Activists want Shabri Kumbh Mela banned in Gujarat

NEW DELHI: Activists on Sunday called on the Indian government to ban a Hindu festival which they allege is aimed at intimidating the Christian minority and converting tribals in the western state of Gujarat.

The three-day Shabri Kumbh Mela (Urn Festival) is scheduled to begin on February 11 in Dangs district where Christians were attacked in the past, allegedly by right-wing Hindus.

"It is nothing but a process of Hinduisation of tribal people, who do not belong to Hinduism but follow their own gods and godesses like trees and animals," said Shabnam Hashmi of the group Act Now for Harmony and Democracy.

"We want the (national) government to ban the festival," Hashmi said, noting tht the state's Hindu nationalist-led government was unlikely to do so.

She said festival organisers plan to mobilise around 500,000 tribals and Hindu activists for the gathering in the protected forests of Dangs district, which has a population of 185,000 including around 8,000 Christians.

"The organisers are launching a major campaign against Christians," she said.

Hashmi has separately filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a ban on a VCD promoting the festival. It shows churches as demons which people are urged to attack. 

The festival is being organised by the right-wing Hindu Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS), which has ties with the country's main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"It is only a congregation of tribals and there will be Hindu discourses by religious leaders," RSS spokesman Ram Madhav said, denying any anti-Christian campaign. 

Activists said the RSS plans to convert the tribals to Hinduism to counteract Christian conversions.

Opponents of the festival say the BJP government in Gujarat is targeting Christians the same way it has marginalised the Muslims. Human rights groups accuse Gujarat's chief minister Narendra Modi of complicity in the massacre of at least 2,000 Muslims in 2002.

Right-wing Hindus in turn say Christian missionaries use gifts to convert poor people to Christianity.

In 1998 38 churches in Dangs district were burnt down, allegedly by Hindu activists.