Context: The recently released USCIRF annual report has placed India on its list of “Countries of Particular Concern (CPC)” which highlights a Eurocentric bias.
Relevance of the Topic: Mains: Religious Freedom.
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Controversial Annual Report:
- USCIRF's annual report recently placed India on its list of “Countries of Particular Concern (CPC)”.
- The commission was created under the International Religious Freedom Act passed by US Congress in 1998. It monitors, analyses,and reports on violations of religious freedom worldwide.
- India strongly rejected this, calling the body an “entity of concern” and refusing to acknowledge its findings.
Freedom of Religion in India
- Freedom of Religion is a Fundamental Right enshrined in Articles 25 to 28 of the Indian Constitution.
- Articles 25 to 30 of the Indian Constitution offer various freedoms to religions including the freedom of conscience, the right to freely profess, practice, and propagate, and the freedom to manage their affairs without state intervention.
- India ensures religious freedom while allowing the state to impose reasonable restrictions to protect public order, health, and morality.
- Minority religions enjoy positive discrimination by way of special rights to run educational and cultural institutions. The same rights are not available to the majority Hindu religion.
- India is the only country where people of all religions, including several Christian denominations and Muslim sects, coexist in harmony.
- Despite its vast diversity and historical religious strife, India has largely succeeded in maintaining religious harmony, showcasing its strong commitment to religious freedom.
Freedom of Religion in India
- Article 25: Grants all individuals the right to freely profess, practice, and propagate their religion, subject to public order, morality, and health.
- However forced religious conversions are not allowed.
- In a landmark judgment in Rev. Stainislaus vs State of Madhya Pradesh (1977), the Supreme Court held that the right to “propagate” does not include the right to proselytise, and hence there is no fundamental right to convert another person.
- Article 26: Allows every religious group to establish and manage religious institutions, own property, and handle religious affairs independently.
- Article 27: No person can be forced to pay taxes that are used specifically for the promotion of any religion.
- Article 28: Prohibits religious teaching in state-funded educational institutions, but allows it in privately managed or trust-based institutions, with certain conditions.
- Article 29: Protects the right of any group with a distinct language, script, or culture to conserve it; also prohibits discrimination in state-funded educational institutions.
- Article 30: Gives religious and linguistic minorities the right to establish and administer their own educational institutions, with protection from state discrimination in aid.
India’s Response:
- Despite India's constitutional commitment to religious freedom, it continues to face criticism from USCIRF due to its Eurocentric lens and reliance on allegedly biased scholars, ignoring India’s unique cultural and societal context.
- Global bodies like USCIRF need to reassess their approach to religious freedom by moving beyond Eurocentric frameworks and embracing culturally rooted models like the concept of Integral Humanism. USCIRF must adopt a more nuanced, locally sensitive perspective when evaluating religious freedom in a pluralistic democracy like India.
Integral Humanism:
- Inspired by thinkers like Jacques Maritain and Deendayal Upadhyaya. It emphasises rising above religious divisions to ensure the material, ethical, moral, and spiritual well-being of all, rooted in India’s pluralistic and civilisational ethos.