Conversions? How about untouchability-free India?
Agra:One marvels at those who feel sorry for fellow Indians who have got converted to Christianity and Islam. They try to free such unfortunate individuals of their wretched existence by “reconverting” them back to Hinduism! In reality, they are more concerned about the dilution of the Hindu majority in India; what happens to those who got converted or reconverted hardly matters.
By and large, India has been secular, notwithstanding attempts by some rulers to promote a particular religion (Ashok’s fascination for Buddhism; alleged efforts of some rulers to wipe out Buddhism and Aurangzeb’s use of royal force to convert Hindus/Sikhs to Islam are well documented, as is the zeal of many missionaries to spread Christianity). Isn’t it surprising that 85 per cent Indians are still Hindus?
Use of force, pressure, emotional blackmail and inducement, monetary or otherwise, are commonly used against the targeted vulnerable groups by the masterminds of conversion and reconversion. It is a telling truth of human history that much more blood has been shed by the Crusaders for religions over the centuries than the total number of people killed in WWI and WWII.
Since the early Sultanate period till the last Mughal emperor who was exiled to and eventually buried in Rangoon, the Muslims were the dominant ruling class for nearly five hundred years. Similarly, India remained under the yoke of British colonial rule for a century. Had these rulers vowed to convert Indians either to Islam or Christianity at a mass scale, using all the authority at their command, would the Hindus still constitute 85 per cent of the population? The bottom line is that India has remained secular because the vast majority of Indians staunchly believe in secularism.
Under the Indian Constitution, one has as much right to convert as to follow or propagate one’s own religion. But it must be voluntary, not triggered by pressure, coercion or inducement. The lower castes of Hindu society have been easy targets for conversion and reconversion because of their weak economic condition, low social status and built-up anger and bitterness against the perpetrators of the worst kind of oppression, exploitation, deprivation of basic human rights.
Dronacharya, hugely respected acharya (teacher) of the Mahabharat era, taught only the royalty, not lowly commoners like Eklavya. He represented the knowledge society and Eklavya the have-nots who were denied access to education. Though Dronacharya didn’t teach Eklavya to protect the supremacy of his royal students, he asked for his thumb in guru dakshina for having learnt a thing or two by stealth. Metaphorically, it symbolised knowledge society striking and killing in the bud attempts and aspirations of the lowly classes to have access to education and acquire knowledge. Two years back, the CJI called Dronacharya’s act disgusting. Manusmrti’s diabolic dicta of pouring molten lead in the ears of the Sudras who dared to listen to holy chants of shlokas speaks volumes about the brutality and discrimination that was sanctioned against the Sudras by the intelligentsia of Hindu society. Even during the reign of the most enlightened Hindu ruler, Chandra Gupta Vikramaditya, Sudras were ordained to walk through lanes with small bells tied to bamboo sticks so that higher classes would be alerted by their sound and escape their shadow lest they get polluted!
Though untouchability was abolished long back, it is practised even today in scores of Indian villages; dalits can’t draw water from common wells nor live in the main village; they live on the periphery in designated areas. In Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, dalits face discrimination on daily basis; in some villages they can’t ride cycles on the pagdandi (pedestrian pathway) around the fields owned by the high castes nor their bride grooms ride elephants/horses while passing through the galis of the upper castes. After the brutal rape of Nirbhaya, the Chief Justice had commented that molestation and rape of dalit young girls are routinely committed in rural India.
High caste villagers unleash brutal attacks against an entire locality of dalits if a high-caste girl elopes with a low-caste young man. Thanks to the Election Commission, now they can cast their votes and play a decisive role in so many constituencies. But two decades back, thousands of them weren’t not allowed by the high castes to exercise their franchise.
Since Independence, we have had a dalit President of India, a Speaker of the LokSaabha; many Cabinet ministers, MPs and MLAs and civil servants and ambassadors etc. However, according to a report mentioned in the LokSabha by then home minister P. Chidambaram, more than 13,000 cases of attacks against dalits were registered in a single year. The actual figures could be higher.
With such humiliating treatment meted out by the high caste Hindus, it is intriguing why many more of them haven’t converted to Islam or Christianity.
Dr B.R. Ambedkar, arguably the most qualified legal luminary of his generation, sought refuge in Buddhism not because of allurement from anyone but because of the unacceptable treatment he personally received and his conviction that the caste-ridden Hindu society was beyond redemption.
The self-proclaimed custodians of Hindu religion must do some honest soul-searching and work sincerely to make Hindu society more tolerant, humane, equitable and free from discrimination. Instead of Congress-mukt Bharat, what about undertaking a campaign for garibi-mukt Bharat, chhua-chhut-mukt Bharat, dalitonkekhilapataychar-mukt Bharat, dalitonkesammanaurasmitakarakshak Bharat? If they succeed in this endeavour, they won’t have to worry about conversions.
Source: The Asian Age
