Curb on personal freedom
By Anita Joshua.That the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Ordinance has precedents in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh is poor consolation. After all, the anti-conversion laws of these two States pre-date the climate of hatred and suspicion towards the minorities that is being systematically whipped up in the country by the saffron brigade.
So, while the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) vice-president, Vincent Concessao, has no quarrel with an ordinance that seeks to prevent conversion by force or fraud/inducement, his fear is that it could lend itself to abuse in an environment that is hostile to minorities.
"The Ordinance looks innocuous, but the problem lies in its implementation. Will the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa's `Annadanam' (free lunch) programme in temples be seen as inducement or for that matter the `langar' offered in gurudwaras? In the hands of vested interests, the services rendered by the Church in the area of education and health could also be seen as inducement," says Archbishop Concessao adding that the Catholic Church was itself against conversion by force or fraud/inducement.
The position of the Catholic Church on conversions has been clearly defined in the documents of the Second Vatican Council according to which: "In spreading religious faith, everyone ought, at all times, to refrain from any manner of action which might seem to carry a hint of coercion or a kind of persuasion that would be dishonourable or unworthy, especially when dealing with the poor or uneducated people. Such a manner of action would have to be considered an abuse of one's own right and a violation of the right of others." (CF. Declaration on Religious Freedom: No. 4. Vatican: 1965.)
Such being the case, the Catholic Church has been cautious in its response to the Ordinance despite its apprehensions. So also most of the other organised denominations. If there has been a sharp response, it has been from organisations representing the laity such as the All-India Christian Council which is planning to challenge the Ordinance in court. Though the CBCI vice-president questioned the urgency with which the Ordinance was promulgated — given the fact that the Tamil Nadu Assembly was to meet within three weeks of its promulgation — he said the Catholic Church would formulate its response only after studying it in detail.
While the CBCI is yet to come out with an official statement save, of course, the call for a day's protest by the president of the Tamil Nadu Catholic Bishops Council, Arul Das James, the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) has urged the Tamil Nadu Government to repeal the Ordinance. Registering its strong protest against the Ordinance, the NCCI said it was more of a politically motivated measure than a "reasoned response against any given situation or trend".
"If the recent Madurai conversions sent alarm bells ringing in the Government loud enough for it to respond, it was a false alarm because there has been no trend of mass conversions recently. The Ordinance is not warranted by the social and religious conditions in the State. Not only will it create difficulties for the churches in Tamil Nadu and religious NGOs working for social and economic justice, it will also create mistrust among religious communities. In its interpretation, it has the potential of contravening Constitutional rights and safeguards of conversion," the NCCI president, Geevarghese Mar Coorilos, said in a statement.
Lending credence to the fears that the Ordinance was politically motivated was the chorus of approval and demand for a national law from the Sangh Parivar which has been charging Christian missionaries with indulging in large-scale conversions though statistics present an entirely different picture. The number of Christians in the country has been on a steady decline. From 2.8 per cent of the population in 1961, the 2001 Census — conducted under the BJP-led NDA regime — put it at 2.18 per cent.
This, in a country which has a denomination that is as old as Christianity itself. As one missionary, while conceding that some modern-day evangelical groups were bringing a bad name to the religion in India, put it, "if Christians were only interested in conversions, why is it that the Syrian Christian community, which was founded in 52 A.D. by St. Thomas himself, is confined only to Kerala 2,000 years hence?"
Another missionary teaching in one of the Capital's Catholic schools sees it this way: "If Christian institutions were only meant to convert, then our numbers should have multiplied by now as the vast majority of students studying in our schools are not Christians."
Thus, the real issue, in the opinion of the spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Delhi, Dominic Emmanuel, "is not conversion, but that missionaries by educating the poorer sections of society, are empowering them". "The poor are becoming conscious of centuries of exploitation, and have begun demanding their rights; challenging the stranglehold of an exploitative social order. The missionaries who act as social catalysts are, therefore, immediately associated with the evil of conspiracy of Christianity."
Even as the Ordinance has once again stirred fears within the Church hierarchy, missionaries concede that there have not been many cases of abuse of the law in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. But, says Fr. Dominic, it is not a question of whether or not the law has been abused.
"The State is putting a check on an individual's right to personal freedom enshrined in Article 25 of the Constitution which grants freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion to every Indian citizen. Also, Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — to which India is a signatory — states that everyone has the right to change his/her religion."
When the Constitution and the Universal Declaration provide this basic freedom to the people of a land, should then a local bureaucrat be made the conscience-keeper. For now, given the clout that Ms. Jayalalithaa wields in Tamil Nadu today, this could well be a cross that the missionaries in the State will have to bear. But, the greater fear is that though Governments might change hands, laws remain to be used and abused.