In the year 2002 Udit Raj
the Chairman of All India
Confederation of SC/ST Organizations and the Lord Buddha Club give a
national wide call for conversion. This conversion ceremony was
supposed to be performed at Ram Leela Maidan of Delhi . Around one
million Dalits were supposed to get convert into Buddhism.
The preparation regarding the conversion programme were on . This
nation wide call for the conversion got an unprecedented coverage in
national and international media. Dehydration to saffron Hindu
organization regarding such a massive programme of conversion, was
oblivious. These organization resorted all means to shut of the mouth
of media , so that this call may not reach the public at large. The
Ram Leela Maidan , where the programme was supposed to be organized ,
declared as prohibited area and Section 144 of Crpc was imposed in and
around the area, all borders of Delhi where from influx of Dalits, to
take Diksha, was possible were sealed. The Government was determined
to ensure by hook or by crook let the programme may not be organized.
Finally, the organizer had to change the spot for the proposed
programme . The Government could not succeed to curb the enthusiasm of
dalits and ultimately more than 10,000 Dalits succeeded to say good
bye to Hinduism and embraced Buddhism.
Right to freedom of faith is not a conferred right but a natural
entitlement of every human being. In fact law does not assign it but
it asserts, protect and insurers its entitlement. Indian Society has
nourished and nurtured almost all the established religion of the
world like Hinduism , Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism
etc. from it s time immemorial. Article 25 incorporates right to
practice, profess and propagation of faith not only this , the Article
guarantees the freedom of conscience. Right to possess adopt abandoned
faith is ascribed by a person since his birth. India is a
heterogeneous and pluralist society with multiplicity of faith and
cultures. India most fundamental code of governance. i.e. The
constitution of India also asserts, protects and ensures this right to
all individuals irrespective of their religions, under its various
provisions especially Art. 25.
Every human being has a natural entitlement of religious faith and
freedom of conscience and right to adopt or abandon any faith of his
own choice. This being so , the freedom of conscience has been
recognized as a basic human right both constitutionally and
conventionally.
The Constitution of India aims at securing freedom of religion and
freedom of conscience under Article 25 ,26,27,28,30 and at the same
time it seeks to create a harmony among all religions. Being suitable
to the pluralistic society and historical lineage . Such freedom needs
to continued. Any other policy will not be unconstitutional but also
extremely harmful and suffocative for the public. It. However, need to
be realized that an incessant process of transformation and change is
also going on as change is the rule of nature. The ideas , faith,
psyche, behavior and attitude of people have always been subject to
change, though, the factors of change are spatial and temporal. An
important aspect with respect to change of faith is the state of One’s
awareness and ignorance. More awareness and enlightenment does
definitely have an impact on the thought, belief and action of a
person, faith and elements of conscience. Thus as regards conscience ,
state of knowledge is itself under a constant process of change and
every human being is undergoing a metamorphosis of understanding with
continuing with continuing process of experience of life and
learning . Therefore , it is advisable to tie up someone to a
particular faith for all the times.
But in Indian perspective , an aspect of freedom of conscience which
has attained a problematic dimension , is the right to propagate
faith. The meaning of propagation is to promote , spread and publicize
one’s relating to his own faith for the edification of others. The
term propagation implies persuasion and exposition without any element
of fraud, coercion and allurement. The right to propagate one’s
religion does not give a right to convert any other person to one’s
own religious faith. It may be pointed out that the right to convert
other person to one’s own religion is distinct from and individual
right to get convert to any other religion on his own choice. The
later is undisputedly is in conformity with the freedom of religion
and freedom of conscience under Article 25 of the constitution while
the former is the subject of long prevailing controversy with
reference to propagation of faith.
