Unwarranted, Your Holiness

India, when last heard of, was a vibrant, secular democracy. Sure, there are differences of opinion, and there are diverse political, social, intellectual and economic viewpoints. But all these must and do exist within a modern democratic state. What India is not is a theocracy, a state run by one religion that dominates over all others, where its tenets are the tenets of the state.

 

The Vatican is exactly that sort of a state. It is a religious city-state, run by the Catholic Church, which does not represent the wider Christian point of view, it must be noted. India does not come under the jurisdiction of Christendom. This makes Pope Benedict XVI's little lecture to the Indian Ambassador to the Holy See about India's secular responsibility and traditions a trifle hard to swallow.

 

It started of course with Benedict XVI's predecessor John Paul II who seven years ago took it upon himself to remind India that conversion is a right enshrined in the Constitution. The latest message of the current Pope, that it is disturbing to see some Indian states outlawing religious conversion, takes that feeling a step further.

 

The reason for this disquiet in the Catholic Church comes from the BJP-run states in India that have passed anti-conversion laws and the attempts of Tamil Nadu to follow suit. The issue of missionaries working in India has always been a contentious one. Many state governments, even those more secular than others, have also been apprehensive about proselytisation, whether by force or inducements.

 

These subjects have been part of the Indian discourse. The Constitution does allow the freedom to propagate and spread religion. The attempt to muzzle that has come under severe criticism in India, by Indians. The Pope’s statement, therefore, is gratuitous. And the outrage of the BJP is no less amusing, seeing as how the party would happily have turned India into a one-religion state, albeit not the religion of the Pope’s.

 

The upshot is that the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church has stepped over the line here. It may even be seen as a diplomatic gaffe, an unwarranted statement to an ambassador presenting his credentials, an act of interference in the internal affairs of another country. India does not need to be reminded about its constitutional responsibilities and the government of India has done well to remind the world of that.