Respect an Individual's Decision

My last column has triggered an overwhelming response. Gratifyingly, many readers (including several describing themselves as believing Hindus) are as outraged as I was at the anti-Christian thuggery that has been perpetrated in the name of Hinduism. Killers of children are not Hindus, even if they claim to be acting on behalf of their faith; it is as simple as that. Murder does not have a religion -- even when it claims a religious excuse.

Of course, it is easy enough to condemn anti-Christian violence because it is violence, and because it represents a threat to law and order as well as to that nebulous idea we call India's 'image'. But an argument that several readers have made needs to be faced squarely. In the words of one correspondent: could the violence ''be a reaction to provocations from those religions that believe that only their path is the right path and the rest of humanity are infidels?'' He went on to critique ''the aggressive strategy being pursued by some interests in the US to get people in India converted en masse to Christianity, not necessarily by means fair.''

In his view, ''aggressive evangelism directed against India by powerful church organisations in America enjoying enormous money power, has only one focused objective -- to get India into the Christian fold, as they have succeeded, to a considerable extent, in South Korea and are now in the process of conquering Mongolia.'' Arguing that ''mass conversions of illiterates and semi-literates -- and they also happen to be poor, extremely poor'' is exploitative, he concluded: ''powerful organisations from abroad with enormous money power indulging in mass conversion'' are ''a destabilising factor provoking retaliation''.

I have great respect for the reader in question, but on this issue I strongly disagree. I cannot accept any justification for the thugs' actions, nor am I prepared to see behind the violence an ''understandable'' Hindu resistance to Christian zealotry. Put simply, no non-violent activity, however provocative, can ever legitimise violence. We must reject and denounce assaults and killings, whatever they may claim to be reacting to. Our democracy will not survive if we condone people resorting to violence in pursuit of their ends, however genuine and heartfelt their grievances may be. The whole point of our system of governance is that it allows all Indians to resolve their concerns through legitimate means, including seeking legal redress or political change -- but not violence.

Let us assume, for the purposes of argument, that Christian missionaries are indeed using a variety of inducements (development assistance, healthcare, education, sanitation, even chicanery -- though there is only anecdotal evidence of missionary ''trickery'') to win converts for their faith. So what? If a citizen of India feels that his faith has not helped him to find peace of mind and material fulfillment, why should he not have the option of trying a different item on the spiritual menu? Surely freedom of belief is any Indian's fundamental right under our democratic Constitution, however ill-founded his belief might be.

And if Hindu zealots suspect that conversion was fraudulently obtained, why do they not offer counter-inducements rather than violence? Instead of destroying churches, perhaps a Hindu-financed sewage system or paathshala might reopen the blinkered eyes of the credulous. Better still, perhaps Christians and Hindus (and Muslims and Baha'is, for that matter) could all compete in our villages to offer material temptations for religious conversions. The development of our poor country might actually accelerate with this sort of spiritual competition.

Of course i am being frivolous there, but my point is a serious one. Freedom of conscience is not a negotiable right. An India where an individual is not free to change his or her faith would be inconceivable. Some have been citing Gandhiji's criticism of conversions, but his view was based on an eclectic, all-embracing view of religiousness that is a far cry from the narrow bigotry of those who today quote him in opposing conversions. Gandhiji's point was that there was no need to convert from any religion to any other because all religions essentially believed the same thing. But when he famously asserted that ''I am a Hindu, a Christian, a Mohammedan, a Parsi, a Jew'', Jinnah sharply retorted, ''only a Hindu could say that!''

The fact is that many faiths do tend to see theirs as the only true path to salvation, and their religious leaders feel a duty to spread the light of a supposedly superior understanding of God to those less fortunate. As Gandhians or as rationalists we are free to decry their views, but the Indian Constitution gives each Indian the right to ''propagate'' his religion -- and to challenge that right would, in the most fundamental sense, be unconstitutional.

So, let each religion do its thing, and let each Indian be free to choose. At the same time, let conversion be an issue of individual conscience and not mass delusion. I would have no difficulty in considering, in principle, the idea of a democratically-elected legislature deciding that the constitutionally-protected right to convert to another faith can only be exercised by an individual, rather than by an entire clan, tribe or village.

An end to ceremonies of mass conversion might not be a bad thing: let each individual who believes he or she has seen the light go through an individual act of conversion -- one in which he or she must affirm that they know what they are giving up and what they are entering into. If an entire village wants to convert, that will make for a very time-consuming process, but at least it will not be open to the suggestion that a large group has been duped, or forced, collectively to embrace a faith that its individual members do not properly understand.

Of course, the debate is not merely a religious one -- it is profoundly political. So i will brace myself for more mail and return to the topic next week.

This post originally appeared in the Times of India.

