Is conversion necessary for social work, asks Rajnath

[Guynextdoor2]

Conversion done through personal choice is legal. Rajnath should try to do his job than try to push Sanghi ajenda. Of late he's not been able to deliver on his home responsibilities. Thoda Jyada Kaam, kum baat.

 

[cloud_9]

Conversions are centric to Abrahamic faiths.They get paid a lot for this kind of work.

I see the ugly *** Fiji Indian with his bible every month.Even though he knows that no one's converting at my place but he keeps coming because they get paid for each visit.It's like a marketing thing.

 

[Indian_Devil]

Conversion done through personal choice is legal. Rajnath should try to do his job than try to push Sanghi ajenda. Of late he's not been able to deliver on his home responsibilities. Thoda Jyada Kaam, kum baat.

how is a personal choice defined? factors like greed lust
, fear, surrounding which changes the thinking of a human and hence changes the personal choice of human should be kept in mind or not? if no then ghar waapsi is right.. if yes then missionary conversions are also wrong..

 

[Guynextdoor2]

how is a personal choice defined? factors like greed lust
, fear, surrounding which changes the thinking of a human and hence changes the personal choice of human should be kept in mind or not? if no then ghar waapsi is right.. if yes then missionary conversions are also wrong..

Dekh Bhakt aa gaya

 

[Indian_Devil]

Dekh Bhakt aa gaya

dont you worry, tumhe forcefully convert nahi karunga jhuthe illusions dikhake...

 

[magudi]

Conversion done through personal choice is legal. Rajnath should try to do his job than try to push Sanghi ajenda. Of late he's not been able to deliver on his home responsibilities. Thoda Jyada Kaam, kum baat.

Operation Smile: Rajnath Singh's push helps recover 2500 missing children - timesofindia-economictimes


Rajnath is very well doing his job mate.

What he said is absolutely true. Either there should be a level playing field for all religions to lure/coerce and convert without any bias or proselytization should be banned all together.Now please spare us of your liberal BS

@Indian_Devil Rajnath Singh is right: A debate on religious conversions is probably overdue

 

[Soulspeek]

If conversions were really happening at such a massive scale then someone just tell me why is Christian population is still around 2.2% whereas Muslims as well as Hindus recorded growth?

 

[Dragon Ball]

If conversions were really happening at such a massive scale then someone just tell me why is Christian population is still around 2.2% whereas Muslims as well as Hindus recorded growth?

Because Christians are told to lie to keep their caste benefits. Ask your friend @sherin616 or @Don Badass who claim Christian population is anywhere from 4% to 6% in reality.

 

[Indian_Devil]

Operation Smile: Rajnath Singh's push helps recover 2500 missing children - timesofindia-economictimes


Rajnath is very well doing his job mate.

What he said is absolutely true. Either there should be a level playing field for all religions to lure/coerce and convert without any bias or proselytization should be banned all together.Now please spare us of your liberal BS

@Indian_Devil Rajnath Singh is right: A debate on religious conversions is probably overdue

exactly.... but you can state only facts but can't change biased man's biased opinion... for them is " chit bhi mera patt bhi mera, anta mere baap ka"...

 

[magudi]

If conversions were really happening at such a massive scale then someone just tell me why is Christian population is still around 2.2% whereas Muslims as well as Hindus recorded growth?

Tehelka - The People's Paper

 

[Hindustani78]

Muslim population no issue, conversion is, says home minister Rajnath Singh - The Times of India

Aman Sharma,ET Bureau | Mar 24, 2015, 01.35 PM IST
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NEW DELHI: Home minister Rajnath Singh, in comments that would run counter to the line often used by hardline Hindutva elements, said on Monday he had no issues with the pace of growth of the Muslim population in the country, but railed against religious conversions and exhorted minorities to take the lead in pressing for an anti-conversion law.

"It does not matter how many Muslims are there. If their population is increasing, let it increase. We have no issues. But the cycle of conversions must stop," Singh told a conference of state minority commissions in Delhi.

The comments come at a time some hardliners in the Sangh Parivar have expressed their annoyance at what they allege is the fast pace of growth in the country's Muslim population and have exhorted Hindus to procreate more to counter this. India's Muslim population probably rose to 14.2% in 2011 from 13.4% in 2001, the government yet-to-be-released census data is expected to show.

While Singh appeared conciliatory to Muslims, he struck a hard line against religious conversions — a topic that has of late been sought to be linked with the Christian community.

Members of the Sangh Parivar have in recent weeks sought to link service done by Christian institutions with religious conversions.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat last month stirred up a controversy when, referring to conversions, he said there was a "motive" behind the service rendered by Mother Teresa. Singh appeared to echo similar sentiments.

