(T. V. Rajeswar on reason for conversions)

Hindustan Times - Saturday, February 13, 1999,

New Delhi - A fortnightly magazine has listed a total of seventy-five attacks on minorities by the Sangh parivar between March 2, 1998 and Jan 23, 1999 and barring a few, most of them were against Christians, their churches and schools. Stray incidents of the nature continue to be reported from various parts of the country almost everyday. Why has this phenomenon suddenly come into India’s life, creating a bad name abroad, to say the least, and more importantly, disrupting the established social order within the country? Notwithstanding some of the pamphlets cited by some of the Hindu activists, there is no evidence of any special emphasis or drive by Christian evangelists in recent times. It is, therefore, for enquiry why these attacks should be taking place at this juncture. Conversions to Christianity are nothing new and they have been going on for centuries. In the north-east the Nagas and a few other tribal communities have been almost totally converted. The Christian missionaries have been understandably concentrating on the tribals spread all over India. Most of the tribal communities are not Hindus in the strict sense as they are animists or votaries of cults of various categories. Large sections in Arunachal Pradesh are worshippers of the Sun and Moon. Every tribal who is not a Christian cannot be considered a Hindu or belonging to a pro-Hindu cult or belief.

The evangelists therefore find a fertile field in this section of society which accounts for 7.5 per cent of India’s population. The Christian tribals, many of whom have given English as their mother tongue in the north-eastern region, are among the most forward sections of tribals in India today. The plums of reserved jobs in the all-India and Central services have gone to the Nagas, Mizos and other Christian converts who have had the benefit of education in excellent missionary schools and colleges. There are very few such officers from the non-Christian tribals from Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan, which have a huge concentration of non-Christian tribals. The Ramakrishna Mission’s followers who are working in Arunachal Pradesh for many years run some schools and hospitals on a very limited scale. Arunachal Pradesh is surrounded or encircled by Christian missionary schools and churches and there are constant attempts to take away the boys and girls from Arunachal and educate them outside with all facilities provided and even secretly providing financial assistance to their parents living in the remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh. The Christian population in Arunachal Pradesh is almost 10 per cent now and there are quite a few Christian MLAs in the State Assembly.

The Ramakrishna Mission was approached at the highest level by some of the administrators of Arunachal Pradesh with the request to open more schools>and hospitals in the interior areas with the promise of full financial assistance from the Centre and the State, but the Mission expressed its inability as there were very few monks joining the Order. The Ramakrishna Mission does not evangelise in any case. If the Christian missions had been allowed in Arunachal Pradesh when NEFA came into being in the mid-1950s the entire State would have been Christianised by now. Here again why blame the Christian missions if there are no Hindu counterparts to fill the vacuum? The contribution of the Christian missionaries in the field of education and health cannot be minimised. In the remotest areas where even the kith and kin have abandoned old men and women because of leprosy, the Christian missionaries have taken them for treatment which takes long years.

The schools and colleges set up by the missions are jewels among the educational institutions in the country and successive generations of students have passed out of these institutions to become administrators, educationists and political leaders. It is, therefore, unfortunate and indeed ungrateful of Indian society to go after the Christian missionaries. If the Christian missionaries had been really aggressive in their conversion drive, the overall Christian population would not be still under 3 per cent of the Indian population. There is a long persisting dark area in Hindu society which cries out for justice. Even fifty years after the Constitution provided them with fundamental rights under Articles 15 and 17 the Dalits are still persecuted.

Untouchability has been abolished by law and Article 15 specifically prohibits discrimination in access to shops, public restaurants, hotels etc. But these fundamental rights are only on paper and not enjoyed by the affected people. When the Dalits embraced Islam in Meenakshipuram in Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu in 1981, it sent tremors throughout the country. The affected people opted for conversion to escape the bane of untouchability, the two-glass system in the village tea shops, the ghettoes in the villages and, in short, discrimination and insult in every walk of life from the upper classes. The upper class in this case, ironically enough, was not the Brahmin community but the Thevars who were themselves classified as a criminal tribe by the British at the turn of the century. The Thevars are in the OBC category and enjoy the privileges of reservations provided by the State. The option for Islam by the Dalits was because of the perceived militancy of Islam. In Gujarat the Dalits opted for conversion to Christianity after persistent persecution and denial of work by the land-owning upper caste Patels. Will their reconversion by Sangh parivar ensure fairplay from the Patels of Dangs?

The Ramanathapuram district is still being racked by constant riots between Thevars and Dalits. None of the Hindu organisations has intervened and brought about reforms by abolishing the various forms of discrimination. The Sankaracharya of Kanchi gives discourses and the Sangh parivar only wants to reconvert the converts but nobody wants to work in the affected villages and bring about social integration. If only all the affected Dalits and lower segments of OBCs opted for conversion to Islam, as it happened in Meenakshipuram, what would be the impact on the Hindu society? Should the Sangh parivar wait for this to happen?

The Meenakshipuram converts, who were recently approached by some Hindu activists, asked which caste they would be assigned to on reverting to Hinduism. If they have to revert to their Dalit caste and status, why should they, while as Muslims they mingle freely with all fellow Muslims whatever their earlier castes were? Here is the real challenge to Hinduism and its proponents. Until the evil of caste discrimination is given up decisively, Hindu society will continue to remain disrupted.

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