Andhra Pradesh is now only the next to the northeast states in the Christian population, though official figures are different. The difference is that the northeast people won’t hide their Christian identity. In Andhra Pradesh, it is deceit both in the conversion activity and people hiding their conversion by obtaining false certificates. Even Christian pastors produce a certificate of SC/ST, thus depriving those who remained in the Hindu faith of the benefit of constitutionally guaranteed reservations in the field of education and employment. The Legal Rights Protection Forum (LRPF) exposed this deceitful way of converting Christians. The organisation collected information from the official records to show the magnitude of proselytisation happening in the state.
The census data of 2011 states the Christian population in Andhra Pradesh is 1.39 per cent, while the Hindus form 90.86 per cent. Any benefits given by the Government based on religion should reflect the beneficiaries in the same proportion. But that is not the case in Andhra Pradesh. During the COVID-19 time, the one-time cash benefit by the Jagan government showed 45.70 per cent belonged to Hindu while Christian priests formed 43.99 per cent of the beneficiaries. The mystery share of disproportionate pastor strength to the official Christian population hangs.
Three national highways run through Andhra Pradesh. One goes through the coastal districts (Chennai-Kolkata highway), the second, Hyderabad-Bangalore highway, which goes through the Rayalaseema region. The third starts from Machilipatnam and goes to Hyderabad. Anyone travelling through these highways can see the countless number of Churches. New ones are added every month in the villages. Wherefrom the funds are coming for the construction of these Churches? How do the local bodies permit them? Whether the construction is happening illegally on the Government's lands that are earmarked for the common benefit of the villages?
Those questions are evaded by the Jagan Government as this Government itself now turned into the official builders of the churches using the taxpayers’ money. It is a fact that conversions are happening even earlier, but now they have official patronage and pastors are more vocal in spreading hatred through the speeches. In every church meeting, the Hindu way of life and prayers are denigrated; thus, the hate speeches are in 24×7 mode in Andhra Pradesh.
Foreign money plays a big role in conversions through inducements. The prospective converts are offered woollen clothes, books, food items like milk powders, using the money received from the foreign Christian organisations bent on building the empire of Christ. The price to receive any service through missionaries, either in the school or orphanage, or hospital, is the conversion
It needs a deeper analysis to understand the modus operandi adopted by the missionaries in converting the people. The route to conversion as laid by the colonial power is through education and hospitals. The oldest educational institutes in Andhra Pradesh are located in Machilipatnam and Guntur. In the coastal town of Machilipatnam, one missionary by the name of Turlington Noble started a school and college on his name in 1843. In Guntur, the Lutherns started Andhra Christian College. Both towns saw vigorous conversions through the educational institutes. The conditions in the institutes are anti-Hindu and pro-Christian, though outwardly they proclaim to be secular education. All the educational institutions have a church in the compound, and morning prayers are compulsory for all the students. That prayer and moral classes are used to corrupt the young, innocent, formative minds and slowly make them turn against their own Hindu religion. The awarding of marks is not based on the student's intelligence and performance in the examinations but on their church attendance and Bible classes they attended and learned about Christ. This cheating of the students in the name of teaching reached its zenith that two town and local Hindu populations revolted against the luring of the young minds and taking them away from their families. That revolt of Hindu society resulted in the establishment of Hindu colleges in those two towns.
The indoctrination was so intense that some young boys turned into pastors and girls into nuns. The Christian girl schools are primarily targeting the girls to join their convents. Those methods of teaching the deceit tactics are the hallmark of the Christian missionaries even now. The health services offered in the Christian hospitals are never free, but they are fed on religious medicine. The gullible who come for treatment for minor ailments, which otherwise come to normalcy in a few days, are given ‘prayer treatment’ and projected that as the miracle healing power of ‘son of God’. The uneducated and weak-minded succumb to the word of the Gospel, start visiting the Church, and finally walk into Christianity. Those who are low in spirits, depressed and psychologically weak are the soft targets for conversion.
Foreign money plays a big role in conversions through inducements. The prospective converts are offered woollen clothes, books, food items like milk powders, using the money received from the foreign Christian organisations bent on building the empire of Christ. The price to receive any service through missionaries, either in the school or orphanage, or hospital, is the conversion. After initial inducements, monetary help the missionaries tighten their grip on the families and bring their relatives into the Church fold. Monetary incentives are offered for new ‘harvests’.
There is a lot of money in the conversions, and that’s why so many congregations are mushrooming. There are so many videos on social media showing the methods of cheating done by pastors how health issues are stage-managed to create impressions in the neutrals in the gatherings. Two pastors made verbal duels on the phone where each one threatened to expose the nefarious activities of the other as was done by mafia gang leaders.
All is indeed an organised mafia way. Invest money in Church and earn profits, the foreign missionaries are offering incentives basing the conversions made each month. Many staff members run their own congregations in Christian colleges and receive funds. This conversion activity is so systemised that it is pervading at all administration stages. Those who became IAS and IPS officers based on false religious certificates are the mentors of this conversion activity in the state. They see that no cases are booked against the pastors even when they violate laws. Those in the lower level of revenue and police departments are helping the pastors in grabbing the lands and threatening the Hindus from approaching the higher-ups or even courts.
