The contested truths about conversions

Radhika Bordia

Monday, November 03, 2008, (Jhabua)

More than 80 per cent of Jhabua"s population in Madhya Pradesh is tribal, which in modern India means volatile politics.

Jhabua"s tribal landscape is typical; its people are up for grabs by competing religions. And old debates of indignity and tribal identity get subsumed within it.

A temple at Kali Devi village is Khum Singh"s base. ‘"This is the place where I meditate," he said.

He may not look the part but Khum Singh has been the district president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Before that, he pushed the Hindutva agenda through his own group — the Bhil Adivasi Sudhar Samiti.

“I have stopped Christian priests from going into villages and converting people," he said.

For 30 years I have been reforming the Bhils. I made them give up alcohol and have converted them into Bhagats, he added.

For men like Sakriya and Panna, becoming a Bhagat meant a break with their own Bhil traditions and adopting some saffron in the clothing; no alcohol and no meat.

“Earlier I went to the church. The Christians allow meat, but say we should not pray to other Gods. As a Bhagat I now know the true faith," said Khum Singh.

He informed that there are two Bhagats and two Christians in the village. Rest all are Bhils.

Khum Singh"s religious zeal and his fight against the Christian influence in the area ties in with the political agenda of the many Hindutva groups in Jhabua like the RSS, the VHP, the Sewa Bharti and most recently the Shiv Ganga Abhiyan.

Jeethra Bhai, a Bhagat and a member of the Shiv Ganga Abhiyan, is a young typical face of the movement which aims to do development work.

“Its main thrust is to awaken true Hindu faith in the villages. I attended the Hindu Sangam a few years ago and there I learnt about religion, about Ram, and it appealed to me," he said.

Recently, the group installed Shivalings across villages in the region.

There is a sharp contrast between the aggressively installed Shiv Lingams and a space like this.

No one in the Bhil village knows how old these statues are or what they are about. But this is a sacred space for the villagers here.

For the Christian missionaries, this would naturally look like Hindu imagery. But the irony and the real tragedy is that the strident Hindutva groups also have very little respect or understanding for a space like this.

For, the Hindutva groups have neither a sense of history nor the understanding of Hinduism"s complex equation with tribal identity.

While for men like Jeethra Bhai, finding a space in modern India is a more urgent need.

As a Bhil tribal in Jhabua working with the Shiv Ganga Abhiyan instantly gives him a sense of importance — a more mainstream Hindu identity easier to understand than the Christian ethos and even some money to buy a motorbike.

It"s an identity best consolidated against an enemy — the threat of Christian conversions, false propaganda by Hindutva groups and escalating tensions in a region — which has witnessed Hindu-Christian violence in the past.

Four years ago, in a Catholic mission school in Jhabua, the body of a raped and murdered girl was found near the bathroom. It immediately triggered off rumours that the local priest was involved.

The Hindutva group who used this incident to attack churches and Christian homes across Jhabua actively fanned these rumours.

Police investigations later revealed that a Hindu businessman was responsible for the murder of the girl. But the Sangh Parivar had gone on the rampage.

The school has since put that gruesome incident behind it. Today, as anywhere else, it"s a Catholic school where 80 per cent of the students are Hindu.

“There is always a fear. We don"t put any targets and we don"t convert people. At the same time we feel that it is the teaching of Jesus that we should love each other. We should preach and tell about him. But we never asked someone or forced someone to become Christians. In fact we don"t know of any so-called conversions. The Catholics in our area, they are not increasing in number, other than for biological reasons. And all over India, if you see, in the last two Census, our population has very much come down," said Father Joseph Thayil, PRO, Jhabua Diocese.

Twenty kilometers from Jhabua town, the same facts echoed in Meghnagar — the center of the Jhabua Diocese. It"s a place where the rich history of Christianity in their region comes alive.

“Though mainline churches are very much active in the service areas like hospitals, education and rural development, we feel that we need to contribute to the development of the nation and in whatever way and the resources that we have we use it for the development of the nations," said T Chacko, Bishop, Jhabua Diocese.

