Conversion
Row
By Free Press Journal (India)
Has anyone - and 'anyone' includes the ?secularists?
among Hindus as well, ever tried to understand the Hindu psyche? Or is it considered a
wholly unnecessary exercise? Consider this: Unlike Christian missionaries, Hindus have
never been aggressive. Hindu missionaries have not gone to Portugal or Spain or Italy,
sword in hand, to convert the pagans. Hindu missionaries don't have blood on their hands
as have Christian missionaries from Europe. True, the earliest Christian missionary like
St. Thomas did come to India and made some converts. But it is palpably wrong to say that
Christian missionaries have been working at conversion in India for two thousand years.
That is simply not true. Yes, Portuguese Jesuits did come to India in the sixteenth
century and for some decades
wreaked untold havoc among the Hindus of Goa. But it took another three centuries before
Christian missionaries from Britain and with them Christian missionaries from Germany and
Switzerland set foot on Indian soil.
The British missionaries may have spread the Good Word; but their primary purpose was
imperialistic. It was to provide the
underpinnings to British sovereignty over India. Saving Indian souls was of secondary
consideration. That is the simple truth.
The manner in which Britishers riled against Hinduism and against Hindu culture is all on
record. It does not need to be repeated here. The bare truth is that the British were
busily engaged in despoliation of Indian culture to the best of their abilities.
During the entire British regime of exploitations, the Christians may have been in a
numerical minority but they had the political
majority.
They were in power and no amount of whining can change that fact.
True, the British established schools and colleges and Christian missionaries took a leaf
from their political masters' book. The idea, again, was to manufacture a breed of Indians
British in every way to serve as minions under the alien Raj, and not to save Indian
souls. The impression that our contemporary secularists are seeking to create is that but
for missionary effort India would have largely remained illiterate. That is so much stuff
and nonsense. There were schools all over India to cater to various administrations. The
cultural ethos was such that a limited number of students availed themselves of education,
but they were by no means limited to Brahmins.
The entire Mughal regime was run by kayasthas who were the babus of their time. We should
indeed be grateful to many Jesuit schools and colleges but let it not be forgotten that
there were several times their numbers run by Hindu educational bodies - a fact that tends
to be forgotten. It should bring tears to the eyes of Gopala Krishna Gokhale and several
of his kind in their heaven. If Christians have set up schools and colleges, let it not be
forgotten that so have Hindus. It was an orthodox Hindu, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, who
set tip the Hindu University in Banaras.
Again to say that only Christians have been working for the poor and the needy is telling
half the truth. Down the centuries Hindu bodies have established support to the poor in
various ways long before Europeans, like the Central Asian Muslims before them, came to
India. Dharmashalas and temples have fed literally millions, free of cost, as part of
Hindu dharma. To say, therefore, that Hindus don't care for the poor is a travesty of
truth. Even today thousands of RSS sevaks and sevikas are giving the best years of their
lives in the service of the country.
According
to a Fact Sheet provided by the RSS (Seva Disha 97) there are as many as 22,866 sevakaryas
serving in 579 districts of India of whom 10 per cent are doing health work, 59 per cent
are engaged in education and 21 per cent in samajik vikas. Of the total, 13,509 are women
working in 30 prants. In addition RSS can avail itself of the service of 38,218 part-time
workers and 42,348 volunteers. In all, in just one year, as many as 49,12,789 people have
received support directly from various sevakaryas. Some 23 per cent of sevakaryas work in
rural areas, 42 per cent are vanavasis and 35 per cent sevabastis. If that is not
impressive, what else is?
Who says -except our ignorant 'secularists'- that Hindus do not care for their poor? And
may it be said once and for all: the reference here is only to the RSS. There are
literally hundreds of Hindu organizations working quietly in towns and villages doing
sterling work, asking for no praise or recognition from our ?secularists'. They are our
forgotten humanitarians. When there are floods in the country, it is the RSS volunteer who
is the first to go to the help of the people. When major tragedies strike anywhere, as in
Latur earthquake, it is the RSS volunteer - yes, the same fascist, fundamentalist,
communal worker - who is the first to appear on the scene, wanting to help and asking
nothing in return, not even the soul of the distressed. When there was a ghastly train
accident in Faridabad, it was an army of 500 RSS swayamsevaks who rushed to the scene,
helped extract dead bodies from the wreck and took care of the belongings of the hapless
passengers.
It is hard to think of Congress volunteers doing the job. And Christians bodies would
probably point out that they are
numerically too few to do such organisation work at a moment's notice. RSS workers have
been at the scenes of disaster at far too many places to bear mention. But why are they
angry now?
For
some good reason. Right from 1,000 A.D. and the first Muslim invasion of India, Hindus
have suffered at the hands of proselytisers. First were Islamicists. Then came the
British. The Hindus kept quite, numerically strong, they were politically in a minority.
But deep inside unquenched fires have burnt. Having long been under assault, they now want
to take a hand in the shaping of their own people's destinies. And can anyone blame them?
Let it be stated in clear terms:
conversions are an assault on the pervading cultural ethos which Hindus have always
resented. Conversions can have no place in a civilized society. This is not a matter of
freedom of speech or belief. Christians have practised their faith in total freedom
through the centuries. It is not Christianity that is resented. What is resented is
conversion.
Conversion leads to conflict and become an issue of public order.Truth is, the Judiciary
has already made it clear that the right to propagate one's religion doesn't imply a right
to convert another person. In the landmark Rev Stainslaus vs State of Madhya Pradesh case
in 1977, the Supreme Court ruled that there is no fundamental right to convert another
person to one's religion" and observed that such a right would impinge on the freedom
of conscience guaranteed to all citizens of the country alike." In the judgement the
Court upheld the constitutionality of two State Acts (passed by Madhya Pradesh and Orissa)
which made conversions by force, fraudulence or allurements an offence under the
law". Will Christian missionaries swear that they have never been guilty of such
malpractice?
And let it be remembered: the support to Indian missionaries comes from abroad. Home
Minister L K Advani was recently quoted as saying that between October and December 1998,
70 per cent of foreign funds privately donated went to missionaries.
This is an
act of political subversion under the guise of humanitarian work. It is no accident that
the United States is collating data on alleged attacks on Christians in India. And who,one
would like to know, instigated Indian Christians living in America to demonstrate against
the government of India in front of the United Nations? The church?
According to a report of the Indian Express (7 Jan 1999) "the sporadic but continuing
attacks on Christians in parts of India
could invite censure and even sanctions under a new American law which has recently come
into effect?. According to the report, with the intent of "protecting religious
freedom abroad", the US Congress had last year passed a legislation enjoining the US
administration to set up an office for International Religious Freedoms Abroad in the
state Department's Human Rights Bureau.
The Express report said: India could have the dubious distinction of being rapped in the
very first report due in March... Already the US Embassy in New Delhi is believed to be
making a laundry list of the incidents". The US Embassy and the US State Department
should be warned: they are interfering in the internal affairs of India, something that
cannot to tolerated. Under the guise of protecting religious freedom, abroad, the United
States is seeking actively to interfere in the domestic affairs of India. It should serve
as a warning to Delhi. One hopes that Christian leaders will understand that dangers of
trying to hide behind American laws to punish India. Doing that is playing with fire.
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