Jan 25, 1999

The Gujarat violence against Christians may have started the conversion debate but it is the champions of reconversion who have the upper hand.

By Uday Mahurkar and Sheela Raval

For the harried Atal Bihari Vajpayee visiting the troubled Dangs district in Gujarat, it was probably a way of wriggling out of a difficult and ugly situation. Buffeted simultaneously by international condemnation, opposition outrage, minority fears and saffron bellicosity, the prime minister did the equivalent of referring the troubles in Gujarat to a committee. He pondered for a while, paused and then announced the need for a "national debate" on religious conversions.

This burst of profundity didn't impress his detractors-the Congress dismissed it as a "clumsy attempt to divert attention from the ... atrocities against Christians"-but it certainly enthused those who detected an "international conspiracy" behind the troubles. A surprised Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which otherwise has no love lost for Vajpayee, not only saw it as a vindication of its stand but also claimed the conversion of Hindus "through force or inducements" had increased since Sonia Gandhi became Congress president.

This preposterous suggestion was a crude way of reviving the issue of Sonia's foreign origin, but it served the VHP's purpose. One by one the great believers in the "Christian conspiracy" thesis came crawling out of the woodwork. From BJP Rajya Sabha member Dilip Singh Judeo, who claimed that 4.5 lakh Hindus were being converted to Christianity each year, to veteran Sarvodaya workers Chunibhai Vaidya and Ghelubhai Nayak of Dangs there was a clamour to bring proselytisation to the national agenda. Said Vaidya: "The Government should immediately enact an anti-conversion law. When even Gandhiji and Vinoba Bhave were against conversions, where is the hitch?" In the Peth region of Maharashtra's Nashik district where a church was demolished on October 16 last year, Hindu leaders issued an ultimatum to Christian missionaries to quit the area by March 31. Said Awari Guruji, the octogenarian freedom fighter and convener of the Dharma Raksha Samity, "It is high time Hindus take up the conversion issue on a larger scale."

A national campaign against a minority that constitutes just 2.34 per cent of the population may not hold any attraction for the majority of Hindus, not even those who are attracted by the BJP's Hindutva plank. If census figures are any indication, the theory of mass conversion of Hindus is a complete myth. Christians are no doubt in a majority in the three tiny states of Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya and have a substantial presence in Kerala but weighed against the Hindus they are minuscule. In the storm centre of Gujarat, the community constitutes less than 1 per cent of the population. Nor is there any conclusive evidence to support the whisper campaign that India is being overwhelmed with foreign funds aimed at buying over Hindus to Christianity. The Home Ministry does not have any information to substantiate the wild claims of the Hindu extremist groups that Rs 4,500 crore is being diverted to Christian groups each year. Even VHP leaders concede that an anti-Christian campaign will have limited appeal and may ultimately rebound. "The Gujarat incidents have marred our image," admits a senior VHP functionary of the state. Worse, VHP President Ashok Singhal's reported outburst against Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen has been viewed as the ranting of a loony.

If the anti-Christian campaign carries the prospect of diminishing returns, why has the VHP taken it up in earnest? At one level, the reasons are linked to a perceived threat from Sonia. By raising anti-Christian feelings, the Hindu fringe seems intent on drawing the Congress president out and forcing her to take a so-called "anti-Hindu" stand. So far, Sonia has refused to bite the bait. She has taken extreme care to detach her faith from her politics. Neither has she projected herself as an ultra-secularist in the western sense. Last week, she used a platform provided by the Ramakrishna Mission to hit out at intolerant Hinduism.

If Sonia is not biting, why is the VHP persisting? The answer is curious and can be located in ground realities in the tribal belt stretching from Bihar's Chhota Nagpur plateau in the east to Gujarat in the west, an area that is witnessing a ferocious bout of competitive evangelism involving Christian and Hindu missionaries-a battle for the hearts and minds of tribal Adivasis.

Twenty years ago, it was almost a one-sided affair. Missionaries carrying the Bible in one hand and a blackboard in the other set up missions in remote, inhospitable regions even before Independence. Working with dedication, they established a network of schools, hospitals and churches. Conversions followed, sometimes in a trickle and sometimes of entire villages.

Of course, it wasn't entirely a smooth transition. The Constituent Assembly debated the propriety of unregulated conversions and there were charges of missionaries enticing tribals through allurements. In 1954, the Madhya Pradesh government set up a committee under Justice B.S. Niyogi to study Christian missionary activity. The Niyogi report was harsh in its indictment of missionaries. It accused them of promoting separatism and even creating a "state within a state". By 1968, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh enacted legislations to regulate conversions. In 1979, Janata Party MP O.P. Tyagi tried to extend the legislation nationwide. Although this failed, it was around this time that the RSS decided to work systematically among the tribals and fight the Christian missionaries. By the mid-'80s, conversion was sought to be countered by aggressive reconversion or "homecoming" of the tribals.

