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India’s Uttar Pradesh criminalises ‘forced’ religious conversions by marriage

NepalKhoj Report 27 Nov, 2020

Agency: India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party approved a decree in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday laying out prison terms for anyone compelling others to convert their faith or luring them into these conversions through marriage.

According to Reuters, the move follows a campaign by hardline Hindu groups against some interfaith marriages that they describe as “love jihad”. They believe that Muslim men engage in a conspiracy to turn Hindu women away from their religion by seducing them.

Critics said the unlawful conversion order approved by the cabinet of Uttar Pradesh, run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, was aimed at further alienating India’s 170 million Muslims by painting them as aggressors plotting to weaken Hindus.

Little data exists to show how many interfaith marriages took place in the state, the first in the country to bring in such legislation.

Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Siddharth Nath Singh said prison terms of up to five years were necessary to stop unlawful conversions and provide justice to women who have suffered from them.

Hindus makes up 80 percent of India’s 1.3 billion population.

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