By Antony Cony D'Souza, Karkala/Qatar
Jan 13: 'Ghar Wapsi' is a polite word but has impolite, imposing ambitions; terror, of a sort. On 18th December 2014, the official National Minorities Day, Rajeshwar Singh, the head of the Dharm Jagran Manch (Faith Awakening Forum) declared on national television news channels that the Manch had set a 2021 deadline to cleanse India of the “alien Islam and Christianity”. Another group said Christians would not be allowed in the Himalayan regions, sacred to the Hindus. The hate speeches went viral on social media, and then in major newspapers across the country.
Recently an open invitation was served in a golden platter to Christians and Muslims, to get re-converted and to re-embrace the religion of the land - Hinduism; a Way of Life from where people were historically scattered due to persecution or allurements to embrace foreign religions, Christianity and Islam. Ghar Wapsi calls to get reconverted. Let us understand them as such - "birds return to their nest without anybody’s interference, animals walk back to their dwellings spontaneously, then why our own people hesitate to return to their home religion – Hinduism"; it is the working hypothesis behind Ghar Wapsi.
Ghar Wapsi is not a new movement but old wine served in a new bottle. In the past few weeks, there has been lot of heat on the subject of RSS and bits of Sangh Parivar. The Parivar is a very large and almost omni-present family of pro-Hindu organisations created by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh in the past two decades, of which the Dharma Jagran Manch, the Bajrang Dal and the powerful Vishwa Hindu Parishad are among the more prominent groups. By Ghar Wapsi or reconversion of Christians or Muslims to Hinduism, the impression created is as if the RSS has started this new campaign. But this is not true. Let us refer to a quote here from the website of Arya Samaj, about the origin of 'Ghar Wapsi' movement - “The Arya Samaj opposed conversion of Hindus to Islam and Christianity. Arya Samaj advocated reconversion of recent converts back to Hinduism. Arya Samaj launched shuddhi movement to bring non-Hindus back to Hinduism this process was called shuddhi."
The above makes it clear that the movement to get people back into Hinduism is older than RSS. Everyone grows up in their own faith and has ethos of their own. For the Christian, Jesus is the Saviour. For the Muslim, Muhammad is the last prophet. For the Buddhist, life is suffering. For the older Thervada Buddhist school, there was only one Buddha. In the latter Mahayana Buddhist school, there were many Buddhas. For the Hindu, there is rebirth. For the Shaivite, Shiva can break the cycle of rebirth. For the Vaishnavite, Vishnu is the cycle breaker. For the Jain, the world has no beginning or ending. For the secularist, religion is bad. For the capitalist, money is good. For the communist, the haves oppress the have-nots. For patriarchy, heterosexual men are superior. For the atheist, god is fiction. For the scientist, that which is measurable is real. Therefore, religion, conversion and reconversion will adversely affect the social/religious psyche of the people, at best one would say, Ghar Wapsi is a delicate issue that should be carefully treaded upon.
Has Narendra Modi's ascent to power provided a fillip to such "reconversion" efforts? It reflects on the manner in which Indian politics is shaping up after the BJP and its close associates ascended to power.
RSS affiliated groups have launched a campaign to convert Christians and Muslims to Hinduism, a process they call Ghar Wapsi, or homecoming on the argument that every Indian is actually a Hindu, and Christians and Muslims are those who have strayed, or have been bought over by missionaries. Sangh’s ‘Ghar Wapsi’ event is in full swing in Gujarat, declared portal of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. 'VHP Continues its 'Ghar Wapsi', Converts Over 100 Christians in Gujarat' declared NDTV. The same trends are set nationwide especially in Hyderabad, Telangana, Aligarh, Goa, and Kerala. In the last six months alone, over 8,000 people in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been reconverted to Hinduism under the aegis of the VHP’s 'Ghar Wapsi' programme.
At this juncture, everyone thought PM Narendra Modi was becoming ‘Moun Modi’ like his predecessor who was called as 'Moun Singh’. Reasons could be both were and are helplessly operating from their respective power base - Congress and RSS. Right-wing organizations, including VHP and RSS, were creating trouble for the Narendra Modi government through their "religious programmes". BJP won Lok Sabha polls and formed the government at the Centre with the backing of right-wing Hindu organisations like VHP, RSS and Bajrang Dal. Modi is talking about real development while his allies are stressing upon development through Ghar Wapsi. While the Center is maintaining that it will take everybody along, the Sangha Parivar groups are speaking about taking everybody along with them through Ghar Wapsi. At any cost, at this stage, PM Modi will never permit anyone to derail his business, his house of order called Development. Recently, a clearly annoyed PM Modi applied firm control dictating RSS to quietly dump 'Ghar Wapsi' pointsman Rajeshwar Singh who is at the centre of the controversial reconversion programme in Uttar Pradesh that derailed last month's winter session of Parliament and dented the Narendra Modi-led government's pro-development image in the recent weeks. Rajeshwar Singh, a 55-year-old RSS pracharak who single-handedly steered the Ghar Wapsi, has also led its Dharm Jagran campaign since 1996.
