> But in the OSX the character references are getting converted into
> their respective characters. Is there any option to retain the
> character references as in the input file.

Yes, `osx` has an "--xml-output-option=no-expand-internal" switch.[1]
But this is probably not the appropriate venue for discussion of
`osx`.

Note
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[1] See 
    http://www.tei-c.org/Activities/Workgroups/MI/miw03.xml#body.1_div.3_div.1_div.4