Grad - Coleman

Abstract

This paper examines the debate over the passage, institutionalization and increasing popularity of anti-conversion legislation in India—policies designed to regulate, if not prevent, religious conversions. These state-sponsored bills (ironically entitled ‘Freedom of Religion’ acts) are illustrative of the ongoing Hindu nationalist agenda to problematize the question of ‘rational’ behavior and proper citizenship vis-à-vis religious choice and identity. The aim of the legislation is to put the spiritual sincerity of conversions (specifically to Christianity and Islam) in doubt, and highlights the extent to which religious freedom remains demographically threatening to ‘Hindu’ upper caste hegemony, and is conceptualized as hostile to Indian national solidarity as a whole. The regulation of conversion, then, is an attempt to manage ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ shifts in religious identity, whereas the targets of ‘illegitimacy’ and ‘irrationality’ in these bills are women, children, lower caste Hindus, scheduled tribes and untouchables.

I explore the manner in which ‘Freedom of Religion’ legislation has shaped the meaning and content of the Indian secular project, focusing on the ways in which the bills challenge the understanding of ‘freedom of religion’ as ‘freedom of conscience’, and the role gender concerns have played in these debates. Drawing broadly on the theoretical work of Gauri Viswanathan, Talal Asad, Robert Baird and scholarship linking the role of gender to the construction of nationalism and secularism in modern India, I evaluate recent policies and legal decision shaping the politics of conversion. I aim to provide a more thorough and up-to-date understanding of the contest over Indian secular thought in law and policy, proposing that while Indian secularism continues to be an evolving and dynamic process of negotiation and balance, the increasing prominence of ‘Freedom of Religion’ legislation will be a dramatic pivot point influencing the future limitations and possibilities of Indian democratic consolidation.