Ross Et Al 2021 Christianity in South and Central Asia

EDINBURGH COMPANIONS TO GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY
Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity

Series Editors: Kenneth R. Ross and Todd M. Johnson
CHRISTIANITY IN
This series of reference volumes comprehensively maps worldwide Christianity, describing it in its entirety.
It covers every continent and offers country-specific studies as well as examining regional and continental
trends. Through a combination of maps, tables, charts and graphs a full demographic analysis is provided,
while original essays explore key topics and trends.
Todd M. Johnson
Daniel Jeyaraj and
Edited by Kenneth R. Ross,
‘This volume represents public recognition of the unprecedented explosion of World
Christianity during the past half century. Ambitious and wide-ranging essays by forty
SOUTH AND
authors from varied backgrounds and disciplines explore the highly complex and
multiple forms of local and regional Christianities that now exist within fourteen
countries in South and Central Asia. This truly remarkable collection should appeal to a
CENTRAL ASIA
broad readership concerned with contemporary affairs in our world.’
Robert Eric Frykenberg, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Combines empirical data and original analysis in a uniquely

detailed account of Christianity in South and Central Asia
This comprehensive reference volume covers every country in South and Central Asia, offering
CHRISTIANITY IN
reliable demographic information and original interpretative essays by indigenous scholars and
practitioners. It maps patterns of growth and decline, assesses major traditions and movements,
CENTRAL ASIA
analyses key themes and examines current trends.
SOUTH AND
Key Features
• Profiles of Christianity in every country in South and Central Asia including clearly presented
statistical and demographic information
• Analyses of leading features and current trends written by indigenous scholars
• Essays examining each of the major Christian traditions (Independents, Orthodox, United
Churches, Protestants/Anglicans, Catholics, Evangelicals, Pentecostals/Charismatics) as they
are finding expression in South and Central Asia
• Essays explore key themes such as faith and culture, worship and spirituality, theology, social
and political engagement, mission and evangelism, religious freedom, gender, inter-faith
relations, South Asian diaspora, caste and Christianity in India, and tribal identity
Kenneth R. Ross is Parish Minister, Netherlorn Churches, Argyll, and an Honorary Fellow in
the University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity.
Daniel Jeyaraj is Professor of World Christianity and Director of the Andrew F. Walls Centre for
the Study of African and Asian Christianity at Liverpool Hope University.
Todd M. Johnson is Associate Professor of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological
Seminary, South Hamilton, MA.
Cover image: photograph supplied, with kind permission, by Mrs Jayashree Jayapaul, Madurai, India. It shows her painting,
‘Jesus rescues sinking Peter and restores his hope and trust in God’, which is on display at the JC Residency Hotel, Madurai, Edited by
Tamil Nadu, India.
Cover design: Stuart Dalziel and Paul Smith
Kenneth R. Ross, Daniel Jeyaraj
and Todd M. Johnson
Christianity in South and Central Asia
Editorial Team
Editors
Kenneth R. Ross
Daniel Jeyaraj
Todd M. Johnson
Associate Editor
Albert W. Hickman
Managing Editor
Katherine Hampson
Editorial Advisory Board

Anand Amaladass
Marina Ngursangzeli Behera
Michael Nazir-Ali
Prashan de Visser
Felix Wilfred
Demographic Profile
Editor: Gina A. Zurlo
Data Analyst: Peter F. Crossing
Layout and Design: Justin Long
Cartography: Bryan Nicholson
Edinbu rgh Companions to Global Chr isti anit y
Christianity in South and

Central Asia
Edited by
Kenneth R. Ross, Daniel Jeyaraj and

Todd M. Johnson
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish
academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social
sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to
produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website:
edinburghuniversitypress.com
© editorial matter and organisation Kenneth R. Ross, Daniel Jeyaraj and

Todd M. Johnson, 2019
© the chapters their several authors, 2019
Edinburgh University Press Ltd

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Typeset in Palatino and Myriad

by R. J. Footring Ltd, Derby, UK, and
printed and bound in Great Britain
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ISBN 978 1 4744 3982 4 (hardback)

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ISBN 978 1 4744 3985 5 (epub)
The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
Contents
Series Preface viii

Volume Preface x
Contributorsxii
Introduction
A Demographic Profile of Christianity in South and Central Asia 3
Gina A. Zurlo
Christianity in South and Central Asia 15
Daniel Jeyaraj
Countries
Kazakhstan43
Alina Ganje
Uzbekistan52
Feruza Krason
Turkmenistan 61
Barakatullo Ashurov
Tajikistan 65
Barakatullo Ashurov
Kyrgyzstan70
David Radford
Iran83
Gulnar Francis-Dehqani
Afghanistan 95
Anthony Roberts
Pakistan107
Mehak Arshad and Youshib Matthew John
North India 119
Leonard Fernando sj
vi Contents
West India 131

Atul Y. Aghamkar
South India 143
Daniel Jeyaraj
Northeast India 156
Kaholi Zhimomi
Nepal168
Bal Krishna Sharma
Bhutan180
Tandin Wangyal
Bangladesh184
Pradeep Perez sj
The Maldives 197
Kenneth R. Ross and Todd M. Johnson
Sri Lanka 199
Prashan De Visser
Major Christian Traditions

Catholics 211
Felix Wilfred
Orthodox223
Romina Istratii
United and Uniting Churches 236
Joshva Raja
Protestants and Anglicans 248
Arun W. Jones
Independents 261
Roger E. Hedlund
Evangelicals274
Rebecca Samuel Shah and Vinay Samuel
Pentecostals and Charismatics 287
Ivan Satyavrata
Contents vii
Key Themes
Faith and Culture 303
Atola Longkumer
Worship and Spirituality 315
Anand Amaladass
Theology327
Jesudas Athyal
Social and Political Context 339
Cedric Prakash sj
Mission and Evangelism 351
Jacob Kavunkal svd
Gender363
Sheela Jeyaraj and Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar
Religious Freedom 373
Michael Nazir-Ali
Inter-religious Relations 384
Peniel Rajkumar
South Asian Diaspora 396
Sam George
Caste and Christianity in India 408
Anderson Jeremiah
Tribal Identity 420
Conclusion
The Future of Christianity in South and Central Asia 433
Savithri Sumanthiran
Appendices
Christianity by Country 447
Methodology and Sources of Christian and Religious Affiliation 452
Todd M. Johnson and Gina A. Zurlo
Index469
Series Preface
While a number of compendia have recently been produced on the study

of worldwide Christianity, the distinctive quality of this series arises from
its examination of global Christianity through a combination of reliable
demographic information and original interpretative essays by indigenous
scholars and practitioners. This approach was successfully pioneered by the
Atlas of Global Christianity 1910–2010, published by Edinburgh University
Press on the occasion of the centenary of the epoch-making Edinburgh
1910 World Missionary Conference.
Using the same methodology, the Edinburgh Companions to Global
Christianity take the analysis to a deeper level of detail and explore the
context of the twenty-first century. The series considers the presence of
Christianity on a continent-by-continent basis worldwide. Covering every
country in the world, it maps patterns of growth and/or decline and
examines current trends. The aim of the series is to comprehensively map
worldwide Christianity and to describe it in its entirety. Country-specific
studies are offered, all the major Christian traditions are analysed and
current regional and continental trends are examined.
Each volume is devoted to a continent or sub-continent, following the
United Nations classifications. Through a combination of maps, tables,
charts and graphs, each of the successive volumes presents a comprehen-
sive demographic analysis of Christianity in the relevant area. Commentary
and interpretation are provided by essays on key topics, each written by
an expert in the field, normally an indigenous scholar. By the use of these
various tools each volume provides an accurate, objective and incisive
analysis of the presence of Christian faith in the relevant area.
The projected volumes in the series are:
1. Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa

2. Christianity in North Africa and West Asia
3. Christianity in South and Central Asia
4. Christianity in East and Southeast Asia
5. Christianity in Oceania
6. Christianity in Latin America
7. Christianity in North America
8. Christianity in Western and Northern Europe
Series Preface ix
9. Christianity in Eastern and Southern Europe

10. Compact Atlas of Global Christianity
As series editors, we rely heavily on the regional expertise of the

dedicated third editor who joins us for each volume. Furthermore, each
volume has its own editorial advisory board, made up of senior scholars
with authoritative knowledge of the field in question. We work together
to define the essay topics for the volume, arrange for compilation of the
required demographic data, recruit the authors of the essays and edit their
work. Statistical and demographic information is drawn from the highly
regarded World Christian Database maintained by the Center for the Study
of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South
Hamilton, MA, USA) and published by Brill. For each volume, a team of
35–40 authors are recruited to write the essays, and it is ultimately upon
their scholarship and commitment that we depend in order to create an
original and authoritative work of reference.
Each volume in the series will be, we hope, a significant book in its
own right and a contribution to the study of Christianity in the region in
question. At the same time, each is a constituent part of a greater whole –
the 10-volume series, which aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of
global Christianity that will be groundbreaking in its demographic quality
and analytical range. Our hope is that the Companions will be of service
to anyone seeking a fuller understanding of the worldwide presence of the
Christian faith.

Series Editors
Volume Preface
This volume combines two United Nations regions, South and Central
Asia. Both are marked by religious diversity. Hinduism is the dominant
faith in India and Nepal; Islam in the Maldives, Bangladesh, Pakistan and
Central Asia; and Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Bhutan. In every context,
however, different religious communities, Christians included, meet and
engage with one another. The Christian presence is varied, shaped by
different historical patterns and presenting a wide range of complexions
today. The contexts in which Christian communities find themselves also
vary markedly. While some contexts present severe restrictions and even
active hostility and harassment, others offer new opportunities and a
favourable climate for the development of church life. Many factors are
at play, calling for careful mapping and incisive analysis if justice is to be
done to the richness and vitality of the Christian presence in this part of
the world.
In pursuit of understanding, this volume offers four angles of analysis.
The first is demographic, using the methodology of the highly successful
Atlas of Global Christianity (Edinburgh University Press, 2009) to present
reliable statistical information in an attractive, user-friendly format. Maps
and charts depict the status of Christianity regionally and in terms of the
principal church traditions. Christians form a small minority in all countries
in this region, but in many places they constitute significant communities,
some sustaining ancient traditions, others representing new movements.
The second angle of analysis is at the country level. Account is taken
of the presence and influence of Christianity in each of 14 countries in
South and Central Asia. Scholars who are either indigenous or have long
experience of the region have contributed interpretative essays that offer
a ‘critical insider’ perspective on the way in which Christianity is finding
expression in their context. Most countries are the subject of a dedicated
essay, while India, in view of its size and population, is divided into four
parts for the purpose of the essays.
Thirdly, Christianity in South and Central Asia is considered in terms of
its principal ecclesial forms or traditions. Six types of church are considered:
Catholic, Orthodox, United, Protestant, Anglican and Independent. It is a
distinctive feature of this volume that, in addition to the five traditions
considered throughout the Companions, it has an essay devoted to the
Volume Preface xi
United Churches, which have been formed through church unions in South
Asia. In addition, the Evangelical and Pentecostal/Charismatic movements,
which cut across ecclesial affiliation, are examined.
Fourthly, selected themes are considered. Eight of these run right through
the entire Edinburgh Companions series: faith and culture, worship and
spirituality, theology, social and political context, mission and evangelism,
gender, religious freedom, and inter-religious relations. A further three
have been selected by the editorial board specifically for this volume, on
account of their salience in the context of South and Central Asia: the South
Asian diaspora, caste, and tribal identity. Each of these themes is examined
on a region-wide basis, deepening our understanding of features that are
definitive for Christianity in this part of the world.
As is evident from the short bibliography offered at the end of each
essay, this book rests on the body of scholarship that has illuminated
our understanding of South and Central Asian Christianity, particularly
the burgeoning literature of the early twenty-first century. Besides many
detailed local studies, much insight has been derived from such attempts at
overall analysis as The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia, edited by Felix
Wilfred (2014), which has become the standard reference work on Asian
Christianity. An earlier valuable but now dated work is A Dictionary of Asian
Christianity edited by Scott Sunquist and David Wu Chu Sing (Eerdmans,
2001). For South Asia, Roger Hedlund’s Oxford Encyclopaedia of South Asian
Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2011) is an invaluable resource. In
addition, Robert Frykenberg’s single-country study Christianity in India:
From Beginnings to the Present (Oxford University Press, 2010) and George
Gispert-Sauch and Leonard Fernando’s Christianity in India: Two Thousand
Years of Faith (Penguin, 2004) have made major contributions in the field. On
the other hand, the literature on Christianity in Central Asia is much more
limited, lacking any attempts at comprehensive analysis. While resting
on the preceding scholarship, this volume breaks new ground through
its reliable demographic analysis, its contemporary focus, the indigenous
authorship of its essays and the originality of the analyses. The essay authors
employ a variety of disciplinary approaches – historical, theological, socio
logical, missiological, anthropological – as appropriate to their topics. Taken
together, the volume offers a deeply textured and highly nuanced account
of Christianity in South and Central Asia, one that will reward the attention
of any who wish to deepen their knowledge of this subject.
Kenneth R. Ross
Daniel Jeyaraj
Todd M. Johnson
June 2018
Contributors
Atul Y. Aghamkar is Director of the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s

National Centre for Urban Transformation, Bangalore. An ordained
minister of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, his publications include
Insights into Openness: Encouraging Urban Mission (SAIACS Press, 2000)
and Christian Missions in Maharashtra: Retrospect and Prospect (Evangelical
Theological Research Writing Project of India, 2010).
West India
Anand Amaladass is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, editor of Satya

Nilayam Chennai Journal of Intercultural Philosophy and co-author of Christian
Themes in Indian Art (Manohar, 2012). His areas of research include
aesthetics and inter-religious dialogue.
Worship and Spirituality
Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar is presently a pastor in the Evangelical

Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Corydon, Indiana, USA. She earlier
served as a professor of theology, gender and hermeneutics at the United
Theological College and Serampore College in India, and the Lutheran
Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, USA.
Gender
Mehak Arshad (MPhil in English literature) is a researcher and teaches

English and research methodology at Lahore College of Theology, Lahore,
Pakistan.
Pakistan
Barakatullo Ashurov is a Visiting Scholar in Near Eastern Languages and

Civilization at Harvard University, USA. He gained his PhD from the
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 2014 and
has taught at the Tajikistan Academy of Sciences in Dushanbe, Tajikistan,
with a research focus on Sogdian Christian texts.
Turkmenistan; Tajikistan
Contributors xiii
Jesudas Athyal is former Associate Professor of Dalit Theology and Social

Analysis at Gurukul Lutheran Theological College, Chennai, India. He is
the co-author of Understanding World Christianity – India (Fortress Press,
2016) and Associate Editor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of South Asian Christi-
anity (2 vols) (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Theology
Marina Ngursangzeli Behera, a Presbyterian from Mizoram, India, is

Research Tutor and the MPhil Stage Leader at the Oxford Centre for Mission
Studies, Oxford, UK. She earlier served as Chairperson in the Department of
the History of Christianity at the United Theological College in Bangalore,
India, and as Professor of Ecumenical Missiology at the Bossey Ecumenical
Institute of the World Council of Churches, Geneva, Switzerland.
Tribal Identity
Prashan De Visser is President and founder of Global Unites, an inter

national youth movement for conflict transformation in nations devastated
by violence. He is also the former host of the breakfast television show
Good Morning Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka
Leonard Fernando sj is Principal of Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi,

India. His publications include Christian Faith Meets Other Faiths: Origen’s
Contra Celsum and Its Relevance for India Today (ISPCK, 1998) and Christi-
anity in India: Two Thousand Years of Faith (Penguin, 2004). He is General
Editor of the ‘History of Christianity in India’ series published by the
Church History Association of India.
North India
Gulnar Francis-Dehqani is Bishop of Loughborough within the Church

of England. She comes originally from Iran and has written and spoken on
the areas of women in religion and interfaith studies in particular.
Iran
Alina Ganje was born in Kazakhstan and holds a master’s degree in

religion-politics-economics from the University of Zurich. Besides financial
companies, she has worked for the G2W Institute, a non-government or-
ganisation engaged in charitable projects in Russia.
Kazakhstan
xiv Contributors
Sam George serves as Catalyst for Diasporas with the Lausanne Movement
and as the executive director of Parivar International. He lives with his
family in Chicago, USA, and holds degrees in engineering, management,
theology and missiology; his publications include Understanding the
Coconut Generation (Parivar International, 2018) and Diaspora Christianities
(Fortress Press, 2018).
South Asian Diaspora
Roger E. Hedlund is Director Emeritus of the Mylapore Institute for

Indigenous Studies and retired Managing Editor of Dharma Deepika: A
South Asian Journal of Missiological Research. He taught at Union Biblical
Seminary (Yavatmal/Pune) 1974–8, the Church Growth Research Centre
(Chennai, India) 1979–93 and Serampore College (West Bengal) 1994–7
and edited The Oxford Encyclopaedia of South Asian Christianity (Oxford
University Press, 2012).
Independents
Romina Istratii successfully defended her PhD thesis at the School of

Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 2018. Her current
research is an interdisciplinary project examining conjugal violence among
the Ethiopian Orthodox community of Aksum. Her research interests
include gender and religion in international development, anthropology
of religion and religious epistemologies.
Orthodox
Anderson Jeremiah is Lecturer in World Christianity at Lancaster

University, UK, and an ordained priest in the Church of England. His pub-
lications include Community and the Worldview Among Paraiyars of South
India (Bloomsbury, 2012) and Engaging the World: Christian Communities in
Contemporary Glocal Societies (Regnum, 2014).
Caste and Christianity in India
Daniel Jeyaraj is Professor of World Christianity and Director of the

Andrew F. Walls Centre for the Study of African and Asian Christianity
at Liverpool Hope University, UK. His publications include studies on
the Royal Danish Halle Mission, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, South Indian
religions, Christian proverbs and worship songs of the earliest Tamil
Lutherans.
Introduction; South India
Contributors xv
Sheela Jeyaraj is an ordained presbyter of the Church of South India and

in 2018 successfully defended her doctoral thesis entitled ‘Theological
Reasons for Gender Injustice in India’ at Sam Higginbottom University of
Agriculture, Technology and Sciences in Allahabad, India.
Gender
Youshib Matthew John is Research Coordinator at Lahore College of

Theology, Lahore, Pakistan, with graduate qualification in statistics and
economics. He has conducted various customised research projects and
produced assessment reports published with numerous institutes.
Pakistan
Todd M. Johnson is Associate Professor of Global Christianity and Director

of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, USA. He is also
Visiting Researcher at Boston University’s Institute for Culture, Religion
and World Affairs, leading a research project on international religious
demography.
The Maldives; Methodology and Sources of Christian and Religious Affiliation
Arun W. Jones, Dan and Lillian Hankey Associate Professor of World

Evangelism at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, USA, has
lived and worked in India and the Philippines. His research focuses on the
history of Christianity in South and Southeast Asia, and he has published
monographs on Episcopalians in the Philippines and Evangelicals in North
India.
Protestants and Anglicans
Jacob Kavunkal svd teaches missiology and is Head of the Department

of Theology, Mission and Ministry at Yarra Theological Union, University
of Divinity, Melbourne, Australia. A priest and Indian, he founded the
ecumenical Fellowship of Indian Missiologists and initiated the project of
publishing The Concise Encyclopaedia of Indian Christianity (St Paul’s, 2014).
Mission and Evangelism
Feruza Krason holds a Master of Arts (Biblical Languages) from

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, USA, and is a
Bible translation consultant with SIL Eurasia Area.
Uzbekistan
xvi Contributors
Atola Longkumer, a Baptist from Nagaland, teaches religions and missions

at the South Asia Advanced Institute of Christian Studies, Bangalore, India.
Her recent publications include Mission and Power: History, Relevance and
Perils (Regnum, 2016).
Faith and Culture
Michael Nazir-Ali is President of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research,

Advocacy and Dialogue (OXTRAD), having earlier served as Anglican
Bishop of Rochester in the UK, General Secretary of the Church Mission
Society (CMS) and Bishop of Raiwind in the Church of Pakistan. His most
recent book is Faith, Freedom and the Future; Challenges for the 21st Century
(Wipf and Stock, 2016).
Religious Freedom
Pradeep Perez sj is a research scholar of the folk tradition of Christian

literature and culture in Bangladesh. An ordained Jesuit priest, he is
the founder/coordinator of the Jesuit-run Magisbangla movement for
university students and working young people in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh
Cedric Prakash sj is a priest and human rights activist from Gujarat, India,
recognised for his work in human rights, justice and peace. He is currently
based in Beirut, Lebanon, with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) as the
Advocacy and Communication Officer for the JRS Middle East and North
Africa (MENA) Region.
Social and Political Context
David Radford is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of South Australia.

He completed his PhD research in Kyrgyzstan and published a book
based on his thesis, Religious Identity and Social Change: Explaining Christian
Conversion in a Muslim World (Routledge, 2015).
Kyrgyzstan
Joshva Raja, a priest of the Church of South India currently serving in the
Church of England, has taught at the United Theological College, Bangalore,
India, and at the Selly Oak Centre for Mission Studies, Birmingham, UK.
He has published extensively on matters related to gospel, culture and
communication.
United and Uniting Churches
Contributors xvii
Peniel Rajkumar is Programme Executive for Inter-religious Dialogue

and Cooperation of the World Council of Churches. An ordained Anglican
priest, his publications include Dalit Theology and Dalit Liberation: Problem,
Paradigms and Possibilities (Ashgate, 2010) and Many Yet One: Multiple
Religious Belonging (World Council of Churches, 2016).
Inter-religious Relations
Anthony Roberts (not his real name) is a Christian worker for Afghanistan
with a master of arts in world Christianity; he has undertaken other post-
graduate work and is an ordained Presbyterian minister.
Afghanistan
Kenneth R. Ross, formerly Professor of Theology at the University of

Malawi, is parish minister at Netherlorn in Argyll, Honorary Fellow
of the Edinburgh School of Divinity and Chair of the Scotland Malawi
Partnership. Over the last three decades he has published extensively
on global Christianity and co-edited Ecumenical Missiology: Changing
Landscapes and New Conceptions of Mission (Regnum, 2016).
The Maldives
Vinay Samuel is Executive Director of the Oxford Centre for Religion and
Public Life, Oxford, UK. An Anglican priest and theologian, he founded the
Oxford Centre for Mission Studies and has written extensively on theology
in the Global South and mission as transformation.
Evangelicals
Ivan Satyavrata spent several years in Christian leadership training

but presently serves as senior pastor of the Assembly of God Church in
Kolkata, India. His publications include The Holy Spirit: Lord and Life-Giver
(IVP Academic, 2009), God Has Not Left Himself Without Witness (Regnum,
2011) and Pentecostals and the Poor (Wipf and Stock, 2017).
Pentecostals and Charismatics
Rebecca Samuel Shah is a research professor at Baylor University’s Institute

for Studies of Religion, where she is Principal Investigator for the Religion
and Economic Empowerment Project (REEP). She also serves as Senior
Fellow of the Religious Freedom Institute (RFI) and Associate Director of
RFI’s South and Southeast Asia Action Team, and as Senior Fellow of the
DeVoe School of Business at Indiana Wesleyan University, USA.
Evangelicals
xviii Contributors
Bal Krishna Sharma is Principal of Nepal Theological College in

Kathmandu, Nepal, and chairs the Nepal Christian Society, the Nepal
Bible Society, the Association for Theological Education in Nepal and
Theological Education by Extension Nepal. His publications include Origin
of Caste System in Hinduism and Its Relevance in the Present Nepalese Context
(SPCK, 1999) and Funerary Rites in Nepal: Cremation, Burial and Christian
Identity (Wipf and Stock, 2010).
Nepal
Savithri Sumanthiran is an accountant by profession and has over 25

years of experience in finance, management, organisational development,
coaching and strategic planning. She is presently the South Asia Regional
Secretary for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES).
The Future of Christianity in South and Central Asia
Tandin Wangyal is founder of Bhutan Theological Seminary. An ordained

Every Nation pastor, he is currently preparing his Doctor of Ministry disser-
tation titled ‘Birth of Christianity in Bhutan’ with Asia Pacific Theological
Seminary, Baguio, Philippines.
Bhutan
Felix Wilfred is Emeritus Professor of the State University of Madras,

India, and Founder-Director of the Asian Centre for Cross-Cultural
Studies. He is currently the Chief Editor of the International Journal of Asian
Christianity, published by Brill, Leiden, as well as of Concilium International
Review of Theology.
Catholics
Kaholi Zhimomi is Assistant Professor at the United Theological College,

Bengaluru, India, and a member of the Council of Baptist Churches in
Northeast India (CBCNEI). She is the editor of Masihi Sevak, a journal of
Christian ministry published by the United Theological College.
Northeast India
Gina A. Zurlo is Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Global
Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton,
Massachusetts, USA). She is Co-Editor of the World Christian Database and
Associate Editor of the World Religion Database.
A Demographic Profile of Christianity in South and Central Asia; Methodology and
Sources of Christian and Religious Affiliation
Introduction
A Demographic Profile of Christianity
in South and Central Asia
Gina A. Zurlo
Majority Religion by Province, 2015
MAJORITY RELIGION
Buddhists Christians Ethnoreligionists
50% 50% 50%
75% 75% 75%
Hindus Muslims Sikhs

50% 50% 50%
75% 75% 75%
South and Central Asia is home to a significant amount of religious diversity, with
Muslim-majority, Hindu-majority and Buddhist-majority countries, plus regions
that are majority Christian and ethnoreligionist. of the region’s six major religions,
Muslims experienced the fastest growth between 1970 and 2015.
Religions in South and Central Asia, 1970 and 2015

1970 2015
Religion Adherents % Adherents %
Hindus 457,067,000 59.0 988,504,000 52.2
Muslims 222,415,000 28.7 689,126,000 36.4
Christians 27,222,000 3.5 75,284,000 4.0
Ethnoreligionists 20,993,000 2.7 57,133,000 3.0
Buddhists 14,258,000 1.8 29,058,000 1.5
Sikhs 10,325,000 1.3 23,103,000 1.2
Other 22,291,000 2.9 29,806,000 1.6
Total 774,570,000 100.0 1,892,013,000 100.0
Source: Todd M. Johnson and Gina A. Zurlo (eds), World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill), accessed April 2018. Figures do not add to 100%
due to rounding.
4 Gina A. Zurlo
Christianity in South and Central Asia, 1970–2015
Christians by Country, 2015

75.3 Million Christians, 4.0% of Population
% Christian
3%
10%
KAZAKHSTAN 50%
26% 75%
UZBEKISTAN
1% KYRGYZSTAN 6%
TURKMENISTAN 1% TAJIKISTAN <1%
AFGHANISTAN
IRAN <1%
<1%
PAKISTAN NEPAL BHUTAN
2% 4% 2%
BANGLADESH
INDIA <1%
5%
SRI LANKA
MALDIVES 9%
<1%
Christianity has a long history in south and Central Asia. The Mar Thoma syrian
Church in Kerala, india, dates to the missionary activity of Thomas the Apostle in
the first century ce. Areas of Central Asia had flourishing Christian communities
several centuries before parts of Europe.
After the eighth-century rise of islam in south and Central Asia, Christianity
became a minority religion and continues as such in the region today (representing
4% of the population in 2015). No country contains a Christian majority and most
are less than 10% Christian. Kazakhstan had the highest percentage of Christians
in 2015, at 26%. Most Christian communities in the region struggle to maintain
members (Afghanistan, iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan), though there are notable
exceptions. Nepal experienced tremendous growth in its Christian population
between 1970 and 2015, from less than 8,000 (<1%) to over 1 million (4%).
1970
4m 5m Major Christian Traditions, 1970 and 2015
8m
27 has always been, and remains, rather
10m Anglican diverse. The region is home to historic
Catholic
Independent Catholic and Orthodox populations
Orthodox as well as newer Protestant and In
2015 Protestant dependent churches. Independents
10m All Christians grew the fastest between 1970 and 2015,
21m
Population (millions) from 4 million to 21 million.
75 23m
25m
20%
Christians, 1970–2015
The very modest increase of Christi-
% of regional population
anity in the region has occurred since 15%
at least the beginning of the twentieth
century, when Christians represented
1.5% (5.2 million) of the population. 10%
By 1970 Christians were 3.5% (27 % Christian
million) of the population, and by 2015 5%
they were 4.0% (75 million). Losses in
Central Asia are mostly offset by small
gains in South Asia due to conversion. 0%
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2015
Year
Religious affiliation, 1970 and 2015

South and Central Asia is a very
59.0% 52.2% Hindus religiously diverse region. Between
1970 and 2015, Hindus and Buddhists
decreased proportionally with the
28.7% 36.4% Muslims
proportional increase of Muslim and
Christian populations. Agnostics and
3.5% 4.0%
Christians atheists were 2.4% of the population in
2.7% 3.0% 1970 but had declined to 1.1% by 2015
Ethnoreligionists
with the collapse of communism in
1.8% 1.5% Buddhists Central Asia.
1970 2015
Note: Throughout this profile, traditions will not add up to total Christians in each region
because of double-affiliation and the unaffiliated. Only the religions over 1% are depicted.
6 Gina A. Zurlo
Major Christian Traditions, 1970 and 2015

Christians
1970 2015
27.2 million 75.3 million
% of country population The largest Christian populations in South and Central

3% Asia are found in India (62 million), Kazakhstan
10% (5 million), Pakistan (4 million), Sri Lanka (2 million)
50% and Nepal (1 million). Between 1970 and 2015, Christi
75% anity declined proportionally in Central Asia (12% to 8%)
while experiencing a modest increase in South Asia (3.2%
to 3.8%).
Anglicans
1970 2015
48,900 55,100
% of Christian population Anglicanism has only a very small presence in South and
3% Central Asia. Anglicans have a long history in India, with
10% the arrival of the British in the early eighteenth century.
50% The creation of the Church of South India (1947), Church
75% of North India (1970) and Church of Pakistan (1970)
combined Anglicans with other Protestants into united
churches.
Catholics
1970 2015
% of Christian population Catholicism has remained stable proportionally in the

3% region (1.3% in 1970 versus 1.2% in 2015) but grew sub-
10% stantially as a group, from 9.9 million to 23.1 million.
50% Between 1970 and 2015 the proportion of Catholics
75% among Christians dropped in some countries, such as
Afghanistan (25% to 3%), Bhutan (26% to 7%) and Iran
(9% to 1%). Other Catholic populations grew proportion-
ally, as in Kazakhstan (1% to 3%).
Independents
1970 2015
% of Christian population Independent Christians grew the fastest regionally

3% between 1970 and 2015, averaging over 4% per year.
10% Nearly 30% of all Christians in the region are Independ-
50% ents, and many are found in underground or clandestine
75% networks. Many Independents are Christians who,
for safety or other reasons, choose to remain publicly
affiliated with Islam or Hinduism. Nearly 60% of all
Christians in Afghanistan are Independents; in Nepal, the
figure is 78%.
8 Gina A. Zurlo

Orthodox
1970 2015
% of Christian population In many ways, Orthodoxy represents the historic Chris-

3% tianity of the South and Central Asia region, although it
10% remains a minority tradition. The Orthodox population
50% doubled in size between 1970 and 2015, from 5 million
75% to 10 million, but represents less than 1% of the region’s
population. Christian populations in several countries
were more than 70% Orthodox in 2015, such as Kazakhstan
(92%), Kyrgyzstan (83%), Tajikistan (81%) and Turkmeni-
stan (81%).
Protestants
1970 2015
% of Christian population Protestantism grew to almost 25 million adherents by

3% 2015, up from 8 million in 1970. South Asia is home to a
10% greater proportion of Protestants than Central Asia, 35%
50% of all Christians versus only 2%. This is due mostly to
75% large Protestant denominations in India. Pakistan is the
only country whose Christians were majority Protestant
in 2015, at 65% (due to the Church of Pakistan). Nepal
experienced an increase in its Protestant population, from
8% of all Christians in 1970 to 20% in 2015, largely due to
post-Hindu-monarchy missionary efforts.
Movements within Christianity, 1970 and 2015

Evangelicals
1970 2015
% of Christian population Evangelicalism is a minority movement in South and

3% Central Asia, but there was modest growth after 1970,
10% from 3 million to 12 million in 2015 (though still less than
50% 1% of the region’s population). Nepal has the largest
75% Evangelical percentage (36% of all Christians), largely due
to its comparatively large community of secret Christians.
Pentecostals/Charismatics
1970 2015
% of Christian population Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity grew much

3% faster than Evangelicalism in South and Central Asia
10% from 1970 to 2015 and now represents 31% of the region's
50% Christian population. In several countries, Christians are
75% more than 30% Pentecostals/Charismatics: Nepal (79%),
Bhutan (58%), Iran (46%) and Bangladesh (35%).
10 Gina A. Zurlo
Christianity in Central Asia, 1970–2015

% Christian
3%
10%
50%
75%
KAZAKHSTAN
26%
UZBEKISTAN KYRGYZSTAN 6%
1%
TURKMENISTAN TAJIKISTAN <1%
1%
Christianity came to Central Asia as early as the third century, via Christian
travellers on the Silk Roads. Christianity was strongly opposed, even though
a quarter of the population was Christian by the year 410 ce. Traces of Christi-
anity have remained through the years, but with the rise of Islam beginning in the
seventh century, Christianity virtually disappeared until the modern period.
Christianity in Central Asia declined from 12% of the population in 1970 to 8%
in 2015, despite a slight increase in the overall number of Christians (4 million to
5 million). Christianity declined by percentage in four of the five countries in the
region, Kyrgyzstan (11% to 5%), Tajikistan (3% to <1%), Uzbekistan (7% to 1%)
and Turkmenistan (5% to 1%), while growing in one country, Kazakhstan (19% to
26%).
1970
0.3m

4 In 2015, Christianity in Central Asia was
3m Anglican largely Orthodox (89% of all Christians)
Catholic and Independent (4% of all Christians).
Independent Catholics had the fastest growth rate
Orthodox between 1970 and 2015, averaging 4.3%
2015 Protestant
per year. Orthodox have been declining
0.2m
0.2m All Christians with the exodus of Russians from the
Population (millions) region.
5
5m
5m
20%
Christianity in Central Asia declined 15%

from 12% of the population in 1970 % Christian
to 8% in 2015. Although these nations
10%
became independent and had adopted
new constitutions by the mid-1990s,
some legal and judicial systems remain 5%
unchanged from the Soviet period and
thus limit personal freedoms.
0%
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2015
Year
Religious Affiliation, 1970 and 2015

Atheists and agnostics (together 47%
41.5% 87.4% Muslims in 1970) dropped dramatically over
the 45 years after 1970 (together 4% in
11.6% 7.9% Christians 2015) due to the fall of the Soviet Union.
Many non-religious people emigrated
after the Soviet period. The Muslim
28.1% 3.5% Agnostics population increased significantly for
many reasons, including high birth
18.4% 0.8% Atheists rates.
1970 2015
12 Gina A. Zurlo
Christianity in South Asia, 1970–2015

AFGHANISTAN
IRAN <1%
<1%
PAKISTAN NEPAL BHUTAN
2% 4% 2%
BANGLADESH
INDIA <1%
5%
SRI LANKA
% Christian 9%
MALDIVES
<1%
3%
10%
50%
75%
south Asia is culturally, politically and religiously very diverse. The region is home
to historic churches planted by direct spiritual descendants of Jesus’s 12 apostles
in the first few centuries of Christianity, as well as home to numerous Independent
churches that began in the twentieth century. Christians face significant challenges
in many of these Muslim- and Hindu-majority nations, including persecution for
conversion and restrictions on worship and practice.
india holds the largest Christian population in the region, more than 60 million.
The country is home to historic Orthodox and Catholic churches as well as tens of
millions of Protestants and independents. Millions of Christians throughout the
region practise their faith in private networks or ‘underground’ churches.
1970
3m 2m
23 Most Christians in South Asia are
8m Anglican Protestant (35% of all Christians in
10m
Catholic 2015) or Catholic (33% of all Christians
Independent in 2015). Protestant and Independent
Orthodox denominations have made increases
2015 Protestant
in the region, such as new Pentecostal
5m All Christians and Charismatic churches, especially in
21m Population (millions) Nepal.
70 23m
25m
20%
15%
Christianity in South Asia remained
mostly steady between 1970 and 10%
2015, at 3–4%. Proportional losses in % Christian
Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan were
offset by gains in India, Nepal and 5%
Bhutan.
0%
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2015
Year
61.7% 54.2% Hindus

Hindus in South Asia remain the
majority, though they decreased from
28.1% 34.5% Muslims 62% to 54% between 1970 and 2015.
3.2% 3.8% Christians made numerical increases
Christians
over the 45-year period (from 23 million
2.8% 3.1%
Ethnoreligionists to 70 million) but increased proportion-
ally only slightly. Muslims saw the
1.9% 1.6% Buddhists fastest growth over the 45-year period.
1970 2015
14 Gina A. Zurlo
Future of Christianity in South and Central Asia, 2015–2050
2015
10m
21m
75 23m Major Christian Traditions, 2015 and 2050

Anglican Looking forward, Independents are
25m Catholic likely to outpace Protestants and
Independent Catholics in South and Central Asia by
Orthodox 2050 as Christianity becomes further
2050 Protestant indigenised in the region. Most of
12m All Christians these Independent churches are also
50m Population (millions) Pentecostal or Charismatic in nature.
36m
129
38m
% of regional population 20%
15%
Christians, 2015–2050 % Christian
By 2050, Christians will likely number
10%
129 million in the region, 5% of the
population. This is a slight increase
from 4% in 2015. 5%
0%
2035
2015
2025
2045
Year 2050
52.2% 48.4% Hindus

Christians (2.3% average growth per
year) are growing faster than Hindus
(1.7%) in the region, but slightly slower
36.4% 39.9% Muslims than Muslims (2.5%). By 2050, it is likely
4.0% 5.2%
Christians that the Muslim populations of Pakistan
(297 million) and India (265 million)
3.0% 2.1% will have surpassed that of Indonesia
Ethnoreligionists
(254 million in 2050), currently the
1.5% 1.4% Buddhists world’s largest Muslim country.
2015 2050
Daniel Jeyaraj
Christians in South and Central Asia constitute a vulnerable minority; yet

they offer deep insights into the art of Christian living among Hindus,
Muslims and Buddhists. They keep the Christian faith alive and active in
the midst of risks and discrimination. Their faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour
and Lord gives them meaning and strength to meet unending challenges.
With determination, they persevere in their walk of faith and hand it
on to the next generation. Their weekly worship services in registered
churches or in private homes demonstrate the power of the gospel of Jesus
Christ and its relevance to their lives. They are weak and poor minorities.
Governments and ruling elites do not take note of them. Yet they interact
with the members of dominant religious communities. They have internal
ised their faith so much that it activates their lives. Their histories and
patterns of Christian living and doing evangelism, their expressions of
spirituality and theology and liturgy remain contextual, yet they enrich
global Christianity.
Historical Background
Christianity in South Asia traces its origin to the ministry of the Apostle
Thomas in modern-day Kerala and Tamil Nadu in South India and in
Taxila in Pakistan. The Apostle Bartholomew is said to have worked
in Thane, near Mumbai. Few Indians embraced the teachings of these
apostles and passed them on to successive generations, however. Syriac-
speaking Christian immigrants who had escaped religious persecutions
in Persia found refuge in Kerala. Native Christian communities and
these immigrants, collectively known as St Thomas Christians, kept their
religious and social customs intact. Their interactions with the newly
arrived Portuguese in the fifteenth century became the source of repeated
schisms. German Lutheran Pietist missionaries established Tamil Lutheran
congregations in the Danish colony of Tranquebar (1707) (modern-day
Tharangambadi) and other major cities. The English missionary William
Carey spread his Baptist faith in and around Kolkata (1793) and then
worked from Serampore. Protestant missionaries of the Mission of Help
translated the Bible into Malayalam in the nineteenth century. Splits
occurred among St Thomas Christians.
16 Daniel Jeyaraj
The World Wars and the demise of British colonialism in South Asia
provided the context for rising nationalism, rejuvenation of Indic religions,
and indigenous Christian expressions. In the second half of the twentieth
century, several Christian missionaries, leaders and theologians in their
own ways struggled to keep the Christian faith alive and relevant for the
challenges of contemporary South Asia, in Islam-dominated Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan and the Maldives, in Hinduism-dominated
India and Nepal, and in Buddhism-dominated Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
Christianity in Central Asia owes its origin to the ministry of Persian
Christians under the leadership of Alopen, in the seventh century.
Gradually, Christian centres emerged along the Silk Roads that crisscrossed
Central Asia. They flourished until Islam conquered them in the eighth
century. Their presence and influence declined steadily, and eventually
they disappeared in many places. The Keraites formed an exception for
a brief time. In the eleventh century, they adopted the teachings of the
Church of the East. Their princesses married Mongolian princes, who were
then ruling Central Asia. The Christian presence in Central Asia lost its hold
after the conversion of Oljeitu, a Christian Khan, to Islam in the fourteenth
century. His successors followed either Sunni or Shi’a Islam. In subsequent
centuries, Islam became the most important identity marker for all Central
Asians. Their politics, education, social life (including rites of passage and
festivals) and international relationships reflected Islamic elements. When
Russia exerted its power over Central Asia from the mid-nineteenth century
and controlled it from 1918 to 1991, Central Asians experienced not only
political and ideological dislocation, but also socio-cultural and religious
disturbances. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 destabilised the region
so much that the newly formed sovereign states – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – still remain politically volatile,
economically fragile and religiously unstable. Christians in these nations
form a small minority. They live under Muslims, who consider Islam not
only to be the normative religion for all, but also as the defining power in
politics, education, culture and internal and external relationships.
Historically, South Asians and Central Asians shared Indic religions
such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Both regions had common Mongolian
rulers; they maintained trade and diplomatic relationships. Their people
emigrated and immigrated in similar patterns. Their histories, socio-cultural
traditions and religious institutions are multilayered and interdependent.
The end of the Cold War in 1991, however, produced new geopolitical
alliances and priorities, and aspirations for stable national, political and
economic situations. Internal conflicts, terrorist attacks masterminded
by a few Islamic fundamentalists (such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in
Afghanistan and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan) and a lack of higher
education, of sustainable agriculture, of research in the arts, humanities

and natural sciences, as well as the silencing of women at home and in
public places have produced weak societies. The Central Asian states
strive hard to find their place in the global network of nations without
falling prey to competing outside powers. These nations are interested in
exploiting natural resources such as oil and gas and in establishing strategic
military bases. They might speak about promoting the overall welfare of
the common people but they do little to heal past wounds, to provide high-
quality education for women and men, to enhance sanitation, to foster
responsible civil society, to introduce technology for effective communica-
tion or to build transportation networks for the easier movement of people,
goods and ideas.
Christian Presence, Evangelism and Growth

Christians in South and Central Asia constitute a minority and most struggle
for political recognition, social equality and protection from persecution,
discrimination and systemic economic disempowerment. The public
policies and practices of Islam-dominated countries, and to some extent of
Buddhism-dominated Bhutan, do not foster the flourishing of Christians in
the private and public spheres. Citizens of these countries readily benefit
from Christian services, including education, healthcare, disaster relief
and other philanthropic endeavours; yet they oppose the spread of Chris-
tianity among them. Their policy-makers seldom consult Christians. They
do not consider Christian institutions as constitutive, conscience-probing
organisations for the health of their nations and their infrastructure. In
the name of security, development and administrative neutrality or in
loyalty to the declared state religion they deliberately hinder the work of
Christians and do not allow it to offer alternative ways, newer thinking,
finding meanings and organising socio-cultural life. They still view Chris-
tianity as an unwanted alien religion imposed long ago by the colonial
masters and now supported by mission agencies with their headquarters
in Western Europe, North America, Australia or New Zealand.
Christianity does not grow in countries that employ constitutional and
legal measures to disregard Christians and disapprove their presence
and service. Most Pakistani Christians, derogatorily called Isai (‘People of
Jesus’), do not have ready access to law courts or opportunities for higher
education and public office. As low-level, ill-paid agricultural workers,
brick-makers and menial scavengers, they toil day and night for the benefit
of their Muslim overlords. As minorities, they suffer systemic discrimina-
tion. If their Muslim neighbours or employers do not like them, they can
easily quote the Blasphemy Law. Thus, they either can silence Christian
voices and claims for religious liberty, fair wages or gender parity or can
18 Daniel Jeyaraj
get rid of them. In this context, it is understandable that Pakistani Christian

growth is not even at the level that might be expected biologically. Some
Chinese and Korean immigrant Christians, who work as merchants or
employees of international companies, bear witness to the Lordship of
Jesus Christ; their impact, however, remains hidden. Likewise, Iran – which
upholds Islam and the Twelver Ja’fari school as its state religion – offers
Christians, conveniently termed ‘Armenians’, two seats in its parliament.
At the same time, the state is free to impose the death penalty on Muslim
converts to Christianity. It punishes Christian women and men who are
reportedly involved in adultery with Muslim men and women, often
with death. Iranian Muslims who have been involved in similar acts do
not suffer from the same kinds of penalties. No Christian Iranian man can
marry a Muslim Iranian woman.
Other South Asian countries that do not recognise Christians are the
Maldives and Afghanistan. The constitution of the Maldives (2008) declares
Islam as the only ‘basis for all laws’ to protect Maldivian ‘culture, language
and heritage’. It does not even refer to Christians or churches. Therefore,
as nonentities, Maldivian Christians face severe restrictions. Since 1996,
Afghanistan has prided itself on being fully Islamic. The Taliban (‘students
of the Qu’ran’) and Al-Qaeda prohibit Christianity. After the USA began
to fight against these groups, first in 1998 and then in 2001, the prospects
of Christians, including temporary Christian relief workers, deteriorated.
Radical Afghan Muslims shun the presence of Western European and
North American soldiers on their ‘Islamic soil’. Among other things, they
view them as agents of Christianity, which in their estimation is the religion
of the devil. In 2006, Afghan courts threatened Abdul Rahman, a convert to
Christianity, with the death penalty. This sentence caught the attention of
several Western European and North American governments. Finally, he
was released. In 2010, Afghanistan got rid of the country’s last Christian
church buildings and schools.
Christians in Bhutan, the ‘country of happiness’ through the observance
of Mahayana Buddhism, reckon with difficulties and restrictions which
non-Christian Bhutanese do not have. These constraints hinder Bhutanese
conversion to Christianity. Even so, they attend Christian schools and
benefit from other Christian institutions within Bhutan and along the
Bhutanese–Indian border. Sri Lankan Christians do not face religious
persecution, but they see how Theravada Buddhists establish their
pagodas and monasteries in their neighbourhoods. After the Sri Lankan
army defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009, the spread of
Buddhism increased among the Tamil peoples. Tamil-speaking Christians
in Sri Lanka feel the power of Sinhalese-speaking Buddhists in education,
politics and the allocation of government jobs.
The fate of Christians in the five Islamic states of Central Asia are
similar and yet different. They face similar types of discrimination to those
which ethnic Christians living in Islam-only countries also experience.
What makes them different is the life of Russian Orthodox Christians in
post-Soviet Central Asia. Most of them congregate either in urban centres
or along the long borders. For example, the border between Russia and
Kazakhstan runs for about 8,000 km. Christians, like other people of Central
Asia, cross these borders and transport their religious expressions as well.
These exchanges keep their old cultural, institutional and vocational cross-
border ties alive and active. Russian Orthodox Christians are involved in
these cross-border relationships and contribute to business, education and
national security. They are not keenly interested in evangelising their non-
Christian neighbours. Their (cultural) Christianity maintains their status
quo and provides their distinct identity.
Many of those Joseph Stalin deported to Central Asia during and after
the Second World War were Christians from Europe, the Russian borders of
Korea and other parts of Russia. In the 1980s, they and their children began
moving back to their countries of origin. For instance, countless German
Lutherans, known as the Russlanddeutsche (‘Russian-Germans’), returned
to Germany. Their emigration depleted the Lutheran presence in Central
Asia; many of their church buildings were either fully closed or repurposed
for non-Lutheran activities. Nevertheless, renewed evangelistic efforts are
undertaken by certain Lutherans, Seventh-day Adventists and members
of other US American mission agencies, who invest their money, time
and energy in spreading their forms of Christianity among young Central
Asians in select schools and business enterprises. Their efforts have not yet
yielded massive outcomes. Few Central Asians embrace the Christian faith
to cultivate new ways of thinking, working and living. The distinctiveness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the relevance of the biblical message for their living
contexts and the perceived material prosperity of Christians in Western
Europe and North America, often obtained via the Internet, television,
radio and print media, attract their attention. Yet few embrace Christi-
anity publicly. Many of them can still remember the hate propaganda of
communist ideologues, who denounced Euro-American forms of Chris-
tianity as capitalistic, militaristic, morally decadent, destructive and
unsuitable for Central Asians. Some of them are painfully aware of what
Euro-American people, who in their opinion are all Christians, think about
gender equality, abortion, homosexuality, racial discrimination, exploita-
tion of natural resources and weapons of mass destruction. In the end, they
bow to the intense cultural pressures that pastoral people and Islam exert.
Hence, open conversion to Christianity via publicised baptism ceremonies
does not happen. Yet many Central Asians secretly uphold the Lordship
20 Daniel Jeyaraj
of Jesus Christ and the values of God’s rule. Particularly, the first-ever
publication of the entire Bible in the Uzbek language in June 2017 marked
a monumental achievement. A group of international scholars translated
it from Hebrew and Greek. As the Uzbek begin reading it in their mother
tongue, they learn to appreciate God’s word and this can achieve what
missionaries could not do for a long time.
India is the undisputed South Asian superpower. It defies categorical
assumptions and definitions on account of its sheer geographical size,
accommodating thousands of ethnic groups with their own languages,
cultures and religions; its varied political constellations based on complex
historical, religious and linguistic memories; and its population, mostly
under 25 years of age. As already mentioned, India has been home to
Christians for the past 2,000 years. Indians were stopped from embracing
Christianity as a large-scale alternative religion by their written scriptures
in Sanskrit and in Dravidian languages such as Tamil, the pride and
identity of adherents to countless millennia-old localised primal religions
and pan-Indian Indic religions such as ‘Hinduism’, Buddhism, Jainism and
Sikhism, their resistance to colonial invaders from the Middle East and
Western Europe, and their unique systems of caste (varna- and jāti-based
social stratifications). Selective memories of historical events and the archi-
tectural and ecclesiastical remains of the Portuguese, French and British
colonial era (1498–1947) have persuaded Indians, particularly policy-
makers and the leaders of politicised Hindutva (‘Hinduness’), to view
Christianity as an unnecessary, harmful European religion.
Some Indians, especially those from impoverished tribal and lower jāti
categories, embrace Christianity as a protest against their higher varna-
and jāti-based religious oppressors. They carefully evaluate the merits
and demerits of Christianity, as brought by Indian Christian mission
aries, predominantly from southern and north-eastern Indian states. These
missionaries claim to derive their authority from the Great Commission of
Jesus Christ. In practice, they appeal to their constitutional and citizenship
rights to freely preach and practise their religious convictions. They assert
that they ennoble the life of fellow Indians, whose dignity and worth have
been questioned and often denied by the members of upper varnas and jātis
for millennia. These members, however, perceive the Christian missionary
enterprise as a calculated attempt to destroy the social fabric of India.
Therefore, they attack the works of Christian missionaries. Christians, par-
ticularly in villages and rural areas, face difficulty finding employment and
suitable spouses for marriage, renting houses and participating in Sunday
worship services. In the midst of these difficulties, Christian influence
spreads gradually through schools and healthcare and institutions of social
empowerment.
Indian Christians live mostly in and around urban centres located in

the southern, north-eastern and western parts of the country. Their style
of church worship and lifestyle reflect British ecclesiastical traditions
(including Anglicanism – even within the Church of South India – and
Baptist and Presbyterian traditions) and US American middle-class
values pertaining to health and wealth, higher education and earning, late
marriage, nuclear families; they resolve to live young and long and the like.
Indian-initiated, small-scale Pentecostal or Charismatic gatherings founded
by lay Christians without any form of theological training promote these
values among their adherents. Such gatherings are held in nearly every
major street of the metropolitan city of Chennai. Their mission includes
proselytising fellow Christians from mainline denominations, highlight-
ing adult baptism and tithing, promoting women leaders (often the wives
and daughters of the founders) and raising funds for church buildings
and training centres registered in their private names. The growth and
impact of Dalit, tribal and feminist theologies in the mainline Christian de-
nominations are also among the major causes for the proliferation of these
unrelated Christian gatherings. They promise to offer lively Christianity
over against the static, sterile, formal worship of the mainline churches.
A closer social analysis of these newer congregations reveals their innate
loyalties to specific castes, languages and regions.
Indian Christians living in rural villages display deeper piety and
have more indigenised theology. They use locally available symbols and
materials for worship. Their Christmas celebration, for example, does not
include a decorated Christmas tree or Santa Claus. Jesus – who touches
and heals the sick, eats with social and religious outcasts and offers his
life as a good shepherd – attracts their attention. These narratives appeal
to their Dalit and tribal backgrounds. They sing more locally composed
songs than hymns translated from German or English sources. They
welcome interested Hindus and others to join their worship services
and festivals. They practise hospitality and tell their guests why they are
Christians and how they have regained their human dignity. Their concrete
theology helps them to face life’s complexities and uncertainties. From
their Christian perspectives, they respond to practical challenges posed
by such matters as witchcraft, bad harvests, cattle sickness, barrenness,
dreams, fasts, pilgrimages, self-mortification rituals and miracles. The
villages in the Hindi belt (including Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh)
have fewer Christians (less than 0.01%) because Hindutva forces threaten
Christian converts with dire consequences and compel them to reconvert
to Hinduism.
In spite of these and other hardships, pan-Indian mission agencies such
as the Friends Missionary Prayer Band (FMPB) and the Indian Evangelical
22 Daniel Jeyaraj
Mission send their representatives to serve these people. The ministry of

