MUMBAI, India – A right-wing Hindu nationalist organization held a demonstration outside of a Christian church in northern India, accusing it of “unlawful” religion conversion.
Members of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) staged a demonstration outside a local church in Fatehpuri Colony in Haryana’s Rohtak city, Siasat.com reported.
The VHP is related to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu nationalist organization related to the the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling political party under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The state of Haryana is near the national capital of New Delhi and has a population of over 25 million people, which is over 87 percent Muslim. Christians are under 0.2 percent of the population, numbering less than 6,000 people.
The BJP stresses the importance of preserving and defending Hindu identity in India, an ideology sometimes described by observers as a “saffron wave.” Since the party came to power in the national government under Modi in 2014, Christians and other religious minorities in India, especially Muslims, have complained of increasing harassment and marginalization.
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Several states have adopted controversial anti-conversion laws establishing penalties including prison terms for coerced or fraudulent conversion, which critics charge is often used to intimidate religious minorities.
Christians say such laws have encouraged anti-Christian actions in the Hindu-majority nation.
This story was originally published in cruxnow.com. Read the full story here.