Following continuous onslaught of conversion attempts by missionaries, a Hindu village in TN put up a board warning against proselytisation. But with police help missionaries have removed the board. The SC Hindus, majority of the village, are offended by the conversion attempts of the evangelists.
A few days ago the picture of a board(in Tamil) saying, “Beware! Only Hindus live here. No one has permission to preach or conduct prayer meetings here. If breached, necessary action will be taken” went viral in social media. It was placed in a village, Kaduvettipalayam in Coimbatore. While it received acclamation from fellow Hindus, the usual suspects termed it as suppression of freedom of religion and accused Hindu outfits of interference.
However, a BBC Tamil report says otherwise. It is gleaned from the report that the village head put up the board only after repeated attempts to proselytise the Hindu population despite multiple police complaints. A local police officer told the BBC reporter that some missionaries had visited the SC majority village 2 months ago for proselytisation. But the villagers opposed them and called the police.
Police talked to both parties and convinced the villagers to give up the protest and sent the missionaries away. It was peaceful for a few weeks, but missionaries arrived again which prompted the villagers to put up the warning sign. The police officer who talked to BBC clearly said, “No political party or organisation is involved in this”.
Infact Hindu Munnani, the leading Hindu organisation of TN, put out posts in social media applauding the villagers for their awareness and resistance to conversion. The board has been removed now. Local Inspector who removed the board said, “We removed the board as soon as we got information. But we haven’t filed any case as there was no complaint”. It is a mystery as to why he would remove the board if there was no complaint against it.
This government has been forcing officials to work based on social media pressure. The HRCE Department has been trying to take over the Chidambaram Nataraja temple. When Dikshitars who manage the temple asked for a proper reason to allow HRCE officials to inspect the temple and its account books, the latter said that they received complaints on social media.
Dravidianists and anti-Hindus have been baying for Brahmin blood and Chidambaram temple, which won the case against HRCE control, has been an eye sore for them. Even before DMK came to power they were asking for the temple to be taken over and this is what the officials claimed as “social media complaints”. Coming back to the current issue, it appears that a similar pressure tactic was used to remove the board.
Missionaries and their lap dogs Dravidianists claim that proselytisation is an absolute freedom guaranteed by the constitution under Article 25. Freedom given by the article is actually being abused as missionaries are a nuisance bothering people living in peace. They not only abuse Hindu deities, but also proclaim that theirs is the only true god. If it was vice versa, Dravidianists and left liberals would sing a different tune.
Recently religious leaders of a Christian denomination demanded the DMK representatives to remove specific rules, crack down on Hindu outfits and allow them to build churches as they wish as promised by the party during the election campaign. It seems to have worked in the case of Kaduvettipalayam.
No freedom of an individual or a group should infringe on the beliefs and freedom of others. But that is exactly what missionaries do. They shout in public places, transports and even go to the houses of non believers to harass them with their preaching. It is time for a law like the ‘Yarovaya Law’ in Russia which limits proselytisation in public and restricts “religious assembly from occurring anywhere but in officially recognised religious buildings”. For people of all faiths to live in harmony and peace in Bharat, a law like the ‘Yarovaya Law’ is the need of the hour.