FMPB missionaries saved the Malto people in Bihar from extinction and
strengthened the people of Bastar District in Chhattisgarh and Dang District
in Gujarat. These Indian Christian missionaries created scripts for several
spoken languages, translated parts of the Bible into them and equipped
the local people to read, think and decide their own destiny. Their prayer
groups raise missionaries and funds; they unite like-minded people across
castes, languages and church denominations.
Nepal is another Hinduism-dominated country (66% in 2015) in South
Asia. It replicated all aspects of Hindu society that were found in India.
Caste-based untouchability was prevalent. The Nepalese saw kings as a
living embodiment of Vishnu. They branded Christians as cow-eaters,
renouncers of caste and Nepalese Hinduism and loyalty. The political
changes that occurred gradually, starting in the 1950s, resulted in the
democratisation of Nepal in 1990. Christians reclaimed their latent legacy.
The memories of Jesuit, Capuchin, Baptist, Anglican and Presbyterian
missionaries, and the legacy of outstanding Nepalese Christian missionar-
ies, who had suffered under various regimes, encouraged contemporary
Nepalese Christians to take their faith seriously. Some of them can still
remember the life and witness of Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889–1929), who
visited the Ilam District of Nepal in 1914. His conversion experience
from Sikhism to practical Christianity inspired them. Translation of the
Nepalese Bible, started by William Carey of Serampore (1812–21) and
developed by Pastor Ganga Prasad Pradhan, an outstanding Nepalese
Christian translator (1894–1914), played an important role in maintaining
Christian witness in this Hindu country. After Nepal declared itself
a Federal Democratic Republic in May 2008, an increased measure of
religious freedom became available. The current constitution, promulgated
in September 2015, declares Nepal to be an independent, secular, socialist
state that guarantees religious and cultural freedom to its citizens. It avoids
terms such as ‘Hindus’ or ‘Christians’. Instead, it uses neutral words such as
‘religion’ or ‘religious community’. According to its paragraph 26, Nepalese
people have the constitutional right and ‘freedom to profess, practise and
protect’ their religious faith, sites and trusts. They should uphold ‘public
health, decency and morality’ and ‘public peace’. Religious conversion
‘may not jeopardise other’s religion and such acts shall be punishable
by law’. In this context, Christians are utilising whatever freedom they
have for their benefit. The National Churches Fellowship of Nepal, which
began in 1960 and was reconstituted in 1998, offers leadership in spiritual,
social, economic, theological and ecumenical fields. Christianity in Nepal
is relatively young and is negotiating its legitimate place in this multi-
religious and multicultural country.
Major Events and Trends

Christians in South and Central Asia share the joys and sorrows of their
respective countries. As unwanted or tolerated minorities, they live among
dominant groups of Muslims or Hindus or Buddhists. Policies and studies
that engage with politics, economics, social anthropology, international
relations and trade tend to bypass the role of Christians in education,
social work and wealth-making for all. Christians, mostly from a Russian
Orthodox background, work as labourers and traders in oilfields and
natural gas production in Kazakhstan and in cotton fields and industries
in Turkmenistan. In 2011, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church
(ROC) created a Central Asian Metropolitan District with independent
dioceses in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. The
ROC already had, and still has, two metropolitan districts in Kazakhstan.
It supervises these overseas dioceses and is involved in their welfare. The
ROC congregation in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, has existed since 1872 and
nourishes its members spiritually and socially. While the Russian Orthodox
Christians in Kyrgyzstan could dedicate their renovated and expanded
Church of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir in 2015, the
state of Tajikistan did not permit its Christian subjects to celebrate openly
either Christmas or the New Year’s holiday. The ROC meets representa-
tives of Central Asian governments and discusses possibilities for greater
freedom for all religious minorities, including Christians, and the necessity
of preventing religious terrorism. It is true that the ROC does not recognise
the Baptists and other Protestant groups as full-fledged Christians. As
a result, the Baptists in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan face discrimination
even when it comes to burying their dead. Neither the Muslims, who
view Central Asian Christians as backsliders from Islam, nor the Russian
Orthodox Christians, who view the Protestants in Central Asia as agents of
undesirable proselytism, openly come forward to assist these Baptists. The
ROC defends its members who live and work in Central Asian countries.
Simultaneously, its congregations offer diverse forms of help to Central
Asians, whether they are Orthodox, non-Orthodox Christians or non-
Christians, who come to Russia for education, work or medical treatment.
They render this help assuming that when these migrants return to their
respective countries in Central Asia, they will be sympathetic towards the
Russian Orthodox Christians who live in their midst.
Nowadays, besides Russia, China is also a major player in Central Asian
domestic policies and international trade. The Shanghai Cooperation Or-
ganisation (SCO) included Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan at its founding in 1996. In 2001, Uzbekistan joined; in June 2017,
India and Pakistan joined the SCO and expanded their sphere of influence
in culture, economics and cross-border security. Though Turkmenistan has
24 Daniel Jeyaraj
not yet joined this group, it maintains a special relationship with China
regarding energy and security matters. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan have borders with China. Oil, natural gas and people move from
these countries to China. Many Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Tajiks work for Chinese
employers, build new pipelines and learn Chinese. All these activities meet
the challenges caused by increasing Chinese energy consumption and
Chinese globalisation policies. Chinese Uyghur from Xinjiang Province,
mostly Muslims, constitute diaspora communities in Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and probably Turkmenistan, where natural gas
reserves abound. Few Uyghur are Christian. Due to ethnic tensions, the
Han Chinese Christians hesitate to accept the Uyghur Christians as sisters
and brothers in Jesus Christ. Chinese Christian missionaries belonging
to movements such as Back to Jerusalem work among Central Asians,
although there is little publicly available information about this.
Another major international player in this region is the USA. Its
involvement in Afghanistan, first to oppose the Russians (1978–91) and
then to defeat Al-Qaeda (since 2001), has had far-reaching consequences.
The USA considers Afghanistan an important partner in the fight against
terrorism and has made efforts to improve the lives of Afghan people.
Understandably, negotiations do not include any reference to Christians
or their absence in Afghanistan.
The multilateral relationship between the USA and Pakistan has many
difficulties. The USA wishes to eradicate the Taliban, whom it believes
operate from Pakistan. In January 2018, this relationship reached a near-
breaking point. Neither Western European countries nor the USA, as
a matter of policy, condemn the atrocities that Pakistani Christians
have experienced since 1971, when intense Islamisation started. In that
year, Pakistan lost East Pakistan, which became Bangladesh. Pakistani
government leaders introduced Sharia and Blasphemy Law that prohibit
conversion of Pakistani Muslims to other religions, including Christian-
ity. As mentioned earlier, these laws terrorise Pakistani Christians: they
live with uncertainty, intimidation and calculated harassments. Muslim
extremists bomb Christian churches during worship services on Sundays or
during the celebration of Christmas or Easter. They also displace Christians
and confiscate their properties. In spite of these real hindrances, some
Pakistani Christians have rendered noble services to their country. They
have worked in the Pakistani military and in educational and healthcare
institutions. The Forman Christian College in Lahore, a US American Pres-
byterian institution, provides higher education for both Christian and
non-Christian students. The Zarephath Bible Institute in Rawalpindi, the
Open Theological Seminary in Lahore and the Gujranwala Theological
Seminary are important theological institutions of higher learning. They
have inherited large buildings and properties from the Euro-American

missionaries; nowadays their maintenance requires large investments,
which small communities of Christians are unable to gather. Yet their zeal
for Christian presence and witness in Pakistan remains unabashed.
The revolution that brought the Islamic Revolutionary Committee
to power in theocratic Iran in 1979 has continued in different forms and
places. Iranian hatred for the role of the USA in the Middle East and for
the existence of Israel as a nation has expressed itself repeatedly. The war
between Iran and Iraq (1980–8) claimed many lives. The Iranian fatwa
against Salman Rushdie in response to his 1988 book The Satanic Verses,
Iran’s support for various militant groups in the region, its involvement in
the internal conflicts of Syria since 2013, its determined resistance to Euro-
American influences, student protests, leadership rifts and economic and
sanctions regarding nuclear weapons adversely affect all Iranians, particu-
larly the minorities such as Christians. Iranian authorities do not hesitate
to shut down church buildings and persecute Muslim converts to Christi
anity. Their basic human rights are not observed. Many Iranians have
emigrated to Western Europe and North America and in these diaspora
contexts some have become Christians. Sometimes baptism and church
membership help them to obtain asylum; then they can find employment,
educate their children and secure a safer life.
South Asian countries have had their own major turning points, and
the trends are different. India’s political freedom from British colonial rule
in 1947 coincided with the creation of Pakistan and East Pakistan (since
1971, Bangladesh). Soon India became a constitution-based democratic,
socialist, secular country. The division of a single colonial India into two
Muslim-dominated countries and India, and the secular nature of the
Indian constitution, worried some Hindu leaders. They wanted to shape
India into a Hindu country based on Brahminical religion and the Sanskrit
language. The Hindu Mahasabha, the political party established in 1915,
exhibited this unitary outlook. However, in 1923, it adopted the Hindutva
ideology as its political agenda. V.D. Sarvarkar’s work entitled Hindutva:
Who Is a Hindu (1923) provided necessary impetus to this change. Two years
later, its national voluntary movement known as Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS) became active. It still recruits self-disciplining, missionary-
minded, Hinduism-defending Indians. Its ideology assumes that Muslims,
Christians and communists are unwanted aliens who have no rightful
place in India, the presumed land of the Hindus. RSS maintains several
subunits, which are collectively called the Sangh Parivar (family associa-
tions). In 1964 some of their members formed the Vishva Hindu Parishad
(World Hindu Council), which in January 2018 had more than 6 million
registered members. In 1980, the members of these various organisations
26 Daniel Jeyaraj
masterminded the creation of the Bharatiya Janata Party, whose elected

government ruled India several times either alone or in cooperation with
other non-Congress political parties. RSS cadres not only assassinated
M. K. Gandhi in 1948 but also destroyed the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on
6 December 1992 and were involved in the violence in Gujarat (2002) and
many other atrocities against religious minorities, including Christians.
The landslide victory of the BJP in 2014 ensured its dominance in Indian
politics. The people the party installed in key public positions in turn
exerted their power in every aspect of India. They have rewritten Indian
history in their favour. The impact of these so-called Hindu patriots is
more powerful in the northern states of India than in the southern states.
In all likelihood, their impact will last longer than Christians would wish.
Indian Christians have to come to terms with this reality and be prepared
for harassment. Their missionary engagements and the welfare of converts
(in spite of the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom), especially in
rural areas, are important. They should be prepared to face attacks on their
church buildings, orphanages, student hostels, vocational schools and
other institutions. The Evangelical Fellowship of India publishes a monthly
leaflet with reports of Hindus attacking Christians and their properties.
India is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and state
officials know that it is their duty to implement these rights. However,
many bow to the pressure of Hindutva ideology. Courageous journalists
and judiciary members who uphold the ideals of India’s secular democracy
speak and act against all atrocities.
Christians in other South Asian countries also face the consequences
of local religious resurgence and fundamentalist demands. Buddhist
Sinhalese in Sri Lanka and the Bhutanese uphold and defend their religious
identity. They view Christians not only as destroyers of local cultures
and customs, but also as agents of the UK or the USA. They do not want
to know how secular, and sometimes anti-Christian, are the civil laws
and codes of life in these so-called Christian nations. They often cite the
Spanish conquest of Latin American and the imposition of the Inquisition
in Portuguese Goa. They accuse Christians of brainwashing, alluring and
misleading poor, innocent natives and helpless women. They point out
the disunity and discord among various Christian leaders, denominations
and churches. Some church administrators are so corrupt that the local
courts have appointed Hindu judges to oversee their spiritual work and
management. In spite of these external pressures and internal setbacks,
ordinary Christians maintain their integrity and peace and are active in
their local congregations. Their efforts secure the existence of Christian
congregations and, in most instances, their numerical growth as well.
Christianity is no longer the religion of the past colonial masters, but the
preferred religion of present-day people. It is not one among the South

Asian religions, but their only religion. They and their families, children
and grandchildren carry on their Christian heritage with determination.
Denominations, Ecumenism and Socio-political Activities

Evangelistic revivals in the UK, the competitive nature of US American
Christian denominations, Russian control of Central Asia and British
domination in South Asia brought new missionary personnel into South
and Central Asia. Russian Orthodox Christians in Central Asia continued
the beliefs and traditions of their mother church headquartered in Moscow.
In 1990, freedom of religion was adopted in Soviet Russia. Consequently,
many Protestant Christian missionaries from Euro- American countries
headed there. These missionaries did not acknowledge the distinctive
elements of Russian Orthodox Christianity nor those of Protestant Christians
in Central Asia. Their insistence on conversion to their version of Christi-
anity hurt these Christians. The Moscow Patriarchate, which supervises
the Russian Orthodox Christians in Central Asia, does not endorse the
missionary engagements of Euro-American Christian missionaries among
its Central Asian members. As a result, the Seventh-day Adventists in
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan faced hardships. The existence of the few
German-speaking Lutherans and Mennonites in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan remains precarious. Some Baptists who live among the
Islamised Kyrgyz remain unsure of their future. Many of these Christians
do not have state-recognised places of worship. Their worship services and
Bible study meetings take place in private homes, and government officers
often become suspicious of these meetings. Central Asian policy-makers,
especially in Uzbekistan, require Christian groups such as the Missionar-
ies of Charity to subject themselves to increased government supervision.
All these Christians face difficulties in conducting their worship services,
finding employment, celebrating marriage and conducting funerals. In
spite of this dismal record, Christians in Central Asia continue to provide
educational, healthcare (especially handling HIV/AIDS patients) and social
services (including rehabilitating drug addicts and forced workers in labour
camps). They hope that their beneficiaries will come to understand them
better. Informed Christians suggest that Euro-American mission agencies
should consider sending trained Christians from Muslim-majority countries
in Asia to minister in Central Asia. These missionaries might fit better
into the socio-cultural and religious contexts of Central Asia than Euro-
American missionaries could ever do. Since 2003, the Catholic Federation
of Asian Bishops’ Conferences has had a metropolitan archbishop in
Kazakhstan and apostolic administrators in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turk-
menistan and Uzbekistan. Their apostolic nuncio, archbishop, bishops and
28 Daniel Jeyaraj
other administrators serve Central Asians and provide a link between Asia
in the east and Europe in the west.
Christian denominations in Islam-dominated Pakistan and Bangladesh
function better than in Central Asia. The National Council of Churches in
Pakistan (1975) includes the Church of Pakistan (1970) and the Presbyterian
Church of Pakistan (1993). The Church of Pakistan comprises Anglican,
Methodist, Lutheran and Scottish Presbyterian traditions. The Presbyterian
Church of Pakistan has its roots in the missionary work of the US American
Presbyterians. Its schools, colleges and other institutions empower poor
people in rural agricultural villages and minorities. The Young Women’s
Christian Associations (YWCAs) and Young Men’s Christian Associations
(YMCAs) in Lahore and Karachi provide excellent ecumenical settings for
concerned young Pakistanis, who choose to go there for diverse vocational
trainings, hotel accommodation and physical exercise. The aforementioned
Forman Christian College, nationalised in 1972, was returned to US
American Presbyterian management in 2003 and recognised as a university
in 2004. It educates young Pakistanis in the arts and humanities, natural
sciences, education, business management, computer studies, mathematics,
public policies and governance. Its ecumenical nature links Pakistanis with
other institutions of higher education both within and outside Pakistan.
Likewise, other ecumenical agencies such as the Edwardes College in
Peshawar, the Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore, the Pakistan Bible
Society, the Gujranwala Theological Seminary, the St Thomas Theological
College, the Student Christian Movement of Pakistan and the Christian
Hospital in Sahiwal remain active and promote Christian ecumenism.
Christian denominations in Bangladesh gained a new national identity
in 1971. The Church of Bangladesh incorporates Anglican and Presbyterian
traditions and plays an important role in enhancing the spiritual and socio-
economic life of Christian and non-Christian Bangladeshis. The Bangladesh
Baptist Church Sangha, which traces its origin back to the ministry of
William Carey in Kolkata, maintains ecumenical relationships with Baptist
Christians in Australia and New Zealand. Its social services, especially
among women and HIV/AIDS patients, remain remarkable. These two
major bodies, along with Methodists and some smaller churches, constitute
the National Council of Churches in Bangladesh. Bangladeshi Christians
contribute to the alleviation of suffering caused by annual floods and other
natural catastrophes. Their schools, hospitals and training institutions cater
to the needs of all Bangladeshis. In 2017, Christians voluntarily helped the
Rohingya refugees fleeing from Myanmar. Their humanitarian support for
these forgotten Muslims earned international acclaim.
Ecumenical relationships in Iran remain fragile. The Holy Apostolic
Catholic Assyrian Church of the East is the oldest church, dating from
the ancient Church of the East. Catholic and Orthodox Christians from
Armenia, the Assemblies of God, Presbyterians and English- and German-
speaking Christians have their worship centres in metropolitan cities like
Teheran. However, Christians in smaller towns and villages face hardship
in maintaining their church buildings, worship services and even Christian
identity. The nationalisation of Christian schools in 1981 affected several
generations of Christians. Some of the Iranians who have managed to find
refuge in Western European countries embrace different forms of Christi-
anity, accept baptism and become members of local congregations. Their
example inspires Western European Christians to take their faith seriously.
Christian denominations in Buddhism-dominated Bhutan and Sri
Lanka have forged special ecumenical associations. The National Christian
Council of Bhutan, Bhutan Evangelical Alliance and Pentecostal Fellowship
in Bhutan are small organisations that seek to bring fellow Christians
together. They toil to convince regulatory authorities that Bhutanese
Christians are not traitors, but loyal citizens who are genuinely interested
in and contributing to the welfare and happiness of all Bhutanese people.
On the other hand, denominational and ecumenical realities in Sri Lanka
(until 1972 known as Ceylon) have a longer and more complex history.
The National Christian Council of Sri Lanka (re-established in 1945)
comprises large church bodies such as the Church of South India, Church
of Ceylon, Methodist Church, Dutch Reformed Church, Salvation Army,
Ceylon Bible Society, YMCAs and YWCAs. Evangelical Christian bodies
have their own National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka. Sri
Lankan Christians are consciously involved in building their nation by
establishing peace between the Tamils in the north and the Sinhalese in the
rest of the country. They seek to heal the wounds and scars of the Sinhalese
wars against the Tamil Tigers. They rehabilitate child soldiers, widows and
abused children and women; they counsel victims whose parents, spouses
and children were killed. Nowadays, Sri Lankan diaspora communities
thrive in Europe, North America, Australia and other countries. Some have
embraced Christianity and formed P entecostal-type congregations. They
own or work in shops, restaurants and petrol stations. Their children are
college-educated and they have attained a high degree of social upward
mobility. Yet, young married people can undergo some trauma in juggling
the nostalgia of their parents and the demands of their host culture.
Christian ecumenism in Nepal offers fresh insights. The National
Council of Churches in Nepal (1999) is the main umbrella organisation for
numerous types of Christian churches, development agencies and training
centres in Nepal. Since the opening of Nepal to Christian socio-economic
involvement in 1951, European, North American, Australian and Asian
mission agencies have established branches there. The United Mission
30 Daniel Jeyaraj
to Nepal (1954) is an example. Many Nepalese Christians can trace their

roots to Presbyterian, Methodist and other Christian missionary societies.
However, they feel more attracted to Pentecostal expressions of Christian-
ity. They believe that Pentecostal Christianity empowers them to overcome
effectively their fear of evil spirits and economic poverty. Many Nepalese
people are attracted to Christianity, but the general expectation that a
Nepalese person should be Hindu prevents them from officially joining
the churches. Yet, their openness to Christian values remains. Nepalese
Christians serve their nation in different ways. Their educational, medical
and socio-economic contributions transform rural communities. When a
devastating earthquake hit Nepal in April 2015, Christians supported the
bereaved families and injured victims and thus earned the respect of fellow
Nepalese who appreciated their rehabilitation efforts.
India has been the grandest ecumenical laboratory for Euro-American
Christian denominations and mission agencies. Their transplanted
branches aim to uphold their characteristic identities and woo Indian
Christians to their respective folds. At first, Indian Christians welcomed
and accommodated them. Soon, however, they realised that they competed
in reconverting Christians to their particular persuasions and institutions.
Their engagement with non-Christians was minimal and ineffective. Indian
Christians also understood that Christian colleges, hospitals, vocational
training organisations, welfare institutions and theological seminaries
required joint investment and cooperation. After several decades of de-
liberations, the Church of South India (CSI), established in 1947, emerged
as an organic body that recognised Anglican, Presbyterian and Congrega-
tional church polities. This body represents an ecumenical reality of which
Protestant Christians in Euro-American countries can only dream. The
Church of North India (CNI), established in 1970, expanded this ecumenism
to North India. Nowadays, the National Council of Churches in India (1979,
reorganised from its formations in 1912 and 1921) provides an ecumenical
forum for the CSI, CNI, Baptists (scattered across North East India, Andhra
Pradesh, Bengal and Bihar), the United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in
India, St Thomas Christians (of Mar Thoma, Jacobite, Malankara, Syrian
and Chalcedon persuasions), Mennonites and others.
Likewise, the YMCA, YWCA, Bible Society of India, All India Association
for Christian Higher Education, Christian Medical Association of India,
Churches’ Auxiliary for Social Action, Inter-Church Service Association,
Student Christian Movement of India, theological seminaries associated
with the Senate of Serampore, several ashrams and the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of India underline the importance of ecumenical understand-
ing and cooperation. Indian-initiated mission agencies such as the Indian
Missionary Society (1903), the National Missionary Society of India (1905),
the Friends Missionary Prayer Band (1958/9), the Indian Evangelical Mission
(1965) and the missionary arms of the Believers Eastern Church (1993)
share their personnel and resources with underprivileged villagers and
rural inhabitants of India. Their service creates lasting ecumenical bonds,
networks of prayer and funding groups and cross-cultural understanding.
The establishment of departments of Christian studies in state universities
such as the University of Madras and in private institutions such as the
Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences in
Allahabad promises to have an ecumenical impact. Indian Christians in
all Euro-American countries remind fellow Christians of their ecumenical
experiences and contributions. In spite of these achievements, however,
Indian Christians are yet to overcome their caste-based prejudices, the
discriminatory practices and mismanagement of immovable properties
that have led to countless court cases, and their linguistic and regional
differences. This limitation, however, does not hinder the ecumenical
involvement of Indian Christians both within and outside India.
Christian Spirituality, Theology and Liturgy

Christian ecumenical experiments in South and Central Asia engage
with diverse spiritualities, theologies and liturgies. Christians look to the
teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ for lasting values and to satisfy purpose
in their lives. In this process, they learn from Jesus’s teaching and healing,
discovering the art of managing evil and its unpredictable manifestations.
Contemporary Christians in Central Asia have inherited their spiritu
ality, theology and liturgy from the Russian Orthodox Church, Roman
Catholic Church or Euro-American Protestant and Pentecostal traditions.
Many Iranian Christians follow either Armenian or Assyrian liturgical
traditions. These Christians can express their spirituality within the
physical limits of their worship places and private homes. Their
governments do not permit them to share their spirituality with Muslims.
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Maldives criminalise Christians evangelis
ing Muslims. Understandably, Central Asian Christians have a hard time
demonstrating their faith in the Trinity or in the divinity and resurrection
of Jesus Christ, which Muslims deny. Celebration of Christmas and Easter
attracts suspicion. When Christians occasionally process with icons and
crosses, they require protection by security guards. Even Euro-American
Christians, who occasionally serve in the Central Asian branches of
international organisations such as UNICEF, are advised to follow local
etiquette and minimise any display of Christian practice in public places.
Christian minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh can display their spiritu
ality in restricted public places. The recent bomb attacks on Christian
32 Daniel Jeyaraj
worshippers within their church buildings highlight their precarious

status. On the other hand, some Christians who live in rural parts of
Central Asia resonate with the ghazal songs, musical recitals, dances,
processions, pilgrimages and evangelistic attempts of Sufi Muslims like
the Qadiriyya and the Naqshbandiyya Orders in Tajikistan. They are
aware how powerful female Sufi leaders in the Ferghana Valley (which
spans Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan) train Muslim women within
their closed households. In any case, it is not easy for Christians in Central
Asia to practise prophetic spirituality. Their spirituality remains intensely
personal and private.
Nationalist Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Bhutan suspect Christians; yet
they do not hinder Christian festivals, Sunday worship and philanthropic
service. Sri Lankan Christians use their spirituality to transform their
post-war society. They rehabilitate war victims and former child soldiers.
They teach fellow Sri Lankans how to recognise and avoid minefields and
unexploded bombs. Some of their leaders dialogue with Buddhist monks
and Hindu leaders and promote social harmony. Diaspora communities
of Sri Lankans in Europe, America and Asian countries are more open to
Christianity than their counterparts in Sri Lanka.
The spirituality of Nepalese Christians not only includes evangelism
‘saving the lost souls’ and comforting the persecuted minorities, but also
empowers women, educates farmers and cattle breeders and provides
relief to the victims of frequent natural catastrophes such as mud-slides
and earthquakes. Nepalese Christians in urban settings follow those
theologies and liturgies they have learned from their Euro-American and
Asian missionaries. By contrast, Nepalese Christians in rural areas reflect
on the primal nature of their existence. Their songs and stories underline
the importance of local faith heroines and heroes. They tell how they
have received divine revelations through dreams and visions, conquered
malicious spirits of mountains and valleys, and prayed for and received
healing. Their spirituality remains deeply mystical. Their former indebted-
ness to popular Hinduism shines through in their songs. For example, they
perceive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Prabu (‘Prince’) and understand sin
as pāp (transgression, omission of meritorious deed, doing inauspicious
things, the fruits of bad karma) and salvation as mukti (release from the
cycle of births and deaths, liberation, heaven, bliss).
Christians in secular, democratic India have more rights and privileges
than their counterparts in Central Asia. Their spirituality comes in all
imaginable forms. Their ashrams (hermitages), such as the Kristhukula
Ashram in Tiruppatur, promote ascetic spirituality combined with social
services. The Satcitānanda Ashram in Tannirpalli specialises in inter-
religious dialogue and aesthetic presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ
to philosophically minded Hindus. Nowadays, lay Christians compose,

sing and publish Christian songs through digital media. These songs
reveal their preference for a mystical spirituality, material blessings and
physical wellbeing here and now. They ascribe compassion to God the
Father, spiritual conquest to God the Son and spiritual inspiration to God
the Holy Spirit. The popularity of Dalit theology in the mainline Church of
South India, Church of North India, and Baptist and Methodist congrega-
tions underscores the necessity of liberation from socio-economic bondage.
Strangely, mainline church institutions under Dalit leadership show signs
of degeneration and decline. Their prophetic spirituality demands rights
and privileges, but it has not stressed their obligations in terms of equality
and justice for all members. The Pentecostal and Charismatic congregations
have tended to benefit from this disarray. The status, attitudes, behaviours
and activities of their pastors resemble those of Hindu pujaris (priests):
they offer prayer and spiritual blessings in return for a donation of money
or other material goods. They encourage prayers, memorisation of select
scriptural passages, regular fasting and meditative prayer. They tend to
equate material wealth with God’s blessings. Their approach to prophecy
is similar to fortune-telling. They expect miraculous healing for sickness. If
the patients remain sick, the pastors tend to accuse them of lacking earnest
faith in God. Their other-worldly spirituality does not challenge the caste
affiliations and dowry practices of their members. They do not emphasise
responsible citizenship in a civil society. Nevertheless, they attract more
members and provide them with opportunities for emotional expressions
and attaining public attention. Women, young adults and children can
sing or share testimonies. These members come mostly from mainstream
churches, which, in their opinion, do not satisfy their spiritual and human
needs. The role of women in supporting their husbands and family
members and in organising prayer meetings and evangelistic gatherings
remains noteworthy.
Theological colleges and seminaries are attached to two major umbrella
institutions. Mainline churches receive candidates who have studied
in colleges attached to the Senate of Serampore system of theological
training. Most para-church organisations admit candidates from institu-
tions affiliated to the Asian Theological Association. Both systems rely on
Euro-American models of theology. Their stress on human reason has little
space for trans-rational aspects of Indian life, including beliefs in multiple
goddesses and gods, spirit beings, witchcraft and magic. Self-appointed
pastors, who have not undergone any formal theological training, address
these issues from their understanding of the Bible. They show how the
risen Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit help believers to overcome the
threats of evil spirits and to aspire to a more fulfilling life. Their spirituality
34 Daniel Jeyaraj
is less theological and other-worldly, but more practical and this-worldly.

They understand biblical passages not so much through Jewish lenses, but
through the lenses of their local religious settings. They view Shaivism and
Vaishnavism as distortions of the Judaeo-Christian faith revealed in the
Bible. Their liturgy is indigenous. They have done away with uniformed
choirs, pipe organs, guitars, candles and clergy dress. They play local
drums for all songs. They use coconut and coconut milk in the Eucharist.
Some congregations are content with chapati (unleavened flatbread)
or iddly (steam-cooked rice cake) or mere biscuits and fruit juice. Their
spirituality is real, authentic, active and relevant.
Most Indian Christians organise their public life along the fourfold
purusārtha (‘human goal’): they want to lead a happy life (kāma, ‘sensuality,
pleasure’). For this purpose, they need material wealth (artha) and the
empowerment to acquire it. As they acquire material wealth, they should
consider dharma, which consists of multilayered duties, just principles and
religious commitment. If they can hold these three goals in balance, they
may begin to enjoy bliss (moksa, ‘liberation from the cycle of births and
deaths’) here and now. Christian preachers commonly warn their adherents
of the dangers of deviant kāma, namely narcissism, adultery, prostitution,
pre-marital sex and addiction to alcohol or drugs and the like. Christians
seek to increase their artha through education, work, trade, savings and
investment. As they acquire more wealth, they support the ministry and
mission of their church congregations. They also donate their time, money
(tithes) and other resources to promote the welfare of their congregations.
Indian Christian spirituality that has been too closely associated with
Hindu religious beliefs and practices does not appeal to all Christians.
After Vatican II, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India established the
National Biblical, Catechetical and Liturgical Centre in Bengaluru and in-
corporated several Brahminical ideas into it. Some Christians admire this
confusion, while others, especially the first-generation Christians who have
just come out of Brahminical Hinduism, avoid it. They want to uphold
the distinctiveness of Jesus Christ, especially his vicarious death on the
cross, as the most indispensable aspect of Christian spirituality. They can
understand Jesus Christ not only as the risen Lord, but also as the Guru
(‘teacher’), Yogi (the ‘meditator’ who unites himself and others with God)
and Avatar (‘descent’ of a deity to support righteous humans and to punish
the wicked). However, Indian Christians are unwilling to call him OM (the
primal creative ‘Word, Sound’), the most renowned symbol in Hinduism.
Thus, Christians in South and Central Asia consider their religious
surroundings, social contexts and political situations. Their spirituality,
theology and liturgy reflect their Christian convictions within the possi-
bilities, limits and promise of their actual living contexts.
Relations with Other Major Faiths

Religions in South and Central Asia affect important aspects of human
life. The predominance of Islam in Central Asia as well as in Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives, of Hinduism in India and Nepal,
and of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Bhutan influences the personal, public
and corporate life of Christians. All these countries promise civil societies
for in-depth public discussions on significant matters of interest. These
societies, however, are not always available. Yet, Christians as minorities
seek good relationships with others at various levels. At the existential
level, Christians and non-Christians live side by side. Periodical festivals
and sharing of gifts intercept their parallel existences. Sometimes,
members of an extended family belong to different religions and function
as connections. They cherish this inter-religious living. At a practical level,
people of different religions tend to cooperate for a common purpose such
as establishing or improving schools, roads, playgrounds, marketplaces, job
opportunities, hospitals, patriotic events and the like. At the reflective level,
well informed representatives of religious groups meet at regular intervals
to freely discuss scriptural, theological and anthropological themes and to
set trends. At the political and economic levels, inter-religious engagement
becomes difficult. Politicians are not bothered about Christianity as a mere
system of beliefs. They are, however, alarmed when Christians question the
status quo. They are unhappy when Christians demand equal opportunities
and rights. When Christians need access to land and water, for cultivation
or cattle breeding, non-Christian politicians are troubled. Hence, they
ban or minimise Christian participation in governance, the judiciary, the
armed forces and other important public offices. They are satisfied as long
as Christians remain uneducated and uninformed. In order to safeguard
themselves, these politicians accuse Christians of conspiracy and collabo-
ration with Euro-American countries. As a result, Christians are unable to
obtain birth certificates, identification cards or passports. Consequently,
they cannot enjoy higher education, high-power jobs or ownership of land.
They remain nobodies in their own country of birth.
Engagements between Christians and Hindus are varied. Hinduism –
which, despite lack of a unifying concept, conveniently understands itself
as a single religion – is actually a collection of Indic religious traditions
and their mutations. Its multilayered beliefs and practices include com-
plementary and contradictory elements. Christians cannot logically reason
with Hindus. Christians can, however, connect with their notions of God,
human beings, sin and salvation as a stepping stone. Hindus readily
understand the human Jesus as an exemplary moral teacher of the Jews,
who was probably an avatar (‘descent’, meaning incarnation) of their
Vishnu. However, they find it hard to accept his death on the cross on their
36 Daniel Jeyaraj
behalf and his provision of forgiveness for their sins. In their opinion, they
have to bear the consequences of their karma, which are so powerful that
one human life would not be sufficient either to neutralise or to transcend
bad karma with good karma. Therefore, they defend karmasamsara (‘cycle
of birth and death’) and believe that the status of their varna and jāti (‘caste
as social categories and birth groups’) determines their current position in
karmasamsara. It is difficult for them to believe that the sin-atoning death,
resurrection and grace of Jesus Christ can nullify their karma, break the
cycle of karmasamsara and enable them to lead a fulfilling life.
Strictly, avarna Indians, who do not belong to the Sanskrit-based fourfold
varna system containing only the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas
and the Sudras, are not really Hindus; however, for political reasons
they are counted as such. These suffer the stigma of untouchability and
disgrace. The fact that Jesus Christ touched the outcasts speaks to them.
Those Hindus who have Christian family members or friends are familiar
with Christian values and their contributions to fellow citizens and to
their nations. However, politically minded fundamentalist Hindus view
Christians as enemies, next only to Muslims and communists, who should
not have any rights in the holy land of India. They understand Christians
as agents of European countries, whose colonial legacy weighs heavy
on them. They perceive religious conversion as treason. They opine that
Christians either lure or force immature, poor, destitute and uneducated
Hindus to embrace Christianity. They also believe that these converts
cannot think for themselves and act on their choices. Therefore, several
states, such as Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Arunachal
Pradesh, passed freedom-of-religion bills to ban religious conversion.
Accordingly, these Hindus try to reconvert these Christians back to their
ancestral faith. In such contexts, they forget the constitutional guarantees
for religious freedom and the stipulations of human rights.
In spite of these and other precarious situations, Christians have
attempted innovative and encouraging inter-religious conversations
and relationships. The proponents of Dravida Samayam (South Indian
Religion) in Chennai see the Tamil bhakti religions such as Shaivism
and Vaishnavism as extremely indigenised versions of Christianity that
have become unrecognisable. By contrast, the members of the Christava
Brahmana Seva Samithi (Ministry Association of the Christian Brahmins),
also in Chennai, understand Christianity through the Vedas and
Upanishads. They appreciate how God in Jesus Christ accepts all people
as equals, forgives their sins and offers them eternal salvation. Most Indian
Christians do not share the views of these movements. Instead, they seek
to live their Christian life in their homes, schools, vocational training
centres, hostels and hospitals. The more that non-Christian Indians and
Indian Christians learn to discover each other as human beings who have
similar likes, dislikes, goals and pains, the more they will be tolerant of one
another. Christian ashrams provide quiet spaces for meditation, spiritual
quest, intellectual study and social service. Mostly Indians who do not
have to worry about their next day’s food go there. Their inter-religious
engagement happens at the philosophical and contemplative levels.
At the same time, many Indians accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour
and Lord, but they do not wish to take baptism and join a denomina-
tional church. These unbaptised secret Christians might participate in the
worship services of local Christian congregations. Otherwise, they meet
among themselves. Sometimes these Christians are part of much larger
movements such as the Truth Seekers in New Delhi. They protest against
discrimination imposed by Brahminical systems of caste (both varna
and jāti), in employment, taxation and governance, and against indiffer-
ence to the needy and downtrodden. They accept Jesus Christ as their
Balirāja (‘Sacrificed King’) and seek to abide by his teachings. Such Hindu-
background or Muslim-background Christians abound in many parts
of India. Indian Christians manage many institutions for inter-religious
relations, of which the Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and
Society in Bengaluru (1957), the Henry Martyn Institute in Hyderabad
(1971), the Vendrame Missiological Institute in Shillong (1977), the Dalit
Resource Centre in Madurai (1989) and the Tribal Study Centre in Jorhat
(1995) are well known.
Nepalese Christians have had a shorter period of organised inter-
religious engagement with fellow Hindus. Even after democratisation of the
country in 1990, Hindus continue to suspect and even discriminate against
Christians. Leaders and members associated with the United Mission to
Nepal, Evangelical Alliance Mission, National Churches Fellowship of
Nepal and other smaller agencies equip Christians for more meaningful
inter-religious living and witness.
Inter-religious engagements between Christians and Muslims in Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives are different. Islamic
constitutions, Sharia law and the local blasphemy laws do not accord
Christians the same status, privileges, opportunities and (citizenship) rights
that are available to Muslims. As a result, discrimination and exploitation
of Christians abound. For example, four Pakistani Christian women must
testify in a law court against a man accused of a crime in order for the
case to proceed. Without opportunities and financial support for education
and social betterment, often killed or maimed and traumatised by bombs
and shootings, Pakistani Christians languish. Yet, their will to live and
their resilience in upholding Christian identity set them apart. They know
well that Muslims reject the divinity, crucifixion, resurrection and second
38 Daniel Jeyaraj
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. They also know that Muslims interpret
worshipping Jesus Christ as God as an unforgivable sin. In spite of these
irreconcilable presuppositions, Pakistani Christians uphold the oneness of
God and seek to follow Jesus Christ as their God. Some of their institutions,
like the notable Christian Study Centre in Rawalpindi (1967), promote
Christian–Muslim understanding. Their quarterly bilingual journal
Al-Mushir (‘Counsellor’) publishes essays written in Urdu and English.
Minhaj University (1986) in Lahore strives for inter-religious understand-
ing and social betterment. Additionally, the members of the YWCAs and
YMCAs facilitate informal meetings between Christians and Muslims.
Christian journalists and lawyers highlight Christian suffering in Pakistan.
They explain how fellow Pakistani Christians long for justice and equality
in public life.
Inter-religious engagements between Christians and Buddhists happen
more in Sri Lanka than in Bhutan. Sri Lankan Christians have created
ashrams and inter-religious institutions such as the Ecumenical Institute
for Study and Dialogue (1951) in Colombo and the Franciscan Devasarana-
ramaya (Divine Refuge Monastery, 1957) in Hevadiwela. Christians and
Buddhists agree on the practice of mindfulness, compassion, non-violence
and social justice. Both look for and work toward holistic salvation. On
the other hand, Christians do not accept the atheism of the Theravada
Buddhists or their atheistic view of creation. They reject the Buddhist
portrayal of Jesus Christ as a bodhisattva (‘enlightened being’) who could
not have died on the cross.
These inter-religious engagements move between the poles of
agreement and rejection and cover all areas in between. Christians in
South and Central Asia seek to construct a way of harmony in all socio-
cultural spheres. However, their belief in the distinctiveness of Jesus Christ
as God-Man and in his cross defy attempts at domestication, for which
they pay a price. Otherwise, Christians and their non-Christian neighbours
have much in common.
Conclusion
South and Central Asia begins with Kazakhstan in the north and ends with
the Maldives in the south. Christian minorities live in this vast geographi-
cal territory spanning Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan,
Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri
Lanka. The history and contemporary experiences of Christians in these
14 countries possess certain commonalities and differences. Generally,
Christians are bruised minorities but are not shy of their Christian identity.
The Orthodox Christians in Kazakhstan and South India are proud of
their apostolicity. Roman Catholic Christians contribute to evangelism,
education, health, justice and other social services. Protestant Christians of

diverse persuasions work in every country. Evangelical Christians in India
and Nepal support cross-cultural missionaries. Nowadays Pentecostal
Christians exert influence on fellow Christians and non-Christians alike.
Their worship and spirituality, theology and social work, mission and
evangelism struggle with caste, tribal and other ethnic identities, and
their united churches contribute to the fullness of global Christianity. The
following essays on Christianity in South and Central Asia shed more light
on this contribution.
Bibliography
Foltz, Richard, Religions of the Silk Road: Premodern Patterns of Globalization (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
Frykenberg, Robert E., Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present (Oxford: Oxford
Ispahani, Farahnaz, Purifying the Land of the Pure: A History of Pakistan’s Religious Minorities
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2017).
Laruelle, Marlène, and Sébastian Payrouse, Globalizing Central Asia: Geopolitics and the
Challenges of Economic Development (London: Routledge, 2015).
Radford, David, Religious Identity and Social Change: Explaining Christian Conversion in a
Muslim World (London: Routledge, 2015).
Countries
Kazakhstan
Alina Ganje
Not many people in the West have visited or even heard much about
this Central Asian country; the Russian-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome
spaceport may well be the most prominent attribute of the Kazakhstani state.
Yet, apart from it being the ninth-largest country in the world, Kazakhstan
is a country full of interest, not least because of its crisscrossing cultures,
with more than 100 ethnicities, and its religious diversity. The latter, being
especially characteristic of Kazakhstan, can be traced back to its complex
ethnic mix. Considering that Kazakhstan is a former atheist Soviet republic,
the heterogeneity found in the country today is all the more intriguing. The
2009 national census (the latest available at the time of writing) reported
that more than 26% of the population belonged to a Christian community.
More than 20% belonged to the Eastern Orthodox tradition, followed by
substantially smaller Roman Catholic and Protestant groups. The census
data further revealed that ethnic groups residing in Kazakhstan predomin
antly identify themselves with their respective traditional religions.
Christianity is represented mainly by Russians, Ukrainians, Germans and
White Russians (Belarusans). Considering the above, inter-confessional
and inter-ethnic harmony in the Republic of Kazakhstan is one of the
essential conditions for the stability of the country.
Early Period of Christianity

In the nineteenth century, long after the majority of Kazakhs had converted
to Islam, the Kazakh khanate was incorporated into the Russian Empire.
At that time, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), being the state religion
of tsarist Russia and a powerful institution, enjoyed significant advantages
over other religions. With the expansion of military settlements, Russian
Orthodoxy increasingly became widespread throughout the Kazakh
country. Over the course of history Russian Orthodoxy has remained the
second-largest traditional confession in Kazakhstan.
Similarly, Protestantism first arrived in Kazakhstan in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries, after its accession to Russia. During
this period, military settlements brought Lutherans into the country –
especially from among Germans. Baptists and Mennonites were also sent
to the country and formed their own communities on the Kazakh territory.
44 Alina Ganje
Furthermore, Protestant civilians settled in Kazakhstan, such as officials,

handicraft workers and peasants from Sweden, Poland and Finland. Later,
in the 1880s, migration movements from the European part of the Russian
Empire intensified, bringing more Protestants such as Baptists, Adventists
and Mennonites into the country.
The first traces of Roman Catholicism on Kazakh territory date to the
thirteenth century. In this early period, Catholic missionaries, namely
Franciscan monks, were sent to visit the Great Khans. A more significant
development, however, occurred from the mid-nineteenth to the early
twentieth century, when there were mass resettlements of Polish exiles,
military and special settlers. Moreover, large numbers of Catholic Germans
and Latvians from the European part of Russia migrated to the country.
These developments led to the emergence of a significant Roman Catholic
population. Meanwhile, the coexistence of the various religions was
marked by a tolerant intercourse, which the two predominant religions,
Sunni Islam and Russian Orthodoxy, have always cultivated.
Soviet Atheism and Religious Revival

