A choice that may disturb harmony

The VHP thinks that it is correcting a “historical wrong” and says Muslim organisations are pumping in Gulf money in the region to prevent it.

According to their version of history, the invaders forcibly converted Prithviraj Chauhan’s martial stock after his defeat. So they decided to `reconvert’ the Muslim peasant community. The result is an atmosphere of suspicion and mutual distrust.

Sajan of Suhawavillage, who converted and became Sajjan, is suspicious of his brother. He fears his brother will abduct his sons and circumcise them. But his brother who lives across the road says his brother’s religion does not bother him. “It is up to individuals to decide,” he says. Lal Singh of Khana Khera village says while the older generation is not bothered about religion, the younger generation is getting divided into staunch Hindus and Muslims. In Ruparel, villagers say they are perfectly happy the way they are and there is no need for them to become staunch Hindus and Muslims.

Both Hindu and Muslim organisations claim that they were not the ones to start the dividing process. But Lal Singh says the VHP began it, provoking a counter-campaign by the Muslim organisations. Uma Shankar, VHP’s organising secretary in Rajasthan says the campaign was started in the ’80s, but there were efforts by the Arya Samaj as early as in 1947.

The VHP intensified its campaign after the mass conversions to Islam inMeenakshipuram in Tamil Nadu. Shankar says maulavis from UP and Bihar flocked to the area and madrasas sprouted. So, he says, his organisation decided to “tell the people about their origins and bring them back in to the fold”.

Shankar says some Merats contacted them and said they were willing to convert if other Rajputs accepted them and agreed to have matrimonial alliances with them. The VHP persuaded Rawats, their Hindu counterparts who had in the ’30s stopped matrimonial relationships with Merats – to resume ties if they abandoned their Islamic practices.

The process of conversions are simple. An application form has to be filled up and a declaration of abandoning Islam and adopting Hinduism signed. This is to be followed by a yagya for `purification’. Shankar says there have been 148 yagyas and 54,000 Merats have embraced Hinduism.

To counter the Muslim campaign, the VHP has set up temples and group of volunteers to oversee the converts were adhering to Hinduism. Muhammed Suleman of Bithur sayshe does not mind the VHP spreading Hinduism among the community but says what bothers him is the falsehoods the organisation is spreading about Islam. “Our forefathers were not forced to become Muslims.

They adopted Islam under the influence of sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti,” he says.

Parallel to the VHP, Muslim organisations have also been working in the area, though not on the same scale. In the areas where they are active, they have been able to make the Merats dress differently and live in separate pockets. Suleman says Muslim organisations impart religious education as there was no knowledge about faith among the people. “They taught us about Islamic ways,” he says.

The Merats deny the VHP allegation that there has been an inflow of petrodollars to force them stick to Islam. Meanwhile, the VHP is getting increasingly aggressive in its campaign. Surendra Singh, who heads the VHP’s Jan Seva Pratishtan at Beawar, has announced the formation of `Chauhan Yuva Parishad’, an army of youths whowould protect the faith by preventing activities of Muslim organisations in the villages.

He said the VHP would soon launch a rath yatra to cover the entire Magra region to spread `awareness’ and to tell the Merats that they are descendants of the Hindu emperor Prithviraj Chauhan.