Not a matter of faith alone

Conversions from the ‘faith’ of birth have been a part of the human race since recorded history. In the present context, for example, just as Christianity is gaining converts among the needy and deprived in developing countries like India, Hinduism, too, is making extensive inroads into the Christian world, contends Raghuvendra Tanwar

Street preaching is very much in vogue here nowadays. All along Anarkali (famous bazaar in Lahore), Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian, Arya and Brahmo preachers may be seen earnestly expatiating on the excellence of their respective creeds, surrounded by crowds of apparently attentive listeners.
The Tribune, March 30, 1889, Lahore.
FOR most of history, two out of three people in the world have lived in Asia. Europe’s share has rarely exceeded 11 per cent. Yet the number of people killed in wars rooted in religious strife in Europe is manifold of those that died for the cause of religion in Asia. History also shows that but for brief sporadic spells, India has never closed its doors to ideas and faiths that had their roots in foreign lands.

The complexity of India’s socio-cultural emergence as a nation is something which has been totally overlooked by those who have initiated the planned attacks on Christian settlements in various parts of the country. In doing so such people have attempted to swim against the current of Indian culture and the foundation of what is commonly termed as Hinduism. A distorted perception has even led the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to cite erroneous facts. The number of Christians in India has actually declined from 2.53 per cent of the total population to 2.43 per cent between 1971 and 1991. While the Hindu population actually grew by about 24 per cent that of the Christians grew by just 16 per cent.

The very idea of attempting to corner a minority which has almost 26 million adherents is in itself disgusting. But even if we accept the fact that Christian missionaries are gaining converts by providing good education and medical care at an affordable price to needy people, where is the harm? If the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has a problem with this approach, why does it not prevent people from converting by providing similar services. The fact remains a dying man would first require medical aid and then think of which God to pray to.

The Dangs area of Gujarat, which has been the centre of violence against the Christians in recent days, received its first missionaries over 100 years ago. Even as the last century did witness organised conversion work yet, even then it was widely accepted that the missionaries not only provided the much needed medical assistance but prompted other reformist movements to do the same. The Ramkrishna Math and Mission for example with its system of hospitals, dispensaries and relief projects gave to Hinduism a new dogma of social service. It was in fact a response to the social service initiated by Christians.

But even more important is the fact that conversion is essentially only the last step of an assumed ladder, the first of which is in fact, an attempt to improve the status and quality of a person’s life. Preaching is only a sequel to social service and does not precede it. It is only after a person feels that he has benefited from a particular kind of religious perception that he would be inclined towards a change of faith. In any case it is a totally personal matter. Those who intervene on behalf of Hinduism need also to remember some outstanding perceptions of Hinduism: "An all inclusive and liberal philosophy of life. It tolerates in itself all faiths and beliefs. It considers all religions true and, therefore it cannot claim to be a distinct or organised religion in the accepted sense". Mahatma Gandhi, for example, had said: "It is the good fortune or misfortune of Hinduism that it has no official creed. Hinduism is not a codified religion: (M.K. Gandhi, Hindu Dharam, p.4 and 17) The eminent scholar, Dr S. Radhakrishnan (The Hindu View of Life), noted that Hinduism originally had a territorial and not a creedal significance. It is a museum of beliefs, a medley of rites".

The basic problem today appears to be a dangerously chauvinistic and distorted perception of India and Hinduism. There can be no greater folly than to view India as it was say 1000 years ago, i.e. as a semi-isolated Hindu-Buddhist civilisation. We must not forget that by the mid-fourteenth century two-thirds of India had been exposed to a deep influence of the rich Perso-Arabic culture. Even as the British gave to South Asia generally and India specifically their own brand of civilisation, it was not they who implanted Christianity in India. Christianity has been in India for close to 1800 years. The first traces of Christianity are available as early as the second century on the Malabar Coast. More detailed references come to us from 325 AD (L.W. Brown, The Indian Christians of St. Thomas p.66). By the fifth century extensive Christian settlements were seen in Quilon (Travancore).

