The agitators demanded that Christian missionaries forthwith stop cheating innocent tribal people in the name of religion.
It may be mentioned here that Christian missionaries have been trying to spread Christianity for a long time through Indianising Christian religion and giving them local colours. For example, Christ has been rechristened as 'Khrist' in Hindi, 'Khristo' or 'Kristo' in Bengali to make it sound like 'Krishna' or 'Kristo' (another name of Krishna) in Bengali.
This time in the tribal Jharkhand they made portraits, idols and statues of Mother Mary in the fashion of tribal women wearing red bordered saree with baby Christ in hand, just as tribal women do.
The tribal leaders allege that it has been done as mischief to cheat tribals and to make them believe that Mother Mariam was a tribal woman and Christ was a tribal. They believe that this is a conversion tactics of Christian Missionaries.
On the other hand Christian authorities have denied the allegation and said that it was part of their efforts of localization of international Christian religion for the benefit of the people and it has nothing to do with alleged 'forced conversion'.
Jharkhand Tribals up in arms against Christian conversions
Special Correspondent - 2013-06-17 09:10
Ranchi: Tribals of Jharkhand, under the aegis of Jharkhand's Adivasi Jan Parishad, the body of various tribal groups, staged a massive demonstration today in Ranchi against their conversion efforts by Christian machinery in the state. A rally of above 5000 tribals, including large number of women, raised slogans against conversion on behest of foreign forces active in the state.