Comments

[MissCris]

Thank you! I have been trying to talk and convince people to see how misguided their priorities were (http://4s­ometime.co­m/blog/200­8/08/31/or­issa-misha­p-complete­ly-incompr­ehensible-­priorities­) - all in vein and just not finding the right words. I am so glad I have this to point to now cause people, at least some of them may listen to the words of those whom they give a lot of respect to. And if people like you, who could by their words show things as they are, should come out to the forefront and used their influence in the right direction, that should make a lot of difference!

[karbert]

I find it scary how many posters here seem to hold that hinduism is "not a religion but a way of life" - what a load of BS! First off - I was raised as a Hindu brahmin, so I know a thing or 2 about hinduism. I can assure you hinduism is a religion, but a nebulous one where few people know what its primary tenets are, if any. Certainly no two people see hinduism the same way, that does not mean it is not a religion. If religions were well understood, there would be no divide between mainstream and fundamentalist christians or muslims! It is precisely the freedom of interpretation of religion that makes it such a useful tool for either good or evil.

Secondly, it is ridiculous to make any claim on what "free will" is. Free will is a notion more nebulous than religion itself - where does conscious, free choice end and coercion begin? Does enticement count as coercion? And what pray tell, is the connection between being educated and being free to choose? So if one is poor, and they are illiterate, is it the contention of some that they have no free will and therefore should merely play out the destiny that is assigned to them at birth by society? What free will was involved when one is born into their religion?

It's elitism at its worst to suggest that poor illiterates should not be allowed to believe in, let alone exercise, their

[MissTrish]

karbert,

You raise a valid point in questioning free will and religious freedom. I simply don't have the space to post everything I want to say. I could write an entire article on this subject. Please don't think I'm giving unqualified support to any actions made by the Roman Catholic Church. I don't support many actions of the Catholic Church and never will. As a U.S. Catholic, I simply wanted to try and shed light on the history that underlies the Catholic tradition of building schools. That history begins in the U.S.

[Soulfully Yours]

Mr. Tharoor

I'm surprised that people of your stature are unable to see what the underlying issue is! Are you so blind?
kane and abel is right! The people being targeted for conversion are not socially elite people like you, who've received good education and can make sound judgments since they are blessed with knowledge and exposure!! These are people living in the jungles and who really don't have access to information..These are not people who can exercise their freewill since they are unaware that something such as free-will exists!! Such people are accosted in busstands etc, taken to churches..There are cash incentives for this. For Step 1 of simply getting them, the incentive is 2,500 rupees. When the actual conversion happens, the incentive is 10,000 rupees..Please understand that this is forced down innocent, ignorant people! Instead of acting responsibly, people like you and the media are only harping about freewill. Do Hindus go about converting?? No! That's because Hinduism is a way of life and not a religion.. Nobody forces you to pray 10 times a day...because Hinduism is left to the individual to realize based on his interest in spiritual progress..No priest goes around forcing people to convert...You can still embrace your religion/ follow your faith and yet adopt aspects of Hinduism if you deemed them useful to you..Were you really blind to all this?? Surprising!

[vijay 1976]

I'm amazed that you as a reader (who can even sympathize with Mr. Tharoor's ability to make sound judgments) make excuses for the violence by saying that Hindus do not convert, and therefore do not have the ability to counteract the alleged bribery (for which no official evidence has been unearthed). India's foreign exchange receipts are quite accurately counted by RBI. Do you know how much of this is actual charitable donations? It was 2 billion dollars in 2006. Who gets this?

Major temple trusts like Tirupati Temple in Andhra Pradesh and Jagannath Puri Temple in Orissa receive the bulk of this. A much smaller portion goes to large Christian organizations like the Sisters of Charity. A miniscule portion goes into the smaller Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Jain or Hindu organizations.

Even if one belives that all of the money that Christian institutions receive goes into incentivizing conversions, why isn't there a single record of such 'induced conversions' whereas news abounds from the New York Times, BBS, Sky News, NDTV, ToI, The Hindu, et al about the barbarous nature of forced conversions (or reconversions) that so-called Hindu marauders engage in? Do you think that news of inducements to convert are hard to come by in a communally intolerant state like Orissa?

[vijay 1976]

Continuation of my last post:

If Hindus indeed not convert by proselytizing, they seem to have now developed a taste for new blood- that of "reconverting" Christians into Hindus. You and your ilk seem to have no problem justifying that, but you have a problem with Christian missionaries inducing people to convert with jobs, healthcare, education, etc; and that too based on anecdotal evidence?!!!!

As Mr. Tharoor pointed out, it is possible to take recourse in legal action if such cases existed; and the fact that the head honchos on the Bajrang Dal, VHP and the rest of that tribe have not moved in that directions must give you an idea of how scant the evidence is.

