NEW DELHI: As the world anticipates the total solar eclipse sweeping over North America on April 8, 2024, various religious traditions reflect on the celestial event's significance, ranging from moments of dread to awe. Historically, solar eclipses have evoked profound reactions across different faiths, seen as messages from the divine or significant spiritual occurrences. Christianity's end times propheciesSome Christian interpretations align solar eclipses with biblical prophecies of the end times and Christ's return. The darkness mentioned in the Gospels during Jesus's crucifixion has been likened to a solar eclipse, symbolizing a profound spiritual transition. Despite scientific explanations that a three-hour darkness could not result from an eclipse, the metaphorical significance remains strong within some Christian circles. Islam's call to prayerFor Muslims, a solar eclipse is a call to prayer, a reminder of the might of Allah, and a time to dispel superstitions associated with astronomical events. The "kusuf" prayer, performed during solar eclipses, is an occasion for introspection and reaffirming one's devotion to God, aligning with the teachings of Prophet Mohammad. Hinduism's legend of immortal conflictHindu mythology explains eclipses through tales of gods and demons, with the sun and moon being swallowed by the demon Rahu as revenge. Eclipses are generally seen as ominous, prompting observant Hindus to fast, pray, and engage in purification rituals to ward off evil influences during these times. Judaism's interpretation as ominous signsThe Talmud does not prescribe blessings for eclipses but views them as ill omens for the world. Modern interpretations within Judaism encourage prayer and introspection during eclipses, suggesting that these natural phenomena serve as reminders of the impact of human actions on divine light. Buddhism's auspicious opportunity for spiritual practiceIn Tibetan Buddhism, solar eclipses are considered auspicious times when the energy of actions, both positive and negative, is magnified. The late Lama Zopa Rinpoche emphasized the importance of engaging in spiritual practices like chanting mantras and sutras during these events, with the belief that merits are significantly multiplied. Navajo Nation's sacred observanceAs per an Axios report, for the Navajo people, a solar eclipse represents a time when the sun undergoes death and rebirth, offering a moment to realign with the natural laws of the universe. "It's believed that the sun is dead, but it's going to rejuvenate, rebirth itself in the cycle so that we're able to live in harmony with the natural laws again," explains Henry Fowler, a math educator at Navajo Technical University. To honor this cosmic order, Navajos engage in a period of quiet meditation, abstaining from eating, drinking, sleeping, and other physical activities during the eclipse. (With inputs from agencies)

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Awe and dread: Why some will stay inside, won't watch total solar eclipse - The Times of India

New Delhi: India welcomed the Taliban regimes recent move to restore property rights to Afghan Hindus and Sikhs calling it a positive development.The Taliban regime has reportedly set up a commission to ensure return to owners the rights of private land which were seized by warlords during the tenure of the previous dispensation in Kabul.We have seen reports on this issue. If the Taliban administration has decided to restore property rights to their citizens belonging to Afghan Hindu and Sikh community, we see this as a positive development, said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. He was responding to a question at a media briefing.Taliban authorities were reported to be working to restore private land to Hindu and Sikh minorities, reclaiming these properties from those linked to the previous West-backed regime. The Taliban initiative is seen as a significant step toward redressing the injustices faced by religious minorities in the country, who have long been displaced and marginalised, according to Taliban authorities. tnn

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'Positive development': MEA on Taliban 'allegedly' restoring property rights of Hindus and Sikhs

Randhir Jaiswal appreciated the Taliban's positive step of restoring property rights for Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan. India expressed concerns over escalating tensions in West Asia and condemned the attack on the Iranian embassy in Syria.

India hails Afghanistan's move to restore property rights of Hindus, Sikhs

India supports Taliban's effort to restore property rights of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs through a commission. This positive step aims to rectify injustices faced by minorities in Kabul.

India outreach: Afghanistan to return land to Hindus, Sikhs

Taliban authorities restore private land to Hindu and Sikh minorities in Afghanistan, addressing injustices. Indian officials positively acknowledge the return of Narender Singh Khalsa, a Member of Parliament, from Canada, representing the religious communities.

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India hails Af move to restore property rights of Hindus, Sikhs - The Times of India

From the middle of April until early June, staggered over the course of several weeks, the worlds biggest election will take place. More than 960 million Indiansout of a population of 1.4 billionare eligible to vote in parliamentary elections that polls strongly suggest will return Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power for a third consecutive term.

Modi is probably the worlds most popular leader. According to a recent Morning Consult poll, 78 percent of Indians approve of his leadership. (The next three highest-ranked leaders, from Mexico, Argentina, and Switzerland, generate approval ratings of 63, 62, and 56 percent, respectively.) It is not hard to see why Modi is admired. He is a charismatic leader, a masterful orator in Hindi, and widely perceived as hard-working and committed to the countrys success. He is regarded as unlikely to turn to nepotism or corruption, often attributed to the fact that he is a 73-year-old man without a partner or children. Modi has few genuine competitors. His power within his party is absolute, and his opponents are fractured, weak, and dynastica quality usually equated with graft. Whether it is through maximizing his opportunity to host the G-20 or through his high-profile visits abroad, Modi has expanded Indias presence on the world stage and, with it, his own popularity. New Delhi is also becoming more assertive in its foreign policy, prioritizing self-interest over ideology and moralityanother choice that is not without considerable domestic appeal.

Modis success can confuse his detractors. After all, he has increasingly authoritarian tendencies: Modi only rarely attends press conferences, has stopped sitting down for interviews with the few remaining journalists who would ask him difficult questions, and has largely sidestepped parliamentary debate. He has centralized power and built a cult of personality while weakening Indias system of federalism. Under his leadership, the countrys Hindu majority has become dominant. This salience of one religion can have ugly impacts, harming minority groups and calling into question the countrys commitment to secularism. Key pillars of democracy, such as a free press and an independent judiciary, have been eroded.

