Christian arrested, accused of converting Dalits in India

Police in a northern Indian state have arrested a Christian man for allegedly converting 230 families of Dalits (former untouchables).

Uttar Pradesh state's police arrested Bajrang Rawat on July 17. He was accused of converting the Dalit families to Christianity by promising to cure their ailments, said a report by Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.

Rawat has been illegally living on railway land in Barabanki, 27 kilometers from the state capital Lucknow, along with other poor families since the past year, Akhilesh Narayan Singh, an additional superintendent of police, told the media.

Copies of the Bible and other Christian books were recovered from Rawat’s house while a probe was on to ascertain the involvement of other people in helping him, Singh said.

“We have been in contact with Singh, who is investigating the case, and it is too early to comment,” Christian activist Minakshi Singh told UCA News on July 19.

“There are several unanswered questions," said Minakshi Singh, general secretary of the charity Unity in Compassion based in Uttar Pradesh.

There are questions like "why Rawat, who is from Lucknow, was staying in Barabanki on railway land?  Who are the Dalits? Are they Hindus or from other faiths?"

She also expressed doubts if "the religious conversion had taken place" or if "it was just propaganda by some group?"

All this will be clear only after a police investigation,  the Christian activist added.

Uttar Pradesh, which is India’s most populous state of 220 million people, is ruled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party and has enacted a sweeping anti-conversion law in 2020.

The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance makes conversion a non-bailable offense with a punishment of up to 10 years in jail.

The law has turned into a nightmare for Christians. 

"Christians are on the radar of Hindu hardline groups working to fulfill the political agenda of the ruling government," Minakshi Singh said.

PTI reported that the complaint against Rawat was filed by Vijay Hindustani, a hardline Hindu activist from Barabanki. 

Hindustani claimed in his complaint that Rawat lured poor people to Christianity by promising them a cure for their ailments.

He claimed to have seen many local Hindu men and women at Rawat's house.

The locals said they no longer visited Hindu temples as they have benefited from the treatment given by Rawat, he added. 

Hindustani further alleged that Rawat used to take poor people to Jalandhar in the neighboring state of Punjab for medical treatment and then convert them to Christianity.

Uttar Pradesh tops the list among India’s 28 states in prosecuting Christians.

It recorded 155 incidents of violence against Christians and their institutions in the past six months, said the New Delhi-based United Christian Forum.

Christians make up a mere 0.18 percent of Uttar Pradesh's mostly Hindu population. Dalits constitute more than 20 percent of the state's population.