Religious conversion has always been a very sensitive social issue not
only because of the reasons that it has psychological concerns of
religious faith but also because it has wider socio-legal and socio-
political implications. It has also been revealed by the recent
incident of conversion in Haryana, Madhya pardesh , Tamil Nadu,
Gujarat , Orissa and in Delhi ( in Delhi according to official sources
around 20,000 dalits got converted in to Buddhism in the year 2002
under the nation a wide call for conversion by Udit Raj , the leader
of Justice party). On the one hand due to these recent incidents of
conversion the Hindu Safforn Organizations like R.S.S., V.H.P., Shiv
Sena , Bajrang Dal. etc. have made a lot of hub-bub and not only this
Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the former prime minister call for a nation
wide debate on conversion
The legislative history relating to the issue of conversion in India
underscores the point that the authorities concerned were never
favorably disposed towards conversion. While British India had no anti-
conversion laws, many Princely States enacted anti-conversion
legislation: the Raigarh State Conversion Act 1936, the Patna Freedom
of Religion Act of 1942, the Sarguja State Apostasy Act 1945 and the
Udaipur State Anti-Conversion Act 1946. Similar laws were enacted in
Bikaner, Jodhpur, Kalahandi and Kota and many more were specifically
against conversion to Christianity. In the post-independence era,
Parliament took up for consideration in 1954 the Indian Conversion
(Regulation and Registration) Bill and later in 1960 the Backward
Communities (Religious Protection) Bill, both of which had to be
dropped for lack of support. The proposed Freedom of Religion Bill of
1979 was opposed by the Minorities Commission due to the Bill's
evident bias.
However, in 1967-68, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh enacted local laws
called the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act 1967 and the Madhya Pradesh
Dharma Swatantraya Adhiniyam 1968. Along similar lines, the Arunachal
Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 1978 was enacted to provide for
prohibition of conversion from one religious faith to any other by use
of force or inducement or by fraudulent means and for matters
connected therewith. The latest addition to this was the Tamil Nadu
Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Ordinance promulgated
by the Governor on October 5, 2002 and subsequently adopted by the
State Assembly. Each of these Acts provides definitions of
`Government', `conversion', `indigenous faith', `force', `fraud',
`inducement' (and in the case of Arunachal, that of `prescribed and
religious faith'). These laws made forced conversion a cognizable
offence under sections 295 A and 298 of the Indian Penal Code that
stipulate that malice and deliberate intention to hurt the sentiments
of others is a penal offence punishable by varying durations of
imprisonment and fines.
As early as 1967, it became evident that the concern was not just with
forced conversion, but with conversion to any religion other than
Hinduism and especially Christianity and Islam. In the Orissa and
Madhya Pradesh Acts, the punishment was to be doubled if the offence
had been committed in respect of a minor, a woman or a person
belonging to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe community. 10
Moreover, Jayalalitha government in Tamil Nadu has gone to the extent
of enacting ant-conversion legislation (Tamil Nadu prohibition of
forcible conversion ordinance 2003) to put a check on the incidence of
religious conversion. In April 2006 The Rajasthan Dharma Swatantrata
(religious freedom) Bill, introduced by the BJP government, was passed
by a voice vote. The Chattisgarh Government passed an anti-conversion
bill in form of Chattisgarh Religion Freedom (Amendment) Act, 2006
providing for a three-year jail term and a fine of Rs.20,000 for those
indulging in religious conversion by force or allurement. The Madhya
Pradesh Government also passed a controversial bill to amend the
state's Freedom of Religion Act of 1968 to prevent religious
conversion by force or allurement.
The contention of the Hindu organization is that most of the minority
religious organization, especially, Christian Missionaries are
actively involved in the activities of mass religious conversion in
the name of social service. According to them the target groups of
these Christian missionaries are generally illiterate and poor Dalits
and Poor tribes.
On the other hand many dalit organizations and Dalit thinkers have
perceived these recurrent incidents of religious conversions as great
events of Dalit emancipation from the clutches of the vicious Hindu
Caste System which is and has been a constant stigma on the face of
Indian society. According to them, Hindu Caste System is founded on
rigid and the stringent Caste hierarchy . Due to this inhuman and hate
worthy Caste system Dalits and Shudras (Untouchables) have always been
treated inhumanly, they have been subjugated, oppressed and persecuted
by the so called upper caste Hindus or Manu vadis in the name of
caste. Dalit thinkers also allege that Hindu Soceity could not make a
adequate reforms in Hindu religion during last more than 3000 years ,
so that a lower caste Hindu could not live with human dignity in Hindu
religion. According to them majority of Dalits and shudras
(untouchable) are illiterate deplorably poverty stricken and living in
sub- human conditions. They have been denied basic human rights even
after 59 years of independence, Moreover, in day today life they often
to face atrocities and exploitation at the hands of upper caste Hindus
in the name of caste. Hindu religion does not treat its all follower
alike, Hinduism discriminates against one segment of its followers vis-
à-vis the other and does not treat all of them equally. It has failed
to provide social dignity to dalit and shudras. Therefore, they think
that it is better to kick our such an obnoxious and suffocating
religion from one’s life and to convert in a religious which does not
discriminate against them in the name of caste and which given them
equal treatment and dignified human life. That is why Dalits and other
progressive minds have supported the incidence of mass religious
conversion and consideration them to great events.
