IS CHRISTIANITY A SCAPEGOAT OF PSEUDO-SECULARISM?

A
CHRISTIAN APPRAISAL TO GHAR WAPSI

Prologue

Religious conversion is a burning issue these days in India and this era is
marked as the baneful time in the lives of minority in general and Christians in
particular. Christians face very strenuous dilemma in their lives due to Christian
practice of conversion, the quintessential reality of Christianity. Here we are
often confronted with the most important questions: why religious conversion is
so controversial in India? Can a Christian be aloof from the practice of
conversion? Is Christianity a scapegoat of pseudo-secularism? And is Gahr
Wapsi an attitude of pseudo-secularism in India? The answer may be differing
from a Christian to a Hindu as their perception on conversion is mismatching
each other.

Noticeably Hindutva ideology in the contemporary Indian religio-cultural

matrix functions as pseudo-secularism1 rather than open secularism2. It is very
evident in the act of Ghar Wapsi, the reformed Hindutva nationalism. Such
ideologies attempt to arrive at a so called cultural common ground, therefore, is
religiously derived. Based on this assumption, recently Mohan Bhagavat
vocally attacked Mother Theresa saying that she converted Hindus to
Christianity within the shadow of orphanages. Similarly, many parliamentarians
also questioned even the existence of Christians in India and asked Christians
and Muslims to leave India and they also want to install Bhagavat Gita as
national religious book. Are these really secularistic attitudes? If not so, is not
Christianity a scapegoat of Indian secularism? The right to convert is part of
Christianity itself and if this right is not conceded, it amounts to intolerance and
there create a vacuum of secularism. This paper, therefore, is an attempt to
address the issue of Ghar Wapsi in the context of secularism and how
Christianity is affected with this phenomenon in the contemporary Indian
society.

India: A Secular or Pseudo-Secular State

Constitutionally India is a secular country and has no state religion. There is a

blend of secular and religious elements within the text of the constitution and it
is this admixture and determines the contours of secularism to be acted upon by
1
Pseudo secularism is being operated with religious and cultural rudiments in India. .
2
Open secularism is being operated on the platform of humanism.

1
the state and religious freedom3. Indian secularism does not require a total
banishment of religion from the societal or even state affairs. Indian secularism
mandates that the state must treat all religious creeds and their respective
adherents absolutely equally and without any discrimination in all matters under
its direct or indirect control4. However, what is at work in India is not pure
secularism rather pseudo secularism and let us see what does it actually mean
and how does it function in Indian secularist society?

Pseudo-Secularism can be characterized in the contemporary time as reformed

Hindutva nationalism that always emphasizes co-insist of religions rather than
co-exist of religions. There have been three intertwined stages in this form of
secularism in India: Vinayak Damodar Sarvarkar’s (1883-1966) crystallization
of Hindutva nationalism; Kesav Baliram Hedgewar’s (1889-1940) RSS as a
vanguard of Hindutva nationalism and Madhav Sadasiv Golwalkar’s (1906-
1973) consolidation of Hindutva nationalism5. These stages though distinct, in
fact, constitute a long continuum and it makes very negative impact on Hindus
and the same kills the spirit of secularism in India.

For pseudo- secularists, Hindutva is not a word but a history embodying every
facet of Hindu reality including religious beliefs. It further emphasises that
Hindustan is the land of Hindus alone and Musalmans and Christians and other
nations living in India are only guests. They can live as long as they wish to
remain as guests6. This hindutva nationalism postulates two rampant ideologies:
common blood7 and common culture8 and these two views are exactly
ambiguous as their understanding of common blood suggests the racism of
domination by the upper castes through their culture. It is further being argued
as follows: their inclusive attitude derived from their notion of Hindu blood,
therefore, seems to be an empty rhetoric because it tends to build walls rather
than bridges between religions and ethnic groups in Indian society 9. It is true
that Sangh Pariwar’s commitment to secularism in terms of formal equality
3
S. Sivadasan, Interrogating Ghar Wapsi (Kalady: Unpublished, 2015), 10.
4
S. Sivadasan, Interrogating Ghar Wapsi, 11.
5
Prasad Lankapathi, Hindutva Challenge-Christian Response as a Call to Community (Delhi: ISPCK, 2014), 2-
3.
6
S. Anand, “The Emergence of Hindutva” in J. Mattam and P. Arockiadoss (eds), Hindutva: An Indian
Christian Response (Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 2002), 118.
7
All Hindus are one and thus constitute a nation.
8
One becomes an Indian by honoring all that Hindu culture stands for; one’s devotion to India as one’s devotion
to holy land or Punya Bhoomi. Prasad Lankapathi, Hindutva Challenge-Christian Response as a Call to
Community, 17.
9
Prasad Lankapathi, Hindutva Challenge-Christian Response as a Call to Community, 17.

