The term for the Constituent Assembly (CA) got extended for three months on May 28. Roughly two weeks before extension, a peculiar news alert was being electrically circulated. It said that the new constitution of Nepal would incorporate anti-proselytizing provision. And, it is, as it claimed, against the principle of ´secular´ state. The mobiles were showered with short messages urging people to protest against such inclusion. A similar campaign was waged last year too at around the same time.
The underlying intentions of such an exercise are apparently not pious. A ´secular state´ only means that, first, the state will not have an official religion of its own. Second, no religion or sect will be discriminated on the basis of the faith it belongs to. And, third, all religions are free to practice their respective rituals but in a way in which the state mechanism would not be used to infringe the religious freedom of its citizens. But this does not at all mean that any coerced or coaxed conversion should be allowed. Rather, any secular state must ensure that any form of such forced conversions is made punishable by law.
Then, why are such campaigns taking place, even without verifying the fact whether the provisions like the one mentioned above are actually being considered by CA? Simply, there is an obvious dimension to it. For all practical purposes, proselytizing in our context means nothing but conversion of the so-called low-caste Hindus and Janajatis into Christians. The geometric rise in the number of churches over the years, in every nook and corner of the country, is a vindication of this. Therefore, the effort to ensure constitutional guarantee for proselytizing is undoubtedly a Christian missionary agenda.
There is no dearth of resources for such purpose as Nepal has allowed every single person or organization from the Christian countries to operate here without any screening. True, to some extent, our own orthodox rituals and social system, marked by untouchability, caste hierarchy etc also provided them grounds to blame Hinduism for the wretchedness of some communities. But, the fact of the matter is: Penury and religion are not relative, as evident in many Christian countries where poverty is still appallingly rampant. Nor is Hinduism the cause of backwardness. On the contrary, it is only due to highly democratic and liberal milieus of Hinduism that these missionaries in many forms, names and hues could so freely operate here without facing slightest of objections and obstacles, from the state or the communities.
Unquestionably, Nepal as a nation-state must employ policies to ameliorate the hardships and provide social and economic justice to its citizens. But conversion surely is not and cannot be the strategy to have these ends met.
These moves have inherent political connotation than the pious religious motives alone. The expansive tirade of Christians against Hindu-structuralism has provided fertile ground for proliferation of communism in Nepal. The collusion here, too, between Christianity and communism is in tandem with many ´theories´ and literatures developed as Christian Communism world over. The hammer in the communist flag has been replaced by the cross to provide a common emblem for the so-called Christian Communism.
But in the particular context of Nepal, this collusion has more grotesque face. It has proved to be one of the major curses for the present political mess and potentially destabilizing social intolerance. Initially the Christian crusaders tore apart the existing social fabric primarily inciting anguish in low-caste and Janajatis against the upper caste people. This move targeted at the marginalized groups, at its surface looked justifiable to the point of awarding self-respect, recognizing their role in the social businesses and putting inhuman treatment to fellow humans to an end. But the campaign soon exceeded its limits. It started to portray Christ as hero capable of doing any miracle and Krishna and other Hindu Gods as the villainous agents of all ills in their lives. Many Janajatis, who do not have scripture-rich and philosophized religions to follow, were easy prey of resource-rich, glib preachers of Christianity. These preachers sowed the seed of hatred among the communities and presented themselves as the angels of equality.
Then, the communists, particularly the radicals like the Maoists, taking cue from this hatred, led these masses to revolt. They honed the ´fighter´ sentiments of these people and used them as means to expand their organizational strength. Even worse, powerful communist outfits promised for separate ´states´ for each ethnic group. It further extended to the issues like putative right to self-determination and ethnic rights on local natural resources-jal, jameen and jungle.
All major donors who are supposedly providing financial support to Nepal, almost without exception, have dormant if not explicit agenda of furthering Christianity. Christianity has by now pervaded to even remote villages of Nepal, wearing a communist cloak. And, communists are the one who are mightiest in the present day Nepali politics.
The issues of inclusion and reservation are also gaining a distorted visage. The constitutional or legal assurance for inclusion and reservation means that the listed ethnic or caste identity need to be maintained to avail these benefits, thus, indefinitely preventing them of equal status and equal social standing. For example, if certain percent of employment is reserved for untouchable caste, it has to remain untouchable forever to qualify for the benefit. This is a tangible antithesis to human equality which has devastatingly counterproductive effects on nation-building process. They are equally mysterious too. If the state is capable and prepared to provide basic services and opportunities for every citizen on an equal basis, then why on earth is any law needed to create ´more equal´ citizens? If all citizens get food, shelter, education and employment on a fair basis and enjoy basic human rights, what could be the additional demand of these ´enlisted´ groups? The pro-proselytizing provision would definitely remain at the center of this entire discourse and the drafting process of the new constitution.
However, at present, there seem to be no takers of these opinions. There is no secret to the reasons for this. All major donors who are supposedly providing financial support to Nepal, almost without exception, have dormant if not explicit agenda of furthering Christianity. Christianity has by now pervaded to even remote villages of Nepal, wearing a communist cloak. And, communists are the one who are mightiest in the present day Nepali politics.
Therefore, it is no surprise that a single Dalit now is a pastor in the church, a hard-line communist ideologue, an inclusion activist and an advocate of ethnic federalism. Also, many topmost communist leaders at present are either former students or employees of Christian missionary schools.
The writer is the editor of Arthik Abhiyan
