The Jharkhand government adapted the draft of ‘Jharkhand Freedom of Religion Bill 2017’ or ‘Jharkhand Dharma Swatantra Adhiniyam’. Also known as ‘Religious Freedom Bill 2017’, it was passed on 8 August 2017. It is to come into force from the date of its issuance.

The bill forbids religious conversion ‘through allurement or coercion’ and violators will face a three-year jail term and a fine of Rs.50,000. Heavier punishment, up to four years jail-term and a fine of Rs.1 lakh, is visualised if the ‘victim’ is a minor scheduled caste or scheduled tribe girl. While the government claims the Bill will deter those who fiddle with Adivasi culture by carrying out religious conversions through enticement, blackmail or coercion, many believe the provisions of the Bill attack freedom of religion.

A day before the Cabinet decision, residents of Jharkhand awoke to front-page advertisements with pictures of Mahatma Gandhi, and a venomous quotation attributed to him attacking conversions by Christian missionaries. Certainly the words have been culled out of context and distorted. It is worrying to point out that taxpayers’ money is used by the state to drum up hatred against a section of people of the state.

Members of the Constituent Assembly took great care to safeguard the freedom of religious belief in the Indian Constitution.

After much in-depth debate, it had decided that this freedom should not only allow one to practise and profess one’s faith, but also to propagate it. However, organisations like the RSS never reconciled to this fundamental guarantee of the Constitution. Their rhetoric foregrounds the ‘anti-national’ activity of Christian conversions allegedly funded by big foreign money. It hardly matters to them that facts don’t bear out their claims. Christians constituted 2.5% of India’s population in 1981, and 2.3% in 1991, 2001 and 2011. If large-scale conversions were indeed occurring as the vested interests allege, the Christian population would have swelled. This non-stop propaganda has resulted in profound and sometimes violent divisions between Christian and non-Christian Adivasi people.

Christians constitute 4.3% of the population of Jharkhand. The Adivasi families belonging to the Sarna faith comprise nearly 13% of the population. Christians and tribal families and communities who identify themselves as Hindus and Sarnas live in peace with this diversity of faith practices.

Several Christian groups as well as Sarna groups have already hit the roads to oppose the Bill which will cause divisions among the Adivasis. Bp. Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX, Secretary General of CBCI has written a strongly worded letter addressed to the Prime Minister of India pointing out the kind of division and hatred the Jharkhand government is trying to create by bringing in this Bill.

The Chief Minister of Jharkhand has already hinted at the impending Bill in one of his visits to Santal Pargana area and has spoken about the ‘conversions’. Now that it has happened it may be a meaningful task to understand the aim behind the Bill and the way it is going to affect the socio-political and common life of people of Jharkhand.

CNT and SPT Amendment Bill 2016
Moreover, the Jharkhand government amended the state’s two important Tenancy Acts, the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT 1908), and Santal Parganas Tenancy Act (SPTA 1949), on Wednesday, 23 November, 2016. These acts safeguard the land rights and the livelihood of the Adivasis of Jharkhand. Against the backdrop of stiff opposition to the amendments, the Governor of Jharkhand ‘returned’ the Bill to the government expressing her reservations on the Bill towards the end of June, 2017. Governor Draupadi Murmu had returned the Bills asking the state government about its benefits to the Adivasi people. The Governor had reportedly received 192 objections against the amendment of the Bills.

The whole act of proposing and passing the Jharkhand Freedom of Religion Bill 2017 has to be seen against the above background. Some of the statements of Jharkhand Chief Minister Mr. Raghubar Das published in the local English dailies are worth mentioning here.

One of the points that Raghubar Das is harping on is that his government would like “to keep anti-development forces at bay” and “all those who cited ‘water, forest and land’ to incite tribals would now be reined in.”

