The recent decision of Karnataka State to introduce the anti-conversion bill during the Assembly session from December 13 has already emboldened the right-wing Hindutva forces; attacks and desecration of religious places has already commenced and perpetrators of violence play the victim card. The happenings in Karnataka are ominous. In Belgavi district which has a small percentage of Christians, those conducting prayers services in hired premises or in house Churches have been given “Friendly Advice” by the police not to conduct such prayers at least till the winter session of the Assembly as they have stated their inability to protect people practising their faith from attacks by the Hindutva and right wing elements. The Sri Ram Sene led by the infamous Muthalik has given instructions to the State police to ban religious activities other than in the dedicated licensed prayer houses. It is difficult to comprehend under which law a secular State like India can ban any type of prayer service in any private place or start conducting surveys of Christian prayer houses.
More affected by this edict will be the Christian groups led by their pastors who conduct services privately with their small following. Having no safety net from the police force they have embarked on Zoom prayer meetings. Where are we heading when the State declares its inability to protect and shelter people of minority faiths? Does it not resemble the fate of the Christians in Islamic State Iran where the few thousands of Christians are regularly prosecuted and tortured.
In neighbouring Pakistan the clerics and the religious extremists have their own agenda and misuse the controversial Blasphemy rule. Thousands of non-Muslims are forcefully converted every year through abduction, forced marriages and rapes. Is India, a secular State with a supposedly impartial and strong judiciary heading in the same direction as other countries where religious persecution, mainly of the Christians is taking place? How then can our government protest when human rights bodies downgrade India?
Who can forget the infamous pogrom that happened in the State of Odisha in 2008 where around 100 people lost their lives, 6,000 houses were plundered or burnt, more than 60,000 were left homeless and around 400 churches were razed or burnt down? Also the religious disturbances that took place mainly in Dakshina Kannada in the year 2008. So many of the people who were incarcerated are still paying the price for such hateful acts conducted. Karnataka is one of the States where vigilantes even prevent mingling of the people of different faiths and dare to attack them with impunity. This is the result when the ruling dispensation interferes with the faiths and private lives of their citizens destroying the social fabric.
The Christian population of the country has been less than 2.3% for decades when population rise has been immense of every other religious group. Do the ruling dispensations and extremist forces with the bogey of “Forced conversions” intend to eliminate this tiny minority who have contributed equally or rather more than proportionately to the building of our beloved nation?
