On forcible and fraudulent religious conversions
It is appalling to note that a Hindutva
outfit Dharm Jagran Samiti (DJS) chief reportedly said “Muslims and Christians
will have to convert to Hinduism by 2021. There was no Muslim or Christian in
Bharat. Everybody was a Hindu. Our target is that India would be made free of
Muslims and Christians by 2021 because these two communities don’t have the
right to stay here.” There was another proclamation by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS) chief which was equally disquieting. He said “We will bring back
our brothers who have lost their way and belongings stolen by a thief.” There
has also been a leaked letter from a member of DJC clearly asking for monetary
help to organise “re-conversion” ceremonies in Agra. His letter also had
information that they have “re-converted” 40,000 Muslims and Christians in
Uttar Pradesh last year and the target for this year is a total of one lakh
Muslims and Christians in 50 ‘Ghar Wapsi’ ceremonies. These statements generate
suspicions that the alleged “re-conversion” programmes are forced and not
voluntary.
The conversion attempt that happened in Ved
Nagar Colony, Agra is no more a secret. Ved Nagar Colony is a cluster of sixty
homes where the inhabitants, Bengali-speaking Muslim immigrants, live in abject
poverty, struggling to make ends meet. Rituals of faith or education are
luxuries that they could not afford in their struggling lives fighting poverty.
A group of Hindu activists turned up at their colony on December 8, 2014 and
performed ceremonies that symbolized their “re-conversion” into Hinduism. One
of the inhabitants said that they were offered Aadhar cards and plots for
building homes if they agreed to get converted. During the ritual, the victims
were gathered in large numbers and made to follow the instructions by a priest who
chanted mantras and smeared tilak on people’s foreheads. Finally, the priest
asked them to remove their caps. When the news came to light the next day, the
inhabitants have told media that the ceremony was not voluntary while the
organisers claimed that the ‘re-conversion’ was a voluntary ‘Ghar Wapsi’
programme.
The stories don’t end there. It seems that
‘religious conversion’ is the flavour of the season. It has been reported that
27 Hindus in Uttar Pradesh has been converted to Christianity recently by Christian
missionaries from Bihar. Christian missionaries have become more and more
prominent and divisive in India. Christianity and missionary conversion in
India belongs to the times of colonialism. The massive conversion programmes primarily
take place in the southern states of the country where the Christian
missionaries target low caste Hindus and tribals through fraudulent acts. In
the coastal areas of Kerala, it is not uncommon that we find “miracle boxes” in
local churches. The naive residents write their wishes, for instance, a fishing
boat or a financial loan, on a paper. After a few weeks, the miracle happens
and the whole family gets converted making others in the locality to follow
them.
American missionaries invest large amounts
of money in India disguising their conversion programmes as charity. The money
comes from donation-drives in the United States where the Americans think that
the money they give towards the cause is used to uplift the “uneducated and
poor” Indians. The missionaries aim the “poorest” for conversions as they can
be easily bribed into influencing their beliefs. Some of the strategies that the missionaries
use for their conversion programmes are adoption, materialistic benefits, child
sponsorship, financial loans, churches built in Dravidian architecture, usage
of Hindu symbols and literature, etc. Rahul Eswar of Kerala’s Hindu Parliament
says, “A single major evangelist in Kerala has officially admitted of receiving
more than Rs. 1,000 crores last year as financial contributions from abroad.
Pentacoastal Missions in Kerala have converted lakhs of person in last five
years giving allurements.” Personally, I have come across a number of Hindu
families in my neighborhood, uneducated and financially underprivileged, who
got converted to Christianity falling on false promises and offerings of
materialistic benefits.
There is another dark plot called the ‘Love
Jihad’ aimed at Hindu women where Muslim men trick them into marriage and force
them to convert to Islam. There had been many cases where the men would force
their “converted” wives to have more than two children, then leave her, or rape
her, or murder her. They would also feign love and use the women for immoral
and terror activities. This alleged activity came into view in 2009 when claims
of extensive conversions were reported in Kerala and Karnataka. Later, it has
spread all over the nation stirring distress in various Hindu, Christian and
Sikh organisations. Following a wave of incidents, Kerala Chief Minister
informed the state legislature that 2667 young women were converted to Islam in
the state since 2006.
Forcible and fraudulent religious conversions
are illegal and incite arguments of introducing Anti-Conversion Law to
safeguard the constitutionally guaranteed Right to Freedom of Religion. There
were no Anti-Conversion laws in British India. However, many Princely States endorsed
Anti-Conversion legislation, namely, the Raigarh State Conversion Act 1936, the
Patna Freedom of Religion Act of 1942, the Sarguja State Apostasy Act 1945 and
the Udaipur State Anti-Conversion Act 1946. After Independence, the Lok Sabha
proposed two bills to regulate conversions; the Indian Conversion (Regulation
and Registration) Bill of 1954 and the Backward Communities (Religious
Protection) Bill. Even though the bills gained wide support, both the bills
were ultimately binned due to political interventions. Our Constitution grants
citizens the right to follow any religion, or none at all. We are also free to
follow our conscience and convert to any faith of our choice. Religious
conversion should happen only as a result of spiritual persuasion and not by
any act by external influence. It is to be noted that the architect of our
Constitution, B. R. Ambedkar, along with five lakh followers, converted to
Buddhism, just few months before his death in 1956. I presume that it is high
time an Anti-Conversion Law is passed to protect people from being forced to
change their beliefs and to give them religious liberty. In absence of this
law, forcible and fraudulent conversions would go unseen and unpunished.
It is a sad truth that the religious
minorities of the country face threats in the name of religion and often become
an easy prey of religious motives. Forcible conversions set off fear into these
victims and give them a message that they don’t belong to this country. India is the birthplace of numerous religions.
India is also a secular republic where all the religions are offered equality
under the law. ‘Freedom of Religion’ is a fundamental right guaranteed under
Article 25 of the Constitution of India. No one has the right, either legally
or morally, to impair the sentiments of any religious community and disturb the
law and order of our country. As responsible citizens of India, let us be
conscious of religious freedom and minority rights, respect all religions, believe
in peaceful co-existence, and foster communal harmony.
A civilisation can be judged by the way it
treats its minorities. – Mahatma Gandhi
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