The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released the following report yesterday, the “India Country Update,” which highlights how, during 2024, individuals were killed, beaten, and assaulted by vigilante groups in the country of India. Religious leaders were arrested arbitrarily, houses and places of worship were demolished. These incidents constitute particularly serious violations of religious freedom.
It describes the use of disinformation and misinformation, including hate speech, by government officials to incite violent attacks against religious minorities and their places of worship. These include changes in India’s legal framework to target and disenfranchise religious minorities, including the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), several state-level anti-conversion, cow slaughter laws. Describes the implementation.
In its 2024 annual report, the USCIRF recommended that the US Department of State designate India as a “country of particular concern” or CPC, or as engaging in systematic, ongoing and serious violations of religious freedom. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the US Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress to prevent religious persecution and promote freedom of religion or belief.
