Q+A - Why are Christians under attack in India?

Christians set up tent shelters at Raikia village, in Orissa August 31, 2008.

Reuters - The government has deployed hundreds more federal police to Orissa after one person was killed and several injured in the latest clashes between Hindus and Christians triggered by religious conversions.

More than 20 people, mostly Christians, have been killed and churches burned over the past month.

Below are some questions and answers on why religious clashes have broken out.

WHY ARE CHRISTIANS BEING ATTACKED?

Religious conversion has been the trigger. Hindus in several states in eastern, central and western India have opposed Christian missionaries converting lower caste Hindus in the mainly poor tribal areas.

Intolerance has also risen in the last two decades with a revival in Hindu nationalism and its new agenda to fight Christian missionaries.

The latest round of violence first erupted in Orissa after the killing of a Hindu leader -- known for his opposition to missionaries -- who was linked to the main opposition Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Hindus blamed Christians for his death.

IS THERE ANY POLITICAL IMPACT?

An aggressive "reconversion" drive has seen the BJP widening its voter base in India's tribal belts over the past two decades, helping strengthen its support in some states.

But anti-Christian rhetoric is generally not a vote winner with most Indians more preoccupied with economic issues.

With national elections due by May, hardline Hindu groups could step up their anti-Christian campaign in tribal areas but the BJP is unlikely to make it a countrywide election issue.

It has already striven to dissociate itself from the attacks in Karnataka, worried about its national image.

WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THE RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE?

Hindu nationalists say they are trying to stop an evangelist drive to convert the poor under duress or through inducements.

Christians say lower-caste Hindus convert to escape caste discrimination and that Hindu nationalist groups use the spectre of conversion to unite Hindus for votes.

Christian groups accuse the Hindu nationalist state governments of turning a blind eye to the clashes and the federal government of acting too slowly.

IS THE VIOLENCE SPREADING?

Hindu-Christian violence has mostly remained restricted to remote tribal belts, a zone of missionary activities for decades, in the eastern state of Orissa and Gujarat in the west.

But attacks on Christians have been reported over the past month from some urban areas in Karnataka in the south and the central Madhya Pradesh as well.

The attacks only affect a minority of Christians in India. About 3 percent of India's 1.1 billion population are Christians.

Hindu nationalists either rule outright or share power in the states so far affected. Some of these states have made religious conversion either unlawful or extremely difficult.