Bihar: 200 Mahadalits convert to Christianity, CM orders probe

Patna: Dec 26: After conversion of 200 Mahadalits to Christanity was reproted from Bodh Gaya, Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi ordered a probe into the issue. As per a report of The Hindu, “About 200 Mahadalits from 40 families of Atiya village under Pararia panchayat of Bodh Gaya block converted to Christianity on Thursday at a Christmas function organised in a local school by a priest, Brother Rajkishore.
Conversion of 40 Mahadalit families comprising 200 people to Christianity in his home district of Gaya. All those converted are residents of Atia village near Bodh Gaya, the birth place of Buddhism as Lord Buddha attained enlightenment there.” Meanwhile, the Bihar Chief Minister sought a report on the incident from the district magistrate. “Though some families of Mahadalits of Atia village had converted to Christianity from 2008 onwards, but remaining 40 to 50 families converted Thursday,” an official was quoted as saying. Bihar Chief Minister aslo said that if they have converted on their own there is nothing wrong in it, but if not then it needs to be investigated. Few days back, eight poor Mahadalits, including a woman, converted to Christianity in a village in Bihar’s Munger district. “It is a fact that eight of them converted to Christianity at Ratanpura village under Sangrampur block in Munger, about 180 km from here, a few days back,” the official said. The converts told a team of district officials, who visited the village to probe the case on Friday following district magistrate Amrendra Prasad Singh’s orders, that they had changed their religion to lead a life of honour and dignity, officials added. Nearly a dozen poor Hindus, including women, were converted to Christianity at Barohiya village and Gangaldeh villages in Bhagalpur district, early this week. Three of those who converted to Christianity have returned to Hindu fold at a ‘ghar wapasi’ (returning home) ceremony by the VHP, a police official said.

Source: One India