For the new breed of Hindu missionaries like 48-year-old Swami Ashimanand, a Bengali with a masters degree in physics who came to Dangs after being forced out of Nagaland, the fight against conversion is a battle to uphold indigenous culture. Strongly opposed to the Sangh Parivar's vegetarian proclivities, he travels from village to village distributing the Hanuman Chalisa. Likewise, the 6-ft Dilip Singh Judeo of the Jashpur royal family combines politics with reconversion of tribals in Madhya Pradesh. His Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram claims to have brought some 1.5 lakh tribals back to the Hindu fold. Judeo personally supervises the reconversions by washing the feet of the converts. In Ranchi, the Dharma Prasar Samity's 55-year-old chief Govind Oraon plays Pahan (tribal priest) to reconvert Adivasis before idols of Shiva and Parvati. An RSS member, Oraon echoes Veer Savarkar's view of missionaries: "They are not only changing the religion but converting nationality." To prevent this from happening, the Hindu missions have even begun emulating the welfare activities of the church. In south Bihar for example, the RSS has sponsored 5,000 Vanavasi Kalyan Kendras, 1,100 single-teacher schools and 500 health centres. All because of the perceived Christian threat.

For these Hindu proselytisers, the conversions debate has come as a god-send. In Dangs, where the Home Ministry says the Christian tribal population shot up by 416 per cent since 1981 to approximately 30,000, anti-Christian frenzy has led to Hindu Bhils becoming more strident. In the first fortnight of January, there were some 1,200 reconversions. Govind Maheria, 35, of Nirgulmal village was among those who went through shudhikaran (purification) at the hot springs in the Unai temple. "We have returned to our original home having strayed for a while," he said. It's a rediscovery that cuts no ice with Father Ashok Vaghela, principal of the Jivan Jyoti Catholic School in Pimpri village. "This is a dastardly attempt to browbeat Christians into leaving their faith by the threat of social boycott."

That the violence has intimidated the Christian community is undeniable. However, if there are desertions from the faith it is also on account of the fragility of the initial conversions. In Dangs, it is the Catholic Church that has nurtured welfare programmes, including three boarding schools, three dispensaries and some income-generation schemes. Yet, ironically, it is the Protestant Friend Missionary Prayer Band (FMPB) and Indian Evangelical Mission that have drawn the greatest number of converts. Faith healing has played an important role in drawing tribal Bhils to these congregations. In a village close to Dharampur town, FMPB pastor Kalubhai Bacharbhai points to a group of Christian tribals, "Jesus cured them of their ailments and they embraced Christianity. Seeing this chamatkar (miracle), others are also getting drawn." Adds Maniben Kokana, a 32-year-old illiterate tribal, "After I started attending Sunday prayer, I got cured of a severe ailment in my hand." In Peth, Chintamani Boshare's neighbour was ill and medicine was provided by Father Jabraj of the FMPB. After the neighbour recovered, Boshare converted and later attended the Yavatmal Bible School.

"The poor tribal", says a Dutch priest who worked for 30 years in tribal areas, "doesn't accept Christianity purely out of love for the God. The motives are mixed. It can be the hope of a better life, a job or even food security." Yet, "forced conversions" are a rarity. In Madhya Pradesh, convictions under the state Freedom of Religion Act are few. Between 1980-'82 there were 17 complaints and one conviction. In 1996, a tribal nun was convicted for not informing the authorities of the conversion of 19 families in Surguja district in 1988.

Normally, conversions prompted by sheer faith shouldn't have created tensions in a society where spiritual gurus abound. But if there are visible strains between Christian and Hindu tribals, it is mainly on account of the breakdown of community spirit.

In his 1998 Papal Encyclical, Pope John Paul II pointed to the "rich religious and philosophical traditions" of the East. "In India, particularly, it is the duty of the Christians now to draw from this rich heritage the elements compatible with their faith ..." The Catholic Church has been particularly sensitive to non-Christian traditions, some congregations even going to the extent of having the Om sign outside churches and organising Catholic ashrams.

The problem has been with some of the aggressive evangelical orders. In a bid to maintain distinctiveness, they encouraged a gulf between Christians and others. The Peth troubles began after 16 Christian families refused to contribute to the annual Mawli Puja. In Dangs, as Father Vaghela admits, "The refusal of Christians to contribute to the tribal festivals was a cause of the communal troubles." To these were added the insensitive texts in some FMPB manuals. Says Dangs DSP Manoj Sashidharan: "We have on record a series of complaints about desecration of Hindu and tribal idols, particularly of Hanuman, by Christians under the influence of their preachers."

Two wrongs, however, don't make a right. The destruction of churches has sullied India's image internationally and undermined the claims of Hindus to be tolerant and accommodating. The VHP, which has a large following in the Indian diaspora, knows this only too well. So too does the RSS which actually initiated a dialogue with the church last year and then ended up baiting Christians. Merely because it sensed an opportunity to score political points. Far from being saved from encroachments, Hindus may first have to confront the evil within.

-- with Sanjay Kumar Jha, Harinder Baweja and N.K. Singh

© Living Media India Ltd