Yet Modi winsdemocratically. The political scientist Sunil Khilnani argued in his 1997 book, The Idea of India, that it was democracy, rather than culture or religion, that shaped what was then a 50-year-old country. The primary embodiment of this idea, according to Khilnani, was Indias first prime minister, the anglicized, University of Cambridge-educated Jawaharlal Nehru, who went by the nickname Joe into his 20s. Nehru believed in a vision of a liberal, secular country that would serve as a contrast to Pakistan, which was formed explicitly as a Muslim homeland. Modi is, in many ways, Nehrus opposite. Born into a lower-caste, lower-middle-class family, the current prime ministers formative education came from years of traveling around the country as a Hindu community organizer, sleeping in ordinary peoples homes and building an understanding of their collective frustrations and aspirations. Modis idea of India, while premised on electoral democracy and welfarism, is substantially different from Nehrus. It centers culture and religion in the states affairs; it defines nationhood through Hinduism; and it believes a powerful chief executive is preferable to a liberal one, even if that means the curtailment of individual rights and civil liberties. This alternative visiona form of illiberal democracyis an increasingly winning proposition for Modi and his BJP.

Hindus represent 80 percent of Indias population. The BJP courts this mega-majority by making them feel proud of their religion and culture. Sometimes, it aids this project by stirring up resentment of the countrys 200 million Muslims, who form 14 percent of the population. The BJP also attempts to further a version of history that interprets Hindus as victimized by successive hordes of invaders. Hindus hardly comprise a monolith, divided as they are by caste and language, but the BJP requires only half their support to win national elections. In 2014, it secured 31 percent of the national vote to gain a majority of seats in Parliamentthe first time in three decades a single party had done so. It did even better in 2019, with 37 percent of the vote.

At least some part of the BJPs success can be attributed to Modis name recognition and tireless performances on the campaign trail. But focusing too much on one man can be a distraction from understanding Indias trajectory. Even though Modi has acquired a greater concentration of power than any Indian leader in a generation, his core religious agenda has long been telegraphed by his party, as well as by its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu social society and paramilitary group that counts more than 5 million members. While Modi has been the primary face of the BJP since 2014, the party itself has existed in its current form since 1980. (The RSS, to which Modi traces his true ideological roots, is even older. It will mark its 100th anniversary next year.) The BJPs visionits idea of Indiais hardly new or hidden. It is clearly described in its election manifestos and, combined with Modis salesmanship, is increasingly successful at the ballot box.

Put another way, while Indias current political moment has much to do with supplyin the form of a once-in-a-generation leader and few convincing alternativesit may also have something to do with shifting demand. The success of the BJPs political project reveals a clearer picture of what India is becoming. Nearly half the countrys population is under the age of 25. Many of these young Indians are looking to assert a new cultural and social vision of nationhood. An illiberal, Hindi-dominated, and Hindu-first nation is emerging, and it is challengingeven eclipsingother ideas of India, including Nehrus. This has profound impacts for both domestic and foreign policy. The sooner Indias would-be partners and rivals realize this, the better they will be able to manage New Delhis growing global clout. The Nehruvian idea of India is dead, said Vinay Sitapati, the author of India Before Modi. Something is definitely lost. But the question is whether that idea was alien to India in the first place.

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Indians bristle at reports of how their country has fallen in recent years on key markers of the health of its civil society. It is nonetheless worth contending with those assessments. According to Reporters Without Borders, India ranked 161st out of 180 countries for press freedom in 2023, down from 80th out of 139 countries in 2002. Freedom House, which measures democracy around the world, marked India as only partly free in its 2024 report, with Indian-administered Kashmir receiving a not free designation. Only a handful of countries and territories, such as Russia and Hong Kong, experienced a greater decline in freedom over the last decade than India. The World Economic Forums 2023 Global Gender Gap Index ranks India 127th out of 146 countries. The World Justice Project ranks India 79th out of 142 countries for adherence to the rule of law, down from 59th in 2015. As one legal scholar wrote in Scroll.in, the judiciary has placed its enormous arsenal at the governments disposal in pursuit of its radical majoritarian agenda. Consider, as well, access to the web: India has administered more internet shutdowns than any country in the last decade, even more than Iran and Myanmar.

The social indicator that worries observers of India the most is religious freedom. Troubles between Hindus and Muslims are not new. But in its decade in power, Modis BJP has been remarkably successful in furthering its Hindu-first agenda through legislation. It has done so by revoking the semi-autonomous status of majority-Muslim Kashmir in 2019 and later that yearan election yearpassing an immigration law that fast-tracked citizenship for non-Muslims from three neighboring countries, each of which has a large Muslim majority. (The law, which makes it more difficult for Indian Muslims to prove their citizenship, was implemented in March. The timing of this announcement seemed to highlight its electoral benefits.)

Perhaps more damaging than these legislative maneuvers has been the Modi administrations silence, and often its dog whistles of encouragement, amid an increasingly menacing climate for Indian Muslims. While Nehrus emphasis on secularism once imposed implicit rules in the public sphere, Hindus can now question Muslims loyalty to India with relative impunity. Hindu supremacy has become the norm; critics are branded anti-national. This dominance culminated on Jan. 22, when Modi consecrated a giant temple to the Hindu god Ram in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya. The temple, which cost $250 million to build, was constructed on the site of a mosque that was demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992. When that happened three decades ago, top BJP leaders recoiled from the violence they had unleashed. Today, that embarrassment has morphed into an expression of national pride. It is the beginning of a new era, said Modi, adorned in a Hindu priests garb at the temples opening, in front of an audience of top Bollywood stars and the countrys business elite.

Modis vision of what it means to be Indian is at least partly borne out in public opinion. When the Pew Research Center conducted a major survey of religion in India between late 2019 and early 2020, it found that 64 percent of Hindus believed being Hindu was very important to being truly Indian, while 59 percent said speaking Hindi was similarly foundational in defining Indianness; 84 percent considered religion to be very important in their lives; and 59 percent prayed daily. The BJPs dominance is primarily demand-driven, said Sitapati, who also teaches law and politics at Shiv Nadar University Chennai. Progressives are in denial about this.

