conversion against Christians have proved false, he said.
The BJP and its parent paramilitary outfit the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are against missionary activities of the Indian Church among India’s Dalits and indigenous people who are currently grouped under Hinduism.
Dalits and indigenous people make up more than 25 percent of the South Asian nation’s mammoth 1.4 billion people.
Uttar Pradesh ranks second among states with regard to anti-Christian violence, according to the United Christian Forum, an ecumenical group based in New Delhi.