2
seems nothing more than a pretext for furthering its hidden agenda of hindutva
nationalism and supremacy. In any case its stance towards secularism hardly
coheres with the fundamental vision and ethos of the constitution of India. 10
Nevertheless, their pseudo attitude is very vivid in their words as Kummanam
Rajasekharan, the Kerala president of BJP said; “the true secularism is that sees
all religions equally....”11 But sad to say that their attitude towards other
religions are more alarming today. India is traditionally understood as a secular
and democratic state; however, hindutva forces endanger the secular fabric as
Indian secularism is rooted on religion over against western secularism which is
rooted on humanism12. Swami Agnivesh, therefore, rightly observed that
today’s RSS and BJP are working by receiving the motivation from Hitler and
Mussolini as well13. Because the practice of Ghar Wapsi emerged out of this
sort of Hindu consciousness as they try to extinguish other religious
communities and therefore it must be slammed.

Ghar Wapsi

Ghar Wapsi is a series of reconversion exercises organized by Indian Hindu

organizations to re-convert non-Hindus to Hinduism. The word Wapsi is of
Persian origin that denotes to return and it denotes returning to the original
religion or returning to the former religion one left 14. As we rightly understood
the term Ghar Wapsi refers to the recent vigour and vitality the Sangh Pariwar
has been displaying in reconversion. Literally it means returning home, which
implies returning to Hinduism15. Following problems have been found by
people with Ghar Wapsi movement: threat to national integration, threat to the
interest of the religious minorities, create a dent in the religious tolerance of
India, change in the global perspective to India and threat to communal
harmony16. Mohan Guruswami, a political commentator wrote: “the year that
began with Paisa Wapsi is now ending with Ghar Wapsi”17.

Prasad Lankapathi highlights following reasons for the rise of Ghar Wapsi:
firstly, Christian evangelism: the aggressive proselytism of Christianity from

10
Prasad Lankapathi, Hindutva Challenge-Christian Response as a Call to Community, 46.
11
Kummanam Rajasekharan, “Vachaka Mela” in Malayala Manorama 2 January (Trivandrum-2016), 10.
12
M. Stephan, Introducing Christian Ethics (Delhi: ISPCK, 2003), 169.
13
Swami Agnivesh, “Madhythinte Kuthaka Kaiyyadakiya Pinmurakkar Gurudarsanangalkku Apamanam”
(Malayalam), in Malayala Manorama 3 January (Trivandrum-2016), 3.
14
K. Giri, Ghar Wapsi pdf (Kerala: Unpublished, 2015), 1.
15
S. Sivadasan, Interrogating Ghar Wapsi , 1.
16
N.A, Ghar Wapsi Movement (New Delhi: Unpublished, 2015), 1.
17
K. Giri, Ghar Wapsi pdf, 1.

3
other religions especially from Hinduism paved the way for the emergence of
Ghar Wapsi. Secondly, dalit critique of Hinduism: it is believed that Jyotirao
Phule disillusioned by the ideologies and policies of the Brahmin castes and
established Satya Shodak Samaj18. Thirdly, dalit mobilization: it was headed by
B.R Ambedkar with the catch word: “to educate, organize and agitate”. Finally,
rise of Muslim militancy: undoubtedly, Muslim dominance over India played a
vital role in the emergence of hindutva and to oppose any form of conversion19.

