(This article is a longer version of one that appeared in DNA, 17 December, titled ‘Tactic of Intimidation’)

The BJP MP Adityanath has said that the Babri Masjid demolition was a show of Hindu unity, and a similar show of unity is needed to ensure the ‘Gharwapsi’ (return home) of all Christians, Muslims and other minorities in India. This statement – by a ruling party MP– brutally exposes the ‘Gharwapsi’ project as one of communal violence, not ‘conversion’. This statement brazenly celebrates the Babri Masjid demolition (officially condemned by the BJP leadership so as to avoiud criminal prosecution). And by comparing it with the Babri Masjid demolition, Adityanath makes it clear that ‘Gharwapsi’ is no benign invitation to embrace Hinduism – it is intended to demolish the dignified existence and rights of religious minorities in India.

Other statements by BJP and RSS leaders also prove the violent intention of the Gharwapsi (reconversion) project. The head of the Dharm Jagaran Manch, the RSS outfit that declared its intention to conduct Gharwapsi of Christians on Christmas Day, declared that “By 2021, we will finish Islam and Christianity, and India will be a Hindu Rashtra.” The RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said that India is already a Hindu Rashtra; Gharwapsi, Bhagwat said is merely taking back stolen property: ‘My maal (property) is with a thief, I am taking it back.’ It is revealing that the RSS looks upon people as cattle, as property, rather than as individuals who can choose their religion or identity freely.

In the case of women, the RSS is even more blatant in its assumption that women are property. That is why they have no problem if women convert their names and homes when they marry – they object only if a woman chooses to convert her religion to marry! This is because they see women as property of the community – ‘maal’ to be snatched back and locked up.

The HRD Minister Smriti Irani also revealed her Ministry’s violence towards minority faiths, by issuing a circular that December 25 –Christmas Day – would be observed in schools as ‘Good Governance Day’ to mark the birthdays of BJP leader and former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Hindu Mahasabha leader Madan Mohan Malviya. This implied that Christmas Day would not be a holiday!

The very premise of the term ‘Gharwapsi’ is unconstitutional and communal. With ‘Gharwapsi’, the VHP blessed by the ruling BJP, is putting into practice the ‘Ramzada’ principle articulated by Modi Minister Niranjan Jyoti. Niranjan Jyoti said that Muslims and Christians in India must accept Hindu origins and identity as ‘sons of Ram’ to prove that they accept India. Behind this statement is the pet dream of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha – that India be turned into a Hindu nation, where non-Hindus will be treated as ‘foreigners’ and denied citizenship.

‘Gharwapsi’ implies exactly the same thing: that Islam and Christianity are ‘foreign’ to India; that Hinduism is the ‘home faith’ of all Indian Muslims and Christians who must now ‘return home’ to the Hindu faith! The fallacy of this proposition is further exposed by the fact that the RSS outfits conduct ‘Gharwapsi’ of the adivasis – who were animists, never Hindus.

Modi himself has endorsed and promoted this communal idea. During the Lok Sabha campaign, in an interview to a TV channel, said that anti-conversion law in Gujarat applies to those who seek to convert Hindus to Islam or Christianity - ‘Gharwapsi’ is not conversion, he said, since it is a ‘return’ to the ‘home’ faith.

The ‘Gharwapsi’ campaign is not just violent in theory; it has been violent in practice too. In Agra, poor migrant Muslims were told that they would get Below Poverty Line (BPL) ration cards only if they converted to Hinduism. The same happened in villages in Bastar in October this year also, where elected panchayats with BJP leaders passed edicts banning non-Hindu religious practices, and prohibiting BPL rations for Christian adivasis, in order to pressurize them to agree to ‘Gharwapsi.’ How can BPL rations – an entitlement provided by the Government to the poor citizens – be restricted to those willingto pledge allegiance to the majority faith?