But what needs today to be understood is that the history of Christianity in India is in no way similar to that of its growth in Europe. "To the Indian Christians all that mattered was Christ and a canonical succession of bishops to ensure the religious care of the faithful without impairing their local native way of life". (A.S. Atiya, A History of Eastern Christianity, p.369). What really distinguished the really Christians in India was: "Christians sent free offerings to the temples, the Hindus participated in Christian feasts and sought cures from their ailments by votive gifts to Christian saints and Churches", (Brown, p. 167). Perhaps the most striking feature of the early Indian Christians was that they treated the faith as a mode of life. "His interest is not focused on the doctrinal formulas which marked the religious struggle in the West.The Indian Christian was more concerned with the devotional aspect and mystical philosophy of religion", (Attiya, p.384). This was in sharp contrast to Europe, where almost for a thousand years most wars and strife were rooted in religion, be they between Christianity and Islam or between Protestants and Catholics. While one King (Charles-IX) ordered mass execution of non-Catholics in France (August 1572), across the English Channel another King (Charles-I) was executed for among other charges, his inclination towards the Catholic Church (30 Jan., 1649).

India had always been different. Whereas in parts of Europe, even 300 years after the birth of Christ, a Christian just on the basis of his faith could invite the death penalty, in India at about the same time the early Christians had no problems. Christianity grew in India as a part of the large concept of ‘Hindoostan’, an integral part of it. Like all faiths Christianity, too, did have its internal problems in India, but rarely did it come in conflict with other faiths.

The onset of colonisation by Europeans in South Asia from the 18th century did change the situation significantly. As K.W. Jones, (Socio Religious Reform Movements in British India) points out: "Professional missionaries, polemical tracts, and new rituals of conversion were only three of the components of religious innovations in Asia during the 19th century". The sub-continent witnessed during the 19th century a churning of ideas and forms of protest unprecedented in Indian history. Like India’s reaction to the onset of Islam on the sub-continent in the medieval ages, reformist sects adopted refurbished forms of action like public debates on religions detail throughout the 19th century, to respond to the growing challenge of Christian missionaries.

In his fascinating travelogue, published in 1891 as Modern India and the Indians, the great Sanskrit scholar Sir Monier Monier Williams noted: "Doubtless every civilised nation is inclined to pride itself on its institutions and to despise others". The strength of the British Raj was based essentially on military and technological superiority but erroneously they added to it the claim of racial and religious superiority. As Christianity was made an integral part of the Raj, it began to attract converts for the sake of monetary and mundane advantages. This trend led to extensive reformist and counter-conversion movements in the 19th century.

India’s first great modernist, Ram Mohan Roy, argued in favour of an equivalence between Christianity and Hinduism. Ram Mohan Roy believed that Christianity and Hinduism had a common ethical core. If superstition, error and false rituals could be removed from both, they could stand on a common footing. however, it was Swami Dayanand who gave to Hinduism in the form of the Arya Samaj a system of proselytism with professional missionaries and even a ritual of conversion by which any one could become a Hindu. Others like Swami Ramkrishna and Swami Vivekananda believed all religions to be true and thus justified the opposition to conversion. Attempts at conversion and reconversion remained the focus of radical elements in society throughout the last decades of the last century. This redefined Hinduism witnessed a unprecedented race at conversion with Islam and Christianity, particularly in Punjab. The vernacular press greatly contributed to further straining a tense and shaky society. Fortunately, the influence of the press was limited to urban areas which also not surprisingly witnessed some of the more violent of communal clashes.

Conversion away from Hinduism was also prompted by the deep-rooted caste oppressions of Hindu society which prompted many communities like the Nadars for example to break away to join Christianity just as the Mahars opted for Buddhism. Starting with 1871, the census too led to a lot of problems. In a way religion was redefined. The race for conversion received great added impetus as new figure of different religions came to be known. The competition for more converts led leaders to resurrect past purity. In the more applied form this meant that beliefs of other religions were seen as intrusive influences responsible for decadence. Radical elements took upon themselves the role of abusing other religions in the belief that their own would emerge ‘greater’.

Conversions from the ‘faith’ of birth have been a part of the human race since recorded history. In the present context for example just as Christianity is gaining converts among the needy and deprived in developing countries like India, Hinduism too is making extensive inroads in the Christian world, more pointedly among the affluent and intellectual elite who are seeking solace from scriptures like the Bhagavadgita for example. It is not conversions from which India or the religion of the majority need to feel threatened but in fact the fusion of religion with politics. We must not forget that it has taken many centuries of diverse socio-cultural interaction for India to emerge as a nation.