Conversions?– STOP, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE!

The arrival of East India Company and the subsequent British regime have been the launch pad for foreign Christian missionaries to land in India and establish themselves. They penetrated in to the far & wide of the country in the guise of focusing on “Education & Health Care” sectors to help the poor & downtrodden of the country. The Indian leaders, who were fighting for the freedom lost focus on the penetration of these missionaries. After the so-called independence, the Indian leaders made two biggest blunders, one, not getting rid of the British system of education and scheme of things and two, prepared a Constitution based on the British version. The Nehruvian Secularism took over from the British Imperialism for the detriment of the country in general and majority community in particular, and for the benefit of the minorities, who have been enjoying undue privileges through blatant misuse of the Constitution and the consequent amendments brought by the pseudo-secular governments.

The proselytisation, conversion and other evangelical activities of the Christian missionaries have been subjects of debate for a long time, but no concrete solution had been found. Right from Vivekananda & Aurobindo to Gandhiji & Ambedkar, all our National Leaders have condemned religious conversions unequivocally and it is the bounden duty of the minorities to respect and adhere to the views of those great leaders if at all they feel they are Indians. They cannot take advantage of the ‘tolerance’ shown by the majority community. If India that is Bharath is standing tall proudly, out in the crowd, it is because of the “Sanatana Dharma”, which has been in practice for centuries and ages. Hinduism, apart from being the most spiritual, is the only religion in the world, which is “secular” in itself. That is why, the “Revealed Religions” were allowed to establish here. Hinduism embraces other religions showing respect to them, but unfortunately, it is not reciprocated by the others. Also, the 700 years of Islamic oppression and 300 years of Christian oppression revealed the fact that the Abrahamic religions are not at all secular or spiritual but purely political in nature and that they are born to destroy other religions and civilizations. But as the saying “Adharmic conspiracy may encircle Dharma, but ultimately Dharma will prevail” goes, the Islamic & Christian rulers were driven away from this “Punya Bhoomi” and after the so-called independence, this country was proclaimed, though wrongly, as a “Secular Country” despite more than 90% being Hindu majority, only for the well being of the miniscule minorities. In fact, those minorities could have continued to live happily& peacefully even if this country had been proclaimed as a Hindu Nation officially. The leaders at the time of independence were so magnanimous that they gave full freedom to the revealed religions in the name of secularism.

The last sixty years of history shows that the minorities have been taking undue advantage of the very same freedom and the tolerance of the majority. While the Constitution permits only practicing & propagating, the minorities indulge in converting minds and harvesting souls with the help of the “aids” from outside and “abetment” from inside, which is totally illegal and against the Constitution. The “Niyogi Commission”, which was constituted by the Madhya Pradesh government in the fifties, has also confirmed the dubious methods adopted by the Churches & Missionaries for harvesting souls and it has recommended for a “BAN” on conversions. The then Prime Minister Jawahrlal Nehru, who always felt proud of being called as an English man, failed to table the Niyogi Commission Report in the parliament, for the sake of the so-called secularism, an action which was obviously aimed at appeasing the Christian community. Despite Nehru’s mistake, the Congress government in MP went on to enact the anti-conversion law!

The Constitution ensures “Freedom of Religion” only to practice & Propagate and certainly doesn’t grant the right to convert others. The concerned “Article-25”, which ensures freedom of religion, is subject to public order, morality and health. The Supreme Court in its judgment interpreting Article 25 of the Constitution, in the Stainislaus v. State of Madhya Pradesh (AIR 1977 SC 908) case, had upheld the constitutional validity of a law (the Madhya Pradesh Dharma Swatantraya Adhiniyam) passed by the Madhya Pradesh Government in 1968 and the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967, since the issues involved were the same.

In a secular country with one particular community being 85% of the total population, the balance 15% must coexist by respecting the feelings and aspirations of the majority and without interfering in the faith, culture & tradition of the majority. If it is violated and if the violation goes beyond the level of decency & tolerance, then the consequences have to be faced. It is as simple as that, and that is what has happened in Orissa from 24 th to 28th of December 2007. The state of Orissa has been notorious for the illegal conversion activities perpetrated by the Christian Missionaries, particularly in the tribal belt. The unabated harvesting of souls for years by the Churches with the help of foreign money power and the dubious muscle & state power extended by the pseudo-secular parties for the sake of vote banks, have gone beyond the tolerance of the majority community, which forced the organizations like RSS, VHP and other individual Religious leaders to indulge in re-conversion activities. Eighty three years old Swami Lakshmannanda Saraswathi has been prominent in this and he has been into this for the last three decades. He was also spearheading a movement against the unabated ‘Cow Slaughter’ being carried out by the Christian community for years. On the eve of Christmas, the community had organized for a massive ‘conversion’ camp in a predominantly Hindu tribal area erecting arches & cut-outs in front of Hindu houses, thereby provoking them. When the Hindu tribals under the leadership of Swmi Lakshmanananda protested against this, a group of Christian thugs have ruthlessly attacked his convoy, which is uncalled for and unwarranted. This arrogant action has naturally provoked the majority community, which has reacted in the only way the minority seems to understand. The Christian community leaders must respect the Constitution and the law of the land and should not indulge in conversion activities just because they get unrestricted flow of money and political support.

With the advent of the UPA government, in the last three years, evangelization has been on the increase through out the country to an alarming extent. This is mainly because of the minority appeasement policies of the UPA government under a ‘foreign’ head, which have emboldened the missionaries to indulge in large scale conversions. The Ministry of Home Affairs in its annual report (http://mha.gov.in/fcra/annual/ar2005-06.pdf ) on “Receipt of Foreign Contributions by Voluntary Associations”, lists “Maintenance of priests/preachers/other religious functionaries” as one of the purposes receiving a huge amount of $21 million dollars of all foreign funding. Out of the fifteen top donor agencies given in a chart on page 20, eight are Christian and seven are secular and none are Hindu. The total fund sent to India from abroad, as per the official MHA declaration is a whopping $336,218,421 dollars! The unofficial and clandestine flow of funds is left to our imagination! A major chunk of this money is spent on conversions, targeting mainly the gullible Scheduled Castes and innocent Scheduled Tribes apart from the poor & ignorant Hindus. This is what is called as “Christian syndrome”! It can be cured only by stringent anti-conversion laws, scanning of financial resources and stopping the flow of foreign funds.

The minorities must respect the Constitution, Supreme Court and the Law of the land and must coexist without interfering in the cultural & religious practices of the majority community. Instead, if they continue with the ugly business of conversion with the aids from foreign countries and abetment from local pseudo-secular politicians, then they will harvest not souls, but what they have sown. The retaliation will be ten times more than the provocation, which will be harmful for the secular fabric of the nation and prevalence of peace & harmony. Let the minorities and the politicians understand that the Barathiya community will no more allow its people to be converted or allow its land to be partitioned. If this fact is realized, peace & harmony will prevail, otherwise God save them!

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