Are Indian Courts Making Crypto-Christianity Impossible To Prove?

Proving conversion has become harder

Is the Indian judiciary inadvertently supporting crypto-Christianity, where a convert to Christianity remains Hindu on paper in order to benefit from the various affirmative action programmes of the government?

A recent judgement of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court, comprising Justices Mukulika Jawalkar and Nandesh Deshpande, ruled that the mere presence of a Jesus statue or the symbol of the cross at someone's home cannot be seen as proof of conversion to Christianity.

In a sense, this is true, since Hindus often have no objection to venerating the sacred symbols of other religions. But if the burden of proof for establishing conversion to Christianity is going to be set this high, it implies that the authorities need to be more intrusive in their investigations. Since this is not possible in every instance of suspected conversion, crypto-Christians can get a free ride and the best of both worlds: the benefits offered by their new faith, and the compensations offered by the faith they claim to have been oppressed by.

On the one hand, they are free to criticise Hinduism for the caste system. On the other, they can claim to be victims of the caste system and benefit from reservations in jobs and educational institutions by remaining Hindu on paper...