My Views On Conversion to Jainism

My Views On Conversion to Jainism

In reply of the renowned scholar Kancha Illaiah, Hem Raj Jain has suggested that oppressed classes may try Jainism. That is a good concept, and some great Jain Acharyas have already executed this idea. For instance, late Acharya Nanalalji Maharaj successfully initiated hundreds of thousands of people from Meghwal/ Balai (Bhangi) community into Jainism in Malawa region of North India. These neo-Jains are known as Dharmpals, and are staunch Jains.

Similarly, another great Jain Acharya converted about one lakh of butchers (Hindu Khatik) into Jainism. That was a great work, as the butchers were directly involved in killings of animals, and it was their occupation. They threw away this occupation and adopted other non-violent occupations. These people now are known as Veervals.

Acharya Vijay Indra Din Suri, who was born in a tribal community, converted about Half a Million tribals into Jainism in Gujarat. These converted tribal people are known as Kshatriy Parmar Jains.

In Eastern states of India like Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar, there is a community known as Saraak, which was follower of Jainism in ancient and medieval times and was converted to Hinduism thereafter, is now again returning to their original religion, i.e. Jainism. Thanks to the missionary work of some great Jain monks and activists.

All the neo Jains I have mentioned above are following Jainism in right manner.

Now, my views about Hem Raj Jain’s article. Although his concept is right one, there are many flaws in his thinking. He has mentioned Jainism as a sect of Hinduism. That is not a right thing and this issue has been discussed for a lot of times. Then why he thinks so? Some of his views clearly indicate that he is a Saffron man, probably belonging to RSS. These people always want to keep oppressed people away from Hinduism. No matter if oppressed people adopt Jainism, Buddhism or Sikhism, their only wish is that they should not get converted to Islam and Christianity.

These people always mention that Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism are sects of Hinduism, but they never talk about the status of Vedic religion in Hinduism. Why they never say that Vedic religion is a sect of Hinduism? Their theory is: Jainism is a sect of Hinduism, Hinduism means Vedic Religion, and so Jainism is a sect of Vedic religion.

Hem Raj like to use the word ‘transformation’ instead of ‘conversion’. But he should know that both the words have the same meanings. By the way, why these people do not ‘transform’ the oppressed people to the Vedic religion instead of showing them the Buddhist or Jain way?

Hem Raj has mentioned that 85% of 1200 millions India are Hindus. It is the biggest fake statement in his article. Deduct 12% Muslims, 2.5% Christians, 2% Sikhs, 1% Jains, 1% Buddhists, 16% Dalits, 8% Tribals, and 1% others from 100 and the Hindus remain at 56.5%. This percentage too will decrease soon to make Hindus a minority religion as Kshatriyas, the main pillar of so-called Hinduism is awakened and many of them are going away from Hinduism.

-Mahavir Sanglikar
0 962 372 5249
jainway@gmail.com

Please read following articles on related subjects:

Recent Conversions to Jainism
Forced Hinduism

Now Conversion law violation is a criminal offence in Gujarat

GANDHINAGAR: From now on, anyone wishing to convert will have to tell the government why they were doing it and for how long they had been following the religion which they were renouncing, failing which, they will be declared offenders and prosecuted under criminal laws.

Forced conversion could land those responsible a three-year jail term. This clause is contained in the rules of the anti-conversion law which came into effect on April 1.

The new law is called Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, 2003, and took five years to be implemented because of the failure of the state government to come up with rules on the kind of information to be provided when applying for permission to convert to any religion.
The Bill confirms that Jainism and Buddhism are not sub-sects of Hinduism. The rules have been published in the Gujarat government gazette.

The rules make it obligatory for a priest seeking to convert someone from one religion to another to take prior permission of the district magistrate in order to avoid police action.

The priest, in fact, will have to sign a detailed form providing personal information on the person whom she/he wishes to convert, whether the one sought to be converted is a minor, a member of Scheduled Caste or Tribe, her/his marital status, occupation and monthly income.

Anyone willing to convert will have to apply to the district magistrate a month before the rituals and give details on the place of conversion, time and reason.

After getting converted, the person will have to obligatorily provide information within 10 days on the rites to the district magistrate, reason for conversion, the name of the priest who has carried out the ritual and full details of the persons who took part in the ceremony.

The district magistrate will have to send a quarterly report to the government listing the number of applications for prior permission, comparative statistics of the earlier quarter, reasons for granting or not granting permission, number of conversions, and number of actions against offenders.

From TOI

Gujarat pulls out anti-conversion bill

Gujarat government pulls out the controversial Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill on Monday which made state interference necessary for conversion but allowed conversion from one faction to another in the same religion.

The move came only after the Governor N K Sharma returned the bill to sought explanation of the provision given in the bill against Article 25 of our Constitution.

The Governor remarked, “The provisions of amendment bill violated Article 25 of the constitution, which guarantees to all citizens to freely profess, practice and propagate any religion. The bill should be reconsidered for suitable amendments so as to bring its contents in conformity with the constitution.”

“The proposed amendment would amount to withdrawing the protection against forceful or inappropriate religious conversions, particularly in case of Jains and Buddhists,” he added.
A provision in the bill clubbed Jain and Buddhism into the same religion Hindu, Sunni and Shia in Muslim while placing Protestants and Catholics in Christianity.

The ire of the people and various institutions lied in the provision for seeking the DM's permission mandatory for any conversion, unlike other state where this is not mandatory.
The withdrawal of the bill is also seen as aftereffects Asma Jahangir who visited Gujarat on March 9 as UN special representative on freedom of religion and met Narendra Modi who assured her that there is complete religious freedom in Gujarat and the minorities are safe in the state.

The bill aims at discouraging conversion but especially it will batter Dalits as the bill clubbed Jainism, Buddhism with Hinduism. Dalits generally convert to Buddhism, who might be forcibly converted or lure back to convert to Hinduism. The bill also wanted to replace the definition of forced conversion under which a person if relinquished one denomination and adopt another of the same religion would be excluded from the purview of conversion. The amendment but considered Sikh as separate religion.

The All India Digambar Jain Dharam Sanrakshini Sabha reacted strongly with the other social and religious organisation against the union of their religion with Hindu.

This step as many experts view will flare up communal tensions and it also defy Supreme Court verdict which identified both Jainism and Buddhism as separate religion in 1992 and 2004 respectively.