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Religious Conversion a Trend and Threat

In Columns
December 07, 2017

By Amina Asharaf

On Saturday, 2nd December 2017, a group of young supporters and well-wishers were gathered for a cause set against the tranquil and blissful premises of Maharaja’s College Ernakulam. The day chosen was free of the normal hustle and bustle on a usual week day. The group was assembled for a cause – a noble one for the couple (Amarnath and Safna), the culmination of their 5 year-long relationship overcoming the difficulties they had to cope up with.
“The act of tying the nuptial knot is the blending of two individuals, their cultures and perspectives; we had already decided that the right venue for this union will be the premises of Maharaja’s College” – said Amarnath and Safna when asked about their surprising marriage ceremony that happened recently. In a country as diverse as India, inter-caste and inter-religious weddings often spark outrage. Here, this inter- faith marriage with the support of their loved ones is gaining lots of well wishes from the netizens on the other hand when a section of people criticised Hadiya aka Akhila over the alleged love hijad case in the state.
The wedding became quite a unique affair because of the venue they picked up for their big day. The wedding hosted, was of Chottanikara-native Amarnath (23) and Safna (22), who hails from Fort Kochi. Kith and kin of the couple graced the auspicious occasion with the permission of the college authorities.
The ceremony was held at 8:30 am in front of the Malayalam department of the institution, where the duo met, studied and fell in love five years ago. To share the happiness of the couple a simple reception awaited the teachers and guests in the evening. Though the groom- the arts club secretary of the college union in 2012, wished to have a very simple marriage without any rituals, it was Safna, who wanted a ‘thaalikettu’ ceremony for the marriage. The whole function shows the element of communal harmony that exists in the minds of the people which is still untouched by the communal violators.
India has an element of atheism within it. The nation is greatly influenced by its culture and traditions which are the outcomes of religious propagations in the nation. Indians have great respect for religion and they do almost everything in the name of god and religion. The most remarkable religious trend visible in India today is the drift of millions of ‘untouchables’ away from Hinduism. The reason to what many of them are moving is not yet very plain. The Harijans (named by Mahatma Gandhi, meaning “people of the god”) and the “depressed classes” with their disabilities and degenerate state are well known all around. The pitiable conditions of India’s depressed classes have been a lesion of this country for centuries.
It is frequently observed that the voting minds of the people are also based on the religion they practise. They are divided by their own choice into communal political parties, for the election campaign. But the word ‘communal’ has come to mean in India as religious communities or groups. Communal voting means voting according to religious affiliations. Though there are political parties in name, such as the Congress party and the Liberal party, yet it is evident that the Hindu, Muslim and Christian groups will stand out distinctly in the various legislatures as religio-political parties.
India has never had the degree of political freedom. The nation has certain laws according to the notions of every religion but the cases of conversion continue to play havoc. The recent uproar in parliament regarding the conversion brings back memories, which are discomforting. The fundamental approach towards understanding the trend of religious conversion is to assume that the truth has its grey areas.
Kerala has recently witnessed a couple of cases; conversions of young Hindu women adopting Islam against the wishes of their parents that have snowballed into major controversies in Kerala. In both cases, the women told the Kerala High Court that they chose Islam of their own free will, but the court gave credence to fears that the onversions were carried out under the influence of radical Muslim organisations.
In the case of Akhila Ashokan, a 24-year- old medical student from Kottayam district who converted to Islam and changed her name to Hadiya was confined to her parents’ home and annulled her marriage in May 2017 by the High Court. The Supreme Court in August asked the National Investigation Agency to inquire into the possibility of a
terror conspiracy.
The High Court was more restrained in the case of Athira, a 23-year- old computer science graduate from Kasargod district. In an order passed on July 31, it asked the police to “ensure that no influence shall be exerted on her by any radical groups which are involved in anti-national activities or forceful conversion of religions”.
Compared to other states, Kerala does not have anti-conversion laws. But over the last decade, a rise in religious tensions and the emergence of hard-line political organisations among both Muslim and Hindu communities have turned conversions into flashpoints.
Even though there is no credible evidence to support the suggestion that Muslim groups are forcing others to convert to Islam, no political party has come forward to challenge this notion. Even the courts have shown a willingness to accept the narrative.
When Athira moved out of her parents’ home in Uduma village on July 10, she left a letter for her parents saying that she wanted to follow Islam. But her parents registered a complaint in the local police station, saying they feared their daughter would be abducted.
They also filed a petition in the High Court. On July 31, Athira appeared in the High Court. She told the judges, she had embraced Islam by her own will. She said she was willing to go back to live with her parents provided they allowed her to practice her new religion. The parents agreed to the condition.
But, a month and a half later, Athira had not returned to Uduma. Then her family shifted her to a reconversion centre in Ernakulum district to bring her back to Hinduism and this was easy as she was not officially converted to Islam.
On September 21, a selected group of journalists in Ernakulam was allowed to meet Athira. “I am returning to Hinduism,” she announced.
