The Times of India
Rs 50 lakh to ‘bring back home’ converted Hindus
Rajiv Srivastava,TNN | Sep 22, 2014, 12.59 AM IST
Claiming that on an average 1,000 families are re-converted, mostly in western UP region in a month, the cost incurred on such programmes comes to around Rs 50 lakh per month. The average cost incurred on each family comes to around Rs 5,000, Dharm Jagran's western UP in charge Rajeshwar Singh told TOI. (Reuters Photo)
LUCKNOW: For reconversion or 'ghar wapsi' of Hindu families that converted to other religions, outfits like Dharm Jagran have to bear a huge cost. An offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayemsewak Sangh (RSS), Dharm Jagran coughs up on an average Rs 8 to 10 lakh per month alone mainly as fuel cost and some miscellaneous expenses in the western UP area alone.
Claiming that on an average 1,000 families are re-converted, mostly in western UP region in a month, the cost incurred on such programmes comes to around Rs 50 lakh per month. The average cost incurred on each family comes to around Rs 5,000, Dharm Jagran's western UP in charge Rajeshwar Singh told TOI.
The fuel cost incurred is meant for the outfit's about 100 full-time volunteers, whose job is to identify people, who converted to other religions from Hinduism, make them aware about what good they are missing by not being a Hindu and convince them to re-convert. 'Ghar wapsi' is what Rajeshwar Singh called this re-conversion as.
Western UP region of the Dharm Jagran has three 'praants' that include Braj, Meerut and Uttarakhand.
Interestingly, this is not the only expenditure incurred by the Dharm Jagran. Since most of these volunteers are full-timers, they have a task in hand to carry on such awareness campaigns in the region throughout the year. On most of the occasions, once a family gets convinced to re-convert, volunteers have to pay for the affidavit on behalf of the family head, Ajay Sinha, a full-timer (as they are called within the organization) from Shahjahanpur told TOI. Interestingly, the requirement of affidavits is mandatory only in case of certified Christian converts, Rajeshwar told TOI, added that while for the ghar wapsi of those whom he refers to as "crypto-Christians", there is no need for certificate as such people are not converted on papers but have adopted the tradition and culture associated with Christianity.
People take part in a religion conversion ceremony from Christianity to Hinduism at Hasayan town in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (Reuters Photo)
Since the number of certified Christians is far less as compared to the 'crypto' category, the expenditure on affidavits hardly comes to Rs 2,000 per month, he said. According to a rough estimate, ghar wapsi of around 1,000 families is done on an average every month in the western UP area, Rajeshwar claimed.
Though not every time, the organization also spents money for holding 'shuddhi yagya' (purification ritual), a must for those who are reconverting. Since most of the times such yagyas are held with the contribution from either the family re-converting or through voluntary contribution by like-minded people, the average expenditure on such yagyas comes to Rs 20,000 per month per district, Rajeshwar said.
But holding shuddhi yagyas or submitting affidavits is not end the job for the Hindu outfit. The fact that the re-conversion holds no meaning if the members of the caste they belong to don't accept them back into their fold, he said and added that it is to ensure that the re-converted families aren't discouraged. The cost on an average the outfit has to bear on community feasting comes to around Rs 40,000 to 50,000 per month.
A full-time volunteer from Meerut praant requesting anonymity said on an average RSS provides Rs 12 to 15 lakh as annual budget to each of Dharm Jagran's praants and rest is through contributions from the respective districts. This funding by the RSS is reviewed annually, he said.
Such expenditure is nothing in view of the impact of such efforts, said Ajay from Shahjahanpur. Rajeshwar claims members from other communities claim to spend at least Rs 3 crore on one family that converts to their religion from Hinduism. Rajeshwar claimed he was busy with his aim of 'ghar wapsi' of around 20,000 families or 1.25 lakh individuals in December.
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Showing posts with label Dharm Jagran. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dharm Jagran. Show all posts
September 22, 2014
September 19, 2014
India: Across UP, an invasion by Hindutva’s foot soldiers and Dharm Jagran
The Times of India
Across UP, an invasion by Hindutva’s foot soldiers
Rajiv Srivastava,TNN | Sep 18, 2014, 06.03 AM IST
* On a sultry August evening, a motley group of people gathered in Lucknow's Hazratganj is all ears to a unique and new idea being talked about - Make "cow the national animal."
* In a mofussil town in Uttar Pradesh, a group of women sit huddled in a room, some with their teenage daughters in tow. It's the 'Saptahik Satsang Milan' organized by the Durga Vahini where the women are being told how to teach their daughters ways to know whether the boy they are planning to marry is a true Hindu. "Ask the boy to recite a few popular shlokas or put on a rudraksh mala," they are told.
* On December 23, an organization - Dharm Jagran - is planning a mass re-conversion drive, called "ghar wapsi", of Hindus who converted to Islam.
LUCKNOW: It's not just the saffron leaders that are chanting the Hindutva mantra. All across Uttar Pradesh, which paved the way for BJP to ride back to power in the Lok Sabha elections, heightened activity around Hindutva issues has been creating a frenzied atmosphere. Now, as BJP ceded eight of its Assembly seats to Samajwadi Party in the recent by-elections, the question many are asking is - Did the Saffron brigade push Hindutva envelope too hard in UP?
