Hundreds of tribal Christians reconverted to Hinduism in Orissa

Baripada, Orissa, June 22 (UNI) In one of the major mass reconversion ceremonies ever held in Orissa, some 602 tribal Christians were reconverted to Hinduism at a function sponsored by the Viswa Hindu Parishad(VHP) in the tribal district of Mayurbhanj today.

Never in the history of recent past in Orissa such a large number of tribal Christians belonging to 92 families were converted to Hinduism at a ''reconversion'' ceremony held in the campus of Pandit Raghunath Murmu Memorial college at Sarat, about 80 kms from here.

According to VHP central coordinator Gouri Prasad Ratha of the 602 tribal Christians as many as 166 were women, who participated in a Yangya rituals accompanied by 'Sankirtan' before reconverting to Hinduism in presence of Sankaracharaya of Puri Swami Nischalananda Saraswati.

BJP Rajya Sabha member from Mayurbhanj Bhagirathi Majhi and MLA from Nilgiri Pratap Chandra Sarangi were among the prominent leaders present at the ceremony. The district authority had made tight security arrangements on the occasion to avoid any untoward incident.

Hundreds of men, women and children thronged the venue to have a darshan of the Puri Sankaracharya, VHP sources said.

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