Ashwini Upadhyaya has filed a suit in the Supreme Court alleging Amazon has funded money to Baptist church in North-East for conversions; it further says that conversions all over the country are a threat to national security. Obviously, given the RSS ideology of Hindu Rashtra, the danger to it comes from conversions, affecting their numerical superiority. The RSS mouthpiece ‘organizer’ even carried an issue titled ‘Amazing Cross Connection.’
 
In India, nationalism has been increasingly tied to religious demography. More than 80 percent of India’s population are Hindus, 14 percent Muslims and 2.3 percent Christians. However, in recent years, certain hysteria is being created that the Hindu population is going down and by 2050 the Muslims will outnumber the Hindus. Its implication is that in a ‘one man, one vote’ electoral system, the Muslims will capture power and Hindus will be reduced to a minority, thereby facing the threat of being treated as second class citizens. It might appear that the targeting of Muslims and Christians is undertaken by the Hindu extremists every other day, as these two minority groups stand as two major enemies in their pursuit of Hindu Rashtra.

Data on Christians

Mapping State-wise demography (29 states and 4 UTs) of Christians in India according to the 2011 (latest) census shows that Christians are less than one percent in most states. And this is after two thousand years of Christianity in India!.

States below 1% of population:

J&K, HP, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Haryana, Delhi, UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal =Total 13

States above 1%, but below 2%:

Punjab, Karnataka, Diu and Daman, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh= Total 6

States with 2% to 5%:

Odisha, Jharkhand, Tripura, Assam=Total 4

States with 5% to 10%:

Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry Sikkim= Total 3

States with 10% to 25%:

Andamans, Kerala, Goa=Total 3

States with 26% to 40%

Arunachal, Manipur=Total 2

States above 41%:

Meghalaya 74.5, Nagaland 87.87, Mizoram 87.2=Total 3

The false narrative

The differential growth rate of religious communities has been a contested issue for a long time. Usually, the following causative factors are cited: 1) fertility rate and birth control; 2) female education; 3) sex-ratio; 4) consumption rate and the class phenomenon; 5) emigration and immigration; and 6) conversions. 
 
One may say that despite Christianity being in India for 2000 years it appears to be a demographic and statistical failure. Despite its insignificant population in many states, yet a false narrative has been floated and spread. As per the official data, the Christian population has not risen from 2.3 per cent from 2001 census to 2011 census. In an insightful article in the magazine “Outlook” (June 10, 2022) Tony Joseph (a self-proclaimed atheist intellectual) poses the following narrative being spun by the Hindutva right-wing:

“Christianity is posing a growing and serious demographic threat to Hinduism by converting large numbers of Hindus through aggressive proselytising. This effort is heavily funded by Christian organisations in the West that see India as being ripe for large-scale conversions. Since proselytising and conversions are not part of Hindu tradition, or that of any religion that originated in India, the playing field is tilted against Hinduism, and this is causing serious societal friction. This sometimes leads to spontaneous and violent reactions.”

The insinuation of the threat to national security made by the Hindutva has nothing to do with the security of India but proposed to be with the security of Hindu Rashtra. Border conflicts with China have been relegated to the background but conversion issues have been proffered as troubling India. In fact, it is troubling, if at all, to the Hindu nation and not Indian nation. 

The Constitution of India grants freedom of professing, practicing and propagating a religion of one’s choice. Hindu Rashtra is hell bent on denying this freedom. On the contrary it wants to bring the converted Christians back to Hinduism even those who converted centuries ago.

What is the real threat?

The separatist Khalistan movement by some Sikhs was rightly declared as a threat to the integrity and security of India.  In the same bargain, Hindu Rashtra too is dangerous to the integrity and security of India as professed in the Constitution of India. 

Come elections, the conversion debate raises its head routinely to polarise people based on religion, pitting Hindus against Muslims and Christians as other religions such as Judaism and Zoroastrianism are too few in numbers.

The regime has kept a strict audit over NGOs especially faith-based NGOs getting foreign funding for benevolent and humane activities. In many cases, the FCRA has been terminated and not renewed.  However, the Hindutva NGOs have hardly been touched. It must be noted that it was the faith-based NGOs that rose to the occasion during Covid-19 even before the Prime Minister appealed to them to assist the victims. 

An added argument aimed at the Christians is that they are appendages of colonial rule. They distance from Indian culture and propagate western culture. It is difficult to convince the RSS that since the Vatican II there has been a concerted effort to inculturation: To profess and practice Christian faith through Indian (Hindu) symbols, signs, rituals, as well as dialogue of religions. One is Christian by faith, but Indian in Culture. Commendable efforts have been made by Christians in India to shun western garb, diet, dress and demeanour. They have largely been Indianised, i.e., ceased to be outsiders and become insiders.

However, lately the efforts to inculturation by the Church have been seen as another ploy to attract converts through copying Hindu names, symbols, signs, rituals, dances, and  colours. This puts the Christians in India into a catch 22 situation, viz., ‘damned if you inculturate and damned if you don’t’!  In fact, Christians in India have let go some of their identity markers to appear more Indian. And yet this phenomenon as perceived by Hindutva appears to be schizophrenic.

Education and health services of Christians are seen as conversion-oriented. Inculturation instead of being appreciated has been seen as a threat to Hindus by the Hindutvavadis. The pluralistic and multi-religious ethos of India is being distorted in a systematic manner. 

The anti-conversion laws euphemistically named as Freedom of Religion laws in around ten states have targeted the convertors by heavy fines and penalties. Those who wish to convert must seek the permission from DC and others. These laws are used to harass and criminalise Christians who gather for prayer services by being falsely accused as conversion exercises. These conversion laws make it difficult for people to exercise their right to freedom of religion. Free will of people is curbed. 

In a multi-religious society conversion from one religion to another is bound to happen as the Constitution gives every citizen the right to profess, practice and propagate one's faith. Data reveals that people from every religion have converted to some other religion. Similarly, inter-religious marriages are a fact of life. Therefore, anti-conversion laws, that seek to ban religious conversions and inter-religious marriages, go against the spirit of the Constitution.Every citizen has the right to change one's job or occupation, change one's residence and even change one's political party, as is being witnessed now during the election season. If that be the case, why is a change of religion an anathema for Hindu extremists? Unfortunately, the reality is that they see Hinduism, not as a religion, but as a political constituency that can be used for political mobilisation. Therefore, they need to generate this political constituency by creating a culture of hate against minorities. It has been proved many times over that the conversion bogey is an attempt to serve political ends and has nothing to do with religion, Hinduism or Christianity.

(The writers are researchers at Indian Social Institute, Delhi)