RE: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Second world warEsther, I am not quite certain that all foreign missionaries working in India were or are required to take up Indian citizenship in order work in India as missionaries. The US Government website http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1139.html clearly says: <Foreign citizens whose primary purpose of travel is to participate in religious activities should obtain a missionary visa rather than a tourist visa. Indian immigration authorities have deported American citizens who entered India with a tourist visa and conducted religious activities.> The website http://www.vakilbabu.com/Laws/Citizenship.htm says the same thing in different words. <Missionary visa: Issued only to bonafide missionaries for their charitable work, as sponsored by their respective organisation. It requires a special permission from the Government of India for the grant of this Visa. A letter from the sponsoring organisation giving details of the charitable work to be performed, the nature of duties of the person, place of work and surety for the maintenance of the missionary has to be submitted for obtaining this Visa.> The Indian Government and the mainly Hindu population are not comfortable with the idea that any foreigner should be able to walk into India and start missionary work, especially among the tribal areas, which has always been the main focus of such activities. Looked at from one perspective, missionary work is good work as the missionaries provide education, medical help etc. From the opposite perspective, such (good) activity can create loyalties which are not necessarily in sync with the Indian polity. Unchecked missionary activity can and does lead to social disquiet. That is why the Indian Government, while allowing foreign missionary activity, also has procedures to monitor it. We observe that the British colonial authorities too did not lend official support to missionary activity and it was never their official policy to spread Christianity in India. Only that the freedom that missionary activity enjoyed pre-independence was more than what it is now. Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, March 13, 2008.