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A clay idol of Ganesha and a carved wooden cross
are thrown into the muddy pond under the sanguine supervision of a white-robed
gentleman. As the throng of illiterates inhabiting the remote hamlet watch with
bated breath, the clay idol sinks without a trace, but lo, the wooden thing
floats for all to see. The robed gentle(?)man, now turns around to face the
crowd, a benign smile adorning his facade but not betraying the malignant
intent, and announces the triumph of the true god over the illusory idols.
Having thus proved the superiority of the Son of God over the Son of Shiva, by
this remarkable miracle he now very magnanimously leaves it to the innocent,
illiterate simpletons, for whom seeing is believing, to decide on their faith
...on their own, to be sure. Through the miracle of the floating cross, the
stage is thus set for the crossover of those at the crossroads of their
conscience! Then follows a subtle, but insidious sermon that details the
benefits that would accrue to those who had the good sense to launder their sins
for salvation. Invariably, the potential targets are those who have already been
softened by sustained social service over a period and the miracle was only the
last straw. Yet another group of errant sheep join the flock, with mutual
benefits for the converts as well as the convertors --salvation from sins for
the former and a ticket to heaven for the latter not to speak of material
benefits for both. One is at a loss whether to
call the above ruse a fraud, inducement, immoral force, exploitation or all of
these. These are common tricks that are routinely conjured up by the
conscience-hunters whose divine vocation it is to enlist mercenaries for their
unholy schemes. However, not all such experiments to prove the superiority of
the Son are as laborious and painstaking. With the conversion market booming,
what with foreign funds for the asking if only an evangelist could prove the
worth of his work in numbers, haste, very indecent at that, is the name of the
game. Also, with awareness about the missionary mischiefs increasing by the day
even among timid or indifferent Hindus, it is now a matter of making hay while
the sun shines and so material inducements are blatantly used as instruments of
conversion. With commerce rather than conviction forming the bedrock of such
activities increasingly, it is a question of one evangelist beating it to the
pile before the other round the next street corner does. And to be sure, there
is an army of such white robed gentlemen roaming the countryside in search of
wholesale soul-sellers whose penury and illiteracy could be traded for
well-packaged religious detergents that could wash away stain and sin, better
than even Super Rin! But to brand these conversion exercises as solely
commercial ventures would be to belittle their dangerous portents. Though the
package comes with the coating of material allurement, it is only a clever ruse
to lure the gullible; really conversions are motivated by deeper religious and
political factors. For one, while Hinduism recognises the validity of all paths
to attain God, Islam and Christianity clearly condemn all non-believers as
kafirs or heathens and quite explicitly exhort their practitioners to convert
those of other religions to their own faith. For them it is a religious duty to
do so, and it does not recognise social niceties and common courtesies. Armed
with such a religious sanction, the missionaries of both these faiths over the
centuries have evolved or varied only in their methods in order to suit
prevailing social and political milieu: at the core, the zeal if anything has
only hardened. And Hinduism with all its plurality and self-defeating
secularism, is too soft and dicey a target to be left unattacked. Even the Pope,
who was let into this country in all innocence by a BJP government that rolled
the red carpet for him in his capacity of a head of State, could not resist his
genetic religious instinct and issued a call, standing on this very soil, for a
massive harvest of faith! It is a different matter that the crop has largely
failed, but the slip is quite revealing. If that is the wont of an honourable
gentleman who was actually a guest, imagine what would be the cumulative zeal of
resident missionaries who are rooted in this land, possessing intricate
knowledge of its social fissures and upheavals and having at their disposal
several instruments like money, media, Marxists and myopic secularism. To ignore
the threat posed by this combination to communal harmony and national security,
would be a sin that no Father & Son duo can salvage us from! The differences between Hinduism which is
pluralistic and Islam plus Christianity which are exclusivist, are very basic
and cannot be reconciled. The militants of one and the missionaries of the other
are just the two sides of the same coin, as far as the Hindus are concerned.
Heads or Tail, the Hindus stand to lose and greater the peril, if the one who
tosses the coin or adjudicates, happens to be a secularist. While one guarantees
instant death, the other is slow poison, programmed to kill. Well, what about
the secularist? He stands for suicide! It is really a miracle, a greater wonder
than the floating cross alluded to above, that Hinduism is still around despite
the onslaught of this diabolical trio. All these centuries it is only the
tolerance of the Hindus that has ensured whatever communal peace that had
prevailed in the country, despite dire provocations from these other
religionists and the subversive secularists. But the Hindus of the land have
paid a heavy price for that in the form of not only desecration of their places
of worship but also putting up with insults and innuendos that are always being
heaped by the preachers who also double up as poachers, in all piety, for sure.
Why do these men seek to convert? Apart from the commercial spin-offs, it arises
from their basic belief that Hinduism is a contemptible religion and Hindus need
to be salvaged if they were to walk into heaven. They have utter hatred for
anything Hindu. Now in the face of such unconcealed derisive intent, would not
allowing conversions be tantamount to conceding that such contempt is correct
and justified? Let alone the religious angle, should India, in utter disregard
of the sentiments of its majority, invite such an ignominy upon its own people
just to put up a tolerant face or to satisfy the itches of blind maniacs and
blinkered secularists? When even just-born nations seek to trace their roots and
cultural identities, in India which can boast of a far richer and ancient
heritage, its dominant religion which also reflects its character, whether one
likes it or not, is sought to be treated as a boxers punching bag and made to
accommodate rank rabid faiths that entertain neither any pretension of religious
tolerance nor are weighed by compulsions of reciprocity! Talking to them is futile; one has to only deal
with them. Indeed, the ordinance to check conversions, though a small step, is a
bold initiative in the right direction. Checking conversions may not be the
cure-all panacea for the social tensions prevailing presently, but at least one
major agent provacateur would be under scrutiny and control. It is high
time this menace is given some attention. To be sure, there would be a cacophony
of protests on this assault on secularism and religious freedom, and of course,
wails of pandering to communal, read Hindutva, forces. But that is an old gag
and in any case it is difficult to fathom what Archbishops and Imams have got to
do with secularism and tolerance. Such words do not figure in their Books! So
why complain?
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