The secret new faiths of Indian believers navigating harsh anti-conversion laws and repression

A 22-year-old student from Delhi remembered what she felt when she travelled to a nearby government gazette office to declare her conversion to Islam. She was nervous about how fellow passengers on the Delhi metro would react to her burqa, but her appearance did not raise eyebrows. It was when she arrived at her destination and the government officials read out her Hindu name that she received startled looks. The officials asked her probing and irrelevant questions, including whether she was converting to Islam for a Muslim man. She said the officials at the Delhi gazette office were visibly reluctant to register her change in faith. (Questions sent to the Delhi-based Department of Publication did not receive a response.) 

Before becoming a Muslim, the student practised Christianity for a few years. She said she believes that if she had converted from Christianity to Islam, she would not have received such negative reactions. The fact that she was converting from India’s majority religion, Hinduism, seemed to upset people more.