Ghar Wapsi is not a new phenomenon in India; historically speaking it was

introduced by Arya Samaj through Shudhi movement. Ghar Wapsi is also
rooted in the program of Parivartan that was introduced by Pravin Togadia in
1990 and it attempts to reconvert Hindus who left Hinduism to other religions.
They primarily focused on violence against Christian missionaries and Christian
institutions20. This form of acts is still at work in India and it is very blatantly
operated through various ramifications in the forms of persecutions, destruction
of churches and symmetries, closing up of churches etc. It is even very evident
in Kerala especially closing up of house churches in Kerala by some Sangh
Pariwar groups. It has been argued that the institutional churches that meet in
special building are unknown to the New Testament whereas house churches
were clearly the norm in the early church 21. Pentecostal churches across India
follow this doctrine very cautiously and as such they gather together in houses
for worship and sacraments. This very fundamental idea of Christianity is being
thwarted by pseudo-secularists in and through the act of Ghar Wapsi. Hindu
fundamentals are also motivated by the Niyogi report: In 1954, the Madhya
Pradesh government launched a massive enquiry into missionaries in the state
who were alleged to have used illegitimate means to convert tribals and
backward classes. The committee led by Bhawani Shankar Niyogi, retired Chief
Justice and a Christian representative in it presented a 936 pages of report on
missionary activities to the state government and it argues as follows: “the
Christian churches with their money from the west carried out large scale
proselytization among backward tribes and low castes. For this reason
missionaries had used their schools, hospitals and orphanages...some protestant
churches abused and denigrated Hindu deities...” 22 In short, Ghar Wapsi is
religiously, politically and culturally developed phenomenon in contemporary
18
Society for the search of truth in 1873 and its aim was to conscientize the victims of caste system.
19
Prasad Lankapathi, Hindutva Challenge-Christian Response as a Call to Community, 4-5.
20
S. Sivadasan, Interrogating Ghar Wapsi, 2.
21
David S. Kirkwood, The Disciple-Making Minister (Pennsylvania: Ethnos Press, 2005), 38.
22
Samuel P. Rajan, A Christian Response to Conversion and Ghar Wapsi Debate (Allahabad: Unpublished,
2015), 5-6.

4
India. In fact, their views are violation of Indian constitution and the
fundamental rights of Indian citizens, namely the right of an individual to freely
profess the religion of one’s choice or the practice Christian conversion.

Conversion: The Birth Right of Christianity

Debate in and among the churches continues concerning whether or not other
faiths are to be seen primarily as mission fields or as somehow within the
salvific purpose of God. WCC has understood Christian conversion as follows:
it involves a holistic response through evangelistic and diaconal work to reach
out to people in their experience of exclusion, brokenness and
meaningfulness...it is impelled by the love of Christ23. But this very birth right
of Christianity is either hindered or damaged by pseudo secularists in India
knowing that Christianity is a missionary religion. Wesley Ariarajah, therefore,
opines that the gospel was in discontinuity with world religions... 24.M. Stephan,
on the other hand defines conversion is not an outward superfluous change, but
a change of heart-an attitudinal change, a total transformation 25. Being a student
of theology I would often ask, is conversion a threat to secularism?

The Sangh Pariwar consistently asserts that the root cause of Hindu Christian
tension is the Christian campaign for conversion. It has been said that
secularism is not against religious views and beliefs and if it is correct then
Christian conversion is not against the secular fabric of the country. In 1999,
then prime minister of India Atal Behari Vajpayee called for a national debate
on conversion on the ground that Sangh Pariwar insisted that violences were
caused by Christian conversion and demanded total ban on conversion. The
pseudo-secularists posted following demands before the Dias: ensuring converts
returned to the Hindu fold, withdrawing ST concession given to the tribal
Christians, banning foreign funds for Christian missionaries and tabling an
amendment to prevent conversions26. Sebastian Kim has rightly put: the tribals
are the ‘battle ground’ for conversion27 in India. This is the reason the
prominent historian, Sumit Sarkar, located the root of violence generally in the
Pariwar’s aggressive campaign of hindutva which needed ‘enemy other’ for
their reaction to the threat of globalization and to the spread of liberation
theologies which sought to empower the downtrodden in Hindu society against
23
WCC Document, Mission and Evangelism in Unity Today (Athens: Unpublished, 2005), 76-77.
24
Paul M. Collins, The Quest for Indian-ness: Context, Culture and Worship (Delhi: ISPCK, 2006), 257.
25
M. Stephan, A New Mission Agenda (Delhi: ISPCK, 2000), 89.
26
Samuel P. Rajan, A Christian Response to Conversion and Ghar Wapsi Debate, 7.
27
Sebastian Kim, In Search of Identity (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003), 157.

5
the interests of a dominant minority of high-caste Hindus 28. On the same line
K.N Panicker also conceded that blaming Christian conversion was an
afterthought, a convenient pretext. He further added that the violence is due,
first, to the Pariwar’s search for political support from tribal areas and the
necessity of displacing the considerable Christian influence on tribals and
secondly, as retaliation against the secular position taken by several Christian
organizations in the face of Pariwar politics29. The implication here is that
Hindu politicization of religion and religionization of politics must be critiqued
and the relation of religion and politics as well in India should be analysed
within the framework of secularism.

On the other hand Hindu activists identified conversion as violence against

humanity and therefore evil and unacceptable....intolerant nature of
Christianity...destructive effect of missionary activities...exploiting and
undermining the local culture and the religion...destroys people’s
history...inherently an unethical practice...30 they also question the concept of
minority and argue that they are the people who are alienated from the national
attribute called Sanatana Dharma, are no more part of this nation but minorities
and not nationals31. This way of thought led Hindu fanatics to force the notion
of Ghar Wapsi. It is, therefore, the suitable time to interrogate this wrong
practice in India and it definitely deserves the verdict of annihilation.

It is essential to note that conversion is not a new enterprise in India. It has a

long back history. Even long before, Jain or Mahavira and Buddha converted
many Indians to their own respective religions and opposed Brahmanic
hegemony in India32. The emperor Asoka also appointed missionaries to
propagate Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Japan, Thailand and Korea. Ambedkar also
disrupted with obsolescent thought of Hindu understanding of caste and
converted lakhs of Hindus into Buddhism. In all those cases no one opposed
them. Not only that today neo-Hindu movements under the headship of gurus
going to western countries (Christian countries) and convert non-Hindus
(Christians) in to their own religions33 and no one questions or withhold the

28
Samuel P. Rajan, A Christian Response to Conversion and Ghar Wapsi Debate, 7. Quoted from Sumit Sarkar,
“Hindutva and Quest of Conversion” in K.N Panicker, (ed.), The Concerned India’s Guide to Communalism
(New Delhi: Viking, 1999).
29
Samuel P. Rajan, A Christian Response to Conversion and Ghar Wapsi Debate, 7-8.
30
Sebastian Kim, In Search of Identity, 163-169.
31
Samuel P. Rajan, A Christian Response to Conversion and Ghar Wapsi Debate, 8.
32
M. Stephan, Christu Dharsanavum Ulkazhchakalum (Malayalam), (Kottayam: Oikos, 2002), 198.
33
M. Stephan, Christu Dharsanavum Ulkazhchakalum, 199.

6
same. Are not all these conversions? Then why not a Christian can do it in India
with the meaning of change of mind rather than the typical change of religion?

Ghar Wapsi: A Christian Appraisal

Indian people at present consist of six types of racial group and none of them
found in pure form. The major racial groups are: Negroids or Negritto (came
from Africa), Proto Australoids (from West), Mangloids (from China, Tibet,
Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar), Mediterranean peoples (select countries of
the West), Alpine, Dinaric and Armenoid (central Asia) and Nordic group (from
Mesopotamia). It historically proves the fact that Hindus are not the original
people of India and their claim of India is Hindustan and it is only for Hindus
nullifies historically. In other words, in India various racial groups periodically
built not a Ghar (home) but many Ghars (homes). Therefore it is no longer one
Ghar with a compound wall, but an extended Ghar with Dwars (doors) open to
move from one room to the other34. In this regard, K. Giri, the renowned
professor of Religion and Philosophy observes that if Ghar Wapsi implies
returning to home, then the people of this land need to trace back their origin in
any one or couple of above mentioned racial groups and have to go back to
Mesopotamia, central Asia, Western parts of the world or Africa for that
matter35. However, Christianity in general and Pentecostals in particular view
that meeting Jesus Christ is the real Ghar Wapsi36 as Pentecostals believe that
the real and permanent house of human being is heaven. In this sense,
Pentecostals are right as they are being really engaging the process of Ghar
Wapsi that is returning sinful humanity to God or to heaven.

At the same time some people argue that if the Dalits, Muslims and Christians
return to the so called original or former religion, in which category of caste
group would they belong in the Varnashrama scheme of Hinduism?

It is also argued that since the word wapsi is of Persian origin, it implies the
Aryan intrusion in India particularly it proves that the Hindus are also came
from central Asia. If it is true, what moral right that Hindus have to say that
India is only for Hindus? Meanwhile we as Christians need to re-think the word
conversion in today’s context.

Conversion or Transformation

34
Samuel P. Rajan, A Christian Response to Conversion and Ghar Wapsi Debate, 9.
35
K. Giri, Ghar Wapsi pdf, 3.
36
K. Giri, Ghar Wapsi pdf, 4.

7
It is true that conversion is the most hated word in today’s multi religious
context of India and it always annihilates the cordial relationship between
Christians and Hindus. Once India was known for religious tolerance and today
it is known for religious intolerance. It is very clear in the words of Harold G.
Coward and he presses that India was seen as a Living Laboratory of religious
pluralism37. However, the word conversion has become quite terrible in India as
today’s Hinduism stresses three Rs: Remove, Replace and Re-convert. In this
context it is better to think of changing of the term in to transformation rather
than conversion. For the current understanding of both Christians and Hindus on
conversion is the change of membership from one’s own religion to another
religion.

Or else we need to appreciate theologians’ view in relation to this issue. The

relevant proposals are: the concept of Secret Disciple by German theologian
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (who accepted Christ internally and living according to the
standards of religion outwardly. For e.g. Joseph of Arimatea), Churchless
Christianity by M.M Thomas (Christians who are not continuously going to the
church but remain under the strict disciplines of Christianity) and Anonymous
Christianity of Karl Rahner (there is a reality which is present anonymously in
their faiths and operative in their rites and ceremonies for salvation...the good
and bonafide Hindu is saved by Christ and not by Hinduism... 38) In all these
three proposals the implied meaning is transformation rather than conversion. In
the same line, Roger Hedlund also argues that transformation is the apt word in
the midst of perturbations in India as it is aiming the radical change of a person
ultimately to God and to himself/herself as well rather than to any of renowned
Indian religions. Joshua Iyadurai is more concerned of the self transformation
and he contends that the core of self transformation is the change of identity 39-a
change in self perception, identity, behaviours, goals and strivings. It is,
therefore, is good to use the word transformation instead of conversion in order
to avoid the tensions and perturbations between Christians and Hindus.

37
Harold G. Coward, (ed.), Modern Indian Response to Religious Pluralism (Delhi: Sri Sat Guru Publications,
1987), x.
38
Binod Peter Senapati, “The Uniqueness of Christ in a Multi-Religious Context” in Allahabad Theological
Journal Vol: 4 (2014), 129.
39
Joshua Iyadurai, “Religious Conversion-Self Transformation and Social Transformation” in Felix Wilfred
(ed), Transforming Religion: Prospects for a New Society (Delhi: ISPCK, 2009), 198.

8
Epilogue

The entire episode of Ghar Wapsi as turning out to be proselytizing movement

has to be considered as political gimmicks that fabricate the Indian society at
the cost of the secular nature of our country thereby curtailing the human
freedom and fundamental rights in India. Ghar Wapsi, therefore, is one of the
manifestations of pseudo-secularism that is at work today against Christianity
who always engages in the practice of conversion and thereby Christians
become the scapegoat of false secularism in India. Thus, Ghar Wapsi movement
has become a politically motivated, religiously sanctioned, economically
sponsored and culturally forced phenomenon in India today. Ghar Wapsi, in
essence, is one of the pertinent issues used by Hindu fanatics both in symbolic
and instrumental senses to organise and agitate Hindus against minorities in
India in general and Christians in particular.