INDIA, January 14, 2015 (Swarajya): The national Indian debate about the recent ghar wapsi reconversion drive of some Hindu organizations bypasses the broader narrative of ongoing, aggressive campaign by Christian missionary organisations. Over the past month, Indian media has tirelessly covered and attacked the RSS for its plans to convert several thousand Christians and Muslims to Hinduism. The press hubbub was largely stirred up by parties in the Opposition such as the defeated Indian National Congress, which criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi, though these reconversions were not sanctioned by a government entity.
The last official Indian census to publish statistics about the nation’s religious demography was in 2001. At that time, 2.34 per cent of the nation’s population were reported to be Christians; 14 years have passed since the survey, and many Christians and Hindus alike estimate that this percentage has greatly increased in the intervening years.
Rather than using ghar wapsi as yet another obvious opportunity to criticise the RSS and the Modi government, the event should instead be used to force a larger, urgent and direly needed discussion regarding the ethics and practice of predatory proselytization that continues to endanger India’s religious harmony and pluralistic ethos.