Religion

The question is “Are you allowed to change your faith?”

In usual scenarios, we would not need such a law but times are different and everyone wants to swell the numbers of the fellow religion population.

We need to think beyond Anti Conversion law because:

I am not against religion but history has proved, too much religion interference in running a country has always been a failure. We have live examples of Pakistan, Iran, etc where the law of land is too much dependent on religion and its guidance.

I don’t need to go into details of what these countries have ended being.India has a complex equation of religions.

Despite being a hindu dominated country, we are one of those rare third world countries to take pride in allowing all religions to live under a single roof in harmony. You do not become a secondary citizen for belonging to a particular religion. And we have never had laws, which involve too much RELIGION.

Then why so much hype about “Anti Conversion Law”?

India has always been a country built on tolerance and respect for other religions and a step like anti conversion law will take away a very fundamental right. i.e, the right to change my religion.

Religion is a very personal subject for me and I believe, my choice of a religion should be mine. No one likes to be at mercy of others for anything, least of all religion.

What if I do not like my religion? What if I do not get a fair treatment in my religion and what if, I am born a scheduled cast in my religion and would like to shift to a religion, where all are viewed as equals?I would hate to see police standing outside my home instructing me to not to change my religion. The law of land does not permit this.

How gross is this?

The concept of Anti Conversion law will not only increase riots but will shift the focus of our governments from the progressive work they “should do” to managing religions.Not an easy task, when your country has thousands of millions of people practicing 100 of faiths.

Does government have the capacity to allocate a chunk of a depleted police force and overburdened judiciary to handle cases related to Anti Conversion religion? This law will place a weapon at their disposal that can be used at their convenience.

 Last but not the least, you do not want to create a No Man’s Land for those, who opt for inter-religion weddings because this would be the next agenda for our beloved leaders. They are waiting for an opportunity to dictate a policy on Why, How and What of Weddings.

The only positive I can see of this policy is for kids born out of inter religion weddings. As they will be lured with incentives to join a religion of any of the parent. This time the funding will be done by religion.

Not bad for the new generation... Right?

Before I end this article, a little food of thought for our mighty leaders. No one wants to convert their religion. It’s your deep routed discrimination based on cast and creed, which forces people to convert their religion.

How about you focus your energy on providing livelihood to poor or introspecting the root cause of so many conversions happening in your religion. The day to day fight is too much of a task for them to think about Religion.