Every year, 24 lakh people are being converted to Christianity, according to the data available on the website of The Joshua Project, a Christian conversion ‘research’ initiative. There are a total of 2272 caste groups of which 2041 are ‘unreached’ as per their website.
Out of these, 4.5% are “minimally reached” and 5.6% are superficially reached. Of the total population of India, 95.5% of the population remains ‘unreached’ with 2.9% minimally reached and 1.7% superficially reached, as per The Joshua Project.
Shockingly, the conversion rate in India is 3.9% while the global average is 2.6%. So far, The Joshua Project has reached 6 crore people, with 4 out of 100 people converting to Christianity.
Santal, Kui Khond, Oraon, Shabar, Bodo, Arieng, Tipera, Deaf, Munda, Vaniyan, Gamit and Kharia castes among others are “minimally reached” as per Joshua Project.
For each caste group, an agent is appointed across the country. A Dainik Bhaskar report, based on an investigation in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha, found that those who converted to Christianity claimed to have received financial assistance after going to church.
Alarmingly, while Hindus and other religious, and ethnic groups, are being targeted for conversion to Christianity, Chhattisgarh Home Minister Vijay Sharma, Jharkhand-Odisha DGP, Madhya Pradesh IG (Law and Order) said that they have no information about Joshua Project and its activities.
The “agents” are provided seal stamps and literature to propagate Christianity and are paid Rs 1500 for getting people married to Christians and Rs 2000 for conversion. Then there are priests who report to “Father” and have fixed salaries. They are appointed as head of some school or hospital to provide them Rs 1 lakh as monthly salary. The main job of these priests is to clear any obstruction arising in conversion activities.
Moreover, there are salaried pastors who are tasked with finding appropriate locations to build churches and bring in more non-Christians to Christianity. They get Rs 10,000 to 20,000 salary for this alongside Bolero car.
In its survey conducted across 110 villages in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha, Bhaskar found 82 villages to be Christian majority. The missionary agents find poor, vulnerable and sick people to bring them to their prayer meetings. It is alleged that black magic-type occult practices are employed in these meetings to ‘cure’ the illnesses of the targets.
In Madhya Pradesh, several churches have been erected in Jhabua and Alirajpur. Here, the Christian missionary distributes “Amrit Jal” to the targets who are then converted to Christianity. A Hindu Jagran Manch leader said that the missionaries are luring non-Christians by offering free education.
Meanwhile, in Chhattisgarh, a local-level survey revealed that in the last decade, over 50,000 people have been converted to Christianity.
In Jharkhand, people are being lured with the promise of getting housing under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. It is said that out of 250 houses in Meral village of Gumla district, 150 have converted to Christianity. Alongside PM Awas, the missionaries are providing jobs to the gullible people.
In Odisha, churches are being constructed and free health camps are being organised to lure people into Christianity. In Balishankara of Sundargarh, the church was renovated with Rs 4 lakh in 2023-24 under the Chief Minister’s Special Assistance Scheme. Notably, the missionaries set up free health camps to identify diseases and single out sick people who were then converted to Christianity in the garb of offering treatment.
A former Joshua Project agent told Bhaskar that the agents are taken to Believers’ churches where they receive Christianity-related education for two years and then are deployed for fieldwork. These salaried agents collect caste and other data in villages in addition to propagating Christianity.
OpIndia has time and again raised alarms about the conversion activities of the Joshua Project. Back in 2018, it was reported that The Joshua Project is a ‘research initiative’ that seeks to ‘highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the fewest followers of Christ’. They further state, “Accurate, updated ethnic people group information is critical for understanding and completing the Great Commission. Revelation 5:9 and 7:9-10 show that there will be some from every tribe, tongue, nation and people before the Throne.” The Great Commission refers to Jesus’ instruction to his apostles to spread Christianity among all nations across the world.
