Islam: Perceptions versus reality

Islam: Perceptions and Reality

Ram Puniyani

Book Review

Book Under review

Islam-Misgivings and History, Asghar Ali Engineer, Vitasta, New Delhi 2008, Pages, 228, Rs 295

The current times in the World history are marred by the political interests wearing the cloak of religion. World over the major offensives against the oil rich countries have taken place with the projection that the Western civilization is under threat due to the backward Islamic civilization. The real goal of control over oil has been hidden in the cloak of 'backward Islam.' The phenomenon of terrorism has emerged due to various reasons but most of it has been attributed to Muslims and Islam. At home in India the rise of rightwing politics has derived its legitimacy from the dangers of Islamic teachings and nature of Muslims, being aggressive, intolerant and terrorists. All in all, nowhere before in history any religion was picked up for such a demonization for political goals. At no point in History the major threat to world civilization was projected due to religion. The political interests have adorned the clothes of 'savior of democracy', while attacking other countries. At home a particular nationalism has been constructed around targeting Muslims and Islam.

It is in this background that a simple but profound contribution from Asghar Ali Engineer is a timely intervention in the social thinking process. Engineer has been one of the most prominent exponents of democratic secular values and profound scholar of Islam. His prolific and scholarly contributions have served as the defenders of human rights and values which uphold the rights of weak and deprived sections of society. He has contributed immensely, with equal competence, in different but related areas like communal riot investigation, defense of secular values and exposition of Islam. His commentaries on Islam are very refreshing and enlightening. Being primarily an activist his contributions are presented in a language which an average reader can grasp without any difficulty. At the same time he maintains rigor of the underlying concepts.

This book is on the expected patterns. It is a compilation of 17 of his essays written under Islam and Modern Age, his monthly essays. These cover the broad canvass of various issues around which Islam is perceived.

Right at outset he makes the distinction between ruling classes ruling in the name of Islam and their monarchical, feudal practices. Many an Islamic rulers being the part of feudal set ups are also close confidantes of the U.S. empire which at another level is spearheading the oil hunt with a deceptive flag of defending democracy. Making it clear that Islam's advent took place in the background of Arabic practices, which were very primitive bereft of moral components, it was the teachings Prophet Mohammad, which introduced the moral values of very high order, the values which have withstood the test of times. He counters the popular notion that Islam imposes inhuman compulsions of different types on its followers. While religions put up moral-ethical standards, the society rather than rising to those drags the standards to its level of practices. In this case it is duet between social practices and the moral standards set by Quran. The society is governed by multiple economic, social and political factors, the consideration of which alone can give us the clear picture of times.

The word kafir has been misused very badly to assume that Islam regards all those who do not believe in Islam and ordains that they be killed. Contrary to that Kafir word was used for those who rejected the new humane values of Islam, and used violence against its followers. The use of violence here was permitted purely in self defense. It should be made clear that the word Kafir was given a twisted interpretation by Madrassas set up by CIA-ISI to train Al Qaeda to fight the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Since that this word has become a totally distorted and used in a negative light. It is Islam which gave the concept of law for the first time. Disturbed by the use of violence as a means of settling issues, the concept of mediation and legality was introduced. Also disturbed by the social inequality the concept of zakat, obligatory payment for the welfare of deprived was introduced.

Similarly the meaning of jihad has been distorted beyond recognition due to these madrassas, meant to train Al Aqeda. Interestingly the syllabus of these was drawn in Washington and it is here that by subtle manipulation words, kafir and Jihad in particular were given the meaning which many a terrorist groups use and the meaning which media popularized. As such jihad according to Quran means to speak truth even in the face of a tyrant ruler. Jihad is against julm, tyranny. Killing the innocents it is a tyranny and so Islam not only opposes that but it also preaches to speak against any killing of innocents. Jihad is a collective struggle against tyrants and exploiters; it is for upholding justice and human dignity and for establishing a society where human rights and dignity will be ensured. According to Engineer, "...the Quran came as a liberator of entire humanity and brought those fundamental values, which are needed to evolve a liberated society. The Quran also accepts the fact that several prophets, guides and seers came in this world for the same purpose…" (P50)

