By DeshGujarat, Ahmedabad, 16 March 2012

So how do millions of Hindu tribals in India convert to Christianity?

Prayer meetings of evangelists could be undoubtedly one of the major ways to spark conversion of faith.

Solution to problems, curing of pain, healing touch, such things are promised through prayers, in such meetings of evangelists.

Some cases of ‘successful’ healing are demonstrated on the stage too.

Professionally performed live Music, loud prayer in emotional voice, and reading of parts of Bible are common things that take place on stage in such prayer meets.

Video presented above is from south Gujarat’s Songadh area. It is presented here via Youtube.

One Paul Dhinakaran, an evangelist of Jesus Calls was here in the last week of last month for ‘Bless Gujarat prayer festival’. He reportedly arrived here in chopper. One local group had opposed Dhinakaran’s prayer meet citing apprehension of mass conversion of tribals. However the event took place as on paper it was a prayer meet.

Paul Dhinakaran’s Bless Gujarat prayer festival was attended by union minister Tushar Chaudhary and one IAS officer as shown in this video.

Religious-political shifts in tribal areas are interesting. Vyara was first represented by Tushar Chaudhary in Gujarat assembly. Then Chaudhary was shifted to Lok Sabha and Congress party fielded a Christian candidate on Vyara seat. He is now two-time MLA here.

The video here is interesting because hardly any politician of Gujarat can mobilize so many tribals in this remote area.

One Swamy Assemananda from Bengal settled in the jungle of Dang district in south Gujarat and started reconverting the Christian tribals, however he has been put in jail by central govt controlled investigating agency.

Some scattered activities of reconversion are on by VHP, Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, Narendranand Saraaswati and others. But they don’t match in budget that the missionaries spend, thanks to multi billion foreign donations.

There’s no doubt that Gujarat is speedily losing its tribal belt to Church missionaries. Once missionaries are successful in converting masses, the culture changes, traditions change, customs change, politics change, festivals change. Something in this direction has already happened in tribal north-east areas of India, coastal Kerala and Tamilnadu.

And if we compare?

The Hindus have no organized system to collect common-channel of fund for religious activities. Those who donate billions of rupees in mandirs, are not bothered to know where their money are spent by trustees.

It was Aadi Shankaracharya who had united the Hindus and tried to set up an organized system through four peeths, but this structure has become almost meaningless nowadays for society.

Latin America, parts of Africa, lately parts of south Korea couldn’t survive their originality and turned out to be Christian majority areas ultimately. In India, north-east is nearly gone, coastal and tribal areas are partially gone. Church successfully dictates politics in parts of south India.

When a day will come when the Hindu spiritual leaders will start going to tribal areas to spend time with them, to meet them, to give them spiritual food, to offer them solutions for health, education, employment? When a day will come when thousands of non-Christian missionary institutions will also start working in tribal areas? Such list of questions can be very long, and there can be many answers too, but all what is needed is action which is too little or absent.

May be it’s a time to revive Sanyasashram system. May be it’s a time that need more Thakkarbapas if not Shankaracharya.