Modi govt denies visa to Christian evangelist Franklin Graham: Read about his father’s conversion mission and connection to Nehru- Gandhi family

The Ministry of Home Affairs recently denied visa to Christian evangelist Franklin Graham from the United States, who was scheduled to visit Kohima in Nagaland on 30th November for a Christian event. While his visit has been cancelled, the event would continue as stated by the organisation behind it. The Centre has not publicly stated the reason behind rejecting visa to Franklin, however, his long-standing activities in India, including conversion-linked outreach through his organisation Samaritan’s Purse, might be at the core of the decision.

Franklin Graham’s long history in India

Over the past few decades, Franklin has visited India multiple times. His organisation, Samaritan’s Purse, has been involved in conversion-oriented activities in the country, using aid, food distribution, and other material assistance as a tool for evangelism. In the 1980s, the organisation had announced plans to establish one thousand churches in India and has worked towards that goal through various mission programmes.

His father, the late Billy Graham, first visited India in the 1950s and had met then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He also had links to the Gandhi family. These historical associations must be recalled as the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee has openly criticised the central government for denying visa to him.

Organisations criticised Government for denying visa

The Nagaland Joint Christian Forum (NJCF), National People’s Party (NPP), Chakhesang Public Organisation (CPO), Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) and others have expressed disappointment over the cancellation of Graham’s visit due to visa restrictions.

NJCF is the organisation that had arranged the event which Franklin was scheduled to attend. Despite the setback, NJCF said the scheduled programme, organised with the Kohima Baptist Pastors’ Fellowship, would proceed as planned. The event took place on 30th November at the Indira Gandhi Stadium. NJCF called the event an opportunity for unity and worship.

On the other hand, NPP said it was disappointed and troubled by the Centre’s decision. The party noted that local churches had prepared extensively and that thousands of Christians were anticipating Graham’s visit.

NPP argued that Christianity in Nagaland is not a ceremonial identity but the moral and social backbone of the State. It said the cancellation had hurt sentiments and raised concerns about how the Christian minority is being treated. While acknowledging India’s sovereign authority in visa matters, NPP warned that repeated restrictions could erode minority confidence in democratic institutions.

The CPO issued a statement calling the visa denial a “direct affront” to the Christian community of Nagaland. CPO leaders Veuzhu Keyho and Chepetso Koza said the decision hurt the sentiments of people who had been preparing in prayer for months.

The group described the event as an anticipated moment of renewal and revival. It linked the decision to what it termed a historical pattern of “stepmotherly treatment” by the Centre, recalling even the 1929 Naga Club memorandum to the Simon Commission. CPO said the refusal widened the existing trust deficit and reopened old wounds, asserting that the Nagas’ right to self-determine their future must be respected. It urged the Centre to act with transparency and sensitivity in matters concerning the State’s distinct identity.

The NPCC condemned the visa denial and called it discriminatory and an “insult” to the Christian community. Congress claimed the decision reflects what it described as the BJP-RSS establishment’s intolerance towards religious minorities. It criticised the Naga People’s Front (NPF), a partner in the ruling alliance, accusing it of remaining silent and failing to defend the concerns of its own people.

Franklin Graham mocked Hinduism

In 2010, during an interview with USA Today, Franklin Graham had mocked Hinduism for its many manifestations of God and said “No elephant with 100 arms can do anything for me. None of their 9,000 gods is going to lead me to salvation.”

“We are fooling ourselves if we think we can have some big kumbaya service and all hold hands and it’s all going to get better in this world. It’s not going to get better,” Graham added.

His remarks were a direct dismissal of Hindu beliefs. He reduced the rich and ancient Hindu tradition to caricatures. By saying “No elephant with 100 arms can do anything for me” and referring to “9,000 gods”, he was not merely expressing theological disagreement, he was ridiculing Hindu Gods and asserting that they hold no value or power.

His argument rested on an exclusivist evangelical claim that salvation is possible only through Christianity, rejecting the legitimacy of all other religious paths. When he criticised the idea of a “big kumbaya service”, he mocked the very concept of interfaith harmony, implying that coexistence or mutual respect between religions is meaningless.

His mocking of Hinduism reflected the same missionary mindset that has historically targeted India, dismissing its civilisational heritage while aggressively promoting conversion under the guise of spiritual concern.