“Missionaries have always adopted the modus operandi of ‘jal, jangal, jameen’ by putting the tribals at the forefront to block development.” (The Telegraph, 14 September, 2017)

The journalists asked the Chief Minister pointed questions on this issue. How on earth did the Chief Minister bring in the issue of ‘jal, jangal, jameen’ is difficult to comprehend unless one reads the hidden agenda of the BJP government.

In Hindi there is a proverb ‘khisiyani billi khambha noche’ (an upset cat claws at anything that it comes across). The act of the Jharkhand BJP government reflects such behaviour. After all, no independent survey, no census hints at or proves that there have been mass conversions neither to Christianity nor to any minority religion. On the other hand, one keeps hearing of ‘Ghar Wapsi’ every now and then! One wonders if the present Bill will be applicable to these conversions too and whether stringent actions will be taken!!

The After-effects
The majority of the Adivasi think-tanks and the Adivasi population in general are wary of the effects of the said Bill. The people are still in shock and trying their best to understand the implications. Some of the effects and implications that one could think of are horrifying.

Growing Distrust: Because of the historical experiences of the ill-effects of interactions with non-Adivasis, be they voluntary or imposed, the distrust of Adivasis against non-Adivasis will grow wider and wider. This divide will be at two levels. Firstly, towards Mr. Raghubar Das, who is the first non-Advasi Chief Minister of the state. Any moves made by him towards welfare of Adivasis will be suspect. Politically one sees very little chance of Mr. Raghubar Das being able to do much for the Adivasi world. Secondly, all those who support the Bill will remain part of ‘Diku’ world – a term that has been used by the Adivasis from time immemorial for non-Adivasis who create trouble for them.

Brother Against Brother: Part of the propaganda of the Bill is to tell the Sarna Adivasis that the Christian Adivasis have been plundering the Adivasi culture and customs. And that they have been converting the Sarnas in the name of education and other services they provide. If the government succeeds in its propaganda the divide between these Adivasi groups would be tormenting.

It is to be underlined that in spite of the rhetoric of the fundamentalist forces; the culture and customs of the Adivasis have been documented and propagated by none other than the Christians. Such records speak for themselves. Fr. (Dr.) Camile Bulke, SJ is one of the universally accepted Hindi Scholar who worked on the Ramayana. One wonders how many Hindus have been converted to Christianity because of his contribution to Hindi and Hindu spirituality!

The government, on the one hand, alleges that missionaries are converting the gullible Adivasis to Christianity. On the other hand, the attitude of the government has made it amply clear time and again that it is not interested in safe-guarding the interests of the Sarna Adivasis. In one of the recent queries by the journalists, Raghubar Das was asked why the government doesn’t enact the Sarna Code that the Adivasis have been demanding; he had no comments to make.

Back to Square One: If the Bill is passed, the Adivasi world will find itself back to square one when there was zamindari, bethbegari, plundering of the land by mahajans and so on. Of course, the forms of exploitation will be modern! The migration of the population will ever increase, the migration of the youth to cities, trafficking, etc. may start happening in broad day-light! Displacement will no more remain a small issue but will become a calamitous reality that would engulf the whole Adivasi world.

The Way Ahead
Things don’t remain the same at all times! Necessity is the mother of invention. It is important to recognise the havoc the Bill can cause at the social level. Thinkers, well-wishers and like-minded people must come together and work with greater intensity to make sure the kind of divisions discussed above do not happen. Perhaps this is an invitation to look at the realities of today differently and look for new ways to address them. One is also compelled to think as to what has one really done to build bridges in the above-mentioned contexts, and how and what is one called to do in today’s situation? How is one challenged today to build bridges to bring God’s hope and peace to this part of the world?

The changing political scenario is also an opportunity for Christians to introspect as to what it means to be a Christian today and what would it mean today to spread the Good News of the Lord which is an inherent part of practising Christianity. In India today, nobody is a missionary in the sense that BJP would like people to believe. All Adivasis – Christians, Sarnas and those who claim to be practicing Hindu religion – all are sons of the soil and living under the esteemed protection of the same Constitution of India that they hold in the highest possible esteem and respect.