By Syed Mohammad Aamir Ali,
“Aryans and non-Aryans, Dravidians and Chinese, Scythians, Huns, Pathans and Moghuls, all have merged and lost themselves in one body. And, this body is India today.” Rabindranath Tagore
Sayings of Gurudev undoubtedly reflect the true India as the cradle of one the world’s oldest civilization, Indian has always been known for its unity in diversity. India is the birth place of four major religions and survives and thrives on its diverse customs, religions and languages embedded in its soul.
The Constitution of India doesn’t define secularism. The 42nd Amendment Act, 1976 inserted the word ‘secular’ in the Preamble. This word was not included in the original Constitution because the members felt that the entire spirit of the Constitution is secular and hence there was no need to include them separately. The concept of secularism is implicit in the Preamble of the constitution which declares the resolve of the people to secure to all its citizen “liberty of thought, belief, faith and worship.”
Secular state means that in matters of religion it’s neutral. The state does not have the religion of its own and treat all the religion equally. In S.R Bommai v. Union of India, the Supreme Court has held that secularism is a basic feature. In M. Ismail Faruqui v. Union of India popularly the Ayodhya case it was held that the concept of secularism is one of the facet of the right to equality and is woven as the central golden thread in the fabric depicting the pattern of the scheme of in our constitution.
During the framing of India’s constitution, the matter of whether it should guarantee the right to not just freely profess and practice one’s religion but also propagate it was much debated. Ultimately, Article 25 of the constitution guarantees all three, but subject to “public order, morality and health”. . . KM Munshi declared that “under freedom of speech, which the Constitution guarantees, it will be open to any religious community to persuade other people to join their faith”.
It is interesting to note that the framers of our Constitution conferred the ‘right to propagate’ not only on Indian citizens but also on foreigners as the words used in Article 25 are ‘all persons’ and not ‘all citizens Therefore, every Indian, irrespective of caste, creed or sex has the freedom to choose his/ her religious faith. Any forcible attempt to infringe upon this right is a crime punishable under law.
However, Hindu nationalist organizations were never acquiescent to this fundamental guarantee of the Constitution. In the Constituent Assembly, Rightist Hindu leaders suggested a ban on conversions but the proposal was rejected. These people considered the inclusion of words ‘profess, practice and propagate’ in the Constitution as a blunder. ‘Propagation’ means to transmit or spread one’s religion by the exposition of its tenets. Where propagation ends and conversion begins is difficult to say, but the law as it stands today is quite clear that ‘propagation’ does not include ‘conversion’.
The issue of religious conversion is back in focus. About 10 to 15 years back this issue had engrossed the country. Now with the attempted conversions of over 200 Muslims in Agra, the controversy about the religious conversions is again being debated. Those people who attempted have been defending themselves by saying that it is a Home Coming ceremony of Hindus. The premise of the campaign to reconvert those who left Hinduism for Christianity and Islam — described as ghar wapsi — is that the Hindu faith is home and conversions to ‘foreign’ religions betrayals. BJP leader Yogi Adityanath defended so, called Ghar wapsi by stating that most of the conversions from Hinduism to other religions took place due to appeasement, coercion and involuntary with the aim of being singularly subversive. Further he said that Ghar wapsi would help those who wanted to embrace Hinduism. But he forgets that most conversions in India have taken place from the ranks of the economically poorest and socially defenseless Hindus to Islam and Christianity and at the same he fails to realise that ‘reconversion’ is also conversion.
Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) general secretary Raghvendra Pratap Singh organized feast (Sahbhoj) to counter plan of voluntary organization backed by Christians who are active in the rural areas to motivate extremely backward castes to convert to Christianity. Their contention is that Hinduism is denied a level playing field for conversions because enormous overseas funds support the work of Christian missionaries. But the truth is that there is no shortage of Indian Diaspora funding for the work of Hindu nationalists in tribal India. A massive network of tribal educational institutions of the RSS family has grown in central India, and the penetration of the Northeast is accelerating.
