Last month, the Assam Police detained and deported 10 foreign nationals.
On October 26, the police held three Swedish nationals in Namrup, a town with a number of tea gardens in Upper Assam’s Dibrugarh district. The police claimed they had violated their visa norms by addressing a religious meeting. Special Director General of Police (Law and Order) GP Singh also said the police heard “Christian missionaries were sending people to tea gardens and tribal areas” so they “alerted intelligence” and detained the Swedish visitors.
Then on October 28, the Assam Police detained seven Germans for “indulging in missionary activities in violation of visa norms”. Singh said the Germans did not have the M1 or missionary visa that permits religious activities. All 10 foreign visitors were fined 500 dollars before being deported.
While the official charges involved visa violations, the police are also investigating whether they intended to convert people to Christianity.
The police also arrested two people for inviting the Germans to religious events in Assam– 35- year-old Mukut Bodra, an Adivasi tourist guide from Jharkhand, and 55-year-old Bornabas Terang, a church leader, from the Dolamara area of Karbi Anglong district. According to the police officials, they aimed to conduct “mass conversions” in the state.
They have been charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including Section 153A (promoting enmity between groups on the basis of religion), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 295A (outraging religious feelings).
Assam does not have an anti-conversion law, unlike several other Indian states that criminalise what they describe as forced religious conversions.
Hindu rightwing groups have used the incidents to push for such a law. According to Balen Baishya, general secretary of the Biswa Hindu Mahasangha Assam, this was not the first time foreigners had arrived in Assam to convert people to Christianity. They were caught this time, Baishya claimed, because of the “strictness” of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government.
Tea and faith
Christian organisations in Assam point to the fact that Christianity arrived in the state in the 1600s. But it was from the 19th century that missionaries became a more established presence in the region.
As the colonial administration established tea gardens, it encouraged missionaries to spread the faith among local communities. Christians in Assam set up schools and spread literacy in the region.
This story was originally published in scroll.in . Read the full story here