By Damayantee Dhar
Years of effort put in by the Sangh Parivar to bring the tribals of Gujarat into the Hindutva fold seem to be going to waste.
While the tribals — some of whom are converted Christians — patiently tolerated the softer “cultural influence” for many years, they are now resisting the more hard-core stance of an outright socio-religious imposition.
Aggressive push backfires
Proselytisation efforts by Hindu right-wing outfits — led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — in Gujarat’s tribal belt had been continuing for years when the BJP had no foothold in these regions. The process of political infiltration was systematic, camouflaged in a “cultural” wrap, and backed up by financial temptation.
But winning 24 of the 27 seats in the tribal regions in the 2022 Assembly polls emboldened the saffron party, and the socio-religious imposition became more aggressive.
The party directly asked its tribal MLAs to take over activities such as ghar wapsi (reconversion to Hinduism), Ram Katha (reciting Lord Rama’s story), and dharma jagran (religious awakening) and oversee various schools and cooperative financial bodies run by the VHP and RSS in the region.
And that is when things went awry.
This story was originally published in thefederal.com. Read the full story here.
