Tamil Nadu Govt. has passed a legislation banning the conversions by force, fraud and allurement. Earlier Orissa Govt. had also passed a legislation on similar lines and one bill by Anant Geete of Shiv Sena is pending in the Parliament for discussion. This bill calls for a ban on conversions and also equates free education as allurement! As per these proposals a prior permission/intimation will be needed to be given to the authorities who will sit on judgement whether the conversion is legal or not. In a way most of these legislations violate the fundamental rights of citizens, the right to personal freedom affecting profession, practice and propagation of faith (article 25)

Just a month ago 150 Dalits in Kootharanbakkam village of Tamil Nadu had converted. Similarly on Nov. 4, last years thousands of Dalits had converted to Buddhism under the leadership of Udit Raj and this set the trend for conversion in many places. As such in recent memory the conversions in Meenkashipuram in 1980, where many a dalits had converted to Islam was the major event which was projected as the invasion of petro dollars for conversion to Islam in India. The issue was used to consolidate the upper caste-class reaction against the social changes especially related to the aspirations of Dalits. The same issue was raked up again from 1997 when the anti Christian violence was orchestrated. It was alleged that Christian missionaries are converting by force and allurement. It was also alleged that these are being sponsored by the foreign money courtesy the Pope. The major victim of this propaganda was Pastor Graham Steward Stains who was burnt alive along with his two sons when the trio was sleeping in the Jeep. During this period churches begun to be attacked, Bibles were burnt and Christian priests were attacked. The very suddenness and countrywide spread of the phenomena came as a bolt from the blue.

The attacks were accompanied by the intercommunity divided on the ground that new followers of Jesus are abandoning their old communitarian norms and so the conflicts are coming up. The most surprising part of the forcible conversion story was that this took place when the percentage of Christian population is declining. The census data, and the data from Justice Wadhava Commission of inquiry gave the truth of conversions away. The All India Christian population in 1971 was-2.6%, in it was 1981-2.44% and in 1991 it stood at 2.32%. This shows a marginal decline in the all India population of Christians.

In Manoharpur in Keonjhar district Pastor Dr.Stains was doing his work amongst the lepers. Justice Wadhava report gives an interesting statistics. As per this report there is a rise of Hindu population by
2.52%, and that of Christian population by.008% between the years 1991 to 1998. These figures totally demolish the foundation of the argument that massive forced conversions are on. The point to be noted is that the conversions are projected to be a purely passive process in which the poor Adivasis are converted by inducement and allurement. This again is a point which gives the image that those converted are mere passive beings bereft of intelligence just because they are poor and so susceptible to the anti-National activities of the missionaries.

A slight peep in to history of conversions in India will make the matters clear for us: whether conversions are active or a passive process? If we recall a while ago the major component of anti-Muslim propaganda was that Muslim Kings converted the Hindus by the sword, and this construct formed the base of the anti Muslim sentiments in the social common sense. Before we go into the historical process whereby Islam spread in India lets have a look at the opinion of Swami Vivekananda on the issue (Collected works- Vol. VIII, page 330). Says Swamiji Why amongst the poor of India so many are Mohhamedans? It is nonsense to say that they were converted by the sword, it was to gain liberty from Jamindars (Feudal lords) and priests. Islam, contrary to the popular belief came to India through the Arab traders who used to visit the Malabar coast for trade, and it were the Hindu Kings who built the initial Mosques to sustain the trade. Also there are still communities in the coastal areas who practice mixed, Hindu and Muslim, rituals.

The major spread of Islam in India took place through the Sufi saints whose spiritual strength and attitude of being close to the people attracted the lower castes to embrace Islam in the hope of escaping the Brahminical oppression of which they were the victims. There is no doubt that some conversions also took place out of fear of the invading Muslim Kings and also out of the anticipation of reward from the Muslim Kings, but surely this number is inconsequential. Similarly even today there are some insignificant boisterous Christian groups who blow their trumpet and propagate in an aggressive way. Again their impact is insignificant. It is interesting that Sikhism, which drew heavily from Islam as well as Hinduism, attracted more of low caste untouchables in big number. Many of them converted to Sikhism in the early part of twentieth century despite stiff opposition from the Arya Samaj and other elite Hindu streams. The case of Ambedkar and his followers embracing Buddhism needs a bit of recounting. Dr. Ambedkar tried his best to have a place in the Hindu social order. In this direction he led the Chavdar Talav movement, to have access to public drinking water, he led the Kalaram temple agitation, to gain entry to Hindu temples. The violent reaction of the upper caste Hindus to these agitations made him to say that that though I was born a Hindu I will not die as a Hindu. Further he went on to burn Manusmriti and later decided to convert to Buddhism.

Dr. Ambedkars trajectory is the classical example of low caste Hindus adopting a different religion by choice. And this is what has been the phenomenon all through-attempts by the low castes to escape the
Brahminical Social Order by embracing different religions. Be those the religions of Indian origin or be they of foreign origin, what is important is that, the oppressed have been active partners in the process and not the mere objects for the conversions.

Using this as a tool for communal politics is a favorite weapon all through. As such Hinduism is based on caste system and Brahminism has been its dominant factor. It is not a religion based on the teaching of any prophet, and there by spreading, preaching it to others is not the norm. Earlier Brahmin groups, being the elite, insisted more on exclusion of others rather than on proselytisation. As such the Dalits, belonging presumably to the same religion were untouchables and had to live in the ghettoes outside the village. Other Indian religions, which based on teachings of prophets (Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism), did believe in propagating and thats how Buddhism in particular spread far and wide, to other countries.

Hindu and Muslim political forces in early part of 20th century did undertake conversions (shuddhi to Hinduism and tanzim and tabligh to Islam). The shuddhi was more to attract those low castes that had adopted Islam or Sikhism as their religion. The current Gharvapasi campaign of VHP draws its legitimacy from the assertion that Adivasis are Hindus. If ones belief systems, deities, holy books, and communitarian determine religion functions than in which way the are the Adivasis Hindu? They many a times have been beef eaters, are unaware of Ram and other deities of Hindu religion, are oblivious to the Hindu holy books i.e. Gita, Ramayan, Maha Bharat, and Vedas, and are practicing the animism in their own way. As per the obligatory criterion of Religion they cannot be called as Hindus. But they are being labeled as Hindus as a part of the phenomenon of political will and for the necessities of Hindutva (not Hinduism, and they are different categories) onslaught, which is trying to match Islamic fundamentalism in its pernicious methods. Gharvapasi is a proselytisation in a cleverer garb. The adivasis are being baptized in newer ways (Holy baths, washing their feet with sacred water etc.) and this being backed up
with teaching them the Hindu ways, i.e. making them aware of the Hindu deities, Hindu holy books Hindu festivals etc. Today, despite the claims to the contrary many a Hindutva outfits are indulging in proselytization. The spread of Hinduism is always a problem. Politically Hindutva needs to assert that all those except Muslims and Christians, are Hindus. Here, the criterion applied is the Nationalism of Religions. One is doubtful if Religions can be tied to any Nation. Buddhism, which originated in India is the religion of majority of people in Thailand, Sri Lanka. Christianity, originated in Jerusalem but today it is major religion of US  Europe etc. What is remarkable is not that conversions as a marginal phenomenon have been a part of Indian reality from ages but the fact that political phenomenon of intolerance has made it a political issue today.