A Thought By Arun Pannalal –
Lets have a look. The first riot against Christians in India took place Bastar, Chhattisgarh in the year 1835. Issues like FCRA, allurement, demographic change, or threats for conversion did not exist then, yet riots on conversion took place. Then what was the actual reason for the riots?
The truth bewilders. The British Government wanted to acquire land to construct the BNR railway line. In those times law was that only Brahmins could own the land in whole of India. Brahmins were not willing to give land for Railway construction. During that time the British were also trying to bring in TRIBAL LAND OWNERSHIP LAW. A law that empowered the tribal to own the land they had been living in for ages. Obviously opposition to this law came from the affected Brahmins.
RELIGIOUS Conversions was a handy tool as it is today. So allegations were drummed that the British were converting the tribals, to Christianity . It did not take long for the riots to break out. The rest is history.
Even today the situation is no different. And the interesting thing is that in the first census in 1950, Christians were 3%, and there was so much conversion that in 2011 the Christian population had decreased to 2.63%…!! Yet the allegation of illegal conversion sticks. This works every time. Conversion is a milking cow, governments are formed and dismantled, just by shouting Religious Conversion. These people will keep stoking the fire of hatred. At least the intellectuals should not fall for this trap of becoming blind followers.
VOICE OF REASON MUST SURVIVE.