'Respect others'

"Why do we do conversions? If we want to do service, let us do service. But should service be done for the purpose of religious conversion? Cannot we decide that we will go worldwide to do service but conversion will not be our target but only to serve humanity?" he asked.

"Can't we live without respecting each other's faith. What is the necessity of conversion. Can't a religion survive without involving in conversion?... People say conversions are done by people on their own accord...that there is freedom for conversions. Do not do this (conversions). Leave it," he added.

The home minister said he was posing three basic questions.

"First, is conversion necessary? Second, can a religion not survive without conversions? Thirdly, if anybody tries to change the demographic character of any country, will anyone tolerate it? In US or Europe, if I go and try to change their demographic character, isn't it a crime on my part? Why should I do this? Let that country's identity remain. That country has a culture, let it be. Why do we want to change it?" he said.

Singh also blamed the Congress government for creating an "atmosphere of insecurity" among minorities and said the Narendra Modi government was reversing this. He termed the controversy around 'Ghar Vapasi', or reconversion of minorities back into the Hindu faith, as "misunderstandings and rumours" and said a solution needed to be found.

The home minister lamented that the majority community had to ask for an anti-conversion law and not minorities.

"In other countries, minorities demand that anti-conversion law should be made. India is the only country where it is not so. In our country, the state of affairs is such that we have to say and demand that there should be a debate over anti-conversion law.

Why is there such a state of affairs? It will be good if you think over this and debate it," he said.

Mixed response

The home minister's comments elicited a mixed response. Naseem Ahmed, chairperson of the National Minorities Commission said Singh's statements were reassuring given the "distressing" comments made against minorities lately.

"Home minister is categorical to say that it is not part of the government agenda. However, not just statements but ground action is also important. I will not blame the government after recent statements of the PM and the HM," Ahmed said.

But others in the audience were not impressed. Sister Mariolla,who had come from Rajasthan to attend the meeting, said "it was strange" there was no mention of church attacks. "There should have been a mention and why it is not stopping," she said.

UP state Minorities' Commission member Sohail Jindyani said he supported a statement issued on Sunday by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) that said Muslims were feeling increasingly insecure in the Modi government.

"This is no way that the prime minister and home minister keep mum while some of their MPs keep on spewing venom on the Muslims," Jindyani said. But Singh said he disagreed with AIMPLB's characterisation.

"There could have been a little sense of insecurity among minorities in the Congress rule, but Modi government is creating a sense of security," Singh said, adding that the government wanted to end the sense of insecurity among minorities.

"Someone can question the way our government works, but nobody can question my intention. India is the only country in the world where people of all religions in the world live peacefully. India has such a character and in such a country, we keep on fighting with each other. We are thirsting for each other's blood - there cannot be anything more unfortunate than that," he said.

 

[Dragon Ball]

Crying victimhood - The Christian Post.


Hindu Extremists Attack Cathedral in India, Smash Down Doors and Windows, Accuse Christians of Conversions

Six people have been arrested after a group of Hindu extremists attacked a cathedral in central India, breaking down doors and smashing windows. The attack, which was caught on CCTV cameras, was aimed at Christians who are being accused by the extremists of converting people into Christianity.



"We arrested six men last night in connection with the vandalism. We are trying to identify more people ... there may be more arrests," senior state police official HC Mishra said, according to AFP.

The attack on the cathedral in Madhya Pradesh state apparently took place on Friday night, police said. The right-wing Hindu Dharma Sena group has accused the church of converting close to 200 local tribal people into Christianity, though it has denied involvement in the attack.

Christian churches and groups in India have routinely faced attacks by Hindu extremist groups that accuse them of converting Hindus to Christianity. Violent attacks on churches have continued throughout the leadership of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which won the country's elections in 2014.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to crack down on religious violence, but reports of such attacks have continued on a regular basis.

Earlier in March, a 71-year-old Indian nun was gang raped inside a Catholic missionary school in West Bengal. The men accused of attacking the nun ransacked the school, ripped apart a Bible, and destroyed a bust of Jesus. The nun, who was taken to hospital, has since said that she has forgiven her attackers.

Attacks have also been reported in several other towns and states, including in the capital of New Delhi.

Persecution watchdog group Open Doors lists India as 21st on a list of countries where Christians face the most persecution. The nonprofit told The Christian Post in January that despite the government's attempts to join the ranks of the most powerful and influential nations in the world, India continues to have a very poor religious freedom record.

