MAURITIUS, July 20, 2018 (Bharata Bharati, World Hindu Foundation): We proclaim and affirm our acceptance of the unity of life and the relationship of all beings as divine and the Dharmic way of life as the way to tranquillity of the individual, family, community and world. The Dharma Shastras of Sanatana Dharma recognize that divinity resides in the heart of all peoples and that this divinity is the same Paramatma in all. As members of the oldest thriving continuous indigenous civilization, a civilization whose scriptures have for thousands of years enshrined the highest principles of human rights and ecological rights, our communities accept responsibility to act according to the scriptures and to actively remind other members of our communities, and of other communities of this scriptural wisdom.
1) We assert that our Dharmic traditions rest upon the protection of freedoms to think without constraint and engage in respectful free speech as given in many of our Shastras and also in international instruments.
2) We assert that conversion is an act of adharma, of violence and is destructive of family, community and civilizational cohesion and is diametrically opposed to the identity specific rights of indigenous civilizations as enshrined in the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
3) We assert that the principle of conversion assumes superiority of one religious belief system over indigenous spiritual traditions, an assumption which is based solely upon supremacist prejudices. This assumption of superiority is specifically rejected in the Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples: “Affirming further that all doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust.”
4) We assert that the doctrine of conversion perpetuates the tenets of colonialism, i.e. the destruction of indigenous identities and the acquisition of indigenous assets, human, tangible and intangible. As such it is contrary to the word, spirit and intention of the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
For the remaining 8 points of this declaration made on the 20th day of May 2018, at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Indian Culture, Phoenix, Mauritius by the delegates of the World Hindu Foundation Mauritius Summit and Hindu organisations, see “source” above.