Fallacy of forced conversions

Julio Ribeiro

Sacrilege is the word that is most bandied around in the run-up to the Punjab elections. Politicians of all hues have clutched at this ephemeral straw. Bread and butter issues like jobs for the unemployed youth and the rise in prices of commodities seem to have lost ground to the emotive issue of alleged disrespect to holy books and places of worship.

Two young unknown men, probably from outside Punjab, obviously jobless and hence hungry, have lost their lives to a collective rage that has gripped an entire community ever since the country’s former Test cricketer-turned-politician used the then CM’s tepid reaction to a previous (2015) ‘sacrilege’ to oust him from his perch. Every second denizen of the country’s most prosperous state has primed herself or himself to take umbrage to any sign of disrespect to their beliefs. If elections are to be won or lost on such issues, thoughtful will have to approach the Almighty for wisdom.

I don’t subscribe to conversions. If a Christian, through personal example of love for others, unwittingly propagates his or her religion, there is no antidote to such propagation.

In Uttar Pradesh, where the ruling BJP was in a spot of bother because of the memory of dead bodies floating down the Ganga into neighbouring Bihar, and Yogi’s mishandling of the oxygen crisis during Covid’s second wave, and finally the mini massacre of innocents by the son of the Union Minister of State for Home. The sting of these failures was impacting the electoral fortunes of the BJP. To checkmate the opposition in a crucial state election early next year, the BJP decided to fall back on the religious sensibilities of the masses.

Voters are reminded that it is the saffron party that ensured the construction of a magnificent temple to Ram at Ayodhya, on the very spot where Muslim invaders had built a mosque! This feat itself entitled them and their saffron-robed CM to rule for another five years or more. Yogi, they point out, has his own fan base in the state. He had consolidated this base by the instant justice he metes out on the streets of Uttar Pradesh through the use of the police. Since trials take years to complete, the people accept this instant justice. It has become inordinately popular!

The grand spectacle of the PM, with Yogi in tow, inaugurating the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor in Varanasi made such marvellous optics that victory in elections could be savoured even before the voter trod her or his way to the polling booth some two months hence. Here, again, it is not development or ‘vikas’ that will carry the day, like it did in 2014, but the pride of the native returning to his roots and his heritage, despite the lack of jobs and hunger pangs.

In the meantime in a southern state that has still two years left before elections kick in, emotive issues are being resurrected in anticipation of the hustings. I am reminded of a famous German pastor, who famously repented for not opposing the Nationalist Socialist Party of the Great Dictator when it needed to be opposed most. ‘First they came for the Communists and I said nothing because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and later for the Gypsies and again I said nothing because I was neither a Jew nor a Gypsy. Then they came for me! By that time none was left to plead for me!’

The Christians of Karnataka have been chosen for special attention by Hindutva’s storm troopers. Having tamed a much bigger entity, the Muslims, Hindutva forces decided to turn their attention to an easier target, a community engaged mainly in education and health amelioration, both sectors greatly neglected by most state governments, except the AAP in Delhi. The bogey of conversions has been raised to arouse primeval passions.

Christians are being accused of ‘forcible’ conversions! This charge could have been made four or five centuries ago when Portuguese seafarers landed in the land of my ancestors, accompanied by Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries. It was the Age of Faith. Conversions could have been forced or induced by carrots (land, for instance, was a major inducement — the prospect of owning more land than one required for survival was a compelling instrument of inducement).

I am a practising Catholic for the past 92 years. I do not subscribe to conversions. If a Christian, through her or his personal example of love for other human beings, compassion for the dispossessed and the downtrodden, justice for one and all and above all, service to fellow human beings unwittingly propagates his or her religion, then there is no antidote to such propagation.

The false charges of ‘forcible’ conversion are ridiculous and can be discarded without debate. Nobody can be ‘forcibly’ converted. Inducements are possible. Prospects of a better social status that attracts those excluded from the Chaturvarna or a better quality of life that attracts the poor and those whose finances do not admit of a possibility of an education that will open vistas for advancement in life. Should such inducements be dangled in front of prospective beneficiaries with intent to convert? The answer is a no. But should they be deprived of education for fear of their being induced to convert? Here, too, the answer is no. The solution lies in the State improving its education system. The solution is not to destroy Christian schools as is being done by Hindutva’s storm troopers in Karnataka and MP.

Marriage is another avenue for conversion. Muslims are already subject to ‘love jihad’ accusations. Not one accusation has been proved! The Catholic Church does not insist on conversion before a marriage is solemnised in a church. The groom or bride is free to practice his or her own religion.

It will be interesting and also educative to watch if the gambit of relying on religion pays off. When voters start using their minds more than their hearts, voting patterns are bound to change.

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