By Irfan Engineer,
The Dr. M B Niyogi Committee Report on the Christian Missionary Activities Enquiry Committee[1] appointed by the Government of Madhya Pradesh, by Resolution No. 318-716-V-Con., dated the 14th April, 1954 was submitted to the Chief Secretary on 18th April, 1956 and it paved the way for legal restrictions on conversions[2]. Anti-conversion law of MP State – Madhya Pradesh Dharma Swatantrya Adhiniyam, 1968 can be partly attributed to the Report of the Niyogi Committee. Among the questionable recommendations of the Niyogi Committee were “(5) Any attempt by force or fraud, or threats of illicit means or grants of financial or other aid, or by fraudulent means or promises, or by moral and material assistance, or by taking advantage of any person’s inexperience or confidence, or by exploiting any person’s necessity, spiritual (mental) weakness or thoughtlessness, or, in general, any attempt or effort (whether successful or not), directly or indirectly to penetrate into the religious conscience of persons (whether of age or underage) of another faith, for the purpose of consciously altering their religious conscience or faith, so as to agree with the ideas or convictions of the proselytizing party should be absolutely prohibited.” And “(10) Suitable control on conversions brought about through illegal means should be imposed. If necessary Legislative measures should be enacted.” These recommendations were later reflected in the 1968 anti-conversion law, albeit in a much watered down form. As we shall see later, the Niyogi Committee, not only contributed in shaping the anti-conversion laws in India, it also gave flesh and blood to the Savarkar’s and Gowalkar’s unconvincing attitude towards the Christians. Needless to say that the recommendations of the Niyogi Committee were completely unconstitutional. The demands of the Hindu right wingers that were rejected in the Constituent Assemble Debates – namely, to drop the word “propagate” from the article on freedom of religion alongside right to freely profess and practice from that article and not to recognize even voluntary conversions of persons below the age of 18 with the consent of the parents of – was sought to be re-introduce through the recommendations of the Niyogi Committee and the anti-conversion laws. Mark the italic words above in the recommendation No. 5 (italics supplied)
The Niyogi Committee discusses the background in which it was appointed by the State Govt. after going through the files made available to it. The Congress Party had committed itself to linguistic states. There were agitations all over the country to demand linguistic states. “As the immediate cause which ultimately led to our appointment”, states Niyogi Committee in II Chapter or Part I, Vol. I, “was the activities of some Mission organizations in the recently Merged States of Raigarh, Udaipur, Jashpur and Surguja, it will be useful to describe the principal or [the] root causes of whatever trouble was reported in the integrated States soon after their merger on 1st January, 1948.” In the adivasi (indigenous people) dominated districts, the adivasis were agitating for Jharkhand State, and if that was not possible to achieve, they wanted the districts falling in the Chhattisgarh region of the Madhya Pradesh state to be part of Bihar state. The Niyogi Committee perceived this as a Christian Conspiracy!! It states in Chapter II, part-I Vol. I,
“At the All-India Adiwasis’ conference on 14th January, of 1948, called by Mr. Jaipal Singh, speeches after speeches were made narrating the disadvantages and worries associated with the merger of the States with Madhya Pradesh and the benefits accruing from their amalgamation with Bihar. Two Christians and a non-Christian were appointed propagandists to carry on pro-Bihar agitation.” The Committee then lists instances of meetings organised by Christian priests in support of either merger with Bihar or creation of Jharkhand. The Committee nowhere enlightens us as to why it considers the demand for Jharkhand or merger with State of Bihar as a Christian demand rather than demands of the adivasis of the region, in which, Christians also participated along with the rest as advasis, and their participation was as adivasis rather than as Christians.
