How anti-India USCIRF pushes and promotes Christianity in the name of religious freedom
In almost 25 years of its existence, USCIRF has had about 65 commissioners, of which the overwhelming majority exhibited hard-core Christian roots being associated as they were with some form of missionary activities or the other
Indians have a typical way of looking at the West, including its approvals, recognitions and awards. If they don’t get them — in the season of the Academy awards, let’s talk about Oscars, for instance — then they would say while making a ‘what’s-the-big-deal’ expression: “It’s time Indians should stop being enamoured by such awards!” And if they somehow get one, even if in a minor category, then all hell would break loose. The feat is celebrated in such a grand, over-the-top manner that one often wonders if it’s worth such celebrations!
The same trend is seen when Western institutions either praise (however little it may be) or revile (which is normally the case) India and the Indian state of affairs. The publication of the annual United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report is one such occasion, given its mostly slanderous utterances vis-à-vis India: The USCIRF report of 2022, for instance, clubbed democratic India with communist China, Islamist Pakistan, autocratic North Korea, fundamentalist Saudi Arabia, and terror-infested Syria and Afghanistan. Even more ironically, Iraq, Cuba, Nicaragua, Malaysia, etc, found themselves better placed than India!
This week, USCIRF was again in the news — this time for targeting India in the name of the anti-conversion laws promulgated by various state governments. As per the report, the anti-conversion laws in 12 Indian states are found to be grossly violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The writers of USCIRF remind us how Article 18 of the UDHR provides that everyone has the right to freedom of religion or belief including “freedom to change” their religious beliefs. And Article 18(1) of ICCPR provides that everyone has the “freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief” of their choice.
The report then goes on to say that “India’s state-level anti-conversion laws prohibit conversions under circumstances that go beyond coercion, using broad and vague language that can be used to target voluntary religious conversions”. Ironically, it fails to give one specific example to bolster its claims. All it does is to, for example, remind us about Section 3 of Uttar Pradesh’s Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 which provides that “no person shall convert or attempt to convert” another individual, directly or otherwise, by “misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means”. It adds, “Violations of section three are punishable by prison terms between one and five years and a fine of at least 15,000 Indian rupees ($180).” One wonders how a law that stops “force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means” can be cited to paint India and its democracy in dark hues. One witnesses the same pattern when the USCIRF report cites legislations in other states.
The report, at best, highlights two issues that can bring some sympathies, but only among those who don’t know the ground realities of conversion in India: One, 10 state-level anti-conversion laws require individuals intending to convert, individuals involved in the conversion plans of another individual, or both, to notify the government. These states are Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. And two, seven states provide that individuals accused of violating an anti-conversion law must prove their innocence. Those states are Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.
But, what the makers of this report have failed to acknowledge, deliberately or otherwise, is that the people who are mostly being converted are extremely backward, illiterate and poor. And they are face to face with missionaries backed by some of the most powerful people and institutions in the world. In this lopsided battle between the Davids and the Goliaths, the Government of India has to stand with those fighting desperately to save their tradition, culture and even religion. What the report fails to say is that these acts are reactive in nature — they are aimed at self-preservation of the old Indic way of life which is facing an existential crisis at the hands of missionaries and the Church. The irony is that the ‘liberal’ West is invoking secularism to protect the Church, against whom the very idea of secularism first germinated in Europe in the late medieval era.
A Christian, anti-India project
Let’s look at the three facts emerging out of USCIRF and its reports: One, USCIRF reports have largely been anti-India, because some of its prominent members, especially in the past years, have had pro-Pakistan tilt. Two, USCIRF has traditionally been a Christian project; it’s largely about safeguarding the interests of Christians, followed by those of Jews and Muslims. Hindus, along with other indigenous religions across the world, for that matter, don’t seem to matter, with even a single religious leader representing them finding a place in the organisation. Finally, these reports are a testimony to the fact that the West, especially its establishment, including the Deep State, still carries a deep anti-India baggage. Little has changed on ground in the past three decades which saw India make a giant stride forward from being a Soviet ally to a country that is today seen as a natural ally of the West.
Last year, the USCIRF report gained a lot of interest, especially in India. The writers of that report, as it became clear later, had deep and obvious Pakistani connections. Nadine Maenza, then a USCIRF Commissioner, had in the past worked with Rick Santorum, an American politician who, as per Foreign Affairs, wanted the United States “to continue foreign aid to Pakistan and maintain good relations with the nuclear-armed country”. Maenza was also in touch with other anti-India players and institutions — the most prominent being Shaik Ubaid and his rabidly anti-India outfit, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC). Then there was one Anurima Bhargava, again a commissioner of USCIRF till 2022, who was closely associated with the Open Society Foundation, founded by George Soros. It’s difficult these days to have any anti-India activity without a Soros connection!
This year, USCIRF seems to have avoided having people with obvious and direct Pakistan connections. But then the anti-India, anti-Hindu bias remains as strong as ever. Imagine the Modi government setting up a religious freedom body mostly comprising religious Hindus, with no space for Muslims and Christians. It would have garnered universal condemnation. But the USCIRF, unabashedly and unapologetically, remains a Christian project. Of the nine commissioners currently at work, at least five of them have deep Christian roots, one each has a Muslim and a Jewish link respectively, while one is a rights activist fighting for the Uyghur cause, and the last one is a geostrategic expert with strong conservative credentials.
In almost 25 years of its existence, USCIRF has had about 65 commissioners, of which the overwhelming majority exhibited hard-core Christian roots being associated as they were with some form of missionary activities or the other. Of the remaining commissioners, most of them were Muslims (at least 10 as per my tentative list), followed by Jews, Buddhists, and a Bahai. In contrast, Hindus, despite being almost a sixth of the world population, never found genuine representation. USCIRF could get only two Hindu commissioners — Preeta Bansal and Anurima Bhargava — and they too had nothing but utter disdain for Hinduism.
How can an institution that prepares a religious freedom report work without a credible Hindu presence? Why have so many Christians with missionary past given such a coveted position in USCIRF? Is it therefore any surprise that the report takes the side of the Church and the missionaries even when there are countless examples of wrongful means of conversion being pursued and practised, especially in the tribal regions of India?
This brings us to the Western hypocrisy on secularism. While the West pushes for an absolute and non-compromising form of secularism in the non-Western world, especially India, it never denies its own Christian roots. The US President, for instance, upholds the Christian characteristics of America when he takes an oath on the Bible. Likewise, the UK has its own Church — the Church of England — whose bishops actually sit in the House of Lords, a position no other religion enjoys in that country. Parliamentary proceedings, invariably and unapologetically, begin with a Christian prayer. And the British monarch proudly holds the title of being the ‘Defender of the Faith’. Let’s for a second imagine the uproar if a Prime Minister in India takes oath on the Bhagavad Gita or if Hindu monks find an officially designated place in a house of Parliament!
Last but not least, the West patronises and promotes institutions like USCIRF to target India because this way, it believes, the latter can be kept on some sort of tight leash. The West is no doubt concerned about China’s rise, but it is equally uneasy with India’s growth. It is this discomfort for new India that is manifest in the articles/reports of the Western mainstream media, the academia, the entrenched bureaucracy, and even institutions like USCIRF. In the long term, India will have to stop looking Westward and build its own institutions to gauge global parameters. And in the short term, especially till we remain enamoured by the West, let’s call the hoax each time USCIRF and its ilk come up with an India report.
Seriously ? They run the state dept. agenda. 
