INDIA: Hindu Extremists Forcibly ‘Re-Convert’ Christians
18 March 08
Believers lured to temple in Himachal Pradesh, pressured to deny their faith.
Hindu extremists recently carried out a well-planned scheme to lure to a temple and forcibly convert scores of Christians from villages around this capital city of Himachal Pradesh state.
Offering money, making threats, or leading the Christians to believe they were going to government offices for official paperwork, Hindu extremists from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on February 27 lured the believers to the Satyanarayan Temple in the heart of Rampur Bushar.
At the temple, a haranguing speaker and others pressured about 200 people to re-convert, forcing many of them to participate in rituals and purification ceremonies.
Ramlal Kanol, who is blind, said four men came to his house on February 26, first offering him money to go with them, then threatening to imprison and fine him if he didn’t.
“I was forced to participate in the Hindu rituals, and I could not resist the force in the temple because of the massive crowd surrounding us,” he said. As part of the purification ceremony, Christians were made to have their feet washed and to drink Gangajal, the water of the River Ganges.
By one Christian pastor’s estimate, about 30 percent of those present were Hindus pretending to be Christians re-converting back to Hinduism.
“The crowd was gathered together to make a show that all of them are converted Christians re-converting to Hinduism,” said pastor Bhadur Singh, who along with 20 members of his church was lured to the temple by local politician named Brij Lal. Lal took them by bus supposedly for them to support his bid to win election to office.
Local media subsequently reported that 60 families had reconverted to Hinduism in purification ceremonies performed by Hindu priest Lal Dass.
Kanol, who has a preaching and healing ministry with Amar Jyoti India in Bhutti village, said the four Hindu extremists who came to his house on February 26 offered him money, and then threatened him and his wife Meera Devi with seven years of prison and a fine of 15,000 rupees (US$372) if he did not acquiesce to their demands.
“They threatened me, asking me to ‘Continue your work with the poor and healing the sick, but in the name of Ram, not Christ,’” he said.
Claiming that they were from an organization called Seva Bharati, the Hindu extremists offered Kanol an annual salary if he would do his service to humanity in the name of the Hindu god.
The Hindu extremists – “Heera Lal, Joginder, and a lady named Nirmala” among others – finally persuaded Kanol and his wife to accompany them to Rampur Bushar “for some official paper work,” he said.
His wife Meera Devi recounted, “Instead, we were taken to the Hindu temple where they washed our feet, put a Hindu stole around our neck, and made us go around the temple. When we reached the temple, around 200 people from various villages were already brought there for the ceremony of re-conversion. I recognized only one of them.”
The harassment did not end that day. Some of the Hindu extremists came to Kanol’s house the next morning to set up a Hindu altar in his house in place of his cross and Christian altar.
“I told them straight, ‘I will never remove the cross, even if I have to die,’” Kanol said.
- Pray for strength for all the Christians who were pressured to recant their faith.
- Pray that instead of a harvest of new Hindu’s that their would be a harvest of new Christian believers.
Source: Compass