Sitapati has critics on the left who claim his scholarship underplays the militant roots of the BJP and RSS, helping to rehabilitate their image. But on the question of demand and supply: The BJPs dominance is limited to the countrys north, where most people speak Hindi. In the wealthier south, where tech firms are flourishing, literacy rates are higher, and most people speak languages such as Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam, the BJP is decidedly less popular. Southern leaders harbor a growing resentment that their taxes are subsidizing the Hindi Belt in the north. This geographic cleavage could come to a head in 2026, when a national process of redistricting is expected to take place. Opposition leaders fear the BJP could redraw parliamentary constituencies to its advantage. If the BJP succeeds, it could continue winning at the polls long beyond Modis time.

Despite all this, Sitapati contends that the country remains democratic: Political participation is higher than ever. Elections are free and fair. The BJP regularly loses state elections. If your definition of democracy is focused on the sanctity of elections and the substance of policies, then democracy is thriving. In Indian society, he said, culture is not centered on liberalism and individual rights; Modis rise must be viewed within that context.

Liberal Indians who might disagree are vanishing from the public eye. One clear exception is the Booker Prize-winning novelist Arundhati Roy. Speaking in Lausanne, Switzerland, last September, she described an India descending into fascism. The ruling BJPs message of Hindu supremacism has relentlessly been disseminated to a population of 1.4 billion people, Roy said. Consequently, elections are a season of murder, lynching, and dog-whistling. It is no longer just our leaders we must fear but a whole section of the population.

Is the mobilization of more than a billion Hindus a form of tyranny of the majority? Not quite, says Pratap Bhanu Mehta, an Indian political scientist who teaches at Princeton University. Hindu nationalists will say that theirs is a classic nation-building project, he said, underscoring how independent India is still a young country. Populism, too, is an unsatisfying term for describing Modis politics. Even though he plays up his modest background, he is hardly anti-elitist and in fact frequently courts top Indian and global business leaders to invest in the country. Sometimes, they directly finance Modis success: A 2017 provision for electoral bonds brought in more than $600 million in anonymous donations to the BJP. The Supreme Court scrapped the scheme in March, calling it unconstitutional, but the ruling is likely too late to have prevented the influence of big donors in this years election.

Mukul Kesavan, a historian based in New Delhi, argues that it would be more accurate to describe the BJPs agenda as majoritarianism. Majoritarianism just needs a minority to mobilize againsta hatred of the internal other, he said. India is at the vanguard of this. There is no one else doing what we are doing. I am continually astonished that the West doesnt see this.

What the West also doesnt always see is that Modi is substantially different from strongmen such as Donald Trump in the United States. While Trump propagated an ideology that eclipsed that of the Republican Party, Modi is fulfilling the RSSs century-old movement to equate Indianness more closely with Hinduism. Surveys and elections both reveal this movements time has come.

People arent blinkered. Theyre willing to accept trade-offs, said Mehta, explaining how growing numbers of Indians have accepted the BJPs premise of a Hindu state, even if there are elements of that project that make them uncomfortable. They dont think the majoritarian agenda presents a deal-breaker. For now, at least. A key question is what happens when majoritarianism provokes something that challenges public acceptance of this trade-off. The greatest risk here lies in a potential surge of communal violence, the likes of which have pockmarked Indian history. In 2002, for example, 58 Hindu pilgrims were killed in Godhra, in the western state of Gujarat, after a train that was returning from Ayodhya caught fire. Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, declared the incident an act of terrorism. After rumors circulated that Muslims were responsible for the fire, a mob embarked on three days of violence in the state, killing more than a thousand people. An overwhelming majority of the dead were Muslim. Modi has never been convicted of any involvement, but the tragedy has followed him in ways both damaging and to his advantage. Liberal Indians were horrified that he didnt do more to stop the violence, but the message for a substantial number of Hindus was that he would stop at nothing to protect them.

Twenty-two years later, Modi is a mainstream leader catering to a national constituency that is much more diverse than that of Gujarat. While the riots once loomed large in his biography, Indians now see them as just one part of a complicated career in the public eye. What is unknown is how they might react to another mass outbreak of communal violence and whether civil society retains the muscle to rein in the worst excesses of its people. Optimists will point out that India has been through tough moments and emerged stronger. When Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in 1975, giving her the license to rule by decree, voters kicked her out of power the first chance they got. Modi, however, has a stronger grip on the countryand he continues to expand his powers while winning at the ballot box.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets a crowd in Varanasi, India, on March 4, 2022.Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images

Just as citizens cant subsist purely on the ideals of secularism and liberalism, its the same with nationalism and majoritarianism. In the end, the state must deliver. Here, Modis record is mixed. Modi sees Japan as a modelmodern in an industrial sense without being Western in a cultural sense, Sitapati said. He has delivered on an ideological project that is Hindu revivalism mixed with industrialization.

India is undertaking a vast national project of state-building under Modi. Since 2014, spending on transport has more than tripled as a share of GDP. India is currently building more than 6,000 miles of highways a year and has doubled the length of its rural road network since 2014. In 2022, capitalizing on a red-hot aviation market, New Delhi privatized its creaky national carrier, Air India. India has twice as many airports today than it did a decade ago, with domestic passengers more than doubling in quantity to top 200 million. Its middle classes are spending more money: Average monthly per capita consumption expenditure in urban areas rose by 146 percent in the last decade. Meanwhile, India is whittling down its infamous bureaucratic hurdles to become an easier place for industry. According to the World Banks annual Doing Business report, India rose from a rank of 134th in 2014 to 63rd in 2020. Investors seem bullish. The countrys main stock index, the BSE Sensex, has increased in value by 250 percent in the last decade.

Strongmen are usually more popular among men than women. It is a strange paradox, then, that the BJP won a record number of votes by women in the 2019 national election and is projected to do so again in 2024, as voter participation, and voting by women, continues to climb. Modi has targeted female voters through the canny deployment of services that make domestic life easier. Rural access to piped water, for example, has climbed to more than 75 percent from just 16.8 percent in 2019. Modi declared India free of open defecation in 2019 after a campaign to build more than 110 million toilets. And according to the International Energy Agency, 45 percent of Indias electricity transmission lines have been installed in the last decade.

