India has become a dangerous country for those whose political views and religious beliefs don’t conform with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist (Hindutva) government.

With an autocratic and majoritarian vision for the Indian society, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) seek to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation), where non-Hindus and those who hold different political views are constantly demonized, dehumanized, criminalized and thrown into jails under false and fabricated charges.

Since the start of PM Modi’s rule in 2014, thousands of activists, human rights defenders, academics, journalists, opposition party leaders, members of minority and marginalized communities have been jailed under-motivated cases and slapped with draconian provisions of terrorism laws and sedition.

The Prisoners of Conscience in India (PoCI) aims to document and highlight the cases of people who have been imprisoned in India because of their peaceful expression of political, religious, or other conscientiously held beliefs.

PoCI is a project started by the Council on Minority Rights in India (CMRI), a Virginia, US-based human rights organization.