In a shocking incident, a mass conversion racket got busted this week after some Christian evangelists forcibly converted as many as 400 Dalit Hindus living in the Mangatapuram colony, a slum in the Bhrampuri police station area in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. To understand the methods deployed by proselytisers on the prowl for converting unsuspecting populations, OpIndia spoke with Raj Kamal Gupta, a VHP Meerut Zone General Secretary who has been fighting against the evangelists bent on targeting vulnerable Hindus.
In our conversation, the VHP functionary threw light on various inculturation methods Christian missionaries and Islamists have been using as bait to deceive gullibly and economically deprived Hindus across the country over time.
According to Gupta, while orchestrating such conversion rackets as the one in Meerut, Christian Missionaries follow a specific pattern.
Explaining the modus operandi, Gupta told us how Christian missionaries begin by identifying such small Hindu hamlets where the majority of the populace is underprivileged and ignorant. Christian activist or a pastor first visits a hamlet to casually engage in conversations with the villagers. They then begin to provide them assistance in the shape of food, clothing, medicines, and money. To gain their faith, the missionaries go out of their way to provide finances for Hindu children’s education and marriage. After gaining the trust of these victims, they persuade them that all gods are the same. They hand out books and literature, teach people about the ‘miracles’ of Jesus Christ, and encourage them to visit churches.
Once vulnerable Hindus fall into the trap, evangelists brainwash them into adopting Christianity. When the bulk of the hamlet’s population succumbs to their plan, the missionaries encroach on Hindu lands and begin erecting churches on them, which, unmistakably, is the real motive behind the conversion racket. The impoverished and ignorant Hindus, meanwhile, have little choice but to submit to the powerful missionaries.
At this point, Gupta referenced a similar incident that happened in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad district to emphasize how the modus operandi employed by the Islamists across the country is similar to these Christian missionaries.
He described how Islamists had successfully targeted a similar village in the Moradabad district, where there was only one Muslim household and the rest of the community was Hindu. He asserted that Islamists took advantage of these uninformed and uneducated Hindus’ financial disadvantages and began luring them to convert to Islam.
Gupta went on to say that, similar to how Christian missionaries operate, Islamists first erected a mosque inside the house of the sole Muslim household in the village. The converted Hindus were then encouraged to visit the masjid. Gradually, several Mazars proliferated around the neighbourhood. The Moradabad police only became aware of the racket when these unlawful Mazars appeared, and the authorities eventually visited the village and removed these illegal constructions, said the VHP leader.
Mass conversion racket busted in Meerut: Christian evangelists lure 400 Hindus to convert, remove idols and threaten against performing puja
On Friday, October 28, Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut police filed an FIR against 9 accused under sections of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. The FIR was filed based on a complaint lodged by many Dalit Hindus living in the Mangatapuram colony, a slum in the Bhrampuri police station area in Meerut. The complainants alleged that some Christian evangelists residing in the same village had compelled as many as 400 of them to convert to Christianity.
As per the FIR filed in the Brahmpuri police station in Meerut, the Christian evangelists took undue advantage of the lockdown imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lured the poor and vulnerable Hindus with financial aid and food to entrap them. They then gradually started brainwashing them to convert to Christianity.
When the vulnerable Hindus started falling into the trap, the evangelists began pressuring them to visit churches and remove idols of gods and goddesses from their homes. They threatened them not to participate in any Hindu rituals. Additionally, they pressurised the Hindus to change their names on their Aadhar cards.
The report also stated how the police team which arrived in the village saw a temporary church that had unexpectedly sprung up in the neighbourhood. During their investigation of the church, the police discovered numerous records with the identities of all those who had been forcefully converted to Christianity. The manner in which funds are provided to these vulnerable victims was also mentioned in these records. The documents also stated that out of the total 550 people living in Mangatapuram Colony more than 400 people have been converted.
