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Yatra demands foreign missionaries to 'quit India'

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

The picture is becoming clearer as the Dharm Jagaran Yatra -- which began from Goa today and will reach Delhi two days prior to the Pope's visit starting November 5 -- gets under way. Its slogan is 'Quit India', which is aimed at the foreign missionaries. Its programme is reconversion of the Catholics to Hinduism.

The Sanskruti Raksha Manch, under whose banner the Sangh Parivar is conducting the campaign against alleged Christian conversions, held a small function at Porne Tirth (an ancient place of pilgrimage) in Diwar, an island across Old Goa, by way of inaugurating the two week yatra.

Recalling that the Dwarkeshwar temple here was the equivalent of Jerusalem for the Hindus of Goa, Bal Apte of the Manch felt that all such places which were destroyed by the Jesuits and the Portuguese rulers four centuries ago should be rebuilt once again.

The yatra however is only the first step to warn the foreign missionaries to wind up their activities in India, failing which the next step will be to physically drive them out. The third step, as envisaged by the Manch, would be to ''rehabilitate'' those who were forcibly converted to Christianity.

Mukundraj Maharaj Madgavkar of Siolim, who presided over the launching ceremony, also spoke of the reconversion to Hinduism of all Goan Catholics who were forcibly converted 500 years ago.

The Manch had initially projected a picture of the yatra merely seeking an apology from the Pope for the Portuguese Inquisition in Goa and a commitment regarding alleged forcible conversions in tribal areas elsewhere in the country.

But the focus now is about rebuilding all the Hindu temples destroyed by the Portuguese rulers. The Sangh Parivar however also expresses ''sympathies'' for the Goan Catholics, claiming that they were kept in the dark by the Church regarding the atrocities on non-Christians during the Inquisition.

In the same breath, Apte however admits that most of the history of these atrocities is documented by the Catholic priests themselves. Unlike forceful conversions of the past, the recent ones are by offering inducements to the tribals, he alleges.

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