Khojewal

Khojewal, also spelled Khojewala, is a village in Kapurthala district, Punjab, near Jalandhar. It is known as the home of the Open Door Church, which The Tribune named on 1 February 2023 among the most popular ministries in Jalandhar. Its pastor today is Harpreet Deol.

The church. A 2003 Christianity Today report says Pastor Harbhajan Singh, then 52, a former landlord who said he had converted from Sikhism to Christianity in 1986, built the church at Khojewala in 1991. It says the village youth committee at first forbade the building, that he received many death threats, and that the church reported 2,800 baptised members. Swarajya calls Harpreet Deol a second-generation pastor from a Jat Sikh family. The sources opened do not state outright how the two men are related.

Key moments

• 1991: the church is built (Christianity Today).
• 19 February 2022: The Tribune reported that the big churches of the Doaba, Khojewal's among them, draw most of their following from converted Dalits, and that they appeared to lean towards the BJP.
• 31 January 2023: the Income Tax Department raided places linked to Deol and to another pastor, Bajinder Singh. Swarajya reported Rs 2 crore seized from the two men's properties and an inquiry into tax evasion, foreign funding and the use of church donations. These were searches, not charges.
• 3 April 2023: the United Punjab Party was announced at the Open Door Church, days after a Pentecostal Christian Parbandhak Committee was formed on the pattern of the SGPC. The Tribune called it the first time these churches had said they wanted to take part directly in Punjab politics and said it was seen as an attempt to win Dalit votes before the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-election. Deol, present at the meeting, denied any political role and said he would keep to religious matters, while backing the party to raise Christian concerns such as graveyards (The Arabian Post).

The Panthic debate. Sikh groups allege that Pentecostal churches draw Sikh, especially Dalit, families into conversion by inducement, and the churches deny it (The Arabian Post). In October 2022 the Akal Takht's acting Jathedar, Giani Harpreet Singh, warned of fake pastors prospering in Punjab and called the government's silence on conversions a cause for concern. The Tribune's report of that message names neither Deol nor Khojewal.

What it means today. The Open Door Church is one of the best-known Pentecostal ministries of the Jalandhar and Kapurthala area, and the party announced there in 2023 was, The Tribune said, the first time these churches had said they would take part directly in Punjab politics. Sikh bodies' objections are aimed at such churches in general. Deol is a living person, and the allegations about funds were unproven at the time of the reports cited.