The most transformative force in the country is the ongoing proliferation of the internet, as I wrote in my 2018 book, India Connected. Just as the invention of the car more than a century ago shaped modern America, with the corresponding building out of the interstate system and suburbia, cheap smartphones have enabled Indians to partake in a burgeoning digital ecosystem. Though it didnt have much to do with the smartphone and internet boom, the government has capitalized on it. Indias Unified Payments Interface, a government-run instant payment system, now accounts for three-fourths of all non-cash retail transactions in the country. With the help of digital banking and a new national biometric identification system, New Delhi has been able to sidestep corruption by directly transferring subsidies to citizens, saving billions of dollars in wastage.

The private sector has been a willing participant in Indias new digital and physical economy. But it has also been strangely leery of investing more, as two leading economists describe in this issue (Page 42). Businesses remain concerned that Modi has a cabal of preferred partners in his plans for industrializationfor example, he is seen as too cozy with the countrys two richest men, Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, both of whom hail from his native state of Gujarat. Fears abound that New Delhis history of retroactive taxation and protectionism could blow up the best laid corporate plans.

Because he has corralled great power, when Modi missteps, the consequences tend to be enormous. In 2016, he suddenly announced a process of demonetization, recalling high-value notes of currency as legal tender. While the move attempted to reduce corruption by outing people with large amounts of untaxed income, it was in fact a stunt that reduced Indias growth by nearly 2 percentage points. Similarly, panicked by the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, Modi announced a sudden national lockdown, leading to millions of migrant workers racing homeand likely spreading the virus. A year later, New Delhi largely stood by when the delta variant of COVID-19 surged through the country, killing untold thousands of Indians. No amount of nationalism or pride could cover up for the fact that, on that occasion, the state had let its people down.

Now, with a population hungry for good news, India is looking to take advantage of the best foreign-policy deals. There are plenty to be struck in a shifting global order. The United States power is in relative decline, Chinas has risen, and a range of so-called middle powers are looking to benchmark their status. Modi is projecting an image of a more powerful, muscular, prideful nationand Indians are in thrall to the self-portrait.

Modi is seen through a video camera as he speaks at the final session of the G-20 summit in New Delhi on Sept. 10, 2023.Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

One window into Indias newfound status on the world stage came last September, after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the stunning announcement that Ottawa was investigating credible allegations that Indian government agents had orchestrated the murder of a Sikh community leader in British Columbia. New Delhi flatly denied his accusations, calling them absurd. The person who was killed, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, had sought to establish a nation called Khalistan, carved out of territory in his native Punjab, a state in northwestern India. In 2020, New Delhi declared Nijjar a terrorist.

A Canadian leader publicly accusing India of a murder on Canadian soil could have been a major embarrassment for Modi. Instead, the incident galvanized his supporters. The national mood seemed to agree with the government line that New Delhi didnt do it but with an important subtext: If it did, it did the right thing.

Its this idea that We have arrived. Now we can talk on equal terms to the white man, Sitapati said. Its not just revisionism to examine how colonial powers masterminded the plunder of Indias land and resources; even the word loot is stolen from Hindi, as the writer and parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor has pointed out. The BJPs project of nation-building attempts to reinstill a sense of self-pride, often by painting Hindus as the victims of centuries of wrongs but who have now awoken to claim their true status. This is why the Jan. 22 opening of the Ram temple took on epic significance, reviving among Hindus a sense that they were rightfully claiming the primacy they once enjoyed.

The flashier the stage, the better. For much of 2023, India flaunted its hosting of the G-20, a rotating presidency that most other countries see as perfunctory. For Modi, it became a marketing machine, with giant billboards advertising New Delhis pride in playing host (always alongside a portrait of the prime minister). When the summit began in September, TV channels dutifully carried key parts live, showing Modi welcoming a series of top world leaders.

Weeks earlier, Indians united around another celebratory moment. The country landed two robots on the moon, making it only the fourth country to do so and the first to reach the moons southern polar region. As TV channels ran a live broadcast of the landing, Modi beamed into mission control at the key moment of touchdown, his face on a split screen with the landing. The self-promotion can seem garish, but it feeds into a sense of collective accomplishment and national identity.

Also popular is New Delhis stance on Moscow, thumbing its nose at Western countries seeking to sanction Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. While Russia exported less than 1 percent of its crude to India before 2022, it now sends more than half of its supplies there. China and India are together purchasing 80 percent of Russias seaborne oil exportsand they do so at below-market rates because of a price cap imposed by the West. There is little consideration for morality, in part because Indians, like many in the global south, now widely perceive the West as applying double standards to world affairs. As a result, theres no moral benchmark. For India, an advantageous oil deal is just that: good economics and smart politics. (India and Russia also share a historic friendship, which both sides are keen to continue.)

New Delhis growing foreign-policy assertiveness stems from a knowledge that it is increasingly needed by other countries. Allies seem aware of this new dynamic. For the United States, even if India doesnt come to its aid in a potential tussle with China in the Taiwan Strait, merely preventing New Delhi from growing closer to Beijing represents a geopolitical win that papers over other disagreements. For other countries, access to Indias growing market is paramount. Despite the BJPs hostility to Muslims, Modi receives a red-carpet welcome when he visits countries in the Persian Gulf.

Indias embrace of its strategic interestsand its confidence in articulating that choiceis of a piece with broader changes in how the country views itself. Modi and his BJP have succeeded in furthering an idea of India that makes a virtue of sacrificing Western liberalism for a homegrown sense of self-interest. By appealing to young peoples economic aspirations and their desire for identity in an increasingly interconnected world, the BJP has found room to advance a religious and cultural agenda that would have been unimaginable a generation ago. This vision cannot be purely top-down; the will of a nation evolves over time. In the future, there will likely be further contests among other ideas of India. But if Modis BJP continues to win at the ballot box, history may show that the countrys liberal experiment wasnt just interruptedit may have been an aberration.

