Replies submitted by Shri T. Y. Dehankar, President, Bar Association, and six others of Bilaspur
1. According to the Census Report the population was as below:- 1931-5,216, 1941-5,552 and 1951-9,006.
These figures are from census report but they are also not correct. The increase in the Christian population is more than indicated in these census.
2. The reason of rise in Christian population is mainly due to conversion and the fall in the population of scheduled tribe and caste is due to this alone. Scheduled tribe and caste being poor are prone to be easy victims of Christian missionaries.
3. Maximum 10%.
4. It is very difficult to give yearly statistics in this regard. But on the whole it may be safely said that since 47, the rate of conversion has fastly accelerated. The census report in this regard is not reliable, the actual figures of conversion are far greater than actually under report to the Government. Nearly 90 per cent of the converts are from scheduled castes (satnamis and Kanojiyas mainly). Ten per cent are from scheduled tribes and castes from among Hindus.
5. The manner of conversion so far known is-
(1) Various temptation and allurements thrown to the poor and needy according to the particular cases.
(2) Threatening.
(3) Condemning other religions in and out and season.
(4) Sequeezing their victims in tight corners compelling them indirectly to embrace Christianity.
They are converted in both ways-individually and in groups as well according to the place and locality. Backward people often get converted in group. They catch an influential man of the caste and try to convert him and with him his followers get converted.
Yes, the head of the family is their first target, other members of the family follow suit as they are too conscious of their own rights due to the wrong notion propagated by missionaries that when the head of the family is converted automatically all of them naturally have converted.
6. The following organisations are engaged in conversion-
(1) Catholic, (2) Shephers Mission, (3) Church of Christ Mission, (4) Evangelical Mission, (5) Foreign Christian Mission, (6) Protest Church, (7) Seventh Day Adventist Mission. (8) Lutherian Mission at Champa.
Yes, their agents do contact their victims individually.
7. The working of the organisation is as follows:-
They carry on their conversion activity with the help of Pracharaks who are under reverenced father of a church. They go to melas, bazars, and villages, hospitals, court and other such places and by knowing about their likely victims, they throw the allurement or temptations suiting individual victims of theirs and they after seeing their victim completely in their net, use various methods as will be described in answer to paragraph 8 in converting. Their constitution varies but generally it is as follows:-