Punjab Bachao Andolan announces ₹2 lakh reward for proof of illegal Christian conversions, alleging rapid growth among Dalits. Church leaders deny claims.
Newsroom (17/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) A Hindu nationalist outfit in Punjab has launched a controversial cash-for-information scheme, offering ₹200,000 (approximately US$2,250) to anyone who provides “verifiable proof” of alleged illegal religious conversions to Christianity in the state.
Tejasvi Minhas, president of Punjab Bachao Andolan (PBA, translated as Save Punjab Movement), announced the reward at a press conference in Jalandhar on November 14. He described the initiative as a necessary step to “protect Punjab’s cultural and religious identity” from what he called a systematic campaign targeting socially and economically vulnerable Dalit Hindus and Sikhs.
“Self-proclaimed godmen and pastors are carrying out large-scale illegal conversions across villages and cities,” Minhas told reporters. He promised complete confidentiality for informants and claimed the group had already received “several leads.”
Punjab, India’s only Sikh-majority state, has witnessed the proliferation of independent evangelical and Pentecostal churches in recent years, particularly in rural areas with significant Dalit populations. Official figures from the 2011 census peg the Christian population at 1.26 percent (roughly 349,000 out of 27.7 million). Minhas, however, asserted without presenting evidence that Christians now constitute “nearly 15 percent” of the population and alleged the presence of “65,000 pastors” using financial inducements, coercion, and claims of miraculous healings.
The PBA also accused foreign nationals entering India on tourist or business visas of orchestrating conversion activities in violation of visa regulations. The group demanded an immediate special religious census, probes into foreign funding received by Christian organisations, and the removal of Scheduled Caste welfare benefits for Dalits who convert to Christianity — benefits currently reserved for Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists under India’s reservation policy.
Minhas said a formal memorandum containing these demands would be submitted within days to Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, and the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Christian leaders swiftly rejected the accusations as baseless and politically motivated.
“The Catholic Church in Punjab has never been involved in any forced or induced conversions,” Father Daniel Gill, Vicar General of the Jalandhar Diocese, told UCA News on November 17. He highlighted the Church’s cordial ties with Sikh and Hindu communities, including annual visits by Catholic representatives to the Akal Takht in Amritsar to present papal greetings on the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.
Sanwar Bhatti, president of the United Church of Northern India Trust Association, a major Protestant body, labelled the bounty scheme “a deliberate attempt to disturb communal harmony ahead of Christmas and New Year.” Bhatti urged authorities to let existing legal mechanisms handle any genuine violations rather than encouraging vigilante-style reporting.
Several Indian states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party have enacted stringent anti-conversion laws in recent years, imposing jail terms and fines for conversions deemed fraudulent or coercive. Punjab, governed by the Aam Aadmi Party, has not passed similar legislation, though sporadic complaints of “love jihad” and religious conversion have surfaced in the past.
Local observers note that tensions over alleged conversions often intensify during Christian festive seasons or ahead of elections, with Dalit communities — historically disadvantaged within the caste system — remaining a focal point for both missionary outreach and Hindu nationalist mobilisation.
As of Sunday evening, Punjab Police had not issued any official statement on the PBA’s cash-reward announcement or whether it could violate laws against promoting enmity between religious groups.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from UCA News
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