Christian family expelled from Indian village after forced conversion attempt

A Christian family in India has been attacked and driven from their home after they refused to convert to Hinduism.

The incident occurred within the state of Chhattisgarh, where Vikram had been living for years along with his wife and three children.

All this modified nevertheless on 16 June, when village leaders told Vikram that if his family didn’t resign Christianity and embrace Hinduism, they might be exiled from the village.

When Vikram refused, he was told that he can be expelled from the village.

According to International Christian Concern (ICC), this pronouncement was then enforced by a mob of villagers.

The mob allegedly entered Vikram’s family home, threw food and private property from the home into the road. Vikram’s three daughters were also abused by villagers.

According to the ICC, while the actions of the village elders lack legal sanction, there may be increasing pressure from the governing Hindu nationalist BJP Party to make India a Hindu-only nation.

As such there are lots of attempts to persuade or coerce Christians and other minorities to conduct the “Ghar Wapsi” ceremony to convert to Hinduism. The phrase means “homecoming”.

Violence and attacks equivalent to those experienced by Vikram have gotten more common in India, particularly in Chhattisgarh.

Following the attack on his family Vikram, who’s currently receiving aid from ICC, reported the incident to the police.

The police asked the village elders to simply accept Vikram back into the village, nevertheless took no further motion when the elders refused.

Last month, five Christian families, also living in Chhattisgarh, were forced to flee their homes after a Hindu mob disrupted a Christian wedding.

The victims were told that Christian ceremonies weren’t permitted within the village, with attackers going up to now as cutting off the families electricity supplies.

Chhattisgarh is one in all 11 Indian states that has anti-conversion laws. In practice such laws are sometimes used to stop conversion away from Hinduism, while little motion is taken when force is used to convert people into Hinduism.