Unholy Nexus: Khalistan & Evangelists

Khalistanis and Christian evangelists in Punjab avoid conflict despite opposing ideologies, enabled by shared Western funding and common adversaries.
Khalistanis have never attacked missionaries, even amid mass Christian conversions in Punjab, suggesting tacit tolerance.
Intelligence links the Khalistani group SFJ to Christian separatist incitement in Manipur and broader anti-India narratives.
Both groups receive foreign funds, especially from the West, and are seen as tools of neo-imperial influence.
Although not formally allied, their parallel growth in Punjab signals a strategic convergence that threatens national unity.

At first glance, they couldn’t be further apart. One is a violent separatist movement rooted in Sikh identity and calls for a sovereign homeland. The other is a religious mission aimed at harvesting heathen souls for the West. And yet, across the dusty fields and digital frontiers of Punjab, the Khalistan movement and Christian evangelists seem to orbit each other — sometimes overlapping, sometimes ignoring, occasionally converging.

Bound not by belief but by money and imagined mutual grievances, these seemingly contradictory movements are quietly reshaping India’s religious and political landscape. Their unlikely closeness has prompted increasing scrutiny from Indian intelligence agencies, global watchdogs, and scholars alike.

Is this merely a case of coincidence and shared geography? Or is it something deeper — more strategic, perhaps even sinister? Are the two groups pawns on a larger geopolitical chessboard?

Silent Pact in Punjab

There is a saying in Hindi, “Chor chor, mausere bhai.” Rough translation: “Scoundrels make the best allies.” The Khalistani separatists and Christian missionaries operating in Punjab seem to display such behavior. Consider this: In over 40 years of bloodshed, Khalistani militants have gunned down Hindus, Sikhs, and political leaders — yet not a single Christian missionary has ever been touched. This is despite the widespread conversion of Sikhs to Christianity across Punjab. The missionaries have become so emboldened that they hold large public rallies in which they showcase their modus operandi and boast about how easily they are converting Punjabis.[1]

While Christianity has maintained a marginal presence in India since colonial times, its resurgence in Punjab over the past two decades has been unprecedented in scale and intensity. A 2025 report notes that over 350,000 Punjabis were converted in just two years. Tarn Taran, once a bastion of Sikh pride, has become a flashpoint for Christian conversion. The number of Christians in the district has doubled in the last decade. Churches that once gathered a few dozen now attract thousands every Sunday. Local organizations estimate that up to 70 percent of villages in the district have some form of Christian religious committee. Authorities like the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of authority in Sikhism, have called for anti-conversion laws, warning that foreign-backed missionary activities threaten not only religious heritage but also national security in this sensitive border state.[2]

Yet the self-styled defenders of the Sikh faith, such as the Shiromani Akali Dal, All India Sikh Students Federation, Dal Khalsa, Waris Punjab De, and the World Sikh Organization, remain conspicuously silent. Only the Nihangs, who are among the most nationalist sects among Sikhs, have shown a willingness to stop the absorption of Punjab into Christianity’s digestive tract.[3]

The tolerance of the Khalistanis towards fundamentalist Christians and the ability of the missionaries to work virtually unopposed in Punjab suggest there is some tacit understanding between the two groups.

Khalistani Support for Christian Kukis

Sometimes this covert nexus spills out into the open. In 2025, the dangerous nexus between Khalistani extremists and certain radical elements from other communities came to light. A Home Ministry tribunal order, backed by intelligence inputs, revealed that the banned Khalistani organisation Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), led by designated terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, has been actively inciting separatist sentiments among minority communities across the country. “SFJ have been inciting the Christian community in Manipur to raise their voices for a separate country…..,” the background note said.[4]

SFJ has been pushing a divisive agenda by provoking Christians in Manipur to demand a separate country, fueling the idea of ‘Dravidistan’ among Tamils, and stoking communal tensions among Indian Muslims by promoting the concept of ‘Urduistan.’

