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India, fully convertible?

India, fully convertible?

Author: Chandan Mitra
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 3, 2002
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/archives1/secon2.asp?cat=BKBONE1&d=SUNDAYPIONEER/BACKBONE&fdnam=nov302

The rupee is yet to be made fully convertible; that is, you can't carry a wad of rupee notes when you travel abroad and get them exchanged for local currency at any bureau de change. However, if some people have their way, one billion people (rather 800 million of them) ought to be made fully convertible. Suddenly, religious conversion is being offered as "the panacea" for all real and imagined socio-political afflictions. A curious event took place near Gurgaon in Haryana on October 27 when some 80 Hindus allegedly converted to an array of religions. In this Conversion Supermarket, people were apparently given a choice between Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. They picked the religion of their fancy the way one would normally select a bar of soap from a superstore shelf. Religious preachers from these three communities were allegedly present there hawking their wares. If some highly imaginative media reports are to be believed, these 80 volunteers subjected themselves to various strange rituals and triumphantly announced the new nomenclatures that were bestowed upon them following these mumbo-jumbo ceremonies. Some even tonsured their heads by way of a symbolic cleansing of their erstwhile creed. The entire drama would have been quite comic had it not been conducted in the backdrop of the tragic lynching of five Dalits by a mob of hoodlums, apparently at the instigation of a corrupt bunch of policemen at Dulina some 10 days back. Ironically, the SHO of the thana (since transferred) happened to be a Muslim.

Predictably, the hugely trumpeted conversion bazaar has turned out to be a hoax. Most of the alleged neo- converts have strenuously denied discarding their existing faith. They have claimed they were never told of plans to get them to switch to some other religion when invited for the October 27 protest meeting, held under the aegis of a tireless self-publicist, one Udit Raj. Even the family members of the lynched Dalits of Dulina who were tom-tommed to have converted to Buddhism have staunchly rejected the propaganda that they have done so. Evidently bewildered by the turn of events and the unwarranted media attention, they are now busy telling whoever cares to listen that they do not want any tension with their neighbours and shall continue to practice their ancient faith.

The Gurgaon hoax comes only weeks after a controversial ordinance promulgated by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa proscribing religious conversions by allurement, force or fraud. Predictably again, the standard-bearers of hard line secularism are up in arms against this. Even the Communists (I would have thought they should have no interest in the subject since their founding fathers had declared religion to be the opiate of the masses) have jumped into the fray to denounce the ordinance. The BJP, which never had the guts to introduce such legislation in any State ruled by it, has warmly lauded Amma Courage and called for similar laws to be enacted by all States. All of a sudden, religious conversions have become an issue across the country and I suspect will feature prominently on the national agenda in the coming months.

Faced with the embarrassment of the "converted" turning their backs on him, Udit Raj, the latest wannabe Kanshi Ram, pompously wrote in Indian Express that if anybody saw what happened in the villages around Dulina, he would have decided "right then and there to give a call to all the Dalits of the area to convert to Buddhism, Christianity or Islam, anything but Hinduism." His extravagant assertions are beside the point. The question is whether the conversion of Dalits to other faiths benefits them in any way economically or socially. The overwhelming evidence on this count suggests that, actually, it has a negative impact. Many readers may recall an agitation for reservations to be extended to Dalit Christians some years ago. In fact, Mother Teresa courted some controversy by associating herself with this misguided demand although, to her credit, dissociated rapidly when its implications became clear. Why were 'Dalit' Christians compelled to seek extension of the privileges extended to their Hindu compatriots for themselves? Obviously, the adoption of a new faith had not given them any economic benefits and had rightly deprived them of the privilege of job reservations. Hinduism and Sikhism admit that injustice has been done for centuries to the so-called outcastes and must be rectified by legal and constitutional means. Religions that admit to no such discrimination cannot, therefore, seek special dispensation for the socially oppressed among their brood. Worse, it is common knowledge that in many churches in South India, particularly Tamil Nadu, there still exist separate pews for Scheduled Caste converts. So, the dignity and social equality that was promised to them when they switched to their new faith never really materialised. Prejudices die hard and the all- pervasive, debilitating influence of caste continues to influence mindsets across communities.

Nevertheless, conversions do happen and there is evidence of renewed vigour on the part of proselytisers. That appears to have prompted Ms Jayalalithaa to act decisively. The Constitution guarantees the freedom to practice religion; implicitly, its preaching, too, is permitted. But there is a laxman rekha between preaching and converting. If, persuaded by preachers of a particular religion, somebody decides to renounce his/her faith and adopt a new one, there is nothing wrong with it. But, if organised bands are allowed the freedom to roam the country with the express purpose of effecting conversions, the state must step in. Wherever conversions have happened in significant numbers, social tensions have considerably exacerbated. Organs of the state have, consequently, had to bear the burden of maintaining law and order in remote places that had no previous history of communal tension. On account of the heightened drive to effect conversions in rural areas, the atmosphere in the placid Indian countryside has got vitiated in certain States. This, in turn, has attracted the attention of Hindu preachers who are now penetrating into the deep interiors to effect re- conversions. The spiral of communal one-upmanship is rising with attendant consequences, none of which are positive. More than laws, what is needed is a consensus among religious leaders not to turn conversions into a numbers game. From benevolent, even if self-righteous, Christian missionaries to egocentric, self- proclaimed messiahs of the Dalits, everybody needs to recognise that far from solving problems, conversions accentuate them by sharpening social polarisation. Hinduism being a non-proselytising religion, it is understandable if Hindus feel helpless but angry when large-scale conversion melas are organised where abuse is heaped upon various facets of their admittedly unequal faith. Thanks to the progressive notions of our legendary national leaders and particularly the stellar contribution of the re al messiah of Dalits, Dr BR Ambedkar, Hindu society and Indian polity have proactively reached out to their downtrodden and steadily downscaled prejudices in order to integrate the once-upon-a-time outcastes within the mainstream of Hindu religious and social practices.

Affirmative action must, therefore, be made the buzzword for Dalit integration, and those still guilty of discrimination against Scheduled Castes must meet with exemplary punishment. Self-serving calls for conversion, on the other hand, will only ignite passions that, in the end, can only play into the hands of majoritarian zealots, to the detriment of Dalits and Indian society as a whole.
 


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