It could be described as somewhat exaggerated, but the Tamil Nadu government’s affidavit in the Supreme Court on May 1 on conversions takes your breath away by its assertion of the right to freedom of religion. The only other party that one can imagine taking such an unambiguous stand would be Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC). But between the two, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)’s stand is probably more ideological than based only on a desire to oppose the Centre.
Stating that there has been no forcible or fraudulent conversion in the state in the past few years, the affidavit declares that people have “the right to propagate their belief systems and also to change their beliefs.’’ Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees this right, hence “the acts of missionaries spreading Christianity by itself cannot be seen as something against law.”
The affidavit is in reply to a PIL asking for guidelines to prevent conversions by fraud or allurement, filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Ashwini Upadhyay.
Ever since the BJP came to power in 2014, conversions to Christianity have been made as big a bogey as cow slaughter, despite census figures revealing that Christians remain a minuscule minority: 2.3 per cent (2011 Census figures. We have no updated figure as the Centre seems uninterested in carrying out another census.) This hype has resulted in regular attacks on Christian preachers suspected of being involved in conversions.
The targeting of missionaries by the Sangh parivar is not new, especially in states with large Adivasi populations. The burning alive in Odisha of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two little sons in January 1999, by a mob led by Bajrang Dal supporter Dara Singh, is an unforgettable symbol of such persecution. Coincidentally, when that shameful incident took place, there was a BJP-led government at the Centre.
However, it is only after 2014 that Christian congregations find themselves unsafe even inside their own homes, not only in Adivasi-dominated areas, but also in the BJP-ruled states of Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. In fact, in November 2021, the police in Belagavi, Karnataka, advised pastors to stop holding prayer meets in rented buildings or private homes (venues used in the absence of churches), if they didn’t want to be targeted by Hindutva groups. What else was this but an admission that the men in uniform, authorised to use lathis, tear gas, and even firearms against miscreants, were unwilling to protect a mere 0.39 per cent of the district’s population against mobs backed by the ruling party?
This advice was given just before the Karnataka Assembly was to discuss its anti-conversion Bill, which became law in May 2022. States have had anti-conversion laws for long, but arrests under these laws have increased dramatically since 2017.
In the last three years, BJP-ruled states have modified existing laws or enacted new ones, following the lead given by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, whose government introduced a law specifically aimed at making conversion for marriage an offence. Though primarily aimed at preventing Muslim men from marrying Hindu women — another Hindutva obsession — these laws are also being increasingly used against suspected missionaries.
The thought of a Hindu leaving the fold voluntarily is what makes the Sangh parivar see red. Instances of large groups of Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes doing so are common, and the reasons for this well-known. But the Sangh parivar prefers to ignore the bitter truth and propagate the myth that only allurements or deceit drive such conversions.
The DMK with its history of resisting caste discrimination has no reason to support this bogey. Hence its bold assertion: “Citizens should be allowed freely to choose their religion and it would not be appropriate for the Government to put spokes to (sic) their personal belief and privacy... the right to have faith in a particular religion is an inviolable right that the state is obligated to protect.”
These words recall a 2011 judgment by then Himachal High Court judge Deepak Gupta, who later went on to grace the Supreme Court. Striking down a clause in the state’s anti-conversion law which mandated a month’s notice to the District Magistrate by the person desiring to convert, the judge wrote: ‘What right does the State have to direct the convertee to give notice in advance to the District Magistrate? A person not only has the right of conscience, the right of belief, the right to change his belief, but also the right to keep his beliefs secret. If a person changes his religion or belief of his own volition the State has no role to play.’
A government echoing a judge’s assertion of a citizen’s constitutional right, and in doing so, standing by a persecuted minority, is cause for elation anytime — especially in today’s India.
(Jyoti Punwani is a senior journalist.)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
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