Hello, friends!
Religious Conversions.
Forcing somebody to change their religion.
How big of a problem is it in our country today?
If you watch any news channel, it will seem like it's one of the biggest problems in the country now.
"The breaking news right now is Religious Conversions."
"Religious Conversion."
"Forced Religious Conversions."
"Religious Conversions."
"Forced Religious Conversions. Terror."
"It is not an act of secularism."
"And these people specially target women."
"And the poor, helpless Hindus, were being converted into Islam, such was the racket."
Unemployment, economic recession, climate change, environmental crisis the problem of Religious Conversionshave eclipsed all of it. According to them.
So let's find out the truth behind all of this, friends. Based on data and facts, in this article.
A few days ago, a new survey report was published. By the Pew Research Center. This organization had conducted a large-scale survey in India.
Almost 30,000 Indians were asked questions in face-to-face interviews. On issues of religion, caste, and national identity.
It was a detailed survey with very interesting findings. Very interesting conclusions can be drawn.
But in today's article, I would like to focus only on Religious Conversions.
What were the findings of this report?
Before we talk about it, let's talk about this organization first. This Centre's specialty lies in surveys. And it conducts many detailed surveys all around the world.
It is considered to be one of the most credible organizations in its field. Several websites check the bias of the media houses. If a media house is left-leaning or right-leaning. Even those websites consider it Centrist.
Talking about the survey conducted in India, as I said, there were face-to-face interviews. In 17 different languages. It was conducted in 26 States and3 Union Territories. Between late 2019 and early 2020.
So overall, it is a very credible organization and a very credible survey. But we should always remember one thing, no survey is 100% perfect.
There were some very interesting findings of this survey.
84% of people believe that a true Indian respects all religions. 80% of people had said that to be a true Hindu, a true Muslim, a true Sikh, or a true Christian, it is important to respect other religions. So it's a good thing that most people in the country believe in tolerance and respect.
So the question arises, why then is there so much ruckus in the country in the name of religions?
In my opinion, there are some simple reasons for it. One, the people who do not believe in respect and tolerance, are good at being loud.
They are more visible on social media because they are voicing their opinions very loudly. And our media loves to highlight them. They show them on news channels. And our politicians also highlight them so that fear can be instilled in people. Citing them as examples of how the people of other religions are.
There are several such politicians, wannabe lawyers, desperate YouTubers, and Instagram influencers who have found this to be a shortcut to gaining cheap publicity. Abuse people from other religions. Instill fear among people of their religion. Claiming that we're in danger and our religion is in danger. And then gain publicity from it. These things are anyway highlighted in our media and social media. And it's not so that there isn't any activity on the other side.
There were several heart-touching stories in the past few years where Hindus are helping Muslims, Muslims are helping Sikhs, Sikhs are helping Christians. It's an overall environment of unity. But the news channels wouldn't highlight that.
When the Delhi Riots happened such a case was seen where a Muslim family was protected by their Hindu neighbors from the rioters. Then there was even an opposite case where some Hindu families living in Muslim-dominated areas, were protected by their Muslim neighbors when the rioters had come to their neighborhood.
Unfortunately, showing the news of violence, conflict, and hatred results in higher TRP. And such news plays with our insecurities also. This is the reason friends, why I wouldn't label it as the sole reason. The survey report revealed another interesting thing. That 70% Hindus and 80% Muslims don't want inter-marriages between them. And friends, this may exactly be the reason that the news of mass conversions and religious conversions and often the related conspiracy theories spread like wildfire in our country. Because on one hand, the majority of people in the country respect other religions and show tolerance. This is good, but on the other hand, the majority of people in the country still harbor a fear that if they let their children marry someone from another religion there would be a lot of 'problems'. And these problems are their insecurities and fears.
What are they afraid of?
There are two fears. One, the fear that if their children marry people from other religions it will destroy their lives. They will be unhappy. And may have to face forced religious conversions. Or they may even get brainwashed.