We can conclude from the above discussion that any protest against
religious conversion is always branded as persecution, because it is
maintained that people are not allowed to practice their religion,
that their religious freedom is curbed. The truth is entirely
different. The other person also has the freedom to practice his or
her religion without interference. That is his/her birthright.
Religious freedom does not extent (sic) to having a planned programme
of conversion. Such a programme is to be construed as aggression
against the religious freedom of others.
Finally, as far as Hinduism is concerned, besides it being vindicated
as a way of life, efforts must be made to augment its role as a form
of religion, that is, Hinduism must be practiced as a religion that
upholds the principles of personal freedom, self-dignity, social
equality and economic security. This will reduce the chances of
transgression by way of conversion in any manner. Scriptures like the
Vedas, Upanishads and the Gita should gather larger weight age and
reach the necessary quarters for sufficient lobbying to match the
access and emotional respect gained by the Bible and the Koran. The
image of a Hindu will go up not by blaming others for conversion but
by creating conditions that will make conversion by and large
unnecessary for the fellow members of his religion.
Foot Note:-
1. The Complete Words of Vivekananda, (1),P. 127
2. Shri Aurobindo-The Life Divine , P. 699
3. Dr. Radhakrishnan-Religion and Society, P. 103
4. AIR 1995 SC
5. AIR 1983 SC
6. AIR 2000 SC
7. AIR 1963 SC 185
8. AIR 1924 , Rangoon , 263
9. (1984) 2 SCC 91
Confederation of SC/ST Organizations and the Lord Buddha Club give a
national wide call for conversion. This conversion ceremony was
supposed to be performed at Ram Leela Maidan of Delhi . Around one
million Dalits were supposed to get convert into Buddhism.
The preparation regarding the conversion programme were on . This
nation wide call for the conversion got an unprecedented coverage in
national and international media. Dehydration to saffron Hindu
organization regarding such a massive programme of conversion, was
oblivious. These organization resorted all means to shut of the mouth
of media , so that this call may not reach the public at large. The
Ram Leela Maidan , where the programme was supposed to be organized ,
declared as prohibited area and Section 144 of Crpc was imposed in and
around the area, all borders of Delhi where from influx of Dalits, to
take Diksha, was possible were sealed. The Government was determined
to ensure by hook or by crook let the programme may not be organized.
Finally, the organizer had to change the spot for the proposed
programme . The Government could not succeed to curb the enthusiasm of
dalits and ultimately more than 10,000 Dalits succeeded to say good
bye to Hinduism and embraced Buddhism.
Right to freedom of faith is not a conferred right but a natural
entitlement of every human being. In fact law does not assign it but
it asserts, protect and insurers its entitlement. Indian Society has
nourished and nurtured almost all the established religion of the
world like Hinduism , Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism
etc. from it s time immemorial. Article 25 incorporates right to
practice, profess and propagation of faith not only this , the Article
guarantees the freedom of conscience. Right to possess adopt abandoned
faith is ascribed by a person since his birth. India is a
heterogeneous and pluralist society with multiplicity of faith and
cultures. India most fundamental code of governance. i.e. The
constitution of India also asserts, protects and ensures this right to
all individuals irrespective of their religions, under its various
provisions especially Art. 25.
Every human being has a natural entitlement of religious faith and
freedom of conscience and right to adopt or abandon any faith of his
own choice. This being so , the freedom of conscience has been
recognized as a basic human right both constitutionally and
conventionally.
