On Friday, 250 Muslims from 40 families converted to Hinduism in Bidhmira village in Hisar district of Haryana, reported The Times of India. The people in the village reportedly lead a Hindu way of life but follow the Islamic custom of burying the dead only during the last rites of a deceased. The families lived at Danoda Kalan village before Independence.
A local resident Satbir who had recently converted to Hinduism to cremate his 80 year-old mother Phooli Devi,as per Hindu customs, has conceded that he belonged to the Doom cate whose families had converted to Islam during the rule of Aurangzeb. He also denied any foul play or efforts at forced conversion.
A villager named Majid, however, said, “It is only when we bury our dead, that the villagers looked at us differently. Therefore, looking at the future of children, we decided to convert.” He conceded that people now know about their past due to education.
Harfool Khan Bhatti, Haryana State President of Muslims Welfare Organisation has claimed that the mass religious conversion from Islam to Hinduism was the ‘greed behind availing caste-based reservations’. As per Bhatti, Muslims and Christians cannot get Doom caste quota due to a 1951 notification.
25,000 Muslims and Christians converted to Hinduism in 2018
In November last year, A Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader informed that the Hindu cultural organisation has managed to reconvert 25,000 Muslims and Christians back to Hinduism in 2018. Speaking to media, VHP’s secretary-general stated that the organisation had conducted drives for reconversion across the country. Such events are called ‘Ghar-Wapsi’, meaning coming back to the original faith.