The Politicians in Bhopal considered this as anti-national and anti-state activity in any case. As the national leaders of the Indian National Congress Party had promised linguistic re-organisation of the states and the Constitution of India guaranteed the liberties available to the citizens under a liberal democracy, they were more open and tolerant to such agitations. The interests of the politicians sitting in Bhopal were under threat and therefore were extremely hostile to any demand merging the Chhattisgarh region of MP with Bihar or creation of Jharkhand state. However, the political space available to brand a movement that was demanding linguistic re-organisation of MP state as anti-national was extremely limited. As some of the leaders demanding Jharkhand were Christians, the Politicians in Bhopal could brand the entire movement as anti-national and a Christian conspiracy. Attempt was made to draw parallels between the “Christian” demand of Jharkhand with Muslim conspiracy to create Pakistan. With the hindsight, today we do have Jharkhand State, and it was created with full support of the BJP – the Hindu right wing political party, and nobody called it anti-national demand or a Christian conspiracy. Although the present boundaries of Jharkhand state are truncated from the state that the adivasis were agitating for, without the districts from the Chattisgarh region. The Niyogi Committee without any credible material concluded apriori the demand for Jharkhand State or merger of Chhattisgarh region with Bihar state as a conspiracy by Christians to maintain a toe hold in the newly formed state. Interestingly, the Niyogi Committee itself notes that the Christian demand of merger with Bihar was supported by the premier of Bihar (and he could neither be branded as anti-national nor part of conspiracy). The Resolution appointing the Niyogi Committee repeated the apprehensions of the Bhopal govt. The Resolution stated the cause behind appointment of the Niyogi Committee as “Whereas representations have been made to Government from time to time that Christian Missionaries, either forcibly or through fraud and temptations of monetary and other gain, convert illiterate aboriginals and other backward people thereby offending the feelings of non-Christians; And whereas it has further been represented that Missions are utilised directly or indirectly for purposes of political or extra-religious objectives”.
“Guided” by the files made available by the state Govt. of MP, and the rather vague terms of reference Niyogi (the Committee nowhere states the terms of reference in its report), formulated a questionnaire which was to be answered by several respondents. The Church enthusiastically participated initially in the Enquiry, however it withdrew after the Questionnaire was framed writing to the Committee that it will not be able to continue its participation in the Enquiry. The Questionnaire administered is also not made part of the otherwise extensive appendix. The only plausible cause of withdrawal of the church seems to have been that there must have been some prejudice in structuring the Questionnaire.
The Niyogi Committee then enlists the growing services of the Christian missionaries and the number of beneficiaries of these services in various districts of MP, particularly in the districts that it visited and studied – Viz. Raigarh, Surguja, Raipur, Bilaspur, Amravati, Nimar, Yeotmal, Akola, Buldana, Mandla, Jabalpur, Betul, Chhindwara and Balaghat. It gives instances of growing foreign aid to the institutions run by the missionaries (without comparing with similar institutions run by non-missionary organisations, if any). The services enlisted by the Niyogi Committee rendered in the aforesaid districts include Hospitals, educational institutions and orphanages. With growing foreign aid and growing coverage of the beneficiaries of these institutions, the Niyogi Committee without any material or substantial basis comes to the conclusion these institutions employ large army of pracharaks who indulge in conversions. For Niyogi Committee, it was sufficient that missionaries were “indulging” in proselytization and it did not feel any further need to examine whether the proselytization was by force, fraud or coercion or by free will, particularly where the adivasis are concerned. Running Hospitals, old age ashrams, educational institutions, orphanages and other such institutions was synonymous to conversions and conversions to Christianity was necessarily only due to the benefits that accrued from the institutions, or by fraud or by force. Interest free money lending is considered another tool for conversion by Christian missionaries based on an isolated deposition where the beneficiary said that he converted after getting the loan.
The Niyogi Committee further draws a dangerous conclusion, again without any basis that conversion to Christianity leads to shift in national loyalty. Savarkar and Golwalkar were proponents of this line of thinking. Niyogi Committee in recommendations says “As conversion muddles the converts sense of unity and solidarity with his society, there is a danger of his loyalty to his country and State being undermined.”
The Recommendations of the Niyogi Committee too are controversial and unconstitutional. It recommended that the Missionaries be asked to withdraw which is against the Art. 25 of the Constitution of India that not only accepts propagation of religion, it accepts rights even of foreign nationals to propagate their religion. It demand Indianization of Church and calls upon church to severe all its relations with any such body abroad. This demand was repeated by K. Sudarshan, the Sar Sangh Chalak after Kandhamal violence in 2007 and 2008.