There is no more sensitive issue in India than attacks on minority communities, and lately there has been growing concern about victimisation of India's Christians, who number more than 30 million.

Mike Wooldridge reports from Gujarat

Churches and mission schools have been burnt down - notably in the Dang district of Gujarat state.

Christians there believe that hardline Hindu groups are carrying out a concerted campaign against them.

Some Hindu groups have accused Christians of using job offers and money to persuade poor Hindus to convert.

PM visit

This weekend, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited the area and made fresh calls for religious tolerance. But he also called for a national debate on conversions.

Christian schools are also under threat

In one Gujarat village, a Christian church was burned down and is now protected by police.

People there say they are braced for further trouble and even willing to die for their faith.

The local pastor, who was slashed with an axe, claims that behind such attacks are Hindu nationalists who incite people by saying that Christianity is a foreign religion and Christians must be thrown out before the whole country is converted.

Christian missionaries have been working in this impoverished tribal area for the best part of a century and some of their schools have come under threat.

Those on the extreme end of the Hindu nationalist movement say that education and medicine are used by missionaries as an inducement to conversion.

This is denied at one Catholic school by Father Jose Maria Navarro, who came to India from Spain 52 years ago.

He says the number of converts is often exaggerated by Hindu groups and by some churches.

He also says he has no intention of bowing to the latest call from one Hindu organisation that all missionaries should leave the tribal area by 31 March.

Election looms

Theories abound that one political party or another is stirring up the trouble in Gujarat at a time when some believe another general election may not be far off.

Some Hindus want an end to Christian conversions

The next election could be a race between the Hindu nationalists and Congress, led now by Italian-born Sonia Gandhi.

Meanwhile, in the villages, there are tensions that are easily exploited - for example over Christian converts refusing to contribute to traditional festivals.

And now Hinduism is taking its cue from the missionaries, with temple ceremonies marking the reconversion of some villagers from Christianity to Hinduism.