The Contemporary
Christianity Growth in India
By Jake Kohl
India, a country in
South Asia and a country with a vast population is home to many different types
of religions. “Hinduism, India’s major religion, is a way of life for more than
80 percent of India’s 1 billion people.”[1]
Hinduism is a religion that started in Central Asia and moving into Northern
India about 3000 years ago by nomadic cattle-herding tribes called Aryans, or
the noble ones.[2] These tribes brought with them, teaching and
traditions from early Indian villagers known as Vedas in which were written
down and memorized generation after generation and became the foundation of
Hinduism.[3]
Over and during the centuries ahead, many
other religions came into play in India, notably Buddhism – which eventually
spread throughout the world alongside Hinduism. Buddhism is also known as a
sect of Hinduism which split because of its own religious system which was
founded before the birth of Jesus Christ.[4] The
most influential religion was Buddhism and Hinduism – up until the rise of
Islam. Both Buddhism and Hinduism don’t believe or practice the worship of a
single god, but believe more of an inward faith – a way of life or all living
things respected per se.
India had faced much opposition and was in
constant attack. “The various nomadic
people who entered India between the second century and eighth century may have
been more potent military threats, but their cultures were thoroughly absorbed
by India. However, in 711 C.E., India faced for the first time a vital people
with a culture and religion both as sophisticated and powerful as its own:
Islam.”[5]
Muslims entered and changed the face of religion by “patterns of faith and
alliance, as much as by the sword.”[6]
The Muslim culture eventually immersed itself within the culture and lives of
the Indian people which resulted in shared teachings and intermarriages between
both Hindu’s and Muslims.
The battle that took place at the Talas
River in Central Asia in 751 C.E was the turning point between the Islam and
Hinduism relationship. This battle was “between the expanding empires of the
Arab Muslims and T’ang China. The Arab
victory in that battle not only stopped the T'ang dynasty's expansion to the
West; it also led to the triumph of Islam over Buddhism as the prevailing
religion in Central Asia.”[7]
This triumph paved the way for Islam being birthed as a prevailing religion in
India and has been growing ever since.
Over the years Islam were fairly tolerant
of those practicing Hinduism and even went as far as “preserving the Hindu
temple sun god in Multan to avoid Hindu attacks that might damage this holy
spot. Although the Arabs only conquered the northwestern part of India, their
tolerant rule won many converts to Islam in that region which remains Muslim to
this day.“[8] However, the tolerance level was eventually
reversed and Hindu’s suffered persecution from the Muslims. These events lead
to a swift, deteriorating decline of Islam which allowed a new people with a
new culture to take over – the British.[9]
Prior to Islam in India, “It is widely
believed that St. Thomas, the disciple of Jesus, first introduced the Christian
faith to India nearly two thousand years ago.”[10]
However, Christian influence would not dominate this region until around “1542
when the Jesuit Francis Xavier arrived on a mission’s voyage from Portugal and
the work of the Roman Catholics began in earnest.”[11] The establishment of quality education was a
huge impact in India, especially with female education. Although the
educational barrier of educating women was not favored, it eventually grew to
new heights and took off with both men and women receiving quality education.
Outside of the impact Christians had in India, they were also responsible for
significant contributions in language and literature as well as social reform.[12]
While Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam are
continuing to grow, Christianity is also rapidly growing in India today.
According to a 1991 census, there were “23 million Christians in India, making
up 2.3 percent of the total population. However, Christian executives and
demographers estimate the number of Christians at 50 million, or 5 percent of
the population.”[13]
While this may be a small number compared to the Hindus and Muslims, it is a
number that is ever increasing. According to the 2001 Census of India, “Christianity
has emerged as the major religion in three North-eastern states, namely,
Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya. Among other states/Uts, Manipur (34.0%), Goa
(26.7%), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (21.7%), Kerala (19.0%), and Arunachal
Pradesh (18.7%) have considerable percentage of Christian population to the
total population of the State/UT.”[14]
In recent years, conflict and violence has
captured the religious life of many in India.
Growing religious conflict may be seen through the lens of rapid growth
and expansion of Islam and Hinduism as seen today in many parts of the world.