The organisation, already known for threatening senior Indian leaders, has intensified its campaign to destabilize India from within by exploiting religious and regional fault lines. The deliberate targeting of communities like the Christian Kukis in Manipur adds a new and concerning layer to the ongoing tensions in the region.

WMDs – Workers for Mass Disruption

A key factor that is common to Khalistanis and Christian missionaries is that both groups get ample support — monetary, political, and diplomatic — from the West and have become willing tools of neo-imperialism. Both groups are active in the West, where they are allowed to raise funds and often attack Hindus. It is in the West’s interests to create a strong nexus of evangelist churches, NGOs, and Khalistani terrorist groups because they work best as a pack.[5]

West’s need to influence events in India is illustrated by an episode dating back more than 13 years. According to a report in the Sunday Guardian, senior U.S. officials revealed that in 2012, frustrated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s refusal to dilute the Nuclear Liability Act and India’s choice of the French Rafale over the American F-16, the U.S. administration issued instructions to “activate the Khalistan file” — effectively reviving separatist activities as a pressure tactic against India. In other words, the US wanted to restart terrorism in Punjab.[6]

To ignite an insurgency in Punjab, Western powers must first establish sleeper cells, informants, and local collaborators. For this, agencies like the CIA rely heavily on support from Khalistani extremist groups based in Western countries. These include Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), who operate rampantly in the US. This relationship has been quite successful, as Khalistanis visiting Punjab have been a major source of radicalization and separatism among Sikh youth in India.

Dream Team of Destruction

If Khalistanis and missionary groups are aligned toward a shared goal — expanding American influence in India — they would form a powerful and dangerous alliance. Recognizing this potential, the U.S. established the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the White House in February 2002, with the aim of channeling government support to churches, Christian charities, and transnational missionary organizations (TMOs) operating worldwide.

According to investigative journalist V.K. Shashikumar, “In the decade 1990-2000 these TMOs were running a global intelligence operation which was so complex and sophisticated that in terms of its scale, magnitude and intensity of coverage, the real short-term and long-term implications from the point of view of India’s territorial integrity and national security, were indeed frightfully staggering. This operation has successfully established a system in India that enables Western governments to access virtually any ethnographic information on any location with the click of a mouse. This network in India, established with funding and strategic assistance from TMOs, gives the Western intelligence agencies virtually real-time access to every nook and corner of the country.”[7]

Organisations like the International Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention, Christian Aid, World Vision, Seventh Day Adventist Church, and multi-billion enterprises run by evangelists and demagogues like Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, and Roger Houtsma were running a coordinated conversion campaign in India under the banner of ‘AD2000’ from 1995 to 2000.

Billy Graham and his associates have openly acknowledged sending spying missions to India. Drawing parallels with the biblical story of Joshua sending spies to scout the Promised Land, the AD2000 document notes that modern missionaries and Christian workers view such research as vital for strategizing their conversion efforts.

One might ask why the West would go to such lengths to destabilize a seemingly friendly nation like India. The answer lies in two key motives: first, the U.S. Deep State sees a rising India as a strategic rival; second, a fragmented India with a growing Christian population would be far easier to influence and control. A Christianized Punjab would serve as the gateway into the Hindu heartland — a major shift, given that Christianity has so far gained ground mainly in India’s peripheral regions.

British-born academic Iain Buchanan has brilliantly documented this church-state nexus in his book, The Armies of God: A Study in Militant Christianity, in which he discusses the rise of US evangelism as a force in global affairs. He examines the imperial relationship between Western and non-Western countries, as well as the leading players in the process of evangelization. In an interview with Yogesh Pawar of India’s DNA newspaper, Buchanan said, “Deep in Washington, self-professedly Christian pressure groups have both a highly influential membership and a powerful grip on policy. The network of evangelical influence extends far beyond this: there are scores of such groups at work in Congress, the military, and various state departments. All act to connect politics, business, the media, and the military in pursuit of a common vision of a Christian dominion over the world.”[8]

So what does this mean for a targeted country? Quite simply, the West won’t stop at proselytizing, for that would only be the gain of intangible souls in the Third World. “In addition, there must be infiltration of every sector of influence in a society, from religious groups to government departments to local charities to private business, in ways which blur the line between Christian indoctrination and secular change,” says Buchanan.

