Sudipto Mondal/The Hindu

• ‘It is an agenda of fundamentalists, reacting to it makes us play into their hands’ 
• ‘Despite allegations of conversions, Christians form a paltry 2.34 per cent of India’s
• opulation’There have been conversions to Buddhism and Jainism too, says an expert

Mangalore, Sep 24: If the recent attacks on churches and Christian institutions in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka are any proof, Hindutva activists in the country are unambiguously pointing a questioning finger at the institution of religious conversions.

But, intellectuals feel that instead of answering the question, it is time to question the basis of the reasoning. Hyderabad-based Dalit scholar and author of “Why I am not a Hindu” Kancha Ilaya says: “There is a set of very easy answers to the question of conversions.” He feels that before rushing out to answer those questions, it is wiser to stop and ponder for a moment. “We must ask these fundamental forces what gives them the right to raise this question,” he says.

Echoing Mr. Ilaya is Delhi-based thinker and social scientist G. Aloysius,

He says: “I refuse to be drawn into a debate about religious conversions. It is an agenda set by a group of fundamentalists and reacting to it only makes us play into their hands.” By questioning the legitimacy of conversions, the Hindutva forces were attempting at enticing the civil society into a debate. “It is an illegitimate debate,” says Ilaya.

Advocate Clifton Rozario, who works with the Alternative Law Forum, says, “It is a constitutional right to every individual. Who are we to even begin a debate on it?” Providing a more empirical perspective Mr. Rozario says: “After 2000 years of Christianity in India, the population of Christians in this country is a mere 2.34 per cent of its population. In Karnataka, according to the 2001 census, the population of Christians is only 1.9 per cent of the State’s population.”

Reacting to the oft refrain that Dalits and adivasis are the ones getting converted, he says, “Even as we speak, a Dalit Bahujan or adivasi is getting converted to Buddhism in this country. It has been going on since the times of Buddha and it was later given a strong push by B.R. Ambedkar.”

“If after all these years the population of Christians is so low, then either that the Christian missionaries were doing a very bad job or that converting people was not their main agenda,” he says.