Hindu group opposes Christian prayer meet in India’s Jharkhand

A Christian healing prayer service in eastern Indian Jharkhand state will go ahead as planned, despite a Hindu group opposing it, calling it a ploy to convert gullible tribal people, organizers said.

Officials of the Jharkhand Christian Association and the Jharkhand Christian Youth Association, which planned the May 1-3 program in the state capital, Ranchi, told UCA News May 30 that the program was not cancelled.

Praveen Kachap, general secretary of the Jharkhand Christian Association, said they have “all the necessary permissions” to conduct the program, called the Jharkhand Prayer Festival.

“Our program will go on as planned,” he said.

The assertion comes after a Hindu group, Janjati Suraksha Manch (JSM or tribal protection forum), on April 28 urged Governor Santosh Gangawar, the state’s top constitutional authority, not to permit the program.

It said the Christians’ program “is playing with the faith and belief of the local Sarna tribal community,” the forum alleged, warning that it “could lead to conflict and animosity.”

The Hindu forum is widely perceived to have the backing of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its parent organization, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

It claims to safeguard tribal people in the eastern state, especially followers of the Sarna religion, who are nature worshippers.

In 2018, the JSM filed a public interest petition in the state’s top court seeking a ban on the Jharkhand Prayer Festival. It told the court that the prayer program poses “a threat to the existence and identity” of tribal people. The court order is pending.

The Hindu group also alleged that “large-scale conversions” were reported at the festival last year through false promises of healing incurable diseases.

All this “was a violation of the Jharkhand government’s anti-conversion law,” the forum added.

However, Kachap dismissed the allegations of conversion as “a totally false claim.”

“The Hindu group’s opposition was part of the agenda of some political parties, but that will not stop us,” he told UCA News on April 30.

Ratan Tirkey, a former member of Jharkhand state’s tribal advisory committee, said the JSM is motivated by the RSS’s campaign to divide tribal people in the name of religion and caste.

“This way they can gain control over tribal peoples’ land, culture, and traditions,” he alleged.

Tirkey said the allegation of mass religious conversions by Christian missionaries “is baseless and there is no truth to it.”

Jharkhand has had an anti-conversion law in place since 2017, when it was ruled by the BJP of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, in 2019, the pro-Hindu party lost power, and a secular regional party came to power in the state.

The Jharkhand Freedom of Religion Act bans conversion by force, allurement, or any unfair means and provides for up to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 rupees (US$591) to those found guilty of violating the law.

There are more severe punishments for converting minors and women, as well as members of tribal and Dalit or former untouchable communities.

There are 1.4 million Christians among Jharkhand’s 33 million people, most of whom are Hindus, including tribal people who are not recorded in the census separately.

This article was originally published on https://www.ucanews.com/news/hindu-group-opposes-christian-prayer-meet-in-indias-jharkhand/108741