IV 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 417 
Praising India’s rich religious diversity and commitment to tolerance and 
equality, and reaffirming the need to protect the rights and freedoms 
of religious minorities. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 18, 2013 
Mr. PITTS (for himself, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. CHABOT, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. SEN-
SENBRENNER, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. WOLF, Mr. SIRES, Mr. MEADOWS, 
Mr. MORAN, Mr. HUELSKAMP, Mr. LEWIS, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. GRI-
JALVA, and Mr. POLIS) submitted the following resolution; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by 
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall with-
in the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Praising India’s rich religious diversity and commitment to 
tolerance and equality, and reaffirming the need to pro-
tect the rights and freedoms of religious minorities. 
Whereas India is the world’s largest democracy, with a con-
stitution that protects the fundamental rights of all citi-
zens, including the right of each citizen to profess, propa-
gate, and practice his or her own religion; 
Whereas India is the birthplace of several of the world’s great 
religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and 
Jainism; 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
00:37 Nov 19, 2013
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR417.IH
HR417
tjames on DSK6SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
•HRES 417 IH 
Whereas India and the United States enjoy a strong historic 
relationship and believe deeply in the causes of liberty, 
justice, and equality under the law; 
Whereas India and the United States have rich multiethnic 
societies and share a commitment to the values of toler-
ance, pluralism, and religious diversity; 
Whereas the population of India includes a Hindu majority, 
the third largest Muslim population in the world, a Chris-
tian population of more than 25,000,000, a Sikh popu-
lation of more than 19,000,000, and dozens of other 
faiths; 
Whereas contrary to the tolerant and pluralistic traditions of 
the Hindu faith, strands of the Hindu nationalist move-
ment have advanced a divisive and violent agenda that 
has harmed the social fabric of India; 
Whereas on December 6, 1992, a large mob destroyed the 
historic 16th-century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, which 
was located on a site claimed to be the birthplace of the 
Hindu god Rama; 
Whereas according to the Congressional Research Service, 
‘‘ensuing communal riots left many hundreds dead in cit-
ies across India’’ and ‘‘Mumbai was especially hard hit 
as the site of coordinated 1993 terrorist bombings be-
lieved to have been a retaliatory strike by Muslims’’; 
Whereas on February 27, 2002, in the city of Godhra in the 
western state of Gujarat, India, 58 Hindus were burnt 
alive in a train coach fire, and communal violence erupt-
ed in several Gujarati cities; 
Whereas in the International Religious Freedom Report of 
2003, the United States Department of State found that 
‘‘In Gujarat the worst religious violence directed against 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
00:37 Nov 19, 2013
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR417.IH
HR417
tjames on DSK6SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
•HRES 417 IH 
Muslims by Hindus took place in February and March 
2002, leaving an estimated 2,000 dead and 100,000 dis-
placed into refugee camps . . . Christians were also vic-
tims in Gujarat, and many churches were destroyed’’; 
Whereas the Indian magazine Tehelka reported that many of 
the people who participated in the violence said it was 
possible only because of the connivance of the state police 
and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi; 
Whereas the United States Government denied Minister Modi 
a visa to the United States in 2005 on the grounds of 
egregious religious freedom violations under the Inter-
national Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the first and 
only time such a denial has been issued; 
Whereas 10 years after the violence took place, Human 
Rights Watch reported on February 24, 2012, that 
‘‘Modi has acted against whistleblowers while making no 
effort to prosecute those responsible for the anti-Muslim 
violence . . . Where justice has been delivered in Guja-
rat, it has been in spite of the state government, not be-
cause of it.’’; 
Whereas 10 years after the violence took place, Amnesty 
International reported on February 29, 2012, that at 
least 21,000 survivors and relatives of the victims re-
mained in 19 transit relief camps; 
Whereas violence broke out between Christians and Hindus 
in the eastern state of Odisha in December 2007, with 
significant rioting and looting of shops and churches and 
more than 1,000 people displaced from their homes; 
Whereas the August 2008 murder of a prominent Hindu 
leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Odisha sparked a 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
01:38 Nov 19, 2013
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR417.IH
HR417
tjames on DSK6SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
•HRES 417 IH 
violent campaign against Christians, although Maoist ex-
tremists claimed responsibility for the assassination; 
Whereas the United States Department of State reported 
that 40 people were killed, 134 were injured, churches 
and homes were destroyed, and more than 10,000 people 
fled the state; 
Whereas the Associated Press reported at the time that the 
violence provided ‘‘a window into India’s hidden fragility, 
its sometimes dangerous political climate, and the fierce 
historical divisions buried in its vast diversity’’; 
Whereas according to the United States Commission on 
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), there was 
no immediate police or state government reaction to the 
Odisha violence, and religious leaders and aid agencies 
were denied access to provide care for the victims; 
