Editorial: Needed - Secular salvation

Most liberal observers have chosen to view the attacks on churches in Orissa and Karnataka as a sign of the rise of Hindu fundamentalism in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party or by coalitions in which it figures. Those on the right suggest that these clashes are an inevitable result of the rise of fundamentalist Christianity that offers temporal rewards such as schooling and education in return for spiritual salvation. Both points of view offer, at best, a very partial explanation of the effect rather than an insight into the deeper causes of this confrontation. Whether people are being subject to “forced conversions” by Christians is neither here nor there — and the number of conversions is too small to warrant any concern about a change in the population mix, even at district level. The fact that two religious systems are competing for the “harvesting of souls” is a symptom of the secular state’s failure to deliver adequate social infrastructure and upward mobility. It is no coincidence that Orissa, the state worst hit by the communal crisis, and the adjoining states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand — India’s emerging “Bible belt”, in the fevered imagination of Bajrang Dal goons — are not only among India’s poorest states, they report some of the country’s worst human development indicators too. Orissa has the highest percentage of people below the poverty line (46 per cent) and figures at the bottom of the table in terms of life expectancy and access to education, according to the latest Economic Survey. Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh do not lag far behind on these parameters. When secular, government institutions fail to assure the people access to good education and health, it is inevitable that those at the bottom of the pyramid will turn to institutions that can offer them a fighting chance of moving up in the world. Orissa, which was far worse hit than Karnataka, exemplifies this very well.

 

Religious belief systems the world over have used the provision of social infrastructure in charitable garb as the temporal vehicle for propagation. When the Hindu right accuses its Christian competitors of opportunism, it is referring to a model that has been at the heart of missionary philosophy since the East India Company started operations on the Malabar coast over three centuries ago. Many Christian organisations have provided an easy target for attack because of their association, first, with the erstwhile colonial power and later with American evangelical fervour (many of the newer denominations are US-funded). The point is that the opportunistic propagation model is not unique to Christians — Hindu gurukuls and colleges and Islamic madrassas offer similar facilities. It is hardly surprising that Hindu charitable institutions have recently started setting up their own school networks in the region in a bid to “save” Indian souls. It is worth wondering whether these souls would have required any kind of religious salvation had they had access to quality government schools, hospitals and other amenities. That gross enrolment rates in schools in this belt are accompanied by high drop-out rates is a good indication of the issue. Marx described religion as the opium of the masses. In India’s poorest states, it offers, in whatever form, a practical salvation for the masses. So, the quicker politicians on either side of the divide understand the importance of good governance, the less communal India will be.