A bid for intra-religion conversion foiled by Governor

Aug 01: The Gujarat Governor Naval Kishore Sharma after careful analysis of base of different religions and considering various concerns of religious leaders has returned the Gujarat Freedom of religion (amendment) 2006 bill to the assembly.

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The state assembly passed the bill despite strong opposition from congress to amend the anti-conversion act.

The amendment bill presented Jainism and Buddhism as a part of Hinduism and on the basis of that allowed conversion among different sects of faith. For example if one Jain wants to convert to Hindu religion then that doesn’t attract the clauses of anti conversion act. The new bill has also counted Shiia and Sunni as a branch of Islam, Catholic and Protestants as a branch of Christian religion and hence allows conversion between them.

This brought strong protests from Jain and Buddhist scholars as according to them these are two different and independent religions as per the Constitution of India and hence can not be counted as denominations of Hinduism.

The Governor also found it volatile in nature as it violates the Article 25 of the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of religion and protection against forced or falsified conversions.

In a sense the bill is intended to change the whole meaning of conversion by allowing conversion between two sects of one faith and this is the prime reason of resentment among scholars of different religions.

In practical if the amendment is passed then it will be difficult to check the forceful conversion of Jains and Buddhists into Hindus and even vice versa. Some delegates of Jain and Christian religious organizations had met Governor to register their objections over this bill. Considering the bill with all angles and also Supreme Court’s earlier ruling that Jainism and Buddhism are independent religions formed with personification of Hinduism and not as a forceful conversion by outsiders, the Governor thought it wise to return the bill to assembly.

Meanwhile the Gujarat government has decided to implement the original anti-conversion Act passed by the assembly in 2003. As per this act any one whether institution or individual engaged in forced conversion of a person would be awarded an imprisonment up to four years and a fine up to Rs. 100,000 but after some revision. The 2003 act was passed by the then governor Sunder Singh Bhandari.

Again Governor Sharma has to give his consent to the bill but he first needs to clear about the definition of conversion which the bill lacks to clarify.