Life after Hinduism: ‘Had my mother been alive, I would have never converted’

For Hindu boy from troubled home, Islam beckoned with a sense of family.

KARACHI:

For the Hindu boy, whose conversion to Islam was beamed into millions of homes across Pakistan, leading to the talk show host’s downfall and an international controversy, the motivation was more secular than initially thought.

“I wanted to escape from the atmosphere at home,” said Abdullah while talking with The Express Tribune two months after the scandal. “I never wanted to come on the media.” He consoles himself by reasoning that people would have found out eventually - the television show just made it easier.

Twenty-three-year-old Sunil’s decision to become Abdullah is strongly linked to a troubled home. His mother passed away five years ago and his father was unable to take care of his three brothers. Fighting erupted every day in the Ranchore Line house. “Because of my mother, the house was united,” he explains. “Had my mother been alive, I would have never converted. I wouldn’t have done it in front of her.”

It was at the Sarim Burney Welfare Trust that Sunil found a sense of belonging with the Muslim staff. In order to get away from the misery at home, he even moved in to one of their shelters three years ago. But the young man still felt lost and left out when Ramzan rolled around each year. Eventually, despite his own upbringing, he decided to join to fast during the last two Ramzans.

In July, he felt it was time to convert. “I have been thinking for a long time,” he said, adding that while there were quite a few people who put on the pressure, he did it when he felt he wanted to. He did not, however, inform his family who learnt of the news when they saw him on the Maya Khan show, dressed in a new shalwar kameez and obeying the cleric. “My family and relatives were outraged. They wanted the channel to be blocked, the show to be stopped. They asked me, ‘Why did you do it live?’”

Now that the furor has subsided, what has life been like since then? Abdullah visits his family once in two weeks - but as they are Hindu, he refuses to eat or drink anything in his own house. There is an element of confusion, however, as evidenced by his keenness to appear democratic in the face of beliefs that veer on the radical. “Changing their religion is every person’s right,” he stresses. “There was nothing wrong with my previous religion. I believe that every religion is the same, only the way of praying is different.”

His voice quivers, however, as he mentions Raksha Bandhan and other festivals. “It is a sister’s right to tie a red thread around her brother,” he says. “But I missed out on the festival because I converted.” And then, looking down at the floor, he says, “I won’t go any more.”

Abdullah is not the only one adjusting to this new reality. His 15-year-old younger brother Rohit misses him at home but is happy at least he can see him at work. “We felt so weird when bhaiya wasn’t there at our festival,” he said. “I won’t convert. But I have accepted him as a Muslim.”

Ironically, while Sunil was drawn to Islam in his instinct to replace a broken family, his conversion split another: a rift developed between the social activist Burney brothers, Ansar and Sarim, with Ansar condemning the conversion and Sarim defending it.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2012.