Many Ulama have been proclaiming about Islamic state. As per Engineer there is no mention of Islamic state in the Holy book. No religion in the world establishes a state. It just removes moral corruption and acts as a spiritual guide. In the name of Islamic state Ulama control the political affairs and do not "…allow sharia law to be revisited and this is the reason why all Muslim countries, which have proclaimed themselves to be Islamic states and are stagnating in the field of modern knowledge." (p71) And further, ' the compliers of Sharia law adopted mono-level approach and , thus created problems difficult to tackle .What is worse is that the followers of these laws adopt very rigid approach and consider earlier formulations by great Imams as immutable thus injuring the very spirit of Quran." (P.78)

Contrary to the popular perceptions, Engineer points out that Islam was one of the first movements to accord rights to women, rights towards equality and their plight today, the plight of their being treated as subordinates, is more due to social systems in the grip of feudal values and due to the hold of Maulanas. The interpretation of Quran offered by him logically and scholarly shows that it meant to give equality to women. The whole Islamic feminism, the rights of women as enshrined in the Holy book is the foundation for women's rights. It becomes clear that the practices of section of Muslim society are not in conformity with Quran. Some of the sharia laws deprive women of human dignity and reduces them to the status of chattel, and this is what is the popular perception about women in Islam, while it is far from true as sharia rules do not match with the ones of Quran at most of the places. The best example is the insistence on use of veil or burqua by Muslim women. In Quran there is just a concept of dignified dressing not of veil. As per Engineer change is necessary in these laws but Ulama is against these changes due to fear of losing its power.

The perception that Islam and democracy are not compatible is a falsity of the highest order. Again many a Muslim countries, some which are ex-colonies, have not undergone secularization and the conservative elements oppose the reforms under the cry that it is an attempt to Westernize Islam. The political interests of US Empire have promoted and collaborated with many a cruel dictators and kings as the rulers of their countries. The absence of the democracy has nothing to do with Islam whatsoever. There are examples where live and vibrant democracies like the one of Iran, Mossadeq, was overthrown by the coup staged with the help of US. The orthodox Ulama and the rulers of dictatorial regimes go hand in hand and the collaboration of Ulama gives it a false veneer of Islam. Again these Ulama oppose the process of reform. Engineer correctly diagnoses the problem of Muslim society when he points out that Ulama just insists on social traditions rather than values which are inherent in Quran.

Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has been a bone of discord around which communalists built up their propaganda. There is a place of reform in Muslim Personal law, and there are trends within the community which favor this. The resistance and failure to progress in this direction is due to the insecurity caused by communal violence. A regular occurrence of violence intimidates the community and creates a fear, ghettoisation and strengthens orthodoxy. No physically threatened community can think of reform as physical and social security takes precedence over everything else. Also due to economic backwardness the weak middle class is not confident to oppose the orthodox elements. Due to low educational levels Muslim women are not aware of their due rights. In the face of offensive of Hindutva propaganda and use of UCC to browbeat minorities even the secular feminists have revised their demand from the UCC to that of Gender Just Civil code through the process of social reform.

Engineer does well to break the current mould of presenting the communities as uniform monoliths. During medieval times all Muslims were not rulers, even Muslim dynasties were fighting with each other, Babar against Ibrahim Lodi is the prime example. There were wars for power amongst Khaljis, Tuglaqs, Lodis and Mughals. Even all the Mughal emperors were not in a single mould. Akbar, Dara Shikoh were very different from Aurangzeb. Even Aurangzeb while was part of destroying some temples had made donations to Hindu temples as well.

This meticulous presentation of values of Islam will go a long way to dispel the popular notions which equate Islam and Muslims with terrorism and other backwards tendencies.

