On January 23, from the late morning onwards, people began streaming into an airfield near Jharkhand’s Gumla town. Many were from other parts of the state, while some had even travelled from neighbouring districts in Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Odisha.
A large stage had been set up with an LED screen at the rear that displayed a continuous stream of glittering stars. Six smaller screens were installed at different points in the field.
Those who gathered, among them large families with children, occupied the plastic chairs that had been set out on the ground. When those filled up, they began to spread out jute mats on the ground and sit on them. By early evening, the crowd had swelled to lakhs.
The state’s recently concluded assembly election had seen several political rallies that drew large crowds. But the crowd that gathered on that Thursday was larger than those at the rallies, and had not assembled for a politician. Rather, the audience was there to see a self-proclaimed Christian prophet from Chandigarh named Bajinder Singh.
By around 5.30 pm, devotional music began to play from the speakers, and a sense of anticipation began to build in the crowd.
Half an hour later, the evening’s proceedings began, with a musical performance by volunteers dressed in sarees and blazers. Swaying and waving their hands, they sang a song titled “Yeshu Aa”, or “Jesus Come”. As the crowd sang, clapped and stomped along to the music, the performance began to resemble a pop concert more than a traditional Christian service.
Singh arrived at close to 8 pm, accompanied by Gumla’s MLA Bhushan Tirkey and a security detail. Dressed in a white shirt and black blazer and formal trousers, Singh resembled a corporate employee more than a priest. As he stepped onto the stage, the audience erupted into thunderous applause and cried out “Hallelujah!” The compere for the evening encouraged them, declaring, “Today, Jesus has come to Gumla, and the devil has gotten scared. Jesus will heal each one of you.”
Singh’s rise
According to the 2011 census, Christians comprise 4.3% of Jharkhand’s population. The community has a significantly higher presence in Gumla – almost 20% of the district’s population is Christian,
Christianity first arrived in the region in the mid-nineteenth century with European missionaries, who established longstanding churches. The four main churches in the state are the Roman Catholic, the Gossner Evangelical Lutheran, the Northwest Gossner Evangelical Lutheran and the Church of North India. Under the Roman Catholic church, Gumla forms a diocese, or a territory overseen by a bishop who supervises several churches.
Singh, however, does not belong to any of these churches. Rather, he is one among a new crop of self-proclaimed Christian gurus, many of whom are based out of Punjab. These leaders show several characteristics of movements commonly referred to as charismatic or Pentecostal Christianity, which emphasise elements such as direct connection with god through the entity referred to as the Holy Spirit. Their leaders boast of supernatural powers, such as the ability to heal illnesses, speak in tongues, exorcise demons, receive visions and dreams from god and angels, and make prophesies.
The fame of these leaders is spreading across India and even abroad. Singh’s ministry’s website mentions that it has more than 20 branches across India, in places such as Gujarat and Jammu, and 12 branches in other countries. The ministry of Ankur Narula, another prominent leader, has branches in Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka and other states.
Not much is known about Singh’s early life. According to news reports, he belongs to a Hindu Jat family in Haryana and has a degree in mechanical engineering. They note that his introduction to Christianity was a dramatic one, and occurred in the 2000s, when he was serving a jail sentence in a murder case. After he was released, Singh converted to Christianity and worked as a pastor at a church for a while. In 2016, he started his own ministry, called the Church of Glory and Wisdom.
But he continued to be dogged by controversies. In 2018, he was arrested in a rape case, in which he was later acquitted. In 2021, a video clip of Singh speaking to a child went viral, in which the child, overwhelmed with emotion, exclaims that his sister, who could not speak earlier, had begun to do so – as a song plays in the background, with the lyrics “mera Yeshu, Yeshu”, or “my Christ, my Christ”. After users of X, formerly Twitter, flagged the clip to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, the body ordered an investigation into Singh’s superstitious activities among children.
