8/6/2024 India (International Christian Concern) — Around 120 tribal Christians belonging to two villages in the Koraput district of India’s eastern state of Odisha were forcefully reconverted to Hinduism on Sunday during a ceremony known as “ghar wapsi” or “homecoming.”
The ghar wapsi ceremony includes Hindu and tribal rituals to “cleanse” former Hindus who had accepted Christ and wash away any remnants of the Christian faith. During these rituals, men often have their heads shaved. In some cases, radical Hindus have forced Christians to drink the blood of a chicken mixed with cow dung.
Just before the forced reconversions, local members of Vishwa Hindu Parishad Dharma Prasar, a fringe fundamentalist Hindu group, reportedly gathered at the temple where the ceremony occurred.
During the ceremony, 83 men from 19 families were pressured to return to Hinduism. Several women and girls then gave in to pressure to reconvert. According to some of these people, they had followed Christianity because it was the religion of their relatives, dating back four generations. They reconverted following pressure from local Hindu nationalists and local government authorities, who stopped providing the families with subsidized food staples, like rice and lentils. Hindu leaders also barred the families from accessing a local well.
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