Christian ministries operating in India are continuing to lose the federal government’s authorization to legally collect foreign donations, in what’s amounting to a devastating financial blow to many organizations.
This March, Vision India, a corporation that gives leadership training for Christian young people, was unable to renew its Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) license.
“Per week prior, the federal government conducted an enquiry, and per week later, refused the renewal,” said Vijay Mohod, director of Vision India.
The then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi introduced the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) in the course of the Emergency period in 1976, claiming there was foreign interference in domestic politics, and required organizations meaning to receive foreign contributions to register with the Ministry of Home Affairs. The subsequent iterations in 2010 and 2011 made it stringent and required organizations to renew their FCRA licenses every 5 years amongst other recent clauses and its most up-to-date iteration, passed in 2020, and amended in 2022, makes it much more restrictive, requiring all FCRA organizations to have their FCRA accounts at one given branch in a particular Bank and prohibiting inter-organizational grants, amongst other clauses.
Theoretically, these five-year licenses are renewed based on the organization’s annual submission of reports detailing the foreign funds received and demonstrating they were properly utilized for his or her stated, approved purposes. However, as Christian ministries have didn’t see their licenses renewed, some leaders have questioned if the federal government has an ulterior motive.
“So many organizations rely upon foreign funding,” said archbishop Anil Joseph Thomas Couto, general secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI). “If they don’t receive funds, then a lot of their projects should be kept on hold or completely removed.”
The first sizable organization of any faith to lose its FCRA license was Compassion International in 2017. At the time, the organization led to $45 million annually into India, greater than any charity.
As CT reported in 2017, Compassion was eager to stay within the country:
[Compassion] talked to Indian lawyers and accountants. They testified before the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee. They asked then–Secretary of State John Kerry to say them to his counterpart in India. (He did.) They asked sponsors to put in writing their members of Congress. (More than 35,000 did.) They asked everybody they knew in positions of power each within the US and India for help.
“All along, each Compassion and its local offices remained committed to addressing the concerns raised by the federal government, but to no avail,” said the ministry’s president and CEO Santiago “Jimmy” Mellado.
He traced the license loss back to 2011, when India strengthened FCRA, giving it the ability to manage organizations it disagreed with philosophically. (Previously, a corporation’s FCRA license had practically been for all times.)
For many, the move was also seen as one other step toward Hindu nationalism and authoritarianism since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election in 2014. While the Home Ministry cites compliance issues and misuse of foreign funds, many NGOs accuse the federal government of taking an increasingly harsh approach to compliance that raises minor technicalities or directly targets groups over their ideological stances.
Last yr, the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) and the Church of North India lost their licenses. The license of EFI, the umbrella body for Evangelicals in India was refused renewal stating that it could affect ‘prejudicially,’ the ‘public interest’ and “harmony between religious, racial, social, linguistic, regional groups, castes or communities”.
“Given that EFI is involved significantly in inter-faith, charity and prayer initiatives to construct bridges in society, and to advertise reconciliation and social harmony, it got here as a surprise that the federal government would categorize us in this fashion. I actually have been told that perhaps we were punished for speaking about religious freedom for Christians and others through our various reports and since now we have challenged violence against Christians within the Supreme Court in addition to several anti-conversion laws in various High Courts; but I hope that is just not the case,” said Vijayesh Lal, general secretary of EFI.
In January, the Indian government canceled World Vision’s license after initially suspending it in 2022. Though the ministry, which has a presence in greater than 6,000 “urban, rural and tribal communities,” has not left the country, it said it was “profoundly upset” and has still needed to close projects and lay off staff supported by FCRA funds. The organization said that the choice would “have a big impact on many vulnerable people across the country in the approaching years.”
“The axe appears to be brought down more stringently on Christian organizations who could have made slight mistakes in some elements or compliances of the law,” said archbishop Cuoto.
Though CBCI’s license was renewed last yr after being on hold, the federal government has denied a license for the National Biblical Catechetical and Liturgical Centre (NBCLC) in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), and a number of other other Catholic dioceses under CBCI in India have reported that their FCRA licenses are on hold, says Couto.
