Are Indian minorities facing structural discrimination?

During the global campaign against the South African apartheid state in the two decades from the 1960s, the regime and its supporters would claim that they were not an exception since many countries practice various forms of discrimination. India, for instance, had caste discrimination.

The response at that time was that the Indian state does not sanction caste discrimination or discrimination based on religion. The discrimination in South Africa was structural. It means that the apartheid state and its laws and policies discriminated against a particular group.

In present-day India, are we sliding into structural discrimination, particularly against religious minorities? The arrest of two Catholic nuns in Chhattisgarh in July on charges of human trafficking and forced religious conversion is emblematic of the country’s slide towards structural discrimination.

In this case, a Bajrang Dal member filed a case, which resulted in the nuns being arrested. Though the nuns were granted bail, the fact that they were arrested based on mere claims by a Bajrang Dal member demonstrated the power wielded by the group over the local police and the lower court.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnudeo Sai defended the arrests, demonstrating that the action had support at the highest levels.

The anti-conversion laws that exist in 12 states provide the basis for targeting...

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