For the tribals of South Gujarat, religion is not the permanent, cast-iron experience others make it out to be. It's more a form of affiliation that changes with events; the event is usually as simple as an ailment being cured or a wish being granted following a visit to the church or the intervention of missionaries. The way any religion takes root.

It's a pointer to the simplicity of the people who stay here; lacking formal education, their faith lies with the people or events who change their lives, help them out. And, in most cases, those people happen to be missionaries, that institution, the church.

Here, religions don't differ from just one part of the town to another, or from street to street; religions differ between members of the same family. It's almost like following a football team: mother supports Club X, fatherClub Y, but they both live together.

For example, in the seven-member family of 23-year-old Raul Rama Gamit, the only Hindu is his father. Raul converted when he was cured of a disease after praying at a chapel. ``I converted everyone except my father. We don't go to temples, he doesn't come to church. But there's no friction, even though the head of family follows a different religion.''

Punajibhai, a Congress leader and chairman of the Khetiwadi Bazar Samiti, converted simply because ``he found the religion better.'' The other members of his family did not. ``Religion has never been an issue in our family. If there is space we bury our dead, if we not, we cremate them. No religion forces you to treat your dead in a particular way,'' he says.

That doesn't mean everything has been hunky-dory. When his mother Nakuben, a freedom fighter, died while at his house, he buried her without the knowledge of his Hindu brothers. When they performed the `Barmu' ceremony according to Hindu custom, Punajibhai didn'tattend.

Sometimes there's a difference between husband and wife, too. Thirty-year-old Navin Nanji's wife embraced Christianity four years ago. ``Our son was cured of an ailment after the missionaries helped out; this brought about a change of heart, but only in terms of religion. We still live together; she even wears her traditional ornaments, but goes to Church. I won't force her to return to my religion'', Nanji says.

The peace seems to hold among individuals. At Dolara, Lallubhai Gamit, who embraced Christianity long ago, sits without any qualms in the company of Bajrang Dal activist Gaman Ukadia. ``We have been living peacefully, we give chanda for Hindu festivals when they come to us'', says Gamit. ``There is absolutely no tension between the two communities'', avers Ukadia.

And, even when there are tensions, the villagers left to themselves can find ways of resolving them peacefully. In Karanjwel, there was considerable tension last year when a tribal deity, `Bhaglo Bhut', was desecrated,allegedly by Christians. The allegations were not proved, but the Christians didn't wait for that: They pooled together money to restore the deity.So what's gone wrong? Punanjibhai seems to hit the nail on the head when he says: ``The attacks on Christians are a political stunt. They are engineered by elements within the BJP, they are not natural; we share our meals and attend each others' festivals.'' Ukadia nods in agreement.