Sri Lankan missionary engineers' conversion in Gaya, about 500 embrace Buddhism
GAYA: About 500 Hindus, almost all belonging to an intermediary caste known for vocal anti-Brahmanism, embraced Buddhism at a special ceremony that took place at village Khanjapur under Manpur block in Gaya district on Saturday.
They also installed a Buddha image at the village to proclaim their change of faith. As per reports, the conversions were engineered by a Sri Lankan Buddhist missionary. Sri Lankan Buddhist missionaries have been active in the area for more than 100 years now and late Angarika Dhammapal, an internationally known Sri Lankan missionary, led the revival movement at Bodh Gaya in the year 1891.
It was Dhammapal who first raised the issue of Hindu control over Mahabodhi Temple, the seat of Buddha's enlightenment.
According to reports, the Buddhist missionaries organized indoctrination camps in Manpur area of the town to win over new converts. Most of the converts are said to belong to the vegetable-growing Koeri caste. A section of Koeris in the district has been boycotting Brahmanism for about 50 years now and even the marriage rituals are performed by caste elders and not brahmans.
VHP state patron Udai Kumar Verma said that baptization of some people in the Buddhist faith does not amount to conversion as Buddhism is not a separate religion. Buddhism, according to Verma, is just another sect of the extended Hindu family and Buddha was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the preserver.
Bhadant Anand, chief of Nagour-based All India Monks Association, said the conversion was, in fact, a protest against what he alleged to be the exploitative character of 'Hindu brahmanical order'. People will continue to desert Hinduism as long as the religion does not adopt a more accommodative character, said Bhadant Anand.
