Conversion in Mauritius
The reign of Aurangzeb (1658-1707) brought about one of the most violent religious campaigns in the history of the Mughal Empire. Millions of Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam by the invaders and thousands of Hindu temples were destroyed. Over centuries, Islam and Christianity fought holy wars for territorial expansion as well as spreading the religion and converting others.
In India, many NGOs have been banned as they were channeling funds illegally for conversion of Hindus to Islam or Christianity.
This is quite visible in the Kashmir Files which we described in the previous issue. Funds are coming from very rich Muslim countries and the Vatican to Africa and India to propagate Islam and Christianity respectively and to convert the poor, vulnerable, people with disabilities and women.
In Mauritius, history books are silent on this subject. Whenever Mauritians changed their religion, a change of name notice was published in the Government Gazette.
Nowadays, Hindus are changing religions without even changing names due to fear of being exposed and suffering repercussions.
Hindus are easy targets for conversion both by Christianity and Islam. As a result it is estimated that the Hindus percentage over the years has been reduced from 54% to 48.40%.
Hindus do not believe in conversion or territorial expansion. On the contrary, Hinduism advocates the acceptance of other religions. Some of those who were converted are now coming back on their own are called GHAR WAPSI (Home return).
Nobel prize winner Rabindranath Tagore in one of his works wrote :
“There are two religions on earth, which have distinct enmity against all other religions. These two are Christianity and Islam. They are not just satisfied with observing their own religions, but are determined to destroy all other religions.”
Later on he wrote:
“All other religions are false, their religions are only ways to Heaven, conflicts cannot be avoided. Thus, fundamentalism tries to abolish all other religions. This is called Bolshevism in religion. Only the path shown by Hinduism can relieve the world from this meanness. This is so because Hinduism welcomes all religions as it considers the world as one family.”
Today’s issue deals with religious conversion of five famous celebrities out of thousands, who adopted Hinduism on their own.They are all attracted by the principle of DHARMA which is :
“Do your duty and do not expect any rewards if you want to live happily”