Ghar Wapsi: Around 100 people hailing from 22 families revert to Sanatan Dharma in Chhattisgarh’s Surguja district

Swami Nischhalanand Saraswati Ji, Peethadhiswar of Rigvedic Govardhan Math, Puri along with Prabal Pratap Judev, head of the Akhil Bharatiya Ghar Wapsi Campaign welcomed the elated returnees by garlanding them. Those who made a return in the religion of their ancestor were reported to had embraced other religions under the influence of certain groups.

A disciple of revered Karpatri Ji Maharaj, who led various Hindu religious movements, Swami Nischhalanand Saraswati Maharaj on the occasion further made an appeal to the union government to enact a stringent law against illegal conversion and cow slaughter.

Notably, the tribal dominated region of Surguja has been long affected by the menace of illegal conversion, promoted by missionaries. The continuous attempt being made at converting the locals for years has led to a change in demographic at several places, particularly in areas largely inhabited by the tribal community.

Many of the Hindu activists of the region alleged that most of the people who have embraced Christianity into the area are from tribal community, who are still practicing Hinduism on paper to avail reservation benefits. They further alleged that majority of the conversion in the area has taken place on pretext of lure and inducement.

To contain the rampant conversion of the local tribal community, Ghar Wapsi ceremonies are often being organized by the Hindu activists, where those who had changed their religion under the influence of certain groups are welcomed back in the Sanatan fold. Many of the times, the returnees were found to be practicing Christianity as their forefathers had embraced it in lieu of various benefits offered to them by the missionaries.

Notably, in a similar Ghar Wapsi ceremony held recently, hundreds of people belonging to over 50 families had reverted to Sanatan Dharma on the last day of ‘Vanvasi Ram Katha’ and Maha Yajna in Kandari village of Chando in Balrampur district of Chhattisgarh on May 17.

Interacting with the media before the ceremony, Prabal Judev, who has been at the forefront of scores of such ceremonies in recent years had remarked that a “sacred program is being organized under Sadanand Ji Maharaj and around 50 families who were wrongly converted to the other religion by the means of inducement are willing to revert to the culture of their ancestors again, we will reunite them with Sanatan by welcoming them with dignity.”

The ceremony was organised on the last day of Vanvasi Ram Katha, a nine-day program held in Kandari village of Chando, where Acharya Sadanand Ji Maharaj, a revered ‘Kathawachak’ from Vrindavan had arrived to give sermons based on the life of Bhagwan Sri Ram.