The All India Christian Council said in a statement that police officials were visiting the homes of Christians and asking questions about why converts from other religions had chosen to embrace Christianity.
Christians were also asked why they had pictures of Jesus, and who was funding Christian institutions carrying out welfare projects in poor villages.
In some cases, the council said, the visits were made in the middle of the night.
A Catholic ashram (religious place of retreat) in Dungripur was visited and details taken of its residents, activities and sources of income.
AICC secretary Samson Christian said he took up the matter with the state director-general of police, K. Chakravarthy, who pleaded ignorance and said no orders had been given by the state police or government to carry out any "survey."
Earlier this year, the Gujarat state did launch a survey of Christians, who were asked questions about their conversions and other matters.
But a Christian group, fearing that the data may be used by Hindu extremists to target Christians, petitioned the state's High Court, which ordered the authorities to stop.
Late last year, the Hindu nationalist BJP party -- which also heads the ruling national government coalition -- took power in Gujarat after an election campaign marked by complaints of religious intolerance.
The state legislature also passed a bill aimed at stopping "forced conversion."
A BJP-affiliated extremist Hindu organization, the National Volunteer Corps (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS) accuses Christian missionaries of luring poor Hindus to Christianity with inducements including money, education and health care.
In recent years, Gujarat and other states have seen about 200 attacks on Christians and their institutions, most attributed to the RSS and other similar groups.
Christians make up just 2.5 percent of India's more than one billion, mostly Hindu, population.
David Samuel, a Gujarati Christian now living in New Delhi, said most Indians knew very well why the survey was being carried out, although few would say so - "the census is just a way to get the exact location of the Christians."
The fact that the authorities won't accept responsibility for the survey made it even more suspicious, he said.
"Don't be surprised if something similar like Godhara erupts soon."
Last year, Gujarat was wracked by Hindu-Muslim violence that cost about 900 lives. The killings was triggered when a Muslim mob torched a railway carriage at Godhara, burning to death 59 Hindu pilgrims. Ultimately most of the victims were Muslims.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has been urging the State Department to add India and several other countries to its list of "countries of particular concern" because of religious freedom problems involving Hindus, Muslims and Christians.
The Commission, an independent expert body that gives recommendations to the U.S. government, said the authorities failed to hold people accountable for abuses of religious
freedom.
However, when the State Department issued its current list of "countries of particular concern" in early March, India was not among them.
Countries that are on the list are Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Sudan.
(CNSNews Pacific Rim Bureau Chief Patrick Goodenough contributed to this report.)
See also:
Indian Christians Alarmed by Passage of Religious Conversion Law (March 26, 2003)
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