AHWA (Gujarat), Jan. 5.
The controversy surrounding the recent communal clashes in the
Dangs district of south Gujarat today took a new turn with two
veteran Gandhian leaders describing the incidents as a
``reaction to conversion'' and demanding a total legal ban on
conversion in India with immediate effect to prevent the
situation from worsening.
Two of the surviving Gandhians and Sarvodaya leaders, Mr.
Ghelubhai Nayak and Mr. Chunnibhai Vaidya, will submit
memoranda in this regard to the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal
Behari Vajpayee, during his proposed visit here in the next
few days. A meeting of Sarvodaya leaders was held in this
connection at Savarkundla in Amreli district, yesterday, where
Mr. Vaidya was authorised to take a lead in this regard.
Mr. Nayak told UNI at his Swaraj Ashram here that Sardar
Patel, fearing that Christian missionaries would create
problems by launching a conversion drive had despatched him
(Mr. Nayak) and his brother, Mr. Chhotubhai, to start social
work in the district in 1948, he said.
In Ahmedabad, Mr. Vaidya said that Dada Dharmadhikari, a
prominent member of the Constituent Assembly, had proposed a
legal ban on conversion, to be incorporated in the
constitution. But some other members opposed it saying that it
would make reconversion difficult. ``It is due to this failure
to ban conversion that reconversion is now taking place in the
Dangs district which has sparked off the recent clashes'', he
maintained.
The 82-year-old Gandhian, said some of the Christian
missionaries were using ``unethical means'' to achieve their
end. He also cited the infiltration of a missionary into the
Sabarmati Ashram here, saying the man had carried a book
entitled ``Gandhiji's favourite bhajans.'' However, the book
had no Gandhian reference in it, except on its cover page, and
had only Christian Psalms.
According to Mr. Nayak, some missionaries had even tried to
induce him and his associates, to embrace Christianity.
``However, when we rebuffed their overtures, they tried to
evict us from the house where our office was located in the
Missionpada area in Ahwa''.
Mr. Vaidya, a staunch opponent of the RSS, VHP and the BJP,
pointed out that the Sarvodaya leaders condemned all sorts of
violence in the name of religion and expressed serious concern
over the developments in south Gujarat. They favoured a legal
ban on conversion as early as possible, and recalled that
Mahatma Gandhi always opposed conversion.
Quoting from Acharya Vinoba Bhave's book on the subject, he
said the Bhoodan leader had said that a legal ban on
conversion would not affect secularism in any manner.
Until 1950, according to Mr. Nayak, the missionaries could not
succeed in enrolling new recruits to their faith. They then
brought in about 500 Christians from other places in a bid to
speed up their work and create an atmosphere for conversion.
The 75-year-old Gandhian said it was due to these ``unholy''
tactics that he and his associates wrote several letters to
the then Congress(I) Governments warning them of the shape of
things to come and urging them to impose a ban on conversion.
``But no one listened to our pleas due to vote-bank politics.
The missionary schools punished their students for wearing the
Gandhi cap.''
Saying that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and its affiliates
did not enjoy any significant presence in the district, Mr.
Nayak said the series of incidents since Christmas day last
year was not the beginning of the problem but the end.
While condemning the violence and arson since December 25 last
year. Mr. Nayak charged the Christian missionaries with
inciting the unconverted tribals into this vandalism. ``During
the last five years, nearly two dozen idols of Lord Shiva and
Hanuman, reverred by all tribals, had been desecrated or
broken. The ancient beliefs of the tribals have been mocked at
openly and every effort has been done to browbeat and harass
them into submission,'' he stated.
The December incident was rooted in the alleged attempts made
by some missionaries in November 1998 to force a nephew of an
ex- Raja of the Beels, into marrying a Christian girl in an
attempt to evangelise him. When the man refused to oblige, he
was publicly beaten up by the missionaries. The victim filed a
report with the police and I was one of the signatories , said
Mr. Nayak.
Mr. Nayak, who was awarded the prestigious ``Gram Sewa
Puruskar'' on January 1 by the Gujarat Vidyapeeth, said the
tribal reaction had been simmering for a long time and merely
came to a boil on December 25 when the Christians, who had
earlier held a rally on December 7 protesting against the
alleged atrocities against them, indulging in stoning the
rally of the Hindu Jagran Manch.
Regretting what he described as ``telephone journalism'' by a
section of the Press which, he said, carried totally baseless
and one-sided reports, which further aggravated the problem,
Mr. Nayak said the ground reality in the district warranted a
immediate ban on conversion.