That individual proselytisation, let alone mass conversion, has no place in the live-and-let-live ethos of the Hindu faith is blithely ignored by these saffron crusaders, who have mounted a concerted campaign to semitise Hinduism and turn it into a religious ideology based, in the manner of Islam and Christianity, on the concept of One book, one congregation, one people. Some 3000 Muslims were massacred. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines. Religious police in (for example) Iran and Saudi Arabia answer for the correct religious expression of those in their purview. Thus, all who come into one of the Latter Day Saint faiths as converts are baptized, even if they have previously received baptism in another faith. During the election campaign, an age-old discussion over caste discrimination has been rekindled by the threat of losing Dalits to another faith, and that too a public commitment to renouncing Hinduism. Returns? In order to equate Hinduism to a culture, we need to define the culture. Now we are on Telegram too. 29 January 2015. [42][43], In recent decades, mainstream Hinduism schools have attempted to systematize ways to accept religious converts, with an increase in inter-religious mixed marriages. The views expressed in comments published on newindianexpress.com are those of the comment writers alone. "India parliament uproar over conversions by Hindu groups". In terms of spiritual practices, there are many you can try and see what works for you such as r/Introspection, r/yoga, r/meditation or r/bhajan. Hinduism is often described as a way of life. In cases of mass conversion of Muslims to Hinduism, the central thrust has been on their de-Islamisation rather than on their accepting the Hindu religion. Indians look up to the judiciary to uphold the secular values of the republic, and the Supreme Court has, time and again, thwarted onslaughts on peoples core fundamental right of religious freedom. The Christian minority is significantly smaller. AAP Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam's video, in which he is seen at an event where mass conversion of Hindus took place, has gone viral. 241 of the 506 people who reported their change of religion with the government were Christians or Muslims who converted to Hinduism. Mass Conversion to Hinduism In India By Faheem Belharvi Bajrang Dal, an offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) converted at least 57 Muslim families (200 people) into Hindus at a "Purkhon ki Ghar vapsi" coming home of the ancestors ceremony held at Agra, Uttar Pardesh. "Evangelization." Saurav Datta teaches media law and jurisprudence in Mumbai and Pune. Khusro then a. All rights reserved. [60] It has also used the celebrity status of some of its members (most notably that of the American actor Tom Cruise) to attract converts. Despite officially being a secular nation, organizations allied with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are actively promoting mass conversions to Hinduism. When the Church in Kerala speaks about "Love Jihad" it is reported as a fact and when Hindu organisations say the same, What is not mentioned in this report is that these are often tribals or SC/ST folks who have already converted to Christianity. Sixty years ago BR Ambedkar, the first untouchable to hold high office in India and the man who wrote India's constitution, renounced Hinduism as a creed in the grip of casteism and converted - with more than 100,000 of his followers - to Buddhism. A team of Buddhist monks from across the country is being formed to lead the mission, with an all-India "mega event" set to take . ), Yayasan Obor Indonesia. Amen. One does not need to ask any authorities for admission. [citation needed], Greece has a long history of conflict, mostly with Jehovah's Witnesses, but also with some Pentecostals, over its laws on proselytism. What is God? The worry is that some kind of coercion is involved. Different factors and circumstances may operate and interact to persuade individuals of groups to convert and adopt a new set of religious doctrines and habits. In what way where the majority Hindus oppressed? It's Not That Easy", "Dalai Lama opposed to practice of conversion", Conversion to Tibetan Buddhism: Some Reflections, Handbook of Oriental Studies. "We want to be equal to upper castes. Chico Xavier wrote over 490 additional books, which expand on the spiritualist doctrine. The mass ceremony was the latest in what is a growing number of such conversions to Pakistan's majority Muslim faith in recent years although precise data is scarce. When performing a Baptism, Latter Day Saints say the following prayer before performing the ordinance: Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. A former associate editor with the Times of India, Jug Suraiya writes two regular columns for the print edition, Jugular Vein, which appears every Friday, and Second Opinion, which appears on Wednesdays. Going way beyond, they endow the government with surveillance powers over a constituency of people. Interested in blogging for timesofindia.com? Evangelization sharing the Gospel message or "Good News" in deed and word, is an expectation of Christians.