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Not everyone in Nagoke, a small hamlet on the Indo-Pakistan border of Punjab's Amritsar district, is happy with the new village church. The church, it seems, has divided the residents of Nagoke and many other villages in the district after alleged conversions by its missionaries. Residents of these Hindu and Sikh dominated villages said the missionaries were enticing the people to change faith by promising them a better life. However, the converts say their gains have been more on the spiritual plane than on the material level. "It was only after the construction of this church that I got to know about Christianity. There has been a lot of change in my work after the conversion. Now I do not drink alcohol, don't lie and try and complete my duties properly," said one of them. At least six churches have come up in the region in the past few months, leading to a sudden increase in the number of Christian converts, a majority of them economically and socially impoverished Sikhs. Tension between Sikhs and Christians has mounted following the surge in the number of churches. "In our (Sikh) religion, we have no preachers but the Christians do. And because of this, people get influenced easily and convert themselves and this is bad for the Sikh religion," said Jaimal Singh, a local Sikh resident. Religious conversions by Christian missionaries has so far been a major sore point with India's Hindu groups who question the motive behind converting the economically and socially backward people. Last year, Tamil Nadu banned religious conversions by "fraudulent means" or "forcible allurement". An ordinance issued by the Tamil Nadu government said any person guilty of bringing about forced conversion would be punished with a fine of Rs 50,000. All religious conversions must also be reported to district authorities, as per the ordinance. Pro-Hindu groups, including India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, have demanded stringent laws against conversions to be adopted by all the states. Missionaries deny the charges of forced conversions saying they are working for the economic uplift of the poor and the tribals. Christianity and Islam constitute 2.4 percent and 12 percent of the secular but largely Hindu India.
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