Dread of conversions

The cry for an anti-conversion law has been raised again, this time by a lawyer who appears to be convinced that Hindus will soon become a tiny segment of the population of our overpopulated country. He rattles off numbers to prove his point, though these statistics do not corroborate the official figures put out by agencies controlled by the government.

Personally, I am not in favour of conversions. Indians of all religious persuasions, including Catholics, have to be converted to become good human beings. Period.

The Supreme Court found substance in his PIL and asked the government to spell out its stand on the issue. Obviously, the court had not been told that the Centre has been very active in quelling the alleged menace by generally ignoring attacks on Christian pastors and places of private worship in BJP-governed states like Uttarakhand.

We cannot argue with the logic of the Supreme Court’s Bench that heard this matter. The supplicant must have advanced cogent reasons for his apprehensions to have swayed even those who listen to arguments carefully and take wise decisions in the quest for justice. The applicant had alleged that forcible conversions are rampant all over the country and in every state! The use of force to convert used to be a feature of conquests by nations converted to the Abrahamic religions that followed Judaism, the founding religion, notably in the 15th and 16th centuries.

During British rule in India, no empirical data on forcible conversions is to be found, though it would be par for the course for colonial rulers to welcome new Christians who could be relied on to keep their distance from nationalist movements against their rule. But the use of violence to compel vulnerable sections of society to change gods was never on the cards. By then, the Church had shed its militant fervour. Mass conversions, like those witnessed in the Northeast of the country, were the work of missionaries, especially Baptists from the US, who spent years living among tribals and preaching to them.

After Independence, missionary activity was discouraged. Intelligence agencies kept a close watch on the missionaries. The government discouraged the presence of certain missionaries who were more active in conversions than in teaching or in just doing good. It did not renew the visas of many foreign men of the cloth. In any case, the question of using violence to convert was never contemplated, nor was it possible.

Forced conversions are impossible in India today. Even use of inducements, like the lure of land that the Portuguese used to convert village leaders some centuries ago, is frowned upon by the Church itself. Trusts set up by the Church with funds provided by dead parishioners have recently come under scrutiny. A woman called Catherine Quinny from Worli village died without leaving behind a heir. She bequeathed two-thirds of her property to the Church and one-third to the villagers of her own community. Elected representatives from the village and adjoining Koliwada identify beneficiaries requiring help for higher education or for major health issues. But the Charity Commissioner’s office has frozen the bank accounts of the Trust, with the result that poor students and the seriously sick are left to fend for themselves.

The funds were used only for Catholic families who were around during the lifetime of Catherine Quinny. There was no question of diverting the funds for any other purpose. Yet, a suspicious government official has effectively assured that the poor are left in the lurch. Suspicion of the intentions of the Church and of the trustees is now the new avatar!

There could be a couple of Christian groups with their origin in the US who are more eager in converting non-believers to their faith than in ameliorating the lot of the poor. But the unbecoming, nay the immoral, is not an option with mainstream Christian groups. I will vouch for my own sect of Christians, the Catholics, that though as committed men and women of god our priests and our nuns would welcome new adherents to the faith, they do not use any allurements, except good example, to attract others to their way of life.

Personally, I am not in favour of conversions. Indians of all religious persuasions, including Catholics, have to be converted to become good human beings. Period. All religions teach people to be straight and honest, to refrain from killing or stealing, to speak the truth and to love others and be compassionate. There are people, who go regularly, daily, to Church or temple or mosque, but indulge in the vilest activity in private life. These are the people who need to be converted, not from one religious belief to another, but to become good citizens of India.

The anti-conversion laws on the anvil of legislatures, in BJP-ruled states predominantly, are politically motivated. They deal with situations that do not really exist. If they do exist, they do so only tangentially, mostly in the minds of the insecure or the prejudiced. The few aberrations they quote can be dealt with by the ordinary laws of the land that discourage any form of extortion. And mass conversions last occurred when Babasaheb Ambedkar embraced Buddhism to rid the depressed castes from bondage.

These new anti-conversion laws are being brought in to enthuse the Sangh Parivar’s followers and make them feel that they are engaged in productive activity and not its negative variety, which, unfortunately, it is.

Persons like the lawyer who filed the PIL are only few and far between. Yet, they can help to increase the number of followers to ensure victory at the hustings, whenever elections are held. The ultimate aim is ‘double-engine’ governments at the Centre and in the states that will lead to a ‘Hindu rashtra’.

And to achieve that end, 2 per cent of India’s population has to become the sacrificial goat!