[8]. These mass conversion movements, and resulting narratives questioning converts' sincerity and agency, set the stage for three central challenges undermining the human right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion in India today: Legislation limiting "forcible" and "induced" conversions In most countries conversion is a simple matter of filling out a card stating a declaration of belief. Changing religion makes us visible," says Chanrabhan Prasad, a dalit writer. It attracted the highest number of persons from Ezhava, Thiyya and Nair communities. [63], Research in the United States and in the Netherlands has shown a positive correlation between areas lacking mainstream churches and the percentage of people who are members of a new religious movement. He ran away after being tied up with his mother and clubbed for a night by an upper caste neighbour for allowing his goat to wander. Based on the declaration the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) drafted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a legally binding treaty. Before becoming prime minister, Modi was previously denied a US visa following accusations that he stood by during, or even encouraged, sectarian violence in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, when he was chief minister. Not so for the small community of Christians in Agra, a town in the northern Indian province of Uttar Pradesh. This felt need to stiffen the sinews of Hinduism and reformulate it as an all-pervasive national culture lies behind the proposal to make the Bhagwad Gita Indias national book, in much the same way as the Bible and the Quran are for Christian and Islamic countries. Newer Than: Search this thread only; Search this forum only. All Indian religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainsim and Sikhism, are collective called "Sanatan Dharma" and "Dhamma", and all others are called mleccha. I ran away to the city. Retrieved 11 July 2021. This page was last edited on 21 January 2023, at 07:01. Active proselytisation was an integral part of the colonial project; indeed, as historian Ranajit Guha states, the Bible and the toothbrush were one of the main instruments of the British colonialists. Officials say an inquiry has been launched into Wednesdays event. It has been distributing pamphlets in and around Aligarh seeking donations from the public to help fund a reconversion ghar wapsi (homecoming) ceremony that the saffron outfit is planning to hold on Christmas Day and during which it will seek to bring Muslims and Christians back into the Hindu fold from which they have allegedly strayed. Mate. the biggest gainer has been Islam. For forced conversion, see. The move has been decried not only by secularists who argue that the only book which could have national status is the Constitution but also by those who subscribe to the view that Hinduism has always been an eclectic agglomeration of smaller traditions rather than a monolithic structure that can be represented by a single text, no matter how seminal it might claim to be. newindianexpress.com reserves the right to take any or all comments down at any time. These laws are invoked and enforced only when a group of people, not individuals, seek to move out of Hinduism. A Jehovah's Witness, Minos Kokkinakis, won the equivalent of $14,400 in damages from the Greek state after being arrested for trying to preach his faith from door to door. 72% of the new converts to Hinduism were Dalit Christians, mostly Christian Cheramars, Christian Sambavas and Christian Pulayas. These are returns not conversions. The Inquisition in France and in Iberia worked to convert heretics with varying success. [37], Jainism accepts anyone who wants to embrace the religion. Perhaps not. Mass conversions of areas and communities to Buddhism occur up to the present day, for example, in the Dalit Buddhist movement in India there have been organized mass conversions . "Look we make up 150m people of India. In that case, the judges could remedy the errors of 1977 by seeking inspiration from the European Court of Human Rights 1993 ruling in the Kokkinakis case, which struck the right balance between keeping out improper proselytism and Christians right to practise, profess, and propagate their faith. [13] The theology thus rejects infant baptism. Baptism is traditionally seen as a sacrament of admission to Christianity. So all tribals and SCs converted to Christians here. Freshly-converted Irish and Anglo-Saxon priests spread their new-found faith among pagan British and Germanic peoples. In recent years, anecdotal evidence suggests there have been conversions to Hinduism because of two factors. Last week the hardline group Vishnu Hindu Parishad (VHP) claimed to have reconverted more than 20 Christians in the southern state of Kerala. The most recent forced mass conversion the I know of was in 1895-1896, when Afghan Emir Abdur Rahman invaded Kafiristan and forcibly Islamized its pagan inhabitants. 17 persons including 12 females were from the Nair community. ", Learn how and when to remove this template message, International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Forced conversion of minority girls in Pakistan, Safavid conversion of Iran from Sunnism to Shiism, https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c2a4.htm, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Monergism, https://archive.today/20220314005237/https://www.whatdomormonsbelieve.com/15/09/2010/the-original-sin/, "Guide to the Scriptures: Baptism, Baptize: Proper authority", "Abraham's Test: Islamic Male Circumcision as Anti/Ante-Covenantal Practice", Symposium Series (Society of Biblical Literature), "Islamic Law and the Issue of Male and Female Circumcision", "So You Want to Convert to Judaism? 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