Religious Departure in India: A Sociological Study of Ex-Muslims Through the Maqasid Framework

Abstract

This paper provides a comprehensive examination of the ex-Muslim movement in contemporary India, analyzing the phenomenon through Rambo's stage-based conversion theory while integrating critical perspectives from postcolonial studies, religious sociology, and digital culture scholarship. Drawing on empirical data from the Pew Research Center (2021) indicating approximately 4.14 million Indians raised as Muslims no longer identify with Islam, the research explores the complex interplay of individual intellectual crises, structural fragilities inherent in minority religious status, and deliberate political instrumentalization of apostasy by Hindu nationalist organizations including the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The study traces the historical lineage of reconversion movements in South Asia, from nineteenth-century Arya Samaj shuddhi (purification) ceremonies through contemporary Ghar Wapsi (homecoming) campaigns. It examines documented reconversion campaigns in Agra (2014), where 100–250 Muslims were claimed to be reconverted, and Ambedkar Nagar (2017), where at least 22 individuals, including children, were reconverted in a secretive ceremony. By evaluating these structural and intellectual departures against the Maqasid al-Shari’ah, specifically the objectives of preserving faith (hifz al-din) and intellect (hifz al-'aql), this study reveals how institutional rigidity contributes to apostasy. This paper interrogates the distinction between genuine religious departure and political appropriation, concluding that understanding apostasy in India requires moving beyond binary frameworks of individual choice or coercive manipulation, and instead recognizing how structural forces, institutional constraints, and political opportunities converge to shape the transformation of religious identity.