There are other prominent leaders on whom PM Modi hesitates to prevail upon but isassertive. “Hinduism doesn’t accept conversions. Hindus try to reverse conversions,” RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said, inaugurating a Rs 18 crore convention centre of the RSS in Kerala, the first of its kind in that enlightened state. “Conversions are not necessary. If you have the basic human values, what you wear, what you eat and what you pray all these are immaterial," he said. Calling for a new law to stop religious conversion, he said the Scheduled Tribes, who convert to Christianity, should be debarred from the benefits of reservation. Furthermore, "Prevalent untouchability in society is breeding conversion and a ‘samras samaj’ (casteless society) is possible only by stamping out the menace. Discriminations based on caste and religion do not end even after converting to Christianity or Islam hence conversion is no solution to end discriminations." To promote unity in the society, he suggested, all communities should together celebrate birth/death anniversaries of great saints of all religions. Bhagwat said he would ask RSS regional heads to organise an ‘All Religion Unity Meeting’ at block level.
Another leader, VHP's Praveen Togadia holds that 'Ghar Wapsi' is not conversion, demanding a legislation to ban religious conversions. He pointed out that the Constitution is against conversions and that the Supreme Court had also made this clear in 1977. The Supreme Court has also given a judgment that Hinduism is a way of life. "If a person adopts western, Chinese or Japanese way of life, it can`t be called religious conversions. Similarly, if a group becomes Hindu and adopts Hindu way of life, it can`t be called conversion," he argued. Togadia claimed that "Ghar Wapsi" is going on in the country for 700 years and hence there is nothing new in it. "Ghar Wapsi is not against the Constitution or law. They have a right to make a homecoming," said the VHP leader. He also disagreed that "Ghar Wapsi" would affect the process of development of the country. "In fact, this will hasten development. World over it is accepted that economic development will be better under cultural ethos. Culture is the driving force for economic development," he said.
Common Civil Code is interesting, seemingly a good thing, but rooted in the unsubstantiated premise that Muslims can marry four wives at a time, are breeding too fast, and will outnumber the Hindus soon. The law will also impact Christian personal laws and customs, particularly in rural populations where tradition and custom are the glue that holds their society together.
As John Dayal, journalist and civil rights activist who supports minorities, pointed out in an article for UCAN, "The federal minister for education, former TV actress Smriti Boman Irani, has ordered a revision of text books, particularly of history, to incorporate more ancient Indian traditions including references to Hindu sacred texts.
Various important councils in the ministry are now chaired by luminaries wedded to the thesis that India is the fountainhead of all knowledge in the world. The BJP and the minister hold that Hindu sacred texts are a 5,000-year-old source of knowledge on such diverse subjects as plastic surgery, aviation, nuclear weaponry and genetic engineering.
Her officials issued orders earlier this month that Christmas Day will now be called “Good Governance Day” to mark the birthday of — not Jesus — but former BJP prime minister Vajpayee who is now critically ill and has not been seen in public for several years. Academic institutions from junior schools to universities were to keep their doors open and organize social programs for students. Christmas was not to be a holiday any more. An outcry by Church and civil society, an acrimonious clash in parliament where Modi still does not have a majority in the Upper House, forced the government to dilute the order.
"Christmas remains a holiday, but the “educational” programs and activities will also be held, with principals and officials told to report to the government that they did indeed comply with the order.
"Muslims and Christians feel they are being strangled by a tightening noose, in the villages and small towns by Sangh cadres who have the police on their side, and nationally by the federal and state governments who seem to endorse the hate campaigns and the violence.
"But for civil society, the threat is to India’s constitution, which has evolved as a great international democratic document that protects the country’s hundreds of cultures, languages, races and many faiths. All too many people in office and heading Sangh groups have said that the constitution is an inheritance from Britain that has no place in Hindu Rashtra, the Land of the Hindus," Dayal writes.
Far from this Ghar Wapsi there is another 'Ghar Wapsi highly moving on'; the other face of the same coin. Maharashtra OBC says, 'India was a Buddhist country: plan 'Ghar Wapsi' from Hinduism'. While Sangh Parivar is "spearheading ‘Ghar Wapsi’ programmes across India with the intention to bring Christians and Muslims into the fold of Hinduism, several groups of Hindus in Maharashtra are mulling converting to Buddhism. In fact, several Hindus in the state have registered for the process of conversion. According to Satyashodhak OBC Parishad, around 1600 families have registered with it for conversion. This includes a large number of OBCs, apart from a few Brahmin and Maratha families," writes Vishmas Waghmode in 'First Post'.
"We aim to register around 5 lakh people for conversion in Maharashtra till 2016. There are five crore OBCs among the 12 crore people in the state. We think we can easily achieve the target of converting 5 lakh people by 2016," president Hanumant Upre of Satyashodhak OBC Parishad is quoted in the First Post report.