"This year, and during the reporting year, India has become a more dangerous place for Christians, largely because Hindu extremists seem to think that the new government there will give them impunity when they attack Christian churches. The episodes of violence there from extremists are on the rise," Open Doors CEO David Curry told CP.

Certain government laws, such as financial benefits available only to "dalits," the lowest caste system, have also forced millions of Christians to choose between their faith and receiving those benefits.

International Christian Concern noted in December that close to 25 million dalits in India have converted to Christianity, but are unable to access the government benefits if they do not revert back to identifying as dalits within the Hindu system.

 

[utraash]

He clearly outlined the mischievous(in soft manner) agenda of such groups which comes here in the name of extending help to poor n illiterate ppl.... Need to have regularize the conversion through checks n balances of a central law.....

 

[kakathiya]

Wrong. Mr.Rajnath Singh Sahab. Christians do not do conversion under pretext of social services. Out of millions of poor people served, how many got converted? Christians are just 2 percent. Heck, they don't even produce more than 2 babies to increase their population!

Even in Convent schools, I am yet to see students who converted to Christianity. BJP is just raising this bogeyman of Hinduism in danger to polarise its vote bank and implement the communal agenda of Sangh.

 

[scorpionx]

Why is this even an issue ?

People convert for all sorts of reasons; monetary incentives, the promise of a better future, philosophical consonance with a belief system or emotional fulfillment in believing in something - I don't think that a State - any state - ought to concern herself with this too much otherwise it may set a dangerous precedent by allowing a given State to appropriate greater rights for herself in the future by taking further rights from the 'individual' and giving it to the 'society' !

Religion will always be part and parcel of a religious society and it would be unreasonable to expect those in power to have a completely unbiased view of things and be emotionally detached from the sensibilities and sensitivities of their belief systems and those of the society as a whole, when governing. But I think it wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest that even when allowing religion or any belief out there (even if it be purely secular) to influence governance, a liberal and not the conservative approach ought to be taken which accommodates various view points and at the very least tries to conform to the golden principle of not doing to others what one does not wish to be done to oneself, most of the time if conforming to it all of the time would be impossible.

I think in Pakistan we made the same mistake by allowing the Orthodoxy a greater say in whatever religious imprint they wanted to have over governance and legislation while at the same time ignoring the Progressive elements from the same religious circles because the former was exponentially more vocal and organized than the latter. Ironically enough most of these Orthodox elements like the Majlis-i-Ahrar who became the champions of an Islamic State - as they envisioned it to be in their parochial view - were ferociously against the creation of Pakistan to begin with.

Religion (like anything else) should have a positive and inclusive impression on a State's culture and values. If it starts having an exclusive, reactionary and divisive effect you end with the states that Pakistan and India find themselves. No wonder as per PEW social hostility involving religion index we have found ourselves in the top 10 most socially hostile states with respect to religion for the past decade.

What do you think @scorpionx ?

As usual, very well said,Mr.Armstrong. In this part of the world, no matter how much Western educated political elites had tried before and after Independence to impose their secular ethics, concepts of democratic values and social liberalism, the major part of the society have chosen to remain within their traditional social and religious orthodox consciences. The social reforms within the HIndu society was fiercely opposed, the reformer's lives were often threatened by the supremacists. What the British accomplished with limited success, became a gross failure for Indians after Independence. The westernized idea of keeping religion separate from all forms of governance and state decisions was realized to be impossible, even for a character like Nehru whose authority could hardly be questioned in Indian politics nor any other leader's popularity matched with him.

In the mean time, the Indian politicians became smarter and smarter. The basic urge for economic growth and over all a matter of social reformation had been ignored for the last 68 years. The term 'vote bank', be it for under privileged classes within Hindu society and naturally 170 million Muslims gained immense popularity among politicians all over the country that guaranteed a certain electoral success in every five years. Congress and regional parties championed this strategy and something that caused the HIndu right wing groups and liberal Indians an intense feeling of dissension against the parties that followed the policy; It ascertained partly for sure for the failure of Congress in the last election.

What BJP, as a part of this constitutional system is trying is to speak up on behalf of the voices of the right wing groups and off course the newest generation of educated Indian youths in a different mild tone is that appeasement politics with no visible effect in economic improvement of the minorities and the grant of special privileges can no longer exist as the policy has lost all its vitality today. So, what we see now as a necessary state interference in religious matters is mere a follow up reprisal of the policies that was practised for the last 68 years. Unfortunately, conservative societies in the subcontinent will remain a safe play ground for fundamentalists for a considerable amount of time in future, because nobody knows where to draw the boundary lines.
PS: Edited for poor grammar.