The religious situation in Kazakhstan went through a radical change
when the Bolsheviks seized power in Saint Petersburg. After the Russian
Revolution in 1917, religion was outlawed throughout the entire territory
of the former Russian Empire. The post-revolutionary years were charac
terised by a brutal persecution, which especially affected the Russian
Orthodox community. The Soviet government confiscated churches,
destroyed them or converted them into barracks, stores or even museums.
Many clergy were arrested.
Unlike the Orthodox, Protestant communities experienced a dramatic
increase. Stalin’s regime initiated violent deportations of such ethnic groups
as the so-called Volga-Germans and the Poles residing on the territory
Christianity in Kazakhstan, 1970 and 2015

1970 2015 Average annual growth
Tradition Population % Population % rate (%), 1970–2015
Christians 2,450,000 18.7% 4,623,000 26.0% 1.4%
Independents 16,500 0.1% 111,000 0.6% 4.3%
Orthodox 2,069,000 15.8% 4,241,000 23.9% 1.6%
Protestants 273,000 2.1% 50,100 0.3% −3.7%
Catholics 20,000 0.2% 128,000 0.7% 4.2%
Evangelicals 44,700 0.3% 39,100 0.2% −0.3%
Pentecostals 4,900 0.0% 113,000 0.6% 7.2%
Total population 13,110,000 100.0% 17,750,000 100.0% 0.7%
Source: Todd M. Johnson and Gina A. Zurlo (eds), World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill), accessed March 2018.
Kazakhstan 45
of the Soviet Union. As a matter of fact, the atheist regime, being also
present on Kazakh territory, did not allow Protestant immigrants to live
out their faith. However, in the late 1950s the policy towards suppressed
Protestant groups and their faith was slightly ameliorated. Even though
the authorities were very reluctant to register religious associations, the
numbers of Lutherans, Baptists, Adventists and Mennonites slowly began
to grow. During the late period of the Soviet Union, registered Protestant
communities reached more than 100, exceeding the number of Muslim
mosques. Overall, during the decades of communist rule, with Russian
immigrants and deportees of other ethnicities significantly outnumbering
ethnic Kazakhs, the country suffered a significant identity loss.
Kazakhstan’s declaration of independence in 1991 put an end to the
idea of atheism that had prevailed in the Soviet Union and replaced it
with freedom of religion. The autonomous Republic of Kazakhstan was
officially declared a secular state. The principles of equality of religious
associations and non-interference of the state in their internal affairs were
manifested in the Republic’s constitution. Moreover, in 1992 the Federal
Law on Freedom of Confession and Religious Associations was adopted.
The Law defines not only Christianity and Islam, but also Buddhism and
Judaism, as traditional confessions of the Kazakh state, emphasising their
roles as inalienable parts of Kazakhstan’s historical heritage.
However, despite the positive developments, the collapse of the Soviet
regime also led to painful changes within Kazakh society. The lack of a
state ideology resulted in a spiritual void that needed to be filled in order
to rebuild moral and spiritual values, the cornerstones in the formation of
a national identity. Consequently, the response of the country’s population
to the lack of values was a sudden renewed interest in religion. Thus, the
increasing role of religion in the public as well as the private sphere was
inevitably accompanied by the expansion of various religious communities,
including Christian and Islamic. In this regard, Kazakhstan is no exception
to challenges other post-Soviet countries have had to face – not only at the
early stage of their independence, but until today.
In the case of Kazakhstan, during the first years of its autonomy the
state essentially paid little attention to the religious sphere. Instead, it
was concentrating on economic development and the reinforcement of its
position. Given the lack of values, along with social upheavals such as un-
employment, people started to look for economic opportunities and, more
importantly, for new moral and social communities.
The liberal legislation on religion aimed to address many problems in
society, including poor relations between the state and religious organisa-
tions and the clashes between different ethnic and religious groups. One
of the main reasons for these developments was that missionaries and new
46 Alina Ganje
religious movements from all over the world were essentially given licence
to come into the country at will. At that stage, the religious situation in
Kazakhstan was characterised by the spread of many different religious
sects about which people knew little or nothing. The increased Christian –
particularly Protestant – missionary activity led to an increasing number
of converts. Religious conversion mostly took place in home meetings,
among small groups of sympathetic believers, resulting in entire networks
of people converting to Christianity. At the same time, however, many
citizens of Kazakhstan who had become part of such networks emigrated,
especially to Germany. Therefore, on the other hand, certain Protestant
associations, such as Lutherans, Mennonites and other denominations,
were no longer present.
Nonetheless, Christian converts in Kazakhstan between 1993 and 1997
are estimated to have exceeded 100, along with an inrush of some 700
missionaries. Western missionaries especially were able to significantly
strengthen their position within the country. For instance, the US-based
Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod – spread its influence by providing
extensive spiritual and material help to the Lutheran communities. It also
distributed religious books in Russian, German and English. Moreover,
German missionaries started to actively promote, for instance, the New
Apostolic Church, whereas the Republic’s ethnic Korean population
preferred the Pentecostal Church Sun Bok Ym, as well as the Union of
Christians of the Evangelical Faith, which now have communities in almost
every region. Charismatic movements such as Agape, New Life, New Sky
and the Charismatic Church of Jesus Christ started active work. Methodist
movements were also active during this time, although they had rather
small communities, which owed their existence to foreign missionaries,
mainly Korean, .
Besides the above developments, Roman Catholicism also experienced
a genuine revival, which allowed for significant achievements. One of
the most important events took place in October 1992, when Pope John
Paul II issued a document that established the apostolic nunciature in the
autonomous Republic of Kazakhstan. This paved the way for diplomatic
relations between Kazakhstan and the Vatican. In this light, the Agreement
on Cooperation between the two states, which followed in September 1998,
provided evidence of a strong will for close cooperation with the Holy See.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who signed the Agreement personally,
presented Kazakhstan as the first country within the post-Soviet space
to make such a political move. In the same year, in Karaganda – one of
the most populous cities in the Republic – the first Catholic institution of
higher education in the whole of Central Asia, namely the Mary, Mother of
the Church Seminary, was founded. The cooperation between Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan 47
and the Vatican was crowned by the state visit of Pope John Paul II to
Astana, the capital city, in 2001. As a symbolic sign of trust emphasising
further strengthening of relations between the two states, Nazarbayev was
awarded the Order of Pius IX.
Similarly, religious renaissance in Kazakhstan has not failed to leave its
mark on Eastern Orthodoxy. Indeed, since 1991 the Orthodox denomina-
tion has undergone a remarkable revival. Statistical data show dynamic
growth of churches along with an increased number of adherents. The case
of the Eastern Orthodox Church is particularly striking as it has undertaken
numerous structural reforms as an institution, especially during the last two
decades. At this point, it should be noted that Russian Orthodox Christians
in Kazakhstan as well as those living in many other post-Soviet countries,
being part of the so-called canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate,
are subject to the jurisdiction of the ROC in Russia. This applies equally
to voluntary members of Russian Orthodoxy residing outside the defined
territory. To give an overview of the structural transformations within the
ROC in Kazakhstan, a quick look back at the early period of the state’s
independence is necessary. In 1991 the ROC was reorganised into three
eparchies: Almaty and Semey, Shymkent and Astana, and Oral and
Guryevskiy. One of the most important events took place in 2003, when the
Holy Synod of the ROC decided to establish a metropolitan district in the
Republic of Kazakhstan as part of the Astana, Oral and Shymkent dioceses.
The metropolitan district has since taken responsibility for the coordina-
tion of religious, educational, publishing, social and other public activities
of the archdioceses in Kazakhstan. In addition, practically all churches and
prayer houses have opened church parish schools to study the basics of
Russian Orthodoxy. Further eparchies followed in 2010 and 2011, bringing
the current total to nine. In 2010, the Archbishop of Astana and Almaty was
raised to the higher rank of metropolitan archbishop, his title now being
Metropolitan of Astana and Kazakhstan.
Consequent State Actions on Religion

As already indicated, during the first years of Kazakhstan’s independence,
the state had a very liberal policy regarding all religious denominations
and their rights. The Kazakh government had never treated terrorism as
a serious potential threat to the country until a few events provided clear
evidence that this had to be considered.
At first, as the Kazakh government slowly recognised the need for a
balanced relationship between the state and religion, it started acting with
the establishment of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional
Religions. The first Congress was held in Astana in 2003. Ever since, every
three years, it has hosted religious leaders and delegates from all over the
48 Alina Ganje
world to facilitate and promote inter-religious dialogue, addressing current

global issues. During these Congress meetings, President Nazarbayev,
being one of the regular participants, has never missed the opportunity to
stress the importance of religious tolerance in his country.
However, these efforts achieved little success in maintaining stability
within Kazakh society. Over time, the liberal regulation of the religious
sphere began to show the negative consequences of the provocation shown
by some religious sects and groups to the government, people and national
values. Eventually, the Kazakh government was forced to acknowledge the
threat of Islamic extremism as a global problem. Kazakhstan, with its large
Muslim population, is no exception. In 2008, changes were made to the
Law on the Freedom of Religion and Religious Organisations. The new law
contained clear classifications of religious communities and their activities,
defined clear requirements for official registration and set out regulations
for missionary activities.
However, a number of terrorist events, such as a suicide bombing in
Aktobe in 2011, made the state authorities revise the Law on Freedom of
Conscience and Religious Associations. In 1992, it passed two new laws:
the Law on Religious Activities and Religious Associations and the Law on
Changes and Amendments to Some Legislative Acts on Some Questions
on Religious Activities and Religious Communities. The official aim of the
newly introduced regulation was the fight against terrorism and religious
extremism. However, the law in practice had a huge negative impact on
both Islamic and Christian communities, restricting de facto religious
freedom. Since 2011, missionaries have been forced out and churches have
been required to group into larger congregations. The new law requires a
religious group to have not less than 50 members in order to be registered
at the local level. At the regional level more than 500 members are required,
and at the national level more than 5,000.
This has led to a dramatic decline in the number of religious organisa-
tions, dropping between 2011 and 2014 by around one-quarter – from more
than 4,500 to roughly 3,430. The number of officially registered confessions
fell to 17. Moreover, some Christian pastors, as well as many ordinary
citizens, both Christian and Muslim, are reported to have been imprisoned
or fined or to have suffered property confiscation, being accused for their
alleged membership in missionary movements. As opposed to Protestant
associations, which have been forced to go through a complicated process
of re-registration, Catholic communities remained exempt from that
requirement as a result of the government’s agreement with the Holy
See. Overall, it can be concluded that while a general freedom to live as
a Christian still exists, the new Law – with its substantially increased
paperwork – makes ministry much more complex.
Kazakhstan 49
Situation of Christianity Today

Christianity, particularly Russian Orthodoxy, plays a vital role in the
socio-political life of the multi-religious and multi-ethnic Republic of
Kazakhstan. As to the current situation of the Roman Catholic community –
given the above-mentioned official agreements and the well established
relations between the Vatican and the Kazakh state – there is evidence of
a positive trend. Statistical data show that the number of Roman Catholic
communities has at least remained stable, if not grown slightly, since the
state’s independence. Currently, Kazakhstan is home to more than 80
local Catholic communities. Following its tradition, the Roman Catholic
Church has a clear sense of purpose and is concerned mainly with charity
work within the country. It provides canteens for the poor and offers free
pharmacies at its churches. An important contribution has been made by
Caritas Kazakhstan, which was founded in the city of Karaganda. Since its
inception in 1997, the Roman Catholic Church has been running the Caritas
subsidiary, actively offering help to people living in poor conditions. The
news agency Regnum also reports Catholic missionary activity, and there
are more than 200 registered missionary organisations.
The Protestant community is currently represented by two national
organisations. The Association of Religious Organisations of Kazakhstan
(AROK) accounts for many of the denominations dating from the Soviet
period, such as the Russian Baptists and Pentecostals, whereas the so-called
Kazakhstan Evangelical Alliance (KEA) represents many of the churches
from the post-Soviet period. Considering the new regulatory framework
for religious associations, the current state of affairs of Protestant
communities gives less ground for optimism. As previously mentioned,
many Protestant groups were affected by the new law, which eventually
led to a drastic decline in officially registered associations. Nonetheless,
statistical data from 2017, provided by the Kazakhstan Religious Affairs
and Civil Society Ministry, suggest a positive trend. All the more striking
is that Protestant churches, with more than 660 communities, outnumber
Russian Orthodox churches by more than two to one. There are also more
than 170 Protestant missionaries, according to Regnum. Many of these
Protestant communities were created by missionaries from the USA and
South Korea. Thus, today their pastors and followers are represented
mainly by the Korean diaspora. The Ministry further reports the second-
largest Protestant group to be Evangelical Christian-Baptist. There are also
many Presbyterian churches. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists
and the New Apostolic Church also have some presence, although most
Protestants do not accept that they belong to Protestantism. Protestant
churches are widely represented in large cities, especially in the north
and centre of the country. An exception to the general pattern of growth
50 Alina Ganje
is found among the Lutheran communities, whose number has more than
halved as a result of outward migration of Germans. Overall, Protestant
churches maintain close relations with fellow believers beyond Kazakh-
stan’s borders. Besides humanitarian assistance, they actively organise
various international conferences, festivals, meetings, youth work and
other activities.
The Special Role of Orthodoxy

Today, Russian Orthodoxy in Kazakhstan has more than 300 communities
and more than 80 missionary organisations throughout the country. Despite
the ROC claiming jurisdiction over all members of Russian Orthodoxy, the
ROC in Kazakhstan has its own statute approved by the Russian Orthodox
Holy Synod, giving it full responsibility for the coordination of educational
programmes, publishing work, social outreach and missionary efforts of
Orthodoxy in Kazakhstan.
Even though the country’s constitution officially declares Kazakhstan
to be a secular state, a distinct influence of the country’s two largest
confessions is clearly perceptible – both on Kazakhstan’s population and on
the government. Its significant historical influence is the main reason why,
after Sunni Islam, Russian Orthodoxy remains by far the largest religious
community in Kazakhstan. Furthermore, Russian Orthodoxy is explicitly
seen – by the state as well as a large part of the Kazakhstani population – as
a strong contributor to the country’s spiritual development and stability.
The evidence of strong recognition and support that the ROC receives
from the Kazakh government is particularly reflected in the number of
officially recognised holidays in Kazakhstan, among them the Orthodox
feast of Christmas, which is traditionally celebrated at the beginning of
January. Another example is the President’s annual visit to the Saints
Constantine and Helen Orthodox Cathedral in Astana at Easter, which,
over time, has become an established tradition. Interestingly, during these
visits, the head of state congratulates not only the Christians but all citizens
of Kazakhstan, underlining the importance of Russian Orthodoxy to the
national identity.
In turn, the ROC, being well aware of its important role, has been
pursuing its mission to transmit and maintain moral and spiritual values
among its adherents, under the guidance of and in close collaboration
with the Moscow Patriarchate. Given its warm and constructive relation-
ship with the Republic’s President, the ROC holds regular meetings with
the government to discuss its various spheres of activity in Kazakhstan. In
this context, the interests of both states, Kazakhstan and Russia, play an
important role. On the one hand, Russia is interested in the stabilisation of
Kazakhstan, one of the reasons being the large numbers of ethnic – mostly
Kazakhstan 51
Orthodox – Russians who are still living in Kazakh territory. On the other
hand, Kazakhstan has its own interests in maintaining good relations
with the Russian Federation. What is more, inter-Christian as well as
inter-Orthodox relations have been evolving in recent years, allowing for
the establishment of good relations with Orthodox Churches in various
countries, such as Georgia, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, the Czech
Republic, Slovakia, the USA and Finland.
In 2017 President Nazarbayev approved the ‘Concept’ of the state policy
in the religious sphere for the period from 2017 to 2020. The resolution
includes a comprehensive catalogue of problems and questions observed
by the Kazakh government in connection with the current national religious
situation. Among the most relevant issues, the following are specifically
mentioned: the impact of globalisation on the current and future religious
situation; legal regulation of the state’s religious sphere; and the imminent
threat from religious extremist ideologies to Kazakh society. Given recent
developments, these aspects suggest a clear direction in the policy on
religion, which seems to take a restrictive and rigid course. Given the
state’s measures, such as limitations on religious expression, censorship of
religious literature and bans on religious teaching in school, the future of
religious freedom in Kazakhstan remains rather uncertain.
Bibliography
Kasymova, Didar, Žanat Bekovna Kundakbaeva and Ustina Markus, Historical Dictionary of
Kazakhstan (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2012).
McGuckin, John Anthony, The Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity (Oxford: Wiley-
Blackwell, 2011).
Pelkmans, Mathijs, Conversion after Socialism: Disruptions, Modernisms and Technologies of
Faith in the Former Soviet Union (New York: Berghahn Books, 2009).
Smagulov, Kadyrzhan, ‘The Religious Situation Today in Kazakhstan’, Central Asia and the
Caucasus, no. 3 (2011), 45–64.
Wilfred, Felix, The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2014).
Uzbekistan
Feruza Krason
Uzbekistan gained the status of an independent country after the fall of the
Soviet Union in 1991. Since 1923 it had been a part of the Soviet Union and
named the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan. Until the Bolshevik Red Army
gained control of the land in 1923, its territory was part of an area called
Turkestan, which encompassed most of the territory now known as Central
Asia. Most Uzbeks are Muslims who have very little knowledge of Chris-
tianity. Most are Sunni Muslims, with small Shi’ite groups concentrated in
Samarkand and Bukhara. Some 85% of the population are Uzbeks, while
the rest are Russians, Tajiks, Kazakhs and other smaller ethnic groups.
Uzbekistan is a democratic republic per its constitution but it has retained
the Soviet style of governing. The first President had been the General
Secretary of the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan and assumed the role of
the President after the country’s independence. After several elections and
a referendum his office declared that ‘his people’ wanted him to stay in
power until his death, which is exactly what happened: Islam Karimov
was President of Uzbekistan until his death in September 2016. The con-
stitution of Uzbekistan declares freedom of conscience – that is, freedom
to practise any religion a citizen might choose – but both government
and society are quite intolerant of any Uzbek who might decide to follow
Christ instead of practising Islam, which has been the dominant religion
of the Uzbek people for centuries. The government fears uprisings and
revolution that fanaticism might bring; society fears it will be torn apart
by dissidents. Persecution is not limited to followers of Christ. Any person
who is seen to be too religious – whether Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or
any other religion – is watched carefully, interrogated intensely and jailed
if the government decides that is what is required to subdue the person’s
zeal for faith. The authoritarian government is able to continue its corrupt
practices thanks to the many neighbourhood committees that are in place
to keep order and that are active in their endeavour to keep the peace
within the country.
Although Christianity is not new to the land of Uzbekistan, many Uzbek
people believe that their ancestors have been Muslim forever. They are
unaware that people of different faiths such as Zoroastrianism, Buddhism,
Judaism and Christianity coexisted peacefully in this ancient land, both
Uzbekistan 53
before and after the advent of Islam. Traces of these ancient religions can
still be detected within Uzbek culture. For instance, before the bride and
the groom enter the groom’s family courtyard, they walk around a fire
under a canopy seven times. This Zoroastrian practice is thought to bring
good luck and protection. The lighting of a candle in a bowl of flour for
the guidance and memory of the recently deceased is reminiscent of the
Russian Orthodox practice of lighting a candle in a church to accompany
a specific prayer. Also, throughout Uzbekistan many trees can be found
with pieces of cloth tied to their branches. Each piece of cloth represents a
prayer and many new ones are tied to these trees every month. The trees are
believed to be planted over the grave or dwelling place of a holy Muslim
person but probably owe their origins to earlier practice of shamanism and
animism. Such practices as the process of mourning and grieving, keeping
and eating foods on the basis of halal/kosher, the process of cleansing from
an illness, bringing sacrifices for the sake of a sin or dedication of an infant
are strongly reminiscent of Judaism – so much so that Uzbeks are often
confused when they hear that Jews observe laws that are so close to Islam
yet there is such antipathy between Judaism and Islam. This in itself is
evidence of how repressive the Soviet Union was with regard to religion.
Communist theory was so atheistic that Soviet leaders tried to wipe out
faith in any deity, mercilessly persecuted people who showed any such
belief and turned their loved ones against them by using strong feelings of
shame. It was common practice for party leaders to take children from their
homes and enrol them in state-run boarding schools in order to further
the grip of the party on the people. These institutions were advertised as
schools for ‘advanced’ learners and each student had to take an entrance
exam at the district, regional and national level. The strategy was to gather
the smartest children from all regions of the Republic and educate them in
such a way that they were moulded into the kind of leaders who would
Christianity in Uzbekistan, 1970 and 2015

Christians 872,000 7.2% 364,000 1.2% −1.9%
Independents 26,100 0.2% 81,800 0.3% 2.6%
Orthodox 833,000 6.9% 229,000 0.7% −2.8%
Protestants 7,400 0.1% 36,600 0.1% 3.6%
Catholics 0 0.0% 3,500 0.0% 13.9%
Evangelicals 1,600 0.0% 7,400 0.0% 3.4%
Pentecostals 8,300 0.1% 72,000 0.2% 4.9%
54 Feruza Krason
benefit the party and its purposes. ‘Education for all’ was a motto well
received all over the Republic. Education was both free and mandatory,
and thus freed children from manual labour for at least half of each day for
eight months of the year. This in turn freed their parents, especially mothers,
to do their jobs. Education was one of the best gifts that communism gave
the people of Uzbekistan. The literacy rate rose to as high as 99%.
Another great gift of communism was the emancipation of women.
Until the Bolsheviks came into the territory of Uzbekistan, women
were disadvantaged and oppressed. However, Lenin maintained that
without the fierce loyalty and tireless work of the proletarian women, the
revolution would not have been successful. Marx and Lenin emphasised
the strength and the intelligence of women. When this teaching was
applied in Uzbekistan it ended the long-standing oppression of women.
By the end of the 1930s, women had stopped wearing veils, while head
coverings were worn only in domestic and rural contexts. Many women
sacrificed their lives in the effort to free women from the literal and the
metaphorical darkness of the veil. Similarly, many women lost their lives
as they paved the way for future generations of women to be free to go to
school on their own, to study the subjects they wished to study and not to
be subjected to an arranged marriage at 13–14 years of age, as had been
common practice. Modern Uzbek women would not enjoy the privilege
and luxury of education, equality at the workplace, or positions of prestige
and honour had it not been for the bravery of these heroines in the past.
Historical Christian Presence

After the Soviet Union collapsed, Uzbekistan was born as an independent
country for the first time. With the loss of an important identity as
communist, many people turned to Islam – ‘the religion of their fathers’, as
they claimed. All of a sudden, communist, atheist Uzbeks began to identify
as Muslim. Such was the confusion of these times that very few realised the
irony of this description of their identity. As the ideals of communism began
to crumble during the lean years of perestroika (rebuilding), many began to
ponder questions about God and faith. The new Uzbek government declared
itself secular and democratic, without any established national religion.
Despite the efforts of the government, many Uzbeks started to claim their
land for their religion. Even though religion had been discouraged during
the Soviet Union, Uzbek people had not lost many of their traditions. The
long distance between Tashkent and Moscow had allowed Uzbeks to retain
their language and national identity.
Christianity has mainly been considered a ‘Russian’ religion in
Uzbekistan. The reason for this is the presence of the Russian Orthodox
and Protestant churches, established as imperial Russia took over the land
Uzbekistan 55
of Turkestan in the late 1800s. Many Russians began settling in Uzbekistan,

and their number only grew after the Bolsheviks came and established
the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan. One of the most prominent congrega-
tions in Tashkent is the Russian Baptist Church. Its presence today is the
result of the witness of the many believers who persevered throughout
the tumultuous, anti-religion Soviet times. One of the best-known church
buildings in Tashkent is the Russian Orthodox cathedral. It is beautifully
constructed and stands in one of the most prominent districts of the capital.
Many Russians are nominal Orthodox Christians who visit the cathedral
for holidays or to light a candle in honour of the dead or to seek God’s help
with a specific issue. The Orthodox Church opened a theological seminary
in Tashkent in 1996 to prepare priests and elders for service in the Church.
The Roman Catholic Church also has a presence in Uzbekistan. It was
established at the beginning of the twentieth century to serve the needs of
the Polish, Lithuanian and German citizens of the Russian Empire. There
are five Roman Catholic churches throughout Uzbekistan. The priests of the
Uzbek Catholic Church belong to the order of the Conventual Franciscans,
while the nuns belong to the order of the Missionaries of Charity. These
sisters live up to their name and perform many charitable deeds, such as
serving the sick, the poor and orphans.
The first Evangelical Christians arrived in Uzbekistan in the late
nineteenth century on the initiative of the governor of Turkestan,
Konstantin von Kaufmann. Up until 1880, the Mennonites of Russia had
been granted relief from serving in the military for their religious belief,
having moved to Russia from Germany depending on that provision. On
the order of Tsar Alexander II they could do so no longer. Thus they sought
alternative places to live. One of the Mennonite leaders, Herman Yantsen,
met von Kaufmann in Saint Petersburg and explained to him the situation
facing the Mennonite community. Von Kaufmann offered a place of refuge
to the Mennonites, including freedom from military service and taxes for
25 years. The Mennonite community took him up on the offer and moved
to Turkestan. In order to resolve differences among themselves, they
decided to break up into smaller, more cohesive communities. Many of
these religious communities that settled around the Tashkent region were
able to maintain their lifestyle well into the late 1980s, at which time most
of them decided to go back to their roots in Germany.
Another Christian component in Uzbek society are the Molokans.
Their origins lie in a Russian Orthodox community known for drinking
milk during religious fasts, thus differing from the official teachings of
the Russian Orthodox Church. They were known to be excellent land
workers. They supported the tsarist regime and opposed the Bolshevik
revolution. When the Bolsheviks took over the country they conducted
56 Feruza Krason
massive ‘cleansing’ of the land of rich people – that is, people who owned
land. Molokans belonged to this category because of their knowledge of
land husbandry and their practice of hiring people to work their land. The
Soviet government took away their land and punished the landowners
in many humiliating ways, in some cases sending them to concentration
camps or into exile in remote parts of the Soviet Union. This is how many
Molokan Christians ended up in Uzbekistan.
The decision of the Mennonite community to move to Turkestan and the
forced exile of the Molokans led to the beginning of the current Evangelical
movement. In the nineteenth century an evangelical group was formed
as a result of the preaching of the English philanthropist and evangelist
Granville Augustus William Waldegrave. This group was instrumental
in the spread of evangelistic groups throughout Russia. Many Russians
started reading the Bible for themselves in Russian rather than just trusting
the priest for the word of God. People started gathering together to read
the Bible and dedicated their lives to living according to the truths they
learned. By the beginning of the twentieth century, half of the members of
the Russian Baptist churches were Molokans.
These Christians saw the need to organise and started constructing
church buildings. The oldest Baptist church, built at the beginning of the
twentieth century and still in operation today, is located in Gazalkent,
Tashkent. The church grew particularly through the evangelism of military
personnel. The congregation that meets in Tashkent is the largest in the
country, with around 500 members. This congregation is a member of the
Union of Evangelical Churches of Uzbekistan (UECU), which unites tens
of churches and groups throughout the country. According to the clerk
of the UECU, its current membership numbers around 1,800. The UECU
leads dozens of ministries throughout the country. Its ministries to youths
and the deaf community are particularly notable. Many young people
have responded to its youth programmes. It has organised summer camps
throughout Central Asia for orphans and low-income families, focusing on
giving children not just physical recreation but spiritual formation as well.
It collaborates with Evangelical churches in other countries of Central Asia
in this effort to serve the most needy. It has also reached out to mission
aries when it has had the opportunity to train leaders. Two well trained
theologians organised a two-year certificate programme for members of
the Russian Baptist churches. The students were picked by the leaders of
the churches and had to complete the courses in order to continue serving
in their roles as leaders of the churches. The role of the women in the church
is still very traditional. They are expected to teach children’s Sunday school
and are not permitted to preach or teach men. Some of the women find a
way around this restriction by praying out loud during the prayer portion
Uzbekistan 57
of the service. The perseverance of the Russian Baptists was a crucial factor
in sustaining Christian witness in the hostile environment of the Soviet era.
Independence and New Christian Movements

As the nation of Uzbekistan emerged as an independent country, there
were many who wanted to help. The free-market economy was unheard
of, but this did not stop Western companies from coming and investing
their labour, finances and time. The newly opened borders opened the way
for adventurous people as well. Many who had been curious about the
Soviet Union and its Asian republics came to see how life was lived, since
the former Central Asian republics offered a unique blend of the West and
the East. Many came with the aim of helping the citizens of Uzbekistan to
better their lives through education.
Among the many who came were some who deeply desired to share
their Christian faith. These pioneers came from the USA, South Africa,
the Philippines, South Korea and many countries in Europe. They aimed
to reintroduce Christianity to the Uzbek people. The Soviet Union had
discouraged religion to a point where much knowledge of Christianity in
Uzbekistan had been lost. The missionaries were professionals who came
to teach at universities and work as doctors, but also to teach business
and free-market economics by opening their businesses or helping local
business to operate under a new regime. At evenings and weekends they
spent time with local people, learned their language and were able to share
the Christian message with them. It was not easy because the Bible had
not yet been translated into the Uzbek language. The New Testament was
published in 1992 to the great joy of the first few believers. At this time
there were only around a dozen Uzbek Christians. By 1996 the number of
Christians had increased to about 100 through the collective efforts of the
missionaries.
As the church grew it was evident that, even though Uzbeks spoke
Russian fluently, their heart language remained Uzbek. The initial hope that
the Russian Baptist Church would be actively involved with the evangelism
of the Uzbek people was not realised. The gap between Uzbek and Russian
cultures proved to be too great. The Russian Baptist Church had been so
focused on surviving the Soviet era that it needed much teaching in the
area of evangelism. This did not deter the missionaries from reaching out
to the Uzbeks nor to the Russians, nor to such minority groups as the Tatar,
Tajik, Kazakh, Karakalpak and Korean.
Some of the South Korean missionaries focused on evangelising the
‘local’ Koreans. These ‘local’ Koreans are descendants of a group exiled
to Central Asia by Stalin in 1937 because the Soviet Union feared that they
would spy against them for the Japanese, despite the fact that the Koreans
58 Feruza Krason
had proved to be loyal Soviet citizens. They were transported in very poor
conditions from the Soviet Far East to Central Asia. They were given poor
land and left to fend for themselves. The Koreans, however, proved to be
hard workers and organised a community and established themselves as
respectable citizens of Uzbekistan. They were very happy to have their
South Korean kinsfolk come and share the good news of Christ with them.
They had never had a religious identity and were attracted by the Christian
message. The Korean church in Uzbekistan is rapidly growing and very
active. The Koreans do not discriminate in evangelism and welcome people
of any ethnicity into their church since they know what it is to be different.
Their style and order of worship closely resemble those of the founders
of their churches, whether Korean Baptist, Korean Methodist or Korean
Presbyterian.
Some missionaries focused on student groups because they were more
open to new ideas and had learned the English language well enough or
were willing to learn it through reading the Bible in English. Some work
was focused on reaching whole families because it is well known that in
Eastern and Asian cultures, society is organised not on an individualistic
basis but rather around family units: grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts,
children. To this day, many extended families live as large units. Therefore
it is important to minister to the head of the family so as to not disrespect
him or her and to not sow dissension among family members.
Growth of the Uzbek church has been exponential in the last two
decades. Whereas the number of ethnic Uzbeks who professed faith in
Christ was only about 100 in 1994, some estimates today suggest that there
could be as many as 10,000 ethnic Uzbek Christians living in the country. It
is impossible to have an exact number because of the persecution believers
in Christ face on a daily basis. The constitution of Uzbekistan provides for
freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, but reality is different. Any
person who seems to be dedicated to a ‘religion’ more than to the state is
prosecuted on fabricated charges or by using evidence that is planted.
Many Christians have had the opportunity to get theological education
through the underground Bible schools established by foreign workers.
Talented believers translated theology books so their fellow Christians
could study their faith more deeply. Of the three Bible schools that began in
1996, only one remains active and is now completely led by local believers.
The teachers who started this school had a philosophy of ‘training the
trainers’ and accomplished their goal. The teachers of this Bible school
have reached a point now where they are able to write their courses in
their own language. The Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) is hoping that
this effort and its fruit will be multiplied because of the publishing of the
whole Bible in the Uzbek language in 2016.
Uzbekistan 59
Although denominations among Uzbek believers are not clearly defined,

there are some registered churches that identify as Charismatic, Pentecostal
or Baptist. The biggest Pentecostal church is located in Tashkent and was one
of the first registered churches in Uzbekistan to conduct worship services in
the Uzbek language. Many of the church groups are not registered because
of the strict demand from the government to have the name, address and
telephone number of each member on the application. This information
can lead to the persecution of the members not only by the government
but also by their neighbours, relatives and communities. As it is, Uzbek
Christians face difficulties in daily life. One of the biggest hardships relates
to the burying of the dead. Muslim communities will not allow Christians
to be buried in their cemeteries. Uzbek Christians do not want to bury
their dead in unrecognised cemeteries. A solution to this problem has yet
to be found. Another difficulty faced by Uzbek Christians is ostracism
by their own community. Of course, Christians come together and form
communities, but having to leave one’s family is a difficulty that is hard
to imagine. Many Christians are not invited to weddings, circumcision
parties or funerals of their own close relatives. Fathers, mothers, brothers,
sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins have turned away from Christians. None
of this deters the Christians from serving God because they set such high
value on their faith.
The Orthodox and Baptist Churches have not been growing in number
due to mass emigration, mainly to Russia, Israel and the USA, which has
been happening since the fall of the Soviet Union. The leaders of these
movements are working hard to support their current members during
difficult economic and political times. These hardships, along with the fact
that many Russians consider themselves Christian, do not allow for much
growth of regular attendance and widespread evangelism. The Uzbek
Church is quite active in evangelism despite persecutions and the afore-
mentioned hardships. The growth of the Church has been exponential. This
new evangelical movement among ethnic Uzbeks is becoming established,
with new pastors being ordained monthly, whole families committing their
lives to Christ, strong church fellowships taking root and the Christian
message being proclaimed with confidence. These developments augur
well for the future of Christianity in Uzbekistan.
Bibliography
Cooley, Alexander and John Heathershaw, Dictators Without Borders: Power and Money in
Central Asia (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017).
Garrison, David, А Wind in the House of Islam: How God Is Drawing Muslims Around the World
to Faith in Jesus Christ (Midlothian, VA: WIGTake Resources, 2014).
Nesdoly, Samuel J., Among the Soviet Evangelicals: A Godly Heritage (Edinburgh: Banner of
Truth, 1986).
60 Feruza Krason
Scheffbuch, Winrich, Christians under the Hammer and Sickle, translated from German by
Mark A. Noll (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1974).
Sinichkin, A. V. and M. V. Ivanov (eds), История евангельских христиан-баптистов России
[History of Evangelical Baptist Christians of Russia], 2nd updated edn (Moscow: Evangelical
Christian Baptist Union of Russia, 2013).
Turkmenistan
Barakatullo Ashurov
Turkmenistan is the southernmost of the countries in Central Asia that

were formerly Soviet republics. It borders the Caspian Sea to the west, Iran
and Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the north-east and Kazakhstan
to the north-west. It is mostly desert. Turkmenistan is the second-largest
country in Central Asia but has the smallest population. Although the
ancient population consisted of Iranian ethnic groups, the modern
indigenous population is largely Turkmen and the principal language is
Turkmen. Due to its geopolitical situation it was one of the first areas in
Central Asia to which Islam spread, from the 650s. Today, the majority of
the country’s population professes Sunni Islam.
The earliest material evidence of the Christian presence in Central Asia,
from the third and fourth centuries, derives from Turkmenistan. The city of
Mary (ancient Merv and earlier Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana) was the
missionary gateway of the Church of the East. The literary evidence of the
evangelisation of Merv is known from the ‘Life of Baršabbā’, extant in two
manuscripts unearthed at Turfan, in the Sogdian and Syriac languages. In
particular, the Sogdian fragment credits the pioneering bishop Baršabbā
with the foundation of monasteries in the areas of Fārs, Gorgān, Tūs,
Abaršahr, Saraks, Marvrud, Balkh, Herat and Sīstān, which indicates the
cultural significance and strategic influence of Christianity in the region.
The activity of Baršabbā is also known from the accounts of the Muslim
polymath al-Bīrūnī in the eleventh century, who, in his text on the calendars
of Christians, mentions the commemoration day of Baršabbā as a founder
of Christianity in the region and indicates that Christianity was spreading
in the area 200 years after Christ.
In modern Turkmenistan, Christianity is a minority religion. The largest
non-Muslim minority faith is Russian Orthodox Christianity, professed
mainly by ethnic Russians and a very small number of other Slavonic
peoples (Ukrainians and Belarusians). There is also a small Armenian
community belonging to the Armenian Apostolic Church. As regards
Protestants, the main denominations are Evangelical Baptists, Seventh-day
Adventists and Evangelical Lutherans. There are also smaller denomina-
tions such as Greater Grace Church, which is part of the Greater Grace
World Outreach and is found in Ashgabat and Mary cities. Many Protestant
62 Barakatullo Ashurov
groups in the country are acting primarily as underground house churches,

since registration is almost impossible.
The Russian Orthodox expression of Christianity is the ‘majority-minor-
ity’ community in Turkmenistan, primarily centred among the local-born
Russian-Turkmen mixed-raced or Russian and other European ethnic
communities of the country. There are 12 Russian Orthodox cathedrals,
four of which are in the capital city, Ashgabat, and the others dispersed
throughout the country in such cities as Daşoguz (formerly known as
Tashauz), Mary and Chardzhou.
After the Russian Orthodox Church, the next most numerous group
is the Evangelical Baptist churches, which are also part of the Union of
Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches of Turkmenistan, with a high
concentration of their members being found in Ashgabat, Nebit Dag and
Turkmenbashi cities. The central Evangelical Baptist Church in Ashgabat
is the oldest of the Protestant congregations established in Central Asia.
It was formed in 1890 by a group of deported Protestants, including a
small number of believers belonging to the so-called Molokans. The first
presbyter of the Baptist church in Turkmenistan was Isaj Tumanjants
(Исай Туманянц). He was the first-ever person in Central Asia who had
some theological education.
In 1882 local Protestants in Turkmenistan established a town called
Keltichivar, some 20 km from Ashgabat, where the residents were mainly
Protestant believers. During the Soviet Era the activities of the Baptists
in Turkmenistan, like those of all faith communities, were banned. Their
second state registration was granted in 1977. Between the 1930s and
1977, Baptists were operating as ‘unregistered Baptists’, following the
Mennonites and Molokans who historically refused state registration
on grounds of conscience. Prior to the independence of the country, the
Evangelical Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists and Evangelical Lutherans
Christianity in Turkmenistan, 1970 and 2015

Christians 117,000 5.3% 72,900 1.3% −1.0%
Independents 0 0.0% 9,100 0.2% 16.3%
Orthodox 108,000 4.9% 58,800 1.1% −1.3%
Protestants 1,600 0.1% 2,400 0.0% 0.9%
Catholics 0 0.0% 200 0.0% 6.9%
Evangelicals 350 0.0% 520 0.0% 0.9%
Pentecostals 0 0.0% 3,500 0.1% 13.9%
Turkmenistan 63
were the only Christian communities besides the Russian Orthodox

Church that had official state registration. The first Seventh-day Adventist
congregation in Turkmenistan was planted in 1982 and was registered in
1990. The central congregation of the Seventh-day Adventists is located in
Ashgabad.
Evangelical Lutherans, mainly of German descent, have their own
‘union’ and at present have churches in Seakhase, Turkmenbashi and
Jolyotene cities. The Lutheran congregations in Turkmenistan were planted
by German émigrés from the Russian provinces of Sratov and Samara in
1892. The first community was organised in 1892 in Ashgabat, and two
additional communities were formed in Mary County in 1903 and 1905.
Although the constitution of Turkmenistan, as in other countries in the
region, does not prescribe a state religion and basically provides for religious
freedom, nonetheless religion remains chiefly government controlled, and
most Christian groups are subject to systematic harassment. Turkmen law,
recognising that the majority of the population are Muslims, prohibits pros-
elytising, including the publication and import of religious literature. The
importation and production of any religious publication, including digital
recording, has to be approved by the Council of Religious Affairs, and
such approvals are difficult to obtain. The difficulty entailed in obtaining
approval of religious products is similar to that of obtaining registration
and approval of religious activity. The process of establishing a legal
Christian presence in Turkmenistan, by registering a church and securing
the right to have literature and to practise one’s faith, is complicated. It
begins with an application to the Commission for Work with Religious
Organisations of the Council of Religious Affairs. The application is then
handed to the Justice Ministry, to be approved by the Justice Minister, the
First Deputies of the Justice Minister, the Foreign Minister, the General
Prosecutor, the Ministry of State Security, the Interior Minister and the
Deputy Head of the State Service for Registering Foreign Citizens. Any
of these bodies can reject applications, and registration is rarely granted.
Christian communities led by ethnic Turkmens, and those communities
where the services are conducted in the Turkmen language, have never
been granted registration. With an unregistered status, many individuals
and religious communities continually experience administrative restric-
tions or various other forms of persecution, including imprisonment.
Today there are more than 2,000 Protestant believers in Turkmenistan
belonging to officially registered Evangelical unions and significantly more
believers belonging to independent or unregistered churches. Despite
the restrictions and difficulties, communities still meet for worship,
although with great risk, and a number of international bodies are active
in supporting Turkmen Christians.
Bibliography
Istorija Evangel’skih Hristian Baptistov v SSSR (Moscow: Evangelical Christian Baptist Union,
1989).
Melton, J. Gordon, ‘Turkmenistan’, in J. Gordon Melton and Martin Baumann (eds),
Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, 2nd edn (Santa
Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2010), 2907–10.
Mitrohin, N. and V. Ponomarev, Turkmenistan: gosudarstvennaja politika i prava cheloveka
1995–1998 (Central’no-aziatskie stranicy: Pravozashhitnyj centr, 1999).
Peyrouse, Sebastian, Des chrétiens entre athéisme et islam: Regards sur la question religieuse en
Asie centrale soviétique et post-soviétique (Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose for Institut Français
d’Études sur l’Asie Centrale, 2003).
Peyrouse, Sebastian, ‘Les missions orthodoxes entre pouvoir tsariste et allogènes. Un
exemple des ambiguïtés de la politique coloniale russe dans les steppes kazakhes’,
Cahiers Du Monde Russe, 45:1/2 (2004), 109–35.
Tajikistan
Barakatullo Ashurov
Tajikistan is one of the five Muslim-majority countries of the former Soviet

Union, sharing borders with Afghanistan in the south, Uzbekistan in the
north and north-west and also Kyrgyzstan and China. The prehistory of
the country is connected with many local semi-autonomous states, such as
Sogdiana and Bactria, and also the centralised state of the Persian Empire.
The majority Muslim population of the country follows the Hanafi school
of Sunni Islam, with a small minority of Ismaili Muslims who are highly
concentrated in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO).
The history of Christianity in the area of modern Tajikistan goes back at
least to the late fourth century and is closely connected to the missionary
movement of the Church of the East in the Central Asian landmass.
The archaeological material evidence, including textual and epigraphic
monuments, shows that the Sogdians (an Iranian ethnic group whose
habitation area encompassed the northern territories of what is now
Tajikistan) were one of the most Christianised nations in the region.
The periodisation of the Christian presence in Tajikistan follows broadly
the same chronology as that of the history of Christianity in Central Asia as
a whole. This can be approximated as follows. The ‘ancient period’ occurred
during the fifth to seventh centuries, when Christianity was represented
by the Syriac-speaking Church of the East. The eighth to fourteenth
centuries can be considered the ‘medieval period’, when Christianity was
represented by the Church of the East and the Latin-speaking Catholic
Church. Finally, the ‘modern period’ began in the nineteenth century, with
Christianity represented by the Russian Orthodox and various Protestant
denominations. Today, Christians are the smallest minority religious group
in the country, mainly present in the large cities. Traces of ancient Christi
anity in the various regions survive only in historical artefacts. The main
living Christian tradition present is the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC),
introduced from the 1860s during the Russian tsarist regime but later
repressed under the Soviets. Today it is flourishing primarily among the
ethnic Russians and other European ethnic groups who claim Orthodoxy
as their historic faith.
The central cathedral for Tajikistan, St Nicholas, is located in Dushanbe
city. The Tajikistan diocese encompasses the Parochial Church of Mary
Magdalene in Khujand city, the Parochial Church of the Iberian Icon of

the Mother of God in Buston city, the Parochial Church of the Archangel
Michael in Kurgonteppa city, the Parochial Church of the Intercession
of the Holy Virgin in Tursunzoda city and the Regimental Chapel of the
201 Military Base. The core members of the church today comprise both
Europeans (Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian) and local ‘mixed race’
individuals born into mixed-marriage families.
The historical patterns of growth and development of the ROC can
be described as ‘internal mission’, as it primarily aimed to cover only
European and Russian nationals. This missionary activity included social
charitable enterprises and educational activities. A distinctive feature of
the missionary life of the ROC is the use of the Russian language only. This
has led to Christianity being dubbed a ‘Russian religion’, the church being
described as the ‘Russian mosque’ and Jesus being called the ‘Russian God’.
The Roman Catholic Church has had a presence in Central Asia since
the thirteenth century, though the official cathedrals appeared only in
the eighteenth century, during Russian rule. The first Catholic parish
was set up in 1976, in Dushanbe. Later, a parish was also established in
Kurganteppa city, in the southern region. In 1997, Pope John Paul II created
a mission sui iuris that is administered by the Institute of the Incarnate
Word of Argentina, which supplies priests to come for service in Tajikistan.
The mission of the church is directed toward community development
and charitable works. Both the Dushanbe-based St Joseph parish and the
St Roch parish in Kurganteppa city continue to be active today.
Protestantism in Tajikistan has developed in two waves. The first wave
came through the Mennonites (Brethren), who migrated to the Central
Asian region to avoid the compulsory military service that was in effect
in the Russian Empire from 1870 to 1880. Many of these émigrés were of
German and Dutch heritage. Today there is one small congregation in
Christianity in Tajikistan, 1970 and 2015

Christians 82,500 2.8% 70,500 0.8% −0.3%
Independents 0 0.0% 3,900 0.0% 14.2%
Orthodox 62,200 2.1% 57,200 0.7% −0.2%
Protestants 20,300 0.7% 8,500 0.1% −1.9%
Catholics 0 0.0% 150 0.0% 6.2%
Evangelicals 2,200 0.1% 1,900 0.0% −0.3%
Pentecostals 0 0.0% 4,400 0.1% 14.5%
Tajikistan 67
Dushanbe city as a remnant from this group. In the same first wave we can
include individuals identifying themselves as Evangelicals and Baptists,
who were exiled to the region in the 1920s under Stalin’s regime.
The second wave in the introduction of Protestant churches is represented
by the new churches planted by the members of various Protestant mission
organisations in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the
1992–7 civil war in Tajikistan. The Mennonite communities in Tajikistan,
due to their internal spiritual orders, had never officially engaged in
missionary or proselytising activities, and their congregations basically
consisted of European ethnic groups. The only remnant of these early
Mennonites are three congregations still active in the country. The distin-
guishing characteristic of these groups is that they do not register with
the state and thus are known as ‘unregistered Baptists’. The largest group,
consisting of 12 to 14 families, is based in Dushanbe.
The Evangelicals and Baptists united in 1941, becoming the Evangelical
Baptists. Their membership consisted almost exclusively of Russian and
other European nationals. Their first local convert in Dushanbe is known to
be a Tatar lady who became a Christian in 1980. However, the missionary
dynamics changed dramatically from the 1990s, when expatriate mission
aries began to arrive to carry out evangelistic programmes among the
local population. Today there are multiple Protestant denominations
present, the largest being the Evangelical Baptists, Free Evangelicals and
Pentecostal-Charismatics where the services are held in both Russian
and Tajik and membership is open to any ethnic group. The smallest
communities are the Seventh-day Adventists and Lutherans.
In the history of Protestant and Evangelical mission in the country the
role of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Dushanbe is significant. It was
started by the exiled communities in 1928 and received official state registra
tion in 1944. The first presbyter in the church was Danilenko I. Ya (И. Я.
Даниленко), who experienced harsh state oppression during the 1940s.
Although this group has seen much repression over the years, including
the killing of two of its prominent leaders in the late 1930s, today it is
regarded as a ‘mother church’ by numerous churches across the country.
From the 1980s until the 2000s a prominent figure in the Evangelical Baptist
community was Vervay Alexander Davidovich, who for almost three
decades was a senior pastor and also chairman of the Evangelical Baptist
Union. The second biggest group is Union of Evangelical Christians of
Tajikistan, which was born as a result of a schism from the Evangelical
Baptist Church during the 1990s. The Union has 11 congregations officially
registered across the country, with its headquarters in the capital city. The
Seventh-day Adventist congregation in Tajikistan was started by brothers
Ivan and Vasiliy Koz’mins (Иван and Василий Козьминины) in the 1930s.
Today their main central church is based in Dushanbe and is led by a Tajik
convert.
The Evangelical Lutherans in Tajikistan were primarily Germans who
were exiled or who arrived voluntarily in the 1890s and some who were
deported here in the aftermath of the Second World War. The official
Lutheran Church was set up only in 1960 and since then has maintained
its state registration. After the 1990s, the majority of German ethnic groups
emigrated back to Europe. The community today is very small and the
central cathedral is located in Dushanbe.
All Protestant churches in the country comprise both local converts
from Islam and those of Russian Orthodox background. The Bible was
translated into Tajik in the 1970s. Since then, the translation has been
revised and there are new ‘biblical literacy’ projects, including church-
based theological training. The current leaders of the Protestant churches
all received their education in seminaries in the former Soviet Union or in
European countries.
The social status of Christians in the country is very low. Although
non-Tajik Christians are culturally acceptable, the local converts are
abhorred and regarded as ‘traitors of faith’. Freedom of religion and
conscience is mentioned in the country’s constitution, in similar terms to
those of all the Central Asian countries. However, there are many restric-
tions on what the Christian communities can and cannot do. Belonging to
a Christian church is not a crime as such, but it has an effect on a person’s
family and professional activities. Apart from the general restrictions on
religious life and restraints on what religious activities are allowed, there
are no legal regulations that affect only Christians. Many of such restrictions
in fact apply equally to all religions. There are two main reasons for state
restraint toward Christians and other religious minorities: the inherited
Soviet tradition and fear of the extremist ideology that was a cause of
the recent civil war. Problems arise mainly if the followers are obliged to
engage in missionary activities, as is common among Protestant churches.
Proselytism as well as copying and distributing religious documents are
prohibited and strictly regulated by the Committee of Religious Affairs. In
larger cities, the attitude of Tajik people to Christians (and non-Muslims in
general) is much more tolerant.
Since 1990 the churches have gone through several re-registration
processes. Some, however, have not been allowed to re-register, and
certain groups were banned altogether, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses
in 2010. The form of persecution current in the country is largely a matter
of social discrimination rather than state control. Nonetheless, the existing
communities, particularly those with valid registrations, are thriving,
albeit on a small scale.
Tajikistan 69
Bibliography
Istorija Evangel’skih Hristian-Baptistov v SSSR (Moscow: Evangelical Christian Baptist Union,
1989).
Melton, J. Gordon, ‘Tajikistan’, in J. Gordon Melton and Martin Baumann (eds), Religions of
the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, 2nd edn (Santa Barbara,
CA: ABC-CLIO, 2010), 2803–6.
Peyrouse, Sebastian, Des chrétiens entre athéisme et Islam: Regards sur la question religieuse en
Asie centrale soviétique et post-soviétique (Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose for Institut Français
d’Études sur l’Asie Centrale, 2003).
Peyrouse, Sebastian, ‘Why Do Central Asian Governments Fear Religion? A Consideration
of Christian Movements’, Journal of Eurasian Studies, 1:2 (2010), 134–43.
Van Gorder, Christian, Muslim-Christian Relations in Central Asia (Abingdon: Routledge,
2008).
Kyrgyzstan
David Radford
The history of Christianity in Kyrgyzstan is both ancient and modern,

traversing the witness of the Church of the East (sometimes referred to
as the Nestorian Church), the Russian Orthodox Church, and Baptist,
Pentecostal and Mennonite Churches (largely made up of ethnic Slavic
groups, Germans and Koreans) as well as Roman Catholics and Seventh-day
Adventists. The most recent development has been the re-emergence of
expressions of Central Asian Christianity through the growing numbers of
those identifying as Christians but who are from Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Uzbek
and other indigenous communities, groups who are commonly understood
to be Muslim. Unless otherwise specified, the terms ‘Kyrgyz’, ‘Kazakh’, and
‘Uzbek’ refer to the ethnic groups who are identified by these terms, not
the nationality or citizenship ascription, which may include members of all
ethnic groups. In the latter case these would be identified as Kyrgyzstan or
Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan nationals or citizens.
Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan (formerly known as Turkestan) is one of the smaller Central
Asian nations, both in terms of both geographical size and population
(just under 6 million). It is bordered by Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan
and, to the east, China. Formerly one of the republics of the Soviet Union,
Kyrgyzstan was part of a group of nations referred to as Soviet Central
Asia. It is a mountainous country where the majority ethnic community,
the Kyrgyz, have a long history as nomadic pastoralists, famous for their
horsemanship and livestock. The Kyrgyz form the majority or titular
ethnic group in the present–day nation of Kyrgyzstan. The 2009 census
figures show that Kyrgyz number about 71% of the population, Uzbeks
14% and Russians 8%. There has been a nearly 50% decrease in the Slavic
and German populations since Kyrgyzstan became independent from
the Soviet Union in 1991. While there are economic and cultural reasons
why many have moved back to their respective homelands in Russia and
Germany, this also reflected fears that under a post-Soviet national Kyrgyz
government some groups, especially the Russian community, would
encounter ethnic discrimination.
Kyrgyzstan 71
The Kyrgyz are generally considered to be a Muslim ethnic group.

