100 Years of RSS ::: Understanding multiple facets of Relationship b/w Hindus and Christians :::: "We have to ensure no one leaves Hinduism, those who left will be brought back to our family"

The RSS centenary year celebrations are on. One important aspect that needs to be studied and will be studied and debated is the Hindu-Christian relationship. 

More importantly the 'peculiarities' in Indian context has to be understood. 

“Conversion causes differences. It causes hatred, it creates conflict ... so if we want to make the world conflict-free, there is a need to respect all religions.” - Indresh Kumar, RSS leader of Christian Manch (2021) 

In 2021, survey by internationally reputed body Pew Research said -- "Most Indian Christians say they believe in karma (54%), which is not rooted in the Christian religion. And many Indian Christians also believe in reincarnation (29%) and that the Ganges River has the power to purify (32%), both of which are core teachings in Hinduism. 

It is also somewhat common for Indian Christians to observe customs tied to other religions, like celebrating Diwali (31%) or wearing a forehead marking called a bindi (22%), most often worn by Hindu, Buddhist and Jain women.

 

Among Indians, 0.4% of adults are Hindu converts to Christianity. Conversion is a contentious issue in India, and nine states have enacted laws against proselytism as of early 2021. 

While Christianity is a proselytizing religion, many other religions in India are non-proselytizing, and religious conversion is rare in the country. Overall, just 2% of respondents report a different religion than the one in which they were raised, including 0.4% who are converts to Christianity. 

Christian converts in India mostly are former Hindus, but the survey also finds that Hindus tend to gain as many people as they lose through religious switching (0.7% of respondents were raised Hindu and now identify as something else, while 0.8% were raised as something else but now identify as Hindu). 

Christian converts in India are disproportionately located in the South, while some are also located in the East. Most converts say they belong to lower castes – that is, they identify with Scheduled Castes (sometimes known as Dalits), Scheduled Tribes or Other Backward Classes. 

Most converts also come from poor backgrounds – i.e., they report recently struggling to pay for food or other necessities.

 

Conversion to Christianity for Hindus from SC community or Dalits is essentially linked to Reservation row. There are - as the saying goes - there are wheels within wheels. 

The Indian system provides reservations under the Scheduled Castes category only for Dalit Hindus, meaning they renounce the benefits of affirmative action such as reservations in government jobs and education institutions when they convert. 

A presidential order issued in 1950 laid down that “no person who professes a religion different from the Hindu (the Sikh or the Buddhist) religion shall be deemed to be a member of a scheduled caste.” 

“Children from other communities become doctors and government officers,” said one Christian adding, “Our children become high-school dropouts and waiters. We know there is a lot of donation coming into India to help poor Christians. What I want to know is where is it all going. What I see is that priests who used to travel on cycles now have cars and fancy homes to live. But they don’t have Rs900 to help for a boy’s education.” (as reported in newspaper 'The Mint' // March 12, 2009) 

 

Over the years the Hindu leaders including from the RSS and the BJP have discovered over the last decade or so that even as some Christian leaders demand reservations for Dalit Christians, who make up an estimated 70% of the 24-million-strong Christian community in India; the fact of the matter is growing section of Dalit Christians, however, say they are being forced back to an abusive system they had sought to flee. 

Now there are suggestions in the centenary year of the RSS ... all these complex challenges must be looked into. 

In 1925, Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar initiated the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to eradicate the weaknesses that had crept into our nation’s life over the period of time and to take Bharat to the pinnacle of glory (Paramvaibhav) as an organized, virtuous and a powerful Rashtra. 

Sowing the seeds of Sangh work, Dr Hedgewar evolved a unique man-making (vyakti-nirman) methodology in the form of daily Shakha, which turned into selfless penance for rebuilding the nation.

In December 2021, Indian Christians were told in as many words to mind their own business and stop 'converting people' from other religions mainly Hindus to their faith.

The message was conveyed at a pre-Christmas gathering in capital New Delhi on Dec. 16 (2021) by Indresh Kumar, a senior leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The gathering held at Nagaland House, a popular venue for Christmas gatherings, was billed by the RSS as an “outreach effort” with tribal people from the Christian-dominated northeastern state of Nagaland.  

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