Mission to build 1,000 churches in India

In 1984, Franklin came to India to lay the foundation stone of a church. In a report from January 2020 on Samaritan’s Purse’s website, the organisation flaunted the fact that over the years, it has established 1,012 churches and 12 Bible schools across India.

The organisation used the standard modus operandi to attract Hindus towards Christianity, by providing basic amenities, education and health care. The report noted that most of the churches established by the organisation included a well where Hindus could come and get clean water.

“This gave Christians the opportunity to share the same Good News that Jesus once revealed to a Samaritan woman drawing water: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14, ESV),” the report noted.

Using COVID pandemic as tool to convert people

As most of the evangelists do, Franklin also used the pandemic to claim that only “Christian God” can save people from the disease. In May 2020, targeting India, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association published a video from 2010 when Franklin was in India to attend a conversion event. In the post, the organisation wrote, “As COVID claims thousands of lives in India, join us in praying the people of India come to know the living Saviour. This clip is from Franklin Graham’s 2010 visit to the country.”

In April 2021, when the second wave of COVID-19 hit India, Franklin’s organisation Samaritan’s Purse claimed that it distributed food to 1,000 families, helped a local clinic for COVID-19 care and more. It is, though, unclear which channel the organisation used to provide relief material during the pandemic in India.

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Billy Graham’s visit to India and his links to Congress

In early 2025, after US President Donald Trump decided to shut down USAID, several organisations that were running conversion rackets in India were hit. OpIndia, at that time, had published an investigation into World Vision International, one of the top recipients of USAID funds. The organisation sent hundreds of crores every year to its Indian chapter pretending it was for humanitarian work.

In reality, World Vision is a Christian fundamentalist organisation that allies with other Christian fundamentalists to convert unsuspecting Hindus, especially children and women. World Vision has been indulging in conversion activity in India for many years. It was first established in India in 1951. For over 70 years, World Vision received crores to convert Hindus and subvert Hinduism. It was only in 2024 that the Modi government revoked its FCRA licence, denting its conversion activity in India.

World Vision was founded by Bob Pierce. In the early 1950s, the organisation started operations in India and by 1960, the organisation had started six childcare projects. In the background, it was establishing its foot in the country to run conversion rackets. In this letter by Bob Pierce in February 1953, he talked about how he was in Calcutta and was converting Hindus and Sikhs. In 1956-1957 too, Pierce travelled to India to preach to Indian students, again children.

Another crucial point came in 1956-57 when Pierce had an interesting meeting with then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Here is a picture of him meeting Nehru. In the picture, Billy Graham, father of Franklin Graham, was also there.

To understand the implications of this picture, we must, along with Billy Graham, also understand who evangelist Billy Graham was.

William Franklin Graham Jr (Billy Graham) was an American evangelist and ordained Southern Baptist minister. In his years of preaching the gospel and converting people, Graham met several state heads and personalities. He was extremely close to several US Presidents. He famously said, “Everywhere I go I find that people … both leaders and individuals … are asking one basic question,” Billy Graham has said. “‘Is there any hope for the future?’ My answer is the same, ‘Yes, through Jesus Christ.’”

According to the Billy Graham website, After being encouraged by a key figure in the Evangelical Alliance in London, Rev. Graham scheduled Crusades in Bombay (now Mumbai), Madras (Chennai), Kottayam, Palamcottah, New Delhi and Calcutta (Kolkata).

His first visit to India has been documented on the website as 1956. “His 1956 visit was timely, as India was beginning to strengthen its ties with the Communist bloc, raising questions about the role of Western influence and faith in the area. Billy Graham, however, was well prepared, taking the initiative to meet with the current secretary of state for a briefing on relations between the U.S. and India”.

This trip appears to be a significant one not just from the point of view of Christian conversions, but also geo-politically. It was in this period that Graham and Bob Pierce met Jawaharlal Nehru as well.

In the book, “Billy Graham – His Life and Influence” written by David Aikman (former TIME magazine senior correspondent), there are details of the meeting which prove that Graham was furthering USA’ foreign policy goals.

The book states clearly that the US Government was using Billy Graham’s Christian crusades to further foreign policy goals and the first time they tried this was when Graham was visiting India.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent greetings to Graham before his trip to India and Secretary of State Dulles met Graham to impress upon him that he must not make any political mistakes during his trip to India and focus on furthering American interests.

