Pope John Paul II, weak in body but strong in spirit, left India on Monday after a defiant 62-hour pilgrimage during which he affirmed people's rights to change their religion and snubbed Hindu fundamentalists demonstrating for an end to Christian conversions.

In the dusk of his two-decade papacy, the pope made no concessions or conciliatory gestures to those Indians and Hindus who feel that Western civilization has weakened their culture and that the work of Christian missionaries has enfeebled their religion.

Instead, he launched a crusade for more Christian converts in Asia on the very day Hindus celebrated Diwali, their main annual festival marking the triumph of light over darkness, a time for hospitality, food and fireworks.

The 79-year-old pontiff exhorted a synod of Asian bishops to evangelize the region in the coming millennium. He told them to go forth and conquer the continent for Christ just as the church had done in Europe during the first millennium and in the Americas in the second.

Though visibly frail and ailing, the pope showed no weakness in dealing with militant Hindu organizations that have persecuted Christians over the past year and have demanded a moratorium on conversions.

On a night when the Indian capital sounded as if a war had broken out as millions exploded fireworks to scare off evil demons for the next year, the pope insisted that changing one's credo is a basic human right. He was speaking at a meeting with Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist and Jewish religious leaders.

"No state, no group has the right to control either directly or indirectly a person's religious convictions. Religious freedom constitutes the very heart of human rights," he said.

In a veiled reference to persecution of Christians in India and China he added: "There's always the temptation to choose the path of isolation and division, which leads to conflict. This in turn unleashes the force which makes religion an excuse for violence, as we see too often around the world."

Even before his departure the pope, known for his fervor to expand the global influence of his church, was criticized for using India as a launching pad for what his critics say is an attempt to replenish the dwindling ranks of practicing Catholics in the West with Asian converts.

"India perhaps offers the best possibility for doing this, with a large population with a history of religious devotion and monastic activity that could readily become priests and nuns," said David Frawley, director of American Institute of Vedic Studies.

Many Indians felt the pope abused their hospitality by launching a crusade that must become a rallying cause for Hindu radicals who have warned for months that the Catholic Church is about to launch a major offensive in India and Asia and may now feel justified in persecuting more Christians.

"No Western country would give a state welcome to a Hindu religious leader seeking to promote Hindu conversion activities in the West," Frawley told an interviewer.

The pope's lightning visit attracted thin crowds along his routes, a far cry from his triumphant tour of India 13 years ago.

But 40,000 people did come to the Nehru sports stadium for Sunday mass, the pontiff's only public appearance. Bearing special invitations they sat in silence, almost motionless, in the stands, a sharp contrast with the jubilant receptions the pope usually receives abroad.

In another exhortation to crusade for the faith in Asia he told his audience: "The gospel can only be preached if bishops, clergy, those in consecrated life and the laity are themselves on fire with the love of Christ and burning with zeal to make him known, loved and followed."

On the access road to the heavily guarded stadium, 10 members of the Hindu revival Shiv Sena organization drove by waving black flags and shouting slogans against conversion. When police moved in the truck sped off.

The pope's message of an Asian crusade will be hard to digest for conservative Hindus, already peeved by a government that arrested 30 of their leaders for the duration of the papal visit. Police also beat three demonstrators shouting slogans as the pope sprinkled yellow rose and carnation petals on the monument to Mahatma Gandhi, the pacifist who led India to independence.

Militant Hindu leaders have demanded the pope not only declare an end to conversions but also apologize for the 16th Century inquisition in the former Portuguese enclave of Goa and publicly state that Christ is not the only road to salvation.

The Polish pontiff, who has rarely made compromises during his papacy, ignored all three demands.

But in a homily Sunday he expressed "my hope and dream that the next century will be a time of fruitful dialogue leading to a new relationship, understanding and solidarity among the followers of all religions."

The Vatican turned down the request of some Hindu organizations to present the pope evidence of alleged "forced conversions" of India's poor and uneducated. The furor over conversions led mobs to burn Christian villages, rape nuns and beat clergy over the past year, when some 1,500 anti-Christian incidents were reported.

Before the papal visit the protesters had burned the cross and the pope in effigy.

After a weekend during which a huge security deployment quashed their menace of protests, radical leaders lobbied to the very end for a papal response to their demand.

"We have nothing against the pope. But we are against conversions and request the pope to reply on this issue," pleaded Lokesh Pratap Singh, a senior leader of the Hindu World Council, hours before the pope left.

But the pontiff remained silent.

He was leaving as he had come, steeped in controversy.

For those who were invited to see him Sunday he remained a remote figure as seen from the faraway stands, a figure guarded by large contingents of unarmed police.