A Hindu temple priest from a Scheduled Caste (SC) community in Andhra Pradesh posted a video recently, narrating his alleged harassment at the hands of the converted Christians of his SC community, who now constitute an overwhelming majority in his village.
A video has been doing the rounds on social media in which a man narrates his ordeal pleading for support from the Hindu community.
We are told this mandir purohit in Andhra Pradesh is narrating how he is being threatened by converted local Christians to abandon the temple and convert. Can someone caption this video and provide a complete transcript? pic.twitter.com/yphTVRLGOL
— HinduPost (@hindupost) December 5, 2022
He says “Jai Sri ram! My name is Addepalli Raghavulu. I am from Sajjalavaripalem village – ‘Madiga’palli (Madiga is an SC community) colony within the larger village Nagaram Mandal, Bapatla district, Andhra Pradesh. With the help of the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD), we built a Rama temple in the Madigapalli locality (the caste area within the larger village). In our village, people from my Madiga community who have converted to Christianity, are pressuring me to convert and give up the Rama temple, which is located within the SC locality of the village. I have resisted and because I have not given in to the pressure of Christian conversion tactics, the christians from my community threatened to file false cases against me, which they eventually did, claiming that I had bad-mouthed women from the Christian community. They have threatened to file more frivolous, false cases against me with the help of the Nagaram Mandal Superintendent of Police (SI)”.
In the video, he further adds “It is disheartening that the local AP police are not only turning a blind eye to this gross injustice but encouraging me to convert, on the grounds that Hindus have now become a minority in my Madiga caste (SC community) and hence what can a few Hindu members do against the much larger Christian numbers!”
“I request all Hindus to save the Sri Kodanda Rama temple in Sajjavaripalem village (Madigapalli/SC colony) from demolition and Pujaris like me who are proudly, happily working for the Hindu Dharma. We need your blessings and help from the leaders of our Hindu organizations”., the priest says.
“Dear Hindus, I am saddened and troubled by the 2-3 FIRs that were filed against me and the threat of another one, on the basis of false charges, simply because I have refused to convert to Christianity. If they succeed in filing these false cases against me with the support of the local police, there will be no more Hindus left in my community and no Pujari for this temple. It will be demolished or converted into a Church by the Christians. I am one of only a handful of Hindus left. I hereby request you to help me save this temple, our Hindu Dharma and my family. I hope I have the blessings and support of the Hindus with the help of this video. Jai Sri Ram! Jai Hind!”
In another recent incident, residents of a village in Andhra stood united in petitioning the local government authorities against the construction of a new church. They were successful with their petition against the church, as the authorities accepted their argument, that the village did not have any christians at present and clearly, a large church was being built, only to conduct a conversion drive among the gullible and vulnerable Hindu SC communities, by falsifying information on the Hindu religion and offering financial incentives to the economically weakers sections of society.
The Hindu Post reported that an activist has since visited the mentioned village and confirmed the information shared by the courageous Raghavalu, in his video. Apparently, only three SC families out of around 500 have remained Hindu. One can imagine the plight of the handful of Hindus among the hundreds of aggresive, fanatic converted Christians. This complaint based on the information shared in the video is being investigated.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.