EWTN News portal reports that on May 7, 2026, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) held a hearing on Capitol Hill in which witnesses described religious freedom in India as being on a “downward trajectory.” USCIRF Vice Chair Asif Mahmood stated that “religious freedom in India is abysmal,” noting that “religious minority communities and their places of worship remain particularly vulnerable to discriminatory legislation, surveillance, and harassment,” and that “members of the clergy are also routinely arrested and released under accusation of conducting forced conversions.” USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler cited anti-conversion laws in 13 of India’s 28 states, anti-terrorism laws targeting minorities, discriminatory citizenship laws, and the government’s failure to intervene in mob violence against religious minorities. Witnesses called for the State Department to designate India as a “country of particular concern” (CPC), impose sanctions, and make religious liberty a prerequisite in all diplomatic negotiations. India’s approximately 23 million Catholics — roughly 1.6% of the population — are among those affected by this escalating persecution.
That a secular commission in a secular republic must plead for the most elementary rights of the faithful in a nominally democratic nation exposes the utter bankruptcy of the modern order, which, having dethroned Christ the King, is incapable of guaranteeing even natural justice to His followers.
