But, still after 58 years of its enforcement, there are places where people are not free to follow their religion. They are forced to change their religion, failing which they have to face various inhuman activities. Some religious organisations lure people by certain policies to change their religion.

I don't understand why people force someone to retain or change his religion. Religion is something which is followed by heart and it is worthless to force someone.

The government should take necessary steps against such organisation so that people should feel free to follow any religion.

Omar Luther King: Human being is not only a social animal but also a spiritual being inasmuch as he has been made in the image of God, the Divine Being (so what if the image of God in man is presently in a broken state!). One should, therefore, be free to follow the religion of his choice.

'Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails' (The Bible: Proverbs 19:21). It is absolutely necessary for a man to give Lord Jesus Christ the praise and glory and honour for the work He is doing in the lives of countless people on earth. Only Jesus can convert or rather change the wicked heart of man into one full of love for God and his fellow beings.

I am thankful to God that He gave me the opportunity to read the Bible where I discovered the Truth and found a Friend in Jesus who is always with me and by my side to enable me to love my enemies, to do good to those who hate me, to bless those who curse me and to pray for those who mistreat me. There is now a clear vision, goal, purpose and mission in my life which was missing prior to my becoming a Christian. Jesus added meaning into my life and gave me a reason to live. Can everybody living in this wicked world of ours confidently say that he or she has a loyal, faithful, powerful and wonderful friend like Jesus who never fails him or her?

Deepali: Yes one can freely follow any religion of his choice, however we belong to an independent nation and no doubt, we are independent for our broad thinking and making choice. But instead of following any one religion, it is important to see that how much respect and reverence one has in his heart towards other religions. When a person follows religion of his choice, there arise many questions - for what purpose he follows religion? Why he does not follow other religion? Or what does he think about other religions?

We know that India is rich and vast in culture. She is popular throughout the world for her religious prosperity and diversity. In all the religions of our country we can see unity in diversity. Hence, every religion is great in itself and I think that there is no need to follow any particular religion. A man can become great and virtuous only by hard work and practicing righteousness and not by following any religion.

A man, who does not give respect to his own religion, he will not give respect to any other religion. Instead of following any other religion, one should think about his career and country's progress. While stick to own religion, one can do any great work in the world. He can involve in social activities, he can bring warm and cordial relation in other religious people, he can contribute in the progress of country, and many such meritorious services he can grant for the welfare of people as well as country.

At last I would say that a good man is always good, whichever country, religion or caste he may belong to. In place of follow religion, every person should follow equality, peace, love and humanity in all the religions.

Dr Konniyoor KS NairAt the outset I react with the subject selected for an open forum. The subject is very delicate and therefore one cannot express his view openly without hurting anyone.

Perhaps india is the only country in the world where so many religions, castes and subcastes exist. There is no doubt that one should be free to follow religion of his choice. This clause is very prominently enshrined in our constitution and whenever there is a religious confrontation, we often quote this for justifying the cause. But in reality not even one percent has changed his religion on his own. By simply changing the faith, one cannot live alone in our society. Because man is a social animal. He takes birth in society and continues to live in the society.

Religious leaders and certain scrupulous politicians poison the innocent minds and breed hatredness among religions.

In india the situation is getting worse and the confrontation between religions has become the order of the day. Every religion wants supremacy over the others.

No doubt the vote bank politics is the root cause of all the maladies and therefore it is high time to keep the politicians out of reach of religion. The so called religious heads should realise the gravity of the situation and give proper guidance to the young ones

GS Jayshree: India is a free democratic country and our constitution grants us the fundamental right to believe, practice and follow any religion. The religious identity of a person is determined by his birth in a family where the particular religion is being followed.

The child grows up with the practices, customs related with that religion. Religion used to be a very private affair until the politicians took it out from the homes to the arena of politics where "religion" has become a tool in the hands of the politician create vote banks.

In our country where so many religions co-exist, we do have the scope to go into the details of other religions, the basic teachings /preachings which may attract any individual to its fold. The individual may find peace with his psychological satisfaction level touching new highs in the principles of any other religion. This may arouse in him the need to convert to that religion. There should be no objection in that as it is something which is the need of a person's soul and heart.

