Pema Khandu-led government will soon implement the “dormant” Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 1978, in the state, which prohibits “forced conversions or conversions through inducement”.

This was announced by chief minister Pema Khandu while addressing the silver jubilee celebrations of the Indigenous Faith and Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh (IFCSAP) in Itanagar on Friday, asserting the legislation would play a key role in “preserving” the state’s indigenous faith and culture.

The state Assembly had passed the legislation in 1978 during the tenure of the state’s first chief minister PK Thungon.

An official statement quoting Khandu said that the act was “lying dormant” but the state government “is bound to frame its rules for execution and implementation” following a recent directive from the Gauhati High Court.

“The process of framing the rules is under way and soon we will have a proper structured Freedom of Religion Act in place,” Khandu said, while adding that the development will “play a significant role in preserving Arunachal’s indigenous faith and culture”.

The frontier’s state population was 13,83,727 as per the 2011 census with Christians making up for over 30 per cent of the population, followed by Hindus (over 29 per cent), Buddhist (over 11 per cent), Donyi-Polo (26.2 per cent) and Islam (1.9 per cent), among others.

Expressing his gratitude to Thungon, he said the legislation envisions “to provide for prohibition of conversion from one religious faith to any other religious faith by use of force or inducement or by fraudulent means and for matters connected therewith”.

While asserting that “faith and culture” are faces of the same coin, Khandu insisted that both cannot “walk” separately.

Citing examples of several indigenous tribes and cultures vanishing from the face of the world, Khandu underscored the necessity to preserve the distinct culture and faith of Arunachal Pradesh.

.The chief minister said: “Most of the credit of course goes to the pioneers of IFCSAP and hundreds of volunteers who gave their time and energy in dedicatedly working for preservation of indigenous culture. As the saying goes ‘Loss of culture is loss of identity’ we have succeeded in retaining our culture and our identity stands tall among its peers across the world.”