Chhattisgarh Organised a campaign to convert Christian Adivasis to Hindus

There was an “organized campaign” to convert Christian tribals into Hindus in Bastar’s Narayanpur and Kondagaon districts, according to a team of civil society representatives who visited more than 30 villages in districts where Christians were allegedly attacked. However, state officials denied that the violence was related to forcible religious conversions.

“From December 9, 2022, to December 18, there was a series of attacks in about 18 villages in Narayanpur district and 15 villages in Kondagaon district, displacing about 1,000 Christian Adivasis from their own villages,” said the report of a fact-finding team led by Irfan Engineer, director of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, and Brijendra Tiwari, convener of the All India People’s Forum, Chhattisgarh.

The team went to relief camps and villages, meeting victims of the violence as well as non-Christian adivasis, including village chiefs.