CONVERSION IMBROGLIO
CONVERSION IMBROGLIO
BY
SATISH OBEROI
The topic of conversions has dominated major part of year 1999.
The visit of the Pope has further quivered the pitch .
However, now it is being stated that deliberations during
the Pope's visit have laid stress on evangelism and not on
conversions.
The former merely aims at apprising the people about the teachings
of the Gospel and this activity may not necessarily culminate in
conversions.
Reference to various accepted dictionaries reveals
that evagenlism means preaching the Gospel and conversion, which
in
practical terms is not different from what is being done for
centuries. In any
case the Pope's appeal to various missionary groups to make a
joint effort to
implant the cross in Asia leaves no doubt about his intentions.
The issue of conversion raises some pertinent questions. Why do
some
religions want to convert others? Does evangelism aim to impart
true and
superior knowledge, something naively perceived to be lacking
in other religions? Do these religions resort to the activity of
conversion
due to their own sense of insecurity of numbers? Does evangelism
foster
or enhance the pursuit of spiritualism? Can spiritualism be
organized/regimented? Is conversion activity undertaken to improve
the lot of the people? What does conversion involve?
Not all religions/faiths venture into conversion activity.
Religions
which do so as their main objective, are exclusive faiths whose
followers
worship exclusive Gods. These exclusive Gods bless only those who
worship them through their favoured emissary. Often these gods
even
threaten and punish those who do not worship them. Christianity
and Islam
fall in this category. In contrast, the people who generally do
not resort
to conversion believe that God is omnipresent and accessible to
all
directly without any selected emissary. They consider entire
creation/
humanity as God's kingdom and hence feel that there is little
sense in
trying to convert any one. They believe in progressive
enlightenment of
those people who are spiritually advanced and are ready for it.
They
welcome every one as God's gift to the world and provide them with
broad
spiritual guidelines. Within this framework these people evolve
their
distinctively universal cultural identity which binds them
together with
subtle unobtrusivity. This arrangement ensures that different
people live
together in peace. Hindus fall in this category. But what happens
when a
group subscribbing to exclusive faiths / doctrines tries to
convert some people and try to undo their cultural identity and
links? Strife is inevitable. More on this issue will be discussed
later.
Jews, Syrian Christians and Parsis (7th century Muslims from Iraq
and
Tibetans in our time are not discussed as their problems were
different)
were persecuted by exclusive faiths and forced
to take asylum in India fully knowing the universally tolerant
Indian
approach to God and humanity. These people were given refuge,
every facility and liberty to progress and yet retain their
cultural and religious identity. Even after centuries , the
religious lustre of these groups has not waned by an iota.
Insecurity of numbers thus can hardly be a justification
for conversion to Christianity or Islam as the
presence of these faiths is not insignificant.
The intention to convert cannot also be to impart
ultimate and superior esoteric knowledge since the spiritual
pedestal
of eastern religions has long been widely held to be much higher
than that of the exclusive faiths.
Can spirituality be organized? Every man has his own equation with
God
and has to evolve his own path to Him. Salvation is essentially a
personal
matter. There is no collective road to salvation , just as clothes
stitched to identical measurements cannot fit everybody . Where
there is
organization there is little chance of individuality and hence no
salvation. Exclusive religions in general and Christianity in
particular
are most organized religions. Hence people from the West, who are
seriously
in search of the truth, come to the East particularly to
India, to seek guidance from Hindu gurus. Hence, if organized
religions
are inadequate to meet spiritual thirst of their own flock, what
can they
promise to those they seek to convert?Then why is
there is such a massive drive to convert?
Does conversion improve lot of the people? If we see the
condition of the people who were forced to convert to Christianity
and
Islam in Africa and South America, it is none the better. Even in
India,
the organized/ exclusive religions are demanding that converted
people
must also be given reservations. Even the much- criticized
caste distinctions have been retained in the converted people.
What does conversion involve? Conversion is nothing higher or
different from marketing of an exclusive God not unlike that of
any other precious commercial product. Marketing of commercial
products
involves adhering to strict norms based on ethical considerations,
so
that one's own products may be praised, but no aspersion
may be cast on those of one's business competitor. In contrast, no
similar ethic is even noticeable in
the promotion of the exclusive God. Followers of rival gods are
termed as followers of
Satan, devil, living in darkness or kafirs who must be
converted to save them. That such activities can cause a serious
setback to peace does not seem to bother them as they have a
self-righteous divine sanction to take any action deemed fit to
achieve
the aim.
>From the discussion so far we can deduce that the reasons for
conversion are to be found elsewhere. It appears that the ultimate
aim of
conversion is economic; this necessitates the
achievement and maintenance of political power
through religion. The reasons for conversion have
always been the same but the technique has been modified to suit
the
times. Earlier, territories were occupied by force and
consolidation of
power was ensured by conversion almost invariably by force cum
preaching.
Now the technique has changed. First convert
people by a combination of activities like preaching, social work,
inducement, force, etc; and, when the time is ripe , carry out
final actions like ethnic cleansing , as done in Yugoslavia, or
launch operations to break away as is being attempted in North
-Eastern
India or repeat a Timor- like operation. All these
tactics can only succeed with the instigation and help of
foreign powers who perceive their own economic benefit as
the end result.
Religious wars caused by exclusive faiths are well known all over
the
world. Even to day there are sharp clashes between these faiths
where they
are in sizeable number near each other (communal conflicts in
Indonesia and
Egypt are recent examples). These clashes will continue till one
group
either disappears or becomes very weak either due to conversion or
killing
or due to factors like ethnic cleansing. What could be
done to prevent this senseless bloodshed? Perhaps, the most
beneficial method is to apprise world communities about pristine
Hindu
teachings. The task is difficult, as exclusive faiths are unlikely
to allow
it. For instance , a German citizen who was a follower of Osho's
teachings, was a mayoral candidate in his small town.
The local bishop intervened to prevent his nomination. This has
happened in Germany, which is considered almost an ideal secular
country! Secondly, we in India have to arrive at a
consensus on the subject, as a sizeable section of persons
belonging to
"secular" political parties along with their supporters/
sympathizers in
the press, the electronic media and others would be only too
happy if Hindus are converted , as this would boost their vote
bank.
Third, we must not consider preaching as a prelude to conversion
but as a time-tested tool to usher in peace and harmony in the
world. For
this purpose we must think beyond our short term gains. If we
approach the
world with this principle in mind, it is certain that the
world community will gradually veer around to this benign
thinking.
As mentioned earlier religious wars/conflicts were unknown in
India due to
our unique equation between man and God. Religious conflicts have
been
brought into India by exclusive faiths. With the conversion
activity now picking up momentum in India, serious
strife seems to be in the offing, as more and more people
begin realising that their culture, traditions and religious
practices are being increasingly threatened. It is perhaps for the
first
time in the history of mankind that the law on conversion has been
enacted purely to benefit exclusive faiths at the cost of the
peaceful arrangement existing in the country for centuries.
Assuming that
exclusive faiths gradually start spreading, strife among
followers of the same faith but hailing from varying cultural
and linguistic backgrounds will erupt
as it happened in Europe. No one would like to face such a
situation.
There is therefore an urgent need to review conversion laws. Since
a
person cannot be stopped from converting to the faith of his
choice ,
he may be allowed to do so if a magistrate is satisfied that he
has
good knowledge of his present faith, of the religion to which he
wants to
convert and he gives appropriate reasons for doing so. This
proposal
should be acceptable, as the freedom of an individual to chose his
faith based on sound convictions has never been denied. It
should be possible to implement this law as we already have laws
for
marriages and divorce.
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