One of the most debated topics these days in India is the religious conversions that are happening in large numbers. This has generated quite a bit of media bytes and in needless to mention the impact it has in regional and national politics. 

I have always believed that religion is the path to get connected to that higher power who we refer to as God, Ishwar, Allah, Rab and many more other names depending on what our religious beliefs are. I am a very proud Hindu and history has it that Hinduism is one of the very ancient religions and a birth source to many others. I believe in my Sanatan Dharma, which lays emphasis on Karma and the worship of every life form on the planet, tolerance to everyone’s beliefs & religions and when you dutifully deliver your Karma is when you attain Salvation or Moksha. 

That said, when I read or hear about these religious conversions I wonder as to why people are not happy in the religion they are born into? Why do they feel the need to convert? While I am sure this is across religions, but I think Hinduism as a religion has seen the most conversions whether to Christianity or Islam than the other way around. 

I found an interesting statistic below on converts by religion (source – Wikipedia) 

Conversions impacting religion in India 

· Hinduism (79.8%) 

· Islam (14.2%) 

· Sikhism (1.72%) 

· Christianity (2.3%) 

· Buddhism (0.7%) 

· Jainism (0.37%) 

· Unaffiliated (0.24%) 

· Others (0.66%) 

I understand that people are entitled to their free will in a democracy like ours however if these are politically motivated or induced conversions to fan religious extremism then the people behind these should be stopped as these are dangerous to our society and Country.

Author: @im_vandy 

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.