Dangs (Gujarat), Feb. 11: The Sangh parivar’s Shabri Kumbh began here today with a call to tribal Christians to “return” to the Hindu fold.

With the campaign avoiding the term “reconversion” and using the label of “homecoming (gharvapasi)”, speaker after speaker spouted vitriol against the practice of “conversion” by Christian missionaries.

From Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to Ram kathakar Morari Bapu and Sant Asharam Bapu, everyone on the dais exhorted the tribals to embrace Hinduism and warned the missionaries not to convert the “gullible” tribals.

Inaugurating the Kumbh, Swami Satyanand Giri of Bharat Mata Mandir, Hardwar, advised his Hindu listeners on how to win over the tribal Christians.

“A Hindu janjagran (mass awakening) programme should be held every month in every village. The organisers should provide free food, like the Sikhs provide to their people. You should ensure that every house has a Hanuman Chalisa.”

He said Hindu sants and sadhus must sincerely apologise to the tribals and Dalits who might have converted to Christianity because they faced discrimination from Hindus.

The venue was packed with tribals, many of whom came from outside the state ? from neighbouring Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan as well as from faraway Meghalaya and the Andamans.

Modi scoffed at the “sons of Macaulay” for their failure to understand the tribals’ bond with Shabri Mata, the daughter of a Bhil king who had offered berries to Ram.

The root of the problem, he said, is that the followers of a particular religion believe it is superior and its stipulated path alone leads to salvation (and that) other religions are inferior, so their followers should be converted.

Dangs had in the late 1990s witnessed a series of attacks on Christians’ prayer halls in its towns and villages.