Allegations of Forcible Conversions: Weekly Harassment

I don’t particularly follow the news of religious persecution in India. I am a teacher and not a social activist, nor a human rights crusader. But if you are on social media, you cannot avoid such news for too long. Just yesterday, March 15, 2020, I got to hear about four cases where communal groups assaulted Sunday prayer services—two in Uttar Pradesh and one each in Bihar and Goa. Last Sunday, (March 8, 2020) two other cases of communal assault in UP had come to light. Attacks on Sunday worship, especially, in mofussil towns and villages have become a weekly affair. Every Sunday afternoon you can be almost sure that a WhatsApp message to that effect is coming—and it does come.

A well-planned campaign is being run to harass Christian prayer groups and small independent churches across the country. Unfortunately, the communal groups are manipulating and pressurizing even the local police against the worshippers.

I wonder who these people are and what grouse they have against religious meetings.  

The attacks are made not by local people. Locals have no problems with prayer meetings in their neighbourhood. Many of the assailants come from “outside”. This is something similar to what happens in cases of riots. In recent Delhi riots, it has been found that most of the goons came from neighbouring Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. So this allegation that conversions are opposed by local people is completely false. These attacks are engineered by communal organisations that often serve the interests of political parties.

The spiritual phenomenon of conversion is ... changed into a religio-cultural battle fought on a political turf.

Attacks on churches, as we know, are a result of deadly blend of religion and politics. Parties founded on religious nationalist ideology such as the BJP often attack the rival political parties for appeasing the minorities and indulging in “vote-bank” politics. To counter that, these parties have created a fear psychosis in the Hindu community that it is in danger and the only way to survive is to rally behind the politicians. The party and its affiliates continue to fan the communal fire by various means. Recently, an advocate in Delhi, a BJP leader, filed a public-interest litigation in the Delhi High Court to control religious conversion. On the grassroots, the party directs its cadres to attack the churches. This is done to keep the pot of communal polarization boiling.

There is something deeper at work, too. Religious conversions upset the social structure, which, in India, is the outcome of the caste system. Numerically speaking, Indian population is largely composed of people from the so-called backward classes. Hence, conversion among them is far more visible, even though people from the upper castes are also converting. The slipping away of the “lower castes” from their grip is behind the rage of India’s upper castes. The spiritual phenomenon of conversion is thus changed into a religio-cultural battle fought on a political turf.

The false allegation that poor are forced to convert is absurd. As a matter of fact, force is being used to stop people from exercising their freedom of conscience, their right to convert. Week after week, force and intimidation is employed to put fear in people. Week after week, Christian pastors are being harassed and bullied. Week after week false cases are being filed against innocent people. This is what we must be challenged by every fair-minded Indian.