The Constitution of India aims at securing freedom of religion and
freedom of conscience under Article 25 ,26,27,28,30 and at the same
time it seeks to create a harmony among all religions. Being suitable
to the pluralistic society and historical lineage . Such freedom needs
to continued. Any other policy will not be unconstitutional but also
extremely harmful and suffocative for the public. It. However, need to
be realized that an incessant process of transformation and change is
also going on as change is the rule of nature. The ideas , faith,
psyche, behavior and attitude of people have always been subject to
change, though, the factors of change are spatial and temporal. An
important aspect with respect to change of faith is the state of One’s
awareness and ignorance. More awareness and enlightenment does
definitely have an impact on the thought, belief and action of a
person, faith and elements of conscience. Thus as regards conscience ,
state of knowledge is itself under a constant process of change and
every human being is undergoing a metamorphosis of understanding with
continuing with continuing process of experience of life and
learning . Therefore , it is advisable to tie up someone to a
particular faith for all the times.
But in Indian perspective , an aspect of freedom of conscience which
has attained a problematic dimension , is the right to propagate
faith. The meaning of propagation is to promote , spread and publicize
one’s relating to his own faith for the edification of others. The
term propagation implies persuasion and exposition without any element
of fraud, coercion and allurement. The right to propagate one’s
religion does not give a right to convert any other person to one’s
own religious faith. It may be pointed out that the right to convert
other person to one’s own religion is distinct from and individual
right to get convert to any other religion on his own choice. The
later is undisputedly is in conformity with the freedom of religion
and freedom of conscience under Article 25 of the constitution while
the former is the subject of long prevailing controversy with
reference to propagation of faith.
Religious conversion has always been a very sensitive social issue not
only because of the reasons that it has psychological concerns of
religious faith but also because it has wider socio-legal and socio-
political implications. It has also been revealed by the recent
incident of conversion in Haryana, Madhya pardesh , Tamil Nadu,
Gujarat , Orissa and in Delhi ( in Delhi according to official sources
around 20,000 dalits got converted in to Buddhism in the year 2002
under the nation a wide call for conversion by Udit Raj , the leader
of Justice party). On the one hand due to these recent incidents of
conversion the Hindu Safforn Organizations like R.S.S., V.H.P., Shiv
Sena , Bajrang Dal. etc. have made a lot of hub-bub and not only this
Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the former prime minister call for a nation
wide debate on conversion
The legislative history relating to the issue of conversion in India
underscores the point that the authorities concerned were never
favorably disposed towards conversion. While British India had no anti-
conversion laws, many Princely States enacted anti-conversion
legislation: the Raigarh State Conversion Act 1936, the Patna Freedom
of Religion Act of 1942, the Sarguja State Apostasy Act 1945 and the
Udaipur State Anti-Conversion Act 1946. Similar laws were enacted in
Bikaner, Jodhpur, Kalahandi and Kota and many more were specifically
against conversion to Christianity. In the post-independence era,
Parliament took up for consideration in 1954 the Indian Conversion
(Regulation and Registration) Bill and later in 1960 the Backward
Communities (Religious Protection) Bill, both of which had to be
dropped for lack of support. The proposed Freedom of Religion Bill of
1979 was opposed by the Minorities Commission due to the Bill's
evident bias.
However, in 1967-68, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh enacted local laws
called the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act 1967 and the Madhya Pradesh
Dharma Swatantraya Adhiniyam 1968. Along similar lines, the Arunachal
Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 1978 was enacted to provide for
prohibition of conversion from one religious faith to any other by use
of force or inducement or by fraudulent means and for matters
connected therewith. The latest addition to this was the Tamil Nadu
Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Ordinance promulgated
by the Governor on October 5, 2002 and subsequently adopted by the
State Assembly. Each of these Acts provides definitions of
`Government', `conversion', `indigenous faith', `force', `fraud',
`inducement' (and in the case of Arunachal, that of `prescribed and
religious faith'). These laws made forced conversion a cognizable
offence under sections 295 A and 298 of the Indian Penal Code that
stipulate that malice and deliberate intention to hurt the sentiments
of others is a penal offence punishable by varying durations of
imprisonment and fines.
