By M.K.George

Rome, Dec 14, 2021: K P Sasi, to the best of my knowledge, is not a believer in any religion. At best, he is a communist and a humanist. However, he has been in the forefront fighting for justice for Kandhamal Christians.

Recently he sent me an e-mail: “This issue of Anti-Conversion Law needs some immediate attention in Karnataka, before the Bill is tabled during the next session of the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka. I believe that this Bishop (Rev. Peter Machado, Archbishop of Bangalore) needs wider support…An Interview with the Archbishop who is leading the dissent against the proposed Anti-Conversion Law in Karnataka. (https://countercurrents.org/2021/12/karnataka-anti-conversion-law-is-meant-for-persecution/)”

Yes, Archbishop Machado should be getting not only the support of Christian leadership, Christians and believers in any genuine religion or for that matter even those who respect our Constitution. The archbishop is leading a fight against rightwing fundamentalism in its most vicious form. The law, if passed in one more state, especially so in an ‘enlightened’ state like Karnataka, we are going to witness another betrayal of the Indian citizen and a fall of Indian nation further into the hands of Hindutva brigands.

The archbishop said, “Since January, there have been 32 attacks reported on churches in Belagavi, Hubballi, Belur and other areas, with five or six serious cases in the past few weeks…If this can happen without the legislation, imagine what will happen after the legislation is passed… the law will only embolden the attacks.’

Inducement is the alleged reason

The Chief Minister of Karnataka has reportedly said, “The bill is only to prevent religious conversions by inducement”. Now, it is no secret that many of us have not studied the already passed anti-conversion laws in the various states of India. In a recent webinar, one of the advocate speakers gave the example of the S.2 (a) of the UP prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 which says, ‘allurement means any gift, gratification, easy money or material benefit either in cash or kind; employment, free education in reputed school run by any religious body; or better lifestyle, divine displeasure or otherwise…’

Now read this description of allurement or inducement and one can see the danger implicit in such a law. If free education and employment in a reputed school is going to be interpreted as an inducement, then what is going to happen is no poor can get good education. The poor are destined to labor for the upper caste and the corporates.

Anyone who knows the Christian schools will be aware that a minimum of 25 percent of the students even in the richest schools would be the economically poor. I wish those beneficiaries had spoken up. Or, at least the general public has the wisdom to realize that if such a number of poor had been converted over the hundreds of years Christian schools have been around, the percentage of Christians in India would not have gone down from 2.4 percent to 2 percent.

Why the silence?

There is the silence of Christian leaders. Then of course the silence of believers. And, most tragically, the silence of those educated, thinking citizens of India. Why would everybody refuse to see hard-core data and everyday experiences?

The answer seems to be only two: The widespread fear among people to speak up truth and the confusion created by the social media gang of the Hindu rightwing forces in India. Think of the number of intellectuals and activists in the jails of India or those facing false charges against them. We understand that in a climate of fear and suspicion everyone becomes afraid and silent.

History will judge us

More than ever Pastor Neumuller’s poem, ‘When the Communists came’, has become relevant. If we do not speak up, it will be too late to speak up. Why are the Christian leaders and believers getting lost in issues, which are much less urgent and important? It is as if they are fighting over some ants biting, when an elephant is in the room ready to attack.

Would the Christian leaders, Christians, Believers in any genuine religion and intellectuals speak up? The issues are deeper than what they are made out to be. What is at stake in India is the very identity and character of the Constitution and the country.