Religious Conversions in India – Right or Wrong
October 9, 2008 by Uttoran Sen
Filed under India News
The most debated current issue in India is the issue of religious conversions. This issue has been getting widespread coverage in the local media, as well as the international media. This issue has come into the limelight after the widespread violence witnessed in several parts of India against the Christian minority, following the slaying of a Hindu sanyasi, allegedly by some members of the Christian community. Some members of the majority Hindu community have taken it upon themselves the duty of avenging the killing by attacking the minority community, notably the priests and nuns who are involved in acts of evangelism or conversions.
India a modern multi party democracy is the home of many a religion, language and race. Though Hindus account for nearly eighty to ninety percent in the overall population of about a billion people, it is a secular country and the constitution provides freedom to follow any faith of choice among other things. The Hindu faith in itself is more of a way of thinking or philosophy than any rigid religion and allows for ideas and practices to be assimilated into it from other religions and cultures thereby enriching its own beauty.
Now some members of the Hindu religion, without taking recourse to the Vedas or Upanishads, the real scriptures of the Hindus, have been brainwashed into thinking or believing that the faith itself is under attack because of the work of Christian missionaries who propagate their religion. The crux of the issue is here that the Hindu political class thinks that the Christian missionaries use money to convert the Hindus. The Christian missionaries have from time immemorial been preaching their religion using whatever means at their disposal to convert people in to their fold. This has gone on for many years and the Christians like the Muslims think it is part of their holy duty to bring the non-believers in the church. Many millions of Hindus have also converted to these religions due to the weakness present in the Hindu religion followed today namely pantheism and the caste system which has left them confused and disheartened. Having said that, many have renounced the Hindu faith because of the money offered by the advocates of other religions.
Now if money was the only motive for the millions to accept other religions then there wouldn’t be so many Christians, Muslims, Sikhs or other religions flourishing here. So the normal Hindu would do well to himself and to the faith he professes by addressing the anomalies in their religion. The present day Christian missionaries will only help by preaching and advocating through teachings and imparting knowledge and spiritual awareness and not by offering money.
In the context of the present scenario religious leaders should taken it upon themselves to provide spiritual knowledge and preach tolerance instead of inciting communal hatred by flaming speeches or literature. Whatever religion one follows is the route one takes in getting to the same destination as the others. This is what is needed now and let god take care of the rest.
Author – Rajiv Karran
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i think u r right. i feel religion is a private affair. and it is just a way to reach god no matter which way they go. so believe in hinduism , some in islam and some in christianity. i don understand people are somuch after this religious conversions. instead of showing any disgust towards some religion or rather than showing panic they can create awareness among hindus about the real spirit of hinduism. why dont this hindu organisations think in this way.? if at all they want to save our culture their actions or reactions have to take a constructive path.
hi saumya lalita,
thanks for your comment and welcome to the blog,
you have a very good opinion there, and i think its high time the Hindu leaders, that’s our Hindu leaders starts to learn Hinduism first. Aggression is not a part of Hinduism, they need to create awareness, they need to preach good things about our religion. Its time to win hearts not fight and lose the ones that they already have…
worlds changing, and in this new age, Hindu religion leaders need to sit down and understand what the youth of this generation wants, and that’s definitely peace and freedom all the way
Whoever wrote this article is completely wrong or putting the hindus into blame. The Christians and Muslims are always using evil ways to convert other hindus. Now, we must call them as christian or muslim but follower of satan. as they do not follow the good thing but the “a bit bad thing” of their religion put it into complete evil. this way they convert
hi yan,
its my fault, i forgot to put the writers name on it, but i will try to find out the writer so that he can further talk on the subject,
regards,
Uttoran Sen,
uttorasen
great thoughts .have u converted frm hindu to cristainity.?looks like .or is that u r paid by the missionaries to write this.if all religions r equal then y r they forcing or luring poor hindus to convert.n if they do think that their religion is superior then they r communal n do not desrve to b in india.what u r nicely putting across is let them convert hindus .it is their duty. but if hindus protest they r communal.? by the way y r missionaries converting only poor hindus ?because they r soft. n do not retaliate.? ask the missionaries y they r not doing the same with poor muslims. cos the missionaries know that the muslims will bomb their churches from here to right up to Rome.and all over the world.
@dhiraj.
its the thoughts of the writer and not mine, i will foreword your message to the writer,
stay tuned,
regards,
Uttoran Sen,
@ everyone, author have been foreworded your messages, he will reply soon
Hi Yan and Dhiraj!
First, I apologize for the rather late reply to your comments. This article was written by me a long time ago, and it has been just brought to my notice by my good friend, Uttoransen—the owner of this blog— that there were some comments that needed my reply. My professional commitments leave very little time for me, but I thought I‘d pen a few words here on my weekend to set the record straight. I also take this opportunity to thank you people for reading my article and for being interested enough to post comments, which, in my opinion, shows that you care. I welcome that.