Since 1991 significant numbers of the ‘ethnic’ Kyrgyz have accepted the
Christian faith. A 2004 media article quoted the director of the Religious
Affairs Committee of Kyrgyzstan, Omurzak Mamayusupov, as stating that
more than 100,000 Muslims of the 5 million population (5%) had converted
to Christianity and that the percentage of Muslims in the total population
had fallen from 84% in 2000 to 79.3% in 2004. This figure is almost certainly
exaggerated, and by the mid-2000s a more accurate figure would be closer
to 20,000 Kyrgyz Christians. Nevertheless, an increase from only a small
number of known Kyrgyz Christians in 1991 to figures numbering many
thousands in just 15 years reflects significant social and religious change.
Ancient Christianity in Central Asia and Kyrgyzstan

Christianity has had a much longer history and relationship with Central
Asia and Kyrgyzstan than Islam. There existed a strong Christian church
with links to Nestorian and Assyrian Christianity (often referred to as the
Church of the East) within what is now Kyrgyzstan as well as in other regions
of Central Asian, numbering in the tens of thousands, which included
five Metropolitan sees. That historical Christian faith had disappeared in
Kyrgyzstan by the mid-fourteenth century, due to a combination of disease
(the plague) and persecution. There are widespread Christian historical
ruins, gravestones and inscriptions in Kyrgyzstan, such as in modern-day
Suyab, which reveal a strong Nestorian Christian community between the
eighth and fourteenth centuries, and at Nevaket near Ivanovka, where
the ruins of a church can be found. Christian artefacts are also located at
the famous historical site, the Burana Tower, in Tokmok (60 km outside the
capital, Bishkek). The discovery of an ancient Christian monastery in the
northern Issok-kol region of Kyrgyzstan, which some claim to be the burial
place of the Apostle St Matthew, is further evidence of those historical
Christian roots.
Christianity in Kyrgyzstan, 1970 and 2015

Christians 338,000 11.4% 320,000 5.5% −0.1%
Independents 500 0.0% 23,700 0.4% 9.0%
Orthodox 294,000 9.9% 264,000 4.5% −0.2%
Protestants 43,400 1.5% 18,800 0.3% −1.8%
Catholics 0 0.0% 500 0.0% 9.1%
Evangelicals 4,300 0.1% 1,800 0.0% −1.9%
Pentecostals 2,200 0.1% 24,000 0.4% 5.5%
72 David Radford
Religion during the Soviet Period

The geographical area of Kyrgyzstan came under Russian rule during
the tsarist period and continued so under the Soviet Union. One of the
fundamental policies of the Soviet Union was the attempted eradication
of all religion from society. This attack on religion took at least three main
forms. The first was a frontal assault on religious organisations, hierarchy
and education through oppressive measures – arrest, imprisonment of
religious leaders and the shutting down of religious educational institu-
tions and places of religious worship. A second was a form of ‘organised
religion’ sanctioned by Soviet authorities. Those religious groups that
wished to continue did so under the authority and direction of the Soviet
authorities – they became instruments for the purposes of upholding the
Soviet state and its policies. Third, there was a concerted effort by the
Soviets not only to eradicate religion but also to replace religion in society
with socialist ideology forms, organisation and rituals.
The Soviet policy on religion affected all religious groups in the Soviet
Union. Muslims were targeted as well as Christians. In response, some
groups accommodated with the Soviet authorities in order to survive;
others stood in opposition, some merely took their religion underground,
while others decided it was time to leave religion altogether. In the 1920s
three of the five pillars of Islam, that all Muslims were supposed to
practise, were outlawed (including the zakat, the obligatory alms tax, and
the hadj, the pilgrimage to Mecca). Large numbers of mosques were closed
and almost all Islamic religious schools shut down. While the outward
religious expression of Islam was largely dismantled by the Soviets, the
sense of Muslim identity, nevertheless, was maintained. Many Central
Asian Muslims continued to participate in Muslim festivals, practise cir-
cumcision, hold religious marriages and burials, and maintain household
religious rites. It was not uncommon for some Kyrgyz to consider
themselves both Muslim and communist/atheist.
Russian Ethnicity and Russian Christianity

An understanding of the Russian community and their influence on Central
Asia is essential in understanding developments in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan
Christianity. The tsarist Russian Empire had a major impact in the region
long before the Soviet Union existed. Faced with a desire to constantly
expand their imperial lands and wealth and to ward off the influence of the
British, the Russian tsars eventually defeated and took complete control of
Central Asia up to the Afghan border.
However, unlike in other regions they defeated, the tsarist Russians
employed a policy that left Central Asian indigenous peoples (such
as the Kyrgyz, Kazak and Uzbeks) largely able to maintain social and
Kyrgyzstan 73
communal continuity. While efforts were made to imbue Russian culture

in Central Asia, the religious and cultural traditions of the region were
largely untouched. A policy of restricting the activity of the Russian
Orthodox Church among the local population appears to have been both a
political and a religious decision. According to one Russian administrator,
Konstantin von Kaufmann, it was Christian civilisation, not the Orthodox
faith, that the local population needed.
On the religious side, there was minimal effort to proselytise the local
community by the Russian Orthodox Church, although there were a few
attempts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In the words of
Archbishop Vladimir of the Russian Orthodox Church, ‘Russian Orthodox
Christianity came to the region with humility, not as the missionary
religion of a conqueror, and only to minister to the Russian settlers, with
no intention of converting the local population’. The indigenous Central
Asian communities were able to maintain their religious and social status,
while the Russians depended on local people for much of the administra-
tive machinery required to rule. The end result was that the peoples of
Central Asia, while being forced to submit to and recognise the sovereignty
of the Russian Empire, were able to maintain significant levels of continuity
and protection within their religious and cultural affairs.
One consequence of this ‘no-proselytisation policy’ was that for
Central Asian people, as well as for the Russians themselves, the Christian
religion (in the form of the Russian Orthodox Church) was intrinsically
related to Slavic (Russian-speaking) people. The inter-related factors of
ethnicity, religion and identity were embedded in the minds and hearts
of most of those residing in Central Asia, be they Russian or indigenous
Central Asian. In other words, to be Russian was to be Christian (Russian
Orthodox); to be Central Asian was to be Muslim. That identity differen-
tiation and ethnic alienation has remained to this day, characterised by
a feeling of reverse discrimination by the titular Central Asian peoples –
who now govern their new independent political nations – toward other
ethnic groups, especially Russians, who still reside within their borders.
As mentioned earlier, this resulted in large numbers of ethnic Russians
and Germans leaving Kyrgyzstan after independence, repatriating to their
respective ‘original’ homelands in Russia and Germany. Nonetheless, the
Russian Orthodox Church remains an important Christian influence. This
can be seen in its role in government, where it is viewed as having priority
and privilege as one of the two traditional religions of Kyrgyzstan, together
with Islam – represented by the Spiritual Administration of Muslims
of Kyrgyzstan (SAMK), also known as the Muftiate. In 2015 the largest
Russian Orthodox church in Central Asia was built in Bishkek, the Church
of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir.
74 David Radford
Non-Russian Orthodox Expressions of Christianity

There are several expressions of Christianity in Central Asia and Kyrgyzstan
outside of the Russian Orthodox Church. A small Roman Catholic
community exists. According to Roman Catholic sources, Franciscan
missionaries first came to Kyrgyzstan around the fourteenth or fifteenth
century. In the nineteenth century Polish and German settlers arrived,
bringing their Catholic faith, and these were followed by significant numbers
of Germans, Ukrainians and other Central Europeans who were forcibly
moved to Central Asia in the 1930s and 1940s, during Stalin’s period of rule.
Today there are about 500 Roman Catholics in Kyrgyzstan, largely of Polish
background but who also include Russians, Germans and Koreans.
One of the largest expressions of Protestant Christianity is represented by
what are sometimes called ‘Russian Baptists’; the term refers to Protestant
groups more generally rather than a particular Baptist denominational
group. One of the main alliances within the ‘Russian Baptists’ is the Euro-
Asiatic Federation of Unions of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. Formerly
this was the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, which
was registered with the Soviet government from 1944 until the Soviet
Union broke up in 1991. This group of Protestant churches included the
Mennonites and some Pentecostals as well as evangelicals with roots in the
Plymouth Brethren movement, in addition to actual Baptists. The ‘Baptists’
in Kyrgyzstan largely came from these groups. Both the Lutheran and the
‘Baptist’ Churches were almost exclusively German or Slavic (Russian-
speaking) peoples. Some ‘Baptists’ arrived as settlers in the nineteenth
century but larger numbers arrived as part of Stalin’s repopulation policies
after the 1930s. There are historic examples during the Soviet period, par-
ticularly around the perestroika era, of Baptists actively reaching out to
ethnic Kyrgyz. However, this tended to be the work of individuals rather
than a church or denomination.
In 1998 the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) started ministry in
Kyrgyzstan and it has since grown to more than 600 members, with around
35 groups and congregations. The first pastor was ordained in 2004 and
the first Kyrgyz pastor in 2007. In 2008 Pastor Kenjebek Botabaev became
the local bishop and in 2009 the Lutheran Church opened its first church
building, in Bishkek.
The German missionary Philipp Trippel introduced Seventh-day
Adventism to Central Asia in 1906, and in 1915 the Orlovka Adventist
Church became the denomination’s first church in the region. Adventist
membership in Kyrgyzstan between 2002 and 2012 decreased from 1,531
to 765, with the number of churches declining from 23 to 13. In 2013 the
Seventh-day Adventists ordained their first ‘Kyrgyzstani’ pastor, a former
police officer, Talgat S. Kubegenov.
Kyrgyzstan 75
Christianity in the Post-Soviet Period

Of all the post-Soviet Central Asian nations, Kyrgyzstan has been considered
the most open and ‘democratic’ and least authoritarian. Kyrgyzstan gained
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The first elected President,
Askar Akaev, attempted to set the new independent nation on a path
toward ‘marketisation and democratisation’. Akaev promoted a more
open society that was to include greater media participation and the
opportunity for the rise of social organisations in the development of the
country. While Akaev was concerned with the possibility of rising religious
extremism, he supported a relatively relaxed policy of religious freedom
and pluralism, certainly more so than in other former Soviet states, which
were considering banning proselytisation. This ‘freedom’, however, while
giving the population opportunity to express their own religious faith
in greater openness, also invited a ‘marketplace’ of ‘new’ religious ideas
and choices. The years since independence have indeed seen a flourishing
religious market, with a rise in public Islamic religious observance and
commitment as well as the growth of numerous Protestant Christian and
non-Christian denominations and sects, which have included various
Baptist groups, Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Baha’is, the Unification Church and Hare Krishnas. During this time large
numbers of foreign missionary groups also arrived, largely Christians from
Western Europe, the USA and South Korea, as well as Muslims from the
Middle East, Turkey and Pakistan. In a real sense these are new religious
movements and a changing religious and social milieu for many Kyrgyz,
albeit a minority.
The Re-emergence of Indigenous Central Asian Christianity

The Kyrgyz, as a community, have had a strong affinity with the
natural environment. Their traditional religious or spiritualistic beliefs
and practices were akin to the pluralistic worldview of animism and
shamanism. Examples include belief in the spirit world, recognition of the
supreme deity Tengri (heaven), the cult of the ancestors, various forms of
totemism (including sacred understanding of animals such as the wolf or
the horse) and belief in the power associated with the physical landscape,
such as with particular springs, trees and rocks.
Although Islam entered the Central Asian region in the seventh
century, it was not until the late nineteenth century that the Kyrgyz
largely embraced Islam as a broad community. As a result, the form of
Islam adopted by many Kyrgyz was more heterodox than orthodox.
While embracing many Muslim religious traditions, the Kyrgyz adapted
Islam within the framework of their previously held worldview. Folk or
popular Islam, a syncretistic combination of the old and new, became
76 David Radford
the dominant religious framework for the Kyrgyz. The self-perception of

what it meant to be Muslim (in terms of identity) related to their nomadic
lifestyle and history, to the traditional beliefs and practices associated with
their pre-Islamic traditions, together with the overlaying and adaptation of
Muslim culture and beliefs. Added to this was the influence of the decades
of Soviet ideology and education, which significantly reduced levels of
Muslim religious orthodoxy and encouraged an atheistic outlook on life.
Since independence in 1991 there has been an emerging direction in the
Muslim community toward more orthodox or scripturalist expressions of
Islamic religious belief and practice, strongly influenced by foreign Muslim
organisations.
As noted, since independence growing numbers of Kyrgyz have
embraced Protestant Christianity. On some occasions there has been strong
opposition to the development of ethnic Kyrgyz expressions of Chris-
tianity by individuals and/or communities and also by the Kyrgyzstan
government. Askar Akaev resisted early Islamic calls to ban the activity
of foreign missionaries, in an attempt to protect ethnic Kyrgyz and
Uzbeks who had embraced the Christian faith. Archbishop Vladimir of
the Russian Orthodox Church also raised his voice, together with some
Muslim religious groups, in opposition to these new Protestant religious
developments, stating that the Russian Orthodox Church had always been
in ‘partnership’ and ‘friendship’ with Islam and that these new Christian
religious groups represented a threat to both traditional communities.
The growth in the number of Kyrgyz Christians has been followed
by negative media coverage. Common accusations are that evangelical
churches are ‘totalitarian cults’ using hypnosis and other forms of psycho
logical manipulation to brainwash their members and that Protestant
Christians are a destabilising influence on society. Conversions taking place
in rural areas have led to attempts at physical intimidation, banishment
of Kyrgyz Christians from their local communities and the prevention of
burials in village cemeteries. As a result of these conflicts and tensions,
together with fears of the work of extremist Muslim religious groups
operating in Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyzstan government has, since 2009,
passed more restrictive laws on religious freedom, requiring, for instance,
that for a church to be legally registered it must already have a minimum
of 200 identifiable members.
While there are indications that a few individual Kyrgyz became
Christians prior to the 1980s, the first Kyrgyz church was started by an
ethnic German, Andrej Peters, in the late 1980s, just prior to Kyrgyzstan
independence from the Soviet Union. Peters had a personal mission call to
reach the Kyrgyz and, despite the lack of support from his local Russian
Baptist church, moved his family to the town of Naryn. It was here that the
Kyrgyzstan 77
first ethnic Kyrgyz church began. The following years saw this fledgling
church grow and the re-emergence of an indigenous Christian church in
Kyrgyzstan not seen since the fifteenth century. Since 1991 the growth of
this indigenous Christian movement has seen several developments. These
include an embracing of these new Kyrgyz Christians within a number
of Russian Baptist church groups, the establishment of independent
Kyrgyz churches that reflected both Baptist and Charismatic orientations,
Korean Kyrgyz churches that have been strongly influenced from the large
number of South Korean missionaries who moved to Kyrgyzstan, and
independent Pentecostal Church movements, the largest of which is the
Church of Jesus Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ (not to be confused with
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – the Mormon Church),
under the leadership of Pastor Vasili Kuzin, is the largest Pentecostal
church in Kyrgyzstan and claims more than 12,000 members. According
to the Church of Jesus Christ nearly 40% of its members are ethnic Kyrgyz.
By 2004, 20 years after it began, the Church of Jesus Christ had at least 45
branches around Kyrgyzstan as well as daughter churches in Germany,
the USA and Russia. The congregation members represent the multi-ethnic
diversity of Kyrgyzstan, including Russians and Kyrgyz. The high-profile
nature of the Church of Jesus Christ has meant that it has significant public
visibility and receives considerable media and government scrutiny. For
example, in January 2016 the Church of Jesus Christ successfully won a
two-year-long court case against the Kyrgyzstan government, which had
decided to take back the main church building in the capital, Bishkek, that
the church had bought in 1999.
Kyrgyz Christians have faced important challenges from the wider
Kyrgyz community, in particular the challenges and accusations associated
with conversion to Christianity. These responses can be summed up in a
number of statements:
• You have ‘betrayed’, ‘sold out’, your faith, your family, your community, and
your ancestors; you have become a kapyr. These various terms were used to
describe someone who was understood to have violated Kyrgyz identity
and brought shame on the community. The term kapyr (kafir in Arabic) is
a Muslim term referring to an apostate, one who has deliberately turned
their back on the faith.
• You were born Muslim. To be Kyrgyz is to be Muslim. Muslim religious
identity is commonly understood to be something one is born into
rather than simply an individual choice that a person makes.
• You have become Russian, converted to Russian religion and are following the
Russian God. Here Christianity is understood to be a foreign religion and
Jesus a foreign God.
78 David Radford
• You have become ‘Baptist’. This term is used in a derogatory way and is
associated with Christian religion. The rumours were that ‘Baptists’ were
a weird cult or sect engaged in brainwashing, immoral sexual relations
and cannibalism (killing and eating babies). The label ‘Baptist’ with
its negative association appears to have its roots in Soviet propaganda
against non-traditional (non-Russian Orthodox) Christian groups.
Each one of these accusations highlights the perception that Christi

anity is foreign or non-Kyrgyz, and as being Russian, or ‘other’. They also
show that conversion to Christianity is seen as a violation of normative
Kyrgyz behaviour and identity. The label ‘Russian’ for a Kyrgyz Christian
is not simply about being ‘Russified’, that is, one who accepts Russian
ways and thinking; it is a term that implies one has forsaken one’s core
identity. Nevertheless, a growing number of Kyrgyz and other indigenous
Central Asians now identify themselves as Christians. A number of factors
have contributed to the development of such large numbers of indigenous
Central Asians becoming Christians.
One major factor was the large-scale social, political and economic
instability that came about as a result of the decision to push for independ-
ence from the Soviet Union in 1991. This unsettling period caused many
in Kyrgyzstan to look for alternative answers to life and societal situations
beyond those of the Soviet/communist ideologies and worldview that led
to the Soviet Union’s collapse. It has been common for scholars to speak
of this period as the ‘revitalisation of religion’, which included Central
Asia as well as many of the other former republics of the Soviet Union.
It was marked by greater openness to religion and public expressions of
religiosity, after the tight restrictions of the Soviet period.
The translation of the Bible into Kyrgyz in the 1990s allowed Kyrgyz
Christians direct access to Christian scriptures in their own language at
a very early stage in the growth of Kyrgyz Christianity. Although the
Bible was available in the Russian language, the availability of the Bible in
Kyrgyz was seen as an important development in the understanding that
Christianity can be viewed as a legitimate, not foreign, Kyrgyz religious
expression. Those involved in the translation of the New Testament
included Kyrgyz nationals and foreigners. The first Bible was translated
by a famous communist Kyrgyz writer, Ernest Tursunov, and sponsored
by Ray of Hope, a local German NGO. Later translations were editions of
that translation. A new translation from Kazakh of the Gospel of John was
introduced in 1997 and the whole of the New Testament in 2003. These
latter translations, sponsored by the United Bible Societies, have served as
an example of a ‘good’ translation and the local groups are now improving
the early versions.
Kyrgyzstan 79
Many Kyrgyz Christians attribute the ability to read the Bible and the
development of Christian worship in the Kyrgyz language as key elements
in their Christian conversion experience. This is not necessarily the case
for all Kyrgyz Christians, however. In a number of Baptist and Pentecostal
churches the Russian language is still largely used in sermons, worship
and church activities, often reflecting the multi-ethnic nature of the con-
gregations. This is an important reminder that some Kyrgyz Christians
are more comfortable using the Russian language than Kyrgyz, reflecting
the influence of Russian/Soviet colonisation, education and government
policies, as well as some difficulties with early Kyrgyz translations.
The translation of the Bible into Kyrgyz has promoted the growing
use and identification of the Kyrgyz worldview with Christianity. These
have included the use of Kyrgyz terms in common Kyrgyz Christian
language use. For example, the title for Jesus Christ is Isa Mashaiak. This is
a combination of the Muslim Arabic word for the prophet Jesus, Isa, and
the Kyrgyz word Mashaiak. While there is some lack of clarity as to the
origins of the word Mashaiak, there is a suggestion that the term indicates a
messiah-like figure. The words used for ‘God’ in Kyrgyz include Tengir and
Kudai. A growing number of Kyrgyz Christians now refer to themselves as
mashaiakche (followers of the Messiah).
In recent years some Kyrgyz Christians have pointed to the historical
origins of Christianity in Kyrgyzstan in support of their Christian faith.
This communicates, as some suggest, that their newfound Christian faith
is directly linked to the faith of their ancestors, who were Kyrgyz but not
Muslims. A young Uzbek/Kyrgyz Christian spoke excitedly to the author
in Kyrgyzstan: ‘If it is true that our ancestors were Christians’, he said,
‘then it is fine for me to be one too’. As a traditionally nomadic people with
strong attachments to animistic/shamanistic traditions, the Kyrgyz give
great importance to the role of their ancestors in their lives and family.
This is reflected in accusations that when Kyrgyz become Christian they
betray their ancestors and in the refusal of a family or village community to
bury Kyrgyz Christians in the local cemetery – a significant issue of conflict
between Muslim and Christian communities in contemporary Kyrgyzstan.
Foreign missionaries have played a role in promoting Protestant
Christianity in post-independence Kyrgyzstan, with some official figures
suggesting that by the early 2000s there were nearly 700 Protestant
missionaries in Kyrgyzstan, representing a cross-section of Christian de-
nominations and coming from places as divergent as the USA, Europe,
South Korea and Australia. Most missionaries focused on the Russian
language and socio-economic development, but there were some who
engaged specifically with the Kyrgyz Muslim community, including by
translating the Bible into the Kyrgyz language. Some scholars have argued
80 David Radford
that foreign missionaries were instrumental in the contextualising of

Christianity among the Kyrgyz, while others have indicated that Kyrgyz
Christians were also active agents of change in this process. The contextu
alisation of Christianity has included the increasing use of the Kyrgyz
language, as well as cultural symbols and traditions, in expressions and in-
terpretations of indigenous Christianity. These developments include the
use of Kyrgyz traditional musical instruments in Christian worship, such
as the komuz, a traditional guitar-like instrument, and Christian worship
services taking place using the Kyrgyz language while the congregation
sit on the ground on sherdaks (traditional woollen carpets) rather than on
chairs. However, there is a wide variety of Christian worship expression,
including the use and incorporation of the Russian language, and inter
national worship music with English words translated.
Recent research on Kyrgyz conversion indicates that there is a strong
effort to maintain continuity with family and cultural heritage among
Kyrgyz Christians and that this had been an important reason why some
Kyrgyz have embraced the Christian faith. While this might be an attempt
to diffuse tensions and to respond to charges that Christianity is a foreign
religion, nevertheless many Kyrgyz Christians view Protestant Christianity
as being closer to Kyrgyz culture and traditions than Islam, even though it
is a new Kyrgyz religious expression. At the same time, Kyrgyz Christians
affirm their identity in terms of both being Kyrgyz and being part of a global
religious identity, linking their Christian faith with Christians around the
world. The role of Korean missionaries has meant that this international
association of Christian faith is not simply ‘Western’ but also Asian.
One extreme interpretation of Christianity within a Kyrgyz cultural
and historical context has been the claim that so many Kyrgyz cultural
traditions find such close parallel with those found in the Bible that this
proves that the Kyrgyz are in fact one of the ‘lost tribes of Israel’. Among
several claims, the famous Manas epic, the longest epic story in the world, is
said to have drawn from biblical accounts of Jacob, Rebekah and Manasseh.
The names mirror those of the protagonist in the epic, Manas, and of his
family. Most Kyrgyz Christians would not necessarily agree with the ‘lost
tribe of Israel’ argument but nevertheless find many touchpoints between
Kyrgyz culture and the cultures evident in the Bible. It has been suggested
that the close parallels between the Manas epic and biblical characters and
stories might have links to historical Nestorian Christian influences rather
than proving that the Kyrgyz are one of the lost tribes of Israel.
A common factor among many Kyrgyz who have become Christians
is a distinct lack of orthodox religiosity in their family backgrounds. An
inclination to popular Muslim/Kyrgyz traditional spirituality sentiment
appears to show an openness to or affection for the supernatural, or at least
Kyrgyzstan 81
for other-worldly solutions to life situations. Experiences of supernatural

healing and of power in overcoming perceived negative or ‘evil’ spiritual
forces have been cited as factors in Christian conversion. In general,
there was an overall lack of religiosity toward either orthodox Muslim or
popular religious traditions prior to conversion. This might be the effect
of more than 70 years of the anti-religious policies of the Soviet Union
described earlier. It was not uncommon for some Kyrgyz to see themselves
as both Muslim and atheist. The openness to spiritual realities combined
with a lack of strong Muslim religious identity might explain why such
significant numbers of Kyrgyz Muslims have become Christians in post-
independence Kyrgyzstan.
Perhaps the primary reason for the spread of Christianity in Kyrgyzstan
has been the person-to-person involvement of Kyrgyz Christians with
those from their community. Kyrgyz Christians have been important
‘agents of change’ as leaders, evangelists, pastors and everyday witnesses
to their own family and community. A growing number of Kyrgyz
Christian families are now participating in a variety of Christian denomi-
national expressions, representing at least three generations of Christian
faith spread out across the breadth of Kyrgyzstan, from north to south, and
from urban to very rural areas. Kyrgyz Christians, together with Christians
from other ethnic backgrounds, are now engaged across all spheres of
life in modern Kyrgyzstan, as teachers, lawyers, journalists, academics,
community development workers and social activists in NGOs, and, in a
few cases, as missionaries beyond the borders of Kyrgyzstan.
Given the Muslim context of Kyrgyz Christianity, it is worth commenting
that Kyrgyzstan appears to be an unusual example of the growth of Christi-
anity among Muslim peoples. While there have been increasing restrictions
on religious freedom and the requirement for registration of Christian
churches and social organisations in Kyrgyzstan, the nation’s constitu-
tion since independence has largely allowed for much more liberty than in
most Muslim-majority contexts. People have relative freedom to practise
and believe the religion of choice, although with a number of government
limitations and social opposition. One author has suggested that unless
Christianity is less tied to European interests and becomes more embraced
by indigenous Central Asians, it runs the risk of disappearing. Given that
the quarter century since independence is the longest period of relative
religious freedom in more than 1,000 years, it is perhaps too early to say
how resilient indigenous Christianity in Kyrgyzstan will remain; neverthe-
less, one can say with certainty that seeds have been planted.
82 David Radford
Bibliography
Baumer, Christoph, The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity
(London: I. B. Tauris, 2006).
Klein, Wassilios, ‘A Christian Heritage on the Northern Silk Road: Archaeological and
Epigraphic Evidence of Christianity in Kyrgyzstan’, Journal of the Canadian Society for
Syriac Studies, 1 (2001), 85–94.
Lane, Christel, Christian Religion in the Soviet Union: A Sociological Study, (London: Allen and
Unwin, 1978).
Pelkmans, Mathijs (ed.), Conversion after Socialism: Disruptions, Modernisms and Technologies
of Faith in the Former Soviet Union (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2009).
Muslim World (London: Routledge, 2015).
Iran
Gulnar Francis-Dehqani
The situation of Christians in Iran since the Islamic Revolution of February

1979 is, essentially, paradoxical. On the one hand, the oppression and
persecution of Christians are more severe now than they have been
in several centuries. On the other, since the late 1990s in particular, the
growth of new Christian groups, meeting privately in homes, has proved
unprecedented. The phenomenon has been acknowledged at the highest
level of government and action taken to suppress such gatherings.
Over the last 40 years or so a number of Christian leaders have been
martyred, imprisoned or obliged to leave the country. At the beginning
of 2018 more than 90 Christians were detained in prison and, with a few
exceptions which have been kept under close supervision, all public
Persian-speaking churches in Iran have been either closed or forbidden to
use the Persian language in worship.
What is happening in twenty-first-century Iran must be set in the much
wider context of a long history, of both Christianity and the relationship
between Christians and the general population. Christianity has existed in
Iran since the earliest days of the faith. Traditionally, the Magi (Matthew
2: 1) were from ‘Persian lands afar’, and on the day of Pentecost, Parthians,
Medes and Elamites (inhabitants of Persia) were present among the
disciples (Acts 2: 9). Later legends suggest St Thomas visited Persia on his
way to India, while others claim Simon the Zealot brought Christianity
to Iran. One way or another, by the end of the fifth century, there was an
organised form of Christianity in the region, though Zoroastrianism (and
later Islam) remained the official religion of Iran. A bishop from Iran was
present at the Council of Nicaea in 325. Later, in 635, the Persian bishop
known as Alopen arrived in China on a missionary expedition.
From the seventh century and the time of the Muslim invasion onward,
the fate of Christians became more closely linked with the socio-political
changes in Iran, resulting in periods of relative freedom separated by
spells of hardship and persecution. From the earliest days of its territorial
expansion, Islam granted dhimmis, or ‘tolerated unbelievers’, certain
rights and protection. Their situation varied according to the relation-
ship of Muslim rulers with the West at any given time. Nevertheless, they
were always regarded as inferior and separate from Muslim nationals.
84 Gulnar Francis-Dehqani
Armenians and Assyrians have had the longest minority presence in Iran,
initially in the areas bordering Armenia and Turkey. Later, in the sixteenth
century, Shah Abbas brought a sizeable Armenian community to Julfa, a
new suburb of Isfahan, to help build the mosques for which the city is
famous.
The Assyrians and Armenians, not being ethnic Persians, continue as
minority groups in Iran today, living in cultural pockets and maintaining
their own customs, languages and religions. Meanwhile, for Muslims,
conversion from Islam to Christianity (or any other religion) is regarded as
apostasy, which is both a crime and a sin. The violation amounts to treason,
desertion and betrayal of a community to which one owes loyalty, and is
punishable by death. The country’s legal system has not always practised
this religious tenet, but churches have had to be extremely cautious and the
work of foreign missions has been restricted.
The long religious and cultural relationship between Iran and Christi-
anity has created a strong presence of Christian imagery in Persian poetry
and art. Anglican Bishop Hassan Dehqani-Tafti in his three-volume survey
in Persian, Christ and Christianity Amongst the Iranians, draws examples
from more than 50 poets to illustrate the vast sea of Persian poetry and
literature that refers to Jesus, his teachings and his life and which remain
influential at a popular level.
The seventeenth century witnessed the arrival of the first representa-
tives of the Catholic religious orders, following which some members of
the Armenian and Assyrian communities brought themselves under the
authority of the Pope to form Armenian and Assyrian Uniate churches
alongside Latin-rite worshippers. It was in the nineteenth century that the
first Western missionaries arrived in Iran. The Reverend Henry Martyn’s
10 months (1811–12) in Iran, during which he supervised the translation of
the New Testament into Persian and produced three controversial tracts
Christianity in Iran, 1970 and 2015

Christians 268,000 0.9% 547,000 0.7% 1.6%
Anglicans 2,600 0.0% 1,000 0.0% −2.1%
Independents 1,300 0.0% 301,000 0.4% 12.9%
Orthodox 223,000 0.8% 180,000 0.2% −0.5%
Protestants 15,200 0.1% 28,400 0.0% 1.4%
Catholics 24,000 0.1% 6,000 0.0% −3.0%
Evangelicals 11,200 0.0% 73,800 0.1% 4.3%
Pentecostals 4,100 0.0% 252,000 0.3% 9.6%
Iran 85
on Christianity and Islam, was followed in 1834 by missionaries from the

Presbyterian Church in the USA and in 1869 by missionaries from the
Church of England’s Church Missionary Society and the London Society
for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. These missionaries engaged
in medical, educational, literature and evangelistic work. Over the decades
Armenian-, Assyrian- and Persian-speaking churches were founded by
the Presbyterians in the main cities of northern Iran, while the Anglicans
developed primarily Persian-speaking congregations, schools and hospitals
in the main cities of southern Iran. Small Brethren and Pentecostal con-
gregations were formed in the first half of the twentieth century. It was
from them that the Filadelfia congregation developed in Tehran. In 1963 it
formally joined the Assemblies of God denomination and opened churches
in central and suburban Tehran and in Gorgan in the north. This church
was active in evangelism and would be important in providing leaders for
the house churches at the end of the century.
Over the decades it became apparent that Iranian Shi’ite ulema (clergy)
saw these missionary initiatives from Europe and the USA as importing
Western ideas and beliefs that challenged and undermined Islam, which
they considered a significant uniting factor in Iranian society. Though this
issue came to the fore after the 1979 Revolution, it was clearly evident even
in Shi’ite responses to Henry Martyn’s 1811 tracts.
Article 13 of the Iranian constitution provides freedom for the only
recognised religious minorities – Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian (by
which is meant the Armenian and Assyrian communities) – to practise
their religious ceremonies and on matters of personal status and religious
education. In the mid-1970s the Armenian population of Iran was estimated
at about 250,000, dropping to around 150,000 in the 1990s. The Assyrians
numbered about 30,000, declining to 16,000 in the 1990s and 7,000 by 2015.
The main reason for the decrease, which has continued into the twenty-
first century, has been emigration following the Islamic Revolution. Both of
these Orthodox communities hold their identities through their histories,
cultures and languages. They also maintain their own community associa-
tions and schools, although there have been conflicts over education because
falling populations have obliged them to accept Muslim pupils, provide
separate Qu’ranic classes and use Persian as a language of instruction.
The population of Iran is about 80 million. Estimates of the number of
Christians living in Iran vary greatly, depending on whether speculative
estimates of house-church members are included or not. Public statistics
of around 120,000 refer almost entirely to members of the Armenian and
Assyrian communities. Roman Catholics, Anglicans/Episcopalians and
Presbyterians (of Armenian, Assyrian, Jewish as well as Muslim heritage)
number in the low thousands.
Post-Revolution Pressure on Churches

Christians, like most Iranians, hoped that Khomeini’s Revolution would
bring greater freedom from dictatorship. The new constitution ratified
in April 1979 recognised Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians as legitimate
minorities with freedom to practise their faith. The Assyrians were
permitted one representative in Parliament and the Armenians two. There
was, however, a new restriction on proselytising among Muslims, and
conversion from Islam was outlawed as apostasy under Sharia law and
punishable by death. But alongside official statements, some voluntary
Islamic organisations as well as local groups hostile to religious minorities
took the law into their own hands, particularly in relation to church-owned
property.
Since the Revolution, Christians have faced three distinct waves of
persecution.
The first wave of persecution

The first wave was in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution and
affected the Anglican Episcopal Church. On 19 February 1979, the pastor
of the church in Shiraz, the Reverend Arastoo Sayyah, was murdered in his
church office. This was followed by confiscation of the Episcopal Church’s
hospitals in Shiraz and Isfahan, looting of the diocesan offices and the
bishop’s house in Isfahan, and confiscation of church property, including
school buildings and a farm for the blind. These attacks were not centrally
organised but were led by local thugs, largely from the Islamic Propagation
Society. These events culminated, in October 1979, in the attempted assas-
sination of Bishop Dehqani-Tafti while he was asleep in bed. His life was
saved by his wife, who threw herself across his body, and, although she was
shot and injured, they both miraculously survived. The upshot was that,
following meetings in the Middle East shortly afterward, he was advised
by other Anglican Church leaders not to return to Iran. They persuaded
him that he would be more useful continuing his ministry from outside
the country. On 1 May 1980 the bishop’s secretary, Jean Waddell, who had
remained in Iran, was shot and severely wounded in Tehran, and five days
later his 24-year-old son, Bahram, was murdered in his car. The Anglican
Church was formally declared dysfunctional and all foreign personnel
expelled. The diocesan bank accounts were frozen and the staff pension
funds expropriated. In August seven members of the diocese, including
two priests, the diocesan administrator and three missionaries, were
arrested in Isfahan and released only in February 1981. However, services
in Persian were allowed to continue and the Reverend Iraj Muttahedeh was
consecrated Bishop in 1986, succeeding Bishop Dehqani-Tafti as Bishop in
Iran on his retirement in 1988.
Iran 87
In early 1981 all foreign mission schools were taken over from the Italian
and French Catholic orders and the American Presbyterians. In following
years church bookstores were closed in four cities. Churches were closed
in the northern cities of Sari, Gorgan and Mashhad and the activities of the
church in the southern city of Ahwaz limited to Sunday only. There were
also occasions when church members were beaten to obtain information.
The second wave of persecution

The second wave of persecution affected the Presbyterians and the
Assemblies of God Pentecostal churches. In July 1989 the Presbyterians’
Garden of Evangelism in north Tehran, used for Christian conferences, was
closed and the property seized. In February 1990 the Iranian Bible Society,
which had been allowed to operate during the 1980s, was closed down and
its property confiscated.
On 3 December 1990 Pastor Hossein Soodmand, 55, charged with
apostasy and with operating a Christian bookstore and an illegal church,
was sentenced to death and executed by a Sharia court in Mashhad, northern
Iran. He had converted from Islam in 1964 and had been an evangelist with
Episcopal, Presbyterian and finally Assemblies of God Churches. He is the
only person to date judicially executed for apostasy.
In 1983 the Reverend Mehdi Dibaj, a Muslim convert who had worked
with the Presbyterian, Episcopal and Assemblies of God Churches, was
arrested and held in prison without trial for 10 years. In 1994 he was put
on trial for apostasy and condemned to death. He was released after an
international campaign led by Bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr, general
superintendent of the Assemblies of God. A few days after Dibaj’s release,
however, Bishop Haik was abducted, and his dead body was found with
multiple stab wounds. Within months, Dibaj and the Reverend Tateos
Mikaelian – a pastor, noted translator and former General Secretary of the
Bible Society who had succeeded Bishop Haik as President of the Council
of Protestant Churches – were abducted and murdered. The murders of
Bishop Haik and the Reverend Mikaelian were serious blows to Christians
in Iran. Both were strong and effective leaders of the small Protestant
churches, steadfast in resisting oppressive restrictions placed on the
churches. Both were Armenian Iranians who reached out to and loved all
Iranians, including Muslims. Bishop Haik was also a gifted musician who
wrote and recorded more than 60 hymns in the Persian language.
The Reverend Mohammed Bagher Yusefi, 34, was the seventh Iranian
Christian leader martyred after the 1979 Revolution. Also a convert from
Islam, Yusefi was pastor of the Assemblies of God in the north-western
province of Mazandaran. He and his wife had taken care of two of Pastor
Mehdi Dibaj’s sons during the years Dibaj was imprisoned. Yusefi, whose
church members called him Ravanbakhsh, ‘Soul Giver’, had left his home in
Sari, the capital of Mazandaran Province, at 6 a.m. on 28 September 1996
to study and pray. He was found by authorities, hanging from a tree in a
forest outside Sari that evening.
Ghorban Tourani, leader of a house church of 12 of his family and
friends, has been described as the house churches’ first martyr. Arrested
by government officials in the northern town of Gonbad-e-Kavus on
22 November 2005, his stabbed body was returned to his house a few
hours later. By 1995 Presbyterian churches in Mashhad, Sari, Ahwaz and
Kermanshah and the Anglican Church in Kerman had been closed by the
authorities. St Andrew’s in Kerman was bulldozed in 2011 and the property
turned into a car park.
During the presidency of Mohammad Khatami (1997–2005), who had
campaigned on a platform that included liberalisation, reform, freedom of
expression and tolerance, there was a degree of greater openness for the
churches. President Khatami initiated the Dialogue Among Civilisations
project in response to Samuel P. Huntington’s theory of the clash of civilisa-
tions, later taken up by the United Nations as the Year of Dialogue Among
Civilisations in 2001. During Khatami’s presidency a number of larger
gatherings of Christians took place, and the Episcopal Church also sent
several young people to a Middle East Episcopal Church youth gathering
in Turkey. But, perhaps more significantly for the future, the movement
of house churches was developing, as evidenced by the growing number
of arrests in 2004–7. This is considered below, before the third wave of
persecution is discussed.
The emergence of house churches

The closure of church buildings and the monitoring of those who attended
the ones left open contributed to the early stages of Christians meeting
in homes. These groups were separate from the recognised churches and
began expanding from the late 1990s. In the most substantial study of the
house church movement, based on extensive interviews, Mark Bradley in
Too Many to Jail identifies a number of factors behind this movement and
highlights great diversity in practice.
Often a small group of Christians begin to meet in someone’s home and
then family members and friends may join. Given issues of trust, complete
strangers are probably too suspect. When the group becomes too big it
divides, forming two meetings in two homes. Bradley gives an example
of one older, experienced pastor becoming convinced that the future of
Christianity lies in networks of Christians meeting in homes, because it
is too dangerous for Muslim enquirers and converts to gather in public
churches. In the late 1990s this pastor selected 40 men and women as
Iran 89
potential church planters, who would engage people in conversation,

share the Christian faith and offer copies of Luke’s gospel as gifts. They
experienced a great openness and drew enquirers into small worshipping
cells. These multiplied as new Christians shared their faith with family and
friends. In the early 2000s it was possible to hold larger gatherings from
time to time for teaching and worship, but increased arrests (for example of
80 church leaders in September 2004) ensured those opportunities did not
last long. Under a policy with which some disagreed, baptism – considered
to be too dangerous – was delayed, although once a group was considered
solid enough the leader was given authority to celebrate communion once
a month.
Bradley gives another example of what he calls a network beginning in
the early 2000s, which developed into somewhere in the region of 600–700
new Christians meeting in house churches in eight different cities across
Iran. He describes the house churches as a mosaic. They may be large
or small. Their membership varies from a gathering of families to single
young men or women or a mixture. Because of arrests they may be forced
to close and later regroup. They may or may not know of the existence of
other groups. Often they begin through the initiative of one person sensing
God’s call to evangelise and plant churches.
A house-group leader is usually connected with a more senior leader,
possibly from one of the older churches, either within Iran or outside
the country. Practices and patterns of worship are fluid and vary,
though singing (where possible), intercession, study of the Bible, sharing
testimonies of how people came to faith and how God is at work in lives,
prayer for healing, and use of CDs, DVDs and watching Christian satellite
television programmes – including streamed worship from outside Iran –
are all mentioned. Programmes on satellite television or via the Internet
and social media produced by Iranian Christians outside the country have
been a crucial support in providing teaching and encouragement and are
particularly important in supplying training material for the formation
of leaders. A feature of house-church growth has been the willingness of
Iranians to explore Christian faith and commit to following Christ. Given
the opposition of government authorities, security is a major issue, so
groups keep separate from each other and any networks are known only
to certain leaders.
The distribution of Bibles and New Testaments has been significant in
evangelism. Although it is illegal to publish these in Iran, tens of thousands
of portions of Scripture have been sent into the country, particularly since
2000. Among other groups active in this area, the Iranian Bible Society
reopened in 2017, operating from outside the country under the name
Iranian Bible Society in Diaspora. In Captive in Iran, Maryam Rostampour
and Marziyeh Amirizadeh – who had hosted two house churches, one for
young people and another specifically for prostitutes – describe how they
distributed more than 20,000 New Testaments in the course of three years
before their arrest in 2009.
The third wave of persecution