Even if you claim that these men are poor uneducated people who are resorting to voilence, the tragedy of India is that the people who should and have the capability to act- i.e. you and I, as also the police, the leglative assembly members, the ministers at the state and the Centre, the courts, the public interest vigilantes, the Hindu leaders... have done NOTHING. This is to their SHAME, and you can bet that this will eventually be to the shame of the faith that they claim to profess.

[Rubyfoo]

The evangelical missionary movement is, in a sense, an act of war. The religious zealots have political and economic motives with religion as much window-dressing as deep-seated spiritual belief and understanding. Most damning of all, these arrogant "Christians" have abandoned the spirit of Jesus' message in favor of the letter written by those who came later and invented a religion suited to their own needs in perpetuity.

[amo]

Brother Tharoor
I'm a Christian and I would like to say that only a man who loves God could come to the conclusion that you have in this article. I started practicing yoga 12 years ago which has richly increased my spiritual experience. I have studied the Bhagavad Gita, The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali, and am now reading Autobiography of a Yogi and have been an admirer of the Indian people since starting my yoga practice. I'm greatly saddened by the turn of events in India but with true spiritual Indians such as yourself there is hope.

May God bless you.

[RHCNYC]

I for one have issue with the idea of 'respecting' the decision to pursue religion in any manner. So many resources, mental, human, financial, etc are wasted on the effort to integrate and force religion as though it had any genuine contribution to make to solve many of the problems we have in today's world. In fact, it usually is the cause of many of them.

While some religions may be genuine in their tolerance of other religions, and most feign tolerance, there is little hope of any actual harmonization in the end, as religion ingrains what will always be fundamental differences between these different groups on philosophical grounds; based on little more than what particular set of myths one chooses to follow.

It's like an endless war of agreeing whether chocolate or vanilla ice cream is best... a hopelessly trivial pursuit, since decisions are based on beliefs that are founded on purely subjective, speculative, unprovable grounds. Except that the argument over ice cream is easily resolved by buying your own preferred brand, the argument over religion leads to more war, terrorism, hatred, bigotry, and remains the largest obstacle against social progress we have ever encountered.

It is time to let go of these childish, primitive beliefs, and leave behind all of it's associated negative side effects, among them (as we are seeing even today) how they can negatively impact our elections by obligating voters to make misguided decisions about who should run our country.

[MagisterLudi]

Religion and politics often closely connected. South America has become Catholic because of directed policies of the Church leadership. Frankly two religions especially need to be stopped from metastasizing are Christianity and Islam. Primarily because of their militant history and hyper aggressive and often predatory missionary efforts. The reach of these two militant religions must be prevented at all cost by peaceful but firm government policies and populist push back. It is important to educate the population of the ravages these two religions visited upon untold millions of humans: from Spanish Inquisition and auto da fe to militant J_ihad and public stoning and intolerance in Iran. Then and only people can make educated decision.

[MissTrish]

South American countries became Catholic countries hundreds of years ago when Spain and Portugal conquered those areas. The armies of both countries brought their religion with them and forced them on the indigenous peoples. This was one of the many sins committed by Catholics that the late Pope John Paul II asked forgiveness for on behalf of the entire Catholic Church. Currently, in Central and South America, Catholics are increasingly leaving the Church to join Evangelical and fundamentalist Christian churches, not because they are being offered money or schooling but because they are simply choosing to join a different Christian denomination.

[samay]

I quite agree that the right to religion in non negotiable and as is the freedom of choice. However, one has to question if the converted in these cases, truly have been given full disclosure on their new faith or is it only all rhetoric based information?
Also, there have been many a time when these Evangelicals have come to my home when I'm not around and proceeded to speak to my 12 year old nephew about their faith.
How ethical is this? Preaching to mass audiences is one thing, zeroing in on impressionable kids or even teenagers is another. Where do we draw the line with freedom of choice, when it comes to children?

[jmeredith]

Great article.

[KaneandAbel]

I know hinduism does not believe in conversion. But it would be interesting to what would happen if Hindu scholers were trying to get converts from Christianity in the middle-america bible best. Well Acharya Rajnish was trying to set up his temple in middle america.

The authorities with the push of Evangelical lobbying in the administration of the state had them hounded out.

Those who cry wolf about religious prosecution in India should see the prosecutions of believer fo other religion in america itself. Remember Waco. Yes I know.... they are a cult ! Right? But when does a cult become a religion? When it has enough followers to be a electoral majority?

Whats the difference anyway? In mainsteam christian thought you have almost half of America believing in creationism and that the world was created around 10000 years back! And the mainstream religion - Islam - believe that at the end of the world the lord is going to come down and resurect the good people. I could go on......