Rationalists have called Singh a fraud who is promoting superstition amongst his followers for his own financial profit. According to The Tribune, Singh has amassed a large fortune in the last few years and has a net worth that runs into several crores. He has more than one million followers on Facebook and Instagram and close to four million followers on YouTube.
Irkhan Bara, a resident of Puggu village in Gumla district, surmised that Singh’s claims of possessing healing powers drew people from across all religions because they believed he could offer quick solutions to several ailments and hardships. “Ninety-five percent of people visiting Singh’s church come because they have some sort of illness or problem and they want to get rid of it,” said Bara, who is the husband of the village’s mukhiya.
Sukhdev Kerketta, from Bero town in Jharkhand who had come to observe the event had a similar view. “Most people who come here live hard lives,” he said. “If a godman offers miraculous solutions to their problems why won’t they come to him?”
Opposition from traditional churches
Traditional churches have firmly opposed Singh. On December 18, a notice from the Gumla bishop’s house was shared on social media, in which he asked Catholics not to participate in Bajinder Singh’s meeting. The notice asserted that the Catholic church did not approve of its members participating in the ceremonies of those who did not follow the Catholic church and its head, the Pope.
Nevertheless, Scroll met several Catholics from Gumla at Singh’s meeting on both days of his event in January. Most said they had come across his videos on YouTube and were curious to see Singh’s healing in person.
“If the Catholic church doesn’t want people to attend his events, then they should conduct similar events where they heal people and perform miracles,” said Shobha Kispotta, a Catholic from the neighbouring district of Latehar. Others who attended the event echoed this view. “The Catholic church should also hold healing events,” said Shailendra Tirkey, one attendee. “Then they won’t have to worry about people leaving the church.”
But traditional church leaders maintained that they do not practice miraculous healing. “The Catholic church works on spiritual healing and not physical healing,” said Kuldeep Xalxo, a priest and secretary of the bishop’s house, Gumla. “People receive spiritual hope from god to counter sickness, but for physical healing they should go to hospitals.”
Xalxo was cautious of condemning Singh, but did express reservations over his activities. “I haven’t experienced his work personally, so I don’t know how true it is,” he said. “It sounds like an experiment.”
Xalxo noted that despite his massive popularity, Singh “does not belong to an official church. He just has a group which runs a healing ministry.” He explained that official churches such as the Catholic church or the Church of North India had longstanding histories, and established systems and protocols when it came to matters such as theological studies and criteria for assessment of miracles. They could not be compared to Singh’s organisation, he argued, which seemed to be mainly centered around Singh’s healing activities.
Xalxo was also critical of Singh taking money for offering blessings. “Healing is supposed to be for all,” he said. “Why should people pay him to be healed?”
The event
At the Gumla event, Singh began the service by blessing the MLA, assuring him he would become a minister one day and, eventually, even the prime minister.
He then introduced the crowd to a long line of people standing on stage, holding placards. Most, he explained, were Jharkhandis who had visited his church in Chandigarh seeking solutions for problems. The placards carried testimonies of supposed miracles that had been performed for their holders: one person’s stated that they had been cured from seizures, another’s that they had been cured of HIV, a third’s that they had been cured of paralysis of the legs.
Other placards declared that their holders had procured coveted government jobs or had “miracle money” transferred into their bank accounts. “I have brought these people here to show you that whatever you desire will be given to you in the name of Yeshu Masih,” or Jesus Christ, Singh said.
This was followed by a request for donations. “The lord said the one who gives doesn’t recede, but grows,” Singh declared. The account number and QR code of Singh’s ministry flashed prominently on all screens on the ground. Volunteers, too, approached people with bags, urging them to donate, whereas in traditional churches, donation boxes are typically passed around on their own or by volunteers, for people to donate if they choose to.
As the evening progressed, Singh claimed to heal various illnesses that he said were caused by evil spirits that he was exorcising. The process was theatrical – followers would stand before Singh, and he would pray over them, after which they collapsed, or rolled on the ground, often while convulsing violently. In between blessings, Singh frequently spoke in tongues, repeatedly muttering incomprehensible phrases like, “Shaba daba daba.”