Author would have done well to qualify the other terminologies like, Social Islam, Political Islam. An elaboration of the phenomenon of Wahabi, Salafi and other trends of Islam should have been given to elaborate social and political goals hidden behind them. That would have been further brought forward is the point that these trends of Islam have more to do with politics rather than with what Quran says. What is missing in this valuable contribution is a proper critique of US presentation of Islam through madrassas in Pakistan for its goal of training Al Qaeda, for fighting Russian army. This would have clarified concretely as to how politics is at the back of these horrendous trends which are bringing shame to Islamic values and bringing untold miseries to Muslims all over the World.

Needless to say this book deserves a mandatory place in the book racks of all those wanting to understand the true nature of Islam, and all those who are engaged in struggle against the goals of empire to dominate the World and goals of sectarian politics threatening to bring in fascism in the name of religion.

Terrorism: A Political Cancer

Terrorism: A Political Cancer

Ram Puniyani

The blasts in Jaipur (13th May 2008), have once again brought to fore the grim reality of global and local political scenario. In a short span of time close to hundred innocent lives were lost. What was heartwarming was the calm with which the society handled this grim tragedy. The amity with which the post blast situation was handled certainly needs million respectful salutes.

But political parties are what they are, taking advantage of such tragedies to bake their political breads. The BJP leadership was quick enough to say that the blasts are taking place as the central government is weak, the withdrawal of POTA has given rise to a situation where terrorists can make merry. Most such criticism is aimed at scoring brownie points, forgetting that during BJP led NDA regime with POTA in operation, the attacks on Parliament, Red fort and many other acts of terror were very much there. Despite Advani’s lie that he did not know about foreign minister accompanying the terrorists to Kandhar, there were acts of terror a plenty when he was the Home/deputy prime minister and was trying to cultivate the image of an iron man. Also the argument that BJP ruled states with glorious strength are free from terrorist acts also comes to a naught with this tragedy.

Petty political thinking apart, the world today is gripped by this insane phenomenon, which like a cancer has spread over a period of last two decades. The analogy of cancer for terrorism is very apt as many features of this are matching with the behavior of cancer in human body. Cancer has multiple etiologies (causative factors) and same is true of terrorism. First, it is due to the indoctrination of minds, like Al Qaeda by CIA sponsored madrassas in Pakistan. The Al Qaeda was used as a proxy for American army to fight against Russian army in Afghanistan. Here the indoctrination of Muslim youth was done through the syllabus developed in Washington. The goal of course was control over oil wells in the region. They did these insane activities in the name of religion. Presumably for the glory of their religion! Similarly the indoctrinated Bajrang Dal workers, who died while making bombs in Nanded April 2006, also were indoctrinated in the RSS ideology prepared to lay down their life presumably for their religion.

The second major cause of terrorism is a spontaneous response to injustices done to a group of people, generally in places where the democratic norms are compromised. Recently (December 2007) the acts of terror done by Adivasi National Liberation front resulting in blast in the Guwahati Rajdhani express exemplifies this. This blast was in the wake of group of Adivasis being beaten and their female companion being molested. This was the triggering point for the acts of terror being done by that group. Similarly the Mumbai blasts in 1993 and in 2002 were in the aftermath of Mumbai riots and Gujarat carnage after which some Muslims played in the hands of elements out to do such acts as a revenge, in the name of their religion. They forget that no religion worth its spirituality teaches to kill the innocents. Here the feeling of frustration, the feeling of taking revenge is paramount in the minds of these terrorists.
The third major factor leading to acts of terror relate to the injustices done in the name of nationalism, the suppression of ethnic, regional aspirations, Khalisthani, Kashmir, North East (ULFA etc...) LTTE and Irish Republican army fall in this category.

