Foreign evangelists converting Islanders, says NCST Chief

NEW DELHI: Religious conversions of tribals by foreign evangelists are becoming widespread in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an investigative team of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has found following the death of American national John Allen Chau.

Sharing the details of a three-day investigative tour to the Andamans with ET, NCST chairperson Nand Kumar Sai said, “The entire Northeast has been converted. Now it seems that a similar pattern is being followed in the Andamans.” He expressed concern over the development saying, “Religious conversion is not really religious but a conversion of their age-old belief system.”

The NCST team visited the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from December 4-6 to investigate circumstances leading to Chau’s killing by the Sentinelese tribals on the North Sentinel Island in November. Chau had gone to the island planning to preach Christianity to the Sentinelese, a protected tribe that is known to reject outside contact.


Sai linked the “widespread” religious conversions with easing of the Restricted Area Permit norms by the Union home ministry in June this year. The Foreigner (Protected Areas) Act requires foreign nationals to obtain the Protected Area Permit (PAP) or Restricted Area Permit (RAP), in addition to an Indian visa, to visit certain areas in the country. However, in June, these restrictions were eased for 29 islands, including the North Sentinel Island. Despite withdrawal of RAP, a foreign national still has to take permissions from the forest depart-ment and local administration.

“If more areas are opened up to foreign nationals, religious conversions would only increase,” Sai said, attributing the development to the easing of norms.

“Why did the home ministry ease RAP? Our investigation has found that the US national had been trying to make his way for four-five days. Had RAP been in place the antecedents and intentions of the US national would have been ascertained. Nicobarese are coming out now and are not as reclusive as Sentinelese. This would mean more conversions.”

The NCST chief said that the commission would write to President Ram Nath Kovind about its findings and the need to restore tighter RAP norms.