A Hindu Youth’s Conversion Story: Why I chose Islam?

“I used to hate Muslims, but now I am proud to tell everyone that I too have become a Muslim.”

This is the confession of Siddharth, a young Indian man who, in 2012, decided to give up his longtime Hindu faith and convert to Islam, changing his name to Shadab.

At the time, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), one of India’s two largest political parties, was pushing an anti-conversion bill that aimed to prevent Hindu people from converting to Islam. The implementation of this bill set off a new wave of anti-Muslimism in India.

Born into a Hindu family, Siddharth would go to the temple every Tuesday and Saturday to pray, he would respectfully follow all the rules and requirements of the Hindu faith, he would regularly go to the temple to offer desserts to the gods, and he would celebrate all the festivals and traditions of the Hindu faith.

At the age of 19, Sidharth finally began to have doubts about his faith. He recalls, “I began to ask my parents to explain the Hindu faith to me in a more profound way, I wanted to know what our religious beliefs, doctrines and customs really meant, and they just told me that the faith was passed on from father to son, but they couldn’t give me any logical answer.”

From a young age, Siddharth’s parents indoctrinated him in the teachings of the Hindu faith, and he knew it so well that he knew which day belonged to which god, and which god was in control of which things. Eventually, however, he began to question the beliefs that had been handed down to him by his parents.

With doubt, he began to look for truth in other faiths. Because of the deep-rooted influence of the Islamic faith in mainland India, it was only natural for Sidharth to study the Islamic faith. As his interest in Islam grew, so did his family’s antipathy and opposition to him. However, nothing could stop his interest in the Islamic faith. One day, Siddharth began to worship in secret and to fast in the month of Ramadan.

As he moved closer to Allah, the gap between him and his family became more and more insurmountable. The family clearly sensed the change in him, so they began to monitor Shadab’s movements closely, even raiding Shadab’s room, searching for any books or objects related to the Islamic faith. One day, the family’s raids came to fruition: they found a prayer rosary, a prayer hat, and a pamphlet of worship instructions in Shaddaiq’s backpack.

The scary part is that even Sardai Rad’s neighbors began to help his family spy on him, and even began to question his family with hostility as to why they didn’t discipline Sardai Rad more severely. The hostility towards Shadaydaiq from his family, close friends, and neighbors continued to grow, and finally, in 2016, when Shadaydaiq was 23 years old, his family officially cut ties with him and kicked him out of the house.

To make matters worse, his demonstrated interest in the Islamic faith also angered his boss, who promptly fired him. Since then, he has lived a life of homelessness, with no one to turn to. For my family and all my compatriots who have shown hostility toward me, it is not my choice to leave Hinduism that they hate, it is my choice to convert to Islam,” says Shadbhai. Shadab’s love for Islam was so strong from the start that his family’s rebuke and alienation, and the hostility and hatred of his family, friends and neighbors, did not stop him from answering the call of Allah, and eventually he bravely marched into a local mosque and formally converted to Islam.

Although Shadab was expelled from his home by his own family, he gained a group of Muslim brothers and sisters who were more like family than he was. With the help of the Muslim community, Shaddai Radish was able to get on his feet and soon found a job, and he finally realized that the hatred of Islam in India could no longer be described as mere Islamophobia.

To this day, there are still violent attacks on Muslims, and there are even cases of summary executions. As a young Indian who converted from Hinduism to Islam, Shadab naturally felt a great sense of crisis and pressure.

After his conversion, Shadab was almost forced to live a life of dual personality. In the office, he could only worship in secret, but after work, he would go to the mosque to pray and study with other Muslim brothers. After work, he would go to the mosque to pray and study with the other Muslim brothers. After leaving the mosque, Shaddai-Daib would take off his hat and put it in his pocket, and whenever he tried to wear it outside, his inner Sidhas would stop him.

Even his Muslim friends who knew him before he converted were shocked by his decision, and some even said he was digging his own grave. Since India was founded, Islam has always been discriminated against and suppressed, and the Muslim community has long struggled to survive in the cracks. Now, a young Hindu man openly announces his conversion to Islam, casting a dark shadow over his life and future in Indian society.

At last, Sardarai feels the same dilemma that the Muslim community in India has long struggled to survive. No one understands the situation of Muslims in India unless they can empathize with it,” says Sardarai. However, many Indians say, in a sarcastic tone, ‘Muslims are safe, so why are you making a fuss? But, this is not the case, in India, Muslims are treated as second-class citizens, and I have sensed this deeply since my conversion, I have witnessed too much injustice and wrongdoing.”

In December 2019, the cabinet meeting of the Indian government approved the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill. The bill further relaxes the criteria for non-Muslims to acquire Indian citizenship, but does not make any provision for naturalization of Muslim communities living in India for long periods of time. Angry at this, the converted Shaddai Bhatti actively participated in protests and marches. In addition, Shadab came to realize that the Indian government and civil society hated the wealthy Muslims in particular, and that the government and civil society’s attacks on and suppression of the upper-class Muslims, in his view, were akin to the raiding of the people’s money by thugs.

Shadab said that in the eyes of the Hindu community, to believe in Islam is to commit a heinous crime. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been vigorously pursuing an anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic strategy since it came to power, and has been propagating conspiracy theories against the Muslim community, claiming that Muslims in India “have been forcing the people of India to convert to Islam by hook or by crook”. However, Shadabab’s experiences and confessions are a powerful rebuttal to these conspiracy theories.

Shaddai says that although everyone should have the right to freedom of religion, in India, due to the constant suppression by the ruling party, the Muslim community has been forced to survive in the cracks, hiding their Muslim identity in the most low-profile and secretive way.

For Sardarai, he is determined to keep his faith, but at the same time, he believes in the constitutional rights of every individual, and he firmly believes that every citizen should enjoy sufficient freedom of belief and freedom of speech to practice his or her religious beliefs.