Yet another day dawns in which I'm grateful for our constitution, and grateful it hasn't yet been completely "interpreted" away just yet. It's the problems of others which so often remind us of the sweet things we have.

India, for example, seems intent on rapidly regressing into the "dark ages" from which modern cultures have emerged. Specifically, I mean the Indian government has abandoned belief in freedom of thought and conscience.

More specifically, I mean that -- hold your breath for this one, boys and girls -- it will soon be illegal to change your belief system, your "religion", in India without official permission from the government.

So if you're raised Catholic and want to be an atheist, or vise-versa, be sure to apply for the government's permission before you start thinking those irreligious or pious thoughts!

Of course the crux of the matter comes down to the desire to preserve Hinduism. For those who aren't up on these things, Hindus believe in reincarnation of the soul: A soul is punished or rewarded by being assigned a better, or worse position in the next life.

Hindu society is divided into "castes" -- social classes which determine your status and role in society. The "highest" caste, Brahamins, are destined to lead and rule society. The "lowest" castes, Dalits (or "outcastes", from which we get "outcast") are destined to clean up human waste and sweep streets. It doesn't matter how smart or stupid you are, how hard you work or how lazy you are: no promotion or demotion is possible. Karma has assigned you to that caste for your past lives' deeds; changing such would be a violation of Karma.

(Those of you who think reincarnation is a pretty neat idea have probably not studied it's impact on society when fully embraced. I suggest you read When the New Age Gets Old by Vishal Mangalwadi to see how these ideas, especially reincarnation, play out when taken seriously for centuries.)

This system might sound good to you if you were born to a high caste. But you'd feel differently if you were born somewhere much further down the ladder. These outcastes, Dalits are also called "untouchable": they are so despised, merely touching such a person is considered a gross thing, a taboo.

Yet there are -- hold your breath again, dear reader -- some 250 million such "untouchable" people right now trapped in their caste system in India. By comparison, there are 290 million people living in the United States. Think seriously of that: A whole nation, about our size, living in India, assigned permanent toilet-cleaning duty for life, often denied an education, and having no possibility of ever being promoted to a better position in life, no matter how hard you work.

In such a position, it might be natural to want to change or throw off the religion which justifies such treatment. And, unsuprisingly, after failed attempts by Dalit leaders to reform Hinduism, some Dalits are doing precisely that, leaving Hinduism to become Buddhists and Christians.

So, upset about the exodus, the ruling BJP (Hindu fundamentalist party) is about to pass a national anti-conversion law which makes it illegal for one to change one's religion without official government permission, which must be obtained in writing. Nice requirement to put on Dalits, many of whom haven't even been allowed to go to school.

Of course, it's unrealistic to expect the courts to interevene, despite a stated freedom of religion in India's constitution: Recently the Indian Supreme Court "discovered" there was no fundamental right to change one's religion! -- i.e. no fundamental right to change one's mind about the nature of the universe and act on one's belief. (Courts can "see" anything in law these days, can't they?)

In theory, this new law is to "protect" people against "forced conversions". In theory, the government will investigate each and every request in order to ensure no coercion is occuring. But in reality, in provinces where such a law already exists, the government can delay responding such requests indefinitely and then arrest you.

[As I see it, even if someone "paid" for conversions to some belief system, I can't see that the government would need to straighten such out: Those "buying" conversions get exactly what they pay for: A superficial statement of belief as long as the benefits hold out, and then a reversion. Duh. And controlling someone by threat of force should be illegal anyway, regardless whether the motives are religious, political, or economic.]

So there you have it, folks. The Indian Nanny State at it's best: you can't change your mind or belief system without it's written consent.

And India wants to be thought of as a modern democracy? Not without freedom of religion and conscience, she isn't. How pathetic!

There's a lesson here for all of us.