Ever since he began to walk on this planet, man had been on a frantic search for his creator and the result was religion – the path to Almighty. India is a land of religions. Conversion means a transformation or leaving one’s spiritual or religious belief and accepting a different one. Nature worship was the kind of religion of the Dravidians – the people of the Indus Valley civilization. The very fact that Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism were born one after the other in this subcontinent shows that conversions or reconversions were also taking place right from early times.
In the 3rd century BC, Emperor Chandragupta Maurya got converted to Jainism, where as his grandson, Emperor Ashoka, became a Buddhist convert. Ashoka sent a mission led by his son Mahindra and daughter Sanghamitta to Sri Lanka and Buddhist missions to West Asia, Greece and South East Asia for proselytisation. He popularised Buddhism not only in India but also in Afghanistan, Thailand, Siberia and North Asia . Nevertheless, Ashoka did respect the plurality of the Indian society and insisted that , one must not exalt one’s creed discrediting all the others, on the contrary, render to other creeds the honour befitting them.
India had a great tradition of keeping her doors open to welcome other religions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism and Bahai.
Our motherland was a refuge for the Jews while they were persecuted, 2,500 years ago. The Jew communities began to settle down in Cochin in Kerala by 526 BC. In 68 AD more Jews fled to Kerala to escape attacks from the Romans. Christianity came in to this sacred land in 52 AD when St Thomas the apostle of Jesus Christ landed in Kerala and preached the good news.
It is believed that seven Brahmin families were the first group to embrace the new religion in Kerala. In the 9th century the Zoroastrians from Persia arrived here fleeing from religious persecution in their homeland. Bahai, a religion of Iranian origin has followers in India. Islam reached here years ago and the Indian Muslims form the third largest Muslim population in the world. The Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama lives in this country.
On the other hand, our spiritual gurus like Swami Vivekanda, Sathyananda Saraswathi and many others had toured various countries propagating Yoga and the Indian philosophy. Swami Saraswathi established spiritual centres in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and many other places in the U.S.A. Mata Amrutanandamayi, makes periodic visits to many of the foreign countries and attracts a lot of foreigners to Kerala who are in search of peace and happiness. Today, Indians, our temples and mission centres are active in almost all parts of the world. In some Islamic countries especially in Dubai the Indian diaspora carry on with their spiritual activities smoothly with the overwhelming support and blessings of the respective governments, in churches and places of worship built on large pieces of land donated graciously by the honourable rulers.
Freedom of religion is the birth right of every human being and no one, not even a government has the moral sanction either to deny this right or to impose a religion on anyone. Obviously, no responsible government or wise ruler will dare to do it. The benevolent rajas of the erstwhile kingdoms in Kerala had built churches for their Christian subjects and places of worship for other communities. No wonder why Kerala is well known for the religious and communal harmony. Destroying places of worships whether, churches, mosques or temples are the acts of cowards. Such anti-national and anti religious crimes go against our age-old tradition of religious tolerance. Violence invites more violence. Emperor Ashoka won the bloody battle of Kalinga. But moved by its aftermath, he renounced everything and accepted non-violence adopting Buddhism. Akbar made a sincere attempt to maintain religious harmony.
The boarders of our country changed from time to time. No ruler could ever unite the whole country as one nation because of its intricate religious cultural and linguistic diversity. Neither the great Chandragupta Maurya nor the greater Ashoka with all the mighty military powers could conquer the south Indian kingdoms under the pandya, chola and chera kings. Even after independence it was not an easy task for our great leaders to unite all the tiny kingdoms with fissiparous tendencies, in to one great Nation.
Freedom of religion is a fundamental right guaranteed by Article 15 and Article 25 of the Indian Constitution. Modern India came into existence in 1947 as a secular nation and the Indian constitution’s preamble states that India is a secular state. Every citizen of India has a right to practice and promote their religion peacefully. India is a great nation of nations with more than 120 languages, about 1365 mother tongues , various kinds of people, myriad cultures and religions. Every community has been making significant contributions in building up this great nation. The beauty and greatness of our nation is the harmony of these diversities. Any interference to disrupt this harmony will turn India in to pieces.
Today, unfortunately some religious and political groups seem to show extra enthusiasm for conversion and reconversion with undesirable motives. Imposing anything, especially language or religion by intimidation will have drastic repercussions. Alas! How nice it would be if a Christian tries, to be a better Christian or a Hindu, a better Hindu or a Muslim a better Muslim and so on everybody else.
Sri Narayana Guru, the great social reformer, reiterated that one may follow any religion, but what is important is that it should transform a person in to a better human being. It is high time to put an end to the mad race for the so called conversion and reconversion and the subsequent unpleasant commotion and confusion.
Let there be a conversion in our own hearts which will enable us to transform this world in to one family of peace and harmony . Remember, our motto is, “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”- the world is one family.
(The author is Ex-principal ACDIL)