It is his inner voice which demands the change. But where the conversion is a forced one or where it is happening under undue influence {without the free will of the individual}, then it is a very inhuman act. Where the conversions are done at the behest of fundamentalist organisations laced by other motives like politics, to prove the superiority of one religion over the other, or to increase the followers of any religion by hook or crook means, then such conversions should be totally banned. India's secular fabric allows full freedom of all religions, the message should not go that tamperings with the religious sentiments of the people will be allowed to the politicians for their vested interests.

Last but not the least to conclude, a roving eye need to be there on the mass scale conversions happening in different parts of the country which might be having ulterior designs behind the move.

Krishna Chander Mouli: Our constitution does emphatically say this. This is the strongest thread of our secular fabric. But our politicians of all hues and colours, our religious leaders, their allied splinter groups and their different brands have constantly been weakening the strength of this secular fabric by aggrandizing religious tenets, beliefs, symbols, rituals, robes in the open in vulgar display of processions and rallies and carrying out hate campaigns among the society.

Religion which should have been a strictly private affair within four walls of ones dwelling, a temple, a mosque, a church etc has now come out in the open on to the roads. All religious groups indulge these days in gaudy road shows and vulgar display of their communal pangs of poisonous fundamentalism which is spreading like virus and has really nothing to do with religion.

Secularism should not mean that every religious body and its splinter groups have the liberty of creating chaos, public disturbance, communal riots on trivial issues and yet swear in the name of the constitution about religious liberty. Religion makes a human being pious, shows him light in the darkness, treads him on to the right path, teaches him to love human beings, the other lesser mortals, nature and environment and infuses tolerance, warmth and compassion.

Demolishing mosques, destroying temples, burning churches, desecrating other places of worship and books of divine revelations and killing each other is not religion. It is vandalism of the worst form and only goondas and criminals could do such things. It is audacious of a person who indulge in such vandalism and yet claims him to be religious. The need of the hour is therefore to understand religion in its right perspective and true sense and observe it in absolute purity away from governmental, political, criminal and communal patronage.

AB Mehta: Religion, as it is practiced, encourages you to explore the thoughts of others (God's messengers, saints, religious heads, mythological stories and so on) and accept them as your own. The children take up the religion of their parents and only a few have the time and will in their adult life to compare religions and make their own selection. The vulnerable members of the society who are poor or have been treated badly by their upper castes are the one who may fall prey to the conversion. Conversion by force is no longer easy but conversion by inducements is.

Organised religion involves politics. There develops greed for position and money power. Religion is best practiced when it is personal choice out of free will. Instead of honesty, compassion and love religion becomes attached to caste, creed, national boundaries, in rituals and so on. It divides humans as Hindu, Muslim, Christian and so on.

If a person has chosen to change his religion by his own intellectual analysis, we usually do not politically interfere. But if their is even a suspicion of inducement then the self appointed policemen of the affected religion tries to take law in his hand. Any incident is utilised to initiate such violence, as has happened in Orissa. Unfortunately the religious heads either keep quiet or try to justify it as 'natural reaction'. The majority community is the main group that finds its members changing religion and they are the more powerful and influential to oppose free practice of the religion by those converted and show their fury on their religious places and leaders.

The greatness of Hindu religion is that it is a personal religion giving full freedom in respect of rituals, prayers, Gods and Goddesses to be worshiped and so on. This becomes its weakness as people are not controlled by their religious leaders as is possible in other revealed religions.

Only a few differentiate between religion and spirituality. While most religions impose self-denial, spirituality encourages self-regulation. You can change religion but spirituality remains same. Religion tries to fill hearts of men and women with fear of God, while actually he wants you to love him. Every religion creates disunity, while God symbolizes unity. Most people confuse religion with spirituality and are more worried about 'swarg', 'narak', 'paap' and 'punya'. So any religion that promises salvation and reaching heaven by its practice is good enough for them.

We must not come in the way of those choosing a religion different from us. If at all the religious leaders are seriously concerned about conversion then the right method is to remove the causes of their disenchantment from the previous religion.

Sugil Sunny: Our's is a secular state, every citizen belonging to any faith or religion, caste or creed, culture or tradition, tribe or community has freedom of speech, movement, possession and practicing one's faith with equality liberty and fraternity.

Our Constitution is like that. So every person who is a citizen of India has a right to follow religion of his own choice without coming under anyone's pressure. So the organizations should understand that the Christians are not converting anyone by pressure or by giving any type of financial packages.

They come with their own choice and accept that religion. It is not the fault of any religion or any person (who converts other to his own religion) we must understand the basic phrase that "human is not made for any religion, but religion is made for human". It is to guide the person in the right way by following the rules and regulations. We must follow the choice of our own religion and must live with peace and prosperity for the development of our nation.

RJ Khurana: As a principle, the issue of choice is irrefutable. But in actual practice it is a very complex phenomenon and not at all as simple as the common sense will dictate.

There are proselytising religions that believe 'Ours is the best and we have the divine sanction to convert those outside our fold to save unfortunate souls (read followers of other beliefs) from the fires of hell."

No wonder then that there have been more crusades and killings in the name of religion than one would like to imagine. Proselytising religions negate individual choice.

Religious friction is spawned as there are social economic and political dimensions to the conversions and the militant fringes from the two confronting religions jump into the fray with all their might denouncing each other.

In the circumstances religion ceases to be a matter of choice. It is yours versus my religion. So long as there are those who believe that they are the chosen ones and have the divine sanction to convert others to their fold by persuasion, inducement or by force, the exercise of choice will remain a chimera.

Satish Kumar Singh: Selection of religion is absolutely a personal matter. Any type of meddling is not at all tolerable. In spite of that, at least in India, religious conviction is decided by nativity. As soon as individuals get birth in the family their religion gets decided. As a human being, in rare case, we revolutionize our faith, because conventional traditions are against this notion.

In fact, we come alone as well as go alone in this world, but after approaching in this earth, almost the whole thing is determined by family and society wherein we live. Recognized norms of family involuntarily percolate to personages. In most of cases nobody puts forward his/her protest against the organism which is going on.

In practically, we never remonstration against the system too, as we think whatever is going on is for the well being of us.

But, nowadays in the name of religion, every kind of politics is going on. De facto, since inception of creed, religion has hang about been means of set up incomparability before other castes and communities. Interestingly, this coordination pertinence is still alive.

Overall circumstances are worse. Followers of all religions want to amplify foundation of their religious convictions. Unnecessary pressure is being made over characters, whereas autonomy should be given to all and sundry to decide his own religious conviction.

Sushmita Shrivastava: Yes, in the 21st century everyone must have the freedom to practice the religion he or she wishes to and we must respect this freedom, which is in fact a fundamental right. Our Constitution also gives us the right and the freedom to practice any faith or religion.

The world witnessed an unparalleled progress towards the internationalization of religious human rights in the 20th century. Freedom of religion evolved into an international human right, especially after the Second World War that all nations of the world are obliged to protect.

The world's parliament of religions was held in Chicago as far back as in 1893. A founding principle of this was that no religious group should be pressured into sacrificing its truth claims. International documents were developed in the 20th century to promote principles of religious liberty.

The most significant among them was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These documents promote freedom of religion by

explicatory significant universal rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, is by far the most vital. This pioneering document recognizes some important religious rights.

The key text of the document is Article 18, which states that, Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Freedom of religion is the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It is generally recognized to also include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any religion. This freedom of religion is recognised as a fundamental human right in our Constitution.

Syed Zia Ul Hasan Naqvi: In our Indian constitution article 25(1) in very specific words guarantees to every individual the freedom of conscience and the right to practice, profess, and propagate religion of his choice, subject to reasonable restrictions imposed by our constitution. So it is perspicuous on the basis of our constitution that one should be free to follow any religion of his choice.

Neither state nor any individual has right to impose any restriction on the choice of religion by any person.

Long long ago there was a time when the people used to impose things on others. Now that time has gone with the wind. Today liberty has increased to such an extent that even children are using things of their choice. Even parents cannot impose any thing upon them.

Children are using dresses, toys and all other things of their choice. Nowadays it is perilous to impose anything on children because we fear even these small kids may disobey in case if anything is imposed upon them.

Legally as well as morally it is not just in a civilized society to impose any restriction on the choice of religion. It is against the personal liberty and prevailing trend of today.

In nutshell i would like to say that every person should have liberty to follow a religion of his own choice without any fear.