And the second fear is that if my children go and marry someone from another religion, what will happen to my religion? If things go that way, in some years, my religion will be wiped out. That there will not be any people from our religion. If everyone keeps marrying people of other religions and converting into other religions. It will be the end, the "okay, ta-ta-, bye-bye" of my religion.
So is there a real danger?
The answer to it is in a question of this survey. In this survey, people were asked what was their religion in their childhood, and which religion did they believe in currently?
98% of the people had the same answer for both. It means for 98% of people, their religion is the same that they believed in since their childhood. And that there has been no religious conversion.
It means that in India, religious conversion is very rare. You'd ask about the remaining 2% who converted. 2% is not an insignificant number in the country with a population of 1.3 billion people.
The report states that 0.7% of people who were Hindu in their childhood have changed their religion after growing up.
Before you start mourning this, I'd like to tell you that 0.8% of people who were some other religion in their childhood have now converted to being Hindu. The report states this as well. More people are converting to Hinduismthan converting from Hinduism. Things remain almost the same.
It's the same for Muslims. 0.3% of people who followed Islam initially, have now left Islam. But 0.3% of people who were from other religions initially, have now adopted Islam. It's the same with Sikhs and Buddhists as well. Christianity can be considered a small exception. Because 0.1% of people left Christianity but 0.4% of people adopted Christianity.
So this huge conspiracy of religious conversions, that is often called 'Love Ji**d' on news channels and social media, where is the conspiracy? Why isn't it evident?
Either this conspiracy has flopped completely in the last 20-30 years because we're seeing something completely contradictory that more people are converting to Hinduism than to Islam. Or it may mean that this 'conspiracy' is fabricated by the news channels. It is being completely manufactured for instilling fear in you. So that you vote for a political party due to fear.
I'm not saying that there are no cases of forceful religious conversion in the country. There have been several legit and real cases where some people have tried to force other people into converting their religion. It is wrong. But those are individual cases. A few cases here and there.
The mass conspiracy at a large scale level that's depicted in the media that hundreds of thousands of people are carrying out forceful mass conversions secretly, is not happening. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Had there been something like that, the numbers would have shown it.
And this isn't my opinion only. When these cases went to the Courts, in more than half the cases it was found that there were no forced conversions. Last year, 14 such cases were being investigated in Kanpur by a Special Investigation Team they found out that some of the cases had elements of fraud but they did not get any proof of any huge conspiracy behind the cases. Of any funding from Foreign Organizations. Or that people were planning it and carrying it out on large scale. It wasn't so.
But still, one question does arise What about the cases where there are actual forced religious conversions?
In my opinion, that goes against our Constitution. Because the Right to Religion is guaranteed to all persons. The religion they want to follow is their choice. No one can force them to follow any particular religion. It is wrong. And for this, there are already several IPC sections in our law. Cheating, Beating, Forcing, Wrongfully detaining someone, or Blackmailing someone, Laws exist for these crimes already.
So what was new in the new law to prevent forced Conversions?
Friends, it brought in that any individual cannot convert their religion solely to get married, Although it does have an exception. If someone wants to do so, then they can give 60 days prior notice that they intend to convert. And the government will then approve it. And then the individual can get converted while getting married.
So recently, since this law has been given effect in Uttar Pradesh, we have seen many arrests. There was a case in December 2020, where a Muslim man complaint to the police that his 22yo daughter, Alisha, has been kidnapped by a Hindu man, Siddharth. There was a police investigation. And they found that this marriage took place before the law came into effect. The girl said that she's an adult. And she got married of her own will.
So the case ended here. There was no kidnapping case after the girl's testimony.
We get to see several cases where the parents are against their children's marriage because they got married into another religion. This was one such case where the police closed the case and nothing happened. Like it was supposed to be.
But after this, there was a case in Muradabad, which was a role reversal of this case. A Hindu girl, Pinky, got married to a Muslim boy, Rashid. They went to get their marriage registered. And some members of the Bajrang Dal forcibly took them to the police station.
In this case, too the girl had said that she's an adult and that her marriage is of her own free will. And that marriage took place before the law came into effect. But despite that, the police arrested Rashid. And when this matter went to the Court, 15 days later the Court ordered that Rashid be freed from the jail because the girl had clearly said that this isn't a case of forced conversion or kidnapping.