Cancer in the human body spreads by multiple mechanisms, physical extension, and through blood vessels etc. The one spreading through blood and getting lodged at a site distant from the original one is called Secondary metastasis. Al Qaeda was the primary cancer and what we witness at many other places is either secondary metastasis of that or is being done by those who have ulterior political motives. In current times this is the major type of terrorism and is the one where the indoctrination designed by US administration and propagated by US media disguised its lust for oil resources. The indoctrinated mind is the most lethal weapon in the World. It then becomes supra national and is beyond the realm of usual controls. The goal of US was to politically control oil zones through concocted pretexts, leading to attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. And these were projected as a part of clash of civilizations. Here the propaganda is that the backward Islamic civilization is the threat to the World so attack Afghanistan on the pretext of catching hold of Osama bin Laden or attack on Iraq on the pretext of saving the sovereignty of Sheikh of Kuwait, to defend the world from weapons of mass destruction hidden by Saddam Hussain. This surely is one of the biggest hoaxes of contemporary history.

Imperialism, the domination of poor countries by the more powerful ones’, has assumed different languages during last several centuries. Initially when the Britain, Portugal and France etc. went on to colonies the World for their material gains, they projected this exploitation of colonies as the ‘Whit man’s burden to civilize the barbarians’. Then came the era when national liberation movements were being undertaken by different colonies, many of which were influenced by socialist ideas. This period of history was dominated by two superpowers, US and Russia. US led camp tried to retain its hegemony on colonies or as a continuation, adopted policies to exploit these colonies through other economic mechanisms. To prevent the colonies becoming economically autonomous, imperialists tried to hegemonies global politics and the language used by them was, ‘defense of freedom and democracy’! With demise of socialist states the language being used is the one related to civilization, ‘the threat of Islam’.

The difference in the current times is that since a religion and a religious community are demonized and targeted the impact becomes much more deep and retrogressive in the cultural arena. It starts polarizing the communities along religious lines. This clash of civilizations theory is operative worldwide. In India the problem is further compounded due to the rise of communal politics, politics around issues of religious identity, which has changed the language of social discourse and has worsened the situation further. So far, communal violence has been polarizing the nation along the lines of religious communities. Now due to this propaganda Islam and Muslims have been linked to this phenomenon, and the Muslims all over the world and more so in India have been uniformly demonized. The result is that the acts of terrorism are projected, investigated and propagated in a biased way, totally conforming to the global and local propaganda about Islam and Muslims. The attitude of semi-communalized state machinery and communal parties further polarizes the society.

While these acts of terror are acting as the divisive factor, in a way they are playing the same type of role which communal violence has played so far, polarizing the communities. Despite the fact that communities are responding with amity, somewhere deep down the demonization of minorities is worsening. The investigation pattern so far has been to link the acts of terror to the Pakistan based groups, now Bangla Desh based groups. The main pattern has been the arrest of huge number of innocent youth. The social hysteria against them has been so bad that sometimes lawyers, in violation of their professional ethic refuse to take up their cases. In such cases, the dictum that one is innocent till proved guilty, has been put upside down or it is asserted that if someone belongs to the wrong religious community he has to be a terrorist! In this scenario the fatwa of Deoband that violence against innocents is un Islamic has given a very powerful message to the society. The multiple seminars being held, to say that Islam and Muslims have nothing to do with terrorism are good but are restricted to the Muslim audience and not able to achieve the desired result. These messages have to be taken far and wide, involving all religious communities.

Some social groups and communal parties are subtly intensifying these misplaced perceptions and weakening the nation. It is time that while improving our investigation methods we need to desist from politicizing and communalizing these tragic events. The seeds of this cancer were sowed by the global super power so just being shortsighted to blame the neighboring country and the religious community is counter productive. There is a need to cultivate amity and trust and that’s possible if we see that essentially it the secondary metastasis of the Al Qaeda clones, very difficult to control by superficial means. Better intelligence, better policing and a deeper understanding of the phenomenon will go a long way to overcome this suffering of the country.