The election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as President in 2005 ended the
more open attitude that had prevailed under President Khatami. Although
arrests and seizure of Christian material continued, it was after the period
of demonstrations, riots and arrests following the contested re-election of
Ahmadinejad in 2009 that the third wave of severe persecution began. It
took the form of an intensive effort to terminate all activities reaching out
to the Muslim majority population. Churches belonging to the recognised
ethnic minorities (Armenian and Assyrian) were exempt. Beginning with
the closure of Assemblies of God churches in Tehran, Isfahan, Urumia and
Kermanshah, clamp-downs continued with arrests and imprisonments
of house-church leaders and members, closure of recognised Protestant
churches and severe restrictions on the few allowed to remain open.
It should be noted that a feature of the first decade of the twenty-first
century was a general turning away from Islam to other religions – Zoro-
astrianism, Baha’ism, Sufism (a more mystical tradition within Islam) and
Christianity. This shook the authorities to the extent that even the Supreme
Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, mentioned the house churches in a warning
to a large crowd in the holy city of Qom on 19 October 2010:
Because they [Iran’s enemies] want to diminish the faith of people towards
Islam and the sacred things of Islam by different means within the country
they work to shake the foundation of the faith of people, especially the young
generation with the spread of loose and shameless lifestyles, to the promotion
of false mysticism – the fake type of real mysticism – to the spread of Baha’ism,
to the spread of the network of house churches. This is what the enemies of
Islam are up to with tact and calculation and careful study; their sole goal is to
weaken the religion within the society.
From June 2010 to February 2011, 254 Christians were arrested in 33
cities. The climax was 26 December 2010, when 64 were arrested in 10 cities,
exemplifying the widespread nature of the house-church movement. The
basic charge against those arrested or brought to trial was ‘acting against
national security’, with the accusation that they had been challenging the
Shi’ite principles underlying the Republic’s constitution, thereby opening
the door to deviant Western practices and secularism. To gain release, those
arrested often had to surrender passports, provide substantial sums in bail
(often in the form of title deeds to property) and commit to not attending
house groups.
Iran 91
Pastors of the recognised churches had long been required to provide

the Islamic authorities with the names and addresses of those attending
their churches, but attendance was even more carefully monitored, dis-
couraging newcomers or enquirers. Restrictions increased after 2010 as
Presbyterian and Pentecostal churches were instructed to limit attendance
to those not from a Muslim background and to conduct services only in
Assyrian or Armenian. Anglicans were permitted to continue worshipping
in Persian but forced to restrict attendance to those who had been members
before 1979 and their children. By 2017 it was illegal for Muslims to live
in church-owned properties, and churches were forbidden to employ any
Muslim Iranians.
This was part of a systematic policy to close down all churches
interacting with and providing services for the Persian-speaking (majority
Muslim) population. In May 2013 the largest Protestant church in Iran, the
Central Assembly of God (AoG) church in Tehran, was forced to close. Its
pastors were ordered to supply a list of all their congregants, together with
personal details, including identity card numbers. Having faced particu-
larly intense pressure from the government to cease all Persian-language
services and activities over many months, the church faced a final blow in
May when one of its senior leaders, Robert Asserian, was arrested and held
for six weeks in Evin prison and the church closed. Asserian was eventually
released but obliged to leave the country.
The situation has not improved since President Hassan Rouhani
assumed office in 2013. Those who monitor the human rights situation
in Iran report continued arrests and harsh physical and psychological
interrogation of Christians. Meetings in homes for prayer and Bible study
or contact with Christians outside the country are interpreted as political
activity – ‘propaganda against the state’ – and are seen as threatening Iran’s
national security. Those charged face long prison sentences and/or corporal
punishment and are prohibited from associating with Christian groups. To
give one example, dozens were reportedly detained in Iranian prisons as of
January 2016, many for involvement in informal house churches. The 2017
report from the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran expressed
continuing concern ‘about the targeting and harsh treatment of Christians
from Muslim backgrounds’. All of this has resulted in a reduction in the
number of experienced house-group leaders because they have been either
arrested or forced into exile. For reasons of security, groups have had to
reduce their size and meet with greater secrecy.
Other Developments
The point has already been made that distribution of the Bible in whole or
part has been important to the development of house churches. The UK
charity Elam Ministries produced the New Millennium New Testament in

2003 and has distributed hundreds of thousands of copies throughout Iran
as well as among an increasing number of Christians and eager enquirers
in the growing worldwide Persian diaspora. The Old Testament was
completed in 2014. The Bible Society completed its Common Language
Version (Today’s Persian Version) of the Bible in 2007.
The era of the Islamic Republic has experienced what Dr Kenneth
Thomas, historian of translations into Persian, has described as a profusion
of new Persian translations. The standard 1895 Persian translation by the
missionary Robert Bruce, of the Church Missionary Society, was reprinted.
Two translations of the Old Testament were completed to augment two
versions of the New Testament published in the 1970s. Jewish translators
have created new versions of the Pentateuch and Psalms. Muslim translators
in Iran have produced two versions of the Apocrypha (or Deuterocanon).
There have been three new translations of the New Testament, one by
a Muslim. New translations of the Book of Proverbs and the Gospel of
Matthew and three of the Gospel of John have appeared. According to
Kenneth Thomas, ‘This profuse activity has come from members of the
Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Zoroastrian communities both within and
outside of Iran … and translation activity shows no sign of abating’ (A
Restless Search: A History of Persian Translations of the Bible, Atlanta: SBL
Press, 2015, 273.)
The significance of certain Muslim scholars translating parts of the Bible
reveals another aspect of Christianity in Iran, namely the interest of in-
tellectuals and scholars in engaging with Christianity. Sasan Tavassoli’s
study Christian Encounters with Iran also provided an overview of Muslim
intellectuals who have engaged with Christian faith since the Revolution.
Another area where significant developments have occurred is in
relation to formal dialogue, particularly under the presidency of Ayatollah
Khatami. The oppression and persecution that Christian communities have
experienced in post-revolutionary Iran have become significant factors
in limiting encounters between Iranians in a genuine spirit of dialogue.
It is easier for Iranian ulema and thinkers to discuss issues of faith with
Christians of a different nationality, in particular in the series of ‘organis
ational dialogues’ that have taken place since the early 1990s. During that
decade four centres for inter-religious dialogue were established, three in
Tehran, two of which – the Organisation of Culture and Islamic Relations
(OCIR) and the International Centre for Dialogue Among Civilisations
(ICDAC) – were funded by the Iranian government. The fourth, the non-
governmental Institute for Inter-religious Dialogue (IID), was set up in Qum
in 1996. They were particularly active during the presidency of Khatami
(1997–2005). Most meetings were with Christian bodies, including the
Iran 93
Vatican and other Roman Catholic Centres in Europe, the World Council
of Churches, the Church of England, the Russian and Greek Orthodox
Churches and the University of Birmingham’s Centre for the Study of
Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations.
The focus of these occasions for dialogue has been on socio-political
and ethical issues rather than theology. Western participants have been
impressed at the expertise and knowledge of Christian thinking and
theological ideas shown by Iranian scholars and at the range of Christian
literature available in Persian and other languages at the Institute in Qum.
However, the emphasis of these dialogue events has been very much on
engaging in ideas and developing greater understanding without any
possibility for debating about religious freedom, questioning the strictures
placed on Christians in Iran or meeting with local Christian groups.
Conclusion
It seems that the current situation in Iran, notwithstanding the many re-
strictions and difficulties, is that the house churches are growing, with
more and more people eager to explore and even commit to the Christian
faith, while the older public churches continue to become smaller, with
numbers dwindling to the hundreds or even fewer. What this means for
the future is difficult to predict.
On the one hand, there are echoes of the early church, and accounts of
what is going on in Iran resonate with what we read in the New Testament.
There are myriad examples of people coming to faith through the most
extraordinarily trying circumstances. The influence of satellite television
as well as access to Scripture has been important for some, while others
have, apparently in isolation, had dreams or visions in which a personal
encounter with the figure of Jesus has been highly significant. On the other
hand, some are concerned that without the opportunity for proper teaching
and training of leaders and without a sense of rootedness in the historic
Christian traditions, these independent groups could easily lose their way.
While there is no evidence to suggest that any of the house churches have
an agenda beyond the spiritual, it is possible that some (perhaps even
subconsciously) act as a kind of alternative community within the context
of a society where there is no legal forum for expressing dissent. And
certainly for the regime there is no doubt that the house-church movement
is regarded as a threat, and one they fear will bring all kinds of unwanted
foreign influence that might disturb the country’s cohesion.
So the future is uncertain. It is impossible to know what the long-term
significance of the house churches might be, yet there is no doubt that many
people are putting themselves and their families at great risk for the sake
of their new-found faith, demonstrating courage and constancy in the face
of untold hardship and suffering. And the public churches also struggle to
survive against all odds. Easier for the government to monitor and control,
a number have been closed down, and those that do remain operate with
caution, while continuing to provide an open Persian Christian presence
in the country. Whichever way one looks at it, for the time being at least,
despite all efforts to destroy it, Persian-speaking Christianity survives in
Iran, demonstrating resilience, creativity and determination that in many
ways defies Western understanding.
Bibliography
Bradley, Mark, Too Many to Jail (Oxford: Monarch, 2015).
Dehqani-Tafti, Hassan, The Unfolding Design of My World (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2000).
Rostampour, Maryam and Marziyeh Amirizadeh, Captive in Iran (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale
House, 2014).
Sanasarian, Eliz, Religious Minorities in Iran (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Tavassoli, Sasan, Christian Encounters with Iran (London: I. B. Tauris, 2011).
Acknowledgement
I owe a great debt of gratitude to a friend who has provided me with a large amount of the
information relating to the contemporary situation of Christianity in Iran. He has chosen to
remain anonymous because of security issues, but in truth we have virtually co-authored
the chapter, for which I thank him warmly.
Afghanistan
Anthony Roberts
Afghanistan is a land of enormous geographic, ethnic and cultural

diversity. The Hindu Kush mountains, the end of the Himalayan chain,
are its most remarkable feature, running from the north-east Pamir region
like a backbone fading into the flat deserts of the south-west, bordering
Iran. The east has the tropical climate of the Indian subcontinent, so that
sugar cane and tropical fruits can flourish, while the well watered plains of
the north are the agricultural breadbasket for the country, and everywhere
there are herds of sheep and goats climbing the hills and mountains,
providing milk and meat as well as wool for the carpet-weaving industry.
World powers have sought to control the forbidding yet strategic transit
and trade routes between Central and South Asia, making it a crossroads
for armies and cultures. The impenetrability of the Himalayas to large
armies has brought unwelcome armies and peoples traversing Afghani-
stan’s marginally productive lands for thousands of years. Each successive
group has left its ethnic and cultural contribution to the complexity of
tribes and peoples that make up a composite national identity. Historic
ally, to be ‘Afghan’ was synonymous with being from the larger Pashtun/
Pakhtun/Pathan ethnic group that straddles the border between Pakistan
and Afghanistan, numbering some 50 million people. Approximately
15 million Pashtuns live in Afghanistan; the Tajiks and more recent arrivals
the Hazaras (descendants of Genghis Khan), Uzbeks and Turkmen, and
more than 30 smaller ethnic/linguistic groups, make up the remaining
55% of the population. Around 32 million people are now known by the
national identity of ‘Afghan’.
Historically, ‘Afghan’ identity and leadership of the country have been
claimed by Pashtun kings and rulers since Afghanistan’s modern statehood
began in 1747. However, its borders have been confined and defined, often
arbitrarily, by the surrounding countries of Iran, British-controlled India-
cum-Pakistan, the former Soviet Union (now Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan) and, at its north-eastern tip, China. Afghanistan has had as
many internal struggles between ethnic groups as it has had with foreign
elements, such that the sense of national identity is very poor. Rather
than offering recognition to a central government, many citizens prefer to
maintain local and regional autonomous control, based around geography
96 Anthony Roberts
and/or ethnicity. This has left Afghanistan vulnerable to manipulation of

these existing fracture lines around region, ethnicity and religious identity
(85% Sunni, 15% Shi’ite). Only in large cities are many of these ethnic and
regional loyalties overcome sufficiently to create a consensus for action
toward a common goal. Otherwise, such consensus occurs only when there
is a common national foreign enemy to unite all factions.
The divided geographical regions have helped to reinforce ethnic
identities, with Turkic (Uzbek and Turkmen) and Tajik (Aryan/Persian)
peoples to the north, Persian-speaking Tajiks and Pashtuns in the west,
ethnic Hazaras (Mongol-related) in the central highlands and the Pashtuns
(Aryan/Indian subcontinent mix) to the south and east. Afghanistan is
considered a part of the Persian world as its national languages of Dari
and Pashto are Indo-European Persian-related and its culture is closer to
Persian/Farsi than any other. Pashto language and culture have significant
Indian subcontinent features as well, and all Afghan cultures have an
overlay and influence of Arab Islamic customs and traditions, though
Afghans are quick to point out they are not Arabs. The Turkic languages
Uzbek and Turkmen are widely spoken in the north, with significant
remnants of pre-Persian languages in the mountain areas of the country in
the north-east and far south.
Islam came to the west and the north of the country along with an
invading army of Arabs in the mid- to late seventh century, although
with little initial influence. Once Arab Muslims had firm control of Persia
(including western Afghanistan) and Muslims were given favoured status
politically, economically, socially and at times militarily, the Islamic
identity took root in the region, influencing customs and culture. Islam
assumed its place as the predominant national religious identity. The
influence of Islam grew under subsequent Arab invasions as well as under
Christianity in Afghanistan, 1970 and 2015

Christians 8,000 0.1% 7,900 0.0% 0.0%
Anglicans 100 0.0% 50 0.0% −1.5%
Independents 320 0.0% 4,600 0.0% 6.1%
Orthodox 0 0.0% 70 0.0% 4.4%
Protestants 1,600 0.0% 2,300 0.0% 0.8%
Catholics 2,000 0.0% 200 0.0% −5.0%
Evangelicals 570 0.0% 670 0.0% 0.4%
Pentecostals 30 0.0% 2,300 0.0% 10.1%
Afghanistan 97
the Persian-speaking Muslim Turk, Sultan Mahmood of Ghazni, circa 1000,

who enforced a stronger Islamic identity on most Afghans and brought
Islamic predominance in all lands under his control, including northern
India, with numerous plundering iconoclastic raids. His armies forcibly
supplanted the pre-Islamic religions of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism,
Hinduism and Eastern Church (Assyrian/Nestorian/Persian) Christianity,
which had numerous churches and bishoprics in western Afghanistan
that faded away and had disappeared by the thirteenth century. Finally,
under the banner of Islam, the armies of King Abdur Rahman conquered
and converted the last remnants of the animistic religious groups of the
mountains of Kafiristan (land of unbelievers) in the north-east, renaming
it Nuristan (land of light) in the late nineteenth century, thus making
Afghanistan a solely Islamic state with small communities of Hindus,
Sikhs, Jews and Armenian Christians.
Christian Mission among Afghans

The history of the Christian church in Afghanistan began in the fourth
century and continued until the thirteenth century when, after the raids
of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, it practically ceased to exist. From the
fourteenth to the mid-twentieth century, the few odd assorted Christians
in the country came along the Silk Road: Georgian Christians serving
in the cavalry, wandering explorers, monks, merchants and intrepid
Armenian Christian traders living in small communities in the main cities
of Afghanistan, providing essential services, trades and industries but
worshipping separately from the Afghan Muslims. A new era for the spread
of Christianity into lands under the control of Afghans came with British
rule in India as the two spheres of influence came into direct contact, the
outlying territories claimed by Afghans west of the Indus River, now part
of Pakistan. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century there were numerous
holistic outreach efforts by Western missionaries, who established
hospitals and educational programmes and undertook social work as well
as presenting the Christian message. These efforts focused on the frontier
area between Afghanistan and India/Pakistan but not on Afghanistan itself.
Proselytising efforts among Afghans were greatly opposed by the Afghans,
whose wishes were respected by the British government, limiting efforts to
the periphery of Afghan lands in which only a few scattered conversions
occurred during this era.
Inside Afghanistan there was little concerted effort to spread the
Christian faith until after 1945, when the country cautiously began to open
to the West as the Pashtun monarchy sought to modernise Afghanistan.
From 1950 until 1979, it indeed went through a dramatic modernisation in
politics, education, the economy, infrastructure and attitudes towards the
98 Anthony Roberts
outside world. Christians from around the world sought to fill jobs and
reside in Afghanistan to teach or to undertake engineering and medical
projects. This holistic approach to doing mission gained acceptance and
established a fairly new entity: Christian (faith-based) non-governmental
organisations (NGOs), the first in Afghanistan being established in 1966.
These NGOs sought to witness holistically to Afghans, demonstrating the
Christian faith practically by implementing projects benefiting the Afghan
people such as hospitals, schools and medical education. However, there
were few conversions among Afghans during this culturally open period,
which ended dramatically in 1979. With the Soviet invasion beginning in
December that year, Afghanistan became the frontline of the Cold War:
Soviet influence and ideological infiltration were failing in the country, and
thus the Russians began a more direct military intervention. This invasion
prompted the Afghans, and an assortment of jihadis from other nations,
to rally to fight and repel the Soviets and Afghan communists under the
banner of Islam. Islamic mujahadeen freedom fighters formed Islamic/
political parties organised around various ethnically and geographically
based Afghan leaders. Almost all the parties were based in Pakistan and
were thus highly influenced by the Pakistan government, which was
funnelling largely American funding and weapons to the mujahadeen.
Estimates of Afghans killed during the Soviet era (1979–89) are in the
region of 1.5 million, while millions of others were displaced within the
country and abroad.
The subsequent exodus of several million Afghan refugees to Pakistan
and Iran initiated a new phase of ministry among Afghans, with new
challenges and new opportunities for practical Christian service among
refugees. There was an outpouring of Christian aid and development
projects in the refugee camps in Pakistan. This witness was effective in
aiding the refugees, and eventually the number of Afghan Christian
believers grew into the hundreds. Dari and Pashto Bible translations,
Christian radio, video and print material were produced to resource the
formation and training of new believers. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan,
a small, diverse, international contingent of Christian NGO workers
steadily and fruitfully continued running projects to benefit Afghans, both
physically and spiritually.
In April 1992, the last Soviet-backed Afghan communist leader was
ousted from power. This led to a full-scale civil war during a chaotic period
under a strict Islamic mujahedeen-led administration. Christian NGOs
continued their work among Afghan refugees in Pakistan as even more
arrived. Christian work inside the country grittily maintained a presence
amid the chaotic civil war situation from 1992 to 1996, and slowly grew in
numbers and in diversity of projects as some areas of the country became
Afghanistan 99
more stable politically and in terms of security. Christian NGOs resumed

work in areas to the west where it had begun years before to the Soviet
invasion and began new project initiatives in Mazar-i-Sharif, Hazarajat
(central Afghanistan), Herat, Jalalabad and Badakhshan. The Christian
NGO work and witness in Afghanistan survived the civil war, and the
subsequent Taliban takeover in most of the country, including Kabul from
October 1996. The ongoing presence of foreign Christians serving there
was accompanied by an increased suspicion and suppression of NGO
work and outright hostility to foreigners, which reached a climax in August
2001, when foreign Christian NGO workers were arrested. Most Christian
NGOs and foreigners were expelled as the Taliban forcibly closed their
work. A small remnant of work remained in the north-east corner of the
country, which had thus far resisted the Taliban takeover. In the wake of
‘9/11’, the Taliban themselves were ousted from power in the autumn of
2001 by Afghan-aided American forces. By late 2001, Christian NGOs were
invited back to resume their work.
The new Afghan transitional government allowed secular and Christian
NGO projects to resume work and expand into new areas of the country
as well as to extend the scope of their projects. Christian NGO work grew
enormously from 2002 to 2007, expanding into Wakhan, Zaranj, Ghazni,
Kandahar and many other new areas of the country. The resurgence of the
Taliban began in 2004 and gained momentum, eventually largely curtailing
work in these same areas by the end of 2008. Targeted kidnappings and the
killing of foreign Christian NGO workers began in 2007; the number of
such attacks increased annually until 2014. However, despite the dangerous
security situation and always-fluctuating political situation faced by all
foreign and Afghan employees of NGOs and businesses, Christian work
continues to this day, albeit in decreased numbers and scope.
Approaches to Christian Witness

The main approach to Christian witness has been to engage in meaningful
friendship among Afghans alongside projects that tangibly benefit the
lives of Afghans, with the hope of beginning a dialogue about faith. More
overt means of promoting faith include faith discussions with interested
Afghans, showing films about the life of Christ, making radio broadcasts
and publishing pre-evangelistic literature. Afghans themselves have a
great curiosity about the Holy Books of the Torah (books of Moses), Zabur
(Psalms/Proverbs) and Injil (Gospels/New Testament). Although not
legally banned, possession of one of these books is evidence of possible
defection from Islam and/or Afghan tradition. Some bolder, open evange-
listic efforts have ended quickly with community rejection and expulsion of
both the messenger and local enquirers. Many Afghans have experienced
100 Anthony Roberts
dreams and visions of Christ and seek further understanding from the
Scriptures and from Christians, foreign or local, if known to them. The
Afghan worldview has very little room for ambiguity of religious under-
standing or identity. Usually, Afghans showing any hint of defection from
traditional Afghan Islamic traditions are dealt with severely by society
(starting first with their family), especially by religious leaders and occa-
sionally by government authorities.
Christianity and Church

Even as a foreign faith, Christianity has been severely limited in expression
in Afghanistan. The small Armenian Christian community of traders living
in Afghan lands since the fifteenth century had their small chapel in Kabul
destroyed during the second Anglo-Afghan war in 1873. After that, the
only organised fellowship of Christians in Afghanistan with a dedicated
property was the foreigner-only church building that existed in Kabul
from 1969 until 1972, when it was demolished at the order of the Afghan
government. The International Christian Community of Kabul continued
to meet for fellowship, often in the parsonage house next to the former
church building. These informal fellowship meetings continued even
during Soviet times, the civil war and Taliban rule, using various private
locations and subsequently meeting in private homes. For the sake of
Afghan seekers’ and believers’ security, and also to avoid the appearance
of overt proselytisation, the most visible fellowships have been almost
exclusively limited to foreigners.
Afghan Worldview and the Gospel

Afghans are passionate about maintaining their unique history, identity
and traditions, which have roots in Persian, Central Asian and South
Asian cultures. Afghans have a highly resilient spirit, which makes them
long-suffering, patient and deeply committed to their independence from
outsiders. Part of this Afghan identity, from the seventh century, has been
to be Muslim. Islam is often seen as the only religious system that can tame
the passionate Afghan spirit and has proven useful as a rallying point for
jihad (holy war) to fight a national enemy, a surprisingly frequent scenario.
However, the worldview of Afghans has begun to change, despite the
strong application of Islamic Sharia law to Afghans historically, and under
mujahedeen, Taliban and ISIS (Daesh) influence, Afghans have become in-
creasingly dissatisfied with these restrictions. Stable civil governance, the
economy, education, technology and moral standards did not improve for
Afghans under these fundamentalist systems. The fundamentalist Islamic
groups usually resort to intimidation through violence, which brings about
outward adherence to their religious dictates, but many Afghans feel great
Afghanistan 101
resentment at the methods of bringing about compliance as well as the

strictures themselves. There is support for a more secular government.
Afghans are overcoming their propensity for xenophobia and are
embracing change. There is growing resistance to the imposition of radical
Islam and the politics coming from neighbouring Muslim countries and
other outsiders, including Pakistani, Iranian and Arab elements. Afghans
resent uninvited foreign interference, even from Muslim countries, and
hold national autonomy and self-determination in high regard. They do
not want to be under the control of any outside power.
Islam’s monopoly of the Afghan worldview, which at times runs
counter to Afghan traditions and cultural history, has begun to break
apart. Afghans are gradually acknowledging and even welcoming the
existence, legitimacy and need for other worldviews to coexist in this tra-
ditionally xenophobic land. Some are even open to non-Muslim religious
diversity. Different strata of Afghan society embrace change more readily,
often to a degree that correlates with their ethnic group, socio-economic
status and educational level, so that the changes are more advanced among
some ethnic groups such as the Hazaras and among city dwellers. Ad
ditionally, Christianity is becoming a more attractive option as it has a close
association with the West, whose economic and technical achievements are
greatly coveted. Most Afghans have relatives living in the West and thus
have been exposed to alternative cultural and belief systems.
An Untold Story
For the sake of Afghan believers’ security, very little of this story of Afghan
Christians has been made known publicly. The number of Afghan believers
has grown from a dozen or so believers in the 1970s to several thousand
Afghans professing faith today. Responsiveness to Christianity grew during
the communist era (1980–92) and increased yet again with each successive
era, Mujahedeen (1992–6), Taliban (1996–2001) and the present adminis-
tration of the country (2002–). The urban, government-controlled areas of
the country have relatively good security, economic growth, improved
education and living standards, and accessibility to information, along
with access to Christians. The rural areas are still dominated by Afghan
tradition, based around Islam.
Afghan Christians have always been highly vulnerable in every aspect of
their lives: religiously, legally, socially and economically. Afghan Christians
have faced strong opposition from family, expulsion from the community,
kidnapping and, on occasion, martyrdom for their faith. Many foreign
Christians have suffered the same dangers. Conversions to Christianity
and baptisms of Afghans, when made public, usually incite violent family
and community repercussions towards the believers and their families.
102 Anthony Roberts
Apostasy from Islam is a serious charge and is used as leverage to dissuade

seekers, believers and their families and force them into recanting their faith
or fleeing. Afghan believers are not usually publicly identified as followers
of Christ except within a limited circle of their family and immediate
community. Most Afghan Christians use a variety of identity markers for
expressing faith in Jesus. Most find it difficult to sustain everyday life and
residency in the country while openly professing Christian faith due to
family and cultural ostracism from a society that emphasises conformity to
community norms. However, the former pattern of an Afghan confessing
Christian faith only to foreigners or needing to flee the country is beginning
to change. There is a place being gained within Afghan society through the
persistence and costly sacrifice of Afghan believers so that they may choose
to remain faithful and not flee their situation, even at the pain of death.
Fellowships of Afghan believers are considered ‘underground’. They
have not been able to meet even semi-openly except briefly during the
period from 2002 to 2008. The fellowship meetings are neither large nor
open to outsiders, nor can they meet at a regular time or place. Organised
Christian fellowship, when possible, consists of meetings in homes when
the head of the family allows it. It is led by a self-appointed Afghan
Christian leader. Scripture is read by a literate person, and this is followed
by an explanation or exhortation of the text, much fervent prayer and only
occasionally some softly sung music. Baptisms are carried out quietly
among a trusted network of fellow believers.
The resurgence of anti-government, anti-foreign elements since 2007
has caused even small fellowship meetings to become more infrequent.
Along with a lack of adequate safe spaces for meetings, intimidation
prevents most believers from openly fellowshipping with each other.
Afghan believers have always been isolated from one another, fearful
of association with largely unknown brothers and sisters due to the risk
of betrayal by informers, often incited by jealousy, or mistrust of other
ethnic groups. However, there are numerous networks of house churches,
ongoing mentoring relationships, and outreach being done by and among
Afghans. Dari-speaking fellowships, made up of a mix of ethnic groups
(largely ethnic Tajiks and Hazaras), far outnumber Pashto-speaking
fellowships. Christian work has begun among other language groups such
as Uzbek, Turkmen and minority mountain peoples. Afghan believers are
involved in, and often lead, Scripture translation projects, Christian radio
programming and other Christian media work.
Afghan Christian Life

A common scenario for Afghan Christians is for them to remain quiet about
their changed religious belief and identity while slowly revealing parts
Afghanistan 103
of their story of faith through their changed lives. Eventually the family
challenges them into a crisis point of loyalty regarding religion and Afghan
tradition. Reactions vary by family as to tolerance of the new faith, but the
family is always vulnerable corporately to the social stigma of having a
family member who is seen to have become apostate.
Single men are often unable to continue to live peaceably with their
families or find a believing spouse, having been already pledged to an
arranged marriage. Single believing women are most vulnerable and can
be married off to a zealous Muslim spouse or a less desirable match with
an older man or as a second wife, as a means of bringing them back into the
fold of Islam. Wives and mothers in a believing family are less vulnerable
to being ousted from the family due to the needs of caring for the children.
Legally an apostate is no longer in an Islamic-sanctioned marriage and
therefore wives and husbands can be separated.
Heads of households who are securely employed and/or who have
private property can remain longer in their situation. How long a believer
or a believing family can endure the pressure depends on their resources
and strength of personal and family support. Among married believing
couples, sometimes the spouse and children grow in faith even though
there is a lack of exemplary models of Christian family. Usually there is
a profound effect on the family life if the woman comes to faith first, as
she raises the children religiously in the new faith. Change and transfor-
mation in the lives of believers are most profound when they happen at
the family level. It is often a great struggle to remain anchored in their
own communities, centred as they are on traditional and Islamic values
and traditions, as these can be hard to reconcile with the Christian faith.
Their children are sometimes blocked from further education, jobs and
inheritance. There are often limited prospects for spiritual or personal
growth while trying to remain in Afghanistan, and thus most end up
seeking religious asylum.
The extent of the spread of the Christian faith among Afghans thus
cannot be measured accurately, as it is not an officially recognised religion
in the country – unlike the situation for Sikhs and Hindus, who are acknowl-
edged as minority religious groups. Gaining official, public legal status has
not yet been attempted by Afghan Christians. Their current strategy is to
allow the faith to spread at the grassroots level until there is more public
support. There have been prominent public cases of Afghans converting
to Christianity, such as in 2006 when an Afghan Christian was arrested
and spoke forthrightly about his faith. He was quickly deemed to be
mentally ill and emigrated from the country. Afghanistan is a signatory of
the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which calls for upholding
freedom of conscience and allows for changing religious faith. The current
104 Anthony Roberts
Afghan government administration has thus far chosen to find a tolerant

balance between upholding traditional harsh penalties for conversions
from Islam and allowing Afghans to practise freedom of conscience in
matters of religion. However, the government has not intervened either to
protect or to prosecute Afghan Christians, usually deferring to family and
community to deal with conversions from Islam.
Among speakers of Afghan Farsi (Dari), there is also a steady and
strong response to the radio programmes and other media. The oppressed
status of Hazaras and their strong connections with Iran, where there is
an active Christian church, have contributed to the Hazaras’ greater re-
sponsiveness to the Christian message. There is still a steady interest in
the Christian message among Afghans, as is evidenced by responses to
Christian radio programmes (around 1,000 telephone calls per month for
the Pashto programmes) and continuing numbers of conversions among
Afghans inside and outside the country.
Leadership and Training

Afghan Christianity has been shaped by very limited and inconsist-
ent interaction between those seeking to grow in faith and those able to
provide them with mentoring. This is due primarily to security concerns
and logistical challenges. Literacy is still very low in most ethnic groups in
Afghanistan, although it is on the rise. Radio and other media have been
useful in helping to reach and teach Afghan believers. Bibles in Dari are not
openly sold in the country nor are they easily available privately; normally
they are passed along through trusted sources. The Internet, where
available, has been a great source of access to information and Christian
resources. From the early 2000s until 2014 there was some limited formal
instruction in the Christian faith, Scriptures and biblical theology inside the
country. Outside the country there have been many seminars providing
effective training for Afghan Christian leaders.
There has been significant effort by foreigners in Afghanistan, primarily
from Western countries, during the past 60 years to bring the message of
Christianity to Afghans in a relevant way. Officially no one may convert
Muslims from Islam to another faith, and any outright proselytisation
of Afghans is disallowed; therefore no visas are granted to foreigners
for specific Christian religious purposes. The Afghan Church, small but
growing within the country, has come into existence with the help of
foreign Christians inside and outside the country and remains in a good
relationship with the Church in the wider world. However, tensions arise
particularly with regard to leadership, as indigenous Afghan leaders form
their own vision regarding the direction of growth of the Afghan Church.
There is a great need for more Afghan leaders to be trained so that they
Afghanistan 105
can undertake pastoral and teaching roles within the Afghan Church.
As educational standards rise among Afghans and as technology allows,
Afghan Christians are better able to access the materials needed for deeper
theological reflection and to communicate the Christian message in a more
Afghan style, addressing particularly Afghan issues.
The sporadically coordinated community of Afghan believers still
wrestles with how to express their faith in relation to such issues as
prevailing Islamic culture, marriage, child-rearing, baptism, church
fellowship and form, Christian music, holidays and customs, relations
with foreign elements, ethnic reconciliation, burial of believers, legal status
and government relations. Useful discussion of these issues has usually
taken place outside the country. However, problems common to all Afghan
believers are often addressed without serious consultation of Scripture or
guidance from mature Afghan Christian leaders.
Unfortunately, there has been a steady exodus of Afghan believers
from the country, usually after a period of withstanding the family social
and legal ostracism, community rejection, arrest by the police or physical
attack. Often Afghan believers find all the paths for their future living
inside Afghanistan blocked, and they therefore decide to join other Afghan
émigrés or asylum seekers abroad. Among the Afghan diaspora around the
world there are a few organised Afghan Christian fellowships, operating
in both Dari and Pashto languages. There is also a growing international
network of Afghan believers and numerous conversions among the refugee
populations arriving in Europe, with many reports of baptisms.
Church Growth in National Context

The Afghan Church is growing in numbers and in depth of faith despite all
the challenges. It has yet to gain more than its present precarious position
of being quietly tolerated but not publicly acknowledged as having a
place in Afghanistan. This has come about through highly costly personal
sacrifices by Afghan Christian believers and the Christian expatriates who
minister among them. The social, cultural and tacitly recognised Afghan
Christian Church in Afghanistan could easily be lost if the government
were to reverse its policy of laissez-faire or give in to pressure from
insurgent elements against Afghan believers. Afghan Christians have a
great heritage of national characteristics to draw upon, such as their zeal
for their own traditions, passion for independence and their long-suffering
spirit, which can assist them in gaining more than the present toehold in
the Afghan context. For this to occur, ways to equip Afghan believers need
to be developed which enable the Afghan Church to propagate and deepen
faith among its members so that they can grow in number, maturity and
geographical spread throughout the country.
106 Anthony Roberts
Bibliography
Dupree, Louis, Afghanistan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
Ewans, Martin, Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics (New York:
HarperCollins, 2002).
Wilson, J. C., Jr, Afghanistan: The Forbidden Harvest (Elgin, IL: David C. Cook, 1981).
Pakistan
Mehak Arshad and Youshib Matthew John
Pakistan, later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, became an independent

state on 14 August 1947, a date that resonates with neighbouring India
as it became independent a day later. The new nation included both
West and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The inception and eventually
the birth of this country came about on the basis of ideals advocated by
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, stemming from the famous Two-Nation Theory.
This is based on the idea that religion, above language or ethnicity, is the
main denominator identifying and unifying Muslims in the subcontinent,
and therefore Hindus and Muslims are two distinct nations. The rights
of minority groups and the need for religious freedom were part of the
argument to separate from India and carried into the establishment of
Pakistan as a nation. As Jinnah stated, in his presidential address on 11
August 1947, ‘You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are
free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State
of Pakistan’. In terms of territory, the area that is demarcated as Pakistan
today had an overwhelmingly Muslim majority and came into being after
a violent struggle following Partition in which Muslims, Hindus and other
communities moved between India and the newly formed Pakistan.
The country’s abundant natural resources contrast with meagre economic
and educational provision. Pakistan has a strong agricultural economy,
being among the world’s top 10 producers of wheat, cotton, sugarcane,
mangoes, dates and oranges. It is thirteenth in rice production. It has
beautiful landscapes, including the world’s second-highest mountain, K2,
which attract many tourists. Nonetheless, the United Nations Development
Programme reported in 2016 that out of every 10 Pakistanis, four live in
multidimensional poverty. The World Bank estimates that almost a third
of Pakistan’s citizens are poor, while gross domestic product (GDP) per
capita is a mere US$1,434.69 per annum. Related to this, 42% of girls in
Pakistan are married before they reach 18 years of age. Terrorism is a major
scourge, with more than 1,000 terrorist attacks being recorded annually.
Christian Community, Islamic State

Though numerically a minority, Christians have played a significant role
in the development of Pakistan. They trace their history back to the work of
108 Mehak Arshad and Youshib Matthew John
St Thomas in Kerala in the first century, though a census conducted under

British rule in 1855 revealed that at that time no indigenous Christians
lived in the area that is now Pakistan. This would soon change under the
influence of Christian missions active from the mid-nineteenth century.
By 1881 there were 3,912 ‘native’ Christians, and by 1941 this number
had increased to 511,299 in Central Punjab. Numbers have continued to
increase, though official statistics often underestimate the strength of the
Christian community, for political reasons.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, Christian missions
began to have an influential institutional presence. Several Christian
mission hospitals were established in Pakistan, notably at Tank in 1868
and Quetta in 1886. Through the influence of the American Presbyterian
missionary Charles William Forman in Lahore, the Forman Christian
College was established in 1864 and has continued serving people irre-
spective of caste, colour or creed. The College still caters to the needs of
Pakistani youth and has become one of the best universities in the country.
Gordon College has a similar profile in Rawalpindi. Kinnaird College was
established in 1913 to provide for education and empowerment of women,
a purpose it still fulfils today. The missions also contributed to economic
development through institutions such as the technical training centre at
Gujranwala, established in 1900. The service offered by such institutions
has helped to define the Christian presence in Pakistan. Despite being
subject to discrimination and contempt, Christians are regarded as people
of integrity compared with other communities in Pakistan.
The Christian community played a significant role in the creation of the
state of Pakistan. Christians strongly supported the Muslim League in its
pursuit of a separate homeland. Dewan Bahadur S. P. Singha established
the All India Christian Association in 1942 and ensured its full cooperation
with Jinnah in his endeavour to build a separate homeland. Singha chaired
a meeting held on 23 June 1947 to decide whether Punjab was to become
Christianity in Pakistan, 1970 and 2015

Christians 1,156,000 2.0% 3,859,000 2.0% 2.7%
Anglicans 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0.0%
Independents 225,000 0.4% 521,000 0.3% 1.9%
Protestants 584,000 1.0% 2,495,000 1.3% 3.3%
Catholics 341,000 0.6% 1,107,000 0.6% 2.6%
Evangelicals 225,000 0.4% 943,000 0.5% 3.2%
Pentecostals 143,000 0.2% 850,000 0.4% 4.0%
Pakistan 109
a part of Pakistan or India. All the Christian members voted for Pakistan,
and their votes proved to be decisive to the outcome. In the proceedings of
the boundary commission, Singha, C. E. Gibbon and Fazal Elahi demanded
that all areas housing the Christian community be included in Pakistan.
Christians also played prominent roles in the early years when Pakistan
was establishing itself as an independent country. For example, Justice
Alvin Robert Cornelius served as the fourth Chief Justice of Pakistan from
1960 to 1968, a period during which the country was at war with India. In
1965, many Christians participated in the war effort and became national
heroes, including Commander Mervyn Middlecoat, Air Commodore
Nazir Latif, Group Captain Eric Hall, Cecil Chaudhry (recipient of the
Sitara-i-Jurat, the third-highest military honour in Pakistan) and Squadron
Leader Peter Christy. At the same time, the work of Christian churches
in healthcare and in education continued to expand, for example with
the opening of Bach Hospital in the Abbottabad suburb of Qalandarabad
in 1956 and the establishment in the early 1960s of the United Christian
Hospital in Lahore.
The largest church in the country is the Catholic Church, which
comprises two archdioceses, four dioceses and one apostolic vicariate,
all following the Latin rite. The Archdiocese of Lahore has 75 priests, 200
catechists and 608 mass centres. Nationwide, the Catholic Church runs
534 schools, 53 hostels, 8 colleges, 7 technical institutes and 8 catechetical
centres, according to 2008 statistics.
In 1970 the Church of Pakistan was created, bringing together Anglicans,
Methodists and some Presbyterians, each with an extensive network of insti-
tutions providing education, healthcare and pastoral care. Its membership
of some 500,000 is organised in eight dioceses, with 600 pastors serving an
extensive parish network. In particular, its cathedral schools have gained a
high reputation, with six of these in the Diocese of Lahore and eight in the
Diocese of Raiwind.
The Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, constituted on its present basis in
1993, has a membership of around 400,000 in 340 congregations served by
330 pastors. It belongs to the World Communion of Reformed Churches
as well as to the World Council of Churches. The Presbyterian Church has
an Education Board, established in 1958, which now runs 14 schools, four
boarding houses, two SHE (Struggle-Hope-Empowerment) projects, where
women are provided with shelter and education, and a school for special
education. The Presbyterian Medical Board runs the Memorial Christian
Hospital in Sialkot, established in 1887, and the Christian Hospital in Taxila,
established in 1922, which serve Pakistanis irrespective of caste or religion.
Other denominations with a presence in Pakistan include the Salva
tion Army, Pentecostal Church, Full Gospel Assemblies, Seventh-day
Adventists, Assemblies of God, Eternal Life Ministries Church, Baptists and

Methodists. There are also a number of heterodox Christian movements,
including Jehovah’s Witnesses, New Apostolic Church, Only Jesus and
Mormons. Frequently there is denominational friction within the Christian
community in Pakistan.
Christian institutions have met with many challenges during the years
of Pakistan’s independence. For instance, in the early 1970s the Prime
Minister of Pakistan implemented a regime in which all institutions were
to be brought under government administration. Hence the operation and
administration of numerous Christian schools, colleges and hospitals was
taken over by the government. Almost all missionary schools and colleges
were nationalised during this period. Then, in the late 1990s, the Nawaz
Sharif government denationalised many institutions and returned them to
church control, owing to the poor condition into which they had fallen
during the period of national control. However, many Christian institu-
tions remain under government administration and hence are still waiting
to be returned, while others are being returned in very poor condition,
presenting the challenge of restoring them to their former glory.
Maligned and Oppressed

Despite their very significant contribution to national development,
Christians in Pakistan today are a maligned and oppressed community.
They are generally despised and regarded as part of the lowly ‘sweeper
community’. This is an old stereotype going back to the inception of Pakistan
as a nation. After Partition, Christians evicted by Muslim migrants were on
the verge of starvation and moved to the cities to find work. The only jobs
they found were sweeping and cleaning, which led to the perception of
the Christian community as mainly sweeper class and relegated to do odd
jobs. The Daily Times newspaper reported in December 2015 that 6,000 out
of 7,894 sanitation workers in the Lahore Waste Management Company
were Christian; in Quetta, 768 out of 978; and in Peshawar, 824 out of 935;
while Islamabad’s Capital Development Authority had 1,500 sanitation
workers and all of them were Christian. As a result of this social reality,
Christians are generally regarded as the lowest of the low.
In terms of political representation, at both the national and regional
levels a small number of seats are reserved for Christians. Out of 342 seats
in the National Assembly, only 10 are reserved for minorities, a mere 3%.
Further, this quota for minorities has a dual effect, as what was intended
to be a measure to support minorities has turned out to be a way to keep
minorities in check. In practice, a Christian candidate has a difficult time
being elected on the general list since it is assumed that Christian candidates
will be absorbed by the quota. Likewise, employers are required by law to
Pakistan 111
hire a quota of personnel from minorities, with the result that they usually
hire the minimum number (if not fewer).
There are also other ways to keep minorities in check. On 2 March 2011,
the Pakistani Federal Minister for Minorities, Clement Shahbaz Bhatti,
at that time the only Christian member of the cabinet, was assassinated
in broad daylight in the national capital. His assailants have never been
brought to justice. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the
assassination, alleging that he was a blasphemer. Bhatti appears to have
been targeted because he was a proponent of increasing minority repre-
sentation at the state level and supported Christians who were victims of
blasphemy allegations. Another victim of assassination was Salman Taseer,
Governor of Punjab Province, who was murdered in 2011 after he took a
stand in favour of justice for the Christian community. Most politicians
restrict their recognition of the Christian presence to sending greetings
at Christmas and Easter, and even this courtesy is often forgotten. The
relatively small size of the Christian population means that not many votes
are at stake, and therefore politicians have little incentive to pay serious
attention to their concerns.
Christians are disadvantaged when it comes to seeking employment
with the government. Those who are successful in the initial written tests
invariably lose out at the interview stage. Therefore, Christian representa-
tion in government departments is minimal. Representation of Christians
and other religious minorities in class I and II jobs in ministries is less than
1%. Furthermore, Christians are subject to even more discrimination and
exclusion than other religious minorities. Their representation is minimal
in law and order. Almost no Christians serve in the state police, armed
constabulary or central para-military and armed forces. They are also
systematically denied equal opportunity in the private sector.
By and large, Christians are considered to be suitable only for menial
work, particularly as domestic servants. In fact, they are sought after in
this capacity because it is widely believed that Christian servants can be
required to clean toilets, something that could not be asked of a Muslim.
More responsible tasks, such as cooking, are regarded as appropriate
for Muslim members of staff. The prevailing attitude is illustrated by a
corrigendum issued on 28 September 2015 by the Punjab Cardiology
Hospital to state that both Muslims and non-Muslims were eligible for
sanitation-related jobs. Earlier, on 17 September, the hospital, in an adver-
tisement in several newspapers, had stated ‘Only Non-Muslims persons
[sic] who belong to minorities will be accommodated’ for sanitation work.
The corrigendum was issued only after the initial advertisement drew
criticism on social media and coverage from BBC Urdu on the treatment
meted out to minority communities. Prior to this, Mandi Bahauddin DHQ
Hospital advertised 10 similar vacancies as only for non-Muslims, and

a similar advertisement was produced by Lady Wellington Hospital in
Lahore in 2015. Such cases illustrate the deep-rooted sense of discrimina-
tion that is prevalent in society at large. If the only available job is as a
sweeper then Christians have no option but to accept such jobs and lead a
life of hunger, thirst and discrimination.
Christians in Pakistan are also disadvantaged in terms of housing and
living conditions. They are required to live in their own restricted colonies
or neighbourhoods, segregated from the wider community. These areas
are somewhat closed and disconnected from the areas where the Muslim
majority lives and often lack basic amenities. Many Christian areas lack
a supply of clean drinking water. Christians face poor sanitation, flawed
healthcare and extremely poor educational facilities. Such slum conditions
can be found, for example, in Bahar Colony, a predominantly Christian area
in Islamabad, even though it is adjacent to a very affluent area. Christians
live in pockets in closed neighbourhoods, driven there by the discrimina-
tory attitude of the majority community.
The city of Lahore, capital of Punjab Province, is one of the most
prosperous parts of Pakistan. Yet even here the literacy rate among
Christians is only 29%. Few go on to higher education. While 71% of the
Christian population is of working age, the employment rate is only 33%,
meaning that there are many unemployed Christians, who can fall prey
to drug addiction or criminal activities. Of those who are employed, 94%
work in the private sector, and only 6% in the public sector. Moreover,
the great majority of Christians in employment work in sanitation. Income
levels are therefore very low, with the average monthly income of a family
of five being 12,333 rupees (US$138). The mean per capita daily income
is only US$0.92, well below the poverty line. Meanwhile, there are 5,000
positions which should be occupied by Christians or other non-Muslims,
to comply with the 5% quota, being occupied by Muslim employees, thus
increasing unemployment among Christians. There is therefore very little
opportunity for Christians to improve themselves or move out of their
slum areas. Worse still, it is these areas that are most vulnerable to periodic
mob attacks, which apparently are used to keep the Christian community
in a state of intimidation.
Discrimination against Christians

The social exclusion and economic deprivation to which Christians are
subject in Pakistan is compounded by legislation that poses a constant
threat to their life and liberty. In particular, the blasphemy law inherited
from the period of British rule was strengthened in the 1980s by General
Zia-ul-Haq’s government through the addition of clauses that allowed it to
Pakistan 113
be used as a weapon against Christians. The 1980 Blasphemy Law states

that derogatory remarks against Islamic belief or prophets is punishable
by a court of law with a three-year jail sentence. In 1982, another clause
was added to require life imprisonment for anyone found guilty of wilful
desecration of the Holy Qu’ran. In 1986 another clause was added to provide
that blasphemy against the Holy Prophet Mohammed is punishable by
‘death or life imprisonment’.
The intended purpose of these laws was to safeguard Islam in a Muslim
country, which in itself is unobjectionable. However, an incident that
occurred in Shantinagar, a Christian village in Punjab, demonstrated the
misuse of this law and the fallout that has come to be associated with it. On
6 February 1997, at 4 a.m., a crowd of more than 30,000 Muslims attacked
the village on account of alleged desecration of the Holy Qu’ran. More than
1,000 homes were burned, 100 cows and buffaloes killed or burned, several
churches destroyed and a voice over a loudspeaker from mosques nearby
chanted ‘Destroy the Kafir [the infidels]. It is your duty; fulfil it – now’.
This attack was unprecedented, but it laid down a marker as a means to
keep the minorities in check. After the Shantinagar attack, some extremists
seem to have learned to abuse minorities, especially Christians, with
impunity. They can attack them legally if any Christian crosses them or
is not congenial to them in any manner. They can destroy the life of any
Christian and invoke the Blasphemy Law, arrange witnesses and file
a blasphemy case. Even if the court acquits the accused, Christians are
still subjected to Muslim fanatics protesting against an unfair and unjust
acquittal. The result is that every Christian in Pakistan today has to live,
move, breathe and eat with constant awareness of the looming threat posed
by the Blasphemy Law. If they offend any Muslim in any manner, it might
result in a Christian area being burned to ashes.
In 1993, three Christians – Salamat Masih, Manzoor Masih and Rehmat
Masih – were accused of writing blasphemous texts on the wall of a mosque.
The complaint filed against them stated that they also wrote blasphemous
remarks on a piece of paper and threw it into the mosque. All three were
arrested; two of them were found to be illiterate, leading to all three being
released on bail. Manzoor was shot dead outside the district court after
exiting a hearing in April 1994, while the other two were injured but
survived. Later, Salamat and Rehmat were sentenced to death even though
Salamat was a minor, only 11 years old. On appeal both were acquitted by
the Lahore High Court on the basis that they did not know how to write in
Arabic, and hence the evidence seemed to be forged. Both of them fled the
country as they continued to receive death threats.
In 2013, Junaid Hafeez, a visiting lecturer, was accused of blasphemy on
social media. No evidence was found, but he is still in jail. Rashid Rehman,
a lawyer and special coordinator for the Human Rights Commission of

