Mitti, Kajal & Darshan
By Poonam I Kaushish
A 16-year-old Faridabad girl is lured by Hussain in 2023. He takes her to Delhi’s Nizamuddin Dargah and introduced to Baba who makes her offer namaz and marry Hussain after converting to Islam showing her “big dreams.” Sounds familiar?
Meet Chhangur Baba aka Jamaluddin, a religious conversion mastermind from UP’s Balrampur district known to target economically vulnerable individuals: widows, SCs, daily-wage labourers using money, coercion, marriage, foreign travel, jobs and scholarships. Code named Project Mitti palatna, Kajal lagana and Darshan. While “project” refers to women, ‘mitti palatna’ means religious conversion, ‘kajal lagana’ reads manipulation and ‘darshan’ is introducing victims to Chhangur Baba.
His arrest by Enforcement Directorate earlier this month from Lucknow unravels a Johnny-come-lately selling rings and amulets on a bicycle a decade ago to a Baba with a multi-crore business, over Rs 500 crore financial trail fuelled by donations from Middle-Eastern countries, over 40 bank accounts, two properties worth Rs 18 crore etc. He heads Bharat Pratikarth Seva Sangh and a bogus centre reportedly linked to RSS in Nagpur.
A ‘red diary’ lists several politicians and ex-officials who received huge financial backing from him. One entry details Rs 90 lakh to a candidate for the 2022 Assembly elections from Utraula. Though the candidate lost, Chhangur Baba is planning to back another – an ex-IPS officer in the 2027 polls alongside pouring resources across neighbouring constituencies and mobilize his followers to vote en masse.
Primarily as religious conversion has become the ‘hot ticket to fame’ and explosive social and political issue in India. Reminiscent of the flurry of orchestrated propaganda campaign and popular inflammatory and demagogic appeals launched by the Arya Samaj and other Hindu revivalist bodies in the 1920s in UP, against the “abduction” and conversions of Hindu women by Muslim goondas, ranging from allegations of rape, elopement to luring, conversion, love and forced marriages to draw sharper lines between Hindus and Muslims.
Turn North, South, East or West, the story is the same. Religion is turning out to be a question of money, big money. Recall, flush with funds from their headquarters in the US, a number of church groups allegedly converted hundreds of Hindus to Christianity in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Kashmir and Karnataka by giving them money and jobs in the decades post Independence.
Notwithstanding denials by Islamic fundamentalist outfits like National Democratic Front and Popular Front of India, Kerala Government said 2,667 women had converted to Islam since 2006. Police figures on the other hand total over 8000 conversions in the last four years alone. Add to this another 60,000 girls have been converted in Karnataka alone according to Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. In the last six months UP registered over 20 Love Jihad cases.
On the flip side, VHP and Bajrang Dal too established groups of armed youth Raksha Sena in every village of Chhattisgarh to stop conversions to Christianity. And where conversions had taken place another movement called Ghar Wapsi was launched in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Orissa for reconverting tribal Christians back to Hinduism.
To put an end to this 10 States: UP, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, MP, Orissa, Himachal, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Gujarat have enacted anti-conversion laws that bar conversions but allow re-conversions to Hinduism.
Big deal. Yet the conversion circus continues unabated. Congress accuses BJP for engineering a Hindu majoritarian communal style of politics by using tactics like attempting to electorally marginalise Muslims to patronising communal violence, especially around the emotive issue of love jihad and ghar wapsi.
The Hindutva Brigade slams its rival as ‘Muslim party’ part of the “tukde-tukde gang” which protects terrorists and is “working on Pakistan’s agenda” and belongs there. Opposition despite taking the Saffron Sangh to task over their anti-minority plank and opposing aggressive Hindutva consolidation, don’t want to be labeled “pro-Muslim.”
In UP Chief Minister Yogi post Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2024 enactment raids a church, accusing members of conversion. In Jharkhand, RSS aims to make whole blocks “Christianity free” and recently converted 53 families to Hinduism. Hindu Jagran Manch alleges Christian preachers from Bhopal and Kerala promise jobs and money to illiterate tribals’ if they practice Christianity at its ‘Changai Sabhas.’
Flush with funds from their US headquarters, many churches converted hundreds of Hindus to Christianity in Tamil Nadu. Last year MP police arrested three Christians for trying to convert Hindus.
Pertinently, 77% of new converts to Islam were Hindus and 63% women last year. Said, a VHP leader, “‘Every year over 12 lakh Hindus become either Christians or Muslims.” And where conversions have taken place, Ghar Wapsi movement in MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Orissa is on for reconverting tribal Christians back to Hinduism.
Who does one fault? Given our netas are using religious conversion to increase their vote-banks, pitting Hindus against Muslims for political nirvana. Who cares if it creates fissiparous tendencies resulting in a communal divide?
Fortunately, the Supreme Court settled this matter in 1973 wherein it distinguished between right to proselytize and right to convert. Upholding the Constitutional validity on anti-conversion laws enacted by Orissa and Madhya Pradesh in 1967-68, it ruled: “What the Constitution grants is not the right to convert another person to one’s own religion, but to transmit or spread one’s religion by an exposition of its tenders.”
The Court also observed that organized conversion was anti-secular and that respect for all religions was the essence of India’s secularism. Adding, “fraudulent and forced religious conversions a very serious issue and a very dangerous thing which may ultimately affect the security of the nation and freedom of religion and conscience of citizens.”
India’s misfortune is that Hindu, Muslim and Christian fundamentalism is growing thanks to political and intellectual double-speak. Whereby, secularism has degenerated from its lofty ideal of equal respect for all religions to a cheap and diabolical strategy for creating captive religious vote-banks.
Importantly, no quarter should be given to those who fan conversions. Be it a Hindu ‘baba’ or a Muslim ‘mullah’. Alongside, our netagan who refuse to acknowledge they are culprits nor are willing to address the crux: Conversions takes place when poor of various creed and caste pleas for dignity, self-respect and economic betterment fall on deaf ears. Leaving them no recourse but to freely grab monies offered by babas, mullas or missionaries for their votes. It’s another matter that it fails to deliver them from caste-oppression.
Undeniably, religious conversions have nothing to do with protecting the sanctity of a religion. Nor does religious freedom justify extension to a planned programme of conversions. Such exercises are an aggression against the religious freedom of others. Hence, no quarter should be given to Muslim or Hindu communalism. Clearly those forcing conversion should be prosecuted
Importantly, they need to understand that by playing Hindus and Muslims against each other they are only serving their vested interests. Parties and fringe elements need to realize the collateral damage it causes will be permanent. Neither Lord Ram nor Allah will forgive the polity for playing havoc in its name. — INFA