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Issues in Secular Politics
For Circulation/ publications
May 2008 II
www.pluralindia.com, ram.puniyani@gmail.com

Islamophobia: Slogan of Empire's March

Many an academic debates are coming, many a discussion around the targeting of Islam and Muslims are being conducted World over. These are openly propagating against Islam and Muslims. These criticisms are from many a quarters. Even many of those believing in liberalism, an integral part of democracies, are also speaking in the same language. Also those trying to understand the politics behind the current Islamophobia and accompanying demonization of Muslims are conveniently labeled as commies and bypassed by the mainstream of society without giving a due thought to the arguments put forward by them. Britain, the pioneer in democratic movement is riddled with subtle presence of both these phenomenon. Its leaders occasionally adopt a subtle language, which tantamount to depicting Islam as a violent religion and Muslims as the terrorists, with the rider that these “Islamic Terrorists’ can not be compared to other practitioners of violence like the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam and Irish Republican Army’s methods of times not too long ago. There any many like them deliberately undermining the violence; terror, coming from non Islamic groups.

There are also some genuine efforts in the form of meetings at state, and social level to have a inter religious dialogue and many discussions amongst social workers and academics are on to understand the current phenomenon of violence, its relation to religion in general and Islam in particular. Such efforts though not having a total impact do have a very marginal effect in changing the perceptions of broad layers of society. It is not only that one Sikh was killed in US in the after math of 9/11, mistaken as a Muslim, but the phenomenon is operating at different levels in diverse forms. Many a surveys in UK and other places are showing that a large section of population now has some fear of a bearded Arab/Muslim looking man. A typical Muslim man is presented as a bearded Maulana and a woman with burqa.

While the overt manifestation of this mind set has surfaced strongly after 9/11 2002, the real global beginning of these propagations started with the overthrow of Raza Shah Pehlavi, a US stooge, from Iran. It is at that time that Ayatollah Khomeini assumed the power. Around this time Socialist systems started weakening and collapsed shortly there after. Islam was presented as the new threat to freedom and Liberty. The West has been presenting itself as the champion of these values. The US emerged as the sole superpower in this era. During cold war the slogan which the US and allies used against the anti colonial struggles under the banner of communism, was freedom and democracy. Since many anti colonial nationalist struggles were fought under the banner of communism, communism was projected as the main threat to freedom and democracy. The opposition to communist ideology was backed up on one hand through the coups by those wearing military boots and on the other by bombings, the worst of which was seen in Vietnam. McCarthyism is most horrific amongst these, during which the communists were hunted with gay abandon.

As the major goal of empire became control of oil resources, the political stage shifted to the West Asia, and Islam and Muslims came under the ideological attack. The alliance with most reactionary Islamic states like Saudi Arabia, and promotion of political Islam by indirect means was stepped up by the US. Promotion of Al Qaeda and support to the madarsas for training of Al Qaeda terrorists was done by CIA through the conduit of ISI. This laid the foundation of the future invasions in this region, the one in Iraq, 1991, the one in Afghanistan in ht aftermath of 9/11 and the one in Iraq after that. Currently the sword is hanging over Iran and Syria as for as physical attack is concerned. War is the most glaring phenomenon, but the war is given legitimacy in the minds of the people by preparing the ground in the psyche of the people. What Noam Chomsky calls as the manufacturing consent, is launched through sections of media, and other conduits, which win over peoples minds, which shape society’s perceptions, that a particular country or group of people deserve to be attacked to ‘protect’ us, to protect ‘our’ values. This legitimization of invasions is much more necessary in current times where some elements of democracy are struggling to come up despite the odds and obstacles being put forward by the global and local bullies.

The ideological back up of the Islamophobia comes from the theory of ‘Clash of civilizations’. As per this ideology the advanced western civilization is facing the threat to its values from the backward Islam. These theories also go in to generalize the whole communities in the single image, and the inherent diversity of communities is glossed over. All Muslims than fall in a single stereotype of gun totting, bombs throwing fanatics, trying to kill ‘us’ at the drop of the hat. When these ideologues compare the religions, interesting exercise is undertaken. In this the ‘noble values’ of ‘our’ religion are compared with the dastardly practices of a section of follower of ‘other’ religion. The fair game of comparing values to values, practices to practices is given up and the liberal and progressive sections of others’ religious community are pushed to the background of the canvass to project only the criminal elements of ‘other’ religion. Also the mechanism of the genesis of the phenomenon is glossed over, the story always begins somewhere in the middle ignoring the roots of these phenomenon.

