What a deluge of plain white lies, whiter than the attire of the robed desparadoes who sell religion in street corners and the countryside with the zeal of a soap salesman. For the Christian missionaries and that community leaders to claim that there is no forced conversion on their part is a sin that they can ill afford to commit unless it is covered under a blanket pardon procured by them in advance. And by repeating that lie they are not only sinning against truth but also against their own religion which ordains them to convert.
So, let?s face it squarely; it is their job, both as a divine command from their lord and a solemn obligation to their ?donors? to convert the heathen — the wayward sheep — into one of their flock. If they fail, even their heavenly lord might pardon them, but not their earthly pay-masters, who are always at hand to grant instant retribution if targets are not met. But of course, they have to put up a facade of righteous indignation for they know quite well that their acts are not only illegal, in the light of a SC judgement, but also immoral by all standards. They needn?t have to wait for a Judgement Day to realise that.
Now one lie at a time. Their prime defence is that conversions are not forced or under duress. Nothing can be farther from truth. The unlettered simpletons of the countryside are invariably subjected to moral intimidation and threats of divine retribution often accompanied by cheap tricks to prove superiority of the true Son of god over their traditional gods. These are common knowledge.
But to quote an instance more telling and poignant, and something which virtually every Tom, Dick and Harry who practices it can vouch for: is it not a fact that whenever a non-Christian and a Christian happen to fall in love, invariably the former is made to embrace the latter?s religion in order to complete, or should I say, solemnise, the marriage? While instances of the Christian becoming a Hindu are unheard of, both treading their own religious paths is a rarity of rarities. Conversion to Christianity is the only way such marriages come to happen.
Now if this is not force, I wonder what is. In fact it is blackmail of the worst form, dangling the threat of rejection before a desperate, lovelorn youth and browbeating him or her, often her, into total submission, thereby ruining their families. When such an youth kneels, he or she brings the entire family and their religion too to knees. But that is of no concern to the very secular, liberal and tolerant Christians. And this happens under the auspices of the Church, whatever its denomination. In fact, it is their pre-condition! To deny this would be a holy lie.
That conversions are not induced by lure, material or otherwise, but by genuine overhaul of conscience is another untruth that is being paraded. Now how does an illiterate kuppan or suppan in a remote hamlet come to know about the very foreign Book or the Cross unless some solicitous characters had updated him? And why do they update him if they do not want to convert him?
Again, are we to believe that such innocent people who cannot even read or write switched religious loyalties on their own volition by a process of logical introspection or the more realistic explanation that they were lured by material gain and spiritual fear, the former a carrot and the latter a stick, but a potent combination all the same? Is it pure coincidence that his economic status sees a slight though not sustained jump after conversion? Lies again!
Also such change of heart does not happen in isolation amidst these depressed classes. They convert in droves, en masse. Is it not funny that so many people, all of one class or community, suddenly undergoing a mass conscience cleaning experience simultaneously, a sort of wholesale heart transplant akin to those familiar blood donation camps?
Probably the consciences are all networked, we do not know, but what we know is the presence of the ubiquitous white-robed gentleman, waiting to collect his ticket to heaven for having swelled the Father?s flock! Well, mass conversions are the truly incontrovertible proof that conversions are engineered by every factor other than the play of conscience. To say otherwise is pure pastoral piffle!
The commonly touted rationale for the mass migration of oppressed souls is the social ostracism they face as Hindus. Another falsehood. There is no proof that those who were lured into Christianity become exalted socialites overnight. If anything, the caste hierarchy is transplanted and followed to the letter in the new order too and with more vigour, with their new god too watching over helplessly.
Marriages are strictly consummated on caste lines even within the larger Christian community and in several churches Dalits continue to be seated separately. In fact there have been protests by many Dalits at being betrayed by the conscience-brokers who had assured them a level playing field, after of course, taking care of their ?conveyance? expenses, to and fro, to the nearest Church. Neither the Cross nor the Crescent has been able to alleviate their lot and conversion if anything has only alienated them from their roots and aggravated their pain.
Discrimination owing to caste, creed and colour is a human failing and not just confined to Hindus. Its larger and more sinister version, racism, is still a world wide phenomenon, because the world is first inhabited by humans, who happen to be Hindus, Christians, Muslims et al. To look beyond such differences requires a change of heart in all humans, not just Hindus. When that happens, it would be a real conversion, that no law can ban. The current crop of conversions are just religious frauds perpetrated on an oppressed people, making them jump from the frying pan to the fire itself.
The Christian leaders? claim that the only source of succour or relief available to the Dalits has now been taken away is a blatant lie and in fact is a self-admission of inducement, a real-time display of their insidious propoganda warranting them to be booked right away. For, how can they say that only their religion offers succour to the Dailits and thus lure them with such promises of a better and more egalitarian way of life, particularly when there is nothing to substantiate the same and actually the facts prove the contrary? This lie falls very much within the realms of the present law and probably would be a good beginning for its implementation. This could also give the lie to those pessimists who are apprehensive about its implementation.
And last but not the least is the lie that the only purpose of missionary activity is social service and not conversion. Why then have all of them, ranging from the Archbishop to the roadside pastor, promised to stop forthwith all educational and social activities that they have been engaged in? The new law banishes only forcible conversions and not voluntary service? Why should they take offence if their hearts are as white as their exterior? Ah, what a give away, really the Father of all Confessions! You see, Truth has this strange habit of surfacing, despite holy camouflages. So, the cat is out. No social service or educational service, if there is no scope for conversion. That?s it. An there goes another lie, the longest surviving lie.
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