Political Diary
New Delhi, 13 December 2014
Religious
Conversions
INDIA’S BATTLE
OVER THE GOD
By Poonam I Kaushish
“God is very angry with India,” a mother told her daughter.
“Which God,” the little girl asked? “I am confused. Everyone appears to be fighting
over each others -- the Hindu-Muslim Gods in UP and now the Hindu-Christian
Gods in Madhya Pradesh. Aren’t they all scared that they will go to Hell,” she
added for good measure. Either way it matters little. For the little girl had
hit the bull’s eye. The tragedy of India is that our political undaatas continue to churn the cauldrons
of these ‘holier-than-thou’ clashes
in their reckless pursuit of political nirvana!
If the Opposition raged against the RSS and its cohorts for
communal polarisation in its ‘Ghar vapasi’
(Return Home) programme whereby poor Muslims were converted to Hinduism in Agra
last week, akin to those launched in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Gujarat and Orissa for reconverting the tribal Christian back to Hinduism
earlier.
The Hindutva’s Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM) activists alleged
that Christian preachers from Bhopal
and Kerala had promised jobs and money to illiterate tribals' if they practiced
Christianity at its ‘Changai Sabha’
in Ratlam. Adding fuel to fire BJP firebrand MP Yogi Adityanath pledged a bigger ‘voluntary’, sic,
Muslim-to-Hindu “home-coming” ceremony in UP. On the fallacious plea he had
been doing so for the past 10 years.
Only in June, despite denials by Islamic fundamentalist
outfits like National Democratic Front (NDF) and ‘Campus Front’ of Popular
Front of India (PFI), Kerala’s Chief Minister Oommen Chandy informed the
Assembly that 2667 young women were converted to Islam since 2006. Police
figures, on the other hand total over 4000 conversions in the last four years
alone. Add to this another 30,000 girls have been converted in Karnataka alone
according to the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.
Raising a moot point: Should one dismiss these cases as an
orchestrated political conspiracy? As religious xenophobia? Or is it the
outcome of rampant bad blood by the Sangh Parivar over re-conversions across
the country?
Undeniably, religious conversions in multi-faith India are
threatening to sow fresh discord once again as rabid Saffron Sangh outfits have
raised the ante against conversions right post the BJP coming to power.
Despite, the Government underscoring its commitment to maintain the nation's
secular foundations, communal harmony and suggesting States adopt anti-conversion
laws.
Bluntly, the raging inferno of hatred is because religion per se has become the most exploited and
explosive social and political issue. And religious vote-bank politics is the
flavour of the season. Big deal if it threatens to destroy the body politic of
the nation wherein even angels fear to tread!
Turn North, South, East or West, the story is the same.
Religion is turning out to be a question of money, big money. Recall, flush
with funds from their headquarters in the US,
a number of church groups allegedly converted hundreds of Hindus to
Christianity in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Kashmir and Karnataka by
giving them money and jobs in the decades post Independence.
On the flip side, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal too
established groups of armed youth, called Raksha
Sena, in every village
of Chhattisgarh, in order
to stop conversions to Christianity. And
where conversions had taken place Ghar
Vapsi was launched in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Orissa for reconverting the tribal Christian
back to Hinduism.
India’s misfortune is that Hindu, Muslim
and Christian fundamentalism is growing thanks to political and intellectual
double-speak. Whereby, secularism has degenerated from its lofty ideal of equal
respect for all religions to a cheap and diabolical strategy for creating
captive religious vote-banks.
Pertinently, none of our netagan
want to acknowledge they are the culprits nor willing to address the crux:
Conversions takes place when the poor of various creed and caste pleas for
dignity, self-respect and economic betterment fall on deaf ears. Alas, leaving
them no recourse but to freely grab monies offered by Hindu priests, Christian
missionaries or Muslim mullas for
their votes.
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.
Questionably, what have right wing Hindu organisations done
to change unshackle their brethren from poverty? Why don’t they spend the money
collected for building temples on the poor and tribals’? Shockingly, a recent
caste survey revealed that over 52 per cent upper caste Hindus still treat
Dalits as “untouchables” and refuse to let them enter temples or kitchens in
their homes. Followed by one in every three OBC’s displaying contempt.
Pertinently, the time has come to rid Hinduism from the
stranglehold of caste prejudices and separate religion from the State else we
will become another Iran or Saudi Arabia.
Remember, the State is apolitical and has no religion except the Constitution
which grants equal rights to everyone.
Article 25 of our Constitution lays down the tenets of
freedom of religion and has an important rider.
It specifies the limits within which religious freedom can be exercised.
All people, are equally entitled to freedom of conscience, and the right to
freely profess, practice and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality
and health.
Interestingly, the UN guarantees the right to convert to
another religion as a human right. Alongside many Western countries allow
conversion while some Islamic nations have banned conversion from Islam to
another religion while permitting conversion to Islam. Recall, a number of
Dalits switched from Hinduism to Islam in Tamil Nadu’s Meenakshipuram district
in the early 1980s.
In India
already eight States: Rajasthan, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat
have enacted anti-conversion laws that bar conversions but allow re-conversions
to Hinduism. In Jharkhand which goes to polls the BJP has declared its
intention to enact a similar law.
Importantly, religious conversions have nothing to do with
protecting the sanctity of a religion. Nor does religious freedom justify
extension to a planned programme of conversions. Such exercises are an
aggression against the religious freedom of others.
Surely, no quarter should be given to Hindu communalism. At
the same time, however, secularism cannot be a one-way street, with appeasement
of minority communities. Said Nehru, following the Mahatma’s assassination:
“The combination of politics and religion, resulting in communal politics, is a
most dangerous combination, and must be put an end to”.
The tragedy of India is that its political class
wants the present show to go on. Forgetting that there is no mysticism in the
secular character of the State. The
State is neither anti-God nor pro-God. It is expected to treat all religions
and people alike. But so caught up are all in their frenzied pursuit of
political nirvana through separatism, that they confuse themselves and the
voter – and, indeed, history itself. Converting religions gush into political
slush! ----- INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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