Recent incidents of violence and vandalism against Christians and their churches deserve to be condemned unreservedly. They have blackened the fair face of Mother India and ruined the reputation of Hindus being the most religiously tolerant people in the world. At the same time, we must take a closer look at people who convert from one faith to another.
To start with, let it be understood that these days there are no forced conversions anywhere in the world. India is no exception. Those who assert that the poor, innocent and ignorant of India are being forced to accept Christianity are blatant liars. A few, very few educated and well-to-do men and women convert to another faith when they do not find solace in the faith of their ancestors. Examples are to be found in America and Europe of men and women of substance turning from Judaism and Christianity to Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism.
There are also men and women who convert to the faith of those they wish to marry. We have plenty of cases of Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh inter-marriages. However, the largest number of converts come from communities discriminated against. The outstanding example was that of Dalit leader Bhimrao Ambedkar who led his Mahar community to embrace Buddhism because they were discriminated against by upper caste Hindus. This is also true of over 90 per cent of Indian Muslims whose ancestors being lower caste embraced Islam which gave them equal status. That gives lie to the often-repeated slander that Islam made converts by the sword.
An equally large number of people converted out of gratitude. They were neglected, ignorant and poor. When strangers came to look after them, opened schools and hospitals for them, taught them, healed them and helped them to stand on their own feet to hold their heads high, they felt grateful towards their benefactors. Most of them were Christian missionaries who worked in remote villages and brought hope to the lives of people who were deprived of hope.
To this day, Christian missionaries run the best schools, colleges and hospitals in our country. They are inexpensive and free of corruption. They get converts because of the sense of gratitude they generate. Can this be called forcible conversion? Why don’t the great champions of Hinduism look within their hearts and find out why so many are disenchanted by their pretensions of piety? Let them first set their own houses in order, purge the caste system out of Hindu society and welcome with open arms all those who wish to join them.
No one will then convert from Hinduism to another religion.
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Hi, I am generally in agreement with this article but not completely. The Christian missions have done a lot of good social work, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity being a good example. The missions and were also among the first in India to start international standard schools (The Jesuits, etc). In my articles, I have covered many missionary groups that are doing exemplary work - in my story on Mangalore in Deccan's inflight mag my focus was on such organisations providing employment. And I have often mentioned to friends that Hindu temple organisations should draw much from the lessons of these Christian groups to use their money for employment generation measures rather than charity of free food. And as I studied in St Xaviers, I always grew up with respect for Fathers and nuns.
However, I do not agree that they are free of corruption, atleast not any more. The donation rackets have hit these schools, as much or more than other schools, and the standards are slipping very badly. Many educated families now prefer to send their children to other schools. Though I am a Xavierite, I did not select a convent school for my daughter. The missionary-run social organisations are also becoming more and more money-minded, they are taking more donations than many NGOs. The churches have been involved in major land controversies in Kolkata recently.
Where conversion is concerned, I believe that the majority's sentiment in a country is to be respected too. The missions do not need to convert people to do good work, they can do it regardless of religious beliefs of the people. By encouraging conversion, which they do, they are giving fuel to the belief that the good work is primarily for promoting religious ends. Some churches are no better than Hinduvta parties or Islamic organisations - they are also becoming rable-rousers because that is the way they can get their flock together. In Orissa, the whole story has not been told from the beginning, the reports are recent but the roots are deeper. This is my viewpoint...
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