While for propagators of Islamophobia, story may begin with tyrannical Saddam rule, the fact that he was armed to teeth by the same powers who are now rampaging Iraq, is put under the carpet. While the designs of Al Qaeda, suicide bombers are the starting point of description of the phenomenon, the fact that the roots of this ideology were consciously cultivated by the imperialist powers is deliberately suppressed. The result is that political goals are presented as the religious goals and the politics itself is hidden in the cloak of religion.

The interesting point is the merger of global Islamophobia with the rise of Hate Muslims in India. This demonization of Islam, intensifies around the same period. Here in India, of course there was a full background of freedom movement during which the communalists, the minuscule streams presented themselves as the representative of that religious community and despite their failure at electoral level were given the legitimacy and recognition as the representatives of that religious community. The case of Muslims in India is very glaring. At no point of time it could get substantial chunk of minority votes, but in the eyes of colonial powers they represented their religion. Also earlier colonialists and now the Empire promote the identity based politics, promote the ethnic and religious identities and base the politics on that ground. In India the Muslim League on one side and Hindu Mahasabha, RSS on the other were not subject of British repression. Today in Iraq, the identities of Shia, Sunni are the major ones, which have not been the case in earlier decades. Today’s Islamophobia in India has been preceded by the long battle between the two competing communalisms here, the Muslim and Hindu one. These communalists coming from the sections of landlords and other feudal segments later joined in by some middle class intellectuals, intensified their hate other campaigns after their massive loss in the 1937 Assembly elections. After partition tragedy many a Muslim communalists left for Pakistan, and Hindu communalism got deflated for some time, especially due to the murder of Mahatma Gandhi by the follower of RSS ideology. It kept itself up by various hate other campaigns and in the decades of 80, matching with the rise of global Islamophobia, rose up in a parallel fashion. What this teaches us is that the ideas demonizing other do get translated into violence in due course, at many places. One must put a caution here that the Hate other, psychology can prevail for a long time, without violence taking place as in many states of India, like Kerala, West Bengal, Haryana etc.

The violence in turn gives rise to fear psychosis, ghettoisation and strengthening of conservative orthodox sections in the community, some thing witnessed to a great extent amongst the Muslim minority in India. This strong coincidence of coming up of global phenomenon with its intensification in India is particularly striking. One is not sure whether this demonization necessarily will go through all these stages. Will the liberal ethos of Western countries protect the Muslims of those countries from what Muslims have undergone in India?

How does one overcome the present impasse? The burden on the shoulders of Islam, the Muslims and humanists is very heavy. One difference from the earlier campaigns against the communists to the present campaign against Muslims is that the latter since it is associated with a religious community, so it seeps down easily at more broad and deep layers in the society. Here one will definitely need more intense ideological propagations, and awareness programs about the humane interpretation of religions. While some efforts are there, the problem demands much more than that.

Conversions as a Political Weapon

These days one has been hearing a lot about the conversion activities of Christian missionaries. That there is a threat to Hindu nation due to Adivasis converting to a ‘foreign religion’ is becoming part of ‘social common sense’ by now. Yes conversions are going on, but the real face of the conversion came to fore when the attack on nuns in Alibaug near Mumbai (March 2008) was followed by a massive conversion of Adivasis to Hinduism, Shuddhi ritual (April 27, 2008) in Mumbai. The person involved in both these has been the same. In the attack on the Adivasis, the followers of Sadguru Narendra Maharaj of Ramanandcharya Peeth were involved and in the elaborate Shuddhi ritual the Guru himself led the conversion. Talking on the occasion he said the Hindus are being reduced to a pitiable minority in the country because of the activities of Christian missionaries. He also came down heavily on the central Government for not pushing through the anti conversion bill and criticized the Maharashtra Government for passing the anti Superstition bill. According to him both these steps are anti Hindu.

