Are the Converted Tribals Really Hindu?

The conversion of Christians in the riot hit areas Kandhamal in Orissa underlines the hypocrisy of the whole conversion business. Several reports confirm that many tribals have cynically accepted the tonsuring of their hair and the mouthing of Vedic prayers as a small price to pay to get back to their villages. But such religious rituals do not represent a change of heart or faith. More significantly these tribals who had allegedly been converted to Christianity may not have been Hindus in the first place because they were usually the followers of numerous animistic traditions.

Anyone who has lived or worked among the tribals in remote areas of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra, Rajasthan, Bihar, Orissa, Himachal, Uttaranchal and elsewhere will have observed that most of the local tribal people worship at numerous shrines of Bhumi devtas, Jal devtas and the many other spirits of the land. Devotees offer these deities flowers, some food and bits of coloured cloth but there are seldom any Hindu rituals. At their festivals some locals, like African witch doctors, or Red Indian Shamans, sometimes go into frenzied dance and speak with the strange voices of the possessed. Blood sacrifices are usually offered to satisfy these spirits.

These cheerful animists have a deep faith in legions of good and bad spirits pervading their universe and try to intercede with them to seek good crops, healthy sons, good rains and to ward off bad weather, pests or illnesses. They do not believe in the gods or deities of any organized religion. No old shrine will ever have any representation of Shiva, Vishnu, Ganesh, Lakshmi let alone Buddha or the symbols of Christianity or Islam. Until they have professional priests or monks as in Christianity, Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism or religious scriptures they cannot be said to have any religion.

Temples tell many interesting tales. Gangaur is the second last of eight villages in the beautiful Tons River valley that flows down from Har ki Dun in Garhwal. It was a remote thickly forested area till approach roads were built during the past two decades so the old customs are slowly giving way to new social practices. Gangaur has about 100 wooden houses with intricately carved balconies and three temples. The main temple is the temple of Duryodana. The villagers consider themselves to be the descendents of the Kauravas who they feel were unjustly belittled in the legend of the Mahabharata. According to them, their ancestor had won the card game fair and square and it was the failure of the Pandavas to honour their commitments that led to the long chain of strife and sorrow. Duryodana is still revered as the presiding deity of the region and a palanquin with his idol along with three other small idols including one of Buddha is taken from village to village during their July festivals. The procession travels about 80 Kms from Netwar, Sankhri, Taluka, Gangaur to Osla and other villages.

Just outside the village are several shrines of several Bhumi Deotas that clearly show the respect they enjoy with fluttering cloth flags in the style of the Buddhist shrines that dot the area. Now some Hindus from the plains have erected a new Shiva temple with a black Nandi bull in front of it but this bare cement structure has very few devotees despite the exhortations of visiting priests from the plains who mock the local beliefs and propagate the idea that Shiva is the ultimate cosmic force and that all the revered local deities are mere manifestations of his omnipotent power.

As the people of the area do not worship Shiv or Vishnu, do not have Brahmin priests, do not recite Vedic hymns and do not subscribe to the deities or the tenets of practiced Hinduism, it begs a question as to whether they should be considered to be Hindus at all. But a new breed of aggressive and arrogant priests of Shiv and Vishnu have recently tried to capture many of the old sites of tribal worship, impose their beliefs on the locals and plant their idols, flags and tridents within the untended shrines of the old deities. Tribal people living hard and uncertain lives believe in miracles and any god that can allay their anxieties or grant them boons is welcome. No deity will, therefore, be removed or insulted for no one knows what vengeance they may wreak. A few Brahmin priests have recently taken up residence at some of the more popular shrines and chant their prayers but most worshippers still look to the original deities and observe their old festivals and traditions.

The forest shrines at remote places like the Nachiketa Lake near Uttarkashi, or near the Khatling glacier not far from Tehri, show many examples of such religious vandalism. Some Hindus may want to create a homogenous Hindu nationalism but this aggressive new evangelism is not the gentle tradition of Hinduism but an aggressive new religiosity certain to breed resistance and discord. The Dalits have a point. If the easygoing tribal people, openly despised by caste Hindus, are not Hindus perhaps a third of the people listed in the Census, as Hindu may actually be animist and not Hindu at all.

Forcible conversions of Hindus to Islam or Christianity by committed clerics and priests supported by their rulers had certainly been a factor in the past. Food, security, medical services and social uplift had also been useful persuaders. Many missionaries being strong believers in the need to `save the Heathen’ had certainly encouraged their students and patients to follow their beliefs. A few Hindu organisations like the Ramakrishna mission have also done good work. Conversions however seldom last unless there are conversions of the heart because the unconvinced will quickly revert to their original beliefs.

Today there is a new force of eager young people, inspired by strident Hindutva ideals who believe that all Indians who are not specifically Muslim, Jain, Christian, Buddhist or Sikh must be automatically Hindu. Although very few of them have done anything significant for the tribals and openly despise them as low caste they fervently believe in their faith and cannot understand why many tribals are so half-hearted about becoming proper Hindus. Unfortunately the largely defenseless Christian missionaries are soft targets and attacking them gets huge media impact for the political agendas of their political leaders. What these bigots do not understand that they will only gain real converts with the inclusive tolerance of true Hinduism and not through destructive violence.