ICC Note:

Starting in 2014, radical Hindu nationalists began holding ghar wapsi programs to convert India’s Muslims and Christians to Hinduism. In many cases, these programs have been associated with claims of induced or forced conversion which is illegal in several of India’s state laws. Recently, a radical Hindu nationalist group has claimed to have converted 27 Christians in India’s Kerala state. Were these conversion freely done? 

1/19/2015 India (NDTV) – The Vishwa Hindu Parishad today claimed that 27 people from five families have “re-converted” to Hinduism from Christianity, in a program organized by the party in Kerala’s Alappuzha district.

According to Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) district President Advocate Prathap G Padickal, “the details of the reconverts have been withheld temporarily from the media, but they reconverted through the “ghar wapsi” program because they were not happy with their earlier situations since they were not receiving any benefits.”

The VHP has also claimed that these requests for the ghar wapsi ceremonies were made by the people themselves. Last month these ceremonies became controversial in Kerala after the VHP claimed over 50 people in different instances in Kottayam and Alappuzha had returned to Hindu faith.

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