Fired up and full of vitriol, Hindu activist Rajeshwar Singh is on a mission to end centuries of religious diversity in India, one conversion at a time.
His voice echoing off the walls of a Protestant church across a narrow street, Singh railed against foreign faiths at a recent event to convert a Christian family to Hinduism in the rural town of Hasayan, 140km south of Delhi.
“We will cleanse our Hindu society. We will not let the conspiracy of church or mosque succeed in Bharat (India),” he said, standing in the family’s yard by a ritual fire lit to purify the poor, lower-caste converts.
Emboldened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rise to power in May, leaders of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have joined right-wing activists like Singh to openly declare India a nation of Hindus.
About a fifth of India’s 1.27 billion people identify themselves as belonging to faiths other than Hinduism.
Singh is affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS brought Modi into politics as a young man and its foot soldiers helped cement his May election victory in India’s heartland, most notably in the country’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh.
The RSS has grown in prominence since the election, with members appointed to key cabinet posts and senior leaders deputised to the party.
Increasingly hardline statements by RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, an old friend of Modi, have helped motivate millions of volunteers, like Singh, already excited by the prime minister’s May victory.
“Just as those who stay in England are English, those who stay in Germany are German, and those in US are Americans, all those who stay in Hindustan are Hindus,” Bhagwat said last month, angering Muslim and Christian minorities.
Adding to the controversy, RSS-linked groups have stepped up a campaign against “Love Jihad” – a term for what they consider to be an Islamist strategy to convert Hindu women through seduction, marriage and money. Their fears about Islam may be fuelled by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri’s announcement this week of the formation of an Indian branch of his group.
Previous police investigations have found no evidence of an organised “Love Jihad”. But the concept has gained credence across central India in recent weeks.
While avoiding the term “Love Jihad”, Modi’s BJP this month adopted the subject of forced conversions as a campaign issue ahead of Saturday’s by-elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Simultaneously, activists like Singh have stepped up what they see as necessary defensive measures – converting others “back” to Hinduism.
“The Hindu wave has just begun. In 10 years we will convert all Christians and Muslims,” Singh said, to murmurs of approval from other organisers of the ritual.
His colleagues included a former Adventist preacher now dedicated to Hindu “homecoming” conversions and a businessman from the city of Agra, home to the Muslim-built monument, the Taj Mahal.
“The BJP is our political organisation. They are our brothers. We have ensured that they won the election. Modi is a Hindu leader,” Singh said. “This is our golden age.”
Singh’s 10-year deadline is unrealistic in a country of 175 million Muslims, who account for about 15 percent of Indians and constitute the third-largest Muslim population in the world, as well as other faiths.
Last year Hindu-Muslim riots left 65 dead just 90km from Hasayan.
In 2002, riots also broke out in Modi’s home state of Gujarat. More than 1 000 died, mostly Muslims. Critics say he did too little to stop the violence, but a Supreme Court investigation found no evidence to prosecute him.
During this year’s general election, in which Modi elsewhere focused on development, his campaign in Uttar Pradesh stood out by exploiting anti-minority feeling to unite low- and high-caste Hindus into a voting bloc.
Uday Vir from a “Dalit” low caste was at the centre of the reconversion ceremony last week.
Born into a Christian family, Vir, 55, said a land dispute with the church was the reason he was switching religion.
Ahead of the by-elections, a prominent BJP member of parliament from the state, Yogi Adityanath, has been accused of delivering inflammatory speeches. In one video he asks supporters to convert 100 Muslim women through marriage every time a Muslim man marries a Hindu. In another, he said religious riots happen wherever more than 10 percent of the population is Muslim.
Earlier this month a national-level rifle shooter Tara Shahdeo complained of being a “Love Jihad” victim, saying her Muslim husband hid his religion when they married in the city of Ranchi.
A pamphlet named “Love Jihad” is being circulated by members of RSS at Hindu weddings, festivals and outside colleges. Written in 2011, it links the concept of “Love Jihad” to the rule of Muslim Mughals in India centuries ago – a popular theme with Hindu nationalists who feel Hinduism was weakened by foreign rule.
Police say sporadic cases of trickery are not evidence of a broader conspiracy. In Uttar Pradesh, police found no evidence of attempted or forced conversion in five of six reported “Love Jihad” cases in the past three months.
Reuters