As per the above report, in 2007, around one lakh people were converted to Buddhism in Mumbai. The majority of the people who converted to Buddhism were tribals, nomadic tribes and other communities apart from the followers of dalit writer and Sahitya Akademin winner Laxman Mane. Mane himself converted to Buddhism in October 2006. J V Pawar, renowned Dalit writer, said that the social awareness among the OBC community, who have been practicing Hinduism, seems to have increased in the past few years. "While the OBCs got reservation, they now realise that they need to rid themselves of the caste system in Hinduism. Due to the caste system, Dr B R Ambedkar, the Dalit icon, also converted to Buddhism," Pawar said.
The caste system in India is a system of social stratification that eventually led to Sanskritization. Hindu society has different layers of different varnas,the jātis (castes) are thought of as being grouped into four varnas - Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. Certain groups, now known as "Dalits", were excluded from the varna system altogether, ostracized as untouchables. In Hinduism no one can be converted to high caste Brahmin. No collection of wealth can be made by a Shudra even though he may be capable of it. Brahmin can take Shudra's property by force.
Hindu conversionsconversions took place not only because of foreign religions but because of caste system as well.
Due to Brahmins' discrimination of Shudras, Hindus converted to Jainism from 850 BC, and to Buddhism from 500 BC. Buddhism was born in India but stamped out of India by Brahmins. Due to this discrimination Hinduism did not flourish in India as much as Buddhism spread in the entire East Asia. The main obstacle for anybody wanting to become Hindu is caste which is even so today.
Are VHP and RSS doing an incredibly good job of reconversion without studying or without waging a war on castism lest this would only move them in the opposite direction? Therefore, first all, the political, religious leaders and scholars must come together and find ways to kill the caste system in its present form and get the Brahmin community to come together and accept the backward community in India as their equal and provide them access to their temples and priests as they do. If that is done, half of the job of 'Ghar Wapsi' is made easy, ground work is laid for the grand re-entry of those people who were subject to discrimination and humiliation during all these centuries due to which poorer Hindus gave into new religion for material benefit and for social recognition and status.
Writes John Dayal in his blog, "Many analysts have said that Mr Modi rides two horses. One is the development and good governance agenda, which he has repeatedly articulated as his mantra in Gujarat and in New Delhi since he became prime minister. The other remains Hindutva, the right-wing, hyper-nationalist argument of supremacy that posits Hindus as the sole inheritors of the Indian civilization and culture... If the development agenda fails, Mr Modi will have to ride full gallop on the Hindutva horse, if he wants to win the next elections in 2019." That is the risk. It will not be easy for a development agenda to succeed miraculously in the circumstances that the Indian economy finds itself in this globalized world.
Minorities have so far not woken up to this argument, their religious heads at the grassroots level have not been educated to challenge the thesis.They are also ignorant, if not entirely impotent, in how to respond the Ghar Wapsi movement.
What if Ghar Wapsi is followed globally, for example, if the USA or the UK insist on Ghar Wapsi to reconvert from Hinduism to Christianity? Can they do it? If yes, what would be the reaction of the Indian Government?
In the spirit of debate, let us discuss if Ghar Wapsi can bring the desired results or not.
Does Ghar Wapsi (GW) improve their living conditions? NO
Does GW get them out of poverty? NO
Do their kids get better education? NO Will there be social security to them? NO
Do their ill and sick get treated in a special way? Majority of them NO
Will they will be socially recognized? NO, but people like Julio Ribeiro, former commissioner of police, Mumbai, and ex-DGP Punjab, might Yes, who ae deeply contemplating on Ghar Wapsi
Do their relatives change? NO
Do their friends change? NO
Does it change their food and eating habits? NO
Do they get developed economically? NO
Does it change their outlook towards India or society? NO
Will they vote for the party you support? Doubtful
Will the changes will be officially inducted into the national survey? Uncertain
By reconversion will they achieve 100% Hinduism? NO
Will they fetch a good job that easily? NO
After Ghar Wapsi will they be treated at par with the caste conscious Hindus or will they have to live lifelong with further discrimination? Can their belief in God change completely? Doubtful
Will they get marriage partners that easily? NO
It is said that D’Souzas were converted by Portuguese from Brahmin sect (it is my assumption, could be true, difficult to prove). In such a case, if I get reconverted will I be admitted in the upper layer of the society enjoying similar social, religious status of the Brahmins? NO
Does every converted soul from Hindu soil have the right to move on with Ghar Wapsi? Answer is yours !
Ghar Wapsi might help if Hinduism came under threat or extinction in future. At the moment it makes up more than 85% of the total population. Christianity’s statistical growth is negligible since Independence but objectively Islam might have grown proportionally due to their polygamy/bigamy factors and by discouraging family planning. Either case, total ban on conversionsconversions would be the ideal solution than the controversial Ghar Wapsi programme which might give way to social unrest and continuous sense of insecurity to the minorities.
Disclaimer: All views and opinions expressed in the above article are those of the author alone.
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