In an interview to Times Now, Athira explained that she was attracted to Islam while studying computer science in college since most of her friends were Muslim. “They told me that Hindus worship stones. They even asked me how stones could protect people,” she said.
Athira said she listened to the speeches of many Islamic scholars, including Zakir Naik. “All of them spoke about Hinduism based on unauthentic Puranas. They exhorted Islam is the only true religion and I began to believe in the supremacy of Islam.”
Athira clarified that she was not in touch with any Muslim organisations before she left home. “Their involvement happened after that,” she said. A relative of one of her friends was a member of the Popular Front of India, a typical Islamic organisation. “They offered to help me after they read the letter I wrote before I left home.” Athira said her views on religion changed during the time she spent at the Hindu reconversion centre, Aarsha Vidya Samjam, in
Ernakulam.
While some other states have controversial laws restricting religious conversions on grounds of fraud and allurement, Kerala does not. The state, in fact, officially recognises institutions that can conduct religious conversion ceremonies and issue certificates to the new converts. These certificates can be used to change the convert’s names in the official gazette.
Where all the Christian churches can issue such certificates, in the case of conversions to Hinduism, five organisations were given official recognition in 1987. In 2004, official recognition was extended to two Muslim organisations.
But newer religious outfits have been more controversial. Hadiya often went to an organisation in Malappuram district for religious education. This was is run by the Popular Front of India, which was formed in 2006. Some of its founding members are reported to have been part of the Students Islamic Movement of India, an organisation that has been banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The Popular Front of India attracted national attention after some of its cadres allegedly chopped the hands of a professor as a revenge for setting an examination paper that contained a question that they claimed was an insult to Prophet Muhammad. Leaders of Popular Front of India have denied that any of its members had been involved in the incident.
Recent years have also seen the emergence of Hindutva groups that seek reconversions to counter conversions to Islam. The Hindu Helpline is a telephone assistance service that aims to help Hindus combat “love jihad” – a term popularised by Hindutva organisations that allege a large-scale conspiracy by Muslim men to seduce Hindu
women in order to convert them to Islam. Hindu Help Desk was formed even more recently in 2010. It stated that its main purpose was to offer legal assistance to the families of alleged love jihad victims. There is a fall in the state’s Hindu population to “Muslim youngsters feigning love and luring Hindu girls to their religion”. The share of Hindus in the state’s population declined from 56.2% in 2001 to 54.7% in 2011, while Muslim population rose by 24.7% to 26.6%.
But this mirrors the long-term trend across India which experts say reflects higher fertility and greater life expectancy among Muslims. For Hindutva organisations, however, this is evidence of a conspiracy. The ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) has so far maintained a silence on both the cases. But in 2010, party leader and former chief minister VS Achutanandan had accused the Popular Front of India of using “money and marriages” to convert non-Muslims with the aim of the Islamisation of Kerala.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said it was scrutinising over 30 cases in Kerala where Hindu women were allegedly forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men. NIA asked the Kerala police for details of forced conversions at Therbiyathul Islam Sabha in Kozhikode, a religious centre authorised by the Kerala government.
In both the cases of alleged forced conversions, the NIA named a woman named Sainaba, an activist of the Social Democratic Party of India, the political arm of the Popular Front of India (PFI). An NIA official said it had sent details of four terror cases where members of PFI were involved and the Centre was considering a ban on the outfit.
However, a senior Home Ministry official said there was no such proposal to immediately ban the outfit.
Another NIA official said the State police sent the details of 92 cases but in the initial phase, the agency was concentrating only on 32 cases, which involved only Hindu women. According to the New Religious Projections data, in the coming decades, India will have the distinction of having the largest populations of two of the three largest religions in the world – Islam and Hinduism. India is already home to most of the world’s Hindus.
In 2010, 94% of the world’s Hindus lived in India, and this is expected to remain true in 2050, when 1.3 billion Hindus are projected to live in the country.
But India is also expected to have 311 million Muslims in 2050 (11% of the global total), making the country with the largest population of Muslims in the world. Currently, Indonesia has the world’s largest number of Muslims.
Muslims are expected to grow faster than Hindus because they have the youngest median age and the highest fertility rates among major religious groups in India. In 2010, the median age of Indian Muslims was 22, compared with 26 for Hindus and 28 for Christians. Likewise, Muslim women have an average of 3.2 children per woman, compared with 2.5 for Hindus and 2.3 for Christians. This population subject leads to the conversion campaign.
As a result of these futuristic predictions, the conversion has increasingly emerged as a trend and a factor for existence in this nation now. This fast spreading trend can be the reason behind the next communal riot- the nation always feared. In much contemporary, legal and governmental language about conversion in India, the right to convert others is curtailed, and the right to convert one is the subject of indifference. In future, this may even stand as a major threat to the nation. Though, the feeling of communal harmony and affection still lurks at the bottom of the hearts of the people that followed us through our ancestors to be carried out to posterity.