c. 1996 Religion News Service

NEW DELHI (RNS)-American Christian missionary Max Strong has been stalked by tigers and rogue elephants, and had to kill a 13-foot king cobra while clearing 100 acres of jungle in a malaria-infested district on the India-Nepal border.

But Strong, 81, says the greatest danger he has faced has not been from wildlife but humans. He has been living in fear after learning of a bounty on his head offered by Hindu extremists who have been harassing his mission for more than a decade.”Fundamentalists opposed to our work are offering $2,860 for the murder of either me or several other leaders in my mission,”he said, after arriving in New Delhi April 1 to present a human-rights complaint to the representative for Christians on India’s minorities commission.

Strong, an Oklahoman ordained in a Presbyterian church in New York, came to India in 1940 to set up the Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission, a non-denominational Christian fellowship for training abandoned children in farming and homemaking. Many of the children are the offspring of lepers.

But the mission, in the foothills of the Himalayas, has increasingly become a flashpoint for violence by Hindu extremists. Eight miles from Strong’s farm is a pilgrimage spot that attracts tens of thousands of Hindus who come to worship the goddess Devi.”We suspect one of our pastors was murdered four years ago, probably by hired killers paid the kind of money they are now offering for my murder,”Strong said.”The harassment has got a lot worse in the last few months, and everyone agrees the reason is that India’s national elections are about to take place.” Strong’s mission is in the conflict-ridden northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, a stronghold of Hindu fundamentalism. In the past, the state has elected to power the Bharatia Janata Party (BJP), which supported a Hindu mob’s destruction of a Muslim mosque in the town of Ayodhya in 1992.

On March 20, police said a mob of Hindu agitators threatened to attack Strong’s farm. Strong was due to carry out nine weddings and oversee the baptism of 50 tribal people who once practiced the animist faith. The event was abandoned for security reasons, police said.”With the national elections approaching, a spate of erroneous articles have begun appearing in local Hindi-language newspapers, which have been vilifying me and my mission,”Strong said.

Strong said militant Hindu groups, such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have recently intensified activities in his area.”These groups have been sending out warnings that if evangelistic activities on my farm are not stopped, there will be serious consequences,”Strong said.”There have been numerous recent incidents of Christians in our village being attacked or having their Bibles torn while holding prayer sessions in their homes.” One school started by his mission has been attacked several times by BJP-supported mobs who want to build a Hindu temple on the plot, Strong said. In September 1992 a tractor-trailer load of men forced their way into the school, beat students, tore their books and pulled down the thatched roof of a room used as a church.

In another incident, a mob converged on the school and drove away the pupils, and two Christian converts were beaten. The mob then built a platform by the school, raised saffron flags and declared it a Hindu temple site.”The reason for (Hindu) fundamentalism is caste,”Strong said.”High-caste Hindus, who form 15 percent of the population, have subjugated lower castes for centuries. Christian conversion brings deliverance from subjugation, and higher-caste Hindus are scared of losing their power. India got rid of one set of rulers, the British, and ended up with another-high-caste Hindus.” Strong came to India under the auspices of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, to set up South Asia’s first bachelor of science agricultural engineering program in Uttar Pradesh. After World War II, when he heard that tens of thousands of acres of arable land had been abandoned a mile from the Nepal border because of a malaria outbreak, Strong decided to set up his mission. He acquired 100 acres of land in the predominantly Hindu jungle region.

In America, Strong raised money to buy 120 pieces of agricultural equipment, which he took with him on a ship sailing for Bombay. Linking a tractor, trailer and thresher, totaling more than 38 feet, he drove the rig 900 miles to his jungle mission, a district without hospitals or basic facilities.

Then in true American pioneering spirit, he set out to clear the jungle, a task that took years.”I figured from the start that Hindu extremists would try and stop us, so I wanted to ensure our independence,”he said. On the land, the mission grows rice and wheat and has a dairy herd.

The toil brought joy, but also tragedy. Strong’s first son died of cerebral malaria and his second was crushed to death when a tractor overturned.

MJP END MURPHY