His claim that Hindus are being reduced to minority is a stuff of make believe world as demographically India's Hindu population is fairly stable. Also though there is a marginal decline in the population of Christians, this again is close to negligible. If we consider the occasional change in the logistics of conducting the census one can explain the marginal rise/decline of one or the other community and this has not much to do with proselytizing by any religious group. The example of this is the inclusion of Kashmir in 2001 census due to which the overall percentage of Muslim population seemed to have gone up and the total population of Hindus seemed to dip slightly.

The criticism by Guru, Narendra Maharaj, is against the grain of Indian constitution, goals of enlightenment and progress of rationalism in the society. The anti conversion bills which many state Governments have passed/are passing are totally against several articles of our constitution. Our constitution encourages the promotion of rational thought, in pursuance of which Maharashtra Government has done the laudable job of passing anti superstition bill. Those opposing this bill surely want the persistence of blind faith in society, it is this which strengthens their social and political clout and Guru is forthright as far as that is concerned. The same Guru’s followers are adept to violence off and on. In Alibaug the people had assembled to hear a lecture on AIDS awareness when his followers assaulted the nuns. Again his followers were earlier involved in an act of rampage following the airport security staff not permitting his holy dandam (Staff) to be carried on the flight along with him.

How does one understand the rising incidence of violence in Adivasi areas? One recalls just around the Christmas time, massive violence was unleashed in Kandhmal and Phulbani districts of Orissa. In most of the Adivasi areas Dangs, Gujarat, Jhabua Madhya Pradesh, areas of Orissa, there has been a recurrent violence. It is these areas which have seen the conversion of Adivasis into Hindu fold. One must clarify that Adivasis are Animists, neither Christians nor Hindus. While some conversions to Christianity have been occurring they are not new as Christianity has been here from centuries. These conversions are due to many reason, missionaries work in the area of education being the main ones. This is nothing new. Also it is a slow process. In recent times on the contrary the overall population of Christians has been declining marginally (1991-2.60%, 1981-2.44%, 1991-2.34, 2001-2.30%) Part of the conversion surly is due to some groups amongst Christian missionaries who do believe in aggressive proselytization. The Adivasi areas have invited the wrath of RSS combine from last two decades in particular since Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an RSS affiliate intensified its activities in Adivasi areas.


The pattern of RSS affiliate activities is fairly uniform in the Adivasi belt spread from Dangs in Gujarat to Kandhmal in Orissa. There is the EKAL Vidyalaya, a single teacher school to give very elementary education. Then there is a vicious anti Christian propaganda leading to violence. This violence is low intensity and recurrent and lately it is orchestrated more around the Christmas time. Since this takes place in remote places the culprits can get away easily and on the top of that a communalized state apparatus is very helpful to those RSS affiliates who unleash the violence. In these areas various Godmen with RSS affiliation, direct or indirect, have been setting up their Ashrams, Aseemanand; Dangs and Lakshmananand in Orissa are amongst the two major such, who are working for these conversions in various ways. In MP, Jhabua, the followers of Asaram Bapu have been taking to violence and now we witness that in the anti Christian violence in Maharashtra, the followers of Narendra Maharaj are active.

