Hello, I had been following the discussions on the forum quite intently. As a journalist who have worked in Gujarat for a considerable amount of time, my personal observation has been that tribals are okay with conversions and re-conversions even on a yearly basis.
Yes, and they do not stop worshipping their anmistic gods even after interventions from religious leaders to include their gods or symbols. I suppose religion is a personal question and there are benefits of displaying a religious symbol here and there outside one's hut or wearing it on the neck. Once while working on an investigative story before a RSS conclave in the tribal reaches of Dangs in Gujarat, I came across an interesting fact from a documentary film maker. I was told that foreign missionaries pay 100 USD for every conversions or re-conversions done in the area. My friend, the documentary film maker was often called for such ocassions by Dang missionaries to document their activities and post these abroad. In Orissa too a similar picture is apparent and quite openly visible. In this context I feel like posting a few questions before Father Cedric, Ekka and Kumar. What does coversion mean to you? What do you think it achieves for a organisation, trust or religion? Why would people pay money for such activities when people in tribal India have the least survivability rate in the country? Why would not an organisation like RSS or VKS invest in health infrastructure in these remote areas and win the heart and mind of people in the lines that the missionaries started doing in pre-independence days? Maybe there are answers to these and I am not just aware. So anyone in this forum pls feel free to correct what I suggest here. regards, Soumik Dey -- Soumik Dey +919873519555
