How Uttarakhand’s conversion law amendments stifle personal liberties online

The stricter provisions of the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill approved by the state cabinet on August 13 increase the penalties for “forced” religious conversions up to life imprisonment and, notably, ban all “propaganda” about conversions over digital media.

This means that any online content on social media, messaging apps or websites can be treated as conversion propaganda.

It risks throwing open a Pandora’s Box for internet vigilantes who will have one more tool to crack down on anything that fits the ambiguous definition of “promotion” or “incitement” to religious conversion.

Violators face heavy fines and prison terms from three to 10 years, which could go up to 20 years or life in extreme cases.

The act was introduced in 2018 “to provide freedom of religion” by prohibiting religious conversions effected “by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage”.

The new bill “includes a broad definition of inducement – gifts, cash/goods benefits, employment, free education, promises of marriage, hurting religious sentiments, or glorifying another religion”, according to media reports. These sweeping provisions risk criminalising lawful speech, social cohesion and the online expression of secularism and beliefs.

The provisions not only echo similar anti-conversion laws in other Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states – such as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh –...

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