India: An Introduction — 1
India: An Introduction By Dr. Johnson C. Philip
India is a great country and is totally different from any other nation in the world. It is world’s second most populous country teaming with over 1050 million people. It is one nation in name, but it is also an agglomeration of nations. It is many countries in a harmonious one, and one country with a cacophony of many countries.
The Indus region has always been a fertile, technologically advanced, and highly literate region of the world. It is mentioned twice in the book of Esther, and was known to the Jews a thousand years before that and many kings in the Bible presumably had business links that extended via sea up to India. The abundance of rivers and fertile land made people in Indus region to spread around and settle everywhere. Gradually these settlements developed into autonomous kingdoms each with their own language, culture and custom. Eventually even these multiplied within individual kingdoms into many more sub-languages and subcultures.
Around two millennia ago there arose a loose unification among these people due to multiple reasons, such as powerful conquerors who annexed vast territories into their kingdom, marriage alliances with powerful kings, and military protection to smaller kingdoms offered by their more powerful neighbors. This process of annexation and federation caused a Universalist and Pluralist cultural and religious outlook to develop, where everyone zealously guarded his culture and customs, but also allowed space for others to grow. The resultant philosophical and cultural outlook in a refined and codified form is the present day Hinduism. It is the most Pluralist and Universalist way of life in the world, and has the power to assimilate every viewpoint, Eastern or Western. Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism grew up here as autonomous religions, but have been assimilated into the larger Hinduism in such a manner that their autonomy is not affected but at the same time they are part of the wider Hindu society and culture. In addition, there are thousands of Indian neo-religions which are part of Hinduism, but which enjoy autonomy at the same time. The Sindhis and Parsis came here with a totally different theology, but have become an integral part of the Indian society due to the same factors. The final result is a country which is one, but which is also many. A unique country indeed.
Peoples: People from several races make up India, among whom the Aryans (prominent in North India) and Dravidians (prominent in South India) are the largest groups. There are also many of Australian, African, and even Mongoloid origin. Except for the last group mentioned above, there has been much mingling and intermarriage among various groups, and it is not always possible to analyze or isolate these groups or races. Moreover, instead of classifying on the basis of races, it is more objective and helpful to classify Indians on the basis of what is rightly called a “People Group”.
A “People Group” is a natural classification, based upon social clusters made by people themselves. Such large people-groups form on the basis of customs, caste and culture. There is great deal of uniformity and unifying factors within a given people-group, while at the same time many things isolate and insulate one people-group from other people groups. In 1991 as many as 4,635 people groups were identified in India. Sharing the gospel in a focused manner within one people group is more easy and fruitful compared to preaching randomly to multiple people-groups. In addition, there are over 6400 castes among the Hindus, with many social barriers among different castes though all of them are Hindus and Indians. There is no country anywhere which has so much diversity, and yet India is one nation in spite of it.
Castes: Caste is basically an Indian and a Hindu concept. Hindus, who form over 80% of the Indian population, are divided into as many as 6400 castes, with a clear hierarchy of castes from the highest to the lowest. One-sixth of the Hindus belong to the higher castes, and they control the bulk of the big business, larger institutions, and the most lucrative jobs. However successive governments have been doing everything for the upliftment of lower castes and the results are already obvious.
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