In India, clashes between the Hindu’s and Muslims are ever increasing. In 1990,
the Star tribune reported that “Hindu mobs were beating, stabbing, tying up and
throwing Muslims into a burning house while others were stabbed and beaten in
the streets over a 460-year-old mosque that Hindus say was built on the
foundation of an early temple marking the birthplace of Rama, the
much-worshiped warrior god.”[15]
These clashes are not just seen in India, but elsewhere is the world. Religious
intolerance is plaguing our world and persecution is growing just as fast as
any religious belief.
Muslims are not just targeted in India
either. Christians are being targeted as well because some in India feel that
Christians have too much political power.[16] Some
blame Christian missionaries for converting Hindu’s to Christianity and charge
Christians with absurd crimes such as chicanery and deception.[17]
Violence continues to grow in India with some pretty gross acts committed
against both Muslims and Christians alike. A notable case is the four nuns who
operate a medical clinic in India were dragged from their convent and
gang-raped by a dozen or more men.”[18]
While violence is being penetrated within
the religious sector of India, it has not stopped the growth of Christianity.
From the Catholic as well as Protestant Christianity, reform has most
definitely been influenced by Christianity. The impact of Christianity has been
felt throughout all of India, specifically by way of Indian society and
culture, with education and grammar being at the top.
Christianity remains vibrant – despite
growing religious intolerance in India. “The fact that the Christian community
has contributed positively to nation building is uncontested. Today there are
Christians integrated into the very fabric of all areas of Indian society, both
in the public and private sectors, from members of Parliament, chief ministers,
corporate executives, physicians, engineers, and down to chauffeurs, chefs, and
guards at the gate.“ [19]
Even though the violence that is seen within the Christian communities in India
today are enough to stir the hearts of many, it is easier looking at the
persecutions as an advancement towards not only a greater cause, but a more
modern style of living for the Indian people. “To paraphrase the late Bishop
Stephen Neill of the Trinelveli Diocese, Church of South India: for the
Christian Church and its mission in India, the task has been challenging, and
along the journey a number of mistakes have been made, but equally surprising,
perhaps, is the fact that such a considerable measure of success has been
accomplished.”[20]
Bibliography
Butler, Chris, FC52: The Coming of Islam to India (711-c.
1800), 2007 Retrieved on October 01, 2013 http://www.flowofhistory.com/units/asia/7/FC52
Hindson, E. , and E. Caner. The popular encyclopedia of
apologetics, surveying the evidence for the truth of christianity. Harvest
House Publishers, 2008. print.
Houghton,
Graham. "Christian Impact on India, History of." Encyclopedia of
India. Ed. Stanley Wolpert. Vol. 1. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006.
247-252. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.
India. Ministry of Home Affairs . Census on Religion.
Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India: , 2001. Web. http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_And_You/religion.aspx
"India's
Religious Violence." New York Times, Jan 13, 1999. 0, http://search.proquest.com/docview/431112023?accountid=12085.
"Islam in
India." The Daily Telegraph, Nov 22, 2002. 27, http://search.proquest.com/docview/317681089?accountid=12085.
McCollum, Sean. "India's
Ancient Religion." Junior Scholastic, Mar 12, 2001. 16,
http://search.proquest.com/docview/202826126?accountid=12085.
"Religious Conflict
Escalates in India." Star Tribune, Nov 03, 1990. 0, http://search.proquest.com/docview/418251393?accountid=12085.
Quigley, Thomas.
"Anti-Christian Violence in India." America, Apr 03, 1999. 9,
http://search.proquest.com/docview/209691398?accountid=12085.
[1]
McCollum, Sean, India’s Ancient Religion, 2001
[2]
ibid
[3]
ibid
[4]
Caner, Ergun, The popular encyclopedia of
apologetics, surveying the evidence for the truth of Christianity,
2008, p 114
[5]
Butler, Chris, FC52: The Coming of Islam to India (711-c. 1800), 2007
[6]
Islam in India, The Daily Telegraph, 2002, 27
[7]
Butler, Chris, 2007
[8]
ibid
[9]
ibid
[10] Houghton, Graham. "Christian Impact on India, History
of." Encyclopedia of India.
[11]
ibid
[12]
ibid
[13]
ibid
[14] India.
Ministry of Home Affairs . Census on Religion., 2001
[15]
Star Tribune, Religious Conflict Escalates in Inda, 1990
[16]
New York Times, India’s Religious Violence, 1999
[17]
Quigley, Thomas, Anti-Christian Violence in India, 1999
[18]
ibid
[19]
Houghton, Graham, Christian Impact on India, 2006, pp. 252-253
[20]
ibid
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