Taking a serious note of the efforts at converting the members of the tribal community to Christianity and “alienate them from the Hindu culture,” Kerala Vanavasi Vikas Kendram has called upon the Hindus to take up the cause of the tribals and fight for their birth rights.
Delivering the key-note address at the cultural meeting organised as part of the birth centenary of Balasaheb Deshpande, the founder of Akhila Bharatheeya Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, Seema Surakha all-India joint organising secretary A Gopalakrishnan said here on Thursday that it was from the days of East India Company that the Western Christian missionaries had started the efforts to convert the tribals on a massive scale.
He said attempts by Pentecostal missionaries to convert the tribal people from Hinduism to Christianity in Agasthyarkoodam forests, Wayanad and Attappadi had been going on unchecked.
However, he said, the activities of the Vanavasi Vikas Kendram had started showing results.
Two books were released at the function by Narayan Dev (Vanavasi Kalyan Akhila Bharatheeya Karyakari member) and K K Balaram (Pranta Saha Sangha Chalak, RSS).Mithraniketan director K Viswanathan, Mohan Triveni (Adivasi Mahasabha), Sivamritha Chaithanya, Mallan Kani, Reshan Master, P K Bhaskaran, Lakshmi Amma, C K Rajasekharan, Narayan (novelist) and others were honoured.