[MissTrish]

KaneandAbel,

The religious community in Waco, Texas wasn't raided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) because of their religious beliefs. They were raided because they had large stockpiles of illegal automatic weapons that they refused to turn over to the local authorities in Texas. When the ATF raided their compound, some members of the group opened fire on them with automatic weapons. That action - firing on federal law officers who had a legal warrant to search their property and confiscate any illegal weapons they had - was what began the tragedy that occurred a week later.

[vijay 1976]

KaneandAbel-

I think it is plain to see now that Hinduism may not believe in converting others, but they do believe in forcibly "reconverting" people against their will- at the threat of death of the threatened person and their near and dear ones.

[OkayLady]

Thank you again for your work. I am so glad your thoughts are provoking a vigorous discussion. There is nothing that destroys fundamentalism faster than engaging other in critical thought!

[RumiSouth]

Mr. Tharoor,

India will have its own Civil Rights Era. But where ours was about race, yours will be about religion. Let us hope these convulsions don't turn to open warfare.

[MissTrish]

Dear Mr. Tharoor,

Thank you for your insightful article. I wanted to post the following for any of your readers who might not be familiar with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

All Roman Catholics (priests, nuns and laity) are obliged to follow the code of Cannon Law. Cannon Law states that NO PERSON is to be converted or baptized against their will. It further states that, if an infant or child is to be baptized into the Church, only the parents of the child can allow the baptism to take place. The parents must be present for the baptism and willingly agree to allow their child to be baptized.

I would hope that all Catholic school in India educate students regardless of their religious beliefs if parents give permission for their non-Catholic child to attend a Catholic school. I would hope that Catholic schools in India follow the example of Catholic schools in the U.S, where non-Catholic students are not expected to attend religion classes but instead use the time to study academic subjects in the school's library. I would DEMAND that any non-Catholic student not be obliged or even expected to attend any Catholic Mass or prayer service held during school hours because a non-Catholic child's religious beliefs must be respected.

I pray with all my heart that India and all her citizens will experience peace and receive assistance in material needs so that they may live, prosper and thrive.

[KaneandAbel]

Well I attended catholic school in India in Rajasthan. Everybody had to attand the prayers! And everybody had to attend the Religion classes. Else we got whipped with a cane on the buttocks by the principal Mr. Martin. I got beaten once and had 4 red cane painful marks for a month after that.

No one, students of Hindu or any other religion could miss the classes.

And Although I have nothing against the Christianity but the conversion of illeterate (people who can not even sign their own names when they go to collect their daily wage) by motivated missionaries in a rural environment, can not be a equal to a person willing to choose their own faith. Its a recipe for brewing of another religious war.

Same as trying to preach Islam in the midwest bible belt. You may get shot!!!

[MissTrish]

KaneandAbel,

The experience you described as a non-Catholic student attending a Catholic school is exactly the sort of treatment I and every American Catholic I know opposes.

[vijay 1976]

I attended a Hindu school called Bhavan's Vidya Mandir, started ironically by a great man who was committed to religious freedom, KM Munshi. In this school, we had to chant bhajans, slokas, and learn Hindu philosophy. If we did not do this, we were under threat of corporal punishment, dismissal and mockery by teachers.

[andygaus]

What's paathshala?

[KoolBreez]

A school for children.

[Paul]

I think the situation in Korea is different.

Korea has been conquered by Japan and China and sits strategically between the two.

Just as Poland is staunchly Catholic having Protestant Germany on one side and Orthodox Russia on the other, Korea has chosen to embrace a religion foreign to both its historical enemies.

India has a long tradition of hospitality to religious monorities - Jews, Moslems, Sikhs, etc - it is a shame to see this coming undone.

[KaneandAbel]

See my comment above. Its a recipe for religious wars, when well funded missionaries try to convert illeterate ( who can not even sign their own names) population in the middle of a conservative rural sertting.

The same will be the situation if Islamic Missionaries started to do massive conversion with their well funded oil money in the middle of the housing crisis (where people have lost their houses) in middle america - the bible belt.

Its not an exclusively Indian problem.

[timezone]

For as long as there has been religion, there have been those who try to use it for their own agenda. I have studied many of the world's religions and have yet to come up with one that advocates the type of atrocities that have occurred in the name of any religion.

[RHCNYC]

I might recommend re-reading many of these texts. You'll find everything from infanticide, misogyny, bigotry, conquering, slavery, caste systems, and all sorts of atrocities not only often condoned by example in the behavior of the characters in these texts, but often commanded by the particular deities themselves. It is absolutely disingenuous to say otherwise.

[timezone]

Wars have been fought in the name of many religions, however, interpretation is important. I haven't heard of the world's religious leaders condone atrocities, in fact, most speak out against them. After 9/11, the majority of the worlds Muslims denounced the terrorists as going against the teachings of Islam. The central message of Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity is one of peace and love, not war and hatred.