Whereas the National Solidarity Forum, an independent In-
dian tribunal of former judges, journalists, and political 
analysts, concluded in 2010 that institutional bias on the 
part of the Odisha state government, its police, and judi-
cial system, led to a lack of justice and accountability; 
Whereas the All India Christian Council, an Indian non-
governmental organization, reported in 2012 that state 
police documented an estimated 3,500 complaints related 
to the 2007 to 2008 Odisha violence, but only 827 cases 
were registered with local or state court structures; 
Whereas USCIRF found that the investigative and court 
structures the Government of India created in response 
to the communal violence in Gujarat and Odisha failed 
to end intimidation, harassment, and violence against re-
ligious minorities; 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
00:37 Nov 19, 2013
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR417.IH
HR417
tjames on DSK6SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
•HRES 417 IH 
Whereas according to a 2012 report by the Pew Research 
Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, India falls 
into a ‘‘high’’ category for government restrictions on re-
ligion and a ‘‘very high’’ category for religious social hos-
tilities; 
Whereas nongovernmental organizations and Christian, Mus-
lim, and Sikh communities reported an increase in reli-
giously motivated harassment and violence over the last 
2 years, and expect it to increase in advance of the 2014 
general elections; 
Whereas on August 27, 2013, communal violence erupted in 
Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous 
state, with more than 60 Muslims and Hindus killed, 
50,000 people displaced, and thousands remaining in re-
lief camps 2 months later; 
Whereas on September 18, 2013, a local court in 
Muzaffarnagar issued arrest warrants against 16 politi-
cians and community leaders, including Bahujan Samaj 
Party parliamentarian Qadir Rana and Bharatiya Janata 
Party Legislative Assembly members Sangeet Som and 
Bhartendu Singh for inciting the violence; 
Whereas several states have ‘‘Freedom-of-Religion Laws’’, 
commonly referred to as anticonversion laws, that pur-
port to ban forced conversions but actually are used to 
prevent certain religious groups from peacefully per-
suading others to change their religion; and 
Whereas USCIRF found in its 2013 Annual Report that 
‘‘states with these laws have higher incidents of intimida-
tion, harassment and violence against religious minori-
ties, particularly Christians, than states that do not.’’: 
Now, therefore, be it 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
01:38 Nov 19, 2013
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR417.IH
HR417
tjames on DSK6SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
•HRES 417 IH 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) recognizes the suffering of all Indian citi-
zens who have been victims of religious violence, in-
cluding the victims of all faiths from the 1992 Babri 
Mosque riots, the 2002 Gujarat riots, the 2008 
Odisha riots, and violence that is ongoing today; 
(2) calls for religious freedom and related 
human rights to be included in the United States– 
India Strategic Dialogue, and for these issues to be 
raised directly with federal and state Indian Govern-
ment officials when appropriate; 
(3) shares the opinion of the United States De-
partment of State and the United States Commis-
sion on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) 
that the Gujarat government has not adequately 
pursued justice for the victims of the 2002 violence 
and remains concerned by reports from journalists 
and human rights groups about the complicity of 
local officials in the 2002 violence; 
(4) commends the United States Government 
for exercising its authority in 2005 under the Inter-
national Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to deny a 
United States visa to Narendra Modi on the grounds 
of religious freedom violations, and encourages it to 
review the applications of any individuals implicated 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
00:37 Nov 19, 2013
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HR417.IH
HR417
tjames on DSK6SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
•HRES 417 IH 
in religious freedom violations under the same stand-
ard; 
(5) commends the role of India’s National 
Human Rights Commission and the Indian Supreme 
Court, which has led to some convictions in Gujarat 
riot cases and the arrest of a few high-level leaders 
in the Gujarati administration; 
(6) urges India to increase training on human 
rights and religious freedom standards and practices 
for police and the judiciary, particularly in states 
with a history or likelihood of communal violence; 
(7) calls on Gujarat and other Indian states 
with anti-conversion laws to repeal such legislation 
and ensure freedom to practice, propagate, and pro-
fess ones’ religion as enshrined in the Indian con-
stitution; 
(8) urges the Government of India to empower 
the National Commission on Minorities with enforce-
ment mechanisms, such as the ability to conduct 
trials and hear appeals; 
(9) encourages the establishment of an impar-
tial body of interfaith religious leaders, human 
rights advocates, legal experts, and government offi-
cials to discuss and recommend actions to promote 
religious tolerance and understanding; and 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
00:37 Nov 19, 2013
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HR417.IH
HR417
tjames on DSK6SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
•HRES 417 IH 
(10) urges all political parties and religious or-
ganizations to publicly oppose the exploitation of re-
ligious differences and denounce harassment and vi-
olence against religious minorities, especially in the 
run-up to India’s general elections in 2014. 
Æ 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
00:37 Nov 19, 2013
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\HR417.IH
HR417
tjames on DSK6SPTVN1PROD with BILLS