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 Hindu activists have converted an 18-year-old church into a temple at Bhojpur village in Etah district of Uttar Pradesh. They have also forcibly re-converted 300 Dalit Christians by making them go through the yagyopaveet ritual.
According to the Hindu Jagran Vibhag (HJV), an outfit belonging to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), despite regular re-conversions by Hindu organisations in rural India, the number of Christian converts have been growing, especially in the rural parts of western Uttar Pradesh. HJV provincial head Rajshwar Singh says his outfit has set up a team of 600 Hindu activists to investigate the reasons for the growing number of Dalit Christians in the region. This team has recently submitted a report that points out the existence of a number of churches without a single Christian around. Accordingly a campaign has been organised by various RSS outfits to wipe out these churches to neutralise their effect. He says the presence of these churches, some of them being 15-20 years old, has a serious impact on the Dalit community, which is being mistakenly seen as Dalits embracing Christianity. The HJV has arranged for a re-conversion function in Bhojpur village, about 15 km from Etah, where a church is being operated by the New Apostle Church organisation of Canada. According to Singh, Vijay Maseeh, the church priest, has agreed to give away the possession of this church to the village when contacted. Singh says a function was recently held at the church premises by HJV and 300 Dalit Christians, frequenters to this church, were brought for re-conversion along with Vijay Maseeh who gave the first offering in the yagna held inside the church. After the ceremony, the church was "purified" by Hindu priests, the cross removed from the apex of the building and replaced by the Hindu symbol of Om and idols of Durga placed inside. After the ceremony, HJV declared a grand temple would soon replace the building that had been used as a church for a very long time. Incidentally Etah has been the centre of concocted stories of re-conversions by Hindu organisations. The All India Christian Council (aicc) has already sent a fact-finding team to verify the report.
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