This Christmas season is pretty
different from the many previous ones, both personally and politically. Leaving
the personal for later, the politics of Christmas has captured attention. Most
part of it being unnecessary, unwarranted and unscrupulous. Couple of issues,
the diktat to celebrate Christmas as ‘good governance day’ by HRD ministry and
the ’Anti Conversion Bill’ pertaining to the conversion-reconversion matter has
put the spotlight on a festival like never before.
Having studied in a missionary
school, this issue is of particular interest to me and many of my classmates.
The school never imposed any of the missionary beliefs upon its students. Yes
it did not celebrate Ganesh Puja, which was celebrated with aplomb in the state
high schools (although they did not celebrate Christmas). But Christmas was
celebrated in a fashion which had no religious underpinnings that would make
anyone uncomfortable. Did any of the students convert to Christianity after
studying there for a decade? No.
22nd January 1999.
Graham Staines with two children was burnt alive in Keonjhar, Odisha. At an
impressionable age and in class X, this horrific crime brought to fore the
various narratives of conversion. The topic also came up during various discussions
in classroom and with teachers who were priests. Not only did we discuss the
matter dispassionately, at no time was truth suppressed. Article 25, the
mission of the missionaries, the ethics of it, everything related was kept on
the debate table. Such was the secular environment of my school.
If Article 25 has allowed
everyone to 'propagate' (other than professing and practicing) ones religion, what is the legal tenacity that must apply to
conversions that aren’t forced? If someone is forced, he/she will not they
report the matter nevertheless? What is important, god or food? Is it ethical
to take advantage of one’s poverty, one’s non-egalitarianism to convert? Is
reconversion a ploy to capture the various quotas that the state provides?
Proselytisation (forceful
conversion) by luring has been the mischief evangelists have been up to since
long. Though ethically it is wrong, is there a legal framework to address this
issue effectively. If mass conversions are to be banned, what number would the
ceiling be at? Reconversions are legally fine too. It is after all ones right
to choose ones religion. But the spectacle that these, both conversions and
reconversions, create and the social engineering they intend to bring about
spell danger for the social fabric. Sadly it is the poor who is the football in
this game. A Babasaheb becoming Buddhist, a Dharmendra becoming Muslim, doesn’t
create flutter.
Such and many other questions
have answers and they are rational ones. Education, they say, liberates you. It
takes you above these petty matters, the squabbles of the fanatics, the
politics of religion. Looking at the hate spewed in social networks, it doesn’t
appear to be true. The ministry handling education perhaps thinks Christianity
as a foreign festival which need not be granted the importance of a holiday.
Saraswati Sishu Mandir’s, a chain of saffron schools, have long been denying
holiday on national holidays like Eid.
The wide fold and acceptance in
Hinduism is its beauty. The cakes of Christmas are to be enjoyed, and so are
the carols. The festivity in winter, the warmth that it brings is important.
The divisiveness in labels is a scourge that eats up a society. What bigger
label than religion after all, which thankfully or otherwise, has a uniting
factor like no other.
Your example of the school you studied in is proof enough of how we are perceiving religion and religious mentality. We all have grown up in an environment that was devoid of any hatred towards communities other than us. But increasingly, everything these days is given a religious angle. Conversions are/must be an individual choice. Let's not allow monsters take advantage of the religious divide.
ReplyDelete