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Be wary of unfettered conversions

Be wary of unfettered conversions

Author: P V Indiresan
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: November 1, 2002

Should journalism be passionate, or should it be objective? In recent weeks, there has been a well-orchestrated campaign against the Tamil Nadu Government's move to curb religious conversions. Several contributors have argued with great passion that it is improper and illegal to create impediments against religious conversion.Their arguments are exhilarating; unfortunately, they are equally risky.

Progressive intellectuals are rightly disgusted with the way self-appointed champions of Hinduism (who, incidentally, are all of high-caste) are behaving. They have concluded that these upper-caste Hindus are too powerful to be checked. Hence, they consider that it would be a good idea for the less fortunate adherents of Hinduism to change religion. That sounds obviously logical but has a not so obvious pitfall.

If this logic were correct, anyone whose religious leaders ill-treat them should be induced to change their religion. We know that there are powerful Mullahs all over the world who treat women badly. Then, should Muslim women convert from Islam? It is being reported that not only catholic priests, even those as strict as Jehova's Witnesses, sexually abuse children. Should Christian children therefore give up Christianity?

Admittedly, many Hindu activists are bad. Admittedly, their emergence is a flaw of Hindu religion. Yet, that is not sufficient argument to change religion. Jesus Christ has advised that we should not visit the sins of the fathers on the children. In reverse, it is not advisable to visit the sins of religious leaders on the religion itself. Religious leaders come and go, but religion marches on whether its leaders are good or whether they are bad.

Jesus also said, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you". Christian evangelists want to convert Hindus. How would they like it if Hindus start converting Christians? No doubt, that risk is low at present because Hinduism is in bad shape. At the moment, world over, Hindus are poor but Christians are nearly fifty times richer. That does offer a golden opportunity to strike at Hinduism. Even then, making unbridled religious conversion a right is not wise. History is like a cricket ball; it is unpredictable. At some future date, Christianity may be in difficulties and Hinduism may be riding the crest at the same time. In that event, will it be a good idea for Hindus to assert that it is their unbridled right to re-convert Christians, and face no legal impediments to do so? At such a time, would not the laws that the TN government is introducing protect Christianity when it needs such protection most?

Much has been made of freedom of conscience. Nobody can question the freedom of any individual to follow whatever creed he or she likes. The issue changes drastically when we get mass conversions. A hundred people cannot have an identical pang of conscience at one and the same time. That is like one Adivasi cutting a tree in the forest for personal use, or many of them doing so to get money from contractors. Cutting a tree for personal use is fine; doing so to get rewards from contractors is not. Even Jawaharlal Nehru was forced to tick off Cardinal Gracias when he complained about objections to mass conversions.

It is highly probable that the Tamil Nadu ordinance is flawed in critical ways. Those flaws should be rectified. In order to identify those flaws, the ordnance should be scrutinised carefully. That is a job for legal experts, but not the experts who believe in adversarial justice, but by those who believe in the common good. Certainly, what Hindu zealots are doing is wrong. They should be corrected, and if that is not possible, they ought to be punished. However, promoting the idea of unfettered conversion as an antidote is like cutting off the nose to spite the face.

The spread of hatred has become a sad feature of religious movements these days. Conversion will not be a bad idea if it comes out of love. It is a bad idea if it is born of hatred, and contempt too.
 


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