As early as 1967, it became evident that the concern was not just with
forced conversion, but with conversion to any religion other than
Hinduism and especially Christianity and Islam. In the Orissa and
Madhya Pradesh Acts, the punishment was to be doubled if the offence
had been committed in respect of a minor, a woman or a person
belonging to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe community. 10
Moreover, Jayalalitha government in Tamil Nadu has gone to the extent
of enacting ant-conversion legislation (Tamil Nadu prohibition of
forcible conversion ordinance 2003) to put a check on the incidence of
religious conversion. In April 2006 The Rajasthan Dharma Swatantrata
(religious freedom) Bill, introduced by the BJP government, was passed
by a voice vote. The Chattisgarh Government passed an anti-conversion
bill in form of Chattisgarh Religion Freedom (Amendment) Act, 2006
providing for a three-year jail term and a fine of Rs.20,000 for those
indulging in religious conversion by force or allurement. The Madhya
Pradesh Government also passed a controversial bill to amend the
state's Freedom of Religion Act of 1968 to prevent religious
conversion by force or allurement.
The contention of the Hindu organization is that most of the minority
religious organization, especially, Christian Missionaries are
actively involved in the activities of mass religious conversion in
the name of social service. According to them the target groups of
these Christian missionaries are generally illiterate and poor Dalits
and Poor tribes.
On the other hand many dalit organizations and Dalit thinkers have
perceived these recurrent incidents of religious conversions as great
events of Dalit emancipation from the clutches of the vicious Hindu
Caste System which is and has been a constant stigma on the face of
Indian society. According to them, Hindu Caste System is founded on
rigid and the stringent Caste hierarchy . Due to this inhuman and hate
worthy Caste system Dalits and Shudras (Untouchables) have always been
treated inhumanly, they have been subjugated, oppressed and persecuted
by the so called upper caste Hindus or Manu vadis in the name of
caste. Dalit thinkers also allege that Hindu Soceity could not make a
adequate reforms in Hindu religion during last more than 3000 years ,
so that a lower caste Hindu could not live with human dignity in Hindu
religion. According to them majority of Dalits and shudras
(untouchable) are illiterate deplorably poverty stricken and living in
sub- human conditions. They have been denied basic human rights even
after 59 years of independence, Moreover, in day today life they often
to face atrocities and exploitation at the hands of upper caste Hindus
in the name of caste. Hindu religion does not treat its all follower
alike, Hinduism discriminates against one segment of its followers vis-
à-vis the other and does not treat all of them equally. It has failed
to provide social dignity to dalit and shudras. Therefore, they think
that it is better to kick our such an obnoxious and suffocating
religion from one’s life and to convert in a religious which does not
discriminate against them in the name of caste and which given them
equal treatment and dignified human life. That is why Dalits and other
progressive minds have supported the incidence of mass religious
conversion and consideration them to great events.
We can conclude from the above discussion that any protest against
religious conversion is always branded as persecution, because it is
maintained that people are not allowed to practice their religion,
that their religious freedom is curbed. The truth is entirely
different. The other person also has the freedom to practice his or
her religion without interference. That is his/her birthright.
Religious freedom does not extent (sic) to having a planned programme
of conversion. Such a programme is to be construed as aggression
against the religious freedom of others.
Finally, as far as Hinduism is concerned, besides it being vindicated
as a way of life, efforts must be made to augment its role as a form
of religion, that is, Hinduism must be practiced as a religion that
upholds the principles of personal freedom, self-dignity, social
equality and economic security. This will reduce the chances of
transgression by way of conversion in any manner. Scriptures like the
Vedas, Upanishads and the Gita should gather larger weight age and
reach the necessary quarters for sufficient lobbying to match the
access and emotional respect gained by the Bible and the Koran. The
image of a Hindu will go up not by blaming others for conversion but
by creating conditions that will make conversion by and large
unnecessary for the fellow members of his religion.
Foot Note:-
1. The Complete Words of Vivekananda, (1),P. 127
2. Shri Aurobindo-The Life Divine , P. 699
3. Dr. Radhakrishnan-Religion and Society, P. 103
4. AIR 1995 SC
5. AIR 1983 SC
6. AIR 2000 SC
7. AIR 1963 SC 185
8. AIR 1924 , Rangoon , 263
9. (1984) 2 SCC 91
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