Ghar Wapsi

Ghar Wapsi (Hindi, meaning "Returning Home") is the programme of religious conversion to Hinduism (and, to a lesser extent, Sikhism) from Islam, Christianity, and other religions in India conducted by Indian Hindu nationalist organisations Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and their allies. The term owes to the Hindu nationalist ideology that all people of India are ancestrally Hindu and, hence, conversion to Hinduism is one of "returning home" to their ancestral roots.^[1][2][3]

The programme became a subject of public discussion in 2014.^[4][5][6] The Bharatiya Janata Party's Yogi Adityanath has claimed this campaign would continue unless conversions to other religions are banned altogether in the country.^[7] According to proponents of Hindutva, such as Sangh Parivar, the process is called "reconversion" of Christians and Muslims who were previously converted.^[8] The process is viewed as Shuddhi or "purification" rather than conversion, since they state, through Ghar Wapsi, people from the other religions are returning to their "true" religion.^[9]

The Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh organised several Ghar Wapsi events in Telangana,^[10] Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Goa.^[11][12] The Indian Express reported that Scheduled Caste Manjhi families demanded better facilities along with education and healthcare before they converted.^[13]

In a Supreme Court judgment, the judges ruled that reconversion to Hinduism will not prevent a person from accessing quota benefits and adopt the caste of his forefathers. The bench further held that the "Scheduled Caste persons belonging to Hindu religion, who had embraced Christianity with some kind of hope or aspiration, have remained socially, educationally and economically backward."^[14]