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The New Idea of India: Why Narendra Modi Is the Front-Runner in the World's Biggest Election - Foreign Policy

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government in a notification has held that Buddhism must be treated as a "separate religion" and Hindus seeking to convert to Buddhism, Jainism, or Sikhism will have to take prior permission from the district magistrates, as prescribed under Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, 2003.

The notification titled "Regarding permission of conversion from Hinduism to Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism", says that it has come to notice of the government that while granting permission of conversion to Buddhism from Hinduism rules were not being followed.

"Further, in many instances the applicants and autonomous institutions are making representations that for converting to Buddhism from Hinduism prior permission is not required," the notification cites this as one of the reasons behind the clarification.

The notification in Gujarati mentions that in cases where applications are filed for prior approval, concerned offices are disposing of them citing Article 25 (2) of the Constitution that Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism are included in Hinduism and therefore, prior permission for such conversion are not required.

It warns that "in sensitive cases such as religious conversion" replying without understanding suitable provisions of law can result in litigations. Referring to Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, 2003, the notification says that "Buddhism will have to be considered a separate religion."

Citing aforementioned reasons, the notification has stated that under Gujarat Freedom of Religious Act, "Buddhism will be considered as a separate religion." It further says that under section 5 (1) and 5 (2) of the act, Hindus converting to Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism will have to take prior permission in the prescribed format.

"The clause related to prior permission was already there in the act (Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act) but it was not followed. The district collectors were interpreting it differently and that way the notification is a clarification that one has to seek permission for conversion. This is what we have been saying all along that Buddhism is a separate religion," said Milind Priyadarshi, ex-president of Gujarat Buddhist Academy, an organisation which holds mass conversion events regularly in the state.

Priyadarshi said that every year around Ashoka Vijaya Dashami, the organisation holds mass conversion events where Hindus from Scheduled Caste (SC) convert to Buddhism.

Citing a constitutionalamendment in 1990, he said that benefits of SC after converting to Buddhism remainthe same and they are entitledto all the benefits.

(Published 11 April 2024, 10:48 IST)

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Hindus must seek permission to convert; Gujarat government notification 'clarifies' Buddhism separate religion - Deccan Herald

Where are the Jews?

Israel continues to exercise apartheid in Palestine, which constitutes a crime against humanity, practices discrimination and extremism. In March 2017 during a UN Human Rights Council debate Hillel Neuer (a Canadian-born international lawyer), Executive Director of UN Watch, took the floor and gave the following speech (Extracts):

Mr. President, let me begin by putting the following on the record: Everything we just heard from the worlds worst abusers of human rights, of womens rights, of freedom of religion, of the press, of assembly, of speech is absolutely false; and, indeed, Orwellian.

Over the weekend, President Abbas announced he was giving his highest medal to Rima Khalaf, who resigned from the Economic and Social Commission of Western Asia, a Beirut-based UN agency of 18 Arab states, after Secretary General Guterres rightly instructed her to remove an absurd report which accused Israel of apartheid. The accusation against Israel is absurd. Israels 1.5 million Arabs, whatever challenges they face, enjoy full rights to vote and to be elected in the Knesset, they work as doctors and lawyers, they serve on the Supreme Court.

Now Id like to ask How many Jews live in your countries? How many Jews live in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco? Once upon a time, the Middle East was full of Jews. Algeria had 140,000 Jews. Egypt used to have 75,000 Jews. Syria had tens of thousands of Jews. Iraq, you had over 135,000 Jews. Mr President, where is the apartheid? UNHRC chamber goes silent.

We have 50 million Muslims in Europe. Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe without swords, without guns, without conquest will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades. Muammar Gadhafi 2006

The genocide suffered by the Hindus of India at the hands of Arab, Turkish, Mughal and Afghan occupying forces for a period of 800 years remains unrecognized by the World of the Worlds biggest holocaust. The invasion of India by the Afghan ruler Mahmud Ghazni in about 1000 AD began the Muslim invasions into the Indian subcontinent and they lasted for several centuries. Ghazni invaded India seventeen times between 1001-1026 AD. Nadir Shah and Babur are believed to have raised towers of Hindu skulls. Babur at Khanua when he defeated Rana Sanga in 1527. Akbar ordered a general massacre of 30,000 Rajputs after he captured Chithorgarh in 1568. The Bahamani Sultans had an annual agenda of killing a minimum of 100,000 Hindus every year. The holocaust of the Hindus in India continued for 800 years, till the brutal regimes were effectively overpowered in a life and death struggle by the Sikh rulers in Punjab, the Maratha armies in other parts of India and in Assam by Lachit Barphukan. There is no official estimate of the total death toll of Hindus.

The Mohammedan conquests of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. The Islamic historians and scholars have recorded with great glee and pride the slaughters of Hindus, forced conversions, abduction of Hindu women and children to slave markets and the destruction of temples carried out by the warriors of Islam from 800 to 1700 AD. Millions of Hindus were converted to Islam by sword during this period. And the Hindu Genocide continued into the 20th century:

680,000 Hindus massacred?

1947-Partition of India: 14 million Hindus displaced, and 2,000,000 Hindus massacred?

1950- East Bengal Riots (Now Bangladesh): 4.5 million Hindus displaced, and 500,000 Hindus massacred?

1971-Hindu Genocide in Bangladesh: 30 million Hindus displaced and 3,000,000 Hindus massacred?

1921-Malabar genocide: The mastermind of Mappila genocide, Haji and Ali, raised Khilafat Army consisting of more than 60,000 Muslim soldiers with Turkish Caliphate flags. The aim was to establish the Caliphate rule, as pointed out by the then Deputy Collector, C Gopalan Nair. The slogans or battle cry were neither against Imperial rule nor in favour of Nationalism but against the Kafirs (non-believers of Islam). The bizarre yet shocking 1921 Malabar genocide and forcible conversion of Hindus marked one of the earliest radical Islamic violence against the Malabar Hindus. Annie Besant said that more than 1,500 Hindus were brutally murdered, 20,000 people were forcibly converted to Islam.

