Members of the Hindu Sarna faith in Jharkhand’s Gumla District are being terrorized by the Christian conversion mafia and are being threatened with dire consequences if they don’t accede to the demands of the missionaries.
Of the 55 Hindu families dwelling in the Gadtoli block, around 30 have accepted Christianity after being constantly pressurized by the missionaries. As per reports, for the last 15 years conversion activities have been going on in this hamlet. Two families who have refused to bow down to the demands of the conversion mafia are, however, being harassed and tortured.
Highlighting the plight of one of the Hindu SC families, OpIndia says:
One family belonging to that of a person named Salik Gop is said to have been ostracized by the Christian villagers for the last 6 months for not concurring with the demands of religious conversion. Salik Gop’s family has regularly been receiving death threats compelling them to think a hundred times even before leaving the house. Salik Gop’s son Budheshwar, who is a paraprofessional teacher, has not been able to go for his work for the last 6 months.
Salik Gop’s family claimed that, despite being a cowherd family, they are constantly pressured to eat beef. Leave alone farming, their family has been even barred from using the water from the village well. Their children have been forbidden to go to school, said Salik Gop.
The family’s entire source of income has been disrupted so that they acceded to the conversion demands of the influential Christian missionaries participating in proselytization in the area, but, Salik Gop said that no matter what happens, he will not submit to their demands.
Christian missionary organizations have been running a parallel government in Gumla for several years now. The police have also been accused of being mute spectators even as Hindu SC families continue to face constant pressure from evangelists. Earlier, a woman health worker belonging to Jamdih village had alleged that Christian villagers were forcing her family to convert and added that the assailants even sexually abused her daughter to mount pressure on the family to adopt Christianity.
A missionary pastor who was actively involved in conversion activities in Raisimla Village located in Khunti district’s Torpa Tehsil, being driven away by Sarna villagers was reported in June this year. In March this year, a Hindu teen Suraj Das was driven to suicide by the Christian conversion mafia.
(Featured Image Source: OpIndia)