Christian Missionaries on Conversion Spree in India
Opportunism, Manipulation and Malpractices
Brief History of Christianity in India
The dawn of Christianity to India dates back to the arrival of Saint Thomas to Kodungallur in Kerala in 52 AD and establishment of the ‘Seven Churches’ for gospel activities. He succeeded in converting local Indians to Christianity. His converts were called Syrian Christians.
The Europeans arrived in India for commercial reasons but they also started converting local Indians to Christianity. Of all five Europeans (British, French, Danish, Dutch and Portuguese) Portuguese were most keen on baptising Indians. They also tried to enforce Roman Catholicism on Syrian Christians of Kerala.
The British (mostly Protestants) arrived in India in 1600 but allowed missionary activities only in 1813. In addition to spreading Christianity, these missionaries but also provided basic necessities of life like food, clothes and shelter to the needy. They built many schools in India but were less successful than Portuguese in converting Indians. Unlike the Portuguese who enforced Christianity, Protestant converts were voluntary.
Changing Demographics
About 2.5% of India’s population are Christians.
In my recent blog ‘Christianisation of Punjab’ I wrote about how people convert but remain lower-caste Hindus on paper to enjoy reservation benefits that are not available to religious converts as per law. The statistics may not be fully representative of the exact number of Christians in the regions.
SOUTH INDIA
As per 2011 census, nearly half (46%) of India’s Christian population lives in South India, 28.1% in the northeast, 1.3% in Goa while the rest of the country is home to less than 25% of the total Christians.
Goa, the former Portuguese colony has a christian representation of 35%. Kerala is 22.07% Christian while Tamil Nadu is 15.88% Christian.
The Telugu states of undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2011 were shown to have less than 2% Christians. The State with 15 lakhs Christians as per 1971 Census had only 6.5 lakh Christians in 2011. Clearly, the numbers have been manipulated. There’s no way christians are less than 10% (or even 20%) in Andhra.
This is funny and infuriating at the same time because I am from Andhra and have seen the extent of missionary activities in the state (with alleged support from the State Govt, the CM & ex-CM are both Christians). The missionaries in Andhra are so active that they have reached the sacred hills of Tirumala in the holiest city for many south indians, Tirupati. After massive public outrage, the govt had to bring an ordinance to ban any non-hindu religious propagation in Tirumala near the temple premises.
NORTH EAST
The tribal populations of Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland have become almost entirely Christian.
Much of the conversions in the northeast occurred during 1931–51. In that period (around Independence), the Church began to support militant assertions of various tribals and regional sub-nationalism in this region. This seems to have helped the expansion of Christianity in the region.
Meghalaya was the first state to witness the expansion of Christianity because the British administrator handed over the responsibility and budget for school education to the Christian missions. As per the Census 2011, there are 75% Christians in the State.
Mizoram was the next State to be Christianised. There was a sudden spurt in the Christian population here during 1911–31. And from 1931 to 1951, the whole of the tribal population of Mizoram was converted. Between 1911-51, the share of Christians in Mizoram rose from a mere 3% to 90%.
Manipur which had around 2% Christians in 1931 and 12% in 1951 is now at 41%. The share of Christians in Manipur is less compared to neighbouring states because of its large non-tribal population. But the hilly districts of Manipur which have tribal populations, are almost fully Christian.
Nagaland had 2% Christians in 1911, 13% in 1931 and 46% in 1951. By 1991, the share of Christians reached above 87% and more than 98% of its tribal population of was Christianised.
Arunachal Pradesh remained beyond the reach of the Church up to 1971, after which the area was brought under civil administration. Since then, the share of Christians has been rising rapidly and has reached above 30% now. Many native tribes are now Christian.
Assam and Tripura don’t have a significant Christian population yet. But the rapid growth of Christianity in these states is not negligible. The share of Christians in Assam and Tripura are 3.75% and 4.5% respectively.
Sikkim too saw a rapid expansion of Christianity since 1971. Christians in the state grew from now form 0.8% to 10% between 1971–2011. The share of Christians in the neighbouring Darjeeling district of West Bengal has also increased from 3.6% in 1971 to 7.7% in 2011.
(Read detailed analysis here)
Resistance from Locals
- THE SENTINELESE
In 2018, a Christian missionary from America, John Allen Chau was killed by the protected Sentinelese tribals when he had gone to the North Sentinel Island in Andaman to preach Christianity. As per the Indian law, Sentinelese are identified as an “aboriginal tribe”; recording their videos and publishing them on the internet is prohibited. Seven fishermen who took Chau to the island were arrested under the law.
2. KANDGAMAL RIOTS (2008)
In the Kandhamal district of Odisha, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a Hindu Saint was brutally murdered by armed Naxalites and some Christian fanatics leading to violent clashes between Christian and Hindu tribes. In 2013, 7 converted Christians and a Maoist leader were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. Most of them are out on bail now.
