If you were an atheist and disliked any religious restrictions, which countries would you avoid living in, if you had the choice? According to the Pew Research Centre’s annual report on religious restrictions, 2017, India would be one of them.
Among the 25 most populous countries in the world, Russia, Egypt, India, Pakistan and Nigeria had the most government restrictions and social hostilities involving religion in 2015.
And which country would you prefer to live in? Again as per the Pew report, Brazil, Japan, South Africa, Ethiopia and the Philippines, would be the ones as they have the fewest restrictions and hostilities due to religion.
The Pew report’s social hostilities index puts India in the fourth spot after Syria, Nigeria and Iraq while Pakistan stands tenth.
The Government Restrictions Index measures government laws, policies and actions that restrict religious beliefs and practices. The GRI is comprised of 20 measures of restrictions, including efforts by government to ban particular faiths, prohibit conversion, limit preaching or give preferential treatment to one or more religious groups.
The Pew report’s Social Hostilities Index (SHI) measures acts of religious hostility by private individuals, organizations or groups in society. This includes religion-related armed conflict or terrorism, mob or sectarian violence, harassment over attire for religious reasons or other religion-related intimidation or abuse. The SHI includes 13 measures of social hostilities.
The fact that none of the 25 most populous countries fell into the “low” social hostilities category may indicate that large populations carry an inherently greater risk of incidents of social hostilities, simply because there are more people.
The obstacles for minorities
According to the report, members of the lowest Hindu castes, known as Dalits, often faced obstacles to basic government institutions and services such as education and health care. The United Nations also reported systematic abuse of Dalits by individuals, and many of the perpetrators of these crimes were not prosecuted by the government, the report added.
Minority leaders and the laity often attribute India’s decline in religious freedom and communal harmony to the discriminative campaigning during the 2014 general elections that was swept by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
State government also contributed to such restrictions in their own way. The beef ban in Maharashtra in 2015 that affected a majority of Muslims, and the crackdown on abattoirs (slaughterhouses) in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, hitting both Dalits and Muslims, were examples of such restrictions.
“India’s pluralistic tradition faces serious challenges in a number of its States. During the past few years, religious tolerance has deteriorated and religious freedom violations have increased in some areas of India. To reverse this negative trajectory, the Indian and state governments must align their laws with both the country’s constitutional commitments and international human rights standard,” chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Thomas. J Reese, SJ said.
Meanwhile, social hostilities like mob-incited violence or clashes also surged dramatically between 2015 and 2017. Some key incidents include the Dadri lynching, where a Muslim man in Bihar’s Bishara village was lynched by a 1000-strong mob for allegedly stealing and killing a cow and the thrashing of three Dalit youth by “cow vigilantes” in Una, Gujarat, in July, 2016.
Minority groups and leaders claim inaction by the police and other responsible officials, despite pleas for intervention. The laxity by the judiciary to ensure and implement effective measures has been largely questioned and raised, only to be drowned by the spread of a saffron wave.
Key highlights of the Pew Research Centre’s report
—Government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion increased in 2015 for the first time in three years.
—The share of countries with “high” or “very high” levels of government restrictions – i.e., laws, policies and actions that restrict religious beliefs and practices – ticked up from 24% in 2014 to 25% in 2015.
—The percentage of countries with high or very high levels of social hostilities – i.e., acts of religious hostility by private individuals, organisations or groups in society—increased in 2015, from 23% to 27%.
— While the Middle East-North Africa region continued to have the largest proportion of governments that engaged in harassment and use of force against religious groups (95%), Europe had the largest increase in these measures in 2015
— In 2015, 23 of the 198 countries in the study had “very high” levels of government restrictions— up from 16 countries in 2014. Few countries — like China, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran — have had very high levels of restrictions every year since 2007, the first year for which data are available.
—At the end of 2015, the study showed that Egypt followed by China topped the chart on very high levels of government restrictions, while Pakistan ranked fifth and India 19th, in this category.
—Among the most populous countries, Egypt, Russia, India, Pakistan and Nigeria had the highest levels of overall restrictions, government imposed laws and policies, on religion in 2015. While the study looked at 25 of the world’s most populous countries, it was noted that the levels of government restrictions and social hostilities differed for the five billion people living in these countries.
When witchcraft was targeted in Africa!
People accused of practicing witchcraft were targeted in a number of cases. In the Republic of Congo, two elderly men were killed after being accused of witchcraft. In Burkina Faso, elderly women were often accused of witchcraft and barred from their villages. A Roman Catholic Church-operated organization in the capital, Ouagadougou, supported 260 women accused of witchcraft in 2015, and another government center sheltered 84 women. During the year, people accused of witchcraft also were targeted in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia.
Abuse on albinism
People practicing witchcraft rituals targeted individuals with albinism. In Malawi, there was an increase in the demand for body parts of people with albinism; the Association of People Living with Albinism in Malawi reported 19 cases of abuse, including eight deaths, in 2015.47 In Tanzania, one child with albinism was killed, and three other cases were reported involving “abduction, mutilation and dismemberment of bodies.
Source: Pew Research Center