In May 2023, violent clashes between two communities erupted in India’s Manipur state, leaving entire villages burned and displacing tens of thousands. The ongoing conflict is between the state’s majority Hindu Meitei community and the Christian Kuki population and has seen the direct targeting of religious symbols and places of worship and refuge. More than 250 churches of different denominations have been burned or damaged across the state.

Religious freedom in India has declined in recent years, marked by the promotion and enforcement of discriminatory laws and practices that negatively impact the country’s minority Muslim, Christian, Sikh, and Adivasis populations. In its 2023 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the State Department designate India as a Country of Particular Concern for systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.

USCIRF Policy Analyst Sema Hasan joins Supervisory Policy Advisor Jamie Staley to discuss the current conflict in Manipur and religious freedom conditions in India.

Read USCIRF’s 2023 Annual Report Chapter on India

USCIRF Urges President Biden to Raise Religious Freedom Concerns During India State Visit

WASHINGTON, DC –The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urges President Joseph R. Biden to address concerning issues of religious freedom and other related human rights in India during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming state visit. For the past several years, the Indian government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has supported discriminatory national and state-level policies that severely hinder and restrict the religious freedom of minority groups.

“With India’s upcoming state visit, the Biden administration has a unique opportunity to explicitly incorporate religious freedom concerns into the two countries’ bilateral relationship,” said USCIRF Commissioner David Curry. “It is vital the U.S. government acknowledge the Indian government’s perpetration and toleration of particularly severe violations of religious freedom against its own population and urge the government to uphold its human rights obligations.”

Support for religious organizations and human rights groups targeted for their advocacy of religious freedom is key to addressing ongoing religious freedom violations. Given discriminatory policies such as hijab bans, anti-conversion laws, and the Citizenship Amendment Act, it is critical that India’s government advance human rights for all religious communities in India and promote religious freedom, dignity, and interfaith dialogue.

“It is deeply concerning that the Indian government continues to implement policies that negatively impact Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindu Dalit communities,” said USCIRF Commissioner Stephen Schneck. “During this state visit, we ask President Biden to raise religious freedom with Prime Minister Modi directly, including by urging him to amend or repeal polices that target and repress religious minorities.”

USCIRF has recommended the U.S. Department of State designate India as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, each year since 2020, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, and again most recently in its 2023 Annual Report. USCIRF also published an issue update on India’s state-level anti-conversion laws, providing further context on India’s use of these laws to target religious minorities.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze and report on threats to religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion or belief. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected].