Opposition to reconversion, says Hindu priest Swami Agnivesh in his article, “Back to the Vedic Faith,” is based on the premise that tribals were converted to Christianity by inducements and coercion.

“This is a hypothesis that cannot stand the scrutiny of common sense” he wrote. “The obvious fact is that the Dalits who converted to Christianity knew that they stood to lose much by way of material advantages such as reservations [affirmative action benefits]. This should have prevented them from converting.”

A 1950 presidential decree grants education and employment benefits “reserved” for Dalits belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist or Jain faiths. If thousands have given up these benefits by embracing other faiths, Agnivesh wrote, a key factor may be their desire to escape from the oppressiveness of the caste order that denies them freedom, human rights and dignity.

History of False Claims
The reconversion movement was launched by Dayanand Saraswati, who founded a Hindu reformist organization known as the Arya Samaj in 1875, during the British rule in India. Christened as Shuddhi (purification), the movement aimed at bringing back to Hinduism those who had converted to Islam or Christianity, mainly the former.

After India won its independence, Raja Vijay Bhushan Singh Judeo, the last king of Jashpur – now a district in Chhattisgarh state – adopted the Arya Samaj model to reconvert tribal people in the region in 1952. Judeo termed it as “Ghar Vapsi” (Homecoming).

In 1990s, Judeo’s son, Dilip Singh Judeo, former federal minister under the erstwhile BJP-ruled coalition government and now a member of Parliament, gave a new thrust to the movement. It was later extended to other parts of the country, mainly Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and Maharashtra states, by organizations linked to the RSS, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council).

In 1999, Judeo claimed that he had reconverted at least 165,000 Christians in several tribal areas, reported monthly magazine Communalism Combat in March 1999. According to a report in the Pioneer newspaper on December 18, around 2,300 people were reconverted to Hinduism in 2006.

The Communalism Combat of March 1999 pointed out that Judeo claimed reconversion of a large number of Christians in the Dindoli area of Madhya Pradesh in February 1999, but most of these people had never been Christians.

In a recent example, four members of a tribal Muslim family complained that they were forced by BJP legislator Renuka Singh to return to Hinduism in a ceremony held on October 3, 2006, in Surajpur, Sarguja district, Chhattisgarh state.

Following the complaint, the Chhattisgarh High Court directed the state administration to ensure that the family was not pressured to adopt Hindu religion, reported the Milli Gazette fortnightly (November 16-30).

The publication quoted 23-year-old Nur-ul-Islam as saying that the BJP’s Singh, along with her 2,000 supporters, stormed his house and forced him to re-convert from Islam by conducting a ceremony.

“My head was tonsured and beard shaved off by her supporters,” he said.

In another incident, the Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM or Hindu Revival Front) claimed that it reconverted 700 Christians on April 2, 2005, in Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh. But Pastor A. David, president of Dhamtari Christian Fellowship, said those “re-converted” in the function were actually Hindus who may have attended a Christian meeting once or twice. (See Compass Direct News, “Hindu Activists in India ‘Reconvert’ Christians, Threaten Missionaries,” April 7, 2005).

“The people of Chhattisgarh know very well that such programs are sham,” David added. “A few years ago, a national newspaper, the Times of India, exposed how Dilip Singh Judeo called Hindus to come to his program and later claimed their ‘reconversion’ from Christianity to Hinduism.”

Copyright 2007 Compass Direct News