Pakistan, decided to represent Hafeez. Both Hafeez and Rehman received
death threats and the trial was conducted in jail. Rehman and a colleague
repeatedly asked the Multan District Bar Association to provide security,
but none was provided, and in May 2014 two men shot Rehman in his office.
Both men are still at large, and activists continue to urge the government
to bury the case. As a consequence of such incidents where retribution is
so open and can cost lives, Pakistan’s judicial system seems incapable of
defending any person accused of blasphemy. Judges are afraid to rule in
favour of the accused and are somewhat bound to give a ruling satisfac-
tory to the plaintiff. From 1927 until 1986 only 10 cases of blasphemy were
reported, but since 1986 almost 4,000 cases have occurred. Of 1,274 people
charged with blasphemy between 1986 and 2010, 51 were murdered before
their trials ended.
Many cases go unreported every year in the rural areas of Pakistan,
where the panchayat system, with village elders acting as judges, settles
the cases, generally with a negative result for Christians. Christians are
accused of blasphemy mainly to exploit the system and get rid of them.
On 16 September 2015, for example, police in Changa Manga received a
complaint that Saleem Masih was seen burning pages of the Qu’ran, with
a woman, Samina Barkat, testifying as a witness. The police settled the
matter before it escalated, and it was found to be part of a conspiracy to
evict Christians from their area of residence and occupy their land. Many
incidents of blasphemy are born out of loathing, grievances unrelated to
the crime or as a means to deprive Christians of their land or property.
Another point of vulnerability for the Christian community is the
abduction of Christian girls. At least 700 girls are kidnapped each year and
forced to marry Muslims. In many cases when parents have attempted to
recover their daughters, the police have refused to register their complaints.
In this way many young women have been forcibly converted to Islam,
causing them deep personal anguish and diminishing the strength of the
Christian community. The exposure and vulnerability of the Christian
community has further deepened with the spate of terrorist attacks on
churches, which have claimed many lives during the early years of the
twenty-first century. The systematic discrimination to which Christians
are subject today is far removed from Pakistan’s founding vision, which
included a guarantee of religious freedom to all citizens.
Vitality of Christian Faith

Despite the severe pressures of its social context, the Christian community
in Pakistan demonstrates remarkable vitality. Though the mass movements
of people coming to Christian faith are in the past, still today there are
Pakistan 115
new converts. Sheikh Ilyas Ahmed, for example, belonged to a wealthy,

land-owning Muslim family. During his childhood he was friendly with
some Christian boys and used to join them in attending church during
holidays. As a young man he suffered from ill health and spent a long
period in hospital. During this time Sister Maimal, a missionary from
Malaysia, offered daily prayers for him. In 2010 he decided to become a
Christian and, on discharge from hospital, moved to the Punjab, where he
lived with Christian families, who welcomed him. He began a career as an
artist and is very firm in his commitment as a Pakistani Christian.
Nadeem Rana was a hafiz-e-Qu’ran, having memorised the entire Qu’ran
at a young age. He used his knowledge of the Qu’ran to pursue a spiritual
quest, challenging the maulvi (Islamic scholar) at his mosque with his desire
to read the Holy Qu’ran in translation. He studied with different scholars
as he sought to deepen his knowledge, but none of their expositions
satisfied him. Through his own study he grew increasingly interested in
Jesus Christ, particularly through considering Surah Al’Imran verse 55:
Allah said, ‘O Jesus, indeed I will take you and raise you to Myself and purify
you from those who disbelieve and make those who follow you [in submission
to Allah alone] superior to those who disbelieve until the Day of Resurrection.
Then to Me is your return, and I will judge between you concerning that in
which you used to differ.’
He eventually took the decision to become a Christian, adopted the new

name Joshua John, and serves today as a pastor.
Gulshan Esther was disabled as a child, unable to walk properly. For
years she and her family sought healing. After her father’s death, she
continued to pray to God. These prayers became more like a conversa-
tion, and Gulshan became convinced that the voice addressing her was
the voice of Jesus. She felt more and more drawn to Jesus and prayed to
him repeatedly. One morning, after desperately asking Jesus to heal her,
her whole room appeared to be illuminated and she heard a voice asking
her to get up and walk to him as he was Jesus himself. After the third time
of asking, she got up and ran to the feet of the vision, finally receiving the
long-sought healing. This led to her decision to become a Christian.
The Christian community has institutions to promote the growth and
deepening of faith. During the twentieth century, conventions played a
major role in strengthening Christian life. The first and most famous is
the Sialkot Convention, begun in 1904 and held annually. Other cities
also hosted conventions on a regular basis, some attracting international
speakers and with Christians travelling from all over the country to hear
them. Sadly, in the twenty-first century the security environment has meant
that most conventions have had either to stop completely or to become
more modest. The conventions have done much over the past century to
foster an active spiritual life among Pakistani Christians, and their influence
endures even in the present more challenging circumstances.
Another significant influence on formation is found in a variety of
institutes, centres and colleges with educational objectives. The Christian
Institute Raiwind was established in 1914 to provide education from nursery
to matriculation. With hostel accommodation, it has offered education and
formation to Christians from all over Pakistan. Another example is the Dar-
ul-Hikmat Education Centre in Lahore, founded in the late 1980s by Dutch
missionaries Pieter and Else Born with the aim of providing vocational
training for Christians from impoverished backgrounds.
Gujranwala Theological Seminary was founded in 1877 in Sialkot,
moving to Gujranwala in 1912. It has built up a tradition of theological
scholarship that is well illustrated by the work of the eminent theologians
K. L. Nasir and Aslam Ziai. Today there are almost 60 students from
different Protestant churches studying in Gujranwala Seminary. Formation
in the Catholic tradition is offered by the Christ the King Seminary in
Karachi, which dates back to 1957 and includes the National Catholic
Institute of Theology. A wide variety of courses are offered to support both
priestly and lay formation. Also found in Karachi is St Thomas’ Theological
College of the Church of Pakistan, established in the 1970s. It currently has
25 full-time and 35 part-time students as well as 10 priests studying on an
in-service programme.
In the 1930s, the Henry Martyn Institute was established in Hyderabad,
India, to promote inter-religious understanding. Owing to the partition of
India and Pakistan it became impossible to pursue this effort across two
countries, so in 1967 the West Pakistan Christian Council (now National
Council of Churches in Pakistan) established the Christian Study Centre in
Rawalpindi, which aims to develop better relations between the Muslims
and Christians of Pakistan. The Centre commenced operation in 1968
and continues to play a vital role in establishing and safeguarding peace
between different religious communities.
Pakistan has produced some exceptional leaders who have not only
exercised influence within Pakistan but have enriched the global Christian
community. Michael Nazir-Ali, originally from Karachi and a former
Bishop of Raiwind in the Church of Pakistan, became the Anglican Bishop
of Rochester in England, where, after retirement, he remains an active
public intellectual. Through his wide-ranging ministry and many publi-
cations, Nazir-Ali has been a leading figure in and beyond the Anglican
world. Another Pakistani church leader with wide international influence
is Azad Marshall, the current Bishop of Raiwind in the Church of Pakistan
and President of the National Council of Churches in Pakistan. He has
Pakistan 117
played a major role in offering educational opportunity through literacy

and vocational training programmes as well as the teaching and training
of pastors and Christian leaders. The only Christian to have received a
state funeral is Dr Ruth Pfau, a German-born nun who was a leader in
the eradication of leprosy and came to be dubbed ‘Pakistan’s Mother
Teresa’. She lived in Pakistan for more than 50 years until her death in 2017
and adopted it as her homeland. She received three of Pakistan’s highest
honours – the Sitara-e-Quaid-e-Azam in 1969, the Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 1979
and the Nishan-e-Quaid-e-Azam in 2011.
The Future
The future of Christians in Pakistan would not have looked very promising
to any observer at the Bethel Memorial Church in Quetta on 17 December
2017, when it was attacked by four terrorists, whose intent was to detonate
an explosion inside the church so as to inflict maximum damage. The
attack took place at the time of the regular Sunday service. Since it was
the Christmas season, the church was full to capacity, with almost 400 in
attendance. Due to the heroic efforts of some church members and security
personnel, damage was limited to nine deaths and 57 injured. Despite all
the shock and devastation, one week later, on Christmas Eve, the church
was again filled to overflowing. Church members speak of how their faith,
both as individuals and as a congregation, has been strengthened through
the incident. Some speak of their determination to forgive the perpetra-
tors. The solidarity of church leaders from different churches during this
time of trial proved to be a strong expression of the unity of the Christian
community. While such an attack shows the vulnerability of Christians, it
also demonstrates their resilience and the strength of their faith.
While their capacity to absorb suffering and to endure is well attested,
Christians in Pakistan need to be active and not only passive. They need
to discover the confidence to take their future into their own hands rather
than waiting for help from elsewhere. Education has a crucial role to
play. In particular, training in technology will enable Christians to access
a wider range of employment opportunities, thus transforming their
prospects. Though the political system is stacked against them, it will
also be important for Christians to seek political office and play a part in
countering discrimination and extremism and creating a more just society.
Much more needs to be done to provide basic amenities to the Christian
neighbourhoods and to foster the entrepreneurial capacity that will bring
about a measure of prosperity.
Despite a generally bleak outlook for Christians in Pakistan, there are
some hopeful signs. On 25 December 2016, the Pakistani government
launched its first ever Christmas train especially for Christians going
back to their home areas. The government has paid heed to the call from
Christians for a new census, and it is expected that the second census in
the history of Pakistan will be conducted in the near future. Thousands of
children are studying in Christian schools, thousands continue to graduate
from Christian colleges and universities, and many receive medical care
from Christian hospitals. The Christian community remains committed to
serve all people without discrimination and engages positively in inter-faith
dialogue without compromising the integrity of the faith.
Bibliography
Cohen, Stephen P., The Idea of Pakistan (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2004).
Francis, Nadeem, This Is Our Country (Lahore: Hum Ahang Publishers, 1997).
Ispahani, Farahnaz, Purifying the Land of the Pure: Pakistan’s Religious Minorities (Noida:
HarperCollins India, 2015).
Walbridge, Linda S., The Christians of Pakistan: The Passion of Bishop John Joseph (Oxford:
Routledge, 2003).
Young, William G., Presbyterian Bishop (London: New Millennium, 1995).
North India
Leonard Fernando sj
As in other parts of India, there are many Christian communities in North

India, having had their beginnings at different points of time and diverse
in their religio-cultural expressions. The distribution of the Christian
population in North India is varied, from less than 1% (in most North
Indian states) to 22% in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Based on the
apocryphal Acts of St Thomas, some historians claim the area around Punjab
in northwest India as the cradle of Christianity in North India, tracing
its origin to the preaching of the Apostle Thomas. But since no current
community in North India traces its origin to the St Thomas tradition,
many authors fix the emergence of the present Christian communities in
North India to the sixteenth century – the beginning of Moghul mission.
The Catholic Church

The history of Catholic presence in some parts of North India is to be traced
to the invitation Catholics received and the royal patronage they enjoyed
from Emperor Akbar and other rulers of different religious traditions. At
the invitation of the Muslim Emperor Akbar the Great, Jesuits – Fathers
Rudolf Aquaviva, Anthony Monserrate and Francis Henriques – came to
the court of Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri on 28 February 1580. They established
their headquarters in Agra in 1601 and built a church there in 1604. They
continued their mission to the Christian Armenians in the Moghul court,
while also preaching to the locals and converting them to Christianity and
making contributions to science and astronomy. A noteworthy contributor
to science and astronomy was the geographer Jesuit priest Joseph
Tieffenthaler, who left behind a map of the River Ganges and Ghogra. His
book Historisch-geographische Beschreibung von Hindustan has 38 illustra-
tions including maps, plans of cities and views of cities of North India in
the eighteenth century, most of them drawn by himself.
In 1620 the governor of Patna, a Muslim convert to Christianity, invited
the Jesuits to come there. In 1740 the Rajput chief Raja Singh of Jaipur, due
to his interest in astronomy, invited the Jesuits to his kingdom. His support
helped in the spread of the Catholic community in Jaipur. Also in 1740,
Raja Dharup Singh, impressed by the healing power and ascetic religious
life of the Capuchin priest Joseph Mary, invited him to his kingdom in
120 Leonard Fernando
Bettiah, Bihar. An important event in the history of Catholicism in North

India is when the Muslim Begum Johanna Sumru embraced Christianity.
She lived, along with 2,000 Catholics, in Sardana, Uttar Pradesh, where she
built a basilica and left behind property and money for the welfare of the
Christian churches, including that of the Anglican Church in Kolkata.
In many places royal patronage was short-lived. The successors of the
receptive rulers sometimes ignored the Catholics and, worse still, even
persecuted them. Nonetheless, Catholicism continued to grow in the places
of its origin or went to other parts of North India to escape persecution
and in this way also established communities in new places. Some rich
Christians built churches, invited missionaries to their places and looked
after the welfare of the poor Catholics in their midst.
The next phase of Catholic presence in North India was in military
cantonments and railway colonies where Irish and Indian Catholics from
other parts of India lived. Missionaries visited them at regular intervals
to administer sacraments to them, but their success in converting the
local people was minimal, so the number of local Catholics in North India
remained small. This changed with the conversion movement among the
tribals and the Dalits during the nineteenth century.
Though the beginning of Christianity among the Adivasis in Jharkhand
is to be traced to the Gossner Lutheran mission in Ranchi in the nineteenth
century, the persons who contributed greatly to the group conversion
movement among Adivasis were two Jesuit priests, Constant Lievens
(1856–93) and John-Baptist Hoffmann (1857–1928). The former helped
the tribals to get back their lands through legal proceedings and the latter
helped in financial betterment through the establishment of the Catholic
Credit Society and Grain Bank. The tribals collaborated with the mission-
aries in spreading Christianity and made use of the educational, legal and
Christianity in India, 1970 and 2015

Christians 20,598,000 3.7% 61,617,000 4.7% 2.5%
Anglicans 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0.0%
Independents 3,192,000 0.6% 18,990,000 1.5% 4.0%
Orthodox 1,804,000 0.3% 4,975,000 0.4% 2.3%
Protestants 6,981,000 1.3% 21,478,000 1.6% 2.5%
Catholics 8,433,000 1.5% 19,882,000 1.5% 1.9%
Evangelicals 2,587,000 0.5% 10,027,000 0.8% 3.1%
Pentecostals 2,768,000 0.5% 20,485,000 1.6% 4.5%
Total population 553,579,000 100.0% 1,309,054,000 100.0% 1.9%
North India 121
financial facilities. Now the Church there has become well established and
even sends missionaries to other parts of the world.
The conversion movement in Jharkhand inspired the tribals living in
the neighbouring kingdoms to take the bold step of coming to Ranchi,
getting religious instruction and receiving baptism. Even when ruthlessly
punished by their feudal rulers, the tribals continued to embrace Christi
anity. It was a people’s movement. This Chhattisgarh Church remains a
persecuted one even today. Catholic missionaries also worked among the
tribals in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, but with limited
success. While tribals were receiving baptism, thanks to the untiring work
and courage of the missionaries and local Christians, Dalits in Bihar, Uttar
Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh embraced Christianity despite opposition
from the dominant castes. Their hope for improved social status, greater
dignity and economic betterment has been only partially fulfilled, however,
and they continue to suffer discrimination from both the government and
the Church.
In places like Delhi there are more migrant Catholics than local ones.
In 1960, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) officially invited
priests and religious of the Oriental Rites to do mission work in North
India. This led to a new missionary situation, marked by blessings as well
as tensions between the churches with different rites – Latin and Syro-
Malabar. Parishes and dioceses of the different ritual churches have been
formed. Meanwhile, members belonging to the Syro-Malankara Church
also began to come to North India. To take care of them and to do mission
work, on 26 March 2015 Pope Francis erected the St John Chrysostom
Eparchy of Gurgaon for the Malankara Syrian Catholic Church in India
outside of its ‘proper territory’. The Eparchy of Gurgaon is spread over 22
states of northern and eastern India. It aims to spread the gospel and work
for the integral development of people in these regions.
There are six Roman Catholic Latin ecclesiastical provinces in North
India – Agra, Bhopal, Delhi, Patna, Raipur and Ranchi – consisting of six
metropolitan archdioceses and 39 dioceses. Members of the clergy and
many religious institutes serve Catholics and others in North India. The
Catholic Church in North India contributes to the development of Indian
peoples and the nation as a whole through its many educational institu-
tions, healthcare centres, social welfare institutions and media centres.
Through the social service centres run by different dioceses, religious
congregations and lay organisations such as the Maitreya Xavier Charitable
Society it seeks to empower the underprivileged and vulnerable people
in North India and increase their dignity and self-reliance. These centres
promote the education of the underprivileged and first-time learners
through their school admission campaigns and facilitation centres. They
campaign for the admission of differently-abled children into formal/

special schools and give them high-quality training so that they can get
good jobs. They also run remedial and coaching centres for school and
college students. They seek to empower the youth through their skill
centres, career guidance, entrepreneurship training and involvement in
community organisations. They conduct literacy and legal-awareness
programmes for women so that more women may take a proactive role
in the Gram Sabha (the village council, of which anyone who is at least
18 years old and who has the right to vote is a member). They promote
women’s entrepreneurship through self-help groups. They advocate
for and promote the rights of domestic workers and the prevention of
human trafficking. They work with migrants and refugees. They promote
community healthcare through medical camps and health and sanitation
education, creating awareness of HIV and AIDS and leprosy. They take
care of differently-abled persons and cancer patients in the last stage of
their life so that they can breathe their last with courage and dignity. They
conduct camps in slums and villages to prevent hepatitis B and polio. They
also conduct campaigns for environmental protection – no to plastic, jute
as an alternative to plastic, recycling of paper and solar panel units. They
facilitate low-cost housing schemes for poor persons in rural areas. Many
priests, sisters, brothers and lay persons are involved in prison ministry,
providing counselling, education and legal help to the inmates.
The Church of North India

By the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century,
many Protestant missionary societies like the Baptist Missionary Society
(BMS), London Missionary Society (LMS), Society for the Promotion of
Christian Knowledge (SPCK), Church Missionary Society (CMS) and
United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG) were established
in India. Their activities and the mission endeavours of different Protestant
churches – Anglican, Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist –
led to the formation of different Christian communities in North India.
But the local Christians and missionaries felt deeply the division within
the Christian communities. Further strengthened by the success of the
formation of Church of South India, six churches in India united on 29
November 1970, to form the Church of North India (CNI): the Council of
Baptist Churches in Northern India, the Church of the Brethren in India,
the Disciples of Christ, the Church of India (formerly known as the Church
of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon), the Methodist Church (British and
Australian Conferences) and the United Church of Northern India.
The mission priorities set by this dominant Protestant church in North
India for the decade 2011–20 are evangelism, congregational renewal,
North India 123
education for liberation and social inclusion, building communities of

healing and reconciliation, and protection of life and livelihood. The CNI
Synodal Board of Health Services promotes health-related programmes
while the Synodal Board of Social Services works with persons from the
marginalised sections of Indian society, especially Dalits, tribals, women
and children. The 27 dioceses of the CNI have 3,500 congregations and
run 65 hospitals, 9 nursing schools, 250 educational institutions and
3 technical schools. Besides these diocesan ventures, different institu-
tions within the CNI, like the Delhi Brotherhood Society and the Indian
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, are involved in educational,
vocational, healthcare and social and economic development programmes
for marginalised people in North India. These institutions are involved in
running many projects – educational centres for migrants and refugees,
vocational/technical training centres, night shelters for street children,
child-development and community study centres, a childline service for
children in distress, women’s empowerment programmes, old-age homes,
and healthcare and other facilities for leprosy patients. In partnership
with state and central governments they carry out programmes such as a
national pension scheme for the unorganised labourers and targeted inter-
vention programmes for HIV/AIDS patients.
Orthodox and Evangelical Churches

There are many Orthodox Christian Churches in India ministering to the
migrant population and offering their service and preaching the gospel to
other persons in North India. For example, the Delhi Diocese of the Mar
Thoma Church covers 18 states in North India. It has 63 parishes and 26
congregations involved in different social services.
The Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), founded in 1951, is a
national alliance of Evangelical Christians, and counts many churches as
its members. The EFI is actively involved in North India through capacity
building, networking and advocacy. The India Pentecostal Church of God
Northern Region, registered as a separate body in 1994, covers some 18
states and reaches out in service and preaches the good news to various
groups in North India. In total, it has about 1,000 local churches and
para-churches.
The Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church (NELC) works mainly in
four states of North, East and Northeast India – Bihar, Assam, Arunachal
Pradesh and Bengal. Its headquarters are in Dumka. It runs many healthcare
centres and programmes. The Northern Territory of the Salvation Army
includes 13 states in North and East India. Its work includes caring for the
sick and working with addicted persons. Besides these churches, there are
many independent Pentecostal churches in North India.
Persecution and New Movements

Especially in the last 20 years, Christians have been victims of violent
persecution in North India. Christians are attacked not only because of their
faith in Jesus Christ, but also because they work for the welfare and upward
mobility of marginalised people. They are seen as a threat by those who
want to perpetuate the existing unjust hierarchical social system. Moreover,
India’s secular democratic tradition is threatened today by the rise of radical
Hindu fundamentalism. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its
affiliates are strengthening the grip of Hindutva ideology by appointing its
members and sympathisers to various government institutions. They then
use their positions to create hatred of minorities. The Hindutva ideology has
given rise to a militant Hindu Rashtra (state) movement that is aggressive,
communal and intolerant. The small groups of Christians in many villages
and cities in North India live in an atmosphere of fear. They are frequently
forced to bear the brunt of the attack by communal forces supported by the
government machinery. Moreover, through such measures as ‘love-jihad’,
Ghar Wapsi (‘home-coming’ – promoting the conversion of non-Hindus
to Hinduism) and Gau Rakhsha (promoting bans on the slaughter of cows
and beef consumption), they have polarised religious divisions. Worse
still, there is communal bias in investigation of cases and in the passing of
judgements by the courts. New laws are being passed that erode the rights
of minorities in the running of their educational institutions. In the context
of the growing persecution of Christians in India and the hurdles put in the
path of Christians, the Evangelical Fellowship of India does a great service
through its Christian Legal Association.
Amidst all the persecutions of Christians and opposition to their
spiritual tradition, a group of people called Khrist Bhaktas have emerged
in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The Khrist Bhaktas are staunchly devoted and
attached to Jesus Christ but are dissociated from the institutional church.
The Khrist Bhakta movement began in 1993 when the Catholic Matridham
Ashram in Varanasi adopted the features of a Charismatic movement. The
Khrist Bhaktas, belonging to a variety of castes and professions, come to
the ashram, listen to religious discourses on Jesus Christ and the Bible,
take an active part in prayers and ritual celebrations, and in turn go out as
messengers of the good news to their relatives and others in villages and
towns. The Christ experience of Khrist Bhaktas leads them to an under
standing of discipleship of the Guru Jesus Christ, which is different from
the traditional membership in a church based on baptism. The Khrist
Bhakta movement has outnumbered the Catholic population in Varanasi
diocese and has spread to many districts in Uttar Pradesh.
Another influential new movement is the Yeshu Darbar – the Royal Court
of Jesus. Dr Sam Higginbottom, inspired by a vision of gospel and plough,
North India 125
was convinced that the teachings of Jesus in Mark 12: 30–1 and Matthew
5: 3–12, 43–8 must be translated into action by imparting knowledge for
the betterment of the life of people and by the practice of love, especially
for the needy. Inspired by the words of Jesus, ‘you feed them’, Higgin
bottom founded the Allahabad Agricultural Institute (AAI), which has now
developed into Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology
and Sciences (SHUATS), Allahabad, to train Indian peasants in modern
agricultural technology so as to produce more food and give pioneering
agricultural engineering tools for appropriate agricultural technology.
Dr Rajendra B. Lal, the Vice-Chancellor of SHUATS, was a successful
scientist in America. However, on hearing God’s call to work in India he
came to India and joined SHUATS as its director in 1991. After reading the
autobiography of Sam Higginbottom he was convinced that the Agricul-
tural Institute was a gift from God. After much prayer and deep reflection,
on 15 June 1996 Dr Lal invited the board of directors to approve the revival
of the Gospel and Plough Church of the AAI, with its original vision
received from its founder. From then on, the hurdles that the Institute had
faced disappeared. While praying, Dr Lal began to speak in tongues. He
received gifts of preaching, prophecy and healing. A spiritual movement
began when every Saturday a small group met in the home of Dr Lal and
on Sundays in the Chapel of Brotherly Love.
People from different castes and creeds, numbering between 50,000
and 60,000, gather every Sunday in an open field under the banner Yeshu
Darbar. They experience healing and deliverance from evil possession and
are strengthened by the preaching of God’s Word by Dr Lal, who is known
as Babaji (an indigenous term for bishop/pastor). The phrase Jai Jeshu
(Victory to Jesus) is commonly used by the devotees to greet each other.
Gospel-oriented bhajans (songs) written by Babaji (approximately 290)
in the local dialect help the devotees to understand the gospel in simple
language. Under the visionary leadership of Babaji, a Christ-centred and
evangelical theological college and Bible school also started, where young
people are being trained for ministry, their degrees recognised by the
government of India, which is a remarkable achievement. Theology and
Bible school students are actively involved in Yeshu Darbar Church. After
completing their courses some are sent to villages to be interim pastors.
Truthseekers International, led by Sunil Sardar, is a counter-cultural,
Christ-centred reconciliation movement, a movement of the reign of God
of love, fellowship and justice. The challenging mission it has taken upon
itself is to destroy the unjust and oppressive caste system and thus liberate
India from the havoc it has wrought for more than 2,000 years. With this
aim in view, the symbolic ritual they have adopted is the washing of the feet
of the so-called ‘low caste’ people by persons belonging to the dominant
castes. Through this bold and innovative counter-symbol, Sunil Sardar has
become for many in North India a symbol of hope in their struggle for
equality and human dignity for all.
Another new movement is known as Yeshu Satsang. A satsang is a
religious gathering around a guru who preaches to the community and
leads them in prayer. Yeshu Satsang is an indigenous expression of response
to the teachings of Jesus. It is prevalent in Punjab and northwest India.
It aims at forming Christ-centred ecclesial identity in Hindu–Sikh social
structures and uses the indigenous worship music from the Hindu–Sikh
bhakti traditions – bhajans and kirtans. A Sikh Yeshu satsang is held to relate
to Sikhs and uses a combination of Christian and Sikh vocabulary and
worship pattern, including music. Such a religious gathering is appealing
and brings together people of different castes in North India for worship
and praise.
Another way in which the Christian society in North India has
responded to the rich religio-cultural tradition of the area is to adopt
ashram life to promote the mystical traditions of Christianity as well as
Hinduism. Sadhu Sundar Singh, an independent Christian preacher who
adopted a Hindu way of life as a sadhu but marked by the habit of Bible
reading, early morning prayer and mystical experience of Jesus Christ, had
a considerable influence on the Christian ashram movement. N. V. Tilak
founded a Christian ashram in Satara in 1917. Krishthukula Ashram at
Tirupattur had as its aim to give an Indian image to the Indian church and
to respond to the difficulties faced by the rural poor. In 1928 this ashram
was shifted to Poona and renamed Christa Prema Seva Ashram, Society of
the Service of Christ’s Charity. It is an ecumenical ashram. Sisters Ishapriya
and Vandana founded Jeevan Dhara Ashram in Rishikesh, at the foot of
the Himalayas. Organisations like Maitri Bhavan, Varanasi, the Christian
Institute for the Study of Religion and Society, Delhi, the Islamic Studies
Association, Delhi, and the Maitreya Xavier Charitable Society (MXCS),
as well as faculties of theology and philosophy, conduct regular inter-
religious dialogue programmes, thus promoting understanding and
harmony between people of different religions.
Fr Robert Athickal sj is the coordinator of Tarumitra (Friends of Trees),
a movement that began among the students of Patna, Bihar, and has
now spread to other cities in Bihar and beyond. Awareness was created
among the students about the ecological crisis. They in turn became ardent
supporters of the preservation of trees. They have created a ‘bio-reserve’
in Patna as a resource centre, where one can grow varieties of plants and
herbs for promotional purposes. In Bodhgaya, too, a bio-reserve has been
created. This movement has been able to preserve plants and trees that
were at the point of extinction. Many student groups go to Tarumitra.
North India 127
Bible Translation
Attempts have been made to translate the Christian Scriptures into local
languages. The full Hindi translation of the Bible was preceded by partial
translations of the Bible into Hindustani, Urdu and Hindi by Winfried
Ketlar, Benjamin Schulz and Casiano Baligati in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. In the nineteenth century many complete and partial
translations of the Bible and revisions of the earlier versions were attempted.
William Carey translated the New Testament into Hindi and published it
in 1811, while Henry Martyn published the first Urdu version of the New
Testament in 1814. These two versions served as the basis for subsequent
Hindi versions attempted by William Bowley, John Chamberlain, John
Thompson, William Yachts, Leslie Parson, F. E. Schneider and William
Hooper. The 1905 Hindi version of the Bible is still being used by the
Protestant Christians, with the New Testament section having undergone
revisions in 1961, 1971 and 1978.
The Catholics started quite late in the translation of the Bible. In 1864 the
Hartman Hindi translation of the New Testament was published. Fathers
R. Sah and S. Valde did partial translations of the Bible. Father Camille
Bulcke was also engaged in the translation of the Bible into Hindi; he died
in 1982, before he could complete the task. After his death, his close friend,
Dr Deeneswar Prasad of Ranchi University, with the help of other priest-
friends and associates of Father Bulcke, completed the task. This revised
version, known as the Valde-Bulcke Bible, was first published in 1986. This
is the version most commonly used by Catholics today.
New versions and revisions of old versions have been continued
by the Bible Society of India. A new ecumenical version of the Bible in
Hindi through the combined efforts of scholars from different churches
was published in 1999. Translations of the Bible into the tribal languages
of North India – Santali, Mundari and Kurukh – are already available.
Attempts are being made to translate the Bible into other tribal languages,
such as Mal Pahariya. These ventures in Bible translations have also helped
in the formation of tribal theological languages.
Ecumenical Ventures
The All-India Association for Christian Higher Education, the Society of
Biblical Studies and the Church History Association of India are some of
the ecumenical associations with branches in North India. This has borne
fruit in the extraordinary ecumenical achievement of the common Hindi
Bible, a work completed by scholars from different Christian churches. The
Christian Association for Radio and Audio-Visual Service based in Jabalpur
is also an ecumenical venture. So is the Delhi-based Indian Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge (ISPCK), founded for the publication of
books and journals. In the cultural sphere, the National Council of Churches
in India supports the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and the
Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), with their headquarters in
Delhi. Besides these ecumenical associations and common programmes, in
recent years there has been evidence of greater commitment on the part of
the churches to work together on different issues that affect Christians in
North India and the wider Indian population. Moreover, important centres
of different churches in India are situated in North India, for example the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, Caritas India and the Church’s
Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA).
Faculties of Philosophy and Theology

There are many faculties of philosophy and theology in North India
preparing men and women for ministry. Their contribution to the
development of Christian theology and philosophy is increasingly
recognised. Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi, and St Albert’s College,
Ranchi, are two Catholic pontifical institutes in North India. In addition,
there are many Catholic faculties of philosophy and theology that are
extension centres of, or affiliated to, faculties in India or elsewhere. There
are 11 Protestant colleges affiliated with Serampore College.
In dialogue with Indian cultures and religions and rooted in Christian
faith and tradition, theologians and philosophers from these faculties have
left their mark in the development of Indian theology, Dalit theology, tribal
theology, theology of religions and the history of Christianity from the
subaltern perspective. Noteworthy among them are Michael Amaladoss,
George Gispert-Sauch, Samuel Rayan, James Massey and Nirmal Minz.
Amaladoss champions the view that anthropological studies and social
sciences should be used in theologising, and not philosophy alone as was
done in the past. Dialogue with cultures and religions plays an important
role in his theological reflections. He projects the Church as servant and
symbol of the Reign of God with which various religious traditions are
inseparably connected.
Many years of intermingling with people of different cultural and
religious traditions in India with a welcoming and open mind to their
rich resources of scriptures have led Father Gispert-Sauch to explore the
divine mystery on the borderline between traditional Christian doctrine
and Indian spiritual heritage. His contribution has been significant in the
theology of religions.
For Samuel Rayan, the poor and the marginalised are the chief source
of theology. Through his writings he champions the life, dignity and rights
of underprivileged persons in Indian society. He theologises starting from
the context and the struggles of the people for justice and human rights.
North India 129
In his theologising he integrates people’s stories, folk songs and myths.

He had a special influence on student communities, especially during his
involvement in student movements.
James Massey has played an important role in the emergence of Dalit
theology. In the context of the experience of the Dalits he reflects on the
Christian message and insists on the call to struggle against the inhuman
caste system that denies equality and human dignity. The Dalit Bible
Commentary has become a reality thanks to him and his collaborators.
Bishop Nirmal Minz of the North Western Gossner Evangelical Lutheran
Church is an authority on tribal culture and indigenous people. He raises
his voice against those who deprive the tribals of their lands and deplete
the mineral resources of those lands. He has contributed to the emergence
of tribal theology, with its focus on tribal cultures and religions.
To the Peripheries
Inspired by the words of Jesus, ‘Whatever you did to the least of my brothers
and sisters you did it to me’, Christians continue to serve the people, even
if their works of mercy are criticised by some as being done to convert
people to Christianity. Against such claims, there are many who openly
proclaim that they are beneficiaries of Christian institutions but have never
been asked to receive baptism.
In recent years some religious communities and NGOs in North India
have taken the option of serving those pushed to the peripheries – street
children, lepers, differently-abled persons and HIV/AIDS patients. Some
plunge themselves into the liberation struggle of the Dalits and tribals, even
to the extent of laying down their own lives. Sister Rani Maria is one such
person. Mariam Vattalil (1954–95) took on her religious name Rani Maria
when she joined the Franciscan Clarist Congregation. She worked among
the poor in the Diocese of Indore and was vocal in support of the poor
and the disadvantaged. This irked some landlords, who arranged for her
murder. She was killed in a knife attack by the hit-man Samundar Singh on
25 February 1995. She had 40 major injuries to her body besides 15 bruises.
Until her last breath she said ‘Jesus’ repeatedly. She was declared Blessed
by the Catholic Church in November 2017. Sister Rani Maria’s nun sister
visited Samundar Singh in prison and expressed her forgiveness. On ex-
periencing such genuine compassion from Rani Maria’s sister, Samundar
Singh asked for forgiveness. Sister Rani Maria’s mother visited Samundar
Singh on 25 February 2003 and kissed his hands as a sign of forgiveness.
Small Flock
Despite the presence of Christianity in North India for more than 400 years
and its extraordinary contribution to the welfare of the people, the Christian
population in North India remains very small – less than 1% in some states.
The possible reason for this lack of growth of Christian communities is the
hostile atmosphere and religious discrimination against Dalit Christians.
Some converts to Christianity in North India from Dalit communities
do not officially declare themselves to be Christian so as not to lose the
affirmative constitutional protection and special concession given to other
Dalits. Thus, the number of Christians in census data remains less than is
really the case.
Moreover, the so-called Freedom of Religion Acts (in reality anti-
conversion laws) in some parts of North India demand prior permission
from the district magistrate before a person converts to another religion. The
Acts also stipulate that a person who intends to convert another person to a
different religion has to give notice of such intention to district authorities.
Failing to do so could lead to a fine or imprisonment or both. To add to
these difficulties and hurdles faced by Christians in North India, the ‘ghar
wapsi’ slogan of reconversion and physical torture and persecution of
Christians with the connivance of political and administrative authorities
makes the small group of Christians in many parts of India vulnerable. As
a result, their number and open celebrations of their Christian faith shrink
still more.
Despite their small numbers and the opposition they face from those
in power, the ‘little flock’ is not cowed. In fact, the collaboration of lay
Christians is on the increase through different associations, basic Christian
communities and Charismatic movements. The challenges faced by
Christians in North India today are enormous. Yet their faith in the risen
Lord Jesus gives them the strength to go forward and continue his mission
of love, justice and peace in their contemporary contexts.
Bibliography
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, The Catholic Directory of India 2013 (Bangalore:
Claretian Publications, 2013).
Fernando, Leonard and George Gispert-Sauch, Christianity in India (New Delhi: Penguin,
2004).
Frykenberg, Robert Eric (ed.), Christians and Missionaries in India (Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 2003).
Kanjamala, Augustine, The Future of Christian Mission in India (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2014).
Webster, John C. B., A Social History of Christianity: North-West India Since 1800 (New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 2007).
West India
Atul Y. Aghamkar
The western area of the country represents the most urbanised, industrial-
ised, educated, technologically advanced and socio-religiously progressive
part of India. It is here that the Christian faith has met with the most hostile
as well as the most positive responses. Being a progressive segment that
provided leadership for many socio-religious as well as political reform
movements in India, this region has great potential to impact the nation
extensively.
West India includes the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa along
with the union territories of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
According to the 2011 census, the West region constitutes 14.32% of India’s
total population. The major people groups in Maharashtra, in order of caste
hierarchy, are Brahmins, Marathas, Kunbis, artisans and untouchables.
The Brahmins, despite being a minority, were the privileged class. The
Marathas were the ruling class, particularly under the seventeenth-century
warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji and the Peshwas, his subordinate rulers.
Maharashtra is known for its rigid and oppressive caste system, and yet
this region has also produced some of the most progressive socio-religious
reformers. Gujaratis have a reputation as merchants, industrialists and
entrepreneurs. A very large immigrant Gujarati community is present
in Mumbai and in the union territories of Daman and Diu, and Dadra
and Nagar Haveli, both being former Portuguese colonies. Religiously
speaking, about 83% of the people in the West region are Hindus, while
the Muslims constitute more than 10% and Buddhists about 4%. Christians
and other minority groups such as Jains, Zoroastrians and Jews make up
the remainder.
Emergence and Expansion of Christianity

Christians in the coastal region, particularly Maharashtra, claim that the
gospel came to western India through Bartholomew, one of the disciples
of Jesus, but there are no historical records to prove this. Nevertheless, the
Christian presence can be traced back to the sixth century. Cosmas Indico-
pleustes, a Greek merchant, saw a church in Kalliana (present-day Kalyan,
near Bombay/Mumbai) in the year 545, with a bishop consecrated from
Persia. In 1321, when Jordan of Severac, a French Dominican priest, arrived
132 Atul Y. Aghamkar
in Thane, he found Nestorian Christians who had been settled there, as

well as in Kalyan, Sopara and also Broach (Bharuch in Gujarat), since the
seventh century. It is clear, therefore, that Christianity was present in the
West of India long before the arrival of the Portuguese or the British.
The arrival of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama on the shores of
Calicut (present-day Kozhikode) in 1498 opened up not only a new trade
route from Europe to India but also a new epoch of Roman Catholic
mission in India. Under the rule of the Portuguese kings, Christianisation
was a state enterprise and churches were established wherever the empire
expanded. The entire western coast, from Diu and Daman in Gujarat to
Goa in the south, came under Portuguese power. By the time Francis
Xavier came to India in 1542, the Jesuits had vigorously Christianised Goa,
Bassein, Salsette and Bombay. Many thousands were converted under the
patronage of the colonial power. Most of the converts adapted themselves
to Portuguese customs and practices.
The Protestants were comparative latecomers in West India as, initially,
the East India Company was largely hostile to missionary work. When the
Company’s charter came up for renewal in 1813, however, restrictions on
missionary work were relaxed. The American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), organised in 1810 by students of Williams
College in Massachusetts and legally incorporated in 1812, was the first
body to take advantage of the open door for Protestant missionary work in
India. Its first missionaries sailed for Calcutta in February 1812. In the next
20 years they were followed by missionaries of other Protestant missions.
The American Presbyterian Mission started its pioneering missionary
work in Maharashtra at Kolhapur in 1870 under the leadership of R. G.
Wilder. The Methodist Episcopal Church was founded by William Taylor
in Bombay in 1872, and it later expanded to Poona, Puntamba and other
centres in Maharashtra. The Church Missionary Society, started in London
in 1799, began its work in Bombay in 1818. The Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel (SPG) in Foreign Parts started in 1701 and was established in
Bombay in 1859. The Scottish Missionary Society, formed in 1796, sent its
first missionary, Donald Mitchell, in 1822 and established work in Alibag,
Thana, Pen, Panvel, Lonavala, Revadanda, Kalyan and Karjat in north
Konkan. The Salvation Army and Seventh-day Adventists also contributed
to Christian mission in India. The Christian and Missionary Alliance,
initiated in North America in 1887 under the leadership of A. B. Simpson,
came to be known as Alliance Mission in India. These missions established
centres in various towns and cities and expanded into remote villages.
Protestant mission work in Gujarat began with the arrival of Carapeit
Chator Aratoon in Surat in 1813. Aratoon was an Armenian Christian who,
while undergoing English education in Calcutta, came under the influence
West India 133
of the Serampore missionaries – William Carey and his colleagues. In 1815

the London Missionary Society (LMS) began work in Surat and by 1824 had
printed a Gujarati translation of the Bible. The Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel started work in Ahmedabad in 1830 with the arrival of T. D.
Pettinger, its first missionary. The Irish Presbyterian Mission began work
when their first missionaries, James Glasgow and Alexander Kerr, arrived
in 1841. After 1880, other Protestant missions such as the Salvation Army,
Brethren Mission and Christian Alliance Mission began work in Gujarat.
The Methodist mission that started in 1872 in Baroda resulted in mass
conversions. Through the powerful preaching of Karsan Ranchhod,
thousands of people were converted and baptised. By 1903 the number
of baptised Methodist Christians had risen to 16,000 – from only 496 in
1895. The Church Missionary Society (CMS) began its work among the
Bhils, a tribal group, in 1880, leading to the conversion of many from the
Bhagat sect. A noted convert among them was Sat Guru Das, who was
musically gifted and produced wonderful lyrics that have enriched the life
of the church. In the 1890s, the Tribal Mission of the Indian Pentecostal
Mission also began to work among the Bhils. The Protestant missionar-
ies were pioneers in starting schools, hospitals, vocational institutes and
farm colonies. J. V. S. Taylor of the Indian Pentecostal Mission was an
outstanding figure, earning the title ‘Father of Gujarati Grammar’. The
Presbyterian Church of Ireland launched the Jungle Tribes Mission in 1889
to work in the Panch Mahal and Rewa Kantha areas of the Bhils.
The voluntary mission work of the wives of missionaries among the
Hindu and Muslim women had a significant impact from the early days
of Protestant mission. The need for full-time women missionaries was
long-felt. With the arrival of the first zenana missionary, Miss Susan
Brown, in Gujarat in 1874, work among women and girls was successfully
begun. Two years later, with the arrival of M. Forrest, the first Christian
medical work in Gujarat began through a dispensary. In the 1860s and
1870s, arrangements for theological training were made, and eventually a
theological training class was started in 1878 by Robert Gillespie and John
Shillidy and continued by J. V. S. Taylor and William Beatty. Some who
received this training became outstanding leaders of the church.
Christian missions in Maharashtra operated through the spread of
primary schools in interior villages for low castes and girls. The Mahars,
the Mangs and other low castes learned of human equality and justice
through the missionary efforts. Protestant missionaries experienced group
conversions in pockets of West India. In Maharashtra, the Mahars in the
Ahmednagar area and the Mangs in the Aurangabad/Jalna area converted
in groups. Similarly, group conversions occurred among the Dheds in
the Admedabad and Baroch areas, and in Vasai (mostly from upper-caste
and fishing communities). Except for a few significant conversions from

the upper-caste groups, the majority of converts in West India were from
outcaste and tribal backgrounds.
Protestant missionary work among the low castes in Maharashtra was
so powerful that it not only enlightened them about their own rights and
possibility of upliftment but also challenged upper-caste reformers to
realise the need to imitate what the missionaries did to combat social evils,
particularly untouchability. In cities like Mumbai, Pune, Ahmednagar,
Ahmedabad, Surat and Baroda, interaction between Christian missionar-
ies and the leaders of the local reform movements led to significant reform
within Hindu society. Local activists such as Madhav Govind Ranade,
Balshastri Jambhekar, Joytirao Phule and Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj took
their lead from the missionaries who sowed the seeds of socio-religious
reform and modernisation in Maharashtra and other parts of India.
Although Babasaheb Ambedkar was attracted to Christianity, he was
disturbed to see the continued influence of caste in the lives of people even
after they had embraced Christianity, and eventually he chose to become a
Buddhist. However, in a sense, Ambedkar completed the work of uplifting
the depressed classes begun by the missionaries by including safeguards
in the constitution for the liberty and equality of the untouchables.
Christianity after Independence

After independence the scenario changed drastically, with Western
missionaries leaving India, followed by diminishing support from the
West. Denomination after denomination saw the transition of leadership
from Western to local hands. For a period, the church at large struggled
over issues of leadership in managing church life and Christian institutions.
The second half of the twentieth century witnessed various challenges
in denominational church governance. A major positive development
was the formation of the Church of North India (CNI) in 1970. A series
of consultations and negotiations, starting from 1929, attended by repre-
sentatives of such churches as the United Church of Northern India, the
Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon, the Methodist Church in
South Asia and the Council of Baptist Churches in Northern India made
this union a reality, although at the last minute the Methodist Church in
South Asia, which traced its origins to the USA, did not join the union.
Evangelicals remained aloof from the Church Union movement, but they
formed their own Evangelical fellowships like Berar Khandesh Christian
Council (BKCC), which eventually gave birth to the Evangelical Fellowship
of India. Most Evangelical churches remained faithful to their commitment
to Evangelical faith and associated themselves with Evangelical organisa-
tions while retaining their independence.
West India 135
During the early 1970s, West India experienced a renewed interest

in mission and evangelism. Various para-church organisations such
as Operation Mobilization (OM), Youth for Christ (YFC), the Union of
Evangelical Students of India (UESI) and like-minded organisations created
a renewed interest in outreach and evangelism and impacted a cross-section
of both mainline and Evangelical churches. The church in West India, on
the other hand, was satisfied with local missionary activities and was
lagging behind in cross-cultural evangelism. The initiative and ministry of
the Love Maharashtra Society in this regard is noteworthy as it provided a
timely and systematic missionary vision to the church in West India. Other
missionary organisations from South India – notably Indian Evangelical
Mission (IEM), Friends Missionary Prayer Band (FMPB), Maharashtra
Village Ministries (MVM), Operation Mobilization and Indian Evangelical
Team (IET) – began sending missionaries to various unreached parts of
West India, focusing primarily on the tribal population. In the 1970s,
a number of upper jāti people in north Gujarat (Ravals, Koli Patels and
Thakors) and the tribals of Sabarkantha (Garasia Bhils) and south Gujarat
(Vasavas, Gamits, Chaudhuris and Kuknas) converted to Christianity.
Christian work was carried out mainly through mass evangelism, open-air
preaching, camping, medical evangelism, education and orphanages.
The late twentieth century also witnessed the emergence and rapid
growth of various Pentecostal and Charismatic groups that permeated
the urban landscape. Prominent among them is the New Life Fellowship
(NLF), a unique Charismatic urban house-church movement that started as
a small church in the late 1970s. Pastor S. Joseph’s dream of a mega-church
in Bombay turned into a plan to have hundreds of house churches, each
consisting of 15–20 members. The New Life Fellowship Association
(NLFA) was started in 1975, and by 1989 it had about 1,500 churches in
Bombay. The house-church concept proved to be a key strategy in missions,
as it served as an efficient medium for vibrant worship, the exercise of
spiritual gifts and the development of lay leaders. By 1998 this movement
in Bombay (by then renamed Mumbai) had 140 prayer cells, 511 house
groups, 305 house churches and 122 celebration centres. The Fellowship
also engages in various social reform activities, particularly in Dharavi,
Asia’s largest slum, where alcoholism, starvation and other such ills are
rampant. Subsequent to a leadership change, the NLFA was relaunched as
the New Life Movement International (NLMI) in 2010, and the churches
under this body are now known as New Life Churches.
Today, the church in West India remains largely stagnant, often
struggling with leadership and property issues. However, the region has
seen some openings for mission among the tribal segments in southern
Gujarat and northern Maharashtra, and some breakthroughs have been
reported by missionary organisations. A few evangelically minded

independent churches have undertaken evangelistic work within their
own states and are working among different groups with support and
personnel raised from within the church. Dioceses and conferences of
some mainline churches have established home mission departments that
encourage outreach and evangelism among people other than their own.
It has been reported that some indigenous mission societies and Church
of North India (CNI) dioceses and Methodist conferences are partnering
together to reach the unreached people of Maharashtra and Gujarat states.
In Goa, tension between the Protestant and established Catholic Churches
continue to pose problems as a number of Catholics are turning to
Protestant and Charismatic denominations. Outreach programmes among
the upper-caste Hindu population are reporting some degree of success.
Christian Spirituality and Worship Patterns

