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In response to the conversions, the local state branch of the Hindu-rightist Bharatiya Janata Party is demanding an immediate ban on conversions. Radicals with Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, two other Hindu groups, recently beat Indian Christian missionaries and burned some Bibles.

Following news of the Sikh conversions in Moga, the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC), the Sikhs' highest body, demanded that Christians explain their role in conversions. A Sikh federal minister in April proposed a law banning conversions in Punjab, along the lines of legislation adopted in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat (CT, June, p. 26).

"These are very tense times," SGPC Secretary Harbeant Singh said. (All Sikh males bear the last name Singh.) "There are reports that Christians are buying Sikhs to Christianity with the lure of jobs and money. We have made a special [committee] to deal with conversions." The SGPC has sent Sikh missionaries to border and rural areas to shore up the Sikh faith.

Harbeant said, "Christians have a right to preach, but we are against force and allurements."

Dayal questions the allegation. "Punjab is not a case of 'rice Christians,' " he said. "Who can force people in Punjab?"

The government-run National Commission for Minorities also has stepped into the fray. Chairman Tarlochan Singh, a Sikh, recently asked Christians to stop building churches in Punjab. Outraged, Christians are seeking an apology and a reversal.

P. K. Samantaroy, Amritsar bishop of the Church of North India (CNI), said such requests are taking a toll. "Christians are defensive, and even apologetic," he said. "Church leaders are sulking and not coming forward as a whole." The CNI is a union of several major denominations—including Baptists, Brethren, and Disciples—that formally began in 1970.

Samantaroy said in an open letter to the Indian prime minister, the minority commission, and Sikh leaders: "We are being made a sacrificial goat. If we are not allowed to build churches and preach, what will we do?"

Meanwhile, the Church of North India, the Salvation Army, the Roman Catholics, Methodists, Seventh-day Adventists, and many Pentecostal churches continue to spread the good news, particularly in rural areas.

"Come what may, we will not compromise," Samantaroy said. "We will not stop preaching the gospel. No one can stop us."

Malkiat Singh, 39, a soft-spoken upper-caste farmer from Jallandhar, faced ostracism but held firm. His wife, Gurbax Kaur, also embraced the faith and stood with him.

"When I became Christian, our relatives boycotted my family," Malkiat said. "I stood for what gave me satisfaction and peace. Jesus listens to our prayers [and] sends his pure soul, which gives us such joy and strength."

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Recent media coverage of religious tension in India includes:

• Karnataka: Gelatine stick explodes near church | No one injured, police said (PTI)
  
  
• 'Hindus will be in minority if conversions not stopped' | So says VHP international general secretary Praveen Togadiya (Ahmedabad.com, India)
  
  
• Indian Christian leader appeals for calm despite surge in attacks | "We have the right to preach our own religion … we should not abuse other religions, especially the majority religion," said V.V. Augustine, member of the National Minorities Commission (AFP)
  
  
• Kerala: 'State's Christians should reconsider stand on minority issues' | "Christians in Kerala are not really minorities when going by the definition that minorities are those who lack resources," said Kandanad Diocese Metropolitan Dr Thomas Mar Athanasious. The Christian community should also take care not to commercialise the rights bestowed upon them by the Constitution." (KeralaNext.com)
  
  

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July 2003, Vol. 47, No. 7