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Charge by new culture body "Church converting, changing thought process of tribals" By a Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, Dec 16: The president of the newly-constituted North East India Faith and Culture Protection Forum(NEIJFCPF), Mr B B Jamatia and its general secretary Mr Jaleswar Brahma today said that the religion, culture and social traditions of the 70 tribes of the North-east is in danger of losing their existence. They were talking to the media after the two-day convention of the NEIJFCPF, that concluded here yesterday. Mr Jamatia said that a schism has been created among the various tribes due to the influence of the Christian Missionaries. They accused the Missionaries of converting the tribals in the name of education, social development and assistance. They also said that in States like Arunachal, Meghalaya and Nagaland, the missionaries are involving themselves in directly in conversion, while in Tripura, they are resorting to conversion through the medium of education and other means. They alleged that the Missionaries are trying to bring about a change in the thought process of the tribes which has endangered the culture and religion of the tribals. They said this "exploitation of the tribal culture in a massive scale" had led to some disgruntled youth resorting to gun culture. He said that the influx of Bangladeshis in the tribal belts has also led to a lot of disillusionment among the tribals. They were very specific in pointing out that a large-scale conversion is currently on among the Bodos, Karbis, Rabhas, the Dimasas and the Misings. They said that there was a conversion rate of 8 per cent among the Bodos, 2-3 per cent among the Karbis and almost 9 per cent among the tribes in Tripura. Charging the missionaries of exploiting the "simple tribals", they warned the missionaries of the use of ?force? to prevent such exploitation. Mr Jamatia also informed the media that a committee has been constituted to study the various problems faced by the tribes, which will very soon submit its report. Earlier, a six-member American delegation including renowned Vedic scholar and director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies, Mr David Frawley had assured the Forum of unstinted support during the two-day convention. They also appealed to the various tribes to unite and come forward for the protection of their culture, religion and traditions. -- saurav