The book says, “This was but the first of many occasions US administrations found it useful to capitalize or piggyback on Graham’s evangelistic activities and indeed his prominence as a worldwide evangelist. In decades to come, not only did his crusades have the indirect effect of helping to bring down totalitarian regimes, but, on occasion, Graham served as an unofficial emissary for American presidents to world leaders with whom the US government was unable otherwise to have direct contact”.

The book reveals that the US Ambassador to India John Sherman Cooper had “strongly” pushed Nehru to meet Graham. When they met, Nehru looked bored until Graham started talking about Christianity.

In the meeting, it is said that when Billy Graham was talking to Nehru about how much he liked India, he displayed boredom and fiddled with a paper opener.

However, the situation evolved when Graham changed his strategy. Realising that Nehru was not particularly interested in talking about how much Billy Graham had learnt about India on his trip, he switched the conversation to Christianity.

“Nehru immediately became alert and, according to Graham, began to ask questions”, the book says. The book further makes a shocking revelation. Jawaharlal Nehru told Billy Graham that he had nothing against Christian missionaries so long as they avoided politics.

It is pertinent to note here that the image of Nehru, Billy Graham and Bob Pierce was ‘created on’ the George Fox University website in 1957. But, according to the records we can find, the actual meeting possibly took place in 1956. The account of the meeting finds its place in several books – one of them being the Autobiography of Billy Graham called “Just As I Am”. The book by Billy Graham does not mention Bob Pierce being present during this meeting, however, the book makes it amply clear that Graham and Pierce knew each other very well.

Interestingly, in the biographical book on Bob Pierce, “This One Thing I Do”, the introduction was written by Billy Graham. In that book, with a foreword by the Chaplain of the United States Senate, there is a picture of the same meeting with Jawaharlal Nehru.

India revisited – Indira Gandhi continues the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru

In 1972, Billy Graham returned to India. The Hindu on 24th November 1972 published a report that read as follows:

The noted American evangelist, Dr. Billy Graham, to-night expressed the hope that his visit to this country would help improve relations between India and the United States. Dr. Graham, who was talking to newsmen at the airport here on his arrival from Kohima, was asked if he was carrying any message from President Nixon for Mrs. Indira Gandhi. “I am sorry, I can’t answer that,” he replied. Dr. Graham, a close friend of Mr. Nixon, is scheduled to meet Mrs. Gandhi on Monday. Dr Graham said the Indian Government had gone out of the way in permitting him to visit Nagaland. “I am grateful for this,” he added. During his stay in the capital, he will also call on the President, Mr. V.V. Giri. Earlier, talking to newsmen at Calcutta airport, Dr Graham said he had talks with Mr Nixon twice before he left for India. “I love India and I want the United States and India to become very close friends. This is necessary because we need each other for our mutual interests,” he said.

There were certain operative parts of this short report that we must bear in mind:

1. He said he could not tell the press the message he was carrying for Indira Gandhi from President Nixon.
2. The Indian govt had gone “out of its way” to permit him to visit Nagaland.
3. He wants a great relationship between the US and India.

The report by The Hindu would make it appear as though Graham was merely a Christian pastor, close to the President of the US, who was in India to improve ties and visit Nagaland. However, there was far more to the story – which The Hindu, of course, didn’t report.

Billy Graham details his 1972 trip to India and his meeting with Indira Gandhi during that trip in his autobiography.

About his mandate to meet Indira Gandhi, Graham writes:

President Nixon, at the request of the American consul in New Delhi, had personally asked me to seek an interview with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in part to find out from her what kind of ambassador she wanted from America. He asked me to notice every single thing about her—the movement of her hands, the expression on her face, how her eyes looked. “When you’ve finished the interview,” he said to me, “go to the American embassy and dictate your report to me.” And so, when I visited with Mrs. Gandhi in the Indian capital, I put the question to her. She told me she wanted someone who understood economics, who had the ear of the President, and who had influence in Congress. This I reported to the President. He later appointed Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Whether my report influenced the President’s decision, I never learned.

According to what Billy Graham wrote in his autobiography, it is evident that while Billy Graham was in India for a completely different reason, his mandate from the US government was to meet Indira Gandhi, observe her mannerisms and report back to the US. It is also evident that Billy Graham was close enough to the US dispensation to affect their decisions.

However, this mandate by the US government was essentially a pile-on. It was what the government wanted Graham to do, while he was visiting India for his real motive.