Moreover, in Agra, a menacing threat was used to get the Muslims to participate in the ‘Gharwapsi’ programme. The poor Muslims are mostly Bengali-speaking migrants – a community that has been at the receiving end of campaigns by the VHP and even by Modi himself, branding them as ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’. This fear was used to terrorize the Bengali-speaking Muslim migrants in Agra to participate in the ‘Gharwapsi’ ceremony. The choices before them were clear: either be branded as Bangladeshi infiltrators and hounded out, or accept Hindu identity in order to qualify for the entitlements of food rations and housing!

Significantly, Adityanath felt the need to clarify that those who had ‘returned home’ would be allotted the caste status of their ancestors! By doing so, he revealed the inconvenient truth, that caste status is crucial to the structure of Hindu society. The insidious, discriminatory hierarchy of caste cannot be shed completely even when one exits the Hindu faith. And if you ‘return’, you’ll be slotted back into your ‘original’ position in the caste hierarchy. Ironically, Adityanath’s words about caste also inadvertently indicate that the Sangh’s propaganda about conversions to Islam or Christianity having taken place ‘at the point of the sword’ is a lie. In fact, those from the oppressed castes converted to Islam, Christianity and Buddhism and so on in a bid to escape the stranglehold of caste. It is another matter that caste (that is inextricably interwoven with class in India) has persisted in most religions in India.

Confronted with the facts about the intimidation and fraud used in the Gharwapsi episode in Agra, the BJP has responded by mooting an anti-conversion law. BJP and Sangh supporters have responded to condemnation of the Gharwapsi campaign by asking why conversions to Christianity or Islam are not similarly condemned. This question itself is fallaciously framed. In fact, conversions of various kinds – to one or the other Hindu sect or to other faiths – take place in India without any incident.

Persuading someone to convert to one’s faith, propagating one’s faith, or choosing to change one’s faith, is a democratic right, enshrined in the fundamental rights of Indian citizens. The reasons for why a person converts from Hinduism to Christianity or Islam or Sikhism; or why a person switches their allegiance from a regular temple or gurudwara to a ‘dera’ or a ‘baba’ are complex. The reasons range from the promise of spiritual solace, social equality and dignity, to the more mundane, material benefits such as free food, healthcare or education, to a political choice.

The anti-conversion laws in Gujarat and other states promote ‘Gharwapsi’ while criminalizing the work of Christian missionaries, who are rendered forever suspect of offering ‘inducements’ or ‘lures’ to convert.Are the schools or healthcare services offered by Christian institutions to the destitute, a ‘lure’ to convert? How are they different from the Deras in Punjab offering free de-addiction services to the poor Dalit labourers; or Gurudwaras, temples andmosques offering free meals; or the Sai Baba running hospitals?

A (Hindu) acquaintance was offended when approached by evangelical Christians preaching that the Jesus would help him weather a tough phase in his life. I asked him if he would feel similarly offended if a Hindu priest were to have promised him relief from his worries if he were to perform a puja? Do the Satyanarayanakathas involve a series of tales warning people of dire consequences if they refuse to perform the katha? Are these not instances of fear and fraud being used to make people perform certain religious rituals? Why is there outrage only when those of another faith preach their faith? It is amply clear that all faiths, including the Hindu faiths, offer services and promises alike, to draw people closer to their particular faith. Criminalizing conversion to a minority faith – as the anti-conversion laws do – do violence to the fundamental right of every person to choose orchangereligion for any reason of their choice.

The idea that the faith one if born into is somehow one’s authentic, chosen identity, while ‘conversion’ is ‘forced’, is a strange one. In fact, one does not choose the religion one is born into. As an adult, one’s faith, like one’s politics or one’s other beliefs, is a conscious choice.

Intimidation, coercion, threats as well as humiliation used to force people to change their religion should be prosecuted and punished under the provisions of laws against communal violence and the Prevention of Atrocities Act, as they may apply. These are the laws that must be invoked against the perpetrators of ‘Gharwapsi’ in Agra and elsewhere.