There are multiple processes through which these conversions have been undertaken. Usually violence and intimidation is accompanied by cultural cooption. This latter has been done by holding huge Hindu Sangams (Congregations) like in Jhabua, and in Rajasthan and by holding Shabri kumbh (religious congregation in the name of the destitute adivasi woman Shabri, e.g. in Dangs. The conversion has been the major political tool of Dilip Singh Judeo, one who was caught taking bribe while he was forest minister, who has been doing this in Adivasi areas of Madhya Pradesh from last several years. The term Sanskritzation can also help us understand these conversions, an expectation of upward mobility in social hierarchy. The process of conversion to Hinduism has been called Ghar Vapsi or Shuddhikaran on the premise that Adivasis are Hindus. Here the definition of Hindu is not a religious one but a political one. Theologically religion is defined according to holy book, the revered deity and the clergy. Since Hinduism is not a prophet based religion its latest definition was constructed in early 20th
century as religion of all those who regard this land as their father land and holy land (Savarkar). This is unmindful of the fact that Advasis are primarily animists and do not fall in the category of religion as a social phenomenon applicable to Hindus, Muslims, Christians etc.

Adivasis are the most deprived lot of the society and RSS combine has targeted them for political reasons, not for their own welfare. As during the early 1920s, to consolidate the communal politics, Shuddhi movement (Hindu Communalism) was unleashed in parallel to Tanzim (Muslim communalism), now again the Shuddhi is back to strengthen the communal politics. The only difference is that during the twentieth century it was parallel to Tanzim, now it has been constructed around the fear of Christians to consolidate its social base and practice. Interestingly the concept of purity and pollution of Brahminical tradition are displayed very prominently in this process. Brahminical rigidities have a clearly defined pure and polluted. While some right wing politicians assert that many other religions look down upon other religions, we the Hindus recognize all to be equal. As per this word Shuddhi, those who are not Hindus are regarded as polluted and so this purification ritual for bringing them into the fold of Hinduism, which by implication is pure. Various types of baths given at the time of conversion signify this purification, external cleansing signifying total purity, which makes one fit enough to be Hindu. Interestingly after the Chavdar Talao and Mahad agitation by Dr. Ambedkar, the lake, which was polluted due to Shudras touching it, was purified by mixing cow dung in the same.

Ghar Vapasi word has been cleverly coined. While browbeating Christian missionaries for conversions, to say that ‘we’ are also converting Adivasis will sound as if ‘we’ are also doing similar thing. So while what others do is despicable conversion, what ‘we’ do is to bring them to their original home! The propaganda behind this says that Adivasis are essentially those Hindus who ran away to forests to escape the conversions by Muslim kings. In forests they kept living for long because of which they kept sliding down on the scale of social hierarchy. This concoction serves two purposes. One, it feeds into the misconception that Islam spread by sword. Second, if Adivasis are original inhabitants then Aryans/Hindus who came from outside, are also akin to ‘foreigner’ Muslim and Christians. This in turn will weaken the Hindu nation’s claim as first comers and so the sole proprietors of this land, country or whatever. Accordingly Adivasis are called Vanvasis and the claim of this land being Hindu nation, the one belonging to first comers, Aryans-Hindus holds the ground. This way Hindu nation's claim on the country becomes stronger, as they can also claim to be its original inhabitants.

The attention to Adivasis, to throw away Christian Missionaries from those areas and to co-opt Adivasis to Hindu fold, became overt from the decade of 1980, coinciding with the rise of Ram Janm bhumi campaign, coinciding with global rise of identity politics and local rise of communal politics. This came with RSS combine’s realization that to impose Hindu rashtra in this country the electoral majority is needed as a starting point. And this 8% population can be the wonderful electoral base for the right wing politics. The second advantage is that by indoctrinating them they can be unleashed against the ‘other enemies’ of Hindu nation, like Muslims, as witnessed in Gujarat, where they were used as ideal foot soldiers for the agenda of Hindu Rashtra.

While one has no problems with the peaceful missionary work of Ramakrishna mission or Christian missionaries one is aghast at this new phenomenon, violence followed by conversions, in our society whose primary focus is political, though couched in the language of religion. More human welfare activities in these areas, more emphasis on human rights concerns of this marginalized section of society are what are needed. By emphasizing on blind faith, by spreading hate against other section of society, this phenomenon started by the ilk of Gurus is very dangerous to national Integration and country’s progress.

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Issues in Secular Politics: May 2008 I
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