Author: Janaki Kremmer
Publication: The Christian Science
Monitor
Date: May 2, 2003
URL: http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2003/0502/p07s02-wosc.html
The influx of Christian evangelists
complicates an already volatile religious equation, critics say
For a decade now, Christian missionary
groups have been flocking to the conflicted province of Kashmir, bringing
medicine, school books, and self-help programs.
"Muslims and Hindus in Kashmir are
fighting too much ... Christians help us to get jobs and they teach us
love," says Zubaida Hameed, a student at Srinagar University. "This is
good for our people."
But some observers worry that the
influx of Christian evangelists may be exacerbating a volatile situation
in India's northernmost state, where up to 50,000 people have died in sectarian
violence. Sandwiched between India and Pakistan, this territory is the
cause of two wars between the two neighbors. Armed militants are alleged
to sneak across the border from Pakistan to foment trouble in the valley.
Just last month 24 Hindus were killed in Kashmir, allegedly by Muslim militants.
"The time is not ripe for promoting
and spreading a third religion in the valley - it will have bad consequences,"
says Prashant Dikshit, the deputy director of the Center for Peace and
Conflict Studies.
Local Christians like Pastor Leslie
Richards are also increasingly agitated by the presence of the new evangelists,
who they believe are more interested in conversions than social work. Mr.
Richards says local Muslims receive cash if they agree to convert. "The
conversions they are doing are Biblically wrong ... this is not good for
the local Christians, who for centuries have shared cordial relations with
the local Muslims here," Richards told the Indian Express newspaper.
But Neethi Rajan, an evangelist
with the Assemblies of God, rejects the criticism: "There is nothing wrong
with spreading the word of Christ, and I assure you we are not bribing
or exploiting anyone to come to our church."
The Rev. Chander Mani Khanna, pastor
of the Anglican All Saints Church in Srinagar, is skeptical of the large
numbers of newly converted Christians being tossed about - and of claims
that many conversions are for cash. "Of course, I believe that there are
some black sheep in the fold - some evangelists who use money as a lure
- but I can tell you that I have been here in Srinagar since July 2002,
and I have only converted one person - so even if there are a few others
in new churches, it is hardly a case of mass conversion."
"Most of these young Muslims would
be too scared to convert - too scared to tell their families," Khanna adds.
""The young people come to hear sermons mainly to escape from the cycle
of violence in their lives - it just gives them an outlet and also gives
them someone to talk to."
Unofficial reports say that more
than 10,000 people have converted to Christianity in Kashmir since 1990.
"There are more Christians in Kashmir than on the record," says Premi Gergan,
a prominent Christian in Kashmir, told Christianitytoday.com last year.
"The number goes into the thousands in the rural areas. We don't want to
advertise. It has serious repercussions." In the past, right-wing Hindu
groups from upper castes have reacted aggressively against missionaries
who attract lower-caste Hindus and other groups trying to escape their
unhappy place in Indian society. In 1999 an Australian missionary and his
two sons were killed by Hindu extremists in the northeastern state of Orissa
because he was reported to have converted hundreds of poor, tribal people
in the area.
Officials estimate that only 2.18
percent of the Indian population is Christian, and the figure is falling.
Most of the Christian missionary
groups are funded by parent groups in the West, including the United States,
Germany, Britain, and the Netherlands. Most focus their efforts on the
rural poor and areas bordering Srinagar, a city of about 750,000 people.
Ramesh Landge, founder of the Cooperative
Outreach of India, a Christian nongovernmental organization based in New
Delhi which gets some of its funding from the Germantown Baptist Church
in Tennessee, recently brought 15 sewing machines to women in Kashmir.
"We try to make people self-reliant," says Mr. Landge. "These young women
- many of them the children of parents with leprosy, now sew clothes for
schoolchildren." Landge says that social work combined with the teachings
of Christ has done a lot to improve life for the Kashmiri people.
"It is ridiculous for anyone to
be threatened by a few Christians in Kashmir," says Rev. Dominic Emmanuel,
public affairs spokesman for the Catholic Bishops Conference of India.
"Missionaries will continue to go where they are needed - where there are
earthquakes or famines or conflict. And Kashmir is just one of those places."
