Religious freedom in India will never be achieved unless the country is willing to make substantial amendments to its constitution and legal framework, says a new report. It also asks the US to put human rights at the heart of trade and diplomatic interactions with India.

A tide of religiously motivated nationalism in recent years has seen India rise up the Open Doors World Watch List of the 50 countries in which it is hardest to live as a Christian.

The new report, released in February by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), suggests the heart of the problem relates to the law.

USCIRF says that while on the one hand India’s constitution emphasises the ‘complete legal equality’ of its citizens and prohibits faith-based discrimination, on the other ‘there are constitutional provisions and state and national laws in India that do not comply with international standards of freedom of religion or belief’.

‘Anti-conversion laws’ in seven Indian states, and discrimination based upon caste and religion, are among the issues highlighted.

The situation has worsened since the rise to power of Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP party, the report says.

Since 2014, when Modi took power, ‘hate crimes, social boycotts, assaults, and forced conversion [to Hinduism] have escalated dramatically,’ it says.

The report accuses India of moving away from its secular, democratic and pluralistic foundations to become a country where “religious minorities have witnessed a deterioration of their rights”.

(World Watch Monitor)