Supporting Ghar wapsi, RSS (Rashtriyr Swayamsevak Sangh) Chief Mohan Bhagwat said that conversion programs by Hindu group will continue and asking to make law in order to stop it. He need to be reminded that anti- conversion laws which exist in some states and which the government now wants to generalize across the country are incongruous as Conversion is a personal choice. It is an individual right to decide which religion to adopt. Moreover our Constitution (Articles 25 and 26), provides “freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion” and “freedom to manage religious affairs”. Further, the Indian Penal Code (Section 153 A) classifies forcible attempts in the name of religion as a criminal offence. Hence, there is no need for any new law for religious conversions that the government today speaks of.
Ghar wapsi is the euphemism being used by saffron groups such as RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal etc. because proselytizing religions did not include Hinduism, which didn’t believe in conversions or reconversions. A story is told of the Shankaracharya of Puri, who was presiding over a reconversion programme, being asked by a journalist, “Now that you have welcomed them back into the Hindu faith, I am sure you will welcome them into your temples?” The Shankaracharya clarified that they would be allowed only to enter separate temples, and marry within their caste or tribe. From such instance we can infer that Ghar wapsi will do no good to society rather it will give rise to new class of converts who have to again fight for their identity and dignity.
The main agenda of RSS and its affiliates behind initiating Ghar wapsi is to turn India into a theocratic state by making it “Hindu Rashtra” which violates the letter and spirit of the Constitution.
Making of a Hindu nation which is against Indian constitutional provisions
“We welcome Ghar wapasi only if it means that Muslims are sent to Pakistan, because Jinnah has already created a home for them. It is time both nations exchange Hindus and Muslims, it is the only solution to this problem.”
“If Muslims convert or reconvert to Hinduism and then marry Hindus, it will lead to genetic abnormalities in the Hindu community”.
Ajit Singh, Chief – Uttar Pradesh unit of the Shiv Sena
This is not a lone incident. Giriraj Singh’s statement for Anti-Modi citizens, move to Pakistan or Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti’s declarative option for the public to choose between ‘Raamzaade and Haraamzaade. Statements like ‘ancestors of Indian Muslims and Christians were Hindus’ made by Praveen Togadia.
India has never been a theocratic state. Secularism today is increasingly seen to have become slogan prostituted by cynical politics. Owning to such incidents, it is very difficult to independently follow one’s religion without any fear and interference. We have the freedom given by the constitution, but then it is only in written. Ethos of India which is essentially secular is fading away. Incidents like Ghar wapsi is a threat to Secularism and should be seen as wake up calls as these areforces to destroy the grandness of India’s civilizational. These are also threats to composite and pluralistic health of our country. Groups which are trying to reconvert all and sundry are causing enormous damage to social fabric of India. . It is very much necessary to separate politics from religion to realize the true spirit of secularism. RSS and its affiliates should first severe ties with the government and at the same time with national politics if they want to be committed to such agendas which would put India’s soul at peril.
Social solidarity is sine qua non for national development and growth. This conversion and reconversions debate has obscured the real problem faced by the peoples of the nation such as poverty, unemployment etc. Extremism of any kind is a symptom of an unhealthy society and like any illness; in order to eradicate it we should look to treat its cause. A firm political message has to be given to these miscreants acting in the name of God. Individual faith must be respected and guarded and the government and the political parties must ensure that it is safeguard as guaranteed by the constitution of the country.
As India’s identity is dying a slow death, it is imperative to bring to mind the India, the father of the Nation dreamt of. He said, “I do not expect the India of my dream to develop one religion, that is, to be wholly Hindu or wholly Christian or wholly Musalman, but I want it to be wholly tolerant, with its religions working side by side.”
When Mahatma Gandhi was asked if he agreed that only Indian faiths should have a place in India, he replied affirmatively. Indian faiths, he explained, such as Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity.
“Jis desh ne satya ahinsa ka path padhya,usse mazhab aur zato kai phero mai mat daliye,ek samundar hai humara desh usse nadiyo talabo mat batiye.”
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(Author is a law student at the Murshidabad Centre of Aligarh Muslim University.)