3. GRAHAM STAINES’ MURDER (1999)
In Odisha, an Australian Missionary Graham Staines along with his two children was burnt to death by an angry mob led by a member of the Hindu outfit Bajrang Dal. The Wadhwa Commission which was tasked with investigating the murder established that there was no evidence to suggest that Bajrang Dal(as an organization) was involved in the crime.
Staines had been working in Odisha since 1965 as part of an evangelical missionary organisation caring for people who had leprosy. The Wadhwa Commission report also mentioned that there was local anger against Staines who was perceived as someone who was emboldening the Christians in the area and furthering the spread of Christianity.
4. CHURCH ATTACKS
Increased activity by Christian evangelicals has enraged people across states in India. With ample information available on social media these days, Indians have become more aware of the massive conversions in South and the Northeast. This has led to hostility towards Christian preachers and organisations. Churches have been vandalised and Priests have been attacked as a result.
Illegal Means to Convert
Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity are also infamous for conversions. British journalist Christopher Hitchens in his book, The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, wrote that they were encouraged to secretly baptise the people on their deathbeds.
Susan Shields, a former member of the Missionaries of Charity, writes that
Sisters were to ask each person in danger of death if he wanted a ‘ticket to heaven’. An affirmative reply was to mean consent to baptism. The sister was then to pretend that she was just cooling the patient’s head with a wet cloth, while in fact she was baptising him, saying quietly the necessary words. Secrecy was important so that it would not come to be known that Mother Teresa’s sisters were baptising Hindus and Muslims.
The aim of the missionaries is to exploit the existing fault-lines along religion, caste, community, language, ethinicity and race.
It is quite evident that the missionaries have been successful in luring only the neglected strata of the society. Such sections that often feel under-represented and unheard are easy to be manipulated and exploited. The Christian missionaries have mastered the game of offering incentives in exchange for conversions. People are often lured with money, access to free healthcare and education, job prospects abroad, etc.
Funding the Missionaries
A simple google search will reveal how Christian NGOs in India are top receivers of foreign fund each year.
A report from 2012, approved by the then Union Home Secretary RK Singh revealed that major donors from abroad and receivers in India were Christian Missionaries and Church-sponsored NGOs. The four largest donors were all evangelical christian organisations with a goal to convert people to Christianity.
Maximum funds came from USA (Rs. 3105.73 crore) followed by Germany (Rs. 1046.30 crore) and the UK (Rs. 1038.68 crore). The other toppers are Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, France, Australia and UAE.
The report categorically mentioned that the NGO sector in India is vulnerable to the risks of money laundering and terror financing. Some leftist thinkers especially in the main-stream English media are accused of being on the payroll of these christian organisations. The aim is to spread anti-Hindu propaganda and ensure that the native culture and tradition is rejected.
Apart from foreign funding there are various other sources through which funds are raised. Collecting big donations in convent schools, money made via allied businesses such as vocational training institutes or de-addiction centres; income raised through illegal mining, tree felling and drug trade have all found their way into the coffers of the missionaries.
Government Crackdown on Funding
Modi govt made several amendments between 2016–23 to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act to crack the whip on NGOs.
The law mandates that all NGOs register themselves under the FCRA and its registration is initially valid for five years and it can be renewed subsequently if they comply with all norms. The NGOs have to open a bank account in the State Bank of India, Delhi and can utilise foreign funds only for the purpose they stated during registration. They have to file annual returns and must not transfer funds to another NGO. As per the latest amendment, NGOs now have to declare all moveable and immovable assets.
All this has made survival difficult for NGOs indulging in malpractices and money laundering. Several NGOs had to shut down, some have been banned for not complying with the FCRA norms.
Anti-Conversion Laws in India
India doesn’t have any central/federal anti-conversion law but some states have their own laws against forceful religious conversion or anti-conversion laws. Such laws are presently enacted in the following states.
- Odisha in 1967
- Madhya Pradesh in 1968
- Arunachal Pradesh in 1978
- Chhattisgarh in 2000 and 2006
- Gujarat in 2003
- Himachal Pradesh in 2006 and 2019
- Jharkhand in 2017
- Uttarakhand in 2018
- Uttar Pradesh in 2020
- Haryana in 2022
In states like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, there is a ban on conversion via marriage.
Tamil Nadu in 2002 and Rajasthan in 2006 & 2008 also passed similar clauses. Unfortunately, for Tamil Nadu, it got repealed in 2006 due to protests by Christian Minorities. And for Rajasthan, the State Governor and the President of India did not pass their consent on it. When BJP was in power in Karnataka, it brought anti-conversion law in 2021 which was later scrapped by the Congress government that came to power in 2023.
Way Forward
India needs a strong anti-conversion law. Imposing a religion by unlawful means through force or by building a fear of punishment in the afterlife or any other kind of manipulation must be banned. More should be done on prosecuting christian NGOs actively involved in stalling various developmental projects in India through protests or spreading misinformation on public platforms.
The Indian society is highly classist and casteist. It is not enough to have affirmative action laws in the country where the backward castes have reservations in education and jobs, the social stigmas around them need to go too. No community should be discriminated to the extent that they start to look for other avenues to command better social status in the society. We will never be a developed country with a regressive mindset.