Yan, please read the article with a little more patience. You have accused me of “Blaming the Hindus.” Kindly tell me where I have blamed Hindus. The article is not about blaming anyone, and more specifically, not the Hindus. I have only said witch hunting people in the name of religion is wrong. I have not blamed “Hindus”; I have only blamed the “So called Hindus.” There is a big difference in the meaning. Dhiraj, I assure you that my dear friend Uttoransen has neither forsaken the religion he was born into nor accepted/given money to from/to missionaries. He remains a Hindu as much you and the rest of us.
I presume that all three of us (Yan, Dhiraj and yours truly) belong to the same great religion or philosophy called Hinduism. Therefore, I will dwell on the ” or way of life” that all three of us were born into, first. I use the words “Born into” because no man or woman is born as a Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist or any other religion; we are only born into a household where a stream of thought is practiced. Even an atheist and agnostic are not born so; it is only circumstances and events that shape a person’s spiritual leanings. By that, I will also say that an atheist and an agnostic are also spiritual because the very fact that a person has definite views on the existence/non-existence of a higher power makes him or her spiritual. Some people never change their line of thoughts and remain complete believers or total atheists till such time they die. Most people pass through all the stages in their lives, agnostic, atheist and believer, not necessarily in the same order, but everybody at some point in their lives does pass through a phase of doubt or spiritual awakening. The Hindu religion is the only philosophy in the world that can answer questions posed by all 3 types, atheist, agnostic ,and believer, perfectly. Such is the depth in our religion, a “So called Hindu” cannot even fathom in his or her wildest dreams. It requires a “True Hindu” to understand the complexities of this advanced philosophy, and this also requires a higher intellect, and an ability to open the mind for information. Technically, our religion is not a religion at all; it is a wonderful philosophy. Unlike other dogmatic religions like Christianity, Islam and Judaism, the Hindu philosophy is a pragmatic philosophy. This philosophy was neither founded nor propagated by one individual or prophet at one particular period in history, rather, this philosophy is a collection of ideas and thoughts of highly evolved intellectuals, which have been compiled and archived for over 3000 years. The Hindu philosophy apart from Zen and Buddhism, to a lesser extent, is the only religion in the world that allows for free thinking and self realization for a person to find his own god.
For a true Hindu; Jesus, Allah, Messiah, Jehovah, Buddha, Ram, Krishna or the tree in your backyard or the rabid dog in the street corner are all gods. This doesn’t mean all these names are physical representations of god, rather, the Hindu philosophy tells you to find God in everything and anything. Love is the essence here; not hate. By this definition, for a true Hindu like me, Jesus is my god and so is Allah. The Hindu philosophy gives you the freedom to name your god. However, the very foundation of Hinduism is based on the philosophy that God is one, but he or she can be given form and named according to an individual’s choice. This is why we have so many gods in our religion, which is because we have given forms and names to gods according to our wishes. Moreover, it so happens, our ancestors had very fertile imaginations that gave birth to wonderful legends, tales, and stories of super-humans and avatars. My friends, if you spend some time to understand the great philosophy you were born into, you will realize that what I have written is only the writings of a true Hindu and not one who is on a mission to convert all Hindus into Christians, Muslims or Atheists. When you have the time, please make time to read our Vedas and Upanishads, please explore further by going beyond the Gita, Mahabharata and Ramayana, which are nothing but great epics written to reflect the morals and principles of the Vedas and the Upanishads.
I can go on and on about Hinduism, but, even if I take 100 births, I will not be able to touch the tip of Hinduism. Such is the depth of Hinduism. I have written the above because there is a definite connection to the article in the debate. According to Islam, it is the duty of a Muslim to spread the message of the Holy Prophet/Koran, (DAWA), and according to Christianity, it is the duty of a Christian to spread the gospel (Evangelism). For Hindus, we do not have any such duty because ours is a pragmatic philosophy. We are not required to practice our faith nor are we required to spread it. Every human being is free to choose his or own god or spiritual philosophy. The Christian missionaries consider it their holy duty to spread their gospel everywhere, and in these modern times, instead of achieving their objective by spreading the message of true love and winning people over by stimulating their intellect, some of them use it through money. You and I, both, agree it is bad. Our agreement stops there. I say it is bad because they are doing it by throwing money around and not by answering the questions of people in doubt, while, you say it is bad because they are converting Hindus. Conversion is not wrong; it is only how you convert that decides the right and wrong. When Hinduism was on the decline and Buddhism and Jainism was flourishing in India, Adhi Sankracharya revived Hinduism, not by money or force, but by intellectual debate. He could do that because he knew what Hinduism was. He went back to our roots, studied our philosophy, and learned that our foundations were too strong to be shaken. He won every single debate with all the great scholars of other religions because he understood in depth the meaning of Hindu and Hinduism. What I’m saying here is that religious conversion is not wrong per se, but converting people forcefully or by catering to their superficial weaknesses is not right. I also believe that burning a Christian father and two kids alive in front of a helpless mother is totally against my religious values and is not necessary. If only one Sankracharya or a Vivekananda was alive today instead of a thousand Togadia’s and so called “Hindutva-ists,” I assure you my friend not a single Hindu will want to convert, but a million people from other folds will want to come into ours.
