Ban-on-conversion bill

24.05.06

Ban-on-conversion bill.

Why are religious conversions sought to be banned? Is it wrong for a person to move from one religion to another? Definitely not, particularly in India where all these freedoms exist. Then what right has a government to ban conversions? No right, really. But there is another aspect. Why should anyone ask a person to change his religion? Maybe a genuine believe that he has the answer and the others are grouping in the dark. Change your religion, lead a new life and you shall be saved. Can’t these things happen under any religious dispensation? The Christians and Muslims would say no, but the Hindus would say an emphatic yes. From the Hindu point of view, the problem is not in the religion, but in the living of it. Therefore, be a preacher who would offer men the religion of his choice, but choose, this preacher would say.

Thus, the whole issue boils down to there being a culture that celebrates the various ways to God. Hindu culture is such a culture. Christianity and Islam on the other hand do not give freedom of religion as an option. They simply do not believe that any religion other than their religion is true. So there is no irony in the ban-on-conversions bill being called ‘freedom of religion bill’. What is being sought is a ban on conversions to a Christianity or rather a Churchianity (as well as Islam) which does not believe in the freedom of religions. In practice this means that all Indians still have the choice to live by the religion they prefer, because this has been the freedom guaranteed to them by virtue of India’s culture being overwhelmingly shaped by India’s Hindu traditions. But it does not encourage the seeking of converts by a Christianity or Islam that claims that all other religions are false. A quibbling over definitions, you might say. But it is a difference that makes all the difference – the difference between a throbbing multi-religious culture and a placid uni-religious culture.

We might say that the ban-on-conversion bill is to safeguard India from slipping into a Saudi Arabia type uni-religious regime.