World Muslim population projections by the Pew Research Centers Forum (Jan 2011 report): The worlds Muslim population is expected to increase by about 35% in the next 20 years, rising from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030. The Global Muslim population is likely to grow at about twice the rate of the non-Muslim population over the next two decades an average annual growth rate of 1.5% for Muslims, compared with 0.7% for non-Muslims. If current trends continue, Muslims will make up 26.4% of the worlds total projected population of 8.3 billion in 2030.

US Muslims projections show the number of Muslims more than doubling over the next two decades, rising from 2.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million in 2030. If current trends continue, the number of U.S. Muslims under age 15 will more than triple, from fewer than 500,000 in 2010 to 1.8 million in2030. The number of Muslim children below the age of 4 years living in the US is expected to increase from fewer than 200,000 in 2010 to more than 650,000 in 2030!

Canada Muslims are expected to nearly triple in the next 20 years, from about 940,000 in 2010 to nearly 2.7 million in 2030. Muslims are expected to make up 6.6% of Canadas total population in 2030, up from 2.8% today.

Belgium (139.8 per cent), Czech Republic (300 per cent), the Netherland (165.7 per cent), Poland (233.3 per cent), Spain (276.8 per cent), Sweden (206.8 per cent), and the UK (144.8 per cent) witnessed an increase by 140-300 per cent between 1990 and 2010. Germany is the only country with a double-digit growth rate of 65 per cent. Muslims have grown by 150 per cent in a decade in non-Muslim countries.

In Europe as a whole, the Muslim share of the population is expected to grow by nearly one-third over the next 20 years, rising from 6% of the regions inhabitants in 2010 to 8% in 2030. In absolute numbers, Europes Muslim population is projected to grow from 44.1 million in 2010 to 58.2 million in 2030. In the UK, Muslims are expected to comprise 8.2% of the population in 2030, up from an estimated 4.6% today. In Austria, Muslims are projected to reach 9.3% of the population in 2030, up from 5.7% today; in Sweden, 9.9% (up from 4.9% today); in Belgium, 10.2% (up from 6% today); and in France, 10.3% (up from 7.5% today). Several factors account for the faster projected growth among Muslims in Europe is the result of immigrants to Europe and majority being Muslims over the years. France had an expected net influx of 66,000 Muslim immigrants in 2010, primarily from North Africa.

Muslim countries for the same period surprisingly have only grown in double figures with Syria leading (88.4 per cent) and Pakistan (58.6 per cent).

According to 1951 census, Pakistan (both West and East Pakistan) had a population of 75 million population, in which West Pakistan had a population of 33.7 million and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) had a population of 42 million. In 1951, Hindus constituted 16% of the Pakistani population (this included East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), which made the Dominion of Pakistan the country with the worlds second largest Hindu population after India. In the 1951 census, the population of West Pakistan was 1.6% Hindu, while East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was 22.05% Hindu. After the Partition of India in 1947 the decimation took five years not 50. Most of the 16 per cent Hindus who were present in Pakistan at the time of the partition either escaped to India or tragically succumbed to the genocide of the partition. Pakistan is expected to surpass Indonesia as the country with the single largest Muslim population.

Indias Muslim population between 1951 and 1961 increased by 32.7%, 11 percentage points more than Indias overall rate of 21.6%. But this gap narrowed between 2001 to 2011, the difference in growth between Muslims (24.7%) and Indians overall (17.7%) was 7 percentage points. Indias Christian population grew at the slowest pace of the three largest groups in the most recent census decade gaining 15.7% between 2001 and 2011. India is also home to one of the worlds largest Muslim populations, surpassed only by Indonesia, which had 209 million (20.9 crore) Muslims in 2010. Pakistans Muslim population is roughly the same size as Indias. Bangladesh follows in fourth place, with 134 million (13.4 crore) Muslims.

Indias population has more than tripled in the six decades following Partition, from 361 million (36.1 crore) people in the 1951 census to more than 1.2 billion (120 crore) in 2011. As of 2020, according to the UN Population India will surpass China as the worlds most populous country by 2030 but that has already been achieved seven years ahead and India now is the worlds most populous country. Between 1951 and 2011 India share of Muslims stood at 14.2% of the population, while Hindus at 79.8%.

In the projected scenario, as of 2020 about 15% of Indians are Muslim (14.2% in 2011), 79% are Hindu (79.8% in 2011), and 2% are Christian. In 2050, Hindus are projected to represent about 77% of Indians, Muslims 18%, and Christians still 2%. Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains are projected to shrink as a share of the population.

The UN on 15 March 2023 (Friday) commemorated the first-ever International Day to Combat Islamophobia with a special event in the General Assembly, where speakers upheld the need for concrete action in the face of rising hatred, discrimination and violence against Muslims. Wonder if Hindu Holocausts over the centuries though past have ever been discussed in the UN?

The biggest Hindu Holocausts of the World History has been erased from the history. When the word Holocaust comes up most think immediately of the Jewish holocaust. Europe and America produced films highlighting the human misery caused by Hitler and his army. The films expose the horrors of Nazi regime and reinforce the beliefs and attitude of the present-day generation towards the evils of the Nazi dictatorship. In contrast look at India. There is hardly any awareness among the Indians of today of what happened to their ancestors. History has been distorted to the extent that Mughals are considered as the Great Rulers to the extreme that so called Akbar the Great is considered as the Saviour of Hindus in the Indian school textbooks.

Sources:

Pew Research and Open Sources (The figures and instances may be exaggerated but there is truth in the basic facts regarding the Hindu Holocausts over the centuries. A large number of articles peg the reason for higher population growth of Muslims to their higher fertility rate. This does not seem to be the correct reason in my perspection as there are a large number of other comparative reasons.)

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'Where Are Your Jews And Hindus?' OpEd - Eurasia Review

Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday said there was an atmosphere of fear in western Uttar Pradesh earlier and Hindus were migrating from the region then but now, under the Yogi government, it is the goons who are fleeing.

He further said businessmen were forced to leave their land, shops and houses behind back then, but now there is an exodus of the mafia from the region. His comment appeared to be a reference to the alleged exodus of Hindus from Kairana in western Uttar Pradesh during the Samajwadi Party regime.

