http://bihartimes.com/viewersvoice/2008/Oct/vv92.html

Conversion and Repercussion


Sudeep Singh

(Bihar Times)Change of any kind is always met by resistance of various
kinds across the civilisation and period. It is logical  to ascertain
all pros and cons of new status as all change is not productive and
conducive. Same is the case with conversion from one religion to
another as is the case with change all conversion is not out of
conviction of faith but many other materialistic reasons and disguise.
Conversion is quite old phenomena across globe and also in India. It
is history that Islam and Christanity in India is result of Hindus
getting converted in to respective religion and there are various
reasons which fuel this process over the period of time. One of the
foremost reasons was governance. During the rule of  Mughals and
Muslim large number of population got converted to Islam. Similarly
during the  era of British large population got in to fold of
Christianity. This indicates that ruler encourages people to follow
religion of its own to rule longer without much hassles hence ruler to
patronises the act of conversion. In modern India theory of governance
remains the same where as different political ideologue supports and
patronize particular caste and religion to create its own vote bank.

Recently there has been incidence of attack on churches in those parts
of the country which has seen large scale conversion which has got
weeks and weeks of coverage in newspaper and news channel without
counting on cause of such mass upheaval. The reason that is propagated
for violence is Sangparivar and specifically Bajrang Dal and not cold
blooded murder of Saint Lakshman Das and his disciple and if you want
to ascertain that check with people around you who will be aware of
attack on churches but have not even heard of name of saint, forget
the killing. This is happening because neither it  serves the vote
bank politics nor  their purpose to become bigger and better
secularist than others. To understand this nepotism from state and its
bandwagon we need to understand the psychology of people who is ruling
the nation since independence and their interest. They have created a
platform under the banner of secularism where every act of getting
there is considered as legal and morally correct and rewarded by state
and rest are considered as sin and faces brutality of state. This over
a century or so has created anger among Hindus who is felt left out in
running the country on just principals. Hence anger is manifested in
way of violence and is increasing every day because if you don't give
them space and redressal they chose alternate method of redressing
their grievances and easiest way out is violence. At the same time the
appeasement policy of state towards few on name of minoritism and
secularism pampers them up to a level of making  brat out of them who
wants everything which is suited to them whether it is due or undue.
The reasons for fueling disintegration among Hindus in so many classes
is to feed the same ruling class to reach to power and any act which
is perceived as disturbing the equilibrium is met vehemently. You will
observe the same political class which has created OBC, MBC, SC, ST
further  differentiated on line of Sikh, Buddhist and Jain  etc among
Hindus will oppose any bifurcation among Christians and Muslims
because if they are divided in same way the Hindus are;their whole
purpose of getting unified vote from those religion will be defeated
hence they treat Muslim and Christian as single entity respectively.
Thus purpose of their opposition is not violence but violence against
their interest if violence would have been the cause then killing of
saint along with many other Hindus would have also seen same emotions
expressed by concern people. This is the trend for all the issue
whether it is Godhra train carnage followed by Gujurat riots,
re-conversion of converts to Hinduism, infiltration of Bangladeshi
Muslims followed by reaction of aborigines of Assam, stoppage of
Amarnath yatra and many other such incidences. Hence the attack on
Christians in Orissa , Karnataka and other part of the country is vent
to anger against governance and evangelist who lure week and poor in
to conversion. If you dig deep in to it you will find violence is not
initiated by Hindus but by perpetrators of conversion who killed holy
soul in Orissa for his service to mankind which unfortunately not
serving the interest of them. In Karnataka numerous booklets have been
circulated among people which de-generate Hindu tradition and almighty
to infuse inferiority complex among not so enrich Hindus and it has
been resisted by mass upheaval. Blaming sangparivar or even thinking
of banning it will be adding fuel to fire as it is treated as the only
nationalist organization working for betterment of nation. The irony
is that the reason given for conversion is not pursued for
re-conversion and all hue and cries happens when they see people going
back to their forefather's religious fold . That's the prominent
reason of killing the torch bearer of Gharwapsy (Reconversion) at many
places in country. There are schools and a colleges run by
missionaries openly serves beef to Hindu student without giving them
option. Can they do same with Muslims by serving pigs? The reason is
that they are bigger vote bank than them and hence will get support
from same political class who supported them against Hindus.

We can have numerous intellectual discussions on violence and can send
umpteen company of paramilitary but will not be successful to quell
that because no amount of security personnel can fight with mass. The
risk is if you continue to do that security personnel will turn
towards mass as they also come from same society with same emotions
and feelings. Eg: Mumbai riots and Gujurat riots. To deal with
situation one need to understand the ground realities and can't allow
conversion without hassles and ban or discourage re-conversion by
creating numerous hurdles. Though you can win many or most of the
debate in your respective intellectual circles but can't pause the
violence at the ground level as common people may not have opportunity
nor ability to shut debate but have enormous ability to change the
ground realities and continuance of same will force majority towards
defiance which we are observing in way of violence. Isn't it duty of
state to stop infiltration across border and if people or organization
has taken the responsibility of state why is unwarranted ? Though
state could catch some and prosecute few on the name of minority
appeasement but will not be able to save their life from majority for
long. We need to think what could be logic of not having uniform civil
code even after half centuary of independence to eradicate religion
personal code which is heavily lopsided towards minorities.

The tradition and culture of this land which is one of the ancient and
valuable than other will extinguish with unmindful conversion of
Hindus in to others as conversion changes the whole perspective of
individual towards civilisation that carried by their forefather with
so much pride because the religion which is not indigenous to land
will carry its own fancies from land of its origin. Do we allow that ?
The question which haunts one is  how come  organisation or person who
is serving converts to re-convert in to its original religion could be
termed as enemy of nation ? The logical answer probably will be in not
but where logic and vested interest precedes the national interest
that is in our country will be yes.

The message to the state is that you can beat the drum of minoritism
in your own den but will be hardly successful in quelling the violence
if your acts and principals are not convincing enough to mass. One
needs to see the people of all religion with one eye and credit should
be given to majority in case of India Hindus for their brotherhood
treatment towards other religion because facts and figures of approach
of other religion is starkly opposite to Hindus in their own land of
origin or acquired. Ponder a bit on few incidence of near past where
state and PM of country ashamed and lost sleep on backlash towards
Christians and arrest of individual from Muslim community in foreign
land but have stomach full of sleep and pride on Hindus not allowed to
wear turbans ,nose rings and drove from their home by  propagators of
same communities who are majority in those land .
In case we don't stand on the face of conversion be prepare for facing
situation where you will be drove from your own towns , villages,
societies and homes.

 Message is equality for all appeasement to none.

Reply via email to