“As a precautionary measure, we have asked our community members to put up the banners outside their homes where people come for prayers,” Dr Diamond Filus, general secretary of the Dhamtari District Christian Forum, told .

The immediate trigger behind the move, a community leader said, is the steady flow of applications submitted to the district administration by non-Christians, stating they were going to the churches voluntarily. This, the leader said, has irked certain “right-wing members”.

The applications follow a stringent anti-conversion law coming into force in Chhattisgarh last month. According to one of the provisions of the law, a person who desires to convert from one faith or religion to another must submit a declaration to the competent authority.

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Though it does not say anything about people casually visiting the churches, the community does not want to take its chances.

The Dhamtari district, like others in the neighbouring Bastar region, has been dealing with instances of communal disturbance over allegations of religious conversion at prayer meetings and disputes concerning the final rites of converted persons.

Said Filus, “Since the new government came to Chhattisgarh in 2023, they have given a free hand to right-wing activists. We cannot engage with them and stoop down to their level. They disrupt the prayer meetings in church. Police officials try to discourage them but are not able to take strict action in order to avoid such instances in future. So, as a precautionary measure, we have put up these banners.”

Filus said the step of putting up the notice was taken over a month ago after non-Christian people started giving self-declaration forms to government authorities, stating they were going for prayers out of their personal choice.

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But the measure has started being strictly implemented more vigorously after a September 15 meeting at the Collectorate.

“Over a thousand people gave such self-declaration forms to government authorities after which, as a precautionary measure, we decided to put up these banners. A Shanti (peace) meeting was also called by Dhamtari police on September 15 where right-wing members like Bajrang Dal and tribal organisation Sarva Adivasi Samaj objected to non-Christian people coming to prayers and told us that we should not allow them. We were not made aware that right-wing people would be part of the meeting,” said Flius.

‘How can we stop people from visiting church?’

“We wanted to boycott the meeting but stayed on after the police authorities requested us. The right-wing people have used abusive and filthy language in the past and we want to avoid engaging with them. But how can we stop non-Christians from coming to Church if they want to come out of their own choice? At the meeting, the Constitutional values of freedom of religion were not upheld,” he said.

Following the meeting, the community again asked its members to put up these banners outside their premises as a precautionary measure.

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Shivnarayan Pandey, a spokesperson of the state’s ruling BJP, said the issue is not a “right-wing” or “left-wing” one. “Chhattisgarh government has made a law and this is being opposed by groups who do conversion. It’s not a right-wing or left-wing issue. It’s not a political issue either. It is a social issue. The tribal community is against conversion as it divides people. Tribals give up their culture and hence, there is an infighting within the community that is creating unrest in a peaceful society,” said the leader from Bastar.