Khalistan Revival and Evangelical Surge

The Khalistan movement, although militarily crushed in India by the 1990s, never quite died out. Its ambers were swept up and reignited in gurdwaras, diaspora rallies, and international forums from Canada to the UK to California. Framed not as rebellion but as a cry for justice and remembrance, the cause continues to attract attention and funding from Sikh communities abroad, particularly through online platforms, human rights NGOs, and cultural foundations.

At the same time, Christian evangelical organizations — particularly Pentecostal and Protestant groups from North America and Europe — have expanded their presence in India. While historically concentrated in southern India and tribal belts, they have increasingly turned their focus to Punjab’s Dalit communities, where disillusionment with both social stratification and religious orthodoxy makes some receptive to conversion narratives.

What ties these two movements together, if anything, isn’t theology — it’s strategy, funding ecosystems, and contested demographics.

Money Trail

Both the Khalistan movement and evangelical Christian missions depend heavily on foreign funding, often from similar Western regions and platforms. Whether it’s a GoFundMe campaign for “Sikh justice” or a missionary-backed school in rural Punjab, the financial lifelines of these efforts pass through diaspora communities, faith-based NGOs, and rights-focused institutions. Key similarities:

Diaspora donations from Canada, the UK, the US, Germany, and the Netherlands.
NGOs and charitable trusts registered abroad that focus on “human rights,” “cultural preservation,” or “development.”
Use of crowdfunding, remittances, and tele-evangelism to solicit global contributions.
Alleged use of religious or humanitarian fronts to mask ideological or political agendas.
Both movements also use the language of oppression — whether it’s the trauma of 1984’s anti-Sikh riots by the Gandhi family-led Congress Party [9] or accounts of religious discrimination against Christians—to justify their cause and attract sympathetic funding from abroad. This rhetorical mirroring has blurred the lines between religious mission and political activism.

Dalit Factor

Where things get even more intertwined is on the ground, particularly in Punjab’s Dalit-majority villages, where both Khalistani rhetoric and Christian evangelism are gaining traction.

For evangelical groups, Dalits are seen as a marginalized population seeking dignity, making them prime targets for conversion. For pro-Khalistan activists, Dalits are potential allies in resisting what they view as an increasingly centralized and exclusionary Indian state.

Though Sikhism rejects caste in principle, social stratification persists, leaving many Dalits disillusioned. This growing discontent has created an opening for missionaries and forced Khalistani ideologues to recalibrate their engagement with Dalit communities.

In this contested space, tolerance — not alliance—appears to be the rule. Each group seems to leave the other alone, possibly recognizing that the enemy of my enemy is best left undisturbed.

Strategic Policy of Non-Interference

One of the most intriguing aspects of this evolving dynamic is the mutual non-interference — a sort of unspoken pact between groups that might otherwise be in conflict. Currently, there’s no direct evidence of active coordination among Khalistanis and missionaries. There are no documented alliances. And yet, neither side appears to disrupt or critique the other’s activities, even in the same geographical or digital spaces. There are a few possible explanations for this posture of non-interference:

Common antagonists, e.g., state surveillance, legal restrictions, and far-right Hindu organizations like the RSS.
Open confrontation risks drawing attention from authorities, making discretion the smarter move.
Shared participation in civil society forums, such as human rights panels and minority advocacy groups, leads to inadvertent collaboration.[10]

The result is not a formal alliance, but what might be called symbiotic coexistence. In a volatile environment, strategic ambiguity becomes a tool for survival.

Intelligence Warnings and Policy Pushback

The Indian government is fully aware of these patterns. Agencies such as the Ministry of Home Affairs, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and state intelligence units have flagged concerns over both movements, often in the same briefings. They point to:

Suspicious foreign donations routed through NGOs.
The potential role of Pakistan’s ISI in exploiting both networks to foster unrest.
Digital propaganda targeting youth in both Sikh and Christian communities.
Shared use of international human rights rhetoric to legitimize anti-state narratives.

