Tribal group files conversion charges against missioners

It demanded that criminal cases be booked against Christian missionaries.

(Photo Courtesy: telegraph.co.uk)

Mysore:  A tribal welfare group in Karnataka has filed a police complaint against Christian missioners for allegedly converting 1,000 tribal families to Christianity.

The Girijana Kriya Koota, a tribal welfare organization, on Nov. 25 accused a group of missionaries of converting the tribal in several areas of Mysore and neighboring districts.

The organization demanded that criminal cases be booked against the missionaries.

Convener of the Koota S. Sreekanth asked police officials to take steps to “protect” the culture of the adivasis, which had deep roots in nature and ancestor worship.

He alleged that the missionaries were urging the adivasis to embrace Christianity by telling them that all their troubles would be gone if they did so.

“There had been efforts for several years now to convert tribal people in Mysore district, and parts of Chamarajanagar and Kodagu districts,” Sreekanth alleged.

The tribal residents of five hadis (settlements) in the Nagapura Rehabilitation Centre, Anemaala and S. Begur hadis in the Kakanakote forests in H.D. Kote and Aiyyanakere hadi in Hunsur (all in Mysore district) as well as residents of the Majjigehalla hadi in Thithimathi in Kodagu were being “brainwashed,” he alleged.

The district administration and police should intervene and put an end to such practices, he said.

He alleged that clashes between adivasis who had been “converted” and other residents were taking place wherever these conversions had taken place.

The government had the responsibility of preventing such conversions and protecting the culture of Adivasis. It should constitute watchdog panels to protect the culture of Adivasis, Sreekanth said.

Meanwhile, deputy commissioner C. Shikha said that she had received a petition from the Koota on the alleged conversions.

She said she had asked the superintendent of police to inquire into the matter to check whether conversions were taking place in the hadis (tribal settlements).

Superintendent of police Abhinav Khare said, “it will take some time to inquire into the matter.”

Source: The Hindu