In his book, Graham makes it clear that he was visiting Nagaland for the purpose of evangelism.

“Our purpose in going to India was to preach in Nagaland, an isolated area tucked in the mountainous, jungle-covered northeast corner of India near the Burmese border. The area was home to a dozen separate tribes, each with its own dialect and often with a history of headhunting“, Graham writes.

Graham writes that in late November 1972, it was almost miraculous that the Indira Gandhi government granted him a permit to visit Nagaland, since at that time, due to instability, foreigners were not getting the permission to visit the Indian state.

What becomes interesting is how Graham got the permit. He writes (emphases added):

This permission was in response to an appeal from a delegation headed by the Reverend Longri Ao and other church leaders from Nagaland. (Assisting them was a gifted young Indian clergyman named Robert Cunville, who was head of the North East India Christian Council and had been invited to be director of youth evangelism for the World Council of Churches; he later joined our Team as an evangelist and has had a wide ministry not only in India but in many other parts of the world as well.)

It becomes important here to remember what “World Council of Churches” is. In our previous report where we wrote about the USAID-funded World Vision, we investigated how World Council of Churches was a trusted partner of World Vision – the evangelical organisation which was founded by Bob Pierce.

In their own words, “The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the scriptures, and therefore seek to fulfil together their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is a community of churches on the way to visible unity in one faith and one eucharistic fellowship, expressed in worship and in common life in Christ. It seeks to advance towards this unity, as Jesus prayed for his followers, “so that the world may believe.” (John 17:21). The World Council of Churches (WCC) is the broadest and most inclusive among the many organized expressions of the modern ecumenical movement, a movement whose goal is Christian unity”.

World Council of Churches is funded by several governments across the world and also gets substantial funding from a German NGO called “Bread For The World”. Bread For The World funds and has connection to several anti-India NGO, Urban Naxals, Jihadis and nefarious elements like Harsh Mandar.

A full report on this can be read here.

Coming back to Billy Graham’s Nagaland trip, Graham writes that when he landed in Nagaland, he was received by American consul who was a good friend of Mother Teresa.

Interestingly, in another book about Bob Pierce – the founder of World Vision – the NGO was also paying money to Mother Teresa.

Billy Graham in his book writes that when he reached Nagaland, he started shaking hands with people when the police pulled him and made him sit in the car because they felt he was in danger. He says that he then arrived at the place to deliver the sermon to over 90,000 people. Thereafter, he was taken to the government house to stay.

“After that, we were taken to a government house to spend the night. The chief minister of the cabinet of Nagaland had arranged a dinner for us. At that dinner, the schedule for the next day was discussed”, Graham writes.

The website of Billy Graham says, “500,000 people attended Billy Graham’s Crusade from November 20-22, 1972. The crowd included many different tribes, each having their own interpreter. Mr. Graham took note of the attendees’ tribal dress, painted faces, and spears in hand as he preached from the platform, declaring God’s love for them”.

Other than the fact that the Indira Gandhi government had provided him police protection, a stay in the government house and his evangelism was entertained by the CM of Nagaland, Indira Gandhi had also arranged for helicopters for Graham and said that she would be following his trip with great interest.

“Mrs. Gandhi had told me that she would be following the trip with great personal interest and warned me of some particular dangers. She ordered two helicopters to pick us up at the conclusion of our meetings”, Graham writes.

This portion of Billy Graham’s writing reveals a few things:

1. Indira Gandhi was keenly following Billy Graham’s tour of Nagaland.
2. She gave him a permit to visit Nagaland when foreigners were not being granted permit due to the instability.
3. She gave him the permission to visit Nagaland on the insistence of a priest associated with World Council of Churches.
4. She gave Billy Graham police protection, government accommodation and private helicopters to travel.
5. She went out of her way to ensure the evangelist Billy Graham – who was converting hundreds of thousands of non-Christians (predominantly Hindus) could visit Nagaland during instability to convert people.
6. Billy Graham was extremely close to the US government and was carrying out their foreign policy goals when he met heads of state like Indira Gandhi – and reporting back to the US Government.

As it is established that Billy Graham played a significant role in shaping Nagaland into a Christian-majority state, Franklin’s visit would have further enabled the ongoing conversion networks in the Northeast, particularly targeting tribal communities already vulnerable to such influence.