Laws like the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) have been used to crack down on Christian NGOs, while Khalistani-linked charities abroad have been publicly called out by Indian diplomats. Yet, action is often hampered by free speech protections in Western democracies, diaspora lobbying, and political sensitivities.[11]

Wrapping Up

The Khalistan movement and Christian evangelical missions in India are not formal partners. They serve different gods, operate from different texts, and pursue different ends. But in a region shaped by identity politics, religious flux, and transnational activism, they have come to occupy parallel realities — sharing funders, followers, and forums.

The real story here is not one of conspiracy, but of convergence. Not a joint agenda, but a mutual alignment of context.

India’s socio-political landscape — especially in border states like Punjab — demands a deeper understanding of how these movements coexist, influence, and sometimes unintentionally reinforce one another. Future research must follow the money, track the misinformation, and listen carefully in the spaces where silence speaks louder than declarations.

Citations

[1] Punjab: Christian Missionaries organise ‘satsang’ in Zirakpur, face strong protest from locals during their attempted forced religious conversion program (OpIndia, 2022); https://www.opindia.com/2022/05/punjab-christian-missionaries-zirakpur-conversion-program-protests-hindus/

[2] Christian Conversions in Punjab: Evangelical Strategies, Digital Expansion, and Sociopolitical Implications (ResearchGate, 2025); https://www.researchgate.net/publication/392111121_Christian_Conversions_in_Punjab_Evangelical_Strategies_Digital_Expansion_and_Sociopolitical_Implications

[3] Punjab: Nihang Sikhs stop a Christian Conversion Program in Daduana village of Amritsar, Police assure such programs will not take place again in the village (OpIndia, 2022); https://www.opindia.com/2022/08/punjab-nihang-sikhs-amritsar-christianity-conversion/

[4] Khalistani Terrorists Incited Manipur Christians To Secede: Centre (NDTV, 2025);

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/khalistani-terrorist-group-sikhs-for-justice-led-by-gurpatwant-singh-pannun-incited-manipur-christians-to-secede-says-india-7601677

[5] Why India’s warnings about Sikh separatism don’t get much traction in the West (NPR, 2023); https://www.npr.org/2023/09/28/1201733505/india-sikh-separatism-khalistan-canada-crisis-analysis

[6] Obama reverses Hillary’s ‘get Modi’ policy – Madhav Nalapat (Bharata Bharati, 2014); https://bharatabharati.in/2014/04/21/obama-reverses-hillarys-get-modi-policy-madhav-nalapat/

[7] Why the Narendra Modi Government must Establish a Body to Investigate US Religious Interference in India (The Dharma Dispatch, 2018); https://www.dharmadispatch.in/amp/story/commentary/why-the-narendra-modi-government-must-establish-a-body-to-investigate-us-religious-interference-in-india

[8] Christian Evangelism: Interview with Iain Buchanan (Dinmerican, 2015); https://dinmerican.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/christian-evangelism-interview-with-iain-buchanan/

[9] Rajiv Gandhi didn’t call Army for 3 days, had no intention to stop 1984 Sikh massacre: Harsimrat Badal (Business Standard, 2019); https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/rajiv-gandhi-didn-t-call-army-for-3-days-had-no-intention-to-stop-1984-sikh-massacre-harsimrat-badal-119120501143_1.html

[10] The woman seated alongside Rahul Gandhi at the high table during his discussion with ‘Think Tanks’ in DC is identified as Sunita Vishwanath (Bala on X); .https://x.com/erbmjha/status/1664511350482124800?lang=ar-x-fm

[11] No FCRA for NGOs linked to conversions, radical groups (Hindustan Times, 2024); https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/no-fcra-for-ngos-linked-to-conversions-radical-groups-govt-101731350776141.html