Although the church in West India is largely a product of Western missionary
initiatives, its forms and practices of worship are by and large indigenous.
Of course, the churches’ administrative structures, functions and patterns
of worship reflect the denominational dynamics they inherited. Neverthe-
less, generally, churches in West India use regional languages like Marathi,
Gujarati and Konkani in their worship services. Their singing is highly
indigenous as they are blessed with a rich heritage of locally produced
religious hymnody and poetry. In some rural and town churches, worship
services use indigenous instruments and an indigenous style of singing
such as bhajans, kirtans and dindi. However, in some pockets of West India
like Goa, Diu, Daman and Vasai, the church is strongly grounded in Western
styles of worship and practices, mainly due to the Portuguese influence.
The same can be said about urban churches, where English contemporary
singing is becoming popular, along with Hindi songs, with frequent use of
Western musical instruments.
The participation of the youth is seen more in the area of ‘praise
and worship’ than in any other aspect of the church, and most of them
are interested in singing Western worship songs with Western musical
instruments. Further, it is observed that many city and even town churches
are having bilingual services with a mix of Western and indigenous music.
The style of preaching in these churches tends toward a Charismatic and
Pentecostal orientation, with emphasis on passages of Scripture that deal
with signs and wonders, healing and prosperity, and upward mobility.
The trend towards the prosperity gospel is widely evident and detracts
from the traditional systematic and expository preaching in contemporary
churches. Some South Indian language groups also conduct services in
many cities and towns of West India that range from being more traditional
West India 137
to hyper-Pentecostal in style, with people worshipping in their regional

languages (although, as noted above, the Marathi, Gujarati and Konkani
languages are nonetheless dominant).
Liturgically, the Marathi, Gujarati and Goan churches have depended
largely on Western sources, with English hymns and Christian literature
being translated into regional languages. However, converts from India
hailing from both upper and lower castes contributed significantly to
produce liturgy that included hymns and songs written in the local dialects
and sung to local tunes. Baba Padmanji (1831–1906) and Narayan Vaman
Tilak (1861–1919) are important literary figures of Maharashtra. Padmanji
was a novelist in Marathi literature and penned more than 100 books. After
his conversion, he lived in Pune for nearly 16 years, served as a pastor
for five years and then took to writing full-time. Tilak, a poet from the
Konkan region of the Bombay Presidency in British India, began to read
the Bible as part of his search for a universal religion and ‘intellectually’
accepted Christ. He was baptised, at his insistence, by an Indian pastor.
He lived most of his life in Ahmednagar, preaching and composing over
100 Christian songs in Marathi. His abhangs, kirtans and hymns have such
rich spiritual appeal that they are sung with great fervour among Marathi-
speaking Christians even today. Similarly, many local bhajans, kirtans and
abhangs were written in Gujarati as well. Such liturgical literature produced
in Marathi and Gujarati brought a significant synergy between Eastern and
Western spirituality.
Theological Engagement
Theologically, the missionaries in general attempted to develop Indian
Christian theologies and thereby a synthesis between Indian and Western
cultures. A significant amount of research and study was undertaken by the
missionaries to understand the local religious traditions and customs so as
to build bridges for effective communication of their message, although at
times they had a negative approach to the local religious traditions.
Among the earliest theological institutions that emerged in West India
are the United Theological Seminary of Maharashtra, the Maharashtra
Bible College (initially the Men’s Bible School in Bodwad, Maharashtra),
the Gujarat United School of Theology and the Methodist Bible Seminary in
Gujarat. Theological production in West India, however, either in English
or in regional languages, has been minimal. Initially, prominent thinkers
like Baba Padmanji and Narayan Vaman Tilak, as well as Nehemiah Goreh
(1825–95), Pandita Ramabai (1858–1922), Dhanjibhai Fakirbhai (1895–1967)
and Manilal Parekh (1885–1967) led in theological and especially apologetic
writing in the Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi and Sanskrit languages. However,
the later period saw very few regional theologians articulating Christian
faith. Their theology was primarily a mixture of Christian apologetics

articulated in a more Hindu classical conceptual framework, as they all
focused their attention on the higher Hindu stratum of society.
The second level of theologians, who were mostly from non-Brahmin
backgrounds, provided a simple but systematic theological articulation
keeping in mind the concerns of ordinary Christians. Prominent among
them were Vishwas Anand Satralkar, Satyawan Namdev Suryavanshi
and Vasant Bhaurao Samudre. In more contemporary times, theologians
like Sudhir Deviprasad Sharma, Arvind P. Nirmal, Subhash Chandorikar
and Sunil Shamsunder Adhav initiated theological engagement primarily
from the subaltern perspective, providing a voice for Dalit Christians who
felt that theology had to be relevant to the people. Several Dalit Christian
literature conferences were held in Maharashtra to provide a platform for
such theologians. Catholic theologians like Francis DeBrito, Simon Pimenta
and Hilary Fernandez tried to align their work with the dominant Hindu
situation and developed theological articulation that is more in line with
contextualisation, pluralism and inculturation. However, such attempts
led to controversies with the Christian community.
Interestingly, while the church in West India (except Goa, Vasai and
Diu) largely comprises people from Dalit and tribal backgrounds, most
theological engagement came from upper-caste converts who articulated
their theology within the classical Hindu structure, and hence their
theology had little or no relevance for the church on the ground. With the
emergence of Dalit theology, some West Indian theologians faded into the
background, and engagement from a subaltern perspective dominated the
theological scene. Although the Evangelical and more conservative sections
of the Christian community seem to be less interested in theological articu-
lation, there are signs of change. Some prominent theologians, who are
highly qualified and grounded in the context, are emerging within this
constituency and beginning to produce relevant theology.
Hindu–Christian Relations
The emergence and growth of Hindu fundamentalist movements in
Maharashtra led to the passing of more stringent laws against Christian
ministries, particularly their missionary work, evangelism and church
planting. Such anti-conversion laws primarily stemmed from fear that the
perceived unbridled growth of Christianity could disturb India’s socio-
religious fabric.
The arrival of Christianity in West India coincided with the British
defeat of the Peshwas, the Maratha kingdom as such. There seems to be
inherent animosity between Christians and Hindus. The early interactions
between the Western missionaries and the upper-caste Hindus happened
West India 139
at the higher level, dealing with theological and textual issues. However,
when the upper-caste Hindu converts to Christianity started using
apologetics not only to defend their conversion but also to point out the
evils of Hinduism, the interactions took an ugly turn. A section of Hindu
intellectuals started to aggressively defend their traditional orthodox faith.
Despite such turns, the Hindu–Christian interactions continued at
various levels. During the early period, many leading Brahmin converts like
Nilkanth (Nehemiah) Goreh, Narayan Vaman Tilak and Pandita Ramabai
undertook an educated and learned approach to Christian apologetics and
formulated intelligent responses to many allegations against Christianity.
This paved the way for other upper-caste converts to assess, intelligently
and objectively, their traditional Hindu religion. Initially, a wave of interest,
reaction and resistance emerged among the upper-caste urban Hindus, but
it subsided when the Dalits and other outcasts began to respond. Then, the
upper-caste Hindu reformers apparently changed their focus from intel-
lectual debate and attack on Christianity to questioning of the intent and
motives of people embracing Christianity.
Hindu interactions with Catholics were different in nature. Most Hindus
do not understand the difference between the Catholics and the Protestants.
Many Catholic Christians are found in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Vasai, Diu
Daman and Thane districts. Their names, lifestyles and habits are largely
in line with Western and particularly Portuguese culture. They are often
regarded as the prototype for Christian identity and form the basis for the
depictions of Christianity seen in Hindi movies, which greatly influence
popular perception even though most Christians in West India are very
different in character.
Protestant Christian mission work has met with mixed reactions. Ever
since the entrance of Western missionaries into Maharashtra and Gujarat,
some Hindu leaders have reacted and strongly resented the Christian
activities that resulted in proselytisation. Others, however, welcomed
Christian missionary initiatives through education, empowerment and
the provision of medical and social care that were hitherto unavailable.
Thus, the Hindu reaction ranged from total opposition to sympathetic ap-
preciation. A majority of Hindus, however, tended to be neutral towards
Christian activities in West India.
Religious fundamentalism continues to pose a huge threat to Christian
mission and evangelism. The Hindutva movement is one of the most
prominent forces to have emerged in recent decades. That movement –
understood variously as an ideology, a way of life and a militant form of
cultural nationalism in modern India – is orchestrated by the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a fascist and fundamental form of political
religion. It is an aggressive political form of nationalism. But this ideology
was revived in recent years and given a more fundamentalist shape,

posing a serious threat to the practice of Christian mission. The concept of
Hindutva is not new; what is new is its aggressive and violent expression,
which jeopardises the cause of mission in India. The Christian community
in West India was taken completely unawares by the assaults, atrocities
and arson of Hindu nationalists.
Christians and Politics

The Christian community in West India is generally not interested or
involved in local, state or national politics. Most Christians tend to believe
that politics is worldly and hence something to be shunned. Christians
were warned against participating in any political activities due to the
perceived link of the British Raj with Christianity. Nonetheless, the
Christian community has been supportive of the Indian National Congress
party because of the latter’s so-called ‘secular’ outlook. Christians have
always remained a neglected minority in the political arena. As a thinly
and widely distributed minority, their votes are not considered significant.
Hence, Christians are generally neglected by politicians and very often
deprived of their basic rights and privileges.
This scenario, however, has been changing in recent times. Christians
in a number of cities are becoming actively involved in politics. Often a
strong Christian leader is appointed to the minority commission of the
state government, and at other times Christians are invited to be part of
other government commissions. Recently, a state-level political party called
Alpha Omega Christian Mahasangh has emerged, with Ashish Shinde at
its head. On the whole, however, the political environment has not been
favourable for Christians in West India.
Currently, religious freedom is increasingly being suppressed, not just
in the western part but in all of India. Fundamentalist religious groups
continue to influence the governance of the country, and certain pockets of
West India have experienced violence against Christians and Christian or-
ganisations. Various socio-political restrictions are imposed on the church.
The evangelistic and social upliftment activities are regularly monitored
by both governmental and non-governmental agencies. A decade ago,
Christians in South Gujarat were persecuted in various ways, with more
than 20 churches being destroyed and vandalised. Fundamentalist groups
claim to have re-converted at different levels as the region experienced a
significant growth in its Christian population.
Major political parties tend to be anti-Christian in their outlook and
consistently attempt to curtail religious freedom. Human rights violations
continue to be a matter of concern. The church in West India tends to be
slow in articulating its concerns and developing advocacy. State-level
West India 141
minority commissions have seen a Christian representative being invited

to safeguard the interests of minority Christians. Although some individual
Christians are assertively getting involved in local political situations, and
some Christians are getting elected as members of legislative assemblies,
safeguarding the interests of the churches appears to be a distant reality.
Amidst increasing fundamentalism and persecution, a new way of being
the church is needed in West India.
Urban Christianity
West India is more urbanised than the rest of the country (Gujarat and
Maharashtra top the list of most urbanised Indian states) and as such the
region attracts many migrants. This is clearly reflected in the composition
of the Christian population in the cities of West India. For example, it is
estimated that at least two-thirds of the Christian population of Maharashtra
state is found in the cities of Mumbai, Thane and Pune. This is indicative of
the fact that Christianity in India is rapidly becoming urbanised.
Pastoral ministry in West India is witnessing staggering changes as
well. Traditional urban churches remained stagnant for some time because
they hardly undertook any serious outreach programmes beyond their
own constituencies. However, with enormous church buildings at the
heart of various cities, these churches were almost in danger of becoming
monuments as Christian populations dwindled. In recent decades,
however, urban churches have been experiencing considerable growth,
primarily because rural migrants, who were already Christians, have
moved into the cities and joined the existing churches. In reality, most
of these churches are growing because of rural–urban migration and not
necessarily because of conversions – though there are some exceptions to
this. Over a decade or so, many new churches have been mushrooming in
major metropolitan areas and some of those are also growing due to the
migration of Christians within cities.
Some Challenges
The Christian Church by and large seems to be struggling with manifold
challenges that have been affecting its life and growth. Nominal Christi
anity seems to have become the norm for generations now. Most converts
to Christianity have been the product of the smaller mass movements
among the Dalits and tribal people, and it appears that adequate attention
has not been given to spiritual nurture and biblical teaching. The
generation of Christian leaders who arose after the mass conversions of the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did not seem to be properly
trained and equipped to build the church biblically and spiritually. After
India’s independence, the Western missionary force transferred a huge
amount of power, properties and leadership to the indigenous Christians

without proper training, guidance and transition. Consequently, internal
church rivalry, leadership crises, lack of vision and low spiritual vitality all
have contributed to a crisis in the church in West India.
Another danger for the church in West India is lack of balanced teaching
from the Scriptures, which has led to the spread of many heretical and
imbalanced teachings in the churches. Many Christians tend to hop from
place to place, seeking solutions to their problems and issues, and they are
often attracted by popular preachers of the ‘prosperity gospel’, ‘name and
claim theology’ and ‘healing crusades’. Systematic and consistent biblical
and theological teaching is needed. However, with very few Bible colleges
and theological institutes that can provide balanced and high-quality
education, the need for wholesome teaching is yet to be fulfilled.
The growth of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches is a cause for
concern to the more traditional churches. Many of these churches are
blamed for ‘sheep-stealing’ since their growth often seems to be dependent
on attracting nominal Christians from other churches. Another issue faced
by the Christians in West India is the dwindling number of Christians
in village churches due to constant migration to cities. Christians are
migrating to cities in huge numbers, leaving rural churches empty and im-
poverished. On the other hand, urban churches are thriving on account of
such migration.
Conclusion
Christianity in West India goes through ups and downs, and yet it seems
to be steadily moving forwards. Despite general apathy and antagonism
towards Christianity from the majority Hindu society, there continues to
be significant Christian growth in pockets. With the emergence of globalis
ation, the open-market economy, an increasing level of education and with
the kind of ‘progressive DNA’ this region has inherited, the prospects for
Christianity in this part of India seem bright.
Bibliography
Aghamkar, Atul Y. and Vishwas Padole, Christian Missions in Maharashtra: Retrospect and
Prospect (Bangalore: TETRAWPOI, 2010).
Boyd, Robin H. S., A Church History of Gujarat (Madras: Christian Literature Society, 1981).
Crozier, John, I Cannot Turn Back: The Adventures of Gordon Hall (Mumbai: American Marathi
Mission, 1977).
David, M. D., Missions: Cross-Cultural Encounter and Change in Western India (New Delhi:
ISPCK, 2001).
Hewat, Elizabeth, Christ and Western India (Mumbai: Wilson College, 1953).
South India
Daniel Jeyaraj
South India is the cradle of Dravidian languages, cultures and religions.

These are distinct from Sanskrit and can stand without it. South India is
also the birthplace of the St Thomas Christians, who trace their history to
the ministry of the Apostle Thomas (52–72 ce) in modern-day Kerala and
in Mylapore, near Chennai in Tamil Nadu. As time passed, they interacted
with the leaders of the Orthodox Churches in Syria and Persia; the Catholic
Christians and missionaries from Portugal, Italy and Spain; the Protestant
colonial administrators, traders and missionaries from Europe and North
America; and the Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians from both within
and outside India. Some South Indian Christians had no contact with any
non-Indian Christians and learned to perceive and interpret the received
texts of the Bible in their own way. Thus, contemporary Christianity in
South India remains active, kaleidoscopic, complex and intricate.
Orthodox Christianity in South India has the longest and most complex
history. Their members are native to Kerala; yet most of them faithfully carry
on the legacies of their ancestors, who were loyal to either the Patriarchs
in Persia and Constantinople or the Popes in Rome. These legacies include
their hierarchy, liturgies, theologies, vestments, governance, and marriage
and funeral customs. Some of them are proud of their church leaders, who
associated themselves either with the Portuguese Catholic Christians or the
English Anglicans. Under these external ties and Christian manifestations
lie the forces of caste identity, rivalries among influential families, desire
to control immovable properties and access to international ecumenical
bodies. Nowadays, the Syro-Malabar Church remains Catholic. The
Chaldean Syrian Church relates itself to the Assyrian Church of the East.
The Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church has branched into four distinct
bodies, namely the Jacobites, the Syrian Orthodox, the Syro-Malankara
and the Mar Thoma. The leaders of the Mar Thoma Christians (e.g. M. M.
Thomas) are influential and vocal in missionary and ecumenical movements
both inside and outside India. They occupy key positions in theological,
medical, educational and ecumenical institutions. Their representatives
live in nearly every major town and city in the world, regularly meeting
for worship services and cultural events. They practise endogamy and
consciously maintain fellowship with each other even in diaspora contexts.
144 Daniel Jeyaraj
The Anglicans, who broke away from the Orthodox traditions, belong
to the Church of South India (CSI) and engage in ecumenical activities.
The Orthodox, Catholic, Mar Thoma and CSI Churches have their roots
in this long history and are complemented today by new movements of
Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.
Geographically, South India spreads over five states (Tamil Nadu,
Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) and three union
territories (Puducherry, Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar
Islands). Tamil is both a classical and a living language. Its written grammar,
the Tolkapiyam, dates to the beginning of the first millennium. Malayalam
in Kerala, Kannada in Karnataka and Telugu in Andhra Pradesh are
inseparably linked to Tamil, Sanskrit and other languages. Adivasi peoples
like the Malto and the Gondhi in North India and the Tulu in western
Karnataka are also Dravidians. When the major bhakti religions – namely
Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism – were rejuvenated in the seventh
century ce, they absorbed Sanskrit-based cosmologies, deities and devils.
In social spheres, they imitated the fourfold socio-religious categories of
varna, namely the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Sudras. Each of
these hierarchical groups was further divided into countless jātis (‘birth
groups’). Each jāti maintains its own norms, values, beliefs and practices
of endogamy, food habits, occupations and interpersonal relationships.
They practise geography- and context-specific customs. Teachings of
karma, transmigration of souls, and varna-favouring ritual rules of purity
and pollution keep the push-and-pull aspects of varna and jāti alive, active
and remarkably interdependent. Those peoples who do not belong to the
varna are considered the avarna – that is, non-humans and untouchables;
these peoples have their own hierarchal system of jātis. Nowadays, they
call themselves Dalits (‘the broken people’). This self-chosen identity gives
them a sense of pride and human affirmation; it also reminds them of the
necessity of liberation from the avarna-based mindset along with its ways
of making meaning, thinking and conduct.
The Buddhists, Jains, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians have been
attempting to end the mentality of varna, avarna and jāti. The constitution
of India outlawed the practice of varna, avarna, jāti and untouchability.
The more the democratic, secular and other reform mechanisms have
tried to eliminate these millennia-old socio-cultural and religious insti-
tutions, however, the subtler they have become; currently, they operate
underground. They influence the voting patterns of democratic elections.
They determine access to job markets. They shape marriage alliances.
They dominate religious expressions and festivals. Educational achieve-
ments, economic success, the spread of industrialisation and urbanisation,
and the impact of Euro-American capital markets and consumerism are
South India 145
unable to dethrone the reigning power of the varna, jāti and untouch-
ability. The Justice Party (founded in 1916) and exemplary conversion of
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) from the ‘Hinduism’ of his Mahar
ancestors to Buddhism temporarily weakened the power of varna in South
India; secular political parties such as the Dravida Munnetra Kazagam
(Progressive Association of the Dravidians, founded in 1949) governed
South India for a few decades. However, some of their senior political
members are theistic and they no longer challenge the supremacy of the
tiny Brahmin community, which owns most of the property, controls the
job markets, influences the mass media and manages the judiciary, various
scientific associations and research centres of national importance. Since
2014, fundamentalist forces have taken up the ideals of varna and with
their ideology of one nation, one religion, one language, one people and
one culture have attempted to force dissidents and minorities to blend in.
Secularists and religious minorities oppose these attempts and uphold the
plurality, freedom, equality and tolerance of all people along with their
distinctive ways of thinking and living. South Indian Christians share their
contextual life with Indians who are not always sympathetic to them.
Christians in Urban Contexts

Christianity in South India is an urban phenomenon; Christians of every
persuasion and their institutions jostle for space, adherents and financial
revenue in major cities such as Chennai, Madurai, Vellore, Bengaluru,
Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Trivandrum, Kochi and Thrissur. They conduct
evangelistic meetings and make wide use of the modern electronic media
to propagate their views. Yet beneath their speech of love and compassion
can lurk a lust for popularity, public recognition, power and fame. Their
theology often promises health and wealth for all; it no longer stresses
the necessity of the renewal of mind and lifestyle. Pastors do not dare
to exercise any form of discipline against anyone for fear that they and
their family members would leave the congregation and join another.
Thus, except in certain ancient Orthodox and Catholic churches, loyalty
to Christian traditions has weakened; expressions of individualism have
increased, and more Christians attend Pentecostal and Charismatic con-
gregations for their spiritual nourishment. These provide them with the
desired level of anonymity and loose affiliation. Disgruntled members of
the mainline churches, who do not appreciate the emergence of Dalit or
female leadership, might frequent these Pentecostal congregations until
they become disappointed with the requirements of fasting and prayer
and of giving of more time and money. They notice how women clean the
physical spaces, sing in the choirs, share testimonies of healing, raise money
and recruit new members but do not preach from the pulpit and do not
146 Daniel Jeyaraj
administer the holy sacraments. Exceptionally, the pastor’s wife might get
a chance to preach God’s word; often she chairs women’s meetings. More
young people, particularly college students, newly married couples and
employees of companies on deputation or job transfer prefer to worship
in these congregations; there they can vent their emotions and remain
relatively anonymous and non-committal and yet feel wanted. They can
sing English hymns and choruses. As they are involved in these spiritual
activities, they can hide their jāti affinity, at least for a short time. Some
urban congregations regularly employ counsellors to assist well placed
and high-earning young people to get out of indifference, loneliness,
depression and inclinations to suicide, alcoholism, sexual misconduct and
spousal violence. They send volunteers to tutor the children of the slum
dwellers for a better living. The spiritual foundation of these urban congre-
gations might not be always deep, but their Christian convictions enable
them to lead their Christian lives in their local areas.
Christians in Rural Contexts

The life of Christians in rural parts of South India is different. Their
theology is linked to their day-to-day lives as farmers, cattle herders and
daily waged labourers. They believe in the literal meanings of the biblical
miracles and promises and claim them as their own. They express their
theological beliefs through their songs, proverbs and life stories. Most of
them possess inherited knowledge of their families and castes. Seldom
have they had opportunities to acquire formal education in schools and
colleges but they send their children to educational institutions. The
educated children do not return to their villages to take up the jobs of their
parents; instead, they move to towns or cities in search of employment.
Consequently, the large families disintegrate, family farms lie uncultivated
and ageing parents long for the presence of children and grandchildren.
On the other hand, Christians in rural areas have other challenges: their
non-Christian neighbours expect them to uphold caste distinctions in
their daily activities, prefer sons to daughters and marry off their young
daughters with a large dowry. Non-Christian employers of Christian agri-
cultural and other manual labourers assume that Christians will contribute
to the building of Hindu temples and participate in Hindu religious rituals
and festivals. If Christians do not follow the instructions of their employers,
they remain jobless and suffer economically. Moneylenders exploit this
situation, and their high rate of interest makes the life of Christians more
miserable. Those Christians who own agricultural land can borrow money
from banks for sowing seeds and growing crops. However, when adverse
conditions like drought, flood or crop disease strike, they sink into debt
and some commit suicide. All these unpredictable situations make their
South India 147
faith in the God of the Bible real. Many of the people who are unable to
read and write can tell how the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to them in
dreams and visions and how he comforted them.
Similarly, in many villages nowadays, self-appointed pastors function
as the chief executive officers and run their rural congregations. Most of
them do not have any theological training; they read the Bible in their
mother tongue and share their understandings with their adherents. They
do not critically question textual differences. They interpret the biblical
texts through their personal experiences, the practical needs of their church
members and their knowledge of popular Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism
and the worship of village deities. The fertility of their agricultural fields
and cattle is more important to them than the different understandings of
the Trinity, Christology or eschatology. They perceive sin (pavam) within
the Agamic categories of breaking taboos or omitting obligatory rituals.
They are more concerned with the physical health of their congregants,
which normally suffers due to hard manual work in the hot sun and lack
of nutritious food and recreation. Women age faster than men, but men
die earlier than women. Christian widows, like other widows, experience
the pain of social stigma; their presence is considered inauspicious. In this
context, Christian faith becomes more intense and personal. They look
to the Lord Jesus Christ as their refuge. Many of these Christian women
cannot read the Bible in their mother tongue but prefer to use it as a book
of charms; when they sleep, they place it under their pillow thinking that
God will protect them and that they will not have troubling dreams. Like
non-Christian women, some Christian women fast on either Tuesdays or
Fridays and wish the best for their children or husbands. Village Christians
sing more locally composed lyrics than hymns translated from European
or North American hymn books. Despite their ardent Christian faith, they
do not trust their pastors at the critical moments of their life. In particular,
when they choose marriage partners for their children or fix the marriage
date, they customarily and secretly consult local soothsayers. Likewise,
they also perform the Shraddha rituals in honour of their departed ancestors.
Pentecostal pastors are aware of these practices and condemn them. They
regularly preach against the dangers of marital infidelity, alcoholism and
wasting money on immoral activities.
Christianity has not spread among the Adivasis (‘original inhabitants’)
of South India, who live in the hills and forests. The Mannadiyars of the
Kodaikanal Hills; the Todas of the Nilgiri Hills; the Ezhavas in different
parts of Kerala; the Irular and the Kuruba of Karnataka; and the Savara,
Gadaba, Khond and Koya tribes of Andhra Pradesh have not embraced
the Christian faith. They live in tune with the nature surrounding them.
They maintain their primal religious beliefs and practices; many of them
148 Daniel Jeyaraj
fear that Christianity would disturb their socio-cultural order; their food,
dress and marriage habits; their respect for elders, especially women; and
their ways of appeasing deities and demons. Interestingly, the women
especially hate religious conversion. Many of them understand the signifi-
cance of blood sacrifice and hence they appreciate the sin-atoning death of
Jesus Christ on the cross. They happily send their children to schools run
by Christians; they are eager to learn English. Yet Christianity, whether it
is Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant or Pentecostal, does not appeal to them.
Few Adivasis have come forward to accept Christianity; if they do, they
face hardships, including persecutions and social ostracism. Christian
missionaries who wish to serve among them need to know not only Tamil
or Telugu or Kannada or Malayalam, but also the mother tongue of each
Adivasi group, which is a daunting task.
Christians in Religious Contexts

Most South Indians call themselves Hindus; in fact, they may belong to
either philosophical or popular Hinduism, each consisting of numerous
subgroups. The central deities of Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism are
correspondingly Shiva, Vishnu and Shakti (the female ‘energy’); these three
branches are heavily Sanskrit in nature and function. Their temples stand
at the banks of the famous rivers such as the Vaigai and Kaveri in Tamil
Nadu; the Godavari in Andhra Pradesh; the Krishna and Tungabadra in
Karnataka; and the Periyar, Pamba and Bharatapuzha in Kerala. The Holy
of Holies of these temples is dark. It is also known as the ‘womb chamber’
(karuvarai), where life is formed and nurtured. These deities are vegetarian;
they promise to their worshippers mukti, release from the karmic cycle of
birth and death. It is imperative that these worshippers accumulate good
karma. A person’s jāti identity, physical health and economic wealth can
indicate past karma. Attempting to redress economic and religious ine-
qualities, helping a crippled person back to health or touching an avarna
person can cause bad karma. They view religious conversion as disruptive
and injurious. They resist Christian missionary activities and ostracise
Christian converts.
Converts such as H. A. Krishna Pillay clothed their theological ex
pressions with terms and concepts borrowed from Sanskrit Hinduism. For
example, the unrevealed God as Trinity is Satcitānanda (‘Truth-Wisdom-
Bliss’). Sin is pavam (omitting prescribed religious duties rather than
disobeying the holy and just God). Salvation is iratchippu (‘recovery’) or
motcham (release from the karmic cycle of birth and death rather than
enjoying God’s presence in eternity). The National Biblical, C atechetical
and Liturgical Centre in Bengaluru and the Shantivanam Ashram in
Kulithalai near Tiruchirappalli use Sanskrit concepts and symbols to
South India 149
indigenise Roman Catholic teachings and practices in South India. Addi-

tionally, the proponents of the Dravida Samayam (‘Tamil religion’) believe
that the current forms of Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism emerged
as extreme indigenous versions of Christianity, which St Thomas had
preached. They argue that the adherents of the primal religions of South
India received St Thomas’s teachings of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy
Spirit, but with the passing of time these teachings became distorted and
expressed themselves as bhakti religions, namely Shaivism, Vaishnavism
and Shaktism. The proponents of Dravida Samayam point out that the
primal religions of South India lacked the concepts of grace (arul), love
(anbu), bridal mysticism (a worshipping group as the bride of a deity,
namely the Church as the bride of Christ) and the creative power of the
Holy Spirit expressed as the feminine shakti (‘energy’). Most Christian
scholars do not easily accept these views; however, they exist and gain
more followers.
Another area of inculturation includes Christian music and songs.
South Indian Christians are fond of lyrics that are tuned to Carnatic music;
at the same time, Lutheran Christians prefer to sing hymns translated from
German and English. Since the 1970s, South Indians have begun singing
more songs that are of neither of these types. Charismatic preachers such
as D. G. S. Dinakaran or Father Berchmans write songs that appeal to
people in need of immediate divine intervention; their theological content
focuses on emotional stability, physical health, economic welfare and the
assurance of God’s love and help. These composers spread songs via mass
media; most of these songs do not utilise South Indian tunes and rhythms
but have European musical accompaniment.
Besides Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism, there is a fourth form of
Hinduism. It includes the guardian deities of villages; except for Aiyanar,
these deities are unmarried female goddesses. They exhibit ferocious
and retaliatory dispositions because it is mandatory for young girls and
unmarried women to safeguard their chastity and virginity. These goddesses
defend these women against the atrocities of men. Additionally, they
guard the villagers and their crops and animals from sickness and robbery.
They like periodical blood sacrifices. Most Dalits worship these guardian
deities and make them their Kulateivam (‘family deity’). Most Christians in
India hail from such a background. Systemic discrimination and deliberate
mistreatment over several millennia dehumanised these Dalits. Christians
affirm their humanity and help them to gain dignity. The Anglicans in Tamil
Nadu, the Lutherans in all five states of South India and the Baptists in
Andhra Pradesh have their ancestral roots in the primal religious traditions
of guardian deities. They emphasise the centrality of prayer, periodic fasts
(on Fridays, on new- and full-moon days, before taking Holy Communion
150 Daniel Jeyaraj
and on the Lenten days). Their spirituality wants concrete evidence and
disparages abstract ideas. Nowadays, Dalit Christians reject Sanskrit terms
and concepts and seek to express theology through their mother tongue.
For example, Telugu-speaking Christians, mostly from Dalit backgrounds,
gave up the Sanskrit noun deva (‘God’). Instead, they use Jehovah (the
modified version of the Hebrew tetragrammaton YHWH). Likewise, Tamil
Christians are happy with Kadavul (‘the One who has gone through and
resides within’) or Iraivan (‘the One who is called upon’). The Trinity is
no longer presented as Pita–Sudan–Paricuttha Aavi (‘Father–Son–Holy
Spirit’). Instead, the triune Godhead is Thanthai–Mainthan–Thooya Aavi.
These Tamil words are not abstract; they convey a deep sense of intimacy,
personal bond and belonging. The Common Translation of Tiruviviliam
(‘the Holy Bible’, 1995) in Tamil, which is a major ecumenical undertaking
by Roman Catholic and Protestant scholars, renders biblical texts in chaste
Tamil prose, although most Tamil Christians are yet to use it for devotion
and worship. At a popular level, Christian processions and pilgrimages
have gained significance.
The Roman Catholic Christians in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry conduct
each June their annual festival Punita Anthoniyar Thirunaal (the holy day/
festival of St Anthony). On this day they pull a temple car (ter) along the
streets around a church, hoist a flag and celebrate. This festival includes
fireworks. It binds and socialises the Roman Catholic Christians. Every
September the famous Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health in Velankanni
in Nagapattinam District, Tamil Nadu, hosts a huge pilgrimage festival.
Many thousands of devotees, both Christians and non-Christians of
all persuasions, walk to this basilica on the seashore and express their
devotion to Mother Mary. Christians in every state and union territory of
South India have their own indigenous festivals and pilgrimage centres.
Muslims constitute the second largest religious group; Christians and
Muslims interact on a day-to-day basis and live as neighbours. They do
not consciously engage in exchange of theological ideas. Muslim parents
prefer to send their children to Christian schools because they assume that
they not only offer a good education but also instil moral values. They also
approach Christian medical doctors and hospitals for treatment. During
their Ramadan they prepare nonbu kanji (‘rice broth during ceremonial
fasting’) and distribute it to all interested people, including Christians.
The relationship between Christians and Muslims in South India remains
cordial; both groups share and defend democratic values.
South Indian Christians who work for the betterment of the Dalits
engage with the teachings of B. R. Ambedkar, the undisputed leader of
Dalit liberation. They uphold his encouragement of education, agitation
and organisation against any form of discrimination, especially against
South India 151
caste-based oppressions and exclusions. As ‘blood is thicker than water’,

nearly all South Indian Christians remain caste-conscious. They follow the
customs and rules of their caste identity not only at home – for example,
in marriage alliances for their adult children – but also in receiving Holy
Communion and in the burial ground. Separate caste-based churches exist
in several regions of South India. Multi-caste Christian congregations are
unable to provide the security and support that a group of the same caste
gives to the needy in times of birth, marriage, death or any other crisis. The
brotherhood and sisterhood of all Christians belonging to the same church
and sharing the same sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion have
not yet removed the caste-based sensitivities and loyalties from the minds
of many South Indian Christians. They are not vocal and public about their
caste identity but have subtle and silent ways of maintaining it.
South Indian Christians, however, have a history of in-country
missionary involvement: the Indian Missionary Society (1903), the National
Missionary Society of India (1905), the Friends Missionary Prayer Band
(1959) and the Indian Evangelical Mission (1965) are but a few examples
of cross-cultural missionary agencies in South India. Their representa-
tives have reached out to the forgotten peoples of North India, such as the
Malto in Bihar and the Dang in Gujarat, and given them hope, identity and
new life. Their translations of the New Testament revived the otherwise
despised ‘dialects’ of these people. They taught them alternative ways of
thinking and living. Their humility led them to record for posterity the
origins and process of great transformations not merely of individuals,
but of whole groups in North India. Local religious and political leaders,
money-lenders, alcohol traders and others who have habitually exploited
the Adivasis and their lack of awareness of their constitutional rights and
privileges have opposed the Christian missionaries and their followers.
Despite this opposition, sometime brutal and fatal, new Christian congre-
gations have arisen, and are still arising, among the Adivasis. They evaluate
the socio-cultural merits of Christianity and learn to adopt the Lordship of
Jesus for their new thinking and living. Their stories are heart-warming as
well as heart-rending.
Theological Education
Francis Xavier (1506–52) was instrumental in establishing the College of
St Paul in Goa, the chief city of the Portuguese colonial establishment in
India. The European and Indian graduates of this college worked in Macau
in the East, in India and in Sri Lanka. On the Protestant side, Bartholomäus
Ziegenbalg (1682–1719) founded the first Lutheran theological seminary
in Tranquebar (Tarangambadi) in 1716 and trained Tamil pastors. This
lineage of ordained pastors continues to this day. In 1815, the Malankara
152 Daniel Jeyaraj
Orthodox Church established its Orthodox Theological Seminary in

Kottayam, Kerala. Later in the nineteenth century, the Anglicans, the
Wesleyan Methodists and other Protestant groups established their own
theological training institutions.
Currently, five types of theological education are available in South
India. The first type consists of theological education in theological colleges
and seminaries. Roman Catholic candidates for clerical office undergo
training at institutions such as the Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, which
is a Pontifical Athenaeum of Philosophy, Theology and Canon Law in
Bengaluru. Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara (1805–71) enthused his Carmelite
monks to undertake fresh academic study of Western and Eastern philos-
ophies, Catholic theology and canon law. Likewise, St Peter’s Pontifical
Institute Bengaluru is another Pontifical Athenaeum of Philosophy,
Theology and Canon Law. It gives special courses in missiology and
biblical theology and traces its origin back to the Paris Foreign Mission
Society. The St Joseph Pontifical Seminary in Alwaye in Kerala and
St Joseph Seminary Mangalore in Karnataka are among the leading Roman
Catholic institutes of theological education and formation. The Malankara
Syrian Orthodox Theological Seminary in Ernakulum, Kerala, along with
the above-mentioned Orthodox Theological Seminary in Kottayam train
clerical candidates for the Orthodox churches in India. Some of their priests
are well versed in Aramaic and Syriac, in which the earliest documents on
Asian Christianity were written. After the Gulf Wars, many Christians left
the Middle East and moved to other countries for safety. Their departure
impoverished the already diminished Christian community in the Middle
East. In this context, the Orthodox Seminaries in Kerala provide possibili-
ties to learn Aramaic and Syriac.
The Protestants in South India train their ministerial candidates
in colleges affiliated to the Senate of Serampore College, founded by
William Carey in 1818. The United Theological College in Bengaluru,
the Karnataka Theological College in Mangalore, the Gurukul Lutheran
Theological College and Research Institute in Chennai, the Madras
Theological Seminary in Chennai, the Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary
in Madurai and the Faith Theological Seminary in Manakala, Kerala, train
clerical candidates in biblical studies, critical thinking and gender and
Dalit studies. Despite their training, the Protestant churches, whether they
belong to the Church of South India or the United Evangelical Lutheran
Church in India, show administrative weakness. Some church leaders face
lawsuits and litigation. They depend on money and theological ideas from
their ecumenical partners in Western Europe and North America, yet they
do not offer full financial support to their theological candidates. Hence,
young people hesitate to undertake theological studies.
South India 153
The second type of theological education happens in the colleges and

institutes that are associated with the Asian Theological Association
(ATA), with their Indian headquarters in Bengaluru. These colleges
consider themselves Evangelical and offer degrees from the undergradu-
ate to doctoral levels. The Andhra Pradesh Bible College, the Church on
the Rock Theological Seminary, the Good Shepherd College of Cultural
Studies and the New Life School of Mission operate in Andhra Pradesh.
Of the 15 ATA-recognised colleges in Karnataka, the South Asia Institute of
Advanced Christian Studies and the ACTS Academy of Higher Education
give courses from undergraduate to doctoral levels. Twenty-two ATA-
recognised colleges exist in Kerala. Tamil Nadu has 16 ATA-accredited
colleges. Most of their students join para-church agencies or schools.
The third type of theological education is offered in state and public uni-
versities. Theological teachers and students have opportunities to engage
in interdisciplinary study and research. Their degrees are recognised by
the University Grants Commission, the statutory body of the government
of India. At the initiative of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Mysore, the
University of Mysore in Karnataka established the Department of Post
graduate Studies and Research in Christianity (1980). Scholars of this
department focus their studies on Christian interactions with Indian
religions, cultures and philosophies. The Roman Catholic leaders in
Chennai persuaded the University of Madras to open its Department of
Christian Studies in 1984. The Escande Chair in Asian Christian Studies
(2004) at Pondicherry University is dedicated to the study of the inter-
religious, philosophical and cultural engagements of Christians in Asia.
Graduates of these theological departments in state universities can work
in certain fields that are closed to seminary graduates.
The fourth type of theological education can be found in the unaccredited
independent institutes in urban centres. They emphasise filling with the
Holy Spirit, use of spiritual gifts, mission and evangelism. Their graduates
work among Christians of various denominations and convictions, and
among non-Christians. Their women leaders help the male elders in con-
gregational matters. The Indian Theological Seminary in Avadi, Chennai,
and the Lakeview Bible College and Seminary in Kanchipuram, Tamil
Nadu, are good examples of this type of theological education.
The fifth type of theological education is less formal and is voluntary.
Christian educational institutions, whether they are primary or tertiary,
have opportunities for all students to attend their prayer meetings, chapel
services and Christian student unions. Most of the teachers are Christians;
even the non-Christian teachers are sympathetic to the Christian values of
their institutions. Bishop Heber College in Tiruchirappalli is ranked as the
fourth-best college in India. Likewise, the Madras Christian College, Loyola
154 Daniel Jeyaraj
College, Stella Maris College in Chennai, Christ University in Bengaluru,

Xavier Colleges in Mumbai and other cities, and St Stephen’s College in
Delhi occupy their places among the best colleges in India. Students who
study there imbibe at least some aspects of Christian theology. Similarly,
Christian medical institutions, from the Christian Medical Colleges in
Vellore and Ludhiana to the rural health centres, demonstrate practical
disease prevention and healing; thus, their theological convictions
contribute to health services and nation building.
Christians in South India are few in number, yet their educational and
medical institutions, built on Christian theological convictions, contribute
much to national welfare.
The Challenges Facing Christians Today

South Indian Christianity is as old as Christianity itself. It has become an
Indian religion. It functions as the salt and light of the society in which
Christians live and have their institutions (churches, schools, colleges,
hospitals, vocational centres, rehabilitation houses). However, Christians
have not been able to attract more Indians to embrace their faith. A critical
self-evaluation reveals the gap between the ideals of Christianity, which
Christians preach and claim, and their daily life. They are yet to engage
fully with the intellectual and spiritual heritage of South India; their
theological educators need to explore the merits and limits of Tamil, Telugu,
Malayalam and Kannada literature on religion, poetry, art, drama, archi-
tecture, medicine and morality. Not knowing the literature makes them
poor dialogue partners and doers of indigenous theology. Euro-American
theologies have passed their heyday; nowadays they are unable to halt the
decline of Christian witness in the public sphere. South Indians do not have
to import these ‘bankrupt’ theologies. Instead, they can develop alternative
theologies that will enrich their readers in Europe and North America.
The second challenge concerns their maturity in spiritual and economic
spheres. Some Protestant churches are more than 300 years old, yet still
depend on their donors in Europe and North America. They receive
money for their welfare projects; in this process they surrender their own
initiatives and ‘dance to’ the tunes of their supporting agencies. They forfeit
credibility through egoism, court cases about the improper sale of church
properties, and bribes for appointments of teachers in church schools
and colleges. Proper stewardship of available resources, transparency in
utilising ecclesiastical power and a dislike for material wealth will help
them to withstand the threats of the religiously nationalist government to
stop financial aid from outside India.
The third challenge lies in gender equality, begetting children, raising
them in the fear of God and training them to take up responsible positions
South India 155
in the judiciary, police forces, revenue offices, educational and medical

institutions, and engineering and information technology fields. Biblical
knowledge is a great asset; however, it must be understood and interpreted
through the eyes and experiences of professionals in all walks of domestic
and public life. Male leaders of various church bodies can allow the
qualified women leaders to do appropriate jobs and give them equal remu-
neration and recognition. Gender equality will lead to mutual enrichment.
To conclude, Christians in South India play an important role in
preserving and enhancing their witness to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Contemporary situations require them to be vigilant, informed, accountable
and united. Their legacy will continue to impact the life of Christians and
non-Christians throughout India.
Bibliography
Collins, Paul M., Christian Inculturation in India (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016).
Frykenberg, Robert Eric, Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present (Oxford: Oxford
Neill, Stephen, A History of Christianity in India, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1984).
Shiri, Godwin, Christian Dalit Women Under Unabated Gender and Caste Oppression: A South
Indian Case Study (Delhi: ISPCK, 2015).
Wingate, Andrew, The Church and Conversion: A Study of Recent Conversions to and from Chris-
tianity in the Tamil Area of South India (Delhi: ISPCK, 1997).
Northeast India
Kaholi Zhimomi
In the recent history of India, the north-east is attributed a distinct regional

identity, as the land of seven sisters, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya,
Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, but with a newly added state,
Sikkim. An engrossing account of the cultural matrix of the Northeast
India region can be traced in the varied folklore and mythology, relations
between tribals and non-tribals, and historical and cultural relations
between the resident populace. They have affinities culturally, traditionally
and ethnically with Southeast Asians. In 1950 they were officially enlisted
in the Scheduled Tribes of the Indian constitution. Before the designation
of ‘tribes’ as ‘Scheduled Tribes’ in the hegemonic framework of the con-
stitution of India, these tribal communities were termed by the British
administrators as ‘primitive tribes’, ‘aboriginal tribes’ and ‘backward
tribes’. This derogative suggestion was later adopted by the government of
India in its policy-making and by social institutions in general.
By being held within the limitations of the structure and function of the
nation, the Northeast communities have been systematically absorbed into
the control of the social, cultural and political scheme of the secular nation
since independence. The schedule that was established to enshrine some
provisions and protections for the ‘tribals’ was an indirect abjuration of
the identity of the indigenous communities of Northeast India themselves.
This absorption poses a serious concern over the issue of identity of the
Northeast people because their identity is ascribed along the lines of the
dominant people, which is inevitably interpreted within the vocabularies
of contrast. The ‘politics of belonging’ and the multi-layered methods of
representation of the tribal people need to be considered in relation to the
colonial era, independent India and the post-colonial framework.
Indigenous Peoples’ Struggle: Militarisation of Land

The conclusion of the Treaty of Yandabo at the end of the first Anglo-Burmese
War, on 24 February 1826, brought about a change in the administration of
the whole of Northeast India. This treaty ended the rule of the Burmese
kingdom and established British power. The British East India Company
established political control over Assam, Cachar, Manipur and Jaintia, and
for the first time these regions were politically linked with the Indians. The
Northeast India 157
colonial regime subsequently annexed all the other states of the Northeast
region. On leaving India, the British left their entire domain in the hands of
federal India, including the jurisdiction of the Northeast.
The tribal policies and the Indian ‘Scheduled Tribe’ policy have led to
an authenticity struggle in the Northeast that continues in many areas. The
rationale for claiming the land is on the basis of their ethnic homelands.
The identity politics and the politics of control resulted in dissatisfaction
on the part of the indigenous people, which generated long-term military
violence in Northeast India. Prior to colonial rule, the Northeast indigenous
communities were known for centuries to be self-administered, inhabiting
indigenous lands that never belonged to any particular rulers or custodians.
Yet, with the coming of a succession of mighty invaders – the Aryans, the
Mughal emperors, the European colonisers and the Indian power – the
indigenous communities have experienced annexation, impoverishment,
exploitation and alienation. Thus they began their series of negotiations
with the Indian government, demanding independence. These led to
violence and long-term tensions in many states; for example, the Nagas
persistently renounce the Indian state and claim the lawful status of an
independent people, with the full right to self-determination. It is widely
perceived that the Indian state has a neo-colonial and racist bias against
the Mongoloid peoples of the Northeast. This leads to suppression of their
identity by force of arms, resulting in the militarisation of the land. Today,
the territorial fragmentation, displacement (both physical and psycho
logical) and disempowerment among the indigenous groups are enormous.
Christianisation: People Movements

The nineteenth- and twentieth-century Christian mission to India was
both a cultural and a missiological reality. The missionaries had two main
approaches to the evangelisation of Indians: (i) through education and
intelligentsia; and (ii) through the masses. In the nineteenth century the
first approach, education, was used. For the early Christian missionaries,
conversion to Christianity was not only acceptance of Christ as saviour
but also adoption of the Western way of life. Therefore, education was
modelled according to the educational norm of the West. The augmenta-
tion of Christianity in India was partly by the usual evangelistic work of the
modern missionary movement, mainly by the method of mass conversions
known as ‘people movements’, which was the second missionary approach.
Christianity was introduced to the Northeast region during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when a small Portuguese Catholic
community was present along with the Mughal garrison, but this had no
lasting impact. It was the Treaty of Yandabo that proved to be the floodgate
for the inflowing of different powers into this terrain during the nineteenth
158 Kaholi Zhimomi
century. Due to the gradual establishment of the British administration,

previously autonomous areas were brought under the control of a single
power, which initiated diverse radical changes. It was in this context that
the Christian mission made its way into the land. The spread of Christi-
anity was an integral part of a larger process of change – political, social,
economic, cultural and religious. It is only when all these dimensions are
taken into consideration that one can begin to understand the rapid growth
of Christianity in these regions.
Most of the missionaries in Northeast India were American or Welsh
among the Protestants and German, Spanish or Italian among the Catholics.
Important influence was exercised by two commissioners, David Scott and
Francis Jenkins, who were part of the British administration in Assam
between 1826 and 1861. Both were British Evangelical Christians who
supported missionary and educational work. In spite of the religious non-
interference policy of the British East India Company, Scott encouraged
missionary work in his designated areas of control – Assam, North-East
Frontier and North-East Rangpur (now in Bangladesh) – which enabled
him to reach out to places like Sikkim, Cachar, Sylhet, Goalpara and the
Garo Hills. Francis Jenkins was the next commissioner, and during his time
as British administrator the first two Protestant missions – the American
Baptist Mission and the Welsh Presbyterian Mission – commenced their
work in the Northeast. He also welcomed the Roman Catholic mission-
aries when they arrived in Guwahati in 1850. With Sir Charles Wood’s
Educational Despatch of 6 January 1854, which aimed to promote education
in the English language, the educational work among the indigenous
peoples was given official authority by the provision of government aid or
subsidies to schools run by the Welsh Presbyterians in the Khasi Hills and
other missionary institutions elsewhere. This grant-in-aid for educational
purposes was one of the reasons for the proliferation of Christianity among
the indigenous people.
By the end of the nineteenth century Christianity was a well established
religion in the Northeast, with flourishing schools and churches. Today,
Christianity is the major religion in the states of Nagaland, Mizoram and
Meghalaya. Ironically, the large and heavily populated states of Assam,
Manipur and Tripura are still predominantly Hindu, with a sizeable Muslim
minority in Assam. Sikkim continues to be a Buddhist state, although there
are still traces of Christianity among some of the indigenous communities,
a residue of the British missions.
Indigenous People and Christianity

