[Assam] Religious conversions and religious freedom - AT Editorial

[Ram Sarangapani]

This is one of the best I have read on the subject. Kaushish has done a
great job.

--Ram
**
*Religious conversions and religious freedom
— Poonam I KaushishI*ndia is caught up in a battle royale between the Gods.
At one end, our political undatas are busy churning the reservation cauldron
in their reckless pursuit of OBC nirvana. At the other, the holy fanatics
are busy 'decoding' the blockbuster film Da Vinci Code. Amidst this clash of
'holier than thou' fervour has come a religious benedict from the Vatican.
Which has exposed the 'unholy' testament of the sacred Holy See and its Pope
and threatens to destroy the body politic of the nation with international
overtones. Where even angels fear to tread!

It all started with Pope Benedict XVI's provocative remarks out of the blue
condemning India's attempts to "legislate clearly discriminatory
restrictions on the fundamental right to religious freedom and the
disturbing signs of religious intolerance which have troubled some regions
of the nation." Even as the country rubbed its eyes in disbelief, New Delhi
appropriately summoned the Vatican's envoy and curtly ticked him off.
Reiterating India's secular and democratic credentials, the Pointiff was
told to lay off India's internal matter.

The Pope's statement comes against the backdrop of Rajasthan becoming the
sixth State to enact the anti-conversion law. Already, Orissa, Madhya
Pradesh, Arunchal Pradesh, Chhattigarh, and Gujarat have laws that bar
conversions but allow re-conversions to Hinduism. Jharkhand has declared its
intention to enact a similar law. It is another matter that all these States
are presently BJP-ruled. Remember, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa enacted the law
under Congress rule.

Is the Pontiff justified in stating that India is bereft of a religious
conscience? That it lacks freedom of religion? Given the fact that
xenophobic, racial, and religious killings are a part of the western world;
that post World War II, peace was more a religious rather than a political
issue. The answer is a resounding no. Since Independence, the Christian
minority totalling about 2.34 per cent of the population has enjoyed perfect
harmony with their Hindu brethren. Even as history has stood testimony to
occasional Hindu-Muslim clashes there have been no Hindu-Christian quarrels.

Nevertheless, how does one explain the rape of the nuns in Jhabua, Madhya
Pradesh, the burning of chapels, howsoever kachche, in Dangs, Gujarat, and
the murder of the Australian missionary Grahm Staines and his children in
Manoharpur, Orissa? Dismiss it as religious xenophobia? An orchestrated
political conspiracy? Or is it the outcome of a raging feud by the Sangh
Parivar over re-conversions across the country. What is the truth?

Clearly, 'religious conversion has become the most exploited and explosive
social and political issue in India. The modus operandi is simple. Ignorant
Dalits or tribals are lured to Christianity, with the promise that it would
free them from caste bondage.' (It's another matter that it fails to deliver
them from caste-oppression.) Add to this economic lollipops – jobs, schools,
health facilities and social benefits – dignity, self-respect – one is face
to face with instances of fraudulent conversion.

Turn North, South, East or West, the story is the same. Religion is turning
out to be a question of money, big money. Flush with funds from their
headquarters in the United States, a number of church groups are allegedly
converting hundreds of Hindus to Christianity in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka by giving them money and jobs. In Kashmir, Christian
missionaries are accused of trying to convert earthquake-affected people
under the garb of providing relief by way of monetary incentives, free gas
cylinders, water bottles, audio cassettes and a copy of the New Testament in
Urdu. In Arunachal Pradesh, which had banned religious conversions long
back, about 50 per cent of the State's population is said to have been
converted to Christianity by missionaries operating from neighbouring States
Assam and Nagaland by deception and allurements.

The tragedy of it all is Hindu, Muslim and, now Christian fundamentalism
does not occur in a vacuum. It has a context. Of political and intellectual
double-speak. Thus, pseudo-secularism has become a populist stock in trade.
Wherein secularism has degenerated from its lofty ideal of equal respect for
all religions to a cheap diabolical strategy for creating minority
vote-banks – first the Muslim minority and now the Christian, the second
largest community in India.

The genesis of this religious vote-bank politics has been reflected at great
length in the nearly forgotten but crucial report of high-level committee
set-up in 1956, to primarily enquire into increasing conversions of tribals
into Christianity. This five-member Committee, headed by M B Niyogi, dealt
exhaustively with the psychosis of conversion, its political background and
implications, and meaning of secularism. The Committee's scope was later
enlarged to "political and extra-religious objectives; a thorough review of
the question from the historical and other points of view."

Significantly, no less than Gandhi condemned mass conversions at a Unity
Conference in Delhi in 1924. Later he said: "it is not unusual to find
Christianity synonymous with denationalisation and Europeanisation." Further
in 1933, he added: "I could understand the Muslim organisations doing
this... but the Christian mission claims to be a purely spiritual effort. It
hurts me to find the Christian bodies vying with the Muslims and the Sikhs
in trying to add to the number of their fold. It seemed to be an ugly
performance and a travesty of religion." The Lok Sabha too debated a Private
Member's Bill, Backward Communities Religious Protection Bill, moved by
Prakash Vir Shastri in March 1960.

In fact, Article 25 of our Constitution which lays down the tenets of
freedom of religion has an important rider. It specifies the limits within
which religious freedom can be exercised. All persons, it states are equally
entitled to freedom of conscience, and the right freely profess, practise
and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality and health.
Dispute, if any, can only be on the interpretation of the expression
"propagate any religion". Suffices to say that the State will not allow its
citizens to do whatever they please in the name and under the guise of
religion. Clearly, the political parties debunk Article 25 in quest of
minority votes.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court settled this matter in 1973 wherein it
distinguished between the right to proselytize and the right to convert.
Upholding the Constitutional validity on anti-conversion laws enacted by
Orissa and Madhya Pradesh in 1967-68, it ruled: "what the Constitution
grants is not the right to convert another person to one's own religion, but
to transmit or spread one's religion by an exposition of its tenders." The
Court also observed that organised conversion was anti-secular and that
respect for all religions was the essence of India's secularism.

On the flip side, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal too need to be reprimanded for
playing on Hindu religious sentiments. Benefitting the BJP, whose vote-bank
enabled it to snowfall from 2 to 193 MPs in the Lok Sabha on a Hindutva wave
in 1998. They established groups of armed youth, called Raksha Sena, in
every village of Chhattisgarh, in order to stop conversions to Christianity.
And where conversion had taken place another movement called the Ghar Wapsi
("return home") was launched in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Gujarat and Orrisa for reconverting the tribal Christian back to
Hinduism.

Many ask: why should religious conversions be treated differently from other
kinds of conversions? When political parties attempt to convert votes with
wild promises and the State goes all out to woo the Naxalites back into
mainstream society, are these exercises not fraudulent?
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