While leaders like Yogi Adityanath, the MP from Gorakhpur who gave a vitriolic speech in Parliament during the debate on "appeasement of a particular community", went hammer and tongs with speeches like "no more Jodhas will marry Akbars", it is the foot soldiers of Hindutva that have been spreading the message.
So when women walk into a "saptahik satsang" of the Durga Vahini, VHP's women's wing, they are first told about tales of brave Indian women, in an attempt to inculcate traditional culture. Then they are also taught to "educate" their daughters to safeguard themselves from men trying to marry them with the aim of religious conversion.
And, at their Shakti Upasana Kendras, women are taught exercises and ways to keep fit along with training in using the lathi, knife, sword and even guns, for self defence.
UP's cities, towns and villages are also witnessing mushrooming of publications that talk of Hindutva issues. In its first issue that was published in August this year, 'Narad Parikrama', a four-page, all-colour pullout spoke about the need for a ban of cow slaughter. The publication also mentions the need for propagating principles of Hinduism.
Dharm Jagran, a frontal organization of the RSS, is busy planning a re-conversion drive to mark Swami Shraddhanand Balidan Diwas on December 23, where they plan to bring about 5,000 people, who had converted to Islam, back into the Hindu fold, said its in-charge for Western UP Rajeswar Singh. He claims last year they could "re-convert" about 1,500.
The plans were turned into action in the last week of August in an Aligarh village where 72 Valmikis who had become Christians some 20 years back were re-converted to Hinduism after the church belonging to the 7th Day Adventists was turned into a temple. All this was done under the supervision of Dharm Jagran members who called it a 'homecoming'.
Also scaling up its activities will be the Bajrang Dal. To begin with, its annual blood donation camp on November 2 to mark 'Sacrifice Day' - the day the first incident of firing on kar sevaks took place in Ayodhya - will be much larger affair this year. "While he used to have about 5,000 volunteers in our camps, this year, we are targeting about 1 lakh volunteers who would donate blood," It is also planning a camp to create awareness about issues at a three-day programme next month in Haridwar in neighbouring Uttarakhand.
Across UP, an invasion by Hindutva’s foot soldiers
Rajiv Srivastava,TNN | Sep 18, 2014, 06.03 AM IST
* On a sultry August evening, a motley group of people gathered in Lucknow's Hazratganj is all ears to a unique and new idea being talked about - Make "cow the national animal."
* In a mofussil town in Uttar Pradesh, a group of women sit huddled in a room, some with their teenage daughters in tow. It's the 'Saptahik Satsang Milan' organized by the Durga Vahini where the women are being told how to teach their daughters ways to know whether the boy they are planning to marry is a true Hindu. "Ask the boy to recite a few popular shlokas or put on a rudraksh mala," they are told.
* On December 23, an organization - Dharm Jagran - is planning a mass re-conversion drive, called "ghar wapsi", of Hindus who converted to Islam.
LUCKNOW: It's not just the saffron leaders that are chanting the Hindutva mantra. All across Uttar Pradesh, which paved the way for BJP to ride back to power in the Lok Sabha elections, heightened activity around Hindutva issues has been creating a frenzied atmosphere. Now, as BJP ceded eight of its Assembly seats to Samajwadi Party in the recent by-elections, the question many are asking is - Did the Saffron brigade push Hindutva envelope too hard in UP?
While leaders like Yogi Adityanath, the MP from Gorakhpur who gave a vitriolic speech in Parliament during the debate on "appeasement of a particular community", went hammer and tongs with speeches like "no more Jodhas will marry Akbars", it is the foot soldiers of Hindutva that have been spreading the message.
So when women walk into a "saptahik satsang" of the Durga Vahini, VHP's women's wing, they are first told about tales of brave Indian women, in an attempt to inculcate traditional culture. Then they are also taught to "educate" their daughters to safeguard themselves from men trying to marry them with the aim of religious conversion.
And, at their Shakti Upasana Kendras, women are taught exercises and ways to keep fit along with training in using the lathi, knife, sword and even guns, for self defence.
UP's cities, towns and villages are also witnessing mushrooming of publications that talk of Hindutva issues. In its first issue that was published in August this year, 'Narad Parikrama', a four-page, all-colour pullout spoke about the need for a ban of cow slaughter. The publication also mentions the need for propagating principles of Hinduism.
Dharm Jagran, a frontal organization of the RSS, is busy planning a re-conversion drive to mark Swami Shraddhanand Balidan Diwas on December 23, where they plan to bring about 5,000 people, who had converted to Islam, back into the Hindu fold, said its in-charge for Western UP Rajeswar Singh. He claims last year they could "re-convert" about 1,500.
The plans were turned into action in the last week of August in an Aligarh village where 72 Valmikis who had become Christians some 20 years back were re-converted to Hinduism after the church belonging to the 7th Day Adventists was turned into a temple. All this was done under the supervision of Dharm Jagran members who called it a 'homecoming'.
Also scaling up its activities will be the Bajrang Dal. To begin with, its annual blood donation camp on November 2 to mark 'Sacrifice Day' - the day the first incident of firing on kar sevaks took place in Ayodhya - will be much larger affair this year. "While he used to have about 5,000 volunteers in our camps, this year, we are targeting about 1 lakh volunteers who would donate blood," It is also planning a camp to create awareness about issues at a three-day programme next month in Haridwar in neighbouring Uttarakhand.
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