In his interactions, Singh did not use traditional paraphernalia typically used in church rituals, such as candles and crucifixes. To bless followers, instead of using traditional sprinkler pots, Singh flung water straight from mineral water bottles into the crowd.
At one point Singh instructed attendees to raise their mobile phones in the air so they could be charged by divine power. He blessed attendees, declaring they would receive jobs, babies and success in their businesses. He also claimed that people whose names began with certain letters of the alphabet – specifically, G, N, R, S, K, V and A – and had family members who were alcoholics would see those relatives rid of addiction that very night.
“Go angel!” he thundered. “I release this power in the name of Jesus the Messiah. So that the supernatural power works in their lives!”
Shailendra Tirkey’s faith
Shailendra Tirkey claimed to have first-hand experience of Singh’s powers. In 2019, 46-year-old Tirkey, who is from Gumla town in Jharkhand, began to experience sharp, shooting pains in his chest. Although the episodes lasted for only between 10 and 15 seconds, the pain was so debilitating that Tirkey would need bed rest for the entire day.
Tirkey visited doctors in Gumla, Jamshedpur and even Vellore, but various medical examinations yielded no diagnosis. “The doctors told me there was nothing wrong with me and that I was just having bouts of acidity,” said Tirkey.
After enduring one particularly intense bout of pain, Tirkey’s sister suggested that he try visiting faith-based healers. But his visits to Sarna, Hindu and Muslim healers within the state did not yield any lasting solutions. Finally, in late December that year, his sister proposed a trip to Chandigarh to see Singh.
That same month, he travelled with her to the city, and made his way one morning to a hall where Singh was holding a meeting.
At the hall, Tirkey said, without any prior introductions, Singh called out Tirkey’s sister by name and told the crowd assembled why the two of them were attending. Singh then invited Tirkey to the stage, and prayed over him to rid him of his pain.
A few days later, the two returned home. “After that my heart pain disappeared, but I still had some discomfort in my chest,” said Tirkey. But Tirkey was convinced that Singh had special powers, since he had, as far as Tirkey knew, guessed his sister’s name and his ailment.
A year later, Tirkey returned to Chandigarh and paid Singh’s ministry Rs 25,000 for a special healing prayer dedicated to him. “I had spent over Rs 30,000 on medical tests and nothing came of it, so I didn’t worry about the money going to waste,” he said. Ever since, Tirkey claims, all the pain in his heart and chest area has entirely vanished.
Although Tirkey was born into a Roman Catholic family, he did not consider himself a believer until his experience with Singh. The healing session marked a turning point in his life. “There was a time when I wouldn’t even touch the Bible, but now I make sure to finish work at 6 pm,” Tirkey said. “Then I go home and pray with my family.”
Though he is now a follower of Singh, and attends healing meetings organised by him and other similar groups as often as he can, Tirkey says he does not plan to leave the Roman Catholic church.
This was the case with other attendees also. Sarita Kacchap, a resident of Gumla said that on Sundays she would attend mass by the Catholic church in the early morning and then attend service at Singh’s ministry later in the day.
“We are all Christians at the end of the day,” said Virginia Toppo, a resident of Gumla. “There’s the Catholic church, and then there’s Protestant ones like the CNI and GEL churches,” referring to the Church of North India and the Gossner Evangelical Lutheran church.
In fact, it was not only Christians who attended Singh’s event in Gumla but also Sarna Adivasis, Hindus and Muslims. Locals from Puggu, where Singh’s Gumla branch is located, noted that it was a Sarna man who visited Singh’s church in Chandigarh for healing who opened the branch in the village, in January 2023. “Only about 30%-40% of the followers who come to the branch must be Christian” said Irkhan Bara. “The rest are Hindus and Muslims.”
