BHARAT BALLOT 09: "FORCED CONVERSIONS" FUEL POLITICAL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 CHENNAI 000100 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM KIRF SOCI IN SUBJECT: BHARAT BALLOT 09: "FORCED CONVERSIONS" FUEL POLITICAL DEBATE IN KARNATAKA REFS: A) CHENNAI 98, B)CHENNAI 25, C) 08 CHENNAI 350, D) CHENNAI 326, E) NEW DELHI 2513 ¶1. (U) Summary: Political conversations in Karnataka are peppered with references to "forced" or "forcible" conversion. Although the term has been defined in various states' legal statutes and interpreted by the Indian Supreme Court, different religious communities in the state -- particularly Hindus and Christians -- continue to understand and use the term to mean different things. The state's more conservative Hindu groups see "forcible conversions" of Hindus by Christians as an alarming, offensive, and pervasive ongoing practice. Christians, on the other hand, find the concept baffling, contending that it is not logically possible for anyone to be "forced" to convert to their religion. These different interpretations have concrete political consequences. Much Christian charity work -- a central component of Christian churches' activities in India -- is interpreted by some Hindu groups in Karnataka as offering illegal inducements to lower-caste Hindus to convert. While Christian groups strongly dispute this assertion, this interpretation of "forced conversion" provides political fodder to some groups in Karnataka, contributing to the violent religion-fueled outbreaks that have rocked the state over the past year. End Summary. Conversion: a hot topic in Mangalore -------------- ¶2. (U) The city of Mangalore, Karnataka (350 km west of Bangalore, on India's southwest coast) has seen several outbursts of religiously tinted violence. We traveled there in mid-March to explore the possible sources of this violence and discuss the upcoming parliamentary elections. In conversations centering around the elections and the violence the city has witnessed over the past six months (particularly the attacks on Christian churches in September 2008 and the January attack on a local pub, refs B and E), we found our interlocutors of various faiths repeatedly returning to the subject of religious conversions as a controversial and important social and political issue in the region. Mangalore's peculiar economic and demographic realities (particularly its sizable Christian population -- ref A) amplify the importance of this subject for local politics. ¶3. (SBU) The political discourse in Karnataka reached a particularly fevered pitch just after the September church attacks, with the state's top politicians, including Chief Minister Yeddiyurappa decrying "forcible conversions" and making public statements suggesting that the practice had inflamed passions to the point that it had encouraged the violence (ref E). Home Minister Acharya said much the same thing in a meeting with the Consul General ten days after the attacks (ref D). The legalities of "forcible conversion" -------------- ¶4. (U) Dr. Sandeep Shastri, Director of Bangalore's International Academy for Creative Teaching, explained to us that although India's constitution allows for the "propagation" of religion, India's Supreme Court has ruled (particularly in a landmark 1977 case) that "conversion" is not necessarily a protected religious practice. He explained that the Court's general test of whether or not a conversion is "forcible" is whether it is the result of "inducement, allurement, or coercion." (That specific phrase comes from Maharashtra's 1968 law outlawing "forcible conversion," which was upheld in the 1977 ruling.) He also told us (as did several other interlocutors) that Indian courts have never successfully prosecuted anyone for engaging in "forcible conversion," but a few contacts said that they believed there were some ongoing cases elsewhere in India (i.e, not in Karnataka). Christians scoff at the concept . . . -------------- CHENNAI 00000100 002 OF 004 ¶5. (SBU) Our Christian interlocutors (mainly Roman Catholics and evangelicals) openly ridiculed what they viewed as the logical impossibility of "forcible conversion." They told us that becoming Christian requires a person to make an individual, conscientious choice to accept and follow the tenets of Christianity and that any choice made under duress or false pretenses violates the very tenets of the faith. Our Roman Catholic interlocutors (including Mangalore's Bishop and the Principal of Mangalore's most prestigious college) told us that their church had little interest in promoting conversions of any sort, and emphasized that institutions associated with their religions (particularly schools and hospitals) studiously avoided activities that might be perceived as encouraging conversion and served people of all religions. ¶6. (SBU) A pastor from the evangelical "New Life Fellowship" admitted that evangelicals were aggressive proselytizers, but emphasized that it was simply not logically possible for any Christian to "force" anybody to convert to Christianity. He also emphasized the importance of "sharing the faith" as a central tenet of evangelical Christianity. All of our Christian interlocutors told us repeatedly that there had not been a single case of "forced conversion" ever demonstrated in an Indian court, and emphasized that local Hindu zealots used the term simply to fire up their political supporters. . . . While Hindus take offense -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Dr. Madhav Bhandary, Zonal Chief of Mangalore for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (a Hindu nationalist organization usually referred to simply as the RSS) began his conversation with us by explaining that Hinduism was not a religion, but a "dharma" that encompassed all of India's religions and its people. (He said that the English language has no good translation of "dharma," but that understanding it as "a way of life" was a reasonable approximation.) Because Hinduism is so all-inclusive, he argued, an Indian choose any number of religious paths (including Christianity or Islam) while necessarily remaining firmly within the Hindu dharma. Attempts to convert someone, he said, threaten local culture and give offense because the very concept of conversion suggests that the Hindu dharma is incomplete or unworthy. He also said that religious minorities like Christians and Muslims were welcome in India, but that they needed to observe certain Hindu traditions, such as the wearing of a thread around the neck of a bride during her wedding, and recognize the sensitivities of the majority. ¶8. (SBU) We heard similar views from M.B. Puranik, President of the Mangalore Division of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP),who described his organization as helping to promote and protect social and temple life for Hindus. (Both the VHP and RSS belong to a family of Hindu organizations known as the Sangh Parivar, which also includes the Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP) He emphasized that everyone born in India is a Hindu, and that India is the only place where Hinduism is protected. Other religions, he stressed, "have many countries to call home, while Hindus have only India." He argued that conversions were therefore a threat because they risked upsetting