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Conversion/Reconversion: Is The civil Society In Kerala Poised To Become A ‘Testing Lab’?

By K.M.Seethi

26 December, 2014
Countercurrents.org

‘Ghar Vapsi in Kerala for the first time,’ announces the VHP banner at a ‘reconversion’ function at
Chengannur in Alappuzha district in Kerala Photo Courtesy : The Hindu

Conversions/reconversions have grabbed headlines in India and they have become even more sensitive in the south Indian state of Kerala, the only province that remained unmoved during the Modi wave. Conversionreconversion question obviously put pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose party, BJP, claimed that it would not be in the making of the issue. Parliament witnessed opposition charges during the last two weeks in December 2014 demanding that the Government should come out with a specific statement on the issue. The BJP President Amit Shah, however, said that his party was against any forceful conversions adding that the BJP would be supportive of bringing in an anti-conversion law.

Even as the BJP does not come out with a specific political agenda of the issue, its affiliates in the civil society have been very active in making capital out of it. They claimed that Christians and Muslims had converted Hindus ‘by force’ over centuries and that they have, for years, silently sought “to win them back.” During the second half of 2014, in the post-Modi wave, the Sangh Parivar outfits have organized mass reconversion camps that included some who were allegedly lured or intimidated into changing faiths. In Agra, nearly 200 Muslims were reported to have been converted en masse to Hinduism by an offshoot of the powerful Sangh Parivar. It had also announced plans to convert thousands of Christians to Hinduism on Christmas Day. But much before Christmas, the state of Kerala witnessed sporadic conversions in some districts and on the day itself dozens of people were reported to have converted to Hinduism, that too in State chief minister’s home district Kottayam, just a day after he claimed that there was no forced conversion in the state. The State Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) office bearers said that what has been happening was not conversion, but ‘re-conversion.’

Conversion/reconversion issue had rocked the country even in the days of nationalist struggle, way back in the 1920s. But its importance today is to be viewed in the broader context of the struggle to capture civil society through creating security/insecurity complexes. It obviously has potential to polarize society and thereby the value of the emerging ‘religious capital’ is immense from the point of view of ‘opening a new account.’ Kerala appears to be a ‘natural’ candidate for this experiment.

The role of civil society in consolidating democratic ‘assets’ is indisputable. Equally important is its role in dismantling the democratic ‘assets.’ Political forces, having long-term or short-term targets, might use it for the same purposes. Some scholars say that ‘civil society gridlock’ has the potential to ruin democratic state institutions, by eroding them through an array of contending claims. In a study on the role of civil society in Weimar Germany, Sheri Berman made an argument that Germany’s extraordinarily fertile associational life in the 1920s and 30s destabilized state institutions and strengthened a move of public loyalty from the state to the Nazi Party. Much the same way, Rwanda, which had one of the most active civil societies in Africa, witnessed the worst ethnic genocide in its history later. So it is important to watch closely what is happening in the civil society, how and at whose behest it is happening. The potential of civil society organizations to distort democratic outcomes needs to be understood here.

A News report of Hindu Aikya Vedi Kerala unit President's visit to the re-converts

Historically the role of civil society has been distinctly different in a state like Kerala. It has always been with institutions and organizations of ‘social power’ which, over years, exercised considerable amount of bargaining power in the political spectrum of both the left and right. Apparently, this realm of ‘social power’ is experiencing serious cracks within, of late, largely as a fall-out of what has been happening at the national level. Even the local bourgeoisie is well aware of the fact that their economic interest can no longer be local-centric and, hence, it is in search of new sites of negotiations. Fall of rubber prices, proliferation of single brand retails, fear of the entry of multi-brands in the retail sector, the shrinking job opportunities in Kerala, the emergence of mall culture… the list is much longer. Social tensions are likely to accumulate, social divisions are poised to sharpen and political inertia is certain to persist.

So it is less important just to ‘hear’ about the emerging scenario of conversion/reconversion, which even happened before. But its long term strategic implications carry considerable importance even as the discussions around the issue get widespread attention across the state and even beyond. The more one discusses the issue in public, the worst its implications would be. The social-psychological atmosphere it sets in motion tends to widen social (communal) divisions and that is what its protagonists want it to happen. It is increasingly feared that the space the issue currently occupies in the media and new media has potential to ruin the social solidarity though the discussants on both sides of the spectrum might enjoy spending time on the issue. In the process, they too unwittingly become a part of the social process of self-division and thereby self-destruction. The ultimate question is whether the experiment in Kerala is going to make fundamental changes in the DNA of its civil society!

The author is Director, School of International Relations and Politics, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala.

 

 





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