The conversion controversy

A series of reported religious re-conversion by outfits linked to India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's description of India as a “Hindu Rashtra” (Hindu State) has led to heated debates resulting in disruption of parliamentary proceeding. Protests by the political opposition erupted in parliament against a campaign by Hindu hardliners to bring Muslims and Christians back to the Hindu fold.

Conversion is a sensitive issue with Hindu groups saying that many poor Hindus over the ages were forced to give up their faith or lured into Islam and Christianity. From an historical perspective, the use of Hinduism for political mobilisation took a more militant form in North India through the Arya Samaj and the cow protection movement which led to the widespread communal violence in 1893.

Some commentators have opined that under the BJP rule in India there is quite clearly an attempt to define the Indian nation primarily in terms of Hindu religious symbols, myths, and history. Religion was never totally detached from politics in India nor was it ever exclusively confined to private space. The 19th century's so-called Hindu revivalism was marked by a conceptualisation of a glorious Hindu past, believed to have been degenerated under Muslim rule and threatened by the British. The glorification of Hindu civilisation over Islamic or Western civilisations often boiled down to attempts to exalt and rationalise Hindu institution and practices.

It might be relevant to recollect that evocation of Hindu glory mixed with patriotism which sought to restore the masculinity of the Indian nation denied by the colonial masters had a tremendous effect on the Hindu popular mind in the recently held Indian general election.

The Arya Samaj, established in 1875, began to preach the supremacy of Arya Dharam (religion), Arya Bhasha (language), and Aryavarta (land) and their propaganda was mainly directed against the Muslims and the Christians. The present conversion phenomenon bears striking resemblance to the concept of 'Suddhi' that the Arya Samaj developed and which aimed at re-conversion from Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism.

The question is do we witness in modern India a tendency “to turn Hinduism into an organised religion” based, like Christianity, on a recognised text, thus marginalising the liberal and secular traditions? Are there efforts to reconstitute Hinduism for becoming the foundational idea to imagine a nation? If that be so, then surely it will fail to appeal to the non-Brahman and lower caste masses of India. The stereotype of “medieval Muslim tyranny and decline” as against “ancient Hindu glory” will only lead to alienating the Muslims, who would be suspicious of Hindu majority rule.

Do we see serious efforts to build an essentially imaginary history with a specific historical purpose of instilling a sense of pride in the minds of Indians involved in the process of imagining their nation? Do the present rulers in India believe that the use of Hindu mythology and history is the best means to reach the masses and mobilise them in support of their policies?

One may recollect that political programmes obviously required mass mobilisation and religion was looked at by Hindu leaders as a means to reach the masses. Religious revivalism, therefore, was a main feature in 19th and early 20th century Indian politics. Bhagavadgita became a source of spiritual inspiration and Hindu religious symbols were frequently used to mobilise the masses. But this also alienated the Muslims and lower caste peasants.

In the Indian subcontinent, at least, religion no longer means just a set of ideas but has come to be identified with “an aggregate of individuals united by formal official definition.” They are conscious of their comparative demographic as well as socio-economic position vis-à-vis other communities. However much the government trumpets the secular character of the public space and tries to confine religion to the private, the boundaries remain highly permeable.

The premonition is that as Hindu mobilisation makes progress it runs the risk of simultaneously sculpting and vilifying the other. The aggressive Arya Samaj movement contributed to the counter-mobilisation of the Muslims in urban Punjab. Islam also penetrated rural politics in the countryside. Consequently, the religious divide proved to be an insurmountable problem due to intense politicisation along communal lines.

The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star.