the country's demographic balance, thereby weakening Hinduism's only homeland. Other Hindu complaints -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Both Bhandary and Puranik complained about Christian proselytizers, particularly the evangelical groups they referred to as "New Life." (A New Life pastor explained to us that Hindu critics in Mangalore tend to refer to all of the more than 25 evangelical congregations in the city as "New Life" churches, although there is technically only one.) They said that evangelizing missionaries routinely and openly denigrate Hindu gods CHENNAI 00000100 003 OF 004 and religious practices in their preaching as part of their attempts to convert people in and around Mangalore. Puranik also lamented that these Christian groups had weekly opportunities to gather and reinforce their message, a form of iterative support alien to those promoting the Hindu way of life who must therefore find other ways of spreading their information. ¶10. (SBU) A senior state bureaucrat told us that Christian churches are spreading rapidly throughout Karnataka, creating the perception that this phenomenon is disturbing the demographic balance in the state. He also said that even many people who refer to themselves as Hindus still attend regular church services, making it difficult to fully understand how widespread this trend is. This, he explained, is because lower-caste Hindus enjoy government quotas for employment and other benefits, but lose them after they become Christians. (The GOI established these benefits and programs to help those historically discriminated against in the Hindu caste system and does not recognize Christianity or Islam as having castes.) He emphasized that the perception of a rapidly growing Christian population is causing significant unease in the state, particularly among more conservative Hindus. ¶11. (SBU) Bhandary and Puranik also both emphasized the offensiveness of a publication ("Satya Darshini") that "New Life" missionaries were distributing in Karnataka prior to the September 2008 church attacks. They said that the pamphlet was a particularly offensive diatribe against Hindu religious practices and gods that inflamed passions and led to the attacks. (The "New Life" pastor we spoke with strenuously denied that his congregation had anything to do with the publication or distribution of "Satya Darshini" and claimed that it had been in circulation throughout India for more than a decade.) Puranik expressed remorse at the attacks on churches, emphasizing that "the elders" would never have approved such violent activities, but noted that the episode showed the raw emotion of Hindu youth in the face of blatantly offensive behavior by proselytizing Christians. ¶12. (SBU) Puranik also leveled criticism at the government for failing to serve the population adequately. This failure, he argued, allowed Christian groups to offer services, especially in health and education, which present potential inducements, particularly for the poor. (Both Puranik and Bhandary are heavily involved in providing basic services; Puranik runs multiple educational institutions and Bhandary is a medical doctor currently working for the Mangalore city government as the chair of its Urban Development Authority.) Inducements and allurements aplenty -------------- ¶13. (SBU) A professor at a secular university (with no obvious affinity for any particular religious tradition) told us that the government's failure to provide adequate basic services was an important factor in the tensions between religious communities in the region. He specifically noted that Hindu hospitals and schools are in direct competition with Christian ones to serve the poor and uneducated, who are generally perceived as the most likely source of potential converts to Christianity. This sense of competition, he argued, fueled tensions and caused many Hindus to perceive Christian efforts to provide health and education services as little more than tools to induce the unwitting down a path towards conversion. ¶14. (SBU) Several Christians we spoke with admitted that many of their works of charity may be perceived by critics as "inducements or allurements." (No one we spoke with mentioned coercion as a proselytizing tool used in the region.) They disputed this characterization, emphasizing that Christian churches around the world consider providing services to the poor as a critical obligation of their beliefs and not as a propagation tactic, but recognized that it might be difficult for some non-Christians to differentiate. CHENNAI 00000100 004 OF 004 ¶15. (SBU) The "New Life" pastor explained to us the dilemma this presents to Christians. From his perspective, if a needy woman asked him for money to send her daughter to school, he would give it to her not because he is trying to convert her, but simply because he is a compassionate human being. Critics, however, could accuse him of offering inducements, he noted. ¶16. (SBU) Similarly, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Mangalore told us that even traditional institutions run by his church (like hospitals) were receiving increasingly frequent complaints from Hindu critics that they ought to only be serving Christians. He also related several recent incidents where the church's hospitals and ambulances have been attacked by Hindu thugs for offering services to non-Christians. He argued that these perceptions of his church's good works in the region were a new phenomenon, and a distinct change from earlier views, which had seen the church's involvement in these services as a useful contribution to society's advancement. Comment: The importance of grammar -------------- ¶17. (SBU) One thing that became clear in our conversations in Mangalore was that Christians and Hindus used the verb "convert" in different ways. For the Hindus, the verb is transitive, connoting an action performed by one person towards another: person A tries to convert person B. (This is also how India's Supreme Court used the term in its 1977 decision.) For Christians, however, the verb is intransitive, suggesting a personal decision: person A wants to convert to Christianity. This grammatical distinction has serious implications. The Hindus we spoke with tended to understand conversion (whether "forcible" or not) as something that Christians do to other people, necessarily violating the religious freedom of the "target" individual. This, in their view, necessitates action to protect presumed unwitting individuals from the allurement and inducements offered by Christian proselytizers. ¶18. (SBU) Legitimate differences in theology and friction generated from a clash between modernization and tradition may explain the inter-religious tension in Mangalore. These factors alone, however, probably do not provide the entire explanation for the violent incidents the city has witnessed over the past several months. An important factor is undoubtedly the fact that some Hindu chauvinists are using the perception that Christian groups target Hindus for religious conversion to whip up political support. It is not yet clear whether these political strategies will succeed in attracting more votes than they drive away, but it is unfortunate that Mangalore's different religious communities seem to have difficulty in finding common ground. SIMKIN