Bishop Chacko also distinguished between the mainline churches as opposed to the newer evangelists or Pentecostal groups.

“The tension prevailing in the area may also be because the newer groups do not have a central teaching authority which would tell them what is the right way and what is the wrong way. Now one accusation that is often levelled against the Pentecostals is that they are very arrogant towards other religions. I am not sure it is correct. But it could be that they do not have anybody to tell them that they should respect all religions and all religions seek God and therefore there is a relevance for all religions. That should be told to these groups. But who will tell them?" he said.

The Pentecostals have no fixed infrastructure. Their door-to-door way of functioning makes it difficult to get a fix on them.

A sign of their presence though is evident in many villages.

“Sevaks came to our village and held a meeting here. When they explained things to us, our problems went away. They even managed to cure the ill people. They gave us some money for grains. They come on Tuesdays, and in the name of God, give us Rs 3 or more for grains," said a villager.

Quick, aggressive conversions are a clear aim of the Pentecostals in this region. But the method of their sevaks — or evangelist preachers — is even questioned by the old Christian order.

But it"s the Hindutva groups who have exaggerated and exploited such cases using it to justify their anti-Christian agendas. An agenda that gets unleashed indiscriminately and spreads fear.

However, while the targets are the Pentecostals, what often gets attacked are the more visible Catholic institutions.

The Piplia village in Jhabua district is divided into two. On one side is Ishgarh Piplia, named after Isu or Jesus and is a Christian village. On the other side is Hindu Piplia.

The two have coexisted for a very long time. But in the last few years, especially after the violence of 2004 and the recent attacks on churches across the country, that peace has come under considerable strain.

At Ishgarh Piplia, tribal families who converted to Christianity generations ago feel the strain.

“We are Christians for more than six generations now. Things are mostly fine, but there is fear," said one of the residents.

For Christians living there, what affects them is the affect on their next generation.

“In hostels here — which have both girls and boys– less than 40 are Christians. Whether Hindus or Catholics, most of them are related to each other. We are not making anyone Catholics or Christians here. Our only concern is that the young children, when they grow up, their world must be different from their parents. I feel so sad to reject even one request. But space is small. Parents come with so much hope. We don"t have infrastructure. We get along with some funding from the CRS. CRS is American and gives money for work among poor," said Father Thomas Marattil, from St Joseph"s Church.

Christian funding is the other tricky and volatile theme in this region.

Madhya Pradesh is one of a handful of Indian states which has an Anti-Conversion Act meant to police conversions through coercion or inducement.

But the local police have an impatience with the anti-conversion laws.

“There are some complaints of forcible conversions and we investigate them. But we have never found any truth in them. Most complaints are totally politically motivated. The police seem to be wanted in everything these days. To get married, the police come into the picture. To have children, the police are called. To settle religious issues, the police is summoned," said R Burra, Additional SP, Jhabua.

Legislation on religion is redundant on the ground and merely political in its intention. And politics will intensify with elections around the corner.

A decade ago, Jhabua was uncontested Congress bastion. The aggressive work by the Hindutva groups brought it well within the BJP fold.

This year, the BSP had decided to contest the Jhabua seat for the first time. Its candidate, Lata, is a Bhil Christian who is a proxy for her husband Edwin. Edwin is not a tribal but very influential in Christian groups like the Isayee Mahasabha.

“We have 8,900 people in the Jhabua Vidhan Sabha area, with 45 sevaks spread across its villages. Each one has a following of 1,000 to 2,000 people. We have seven Roman Catholic missions, with a strength of 3,000 each. Tribals here are Bhole Shankar"s people. The BJP has forgotten that Bhole Shankar has a third eye. In this case, it"s the BSP. The day that eye opens, it will destroy everything," Edwin said.

But what is at one level the worst sort of minority vote bank politics gets mitigated as you hear more about Edwin and his wife.

Edwin"s been both in the Congress and the BJP. And while his rhetoric might reflect the Christian and the tribal card, it stems less from any real bigotry and more from political opportunism.

If this is often India"s tragedy in a perverse way it also occasionally becomes its saving grace.

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