The change that occurred in Northeast India in the last 100 years is over-
whelming and consummate if compared with the rest of the Indian regions.
Northeast India 159
The transition from hunting (specifically headhunting among some of the

tribal groups), farming and cattle rearing to a modern way of life transpired
massively within a short timeframe. Christianity became the driving force
that ushered in social, religious and cultural change among most of the
Northeast’s tribal groups. This development cannot be properly under-
stood without considering the effects of intersectionality. Given its colonial
context, Christianity came in as an overriding power and structure that
replicated schemes of archaic hierarchies that sustained Western culture
and tradition. Missionaries overlooked the intersections of differences at
work among the native people while they continued with their aspirations
of evangelising and Christianising. Christianity and the change it brought
need to be reviewed by considering the intersectional lives of the Northeast
people. Using the intersectional lens, the experiences of every individual,
tribal community and group can be investigated with reference to their in-
trinsic values and customs, which were little considered by the missionaries.
Because Christianity throughout history has not centred intersection
ality in its biblical hermeneutics, theologies and church traditions, a
tendency to construct prejudices, to control and oppress other religious
traditions became apparent. Religious people outside the Christian church
were depicted as ‘non-Christian’, ‘people living in darkness’, ‘heathen, evil
and superstitious’ who needed to be enlightened and saved. When Christi-
anity came into contact with the religions of the Northeast, the missionaries
condemned and criticised those native religions and cultures as inconsist-
ent and dominating. Therefore, Christianisation and the civilising work
commenced on parallel lines. Upon their encounter with such peoples as
the Nagas or the Mizos, the missionaries censured headhunting, depicting
these tribal groups as savages and cannibals, people who needed to be
cultured. Obviously, the change they introduced was necessary, but the
appalling portrayal lingered, demarking these tribal groups as objects
of discrimination. The Seng Khasis’ traditional disposal of the dead by
cremation and customary rites of collecting the bones for deposition in
the clan cistern (mawbah) were replaced by Christian burial rituals, discon-
necting them from their ancestral roots and leading to the dislocation of
identity. They were also prohibited from participating in arrow shooting,
traditional dances, gambling and tribal cultural rituals, including animal
sacrifices. Tribal spirituality was expressed through cultural activities like
songs, music and dancing centred on the agricultural phases, which served
as a means of connecting to nature and God. The Mizos used a special
khuang (traditional drum) as the basis for all their dancing and music,
which was fundamental to their culture and identity. But the missionaries
failed to recognise these elements as core to tribal spiritually and culture,
and they sought to remove these traditions from the lives of the tribals.
160 Kaholi Zhimomi
Similar to many other tribal societies in the world that depend on oral
tradition to communicate ideas, values and history through music, songs
and dances, the tribes of the Northeast preserved their traditions through
this system. However, these elements were considered evil, superstitious,
primitive and noisy, not befitting the Christian ways of life and worship.
Use of khuang and indigenous songs and dances were prohibited in the
vicinity of the church, which dislodged the inherent identity of the people,
with the result that many of these values became extinct. The tribal arts
were replaced by Western hymns and music, which continue to dominate
in contemporary churches in Northeast India. Because of their love of
singing and music, the native people welcomed the new genre, which
became fundamental to their expression of faith. This form of hymn singing
was encouraged and promoted by the early Christian missionaries. The
converts were oriented to Western hymn singing. Hymns were translated
into different indigenous vernacular languages and introduced to the
Christians. Both in private devotions and in corporate worship, Christians
incorporated psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Some of the earliest
hymns were doctrinal while others were didactic, lyrical, evangelistic or
devotional – on a pattern constructed for ‘mission Christology’ rather than
‘contextual Christology’. English hymnody consisted of verses that were
mystical and impractical, emphasising doctrinal issues such as atonement,
invitation, salvation and sanctification, perseverance and witness, and
death and heaven, with little or no reference to contextual realities.
Evidently there were major changes in the customs, dress, speech and
conduct of the converts. The colonised people started to develop pessimistic
attitudes to their own religions and culture because of the teaching;
education was connected with religious teachings and Western culture.
Philanthropic and benevolent work aimed at bettering the lives of new
Christians paved the way for the transmission of Western cultural norms
and sensibilities. Instead of reforming indigenous customs, missionaries
tried to replace them comprehensively with Western manners, customs
and spirituality. They introduced many alterations to indigenous lifestyle,
dress, mannerisms, ideology and religious views. Many indigenous rituals
and ceremonies were considered not to be orthodox in terms of the new
religion. The missionaries looked upon several tribal rituals, ceremonies,
traditions and customs as superstitious. Consequently, various aspects of
tribal culture and spirituality were assimilated into the dominant culture
or were dismissed as completely irrational.
Renaissance of Traditional Religions/Cultures

Christian missions undoubtedly disrupted some of the central, primary
structures of the indigenous people, but they also provided institutional,
Northeast India 161
intellectual and ideological frameworks that allowed indigenous people

to move towards progressive change. Traditional forms of leadership
were transferred to pastors and teachers, resulting in the development
of indigenous Christian leaders. The missionaries nurtured the identities
of the indigenous communities by their attention to their languages –
translating the Bible and developing grammars. The process of Aryanism
in Northeast India before the advent of the British and the missionaries
is immense, as many of the native people were sanskritised, especially
in such places as Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Assam. The major
Indian languages played a hegemonic role, displacing the languages of the
indigenous people. Hindi, Bengali and Assamese became dominant in the
Northeast and native mother tongues disappeared from the public sphere.
Later, when the British entered, English became the official language. The
policies of the missionaries were to evangelise and educate. In this process
most of the indigenous cultural elements were diluted, giving rise to the
loss of native identity yet simultaneously bringing forward awareness of
indigenous identity. Elite Christian leaders emerged who negotiated for
the renaissance of traditional religions and cultures.
Though it was the foreign missions that initiated the change in the
religious position of the indigenous peoples, the rapid spread of Christi
anity can be credited to the local Christian leaders through a variety of
revival movements. Local leadership began to promote indigenous values
within the programmes of evangelism and education. During the nineteenth
century in Northeast India the initiative lay with the foreign missionaries,
but in the twentieth century the converted indigenous leaders effortlessly
took over the Christian sphere. Intense growth occurred with the revival
movements, which swayed almost all the hill people.
In the Garo Hills, conversion of the local people increased between 1920
and 1930, mainly due to the great revival centred on the Baptist school
in Tura. The mass movement in the Khasi Hills started earlier, between
1871 and 1881. It was founded on an extensive educational system and
a comprehensive church structure. The spread of Christianity among
the larger section of the community in Nagaland was initiated by the
Nagas themselves. Moreover, it also became clear that leaders within
the traditional socio-political structures of the different tribes largely
influenced the conversion movement. The Tatar systems of the Aos, the
Ahngnate of the Konyaks and the chieftainship of the Sumis, the Sangtams
and the Lothas influenced conversions in great numbers.
During the 1940s and 1950s, in the midst of political turmoil, suffering
and fighting, a revival movement swept over all Nagaland, and this resulted
in the establishment of several churches. Within this spiritual movement,
miracles were performed and revival songs were heard everywhere. The
162 Kaholi Zhimomi
movement was also a force for reconciliation as Christian love was restored,
stimulating many to convert into the Christian fold both as individuals and
as groups.
In Manipur, the increasing influence of the British administration, the
educational work of the missions and more frequent contacts with the
outside world were some of the reasons for the mass movement among the
hill tribes. Those tribes, who for centuries had been troubled by the plains
people’s domination over them, began to see British rule as well as Christi
anity as a defence against that domination and absorption by the more
advanced plains Hindu community. After the failure of the Kuki Rebellion
of 1917–19, large numbers of Kuki embraced Christianity. The Manipur
Revival Movement of 1923–4, which originated in Mizoram, enhanced
Christianity. The first Mizo revival began in 1906 at Aizwal and the second
was in 1913, following the ‘bamboo famine’, which led a large number of
the Mizos to convert to Christianity. The third and most serious movement
began in 1919 and lasted for several years. With this series of revival
movements between 1906 and 1921, the Christian population in Mizoram
increased. One of the significant contributions of revivalism in Mizoram
was the indigenisation of Christianity, with typical indigenous frenzy –
dancing to the beating of drums and experiencing mystical ecstasy.
During the great revival, the churches witnessed the development
of indigenous Christian songs with new tunes developed from English
hymns and traditional folk music. Song writers and composers increased
in number, but the theology in essence remained Western. Among the
Ao-Naga the first revival songbook, Revival aser Sayutsungi Ken (‘Revival
and Preaching Songs’), was published in 1965. This was translated into
other tribal dialects for the use and development of indigenous spiritual
songs, with emphasis on the imminent return of Christ and hope for
heaven. The revival songs focused on eschatological aspirations and a
futuristic perspective on Christ, failing to address the ‘humanness’ and
‘liberative’ mission of Christ and leading to indifference to socio-political
and cultural issues.
Nevertheless, revival movements were channels for the reform of
indigenous identity since they paved the way for the renaissance of
traditional religions and cultures. Spiritual/cultural elements such as
traditional drums and indigenous songs and dances were integrated
into the worship patterns of Christianity. The Mizos led the way in this,
inculcating indigenous worship rather than adopting the Western worship
pattern. Among other tribal groups, indigenous revival ways of worship
are incorporated only during revival services, home devotions and annual
Christian gatherings, while the usual church services are still modelled on
the missionaries’ worship prototype.
Northeast India 163
Tribal Spirituality, Rituals and Ceremonies

Even as Christianity crossed the threshold of Northeast Indian cultures,
it ushered in significant transformations in belief, cultural life, health
and hygiene, community dynamics and education. Navigating post-
independence and post-colonial times, the people and cultures of the
Northeast have never remained the same. Nonetheless, those living in
the rural context continued to maintain their intrinsic customary social
and economic status, rituals and unique structures of ascendancy. Two
dominant theories have been advanced to explain the change: assimila-
tion theory and synthesis theory. According to assimilation theory, there
was a series of assimilation movements, which can be conceptualised as
‘Sanskritisation’, ‘Westernisation’ and ‘Christianisation’. According to
synthesis theory, on the other hand, discontinuity between Christianity and
the old way of life has not been as radical as some observers have claimed.
External matters, such as earlier customs of dressing and hairstyle among
indigenous communities, took shape in new ways. There was a fusion of
traditions and Christianity, a synthesis of the two. The new religion of
Christianity was understood in fundamentally the same way as religion
had always been understood. Christianity did not bring instant change in
cultural traditions, but as the natives converted to the new religion there
was a union of the new and the old. In the process, a mutation occurred to
create a Christian religion unique to the specific culture of the indigenous
people of Northeast India. This calls for careful study of the individual
contexts and value systems, with a view to better understanding both the
change and the continuity that marked the reception of Christianity.
The tribals did not have a standardised, codified system of religion.
Rather, their spirituality was integral to their very being. They believed
in the creator God or high God. Like most of the tribal peoples around the
world, their beliefs were based on their experience of daily life – hunting
and agriculture, achievements and losses, feasting and mourning. Christi-
anity simply redefined the nature of a God with whom the people had been
familiar. Some of the rites and taboos of the old religion and traditional life
elements were not negated totally but were incorporated into Christian-
ity, or given Christian undertones. They survived in new guises under the
new order; for example, observance of the Sabbath replaced genna or taboo
days, so that many among the indigenous communities still do not travel
on Sundays because of their understanding of taboo. Church buildings
replaced the previous indigenous sacred space. Christian celebrations such
as Easter and Christmas provided alternatives to traditional community
feasts and celebrations. Christian funeral rites incorporated the indigenous
custom of burying important items along with the body of the departed,
traditionally believed to be essential for the journey to the Village of
164 Kaholi Zhimomi
the Dead. Angels and demons replaced tribal beliefs in benevolent and
malevolent spirits. Indigenous fortune tellers or diviners were succeeded
by Christians speaking in tongues and prophesying. There is continuity
between old and new, and the process should not be understood as one
replacing the other. Christian love began to be expressed along the contours
of traditional religious perspectives so as to form a synthesis of the two
religions. However, in spite of the continuity in some intrinsic values and
systems, the indigenous people began to engage in the process of change
that ushered in multiple intricacies that continue to exist till today.
Northeast Christianity within Contemporary Contours

Christianity has become the biggest factor in the transformation of the
contemporary social, cultural and political life of the Northeast peoples. It
opened doors for interaction between the tribal communities so as to bring
unity to the warring tribes. Aware of the oppressive system that blocks
social progress, churches continue to inspire educational movements and
social changes, resisting Western stereotypes. There is significant growth
of indigenous leaders, both secular and religious. Furthermore, there is a
rapid growth of educated young tribals who are qualified administrators,
educators, academicians, politicians and theologians.
The late twentieth century saw the rise of learned theologians who began
to develop indigenous contextual theologies, histories and tribal hermen
eutics appropriate to the realities of the tribal people. Prominent among
them were Renthy Keitzar, K. Thanzauva, A. Wati Longhcar, O. L. Snaitang,
R. L. Hnuni, Narola Longchar, Lalsangkima Pachuau, Mangkhosat Kipgen,
Hrangkhuma Fanai, V. K. Nuh, Rini Ralte, Najekhu Yepthomi and Limatula
Longkumer. Although they belong to different schools of theology, their
contributions to the development of contextual readings are huge. Their
major theological concerns include contextual theology, tribal Christology,
tribal land ethics, theology of creation/land, tribal spirituality, liberation
theology, tribal historiography, feminist theology/history and indigenous
ecosystems. Many of them were educated in the first theological institution
in the Northeast, Eastern Theological College, Jorhat, Assam, begun in
1905. Apart from their contributions to the development of the indigenous
theologies of the Northeast, they were also able to reach out to the larger
worldwide academic community. Besides this, some of them went on to
head such theological institutions as Aizwal Theological College (1907),
Trinity Theological College (1992) and the Academy of Integrated Christian
Studies (2000), which have become important centres of theological
learning, training future theologians and ministers.
Through the influence of the Internet, trending information and social
media, Northeast Christianity has undergone significant change, especially
Northeast India 165
in worship and singing. This change can be witnessed particularly among

the youth groups and the tribal diaspora communities in the urban cities.
Modern Christian songs and contemporary praise and worship songs have
become prevailing styles of church music, incorporated mainly in the youth
fellowships and small gatherings and occasionally in the general worship
services. This influential trend came from the Charismatic movements and
was made popular through mass media and social networking sites.
Owing to the emergence of well educated leaders, more progressive
trends are evident in the Northeast in the twenty-first century, such as
ecumenical aspirations, concern about social and political justice, and
human rights and corrective resistance movements. There is a proliferation
of ecumenical unions and centres that cater to the needs of the local people.
Christian organisations like World Vision of India, the Northeast India
Committee on Relief and Development (NEICORD) and Church’s Auxiliary
for Social Action (CASA) under the leadership of the local Christians have
developed in the Northeast as a basis to help people affected by natural
and human-made disasters. Christian non-governmental organisations
and churches have established homes for orphans, senior citizens and the
destitute as well as rehabilitation centres and educational centres in many
parts of the region, most of which are self-supported and self-financed.
Churches have taken peace initiatives and promoted negotiations in
situations of conflict. The Northeast India Christian Council (NEICC), the
Council of Baptist Churches in Northeast India (CBCNEI), the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of Northeast India (CBCNI), the Presbyterian Church
of India (PCI), the Mizoram Presbyterian Church Synod, the Manipur
Baptist Church Council (MBCC), the Nagaland Baptist Church Council
(NBCC) and the Khasi-Jaintia Church Leaders’ Forum (KJCLF) are
examples of ecumenical unions that are continually working for peace,
organising seminars and workshops and developing projects.
Various Christian churches have expanded their mission goals beyond
the Northeast frontiers, reaching out to places around India and outside
the Indian boundaries, especially to countries along the borders of India,
such as Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. Many of these churches have sent
missionary teachers and pastors to Southeast Asian countries such as
Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Most of the Northeast Christian churches
are engaged in church planting and reaching out to people of other faiths,
but in the early twenty-first century, with the sensitivity of the national
polity and the anti-conversion laws passed by the Supreme Court of India,
mission strategies have undergone major changes. It has become even more
difficult to penetrate into Southeast Asian countries due to the tightening
of religious laws in many of them. Therefore, Northeast Christian mission-
aries go in as teachers, doctors, relief work volunteers and trainers.
166 Kaholi Zhimomi
From knowing nothing about Christ and the gospel prior to the mission
aries’ arrival, the Christians of the Northeast have overtaken the Indian
subcontinent in terms of the percentage of the population that is Christian,
propagating the gospel vibrantly and making serious contributions to
the progress of the religion itself. Northeast Christian scholars are in the
forefront in developing tribal theology and history, focusing on their own
contextual realities. Northeast churches have also become the vanguard for
peace and justice, negotiating at various levels, seeking a more progressive
community while being true to their Christian commitment and virtues.
Legacy of Cultural Liberalism

Since the Northeast Indian cultural system is quite distinct from the
hierarchical Indian caste society, the changes introduced by the coming
of Christianity seemed unforced and occurred without many setbacks.
The absence of hierarchy and extreme disparities in the distribution of
wealth facilitated the transitioning of indigenous communities. However,
the genetic heterogeneity of the indigenous people was not in any way
replaced by cultural homogeneity. Neither did cultural similarity among
the indigenous communities eliminate conflict and division in the areas
of economics and politics. Amidst indigenous cultural connections the
tendency to manifest their own individuality and distinctiveness still
causes struggle in many parts of the Northeast region, such as the conflicts
between Nagas and Kukis, Mizos and Brus, Bodos and Santhals, Dimasas
and Hmar, Meiteis and Nagas, and Kukis and Meiteis. These ethnic groups
share general traits and were living side by side before independence, yet
conflicts have culminated in serious political boundary and legitimacy
disputes over the last few decades.
Though in certain areas the indigenous people have retained their
traditional habits, the general cultural ethos of the indigenous communities
is steadily losing ground to modernisation and globalisation. Youth
dormitories, basic native institutions for moral correctness and orderliness,
were replaced by institutions like schools and churches. The indigenous
solidarity and the concept of communitarianism have given way to indi
vidualism. Communal and collective land ownership has been replaced
by individual ownership, which continues to usher in many family,
community and village disputes. Claims to ownership of lands and villages
has increased over the years, leading to displacement and clan hatred. The
clanship system is still maintained in the overall social structure. Hence
there is increased interest in the re-reading of the history of clans and
lineage to determine individual clan superiority. Exogamy of clans and
endogamy of tribes are persevered so as to safeguard purity of lineage. The
Khasis still retain their matrilineal structure. The individual labour system
Northeast India 167
is replacing the communal labour system common to all the indigenous

people, known as aloji among the Sumis in Nagaland. Under aloji, the
community is divided into groups, such as the youth, and these groups
cultivate the fields of each individual family without payment. Every adult
person is involved in helping cultivate the fields of the other members, and
they themselves are helped in return. However, this system is declining
as it gives way to a new system of agriculture. The monetised economy,
the state administrative system, transportation and communication, the
extension of welfare activities, and media exposure have compelled ethnic
groups to discontinue their old ways of living in favour of more modern,
globalised methods.
The cultural change that Christianity has brought has not been simple
or one-way but has involved both dislocation of the old culture and
accretion, where there is a mutation of the old and the new. The selective
retention of the old and the selective rejection of the new are necessary
in the course of cultural change so that culture is protected from assimi-
lation or isolation. After the exit of the foreign missionaries there was a
renaissance that brought to light many old traditions and cultures, which
were preserved and inculcated in the Christian worship system and societal
structure. From this vantage point Christianity must not be assumed to be
an agent of acculturation but an agent that helped in the metamorphosis of
indigenous norms into authentic tradition. In the context of popular urban
culture, ‘becoming indigenous’ is complex. Along with the imbibing of the
new, old value systems and thought patterns continue to flow seamlessly,
connecting indigenous people to their roots. In this way they recover
strands of indigeneity that were once lost amidst the cultural hues of the
West and Christian religion. In this contemporary context, the indigenous
peoples of Northeast India continue to expand their cultural boundaries to
form a synthesis of indigenous heterogeneity.
Bibliography
Bendangjungshi, Confessing Christ in the Naga Context: Towards a Liberating Ecclesiology
(Zurich: LIT, 2011).
Pachuau, Lalsangkima, Ethnic Identity and Christianity: A Socio-Historical and Missiological
Study of Christianity in Northeast India with Special Reference to Mizoram (Bangalore: CFCC,
2012).
Parratt, John, Wounded Land (New Delhi: Mittal Publications, 2005).
Puthenpurakal, T. B. Joseph and Shaji Joseph Puykunnel (eds), Christianity and Changes in
Northeast India (New Delhi: Concept Publishing, 2009).
Snaitang, O. L., Christianity and Social Change in Northeast India (Shillong: Vendrame Institute;
Calcutta: Firma KLM, 1993).
Nepal
Bal Krishna Sharma
Nepal is an independent state, a country of over 28 million people, situated

between two giant neighbours: China to the north and India to the south,
east and west. The population of Nepal includes both Indo-Aryan and
Mongoloid strains. Their blending, long history, culture and civilisa-
tion have shaped the character of the population. In the extreme north,
where higher mountains and deep valleys are to be found, dwell people
of Tibetan origin, who are known as the Bhotes. Of Mongoloid origin, the
Gurungs and the Magars are to be found mostly in the western part of
the country. The Murmis, Tamangs and Newars occupy the central parts,
and the Kirantis, Limus and Lepchas are found mainly in the eastern part
of the country. Of Aryan origin, Brahmans and Kshatrias are scattered in
different hill regions.
Being a multi-ethnic nation, Nepal has more than 125 languages and a
great variety of cultures. Hinduism is the major religion. Buddhism and
animism also have a strong presence. Islam is a minority faith, as is Christi
anity. The latter is a growing religion but it is still not fully recognised by
the government and Christians suffer persecution.
Prior to 1990, the king was an absolute monarch and banned a
multiparty democratic system. In the 1990s, this ban was relaxed. People
had a very high expectation of democracy, to the extent of believing that
their situation would be magically changed. So far not many of their expec-
tations have been fulfilled. Citizens have affiliations with various parties
and with some of the extreme groups that have resorted to violence. The
political situation in Nepal is very unstable and the government is not able
to provide security to its citizens. Many live in fear and anxiety. There is
no political courtesy among the political parties; it seems they are there to
pull down and fight one another. The political situation is a threat to the
norms of democracy. It is widely felt that the principles of democracy are
good but those who are given the responsibilities to implement democratic
principles are not mature people.
Outline of the History of Christianity in Nepal

The earliest Christian contact with the land of Nepal took place in 1662,
when Italian Capuchin priests passed through Nepal en route to Tibet. After
Nepal 169
the return of these visitors to Europe, they encouraged their confrères to go

to India, Nepal and Tibet to evangelise. So, in 1703, Capuchin fathers were
assigned by the Roman Catholic Church to evangelise in North India, Nepal
and Tibet. They made their base at Patna in India and several came to work
in the Kathmandu Valley, in the city states of the Newar people, from 1707
to 1769. However, when the Gorkha king Prithvinarayan Shah conquered
Nepal, he expelled the priests and the group of Newar Christians, accusing
them of being agents of a European colonial power. From then until 1951,
Nepalese policy firmly excluded all foreigners and Christians. After 1951,
small congregations were established in various parts of Nepal, some of
the earliest in Nepalgunj, Pokhara and Kathmandu. In the 1950s and 1960s
only a handful of Christians were found in Nepal. During the 1970s the
churches started to grow in various parts of the country. Christians were not
allowed to preach and conversion to Christianity was prohibited. Nepalese
law stated that conversion to Christianity meant one year of imprisonment
for the convert, three years of imprisonment for the preacher, and six years
of imprisonment for the person who did the baptism. From the 1960s to
the 1990s such laws were in effect and many Christians were imprisoned
because of their faith. The church experienced severe persecution during
the 1980s.
In 1990, there was agitation against absolute monarchy. Then the king
declared democracy and the multiparty system was restored. The king
was willing to remain a constitutional monarch. The church experienced
some freedom after 1990, but the attitude of the government to Christians
remains the same. In some places there are still arrests. Christians have been
imprisoned. The government does not acknowledge a Christian presence
and does not register Christian churches and organisations. In spite of all
these pressures, the church in Nepal is growing. There are small and large
congregations all over the country. The church faces a great challenge to
Christianity in Nepal, 1970 and 2015

Christians 7,400 0.1% 1,082,000 3.8% 11.7%
Independents 5,600 0.0% 848,000 3.0% 11.8%
Orthodox 900 0.0% 4,400 0.0% 3.6%
Protestants 600 0.0% 212,000 0.7% 13.9%
Catholics 300 0.0% 7,200 0.0% 7.3%
Evangelicals 1,500 0.0% 393,000 1.4% 13.1%
Pentecostals 4,700 0.0% 860,000 3.0% 12.3%
170 Bal Krishna Sharma
witness to the people and also to disciple its converts and develop quality
leadership. Developing ministerial courtesy among the new churches and
denominations is another challenge that the Nepali churches are facing.
There is a genuine concern among some of the leadership that in order
to advance Christianity in Nepal there is need for the churches to work
together. This does not imply any call for uniformity, but mutual respect
and spiritual unity are needed.
Church Growth and its Impact

Nepal has 75 districts and each district has at least one church congrega-
tion. It is not known exactly how many congregations there are in Nepal
at present but it is estimated to be about 6,000, with the number rapidly
increasing. Nepal has both indigenous and denominationally affiliated
churches. A distinctive feature of Nepalese Christianity is that until now
almost all the churches have the same kind of ‘free’ worship, whether they
are indigenous, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist or Pentecostal.
Formal, liturgical worship is not yet practised. Every church is actively
involved in evangelism and church planting.
There is no record of anyone becoming a Christian inside Nepal before
1950. But since that time the churches have experienced rapid growth and
have had an increasing impact on society. Most Nepali Christians have
come from Hindu, Buddhist or animist backgrounds. Exposure to the
evangelism of the churches has, for many, resulted in a powerful spiritual
experience and the adoption of a new faith and worldview. This in turn has
a significant social impact. The churches contribute to society by offering
moral education and promoting peace and reconciliation. The churches
have advocated gender justice, insisting that sons and daughters should
be equally valued within the family and given equal access to education.
After the introduction of parliamentary democracy to Nepal in 1951,
slowly church groups began their work. The first churches began in
Nepalganj, Pokhara, Bhaktapur and Kathmandu. Two influential mission
organisations, the International Nepal Fellowship and the United Mission
to Nepal, were also established in the early 1950s. At the beginnings of
Christianity in Nepal, denominational churches were strongly discouraged.
However, some denominations, such as Roman Catholic, Marthoma
Church, Assemblies of God, Church of God (non-Pentecostal) and Church
of Christ, were established. After 1990, more denominational churches came
to Nepal, and now there are Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Evangelical
and Pentecostal churches. There are also interdenominational ministry or-
ganisations, and several theological colleges and training centres. Some of
the ministry organisations are registered with the government and some
are still not registered.
Nepal 171
The Nepali churches use various methods of evangelism. Before 1990,

they used personal evangelism and also the distribution and sale of Christian
literature to those people who were interested in knowing about Christ.
Bible correspondence courses were effective ways of getting the Christian
message to interested people. During that period open preaching in Nepal
was completely banned, so sharing the Christian message through the post
was a very effective method. Thousands of people took Bible courses and
many took the decision to become Christian as a result. The author of this
chapter is one example. Coming from a Hindu background he took a cor-
respondence course from 1972 to 1976. This led to his decision to accept
Christ as Lord and Saviour.
Another important method of evangelism is personally sharing Christ
with people who do not know him. This takes courage, but hundreds
of people have become Christians through this method of evangelism.
Though such methods were used when Christianity was banned in Nepal,
they remain valid ways of sharing good news today. Through personal
evangelism, family members, neighbours and friends have become
Christians. Another method of evangelism used in Nepal is healing and
deliverance meetings. Many non-Christians are brought by their relatives
or friends to such meetings to be healed or delivered from evil spirits. This
is a common phenomenon in Nepali churches. Thousands of people have
become believers in Christ as a result of experiencing healing or deliverance.
Once they begin to come to the church, they are given teaching on new life
in Christ. In such cases of healing or deliverance, whole families sometimes
come to the Christian faith.
After 1990, large open-air evangelistic gatherings were conducted in
various parts of Nepal, especially in the Kathmandu Valley. These evan-
gelistic meetings included healing crusades and were frequent from 1993
until 2015. After a new constitution was promulgated in 2015 that banned
activities leading to religious conversion, large open-air meetings have
become less common. They did, however, have significant impact over a
20-year period. In March 2008, for example, an evangelistic and healing
meeting was held in the national stadium, in Tripureshwor, Kathmandu,
with support from many churches in Nepal, especially from those in the
Kathmandu Valley. The stadium was packed. It was estimated that more
than 25,000 people gathered and that about 50% of the participants were
non-Christian. There was a sense that miracles were taking place, with sick
people being healed and others delivered from demon possession. This
was possibly the largest gathering ever to take place in the history of the
church in Nepal, but there have been many others of a similar nature.
Another method of evangelism is social action. From the inception
of Christianity in Nepal, in order to link with communities, social
involvement has been a prominent feature. Medical help is given to

people through clinics, dispensaries and hospitals. Christian international
non- governmental organisations and domestic non-governmental or-
ganisations (NGOs) are active in various places, improving the quality of
life of the people. Schools and colleges have opened to help students to
prepare themselves for service in different sectors, contributing to national
development. Through such initiatives the Christian message has been
conveyed. Critics have sometimes suggested that the social work of the
churches is an inducement to conversion. The churches, however, have
been clear that their motivation is simply to help the needy. There is no
coercion or material incentive for anyone to become a Christian. It is left to
each individual to make their own decision; nonetheless, the compassion
and care evident in Christian social outreach has been a factor in some
cases where people have taken the decision to become Christian.
Social action was one of the ways of getting permission to enter Nepal in
the early 1950s. In 1952 the International Nepal Fellowship (INF) opened a
clinic in Pokhara, in the western part of Nepal, then regarded as a remote
area. Along with medical and educational work, people in INF began to
share the gospel with the people. Since Christianity was new to Nepal, the
initial responses were not very encouraging, but slowly the church began
to gain a few members in Pokhara. INF concentrated its work in medical
services. It began Shining Hospital to treat socially despised people such as
lepers. Such work was difficult but it provided hope for people abandoned
by family and society. Along with service to lepers, the hospital also
provided general medical services. In due course INF extended its medical
services to various parts of western Nepal.
The United Mission to Nepal (UMN) entered Nepal in 1954. It began its
medical service in Tansen, western Nepal, by opening a dispensary. This
was regarded as a remote place at that time. UMN opened other medical
centres elsewhere, including one in Kathmandu. It has also engaged
in many other forms of social action, including education, community
development and disaster response.
The growth of the church takes place when there is a strategy of
evangelism and church planting. From the beginning of Christianity
in Nepal, the pioneers of church work have taken the initiative to plant
churches. In order to plant a church in any location, the above-mentioned
methods were used. When the church began in Kathmandu or any other
city, many of those who became Christians came from various districts
within Nepal. After becoming believers, they wanted to go back to their
villages and preach the good news of Christ, so the churches sent them
and churches began to be planted in rural areas as well. Once people
from Hindu, Buddhist or animist backgrounds become Christians, the
Nepal 173
churches always encourage them to associate with their family and bring
the Christian message to them. Sometimes, though, non-Christian families
can become very hostile to their Christian family members. But the church
teaches that we should not give up the relationship and be always good
and loving, even in the face of opposition. This loving approach within
the family has had a great impact. A church-planting strategy based on
working within family relationships has had significant results in Nepal.
Another method of church planting that has had a positive impact
is mother and daughter church planting. Under this model, the mother
church sends people to another place for evangelism and church planting
and supports them through prayer, finance and visitation. After some
time, that church gives birth to a daughter church. This pattern has been
common from the beginning. After some time, the daughter church can
stand on its own, with its own administration and financial support. This
empowers local congregations and encourages them to be self-supporting.
As indicated earlier, evangelism and church planting have been the
heart of Nepalese Christianity from the beginning. Pioneers of evangel
istic and church-planting activities have made a great contribution to the
growth of the church in Nepal from the 1950s. Among the pioneers are
Pastor Barnabas Rai in the Nepalganj area, Pastor David Mukhia in the
Pohara area, and Pastor Tir Bahadur Dewan and Pastor Robert Karthak in
the Kathmandu area. Along with these pioneers other pastors and leaders
have come together who have contributed to the growth of the church. John
Singh, Daud Mashihi and D. R. Rai are also important pioneers of Christi
anity in Nepal. The Assemblies of God Church played an important role
in establishing churches in Nepalganj area, western Nepal. From the 1970s
work by the Assemblies of God in the Kathmandu area has contributed to
church planting by establishing daughter churches. Ramghat Church in
Pokhara and Nepali Isai Mandali in Kathmandu have established several
daughter churches. At present major denominations and indigenous
church groups have a strategy of planting daughter churches in various
places in Nepal. The Nepal Baptist Council, the Presbyterians, Methodists,
Anglicans, Pentecostals and many independent and indigenous churches
have such a church-planting strategy.
The National Churches Fellowship, Nepal (NCFN), a Christian umbrella
organisation bringing together several churches, is also involved in church
planting. Such organisations as Operation Mobilization, Youth with a
Mission, Campus Crusade for Christ, the Nepal Bible Society and Every
Home Crusade (Every Home Concern) bring a very strong evangelistic
thrust and provide literature for evangelistic activities.
There is debate among Nepali Christians about how large a church
congregation should become. It is acknowledged that congregations can
grow very large, to the extent of becoming ‘mega churches’, and there
are some congregations in Nepal with thousands of members. It can be
argued, however, that for purposes of church growth it is better to have
smaller congregations, with 100–200 members. This allows for much
stronger ministry to the congregation, for the growth of real ‘fellowship’
and for the development of local leadership. Smaller churches can more
easily become financially self-supporting. Huge church buildings present
difficulties when it comes to maintenance, with the risk that all available
resources will be used to keep up the church building rather than focus on
evangelism and church planting.
Today, community churches, where people gather for worship within
their own local areas, are becoming more popular than denominational
churches. Even when a congregation has a denominational affiliation,
there is merit in the community church idea because travel has become
a challenge in major cities and travel expense is another area of concern.
Therefore there is need for community churches to be planted in each
locality. A common church-planting strategy is for a local church to send
a few of its members to a nearby place to begin a new fellowship there.
Rather than calling everyone from all around to assemble in one central
place it is more effective to have multiple fellowships arising in many
different localities. This requires leaders with vision, since it can be easy to
create an impression by gathering a large crowd, without seeing the wider
opportunities.
Hostility and Persecution

The Nepali churches are placed in the midst of many religions and
ideologies. Hinduism, Buddhism and animism are inclusive religions.
Their adherents think that there is no need to change the religion of a
person. According to their beliefs, all religions are fundamentally the
same and lead to the same destiny. Also found in Nepal is a very strong
atheistic ideology. For its adherents, talk of God or spiritual things is of
no importance. Christians are considered to be narrow-minded people.
The government of Nepal considers that Christian growth can bring social
disharmony, social conflict and violence. Therefore, conversion to any
religion is regarded with suspicion and is technically banned. Despite
these challenges and the resultant persecution over the years, the Nepali
churches have gained in strength and continued moving forward. Many
church leaders and members were arrested in the years before 1990. The
persecution of the church was heavy in the 1980s. As a result, the churches
learned how to stand firm at times of trials and difficulties. The new consti-
tution of Nepal, promulgated on 20 September 2015, restricts activities that
lead to conversion from one religion to another. Indeed, religious activities
Nepal 175
leading to conversion are punishable by law. Such rules prohibit Christian

activities of evangelism, church planting and open-air public meetings. In
this religious, social and political situation, the churches are challenged to
figure out how they can best function.
A significant resource for the Nepali churches in meeting this situation
is the experience of the church in suffering persecution earlier in its history,
including at its very beginning, as reflected in the New Testament. The
gospels and epistles, as well as the Book of Revelation, provide evidence
of how leaders and believers were prepared spiritually, mentally and
emotionally to face persecution with gentleness and perseverance. There
was internal strength, and despite all these pressures of persecution, the
churches were increasing in number and quality. Within 30 years churches
were being planted in Europe. There is no question that persecution is
difficult to face, but once the church is prepared to face it, the result proves
to be spiritual vitality and growth, including growth in numbers.
More recent history also supplies a valuable resource, particularly
with regard to the experience of Christians in Nepal from the time of the
Roman Catholic mission in the eighteenth century. There is much to be
learnt from the history of persecution suffered by the churches from 1950
until 1990, especially in the 1980s. Leaders and church members who faced
persecution in different periods can be inspiring role models. Drawing on
earlier experience, the Nepali churches prepare themselves spiritually,
socially and financially to respond to the challenges of forthcoming per
secutions. They find creative ways to continue their ministries in difficult
and challenging situations.
Despite the hostile environment, Christians demonstrate a spirit of
forgiveness, tolerance and humility, serving people in love and respect.
This is not easily done, but, at their best, the churches know that they are
called to take the way of the cross. Congregations are taught the Christian
way of life and manage to maintain their Christian testimony even in the
midst of difficulties. The churches appeal for their rights to freedom of
worship to be respected but seek to do so in a way that reflects Christian
values of love and respect, rather than in an aggressive or harsh way.
Education and Training

Training, both formal and informal, is of great importance to the Nepali
churches. In a Hindu-, Buddhist- and animist-dominated nation, most
people have very different worldviews from that of the Bible. Hence, for
those who become Christian, there is much to be done in terms of grounding
them in the teaching and values of the faith. This is required at all levels –
children and adults, leaders and members. The Nepali churches have been
engaging in the challenge of developing effective education and training.
In order to develop a biblical worldview in the minds of new Christians,

both converts from other religions and also children born in Christian
families, there is need for formation. Informal training is imparted through
role models, who set an example. This approach can be effective among
both literate and non-literate Christians. It shows its worth not in terms of
academic credit but rather in life-changing impact. Such informal training
is a crucial resource for every member of the church, essential to their
spiritual, social and relational development.
The churches, both through their own programmes and in cooperation
with other theological institutions, have developed formal theological
education to equip their leaders and members. This is offered at several
levels. Certificate-level training tends to be focused on Christian life
studies. It fosters a Christian worldview and explores how Christians can
positively impact their communities. Diploma-level training in theology is
aimed at lay ministers who will be actively involved in church ministries
and also offering Christian witness in their workplaces. In order to equip
them for effective ministry among both Christians and non-Christians,
diploma-level programmes bring biblical education to their lives, which
often works best when it is offered by theological institutions that can
bring together lay ministers from different churches for an experience of
studying, learning and fellowship.
As churches grow in number and maturity, church leaders need to be
trained more deeply in biblical knowledge and understanding. They need
to be able to ‘feed’ the congregation with God’s word and equip them
for Christian life and witness. There is increasing demand for advanced
training at the bachelor’s, master’s and higher levels. This calls for financial
investment by the churches to develop suitable programmes of theological
training. The development of scholars and teachers is already advancing,
but much more will need to be done in future.
In order to meet the Christian educational needs of churches, training
programmes at various levels and at different times have begun. In
1978, the Discipleship Training Centre (DTC) began with a few students
working at a basic level. It started as a three-month programme and went
on to develop its academic level as the needs of theological education were
felt. In 1980, the DTC began a year-long programme. In 1981, Nepal Bible
Ashram began its one-year Bible training. Other short-term programmes
were conducted by Discipleship Training School, YWAM (Youth With A
Mission) and Operation Mobilization. Since 1990, several other training
centres have come into existence. Today, several Bible colleges offer
a bachelor of theology degree programme, while some colleges have
formed a consortium to offer master of divinity and master of theology
programmes. This consortium is known as the Asia Graduate School of
Nepal 177
Theology and its programmes are accredited by the Asia Theological

Association. In the future, the Asia Graduate School hopes to offer doctor
of ministry and doctor of philosophy programmes.
Legal and Property Issues

As stated earlier, Christianity in Nepal is a new phenomenon and it is a
persecuted religion. Before 1990, few churches were established with their
own property. Rather, property was bought not in the name of a church or
church organisation, but in individual names. After 1990, this approach to
acquiring property became very common, with the expectation that one
day the government will register the church as a religious organisation and
the property will be transferred from an individual’s name to the name of
the church. Such expectations have not yet been fulfilled. It is unknown
whether the Nepal government will register Christian churches and organ-
isations under the Religious Act. It seems unlikely that specific legislative
provision for the registration of Christian churches will be made in the
near future.
However, any church or Christian organisation has a legal status and is
entitled to be registered as an NGO or company. For instance, the Nepal
Bible Society has been registered as an NGO and Logos Nepal as a non-profit
company. Churches should use these other available provisions for registra
tion rather than keeping church property in the names of individuals,
which is storing up problems for the future. The registration initiative has
to come from the churches and organisations. They can have their church
or organisational objectives stated in their constitution and accordingly
they can function to fulfil their objectives when they are registered with
the government. Some theological colleges have already registered either
as NGOs or as companies. Once they are registered, the properties that
were bought for these organisations in the names of individuals need to
be transferred into the names of the organisations. Registration makes
all the activities of the churches and organisations transparent, including
their financial transactions. Registered organisations are required to pay
taxes and this is something Christians are ready to do for the benefit of the
nation. If and when Nepal brings in a Religious Act, it will be possible to
change the status of churches and organisations.
Leaders who have large properties registered in their own names did
not necessarily pay any money themselves – the funds were collected
through church believers and also donations received both from within
Nepal and from outside sources. Legally, however, property belongs to the
concerned persons. It will be a wise decision on the part of land ‘owners’
to transfer the property to the name of the church or organisation, since it
does not belong to them. If a church or organisation wants to develop its
infrastructure in terms of buildings or facilities, it is becoming difficult to

receive any kind of financial help. Therefore, for the sake of the progress of
the church or organisation, property needs to be transferred.
If church or organisation properties are kept in individual names, there is
always a risk of long-term ownership. Legally the property does not belong
to the church or organisation. If any legal work has to be done with regard
to that property, the ‘owners’ have to sign. Many churches are facing dif-
ficulties in finding people to undertake such legal procedures. There have
been some cases where ‘owners’ of church property have claimed that it is
their own. The courts, however, have taken a different view, deciding that
the property belonged to the organisation and imposing a prison sentence
on the individuals. In order to avoid such complications, it is best that
property belonging to a church or Christian organisation is transferred to
the name of a registered organisation.
Conclusion
Despite religious, social and political challenges, since the mid-twentieth
century Christianity has become firmly established in Nepal. This has
come about primarily through an indigenous movement of evangelism
and church planting. In the midst of persecution, the church has not
only survived but has been thriving, with much evidence of growth and
maturity. Spontaneous and creative methods of evangelism and church
planting are practised, and this strategy has proved successful in building
up the life of the churches. Now they are preparing the next generation
of church leaders nationwide. The prospects for the churches and their
mission seem promising.
At the same time, there are many challenges facing the churches, which
are still at an early stage of development. There remains much to be done
if they are to retain their vitality. The ministry of evangelism and church
planting needs to continue in order to take the Christian message to many
communities. There is still much scope for the churches to expand their
vision of impacting society through ministries of love and restoration.
Theological education, both formal and informal, needs to be further
developed in order to continue developing leaders and enabling believers
to grow in maturity. The lack of legal status of Nepali churches is an issue
that needs to be addressed in order to secure their future. This will involve
gaining recognition from the Nepal government and the creation of an
effective system of registration.
Bibliography
Malla, Kamal P. (ed.), Nepal: Continuity and Change (Kirtipur: CNAS, 1989).
Perry, Cindy, Nepali Around the World (Kathmandu: Ekta, 1997).
Nepal 179
Rongong, Rajendra Kumar, Early Church History of Nepal (Kathmandu: Ekta, 2013).
Sharma, Bal Krishna, Funeral Rites in Nepal: Cremation, Burial and Christian Identity
(Kathmandu: Ekta, 2013).
Sharma, Bal Krishna, ‘Nepal’, in Roger Hedlund, Jesudas Athyal, Joshua Kalapati and
Jessica Richard (eds), Oxford Encyclopedia of South Asian Christianity, vol. 2 (New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 2011), 480–2.
Bhutan
Tandin Wangyal
Bhutan is a tiny country sandwiched between the giant neighbours of

China in the north and India to the south. It is the only surviving monarchy
in the Himalayas and often invoked as the last Shangri-La in the East.
Mahayana Buddhism is the state religion. Bhutan has resisted any foreign
colonial power and is proud of its rich culture and history. It is a predomin
antly Buddhist nation, its history shaped by Guru Padmasambhava, who
arrived from India in the middle of the eighth century and until today is
venerated and worshipped as the second Buddha in Bhutan. In the early
twelfth century the Drukpa school of Mahayana tantric Buddhism was
established by Lam PhajoDrukgom. Its influence was further consolidated
by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, who established Bhutan as a theocratic
nation during the seventeenth century. Today almost all northern
Bhutanese are Buddhist. In the south Hindus are in the majority, though
Buddhists are found there too, particularly among southern Bhutanese of
Nepali origin. For most Bhutanese, Buddhism permeates all facets of their
lives, and it is built into their national identity.
Bhutan has never been colonised by any imperialist power and has
kept its sovereignty intact. A key role in resisting British colonialism was
played by Jigme Namgyal (1825–81), father of the first monarch. The
country emerged from ‘policy isolation’ in the early 1970s, having joined
the United Nations in 1971. In modern times, Bhutan has attracted global
attention by its claim to be a country of happiness. This was memorably
stated by the fourth King of Bhutan, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in
1972, when he declared that ‘gross national happiness’ is more important
than gross domestic product.
King Jigme Singye Wangchuck has also played a leading role in the
establishment of a democratic system of government in Bhutan during
the early years of the twenty-first century. The 2008 constitution makes
important provision for religious freedom, stating for example that ‘A
Bhutanese citizen shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience
and religion. No person shall be compelled to belong to another faith by
means of coercion or inducement’ (article 7, section 4). It further provides
that ‘All persons are equal before the law and are entitled to equal and
effective protection of the law and shall not be discriminated against on the
Bhutan 181
grounds of race, sex, language, religion, politics or other status’ (article 7,

section 15).
Advent of Christianity
Bhutan’s first exposure to Christianity came in 1627, with the visit of two
Portuguese Jesuits, Estevao Cacella and Joao Cabral. They were received
by the priestly king Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel and granted a degree
of freedom to teach the Christian message. Linguistic barriers inhibited
communication, however, and after eight months they left to rejoin
their mission centre in Tibet. Further attempts to introduce Christianity
to Bhutan were made by William Carey’s ‘Bootan Mission’ in 1795, the
Kalimpong Mission to Bhutan in 1891, the Scandinavian Alliance Mission
(SAM) in 1895, the Finnish Alliance Mission in 1908 and the Church of
Scotland Eastern Himalayan Mission around the same time. None of these
efforts resulted in a permanent Christian presence.
However, in the second half of the twentieth century Bhutan slowly
opened up to medical missions that offered treatment to leprosy patients.
The missions that arrived included the Leprosy Mission (TLM) and
Interserve in 1964, the Salesians of Don Bosco in 1966, the Norwegian
Santal Mission in 1967 and, finally, the Swedish Mission (KMA) in 1972.
The medical missions were permitted to operate in Bhutan on the strict
condition that they did not carry out any proselytisation, a restriction
that very much limited their influence. In fact, in 1982 the Salesians were
expelled for proselytising.
From the 1960s a large number of Christians from Darjeeling and
Kalimpong in India came to the country to work, and through their
influence some Bhutanese came to faith in Christ, forming new fellowships
on an informal basis. In 1990 the first Baptist mission arrived, sponsored
by the Nagaland Mission Movement. Catholic missionaries introduced
Western education and continue to be involved in teaching and in schools.
Christianity in Bhutan, 1970 and 2015

Christians 950 0.3% 17,500 2.2% 6.7%
Independents 500 0.2% 9,600 1.2% 6.8%
Protestants 200 0.1% 6,700 0.9% 8.1%
Catholics 250 0.1% 1,200 0.2% 3.5%
Evangelicals 70 0.0% 2,200 0.3% 8.0%
Pentecostals 420 0.1% 10,100 1.3% 7.3%
Total population 298,000 100.0% 787,000 100.0% 2.2%
182 Tandin Wangyal
The first Bhutanese-born Catholic priest, Father Kinley Tshering sj – who

was influenced by a meeting with Mother Teresa – was ordained in 1986.
Bhutan is a conservative country, deeply rooted in its Buddhist identity.
Therefore, the emergence of any new religion, ideals or culture is met with
resistance. This means that it is not easy to convert to the Christian faith.
Converts normally pay a heavy price, going through an ordeal within their
family and community. Christians are subject to intense pressure to conform
to traditional expectations, including observance of Buddhism. