THE shameful “bahulao, betibachao” slogan (get the bride, save the daughter) of RSS affiliate Bajrang Dal is claimed to be the “Hindu” counter to the so-called “love jihad” campaign led by it and other Hindutva groups that led to communal polarisation and violence against the minority community in Uttar Pradesh. The cases showcased then as illustrations of love jihad by these outfits such as in the Meerut case turned out to be totally false and manufactured when the young woman categorically stated that she was in a consensual relationship with a person who happened to belong to the minority community. Yet the same utterly reprehensible communal intervention which seeks to turn love into a reason for hate campaigns has occurred again, this time in Gwalior. Here the couple who were reportedly in a longstanding relationship got married and the young woman converted, but as soon as this became known the Bajrang Dal and others got the police to intervene in the name of non-implementation of the anti-conversion law adopted by the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh. They said the girl had converted without legal procedures mandated by the law.

The anti-conversion laws in operation in the states of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are quite draconian. No one can convert without the “permission” of the district administration. This gives an opportunity to a communal administration to intervene in what is clearly an entirely personal matter. The police in the case in Gwalior forcibly separated the couple in the name of “investigation” even though they were consenting adults in a relationship. The young woman was threatened that she would be sent to a government institution unless she agreed to separate from her husband and go back to her parents. Ultimately the “compromise” reached is that she will stay with her paternal aunt till the case is“decided.”

Thus force and violence is being used to separate and break up personal relationships in the name of anti-conversion laws. The very term used “get the bride” negates the concept of consent and is an invitation to violence against Muslim women. Whether it is love jihad or bahulao, the grossly anti-woman character of these Hindutva outfits is clear enough.

But as far as the application of the anti-conversion law is concerned it happens when the girl is a Hindu. There are no cases reported of such application of the law if the girl happens to be a Muslim girl marrying a Hindu man. According to press reports, the convenor of the outfit in UP said the “Bahulao” campaign was aimed at making Muslim or Christian girls, daughters-in-law in Hindu households so that they can learn the “rich cultural and traditional values of Hinduism.” The children born of such marriages would be brought up as Hindus thus countering the population growth. But such is the hypocrisy of these outfits that they see nothing contradictory in their demand for an anti-conversion law and their current campaign of bahulao.

CAMPAIGN OF

HYPOCRISY

The “ghar wapasi” campaign is as rooted in hypocrisy and double standards as the love jihad and bahulao campaigns and actions and has the sanction and encouragement of top RSS leaders.

"Abhi chor pakda gayahai. Mera maal chor ke paas hai. Aur yeh duniya jaanti hai. Main apna maal wapas loonga.Yeh kaun se badi baat hai" (Now the thief has been caught. My belongings are with the thief. The world knows this. If I get my belongings back, what is the big deal?)

These are not words spoken by Pakistani terrorists targeting Kashmir. These are words of Mohan Bhagwat, the made-in-India RSS chief. It's not just the crudity of the statement that is objectionable – for the RSS chief, human beings exist as "belongings" or "maal" to be manipulated for a political agenda. His statement is objectionable and condemnable because it is a direct threat to all minorities in India. He further said “Why should we be scared? We are not infiltrators, we are not foreigners. This is a Hindu rashtra..."

Decades ago, Bhagwat's predecessor M S Golwalkar, the second Sarsanghchalak of the RSS, had written a book called "We, Our Nationhood Defined." He considered Hitler his hero. It is worth revisiting his writings and speeches because the present prime minister considered him an inspiration and wrote his biography "Jyotipunj". Conflating race with religion, Golwalkar had said, "There are only two courses open to foreign elements: merge themselves in the national race and adopt its culture, or live at the mercy of the national race."

The "ghar wapasi" – the so-called homecoming programmes being aggressively practiced by Hindutva outfits – is another term for the "merger" envisaged by Golwalkar. It is conversion by coercion, conversion by social and physical pressure.

Thus if Hindus decide to join another religion that is ‘conversion’ against which there should be a law but if minorities convert to Hinduism then it is not conversion but ghar wapasi and therefore outside the ambit of the law.

Yet another set of double standards is the accusation that Christian missionaries “bribe” poor Hindus to convert. Yet the blatant bribes given to 300 Muslims in the so-called ghar wapasi programme in Agra were strongly defended by BJP central ministers. The Hindutva groups went even further asking for donations, as according to their own statements, each conversion would cost between three lakhs to five lakhs. This of course is not bribery!

INDIA'S CONSTITUTION

UNDER CHALLENGE

Bhagwat's statement and the threats are against the constitution, against the law. The speech he made was in Kolkata. The West Bengal government of Mamata Banerjee should file a case against him under Sec 153a of the IPC for creating hostility between two communities. In addition, all the ghar wapasi programmes being organised are equally illegal and are a violation of the law under the same provisions.

Ghar wapasi has little or nothing to do with religious belief and faith. It is a straight political slogan that encompasses within it the distorted Hindutva view of history, namely that all Indians have "Hindu roots", that Hindus were "forcibly converted to Islam or Christianity which are "foreign" religions, and that therefore it is a "nationalist" duty to bring them all "home" to the Hindutva family.

For these people, India did not exist before the Aryan cultures, languages and texts became dominant. For them, for example, the rich traditions of adivasi history, spiritual and religious beliefs and rituals markedly different from "Hindu roots" are to be wished away. In reality, if there is to be ghar wapasi for adivasis, it would be to opt out of the increased Hinduisation of their traditions being pushed by RSS fronts like the Vanavasi Kalyan Parishad.

In addition, the ghar wapsi programmes do raise the issue of continued caste discrimination and indignities against dalits. If dalits are considered unclean untouchables and are prohibited to enter the holy sanctum sanctorum of temples like the Nathdwara temple, then their conversion to religions they consider more equal are no more forced than was Babasaheb Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism. 

His was the strongest indictment of the hated caste system, equally relevant today given the virulence of continued caste-based violence. The hypocrisy of the ceremony of washing the feet of those “coming home" is only matched by the outrageous washing of temple premises after a dalit enters it, as the Bihar chief minister recently experienced.

Thus just as in BJP ruled states there is a difference in the attitude towards an inter community marriage when the girl is a Hindu to when the girl is a Muslim, similiarly anti-conversion laws target Christian and Muslim conversions while so-called home comings or even more crudely named "shuddhikaran" or "purification" programmes are routinely held under the benign gaze of the law. It started in earnest in 1996 under the leadership of BJP strongman Dilip Singh Judeo of Chhattisgarh, who organised such programmes among Christian tribal communities leading to communal hostility and tension in adivasi areas. There are numerous cases filed against Christian missionaries for “forcible conversions" in these states but not a single case against ghar wapsi organisers.

When the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, echoed by BJP chief Amit Shah and ministers like Venkaiah Naidu in parliament, challenges the opposition political parties to accept a national anti-conversion law, first let them answer whether they include ghar wapasi as forcible conversion. Let them answer: will they uphold Article 25 of the Constitution of India  which specifically protects "freedom of conscience" and "free profession, practice and propagation of religion"?

India does not require an anti-conversion law. Such laws belong to theocratic States. India is not and will never be a theocratic State. But with its aggressive campaign for Hindu rashtra, that is the agenda of the RSS. The demand for an anti-conversion law is part of that agenda. The RSS and its various fronts do not accept the basic secular structure of India with equal rights to all citizens and with specific protections to minorities.

There is nothing new in this. From Savarkar to Golwarkar to Mohan Bhagwat, the language and the aim is the same. The freedom struggle rejected the divisive slogans of the RSS and it was the unity of the people which freed India from British Rule. India's constituent assembly while framing India's constitution once again rejected the RSS' sectarian view of India and its history.

For 68 years, India has maintained its secular character. If Mohan Bhagwat makes headlines today, it is because he and his organisation, have, courtesy the prime minister, direct access to State power.

It is for this reason that the demand that the prime minister should make his mind known on the forcible conversions in the name of ghar wapasi through a statement was raised in parliament. He refused to do so. At a time when India's constitution is under challenge, his silence is deafening.