Author: Our Staff Reporter
Publication: The Hindu
Date: February 27, 2004
URL: http://www.hindu.com/2004/02/27/stories/2004022702210500.htm
A seven-member team from North-
East has listed religious conversion, infiltration from Bangladesh and
militancy as the main problems confronting the people there.
The delegation is here (from February
21 to 29) as part of a nation-wide tour programme of social workers from
North-East. The tour is being organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi
Kalyan Ashram.
Talking to presspersons here today,
Rakhi Tana Tara from Arunachal Pradesh said the problems facing North-East
were not regional but national. ``Organised Christian groups are undertaking
conversions there. Right-minded Christians here (in Kerala) should denounce
these elements. They wanted to destroy the social fabric of Indian culture,''
he said.
Asked whether the tribals in North-East
were satisfied with their own social system, he said it would take time
to achieve progress in every society. ``But it should not be imposed or
dictated, like in North-East,'' he said.
The delegation observed that public
support for insurgency was coming down in the region. ``Now, owing to unabated
infiltration from Bangladesh, the Muslim population has risen by 30 per
cent in Assam. They have not limited themselves to Assam, they are found
even in tribal majority hill States, where they marry our tribal girls
and convert them and their offspring to Islam. A sizeable `tribal Muslim'
population can be seen in these States. Even Christian tribal girls are
being converted to Islam. The whole of North-East has become a `religious
battlefield,''' the delegation said.
The delegation said that peace could
be re-established there only if there was a sense of coexistence among
the people, and this could be guaranteed only by the `traditional Eternal
Janajati Faith and Culture'.
They said that Hindus are Nature
worshipers and so too are the tribals. ``So we are actually `Sanadhani'
(those who follow the Sanadhana Dharma).''