Today, goons are migrating instead of Hindus. Yogi Adityanath has worked to improve the law-and-order situation in the entire Uttar Pradesh within seven years. Today, there is rule of law in Uttar Pradesh. Mafia rule has ended, Shah said at an election rally in Moradabad, which goes to polls in the first phase of the Lok Sabha election on April 19.

Traders are doing their business and women are feeling safe (in the region), Shah said. The SP has fielded Ruchi Veera from Moradabad this time against the BJPs Sarvesh Singh.

In 2019, the seat went to the SPs ST Hasan, who was supported by the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal back then.

In an apparent reference to the Muzaffarnagar-Shamli riots of 2013, Shah said, In 2013, riots, cow smuggling and the sway of goons were the now in western Uttar Pradesh. Now, instead of fear, riots and cow smuggling, the work of the One District One Product has started. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has worked to strengthen the law and order situation in the entire state.

Shah targeted the Samajwadi Party, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party for continually opposing the Ram temple, which was completed under the Modi government.

After 500 years, on this Ram Navami, Ram Lalla will celebrate his birthday in his grand temple in Ayodhya instead of a tent, Shah said.

The opposition was invited for the consecration ceremony at the Ram temple, but they did not participate. They were afraid of their vote bank, he said.

He further said that under the Bharatiya Janata Party government, not only the Ram temple but also the Kashi Vishwanath temple was rejuvenated. Apart from this, reconstruction of Badrinath and Kedarnath Dham was also done, he said.

Urging voters to make the BJP victorious on all 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Shah said the biggest reason for Modi becoming Prime Minister in 2014 and 2019 was Uttar Pradesh, which gave the BJP 73 seats in 2014 and 65 seats in 2019.

In 2014 and 2019, the biggest reason for PM Modi becoming the PM was Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh gave 73 seats in 2014 and 65 seats in 2019 and hence PM Modi became the PM with a full majority. We have to make him PM for the third term. Iss baar na 73 chalegi na 65 chalegi, iss baar 80 ki 80 seat Modi ki jholi me jayengi (Not 73 or 65, this time all 80 U.P. seats will fall into Modis kitty), Amit Shah said.

Further speaking about his governments achievements, Shah said, In the last 10 years, PM Modi has brought the countrys economy from 11th position to fifth position (in the world), now you make him PM for the third time, he will make the countrys economy the third largest in the world. Its a Modi guarantee.

Sharpening his attack on the Congress, Shah said, In 10 years, Modiji eliminated terrorism and Naxalism from the country. When the Congress was in power, alia-malia-jamalia (anyone) could come here every day from Pakistan and explode bombs.

Kisi ke maathe per joon nahi rengtee thee (nobody was bothered by this), he said.

When Modi came to power, they committed the same mistakes in Uri and Pulwama, but they had forgotten that the Manmohan Singh government was not here anymore, Shah said.

He recalled that the armed forces carried out retaliatory strikes inside Pakistan within days of these terror attacks.

Pakistan ke ghar mein ghusskar aatankwaadiyo ka safaayaa karne ka kaam Narendra Modi je ne kiyaa (the Modi government eliminated the terrorists by entering their homes, he said.

Mentioning Uttar Pradeshs development momentum, Shah said, Airports are being built all over U.P. Expressways and six-lanes are being developed. The government is working to provide electricity to 80 lakh villagers. Modi government has done the work of providing free treatment up to 5 lakh to more than three crore poor people. Apart from this, 2 crore toilets were built in 10 years; 14 crore beneficiaries are getting the benefits.

He also attacked the Congress over its handling of the Kashmir issue, saying the party pampered Article 370 like a child in its lap for decades till it was scrapped.

He hit out at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for suggesting recently that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not be speaking about Kashmir while addressing rallies in other states.

Tell me isnt Kashmir ours? Khargeji of the Congress asks what do people of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have to do with Kashmir, Shah said, adding that every child of Moradabad is ready to give his life for Kashmir.

For 70 years, the Congress pampered Article 370 like an illegitimate child in its lap, Shah said, referring to the special status enjoyed by Jammu and Kashmir under the Article.

You made Modiji the prime minister for the second time and he abolished Article 370 on August 5, 2019. Today our tricolour is flying there with pride. Under the leadership of Modiji, Kashmir has been united with India forever, Amit Shah said.

Originally posted here:

Now, goons, instead of Hindus, are migrating from west U.P: Amit Shah - Hindustan Times

Indian police said Hindus vandalised a statue of an independence hero in central Madhya Pradesh state following a disagreement over the figure it depicted, contrary to social media posts circulating ahead of national elections that falsely accused Muslims of desecrating the structure. The posts falsely claimed the incident happened in Karnataka, apparently taking a swipe at the opposition Congress party, which rules the state and has been accused of being favourable towards Muslims.

"The Hindus of Karnataka defeated the BJP and formed the Congress party government," read a Hindi-language Facebook post that shared the video.

"Now they are repenting because of the extent to which the Congress government is appeasing Muslims."

India's Congress partywrested power of Karnataka from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2023, taking the key state a year before a general election.

Congress has been accused by supporters of the Hindu nationalist BJP of being more favourable towards India's 200-million-strong Muslim minority.

The video shows a tractor repeatedly ramming into a statue as onlookers cheer and pelt stones at the structure.

It then cuts to a man who says in Hindi: "What's the use of being in an 80-percent majority when those from 20 percent are creating a ruckus?" -- referring to the country's Hindu-Muslim split.

The video was shared in similar posts on social media platform Xand on Facebookhere and here.

It circulated as India prepared for marathon general elections from April 19 which looked set to hand Modi a third term helming the world's biggest democracy.

A keyword search on Google found reports that the statue was destroyed by members of a Hindu community in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh -- which is around 680 miles (1,100 kilometres) from Karnataka.

Madhya Pradesh is ruled by the BJP, not Congress.

The Hindustan Times and The Print reported that the statue was torn down in January 2024 following a disagreement between members of two Hindu castes over which historical figure it should depict (archived here and here).