RK Kutty: Of course. In fact, what is religion? Religion is a way of life. In our country, there are many ways of life. We are truly a multi-religious, multi-lingual, multi-racial, multi-cultural country. In such a set up, if any one tries to boss over the other, there are always chances of clashes. There was time such bossism succeeded. Now, people understand the truth more clearly. After all, what is cheese for one may be chalk for another. What is good for one many be bad to the other? What is good for one's liking may be bad for others liking. Man is first and foremost. Then comes religion and not the other way round.

Man was created by God and religion is the creation of Man. There is no religion above humanity. Humanity is the greatest of all. And what is humanity. It is as simple as that each human is identical physically. All have equal sensual organs. Unfortunately, some may be deficient of some of these organs and they are called physically handicapped.

All are equally endowed with wisdom. The colour of the blood of all humans in this world is one and that is red. When somebody is in need of blood, the life itself, then this aspect of religion is not taken into account.

If one is in need of 'O' positive and irrespective of religion, if 'O' positive blood group is transfused, it is accepted by the body. When there is no religion in that, then who the hell are those contractors of religion to question it.

At the moment, what this country badly need is an inter-faith, intra-religious interaction or dialogue to understand the spiritual matters more deeply. But the problem here is again that when the hierarchy of the religions perhaps agrees to it then the intervention of the political establishment is a hindrance. Political establishment do not want the religious heads to come to an understanding, as in that case the interest of political establishment would be in great jeopardy. The root cause of all the problems relating to religion in our country is the political involvement. Once politics is detached from religion, most of our problems will subside. Let both these be separated for the good of the country. When religion is deeply personal, politics is external/national. It is as simple as that one, if working in an office, school, or any other establishment, takes his official matter, while returning home, and do mix office work in domestic matters, it often proves dangerous. Clashes mostly occur when office/professional matters are mixed with domestic/private matters.

Jaskaran Singh Dhami: 'Should be'? Sir Ji, I think this provision 'is' already in place in our country. While I am writing this piece for the 'Open Forum' I can hear a bedlam of devotional songs and preaching coming from loud speakers of many (Let's eschew, exactly - 'How many?') religious places in this small remote town. As a result of this pandemonium nothing is heard or understood. There is frenzied chaotic and unpleasant noise. I find this noise symbolic of what is happening these days on the larger scene. Real essence of religion (or religions) is lost in the phony noises made by the 'thekedars' of religions which seem to be (or 'are') at war with each other.

If interpreted accurately, all religions aim at regulating and purifying our lives to facilitate harmonious existence on this earth. But some malevolent 'judges' of religions are playing the roles of contaminated conduits and creating troubles in the name of religion. Religion, which is meant to be a unifying force has been turned into a separating medium and there is a mad scramble for the one-upmanship amongst various religions. "We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another" says Jonathan Swift.

If religions make us vie for the blood which runs in the veins of people who do not belong to our religion then I think we should put a ban on all the religions. There should be only one religion with one commandment - "Behave" and morality needs to be defined afresh. And there needs to be a strict policing and laws in place to make us obey the commandment -"Behave". Not a utopian idealism! What do you say, dear readers?

RK Gupta: Man is one of the weakest creations of Almighty God. A man is born helpless unlike other animals. bUt man has extremely well developed brain which distinguishes him from other animals. Man is dependent upon his parents and the society where he lives in, for a very long time for food, shelter and safety. It is the mercy of God which keeps him alive and provides him unlimited benefits and blessings which, however, he does not realise and soon forgets.

God is the supernatural being and sole controller of the universe and all the aspects of life in the world. God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient and beyond the understanding and comprehension of the common human brain. Man cannot precept or realise God by his weak sense organs. God can only be perceived by the soul.

Religion helps man in his efforts to realize God. In fact the religions are the only and only means to attain God. Suppose you want to cross a river, you need to choose a boat of your choice.

In case you are a good swimmer, you can swim in the river yourself and reach the other end; that is you can attain God yourself although it is a very difficult task.

There are so many religions in the world which help us to attain God. Seers have shown us the paths to reach and realize God. But man due to his ignorance and ego misunderstands the religion and sometimes he thinks himself to be equal to God.

The world is quite big with six continents and long history of human civilization. People in different parts of the world have different languages, customs, food habits, clothing, rituals, festivals. All these things have nothing to do with religion or God.

Everyone therefore is free to follow any religion of his choice because all the religions and sects lead us to the same destination that is the Almighty God.