By Arun Pratap Singh
Garhwal Post Bureau
Rudrapur (Udham Singh Nagar), 20 Jul: Forty-seven members of eight families belonging to the Tharu tribal community, who had earlier adopted Christianity, returned to Hinduism during a havan-yajna organised at Nauganwanath village in Khatima yesterday. With this, the number of people reported to have returned to Hinduism in the area has risen to 153 over the past four days.
Gram Pradhan Maya Chand said that all the 47 people voluntarily expressed their renewed faith in Hinduism and have returned to the religion through a havan-yajna and other rituals conducted according to the Vedic traditions. She said the programme was organised through the joint efforts of the Gram Panchayat and the BJP Rural Mandal Chakarpur.
The latest event follows a similar programme held in the Kutri area a few days ago, where 70 families belonging to the Tharu tribal community, who had earlier adopted Christianity, reportedly returned to Hinduism after performing a havan-yajna at the beginning of the month of Sawan. Under the leadership of Gram Pradhan Deepa Devi, the families returned to Hinduism in accordance with Hindu rituals in the presence of priest Harish Joshi and seer Mohan Giri.
Maya Chand alleged that members of the Tharu community had been converted to Christianity after having been misled and that they had been offered inducements and other benefits. She said that following the implementation of the Uttarakhand Government’s stringent anti-conversion law, several members of the community had decided to return to their original faith, which is Hinduism.
The developments have also come amid intensified action by the administration against alleged illegal religious conversions in Udham Singh Nagar. It may be recalled that the Pushkar Singh Dhami Government has implemented a stringent anti-conversion law in Uttarakhand, providing for severe punishment and heavy fines in cases of unlawful religious conversion. The administration has also initiated action against those accused of facilitating illegal conversions and, in some of those cases, those accused have been arrested and sent to jail.
The issue has also had implications for members of the tribal communities who have converted to another religion, with the administration intensifying scrutiny of tribal certificates and related benefits in cases where eligibility under the applicable rules is affected. Following the action against alleged illegal conversions and the enforcement of the anti-conversion law, members of the Tharu, Rana and Buksa communities in the region have increasingly come forward to publicly reaffirm their faith in Hinduism, the organisers claimed.
The latest ‘ghar wapsi’ programme at Nauganwanath has once again brought the issue of religious conversion and the enforcement of Uttarakhand’s anti-conversion law into focus. Supporters of the programmes have described the return of the 47 people to Hinduism as a voluntary reaffirmation of their faith, while the administration has maintained that action against unlawful conversion must be taken strictly in accordance with the law.