Story continues

While members of one group -- the Bhim Army and so-called 'scheduled caste' -- sought to install a statue of B.R. Ambedkar, who was India's first law minister and author of the country's constitution, members of the Patidar caste insisted the statue should instead honour independence hero Vallabhbhai Patel, who was India's first deputy prime minister.

Patel's statue was erected but later found vandalised, allegedly by members of the Bhim Army and scheduled caste, The Hindustan Times quoted police saying.

Hindi-language news channel Times Now Navbharat posted footage of the incident on YouTube on January 25, 2024 (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in false posts (left) and Times Now Navbharat's video (right):

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP-Rural) Nitesh Bhargava confirmed the incident happened in Ujjain on January 25, 2024.

"There is no religious angle here as the clash took place between groups belonging to two different castes," he told AFP on April 4.

"This is an old video and this case has been closed now as the arrests were made."

AFP has previously debunked posts peddlingmisinformation about religious tensionshere, here and here.

See the rest here:

Footage of Hindus attacking India statue falsely shared in anti-Congress posts ahead of election - Yahoo News UK

NEW DELHI: The ministry of external affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Friday expressed positivity towards the Taliban administration's decision to restore property rights to Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan. He also raised India's concerns about the Israeli attack on the attack on the Iranian embassy in Syria which killed at least 13 people including 7 Iranian military officials and 6 Syrian nationals. "We have noted with concern the attack on Iranian diplomatic premises in Syria on 1st April 2024. India is distressed at the escalating tensions in West Asia, and their potential to fuel further violence and instability," Randhir Jaiswal said at a press conference. "If the Taliban administration has decided to restore property rights to Hindus and Sikhs from Afghanistan, it is something which is a positive development," he added. (With inputs from agencies) The TOI News Desk comprises a dedicated and tireless team of jour... Read More The TOI News Desk comprises a dedicated and tireless team of journalists who operate around the clock to deliver the most current and comprehensive news and updates to the readers of The Times of India worldwide. With an unwavering commitment to excellence in journalism, our team is at the forefront of gathering, verifying, and presenting breaking news, in-depth analysis, and insightful reports on a wide range of topics. The TOI News Desk is your trusted source for staying informed and connected to the ever-evolving global landscape, ensuring that our readers are equipped with the latest developments that matter most."Read Less

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'Positive development': MEA on Taliban 'allegedly' restoring property rights of Hindus and Sikhs - The Times of India

Most Afghan and Hindus left the country after the Taliban took over the country in 2021. Source: ANI

India considers reports of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan restoring properties to the countrys minority Hindu and Sikh community as a positive development, said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Friday.

Jaiswals comment comes after the Taliban recently made this claim in a media report.

The vast majority of Hindus and Sikhs left Afghanistan in 2021 when the Taliban forcefully seized power after overthrowing the democratically-elected government of the then-President Ashraf Ghani. The exodus of the communities had, however, been going on since 1970-80s when unrest began in the country following the Soviet invasion and the subsequent war and the rise of the Taliban.

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We look at it as a positive development

When asked at the weekly press briefing about the development, Jaiswal said that we have also seen some reports of the Taliban regime restoring properties to Hindus and Sikhs. He did not confirm the development on his part.

If the Taliban administration has decided to restore properties to Hindus and Sikhs from Afghanistan who are their nations, of course, it is something which is a positive development. This is how we look at it, said Jaiswal.

Following the take-over of Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2021, India had facilitated the travel of hundreds of Hindus and Sikhs out of the country. This included many who held Afghan citizenship.

The MEA set up a Special Afghanistan Cell for the purpose and a total of 669 people were evacuated from Afghanistan under the Operation Devi Shakti which included 206 Afghan nationals including Hindu and Sikh minority community members, according to a reply of Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan to Rajya Sabha in August 2022.

In January 2023, India also facilitated the safe arrival of the final two copies of Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred book of the Sikhs, from gurudwaras in Afghanistans Ghazni and Kabul to New Delhi.

Restoring properties to Hindus, Sikhs usurped by previous rulers: Taliban

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The self-styled Justice Ministry of the Taliban told The Hindu that a commission set up by the regime has started restoring properties of Hindus and Sikhs that were taken over during the previous governments tenures by various warlords of the country.

A commission chaired by the Minister of Justice has been established to return to their owners all properties which had been usurped by warlords during the former regime, said Suhail Shaheen, Head of the Talibans Political Office, to the newspaper.

Shaheen noted in the report that Narender Singh Khalsa, a Sikh Member of the Parliament of Afghanistan, has returned to the country under the scheme. He had arrived in India after the Taliban takeover but had moved to Canada later.

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'A positive development': India on Taliban restoring properties to Hindus, Sikhs - Firstpost

The Gujarat governments recent circular has brought attention to the legal procedures surrounding conversions between Hinduism and other religions, particularly Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism.

Issued under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, 2003, the directive clarifies that these religions are distinct from Hinduism and require prior approval from the district magistrate for conversions.

This move aims to address discrepancies in the interpretation of the law by district magistrates and ensure adherence to proper legal procedures.

Key Points:

Gujarat says permission required for Hinduism to Buddhism conversion

Buddhism was declared a separate religion under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act 2003

Circular issued by Gujarat Home Department on April 8

The prescribed format for conversions mandates detailed documentation, including personal information and event logistics, submitted by a religious leader (dharmguru) to the district magistrate.

Buddhism will be considered a separate religion. A person who converts another person from Hinduism to Buddhism, Sikhism or Jainism has to take prior permission from the District Magistrate

The response from the Gujarat Buddhist Academy (GBA) indicates support for the circular, emphasizing the independence of Buddhism from Hinduism and advocating for proper adherence to legal protocols.

Conversions to Buddhism, particularly among Dalits, reflect a broader societal desire for distinct religious and social identities.

However, recent amendments to the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, particularly regarding conversions through marriage, have faced legal challenges, highlighting ongoing debates surrounding religious freedom and regulatory measures in the state.

More:

Gujarat says Hindus need permission to convert to Buddhism - Pune Pulse