NEW DELHI, INDIA - Christian missionaries in the western Indian state of Rajasthan faced possible arrest Saturday, April 8, after lawmakers passed a controversial law prohibiting religious conversions.

The 'Rajasthan Dharma Swatantrik Vidhayak,' or Rajasthan Religious Freedom Bill, adopted late Friday, April 7, forbids conversion activities "by allurement" "fraudulent means" or pressure, punishing "violators" with up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.

Evangelical Christians have denied mass conversions and say those who convert do so out of their own will, in part to escape the rigid Hindu caste hierarchy.

Authorities in Rajasthan state, ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), defended banning religious conversions saying they "were weakening communal harmony." Church observers said the real reason behind the law is fear among Hindus over growing Christian influence in tribal areas, especially among Dalits, the lowest caste and "untouchables" in India's ancient system of Hinduism.

The religious conversions ban comes after Hindu hard-line groups and government officials accused one of India's largest Christian mission groups, of "forcing" Hindus to accept Christianity.

Indian Christian leaders are now accused and charged of either "forcing people to convert" or of "communal disharmony". Any Christian literatures or messages speaking Christ as the only Lord are accused to be "anti-Hindu". Christian organizations have been discriminated against because anything Christians do is seen as a means to convert the Hindus and as such no Govt approvals are given. Rajasthan is not the only Indian state with fresh tensions over religious conversions. Last week, April 1, the BJP-run government of Gujarat reportedly declined to renew its contract with Catholic administrators of a leprosy hospital in Ahmedabad, on grounds that the nuns were "preaching Christianity."