A case of gha wapsi has come to light in Ambedkar Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, where eight members of three families of Akbarpur, Jalalpur and Tanda tehsils have renounced their Islam faith and adopted Sanatana Dharma. All of them submitted an affidavit with their changed names to the District Magistrate’s office. In this process of ghar wapsi, they arrived with the famous Mahant Raju Das of Ayodhya and social worker Arvind Pandey.
Khalil, son of Ninhku, a resident of Afzalpur Sudari Faridpur village of Akbarpur tehsil, has adopted his new name Radheshyam. Similarly, other members of his family who did ghar wapsi have also changed their names to Hindu names- Khalil’s son Zubair has now become Saurabh. Khalil’s daughter Sabreen has now become Shubhangi. Ajmat Ali has now become Sanvir. Barkat Ali will now be known as Shani.
The family says that they have done ghar wapsi as they got to know that four generations ago, their caste was known as ‘Kahar’ Hindu caste, which traditionally belonged to the Kahar community. In a desire to adopt this family identity back, they decided to adopt Sanatan Dharma. Tasleem, son of Mohammad Idrish of Hanswar Lakhanpur village of Tanda tehsil, adopted the name Girjesh, while his wife Noorjahan has now become Gudiya.
Noor Mohammad, son of Hiralal of Jaitpur Shivpal village of Jalalpur tehsil, chose the name Rambabu. He announced his return to the Sanatana Dharma and renounced Islam .
These families went to the District Magistrate’s office and submitted an affidavit of changing their name and religion, which was accepted by Deputy District Magistrate Ravikant Choubey. He registered this process legally and gave them the identity of their new names. Mahant Raju Das of Ayodhya said that these families are voluntarily returning to the traditions of their ancestors.