The lack of an FCRA license for one more Christian organization, the Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), has been crushing, says bishop Subodh C. Mondal, CASA’s vice chairperson.
“CASA’s entire work is jeopardized. They needed to terminate near 350 staff in India,” he said. “Ninety percent of their work is affected by this. We will apply afresh for FCRA.”
In many cases, the explanations stated for cancellation of FCRAs are sometimes unclear and sometimes even illegitimate, said one leader of a reputed Christian NGO who spoke to CT on conditions of anonymity.
“It raises doubts about whether the present administration truly intends to permit any organization to operate and receive foreign funding in India going forward,” he said.
There appears to be no discernible pattern to the denials or cancellations of FCRA statuses, says one other widely respected FCRA expert, who also requested anonymity.
“There is not any clarity by way of the explanations that they’re giving. One cannot discover what went mistaken and where,” said the expert. “Because [FCRA] is an internal security laws, the courts even have held that the federal government is under no obligation to make it public (to elaborate on or explain the objections).”
The crackdown extends far beyond Christian organizations. Prominent secular human rights groups, humanitarian aid organizations, and policy groups have also lost their licenses. This includes Oxfam India, the Centre for Policy Research, CARE India, the Programme for Social Action, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Amnesty International, in addition to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Charitable Trust headed by former Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ FCRA website, about 16000 NGOs and associations hold lively FCRA licenses as of April 2024. The Home Ministry has revoked the FCRA registrations of over 20,701 NGOs or associations, but the web site doesn’t state how far that number dates back to.
In July 2023, a gaggle of retired civil servants and officials called the Constitutional Conduct Group sent an open letter to Amit Shah, the minister of home affairs, expressing concern over what they termed the “harassment” of NGOs through selective FCRA enforcement. The letter urged the federal government to “stop pointless harassment” of organizations providing vital services, especially to India’s “most marginalized and disadvantaged sections.”
NGOs have fought the Home Ministry’s decisions through appeals. But few exceptions have been made; in 2022 the federal government reinstated the FCRA registration for the Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa, lower than two weeks after initially declining to renew it, citing vague “hostile inputs.”
The one-off reversal has done little to quell overall fears and outrage from NGOs and civil society advocates, who argue the widespread crackdown poses an existential threat to India’s democratic fabric and constitutionally protected rights like freedom of association. Critics contend the Modi government is intolerant of dissent and unwilling to just accept criticism of its Hindu nationalist ideology and policies.
They allege the FCRA enforcement is getting used as a systemic tool by the federal government to financially choke and muzzle NGOs working on issues like minority rights, human rights, transparency, and the alleged discrimination toward and non secular persecution of minorities like Muslims and Christians under the rule of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. There are also concerns that the disruption of NGOs providing critical services could have devastating impacts on poverty, hunger, gender equality, and marginalized communities.
“It will certainly impact the work a lot of the charity sector is doing. It has a double whammy effect—each the beneficiary and the benefactor are affected,” said the NGO leader. “The [charity sector is] working on the grassroots levels, and people are the people who find themselves most affected. Lots of individuals’s livelihoods rely upon NGOs, for it’s the only vocation they’ve.”
Foreign policy analysts warn the domestic NGO crackdown risks damaging India’s global fame and making Western nations and donors more reluctant to donate aid, given fears they could be blocked from reaching legitimate organizations.
Though some Indian organizations plan to reapply for his or her FCRA licenses, a number of, just like the Centre for Policy Research, have sued the Indian government. The think tank, which lost its license firstly of 2024 for allegedly misusing foreign funds, stated that the federal government’s decision made no sense and was too harsh, calling it “incomprehensible and disproportionate.” (The organization’s license was due for renewal in 2021, nevertheless it has faced quite a few bureaucratic obstacles since.)
Most, nonetheless, may not take the way in which of confrontation via appeals out of fear of further crackdown.
“It is silly to live in Rome and fight the pope,” said the FCRA expert.
