For favour of publication. =Averthanus=
_____
HINDUTVA AND CONVERSIONS.
Averthanus L. D'Souza.
During the tenure of Atal Behari Vajpayee as Prime Minister of
India, there was an unprovoked and brutal assault against Christians in the
Dangs District of Gujarat. This caused an international uproar of protests
which resulted in Vajpayee visiting the area. He neither condemned the
atrocities against the Christians, nor did he offer any words of comfort to
those who had been gravely injured. Instead, on January 10th, 1999
Vajpayee called for a "national debate" on conversions. Such a national
debate has neither been convened, nor has the violence against Christians
subsided. On the contrary, the unprovoked and senseless attacks against
Christians has shown an intensification, specially in those States where the
BJP is in power, or where it wields considerable influence as a coalition
partner.
The call for a "national debate on conversions" made by Vajpayee
was too belated, because fifty years earlier such a debate had already taken
place in the Constituent Assembly. The consensus of this debate found
expression in Article 25 of the Constitution of India which guarantees to
every citizen of this country the right to religious freedom.
It is precisely this right to religious freedom which is under
vicious attack by the Sangh Parivar and its political arm the BJP. Each
time that there is a systematic and brutal attack against Christians or
Muslims, the RSS affiliates - such as the Hindu Jagran Manch, the VHP, the
Bajrang Dal and other outfits - attempt to justify their inexcusable
actions on the ground that they have attacked only because there have been
"mass" conversions obtained by material inducements, fraud or coercion.
If such fraudulent conversions had, in fact, taken place, the proper, decent
and civilized procedure would have been to report such conversions to the
police and to initiate legal proceedings under the Law, which has adequate
provisions to punish the perpetrators of such fraudulent conversions. In
fact, after every such attack, when Commissions of Enquiry were constituted,
not a single case of forced or fraudulent conversion has been recorded.
Over the years, it has become amply clear that the attacks against the
religious minorities has been motivated not by any concern for the violation
of the Law, but, rather, by a prejudiced and totally untenable ideological
opposition to all religions which are non-Hindu. The obsession of the
Hindutva brigade with "conversions" needs to be looked at more closely. Is
it true that the Hindutva proponents are opposed "in principle" to all
conversions? Is it true that they are opposed to "mass" conversions?
If the Sangh Parivar is opposed to mass conversions then it is
standing against its own recorded traditions of Hinduism being a missionary
religion. In his book "The Hindu View of Life" (George, Allen and Unwin,
London, 1927). Dr. S. Radhakrishnan establishes how the missionary impulse
very early led to the absorption of whole tribes into Hinduism. In this
sense, Hinduism may be regarded as the first example in the world of a
missionary religion. R.C. Majumdar ("Hindu Colonies in the Far East",
Firma, Kolkatta, 1963) tells the story of mass conversions to Hinduism of
entire tribes from as far as Cambodia and through the Malayan archipelago to
Bali and Borneo. Even from ancient times, Hinduism has been a "missionary"
religion. History records that Emperor Asoka sent out his "missionaries"
to preach the message of Buddha throughout the world. One stream of
Buddhism which went southward and eastward converted entire peoples up to
Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka) and Burma (present Myanmar), Thailand,
Indonesia and Cambodia; and another stream proceeded northward through Tibet
and China and even to Japan.
The modern Hindu missionary movement can be traced to the
foundation of the Vedanta Society in New York in 1893 by Swami Vivekananda,
after his famous address to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
This was followed by several Hindu Centres being established by the
Ramakrishna Mission, the Arya Samaj, the Chinmayananda mission, the Krishna
Consciousness movement as well as some peripheral movements such as the
Transcendental Meditation movement, and others like the questionable
enterprise of "Acharya" Sri Rajneesh, who brought disgrace to Hinduism and
was thrown out of the U.S.A.
For the Hindutva protagonists to assert that Hinduism is against
all proselytization, is, therefore, patently false. It flies in the face of
ancient and modern history. Moreover, it contradicts its own "missionary"
activities, such as the establishment of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (the
World Hindu Council) with a view to creating an international control
centre for the spread of Hindutva all over the globe.
The argument against "conversions" proffered by the Hindutva
brigade is self-contradictory and totally untenable. From a close
analysis it becomes clear that what the Hindutva brigade really wants is
freedom only for its own missionary activities; and a total ban on all other
missionary activities. Conversions are bad, but "re-conversions" to
Hinduism, even if obtained by terror and force, are laudable. Behold the
ugly face of Hindutva Fascism !
Conversion or Conversion ?
Within the Indian historical context it can be safely asserted
that the term "Hindu" was not known (or used) until about the fifteenth
century A.D., and the term "Hinduism" itself was first used in English
around 1830. Even at the time of Adi Sankara of Kaladi (788 to 850 A.D.),
whom some Hindutva ideologues claim as the patron of Hindutva, there was no
such thing as a "Hindu Rashtra" or even a "Hindu consciousness"
Sankaracharaya's endeavour was a purely philosophical (or 'religious')
enterprise to purify the religious teachings and practices which were
prevalent during his time. Sankara is acknowledged to be the proponent of
Advaitism (non-dualism), and he sought to assert the uniqueness of this
doctrine as against the other doctrines of "Visishta-advaita"
"Sisuddha-advaita" and "Dvaita-advaita" which were being preached during
his time. Adi Sankara was a "religious" reformer who knew nothing about
Hindutva politics. Similarly, in more recent times, Ram Mohan Roy (May 22,
1772) was a social reformer who sought to improve the condition of Indian
women and children which was in a deplorable condition during his time. He
made every effort to abolish child marriages and to abolish the custom of
sati which required a Hindu wife to immolate herself on her husband's
funeral pyre. He strongly pleaded for Hindu widows to be allowed to
re-marry. Along with Raja Ram Mohun Roy, we can include Rabindranath
Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar, among others, who sought to
"convert" the rigid Hindu social system which was (and still is) grossly
unjust. These are the true representatives of Hindu India, who identified
the injustices in the cultural and social system and sought to bring about
much needed change.
In strong contrast to these genuine social reform movements, we
have the obscurantist Hindutva terrorists who are trying hard to convert
India into a fascist State and using the Hindu religion as a political
plank to achieve their nefarious purposes. There has been some talk, of
late, of banning the Bajrang Dal as a terrorist organization. Such a ban
will only have a very limited effect. Banning an organization does not
remove the motivating factor. It only drives the movement underground.
What is really needed, at this point of time, is creating public awareness
of the sinister motives of the Hindutva protagonists and a public exposure
of the cleverly crafted strategy to garner support based on a concocted
movement to "save" Hinduism from the imagined threats posed by
non-indigenous religions. This strategy involves distorting both Hinduism
as well as the tenets of the "other" religions - such as Islam and
Christianity. Falsehood can only be countered by Truth. "Sathyameva
Jayte."
Averthanus L. D'Souza,
D-13, La Marvel Colony,
Dona Paula, Goa 403 004.
Tel: 2453628.