That the girl got married willingly. But in these 15 days, Pinky was forcibly sent to a Women's Shelter she was already 3 months pregnant, after being there for 5 days, she suffered a miscarriage. She lost her baby. She asks, what was her fault? Why did she deserve this?
There are several such examples, friends. Which makes it evident that when these laws and conspiracy theories spread in society, it causes an overall negative impact on society.
There are so few inter-religious marriages in our country anyhow it causes people of one religion to doubt the people from other religions. It fosters insecurities and fear in them.
But after bringing such laws, the people who want to have an inter-religious marriage, things are becoming more and more difficult for them. They'd first need the Government's approval. They would always be scared of being harassed by any fringe group. All because of their Inter-Religious marriage.
You might ask why I'm promoting inter-religious marriages so much now? What agenda do I have?
Friends, my agenda is that the more inter-religious marriages a society has the more people live together in harmony. The brotherhood between two religions strengthens. The more the people of two religions or people of two castes or sections, live segregated from each other, the more would people distrust and be wary of each other.
The insecurities among the people will increase. And it becomes really easy to instill fear into people. When they don't socialize with each other and live separately. And the chances of riots also increase.
So if we want to reduce the religious turbulence in the country, reduce the occurrences of riots, and if we want people to focus on productive things for this and for religious harmony inter-religious marriages and inter-caste marriages are very important for the country. This is my opinion.
Several countries in the world set the example for this. Like Singapore. It is an extremely multi-religious country. But still, they've maintained unity and harmony among all the religions very well. They live together peacefully. And I don't know when was the last time that they had riots because of religions.
Another thing that's noteworthy here that I'd like to tell all of you. Believe it or not, some Muslims will be impressed by Hinduism and willingly will convert to Hinduism. And for Hindus, believe it or not, some Hindus will get impressed by Islam or Christianity or Buddhism, and they will convert to them. Same with every single religion. You need to accept the fact that some people willingly change their religion. There can be several reasons behind it. They may like something in the other religion or may not like something in their religion but we need to learn to accept this.
As shown by the Pew Research Center's survey. There are 2% people like this in our country. So it's not a cause for creating a ruckus. There's no need to raise alarms if someone chooses this. Although, publicly there has been hardly any case in the country.
And finally, I'd say that friends be wary of those people that work day and night to spread hatred among religions.
There is a minuscule section of people in our country that spreads such conspiracies among people to instill fear.
Often, they use some ridiculous methods to spread conspiracy theories.
Recently Amir Khan got divorced. After his divorce, it was trending on Twitter how Amir Khan was carrying out Love Ji**d.
You'd ask, how?
Simply because he, being a Muslim had a Hindu wife. They say the same thing to Saif Ali Khan as well. That Saif Ali Khan is also doing Love Ji**d.
Simply because Kareena Kapoor is a Hindu. Just because of this.
They aren't concerned with the fact that Kareena Kapoor got married willingly. That it is her choice whom she gets married to. How she gets married. Which religion she wants to follow and which she doesn't want to follow.
They simply have to spread their conspiracy theories. What's surprising is that how they show one-sided pictures of the celebrities to show that there is Love Ji**d in Bollywood. They won't show you the pictures of the other side. They will never tell you that Saif Ali Khan's sister Soha Ali Khan's husband is a Hindu.
So there's a reverse case. They would never tell you that Hrithik Roshan is a Hindu and his wife was a Muslim. Or that Suniel Shetty's wife is a Muslim. Or that Manoj Bajpayee's wife is a Muslim while he is a Hindu. You will never get to hear about these reverse cases on social media.
Because the people who are trying to establish their narratives of a conspiracy theory, this narrative falls apart once you get to know of these reverse cases.
Anyway, that's all for today, friends. I hope that you understood the point I tried to put across. If you found this article to be informative, Share it with your family.
Especially those family members who believe in this conspiracy theory. It will be very interesting to see their reaction. And I hope you liked this article. Let's meet in the next article. Thank you very much!
