Story: An insight into religious conversion

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

    One wonders at times, if individuals are in the habit of peeping into their family history and more importantly their family tree as a giveaway to their posterity. Well if they are, they would surely know the names of their ancestors beyond their Grandfather; that is grandfather’s father and even his father and also his father’s father.

    It is widely believed many Muslims in India have converted from Hinduism. And that makes me wonder how the present generation of Muslims deal with their forefathers and ancestors who were Hindus; with love or hate? This is an emotional topic that is often thought of by inquisitive individuals but never spoken about, even in the serene and quiet corners of their homes. Also the society in general doesn’t want to dig into this tabooed adventure, and so be it. Yet there is an undying inquisition at times to know more about such happenings.

    Let us as a hypothesis think about a person named Brij Singh, son of Prakriti Singh, who some two hundred years ago converted into Islam and named himself as Shamsher Khan. If we were to take sixty years to be as one ‘generation’ that would mean this would be Shamsher Khan’s fifth generation as a Muslim, flaunting their surname as Khan. Let me further suppose that one out of the current descendant of Prakriti Singh is Amjad Khan, who knows about Prakriti Singh as part of his ancestry.

    Then my inquisition would run wild as I would like to fathom from Amjad Khan as to how he deals and feels about his ancestry and does he have any feelings for Prakriti Singh and Brij Singh, the last Hindu mark in his long lineage. Also, if he is proud and fond of his Hindu forefathers and his lineage or has he grown up hating them or revering them or thinking it is a zone where he should not enter. And, last but not the least if it is a stalemate issue beyond Amjad Khan’s comprehension.

    Often the friction point is the religion of a person. But can religion wash away the truism off an individual’s lineage is the big question; answer of which is only to be felt by the individual and never to be spoken about.

    Perhaps, this remains the weakness of mankind where, when one is bulldozed by religion he gives up on his lineage. While one may cosmetically try and overlook his lineage over his religion, but it is difficult to wash away the truism of life.

    And if the theory of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the world is one family) is not a myth we reach a point, that the world is but one family even if people may have converted into various religions and your lineage is a bliss and not a curse.

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