India: An Introduction 2

India: An Introduction 2 By Dr. Johnson C. Philip

Society: In spite of the diversity and mutual exclusiveness between the numerous people groups and castes, the social life offers unusual freedom to all. People from all backgrounds freely interact with each other in educational institutions, business establishments, and government offices. Mass public transportation brings all people together without segregation. This harmony within diversity is highly helpful in approaching the Indians with the teachings of Christ, based upon the love of God.

There are in excess of 1652 languages and dialects, of which over 400 are classified as “living languages” which makes it a daunting task to provide Scripture to everyone in their first language. However, the need is met — for time being — to a great degree by the 18 major languages of India, which used with vision can offer communication with the entire population. For example, only about 41 million people have Hindi as their first-language but as many as 400 million can comfortably understand messages given in Hindi. This has been facilitated by the mass-media and also by the multi-language policy of the Education-system. Every Indian school-student has to learn at least two languages (the local language plus Hindi), but in most states they also have to learn English and Sanskrit. This is at times tough on students but great for national-integration, communal harmony, and easier information-dissemination. This also helps Christians to spread the love of Christ without having to preach in numerous languages at the same time.

While India was a highly illiterate country when the British left, in six decades the functional literacy has crossed fifty percent, while the notional literacy now approaches 70% because of compulsory universal education. (The government spends millions for developing health, education, transportation, and communication.) The increasing literacy level provides a great opening for literature-evangelism.

The Christian Faith: The Gospel came to India with St.Thomas the doubting disciple. He came with the Gospel of Matthew in AD 50 and preached extensively in the southern states. As a consequence there is a heavy Christian presence in the four southern states, with Kerala having as high as 20% of the population claiming to be Christians.

Several smaller states in the North East also have a high Christian population that might reach 90% of the total population of the state. Thus a small number of small-sized southern and North Eastern states account for 60% or more of the total Christian population. The rest, when spread over the remaining large states, reduces Christians to an insignificant minority there. In some states only one person among 1000 to 10,000 people is a Christian (most of whom are only nominal Christians). Thus the distribution of the Christian population in India is highly uneven. This creates serious challenge for those who move to new areas to share the message of Christ because on Sundays they might have to travel for more than 100 kilometers to reach the nearest Christian fellowship of any kind. In certain remote areas this distance can become five times this much.

The two millennia of reorganization and challenges faced internally and from external forces (Moghul rulers, British rulers) have sapped the strength and zeal of the denominational churches in India, and very few of them have remained evangelical or evangelistic in spirit. However, the spirit of God moved in India in a special way in 1800s and early 1900s, raising forth many revivalistic movements in the Indian church. This has given rise to tens of thousands of smaller churches that are evangelical and evangelistic in their basic commitment.

One result of the revival in the 1800s was the rise of New Testament pattern churches in India, now widely identified by others as the Christian Brethren. The Assembly movement in India was a totally indigenous movement, which developed due to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in Indian hearts. Eventually the Indian believers in these New Testament Pattern assemblies became identified with the larger work of the spirit of God known as the Christian Brethren or the Plymouth Brethren. These assemblies in India identical with the New Testament pattern assemblies that started worldwide in the 1800s.

In about 110 years the Indian assemblies have grown to 2200 congregations, the bulk of which are situated in two states: Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. In the last five decades, pioneer missionaries, mostly from the tiny state of Kerala, have gone to almost all other states to share the gospel. Numerous assembly testimonies have thus come up in the unreached areas. What is more, now an increasing number of local people from these areas are committing themselves to go into full-time ministry among their own language-group.

God has been gracious to the Indian assemblies. While all the problems faced by the assemblies worldwide are seen here too, this has not quenched their spirit for evangelization. Compared to their numbers and the resources available, the Indian assemblies are highly active and fruit-bearing, specially in Church-planting.

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