Political
Diary
New Delhi, 22
November 2022
Religious
Conversions
DANGEROUS CHANGE
By Poonam I Kaushish
India is
caught up in a battle royale between the Gods after a 17-year-old girl committed suicide as she was being
tortured by her school to convert to Christianity to continue studying in Tamil
Nadu. Resulting in Supreme Court terming “fraudulent and forced religious
conversions a very serious issue and a
very dangerous thing which may ultimately affect the security of the nation as
well as the freedom of religion and conscience of citizens,” last week. It
asked the Centre to specify steps it could take
to prevent it.
Primarily, as over the years religious conversion has become the most exploited,
explosive, social and political issue reaching an alarming situation as our
political tribe and organisations carry on churning the religious conversions cauldron, by carrying out
mass forced conversions of SC-STs and poor in rural and tribal areas via enticement
of gifts, cash or inter-religious marriage labeled as ‘love jihad’. Last month the
Madhya Pradesh police arrested three Christians for trying to convert
Hindus.
In UP Chief Minister Yogi’s Hindu
Yuva Vahini raided a church, accusing members of converting people. In
Jharkhand, RSS aims to make whole blocks “Christianity free” and recently
converted 53 families to Hinduism. Hindu Jagran Manch activists alleged Christian preachers from Bhopal
and Kerala promise jobs and money to illiterate tribals' if they practice
Christianity at its ‘Changai Sabhas.’
Pertinently, 77% of the new converts to Islam were Hindus and 63%
women last year. Added a Vishva Hindu Parishad leader, “'Every year over 12 lakh
Hindus become either Christians or Muslims.”
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 US headquarters, a number of church groups allegedly converted hundreds
of Hindus to Christianity in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra, Kashmir and Karnataka
by giving them money and jobs post Independence.
As a counter the VHP and Bajrang Dal too established groups of armed
youth, called Raksha Sena in every Chhattisgarh
village to stop conversions to Christianity. And where conversions had taken
place they launched the Ghar Wapsi
(“Return Home”) in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat
and Orissa for reconverting tribal Christians back to Hinduism.
Reminiscent of the flurry of orchestrated
propaganda campaign and popular inflammatory and demagogic appeals launched by
Arya Samaj and other Hindu revivalist bodies in the 1920s in UP, against the
“abduction” and conversions of Hindu women by Muslim goondas, ranging from allegations of rape, elopement to luring,
conversion, love and forced marriages to draw sharper lines between Hindus and
Muslims.
To put an end to this 10 States: UP, Uttarakhand, Madhya
Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh,
Gujarat, Himachal, Rajasthan, Arunachal and Jharkhand have banned conversion in all but
name by enacting anti-conversion
laws that bar conversions but allow re-conversions to Hinduism. Assam has warned
it will ensure jail term for anyone who harasses an Assamese girl or makes her
a victim of love jihad by hiding their identity
All have
enacted Freedom of Religion Act by making it not just an ‘issue’ but a criminal
offence warranting a sentence up to 10 years, with a fine of Rs 50,000, in
specific cases. Most States have made it mandatory that every conversion has to
be notified in advance to the local Government authorities, including the
district magistrate. Failure to do so can also invite prosecution.
In fact, Article 25 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 to freely profess, practice 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.
Further, not many are aware the ‘love jihad’ programme started in
1996 with blessings of some Muslim organizations in Kerala, though the term was
first heard in the State’s Pathanamthitta district in September 2009 and used
in a Kerala High Court judgment three months later. Dubbing it ‘an alleged
Muslim plot to forcefully convert young brilliant Hindu girls to Islam by
having Muslim boys entrap them in love affairs’, it asked the State Government
to consider enacting a law to prohibit such “deceptive acts of LoveJihad”.
Notwithstanding denials by Islamic fundamentalist outfits like
National Democratic Front (NDF) and ‘Campus Front’ of Popular Front of India
(PFI), the Kerala Government said that 2,667 women had converted to Islam in
the State since 2006. Police figures on the other hand total over 10,000
conversions in the last four years alone. Add to this another 60,000 girls have
been converted in Karnataka alone according to the Hindu Janajagruti
Samiti. In the last two months UP
registered over 40 LJ cases.
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.
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.
Today it is
being used by terrorist outfits to trap innocent citizens. UP’s Anti-Terrorist
Squad recently arrested an Islamic scholar and 8 suspected terrorists for
religious conversion by distributing money. According to the ISIS mouthpiece
Voice of Koharasan the first Indian suicide bomber was a Christian Keralite
converted to Islam.
Pertinently,
none of our leaders want to acknowledge they are the culprits nor willing to
address the crux: Conversions takes place when 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.
A way
forward is a separate law be made to control such conversions or the offence
should be added to the existing Indian Penal Code (IPC). And the Law Commission
prepare a report as well as a Bill to control “Deceit Religious Conversion.
We need to
consider a ban on conversion politics as 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. Today we live in a dangerous
terror-infested world. High time
we did a cost-benefit analysis and put a stop to converting religious gush into conversion slush!
----- INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
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