Religious conversions have been happening all the time since life started. Man has always found new religions and newer truths and has embraced the latest, oftentimes, proclaiming the latest is the best. While other religions like Christianity and Islam have used intellectual debating, money and force as methods to spread the message, we Hindus have never used money and force; we have only used the power of the intellect. This is what made and still makes Hinduism survive despite countless incursions and attacks of foreigners with diverse thoughts and philosophies. Yes, many from our fold have converted because they got answers from other philosophies, but they did so because they did not or could not look inwards and realize that all answers they were looking for was hidden in theirs, itself. Our caste system and the wide array of so called gods only added to the confusion, while the actual truth is that we have neither million gods nor castes. Our fault was that we did not try to go beyond the superficial layers and read the hidden meanings. This is the same mistake that you are doing now.
Go beyond the rituals, poojas, saffron clothes, and red tilaks on foreheads to understand what Hinduism is. Live and let live is what Hinduism is about, and do you think a handful of missionaries can damage the pillars of our philosophy? For a hundred people who adopt a different way of life, there will be a million who will embrace ours. If you think that your culture, ethos, and beliefs are being eroded, then, your foundations are not strong because you do not know what you are in the first place. I’m merely saying—if you want to stop people from converting, study your religion first and win them over by intellectual debate, not by killing. If wearing a saffron turban, sporting a red tilak, and going on the rampage killing the families of missionaries are what Hinduism is all about, then, I’m afraid you people do not know anything about the religion you were born into. If only you know 10% of what Hinduism is all about, even the most astute missionary will not be able to even shake your little pinkie.
No religion is superior or inferior to the other; there is only a difference in how much knowledge a person has about his or her own religion. If you give a nice Lexus in the hands of a person who does not even know how to ride a cycle, he or she will crash the car into the tree and blame the manufacturer of the car. Similarly, all religions/philosophies have their own strong points, but the carriers of the messages do not at times know how to pass it on properly. If you want to remain a Hindu, make your knowledge stronger lest you be the first one to be converted. Don’t be like an insecure husband that hides his beautiful wife in his house all the time. Bring her out and flaunt her to the world because as long as you are confident about your love and that of your wife, she can never run away from you nor can anyone take her from you.
Moreover, who said that a Hindu could be converted? A Hindu can never be converted because whatever religion he or she adopts, he or she still remains a Hindu. For a true Hindu, Jesus and Allah are gods as much as Ram and Ganesh are; Christmas and Ramzan are his festivals as much as Diwali and Navrathri are. This, my friend, is Hinduism, and as long as you understand that once a Hindu, always a Hindu; you will never worry about a thousand conversions or fear a million swords. There is only one way that you can stop being a Hindu—and that is only when you stop loving your fellow human beings. me, I love my Jesus, I love my Allah, I love my Ram, I love my Krishna, and you can’t question that. You want to know why? Because, I am a—HINDU! That’s why! JAI HIND!
Thank you for your comments Saumya Lalita, Dhiraj and Yan.
Rajiv Karran
thanks rajiv for the clarification
regards,
Uttoran Sen,
Rajiv-
I believe,
the innumerable Hindu Gods are the manifestations of good qualities in human beings,
Devils (Asuras) are the manifestations of bad qualities,
Caste is a statement of Karma (not birth),
…
well, I can go on and on, the Hindu tenets are so deeply philosophical that it can take the whole lifetime to understand them. They touch every aspect of not just human life but the whole creation, because as you rightly said – Hinduism is not the creation of an individual but of several intellectuals.
Sri-
Beautiful words of profound thinking. I wish that every hindu, muslim, christian, and jew understand his or her own religion first. If they do that, then, I’m sure nobody will have to convert others and get converted or feel insecure about their religions. There is no conversion because we are all one, and no matter what the end results are, we are one and the same. Thank you for your thoughts and comments.
Rajiv Karran
Uttor-
Thank you for providing the opportunity to express my views.
Rajiv Karran
Dear Rajiv,
what we are …ofcourse the way we think..A Brahmin can be a muslim by his views,thoughts,attitudes.its not how we born,its all about how we live….Hinduism i would like to call the mother of all religions.The thing is we are ready to accept human values or we give more value to humanity ,a hindu may never go for a JIHAD.There are some who fight for Ramarajyam,thats i say attitude brings difference.A pure Hindu knows God is no where else than inside his own soul…..i totally agree with you for this good thoughts,,,,,,,,,,,Anusha
Thank you, Anusha. Well said.