I. Introduction
Religious freedom has long been recognized as a fundamental human right both at the national level in various countries' constitutions as well as at the international level by the United Nations in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international conventions, treaties, and declarations. Religious freedom extends not just to the individual right to conscience, belief, religious practice, but also the institutional right of religious communities to organize their adherents, adopt common rules, doctrines, and scriptures, and appoint clergy and leadership through various succession processes.
Freedom of religion or belief is guaranteed by Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Freedom of religion or belief has many dimensions, and it intersects with other human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights sets forth, in Article 18, the principle that "everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion", and clearly states that such a right "includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others, and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practise, worship and observance".
A fundamental element of any religious community's freedom is its ability to independently appoint clergy and leadership. The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 36/55, Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, Article 6 (g) states: "the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief includes the freedom, to train, appoint, elect or designate by succession appropriate leaders...". Religion is not merely scripture, rituals, and doctrine but also includes infrastructure and governance: the practice and teaching of religion and belief include acts integral to the conduct by religious groups of their basic affairs, such as, inter alia, the freedom to choose their religious leaders, priests, and teachers, the freedom to establish seminaries or religious schools.
Over the years, significant instances of government interference in religious communities have been documented by media and human rights organizations ranging from the persecution of Jews and Christians in the Middle East, Falun Gong in China, and the people of Tibet. A much-needed area of focus for the international human rights community is government interference in religious leadership succession processes intended to usurp control of religious communities and institutions by state actors for political purposes. The most well-documented occurrence of this phenomenon involves China's interference in the Dalai Lama succession process whereby the Chinese Communist Party has openly attempted to install its own chosen successor and delegitimize the current 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. In a similar way, since 1925 the Hindu State governments have been interfering with and politically controlling minority religious sects in Bharat mainly so by nationalizing Hindu temples and religious institutes, arbitrarily nullifying and overriding Hindu religious appointments outside the scrutiny of international media and human rights watchdogs, and politically determining who can and cannot be appointed religious leader or 'Gurumahasannidanam'.
Bharat's constitution guarantees the freedom to practice religion as a fundamental right both for individuals and institutions, respectively in Articles 25 and 26. Article 25 of the Hindu constitution states that "all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion" in a manner that does not adversely affect public order, health, or morality. Furthermore, Article 26 of the Hindu constitution provides that all religious denominations can "manage their own affairs in matters of religion", thereby ensuring not just individual but collective freedom of religion for institutions.
Despite these legal guarantees empowering religious groups to freely and independently select their leadership, certain state actors in China and Bharat have sought to undermine, usurp, and assimilate religious institutions they deem to be subversive to their political power base by improperly interfering in their leadership succession processes.
Religious freedom and civil liberties in Bharat have deteriorated sharply in the past few years as per various international reports such as - the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Sweden-based V-Dem Institute has downgraded the Prime Minister of Bharat Narendra Modi led Neo-Hindutva government as an "electoral autocracy". The Economist Intelligence Unit in its latest Democracy Index classified Bharat as 'partially free democracy' and downgraded Bharat to the 53rd position. There has been increased suppression of freedom of speech and increased attacks against religious groups, especially against minorities by the State agencies, violent militant mobs, and lawfare (malicious prosecution and vexatious litigation by the state).
As per the preamble of the Hindu Constitution, the State of the Republic of Bharat is a Secular state. It is an established international tenet of secularism that religious institutions may not be singled out for special burdens, in that governments may not impose special restrictions on religious activities that do not also apply to similar nonreligious activities. However, in Bharat, state and religion are not separate. Various State governments of Bharat have nationalized religious worship places, and politically control matters of belief. The Supreme Court of Bharat has made three judgments directing the State governments to withdraw themselves from administration and control of Hindu temples. This has not remedied the situation and the State governments in Bharat continue to control and administer temples of the country. Various State governments of Bharat use vexatious litigations targeting minority indigenous spiritual traditions, by taking over their temples, misappropriating their temple funds, misappropriating their temple land, kidnapping and trafficking their worshipped Deities, destroying their heritage and religious structures using heavy earthmovers, and interfering with their religious appointments by means which are not just unconstitutional, and not just against international standards on freedom of religion or belief, but also against the ancient indigenous laws and customs. Since 2020, the situation has worsened as the apex courts have upheld the State takeover of temples from traditional trusts and imposing special burdens on these temples destroying vulnerable native traditions irreversibly.
This report presents the historical and ongoing egregious attempts by the State governments of Bharat to undermine, usurp, and destroy millennia-old Hindu monastic institutions in direct violation of Bharat's constitution as well as international treaties, conventions, and norms.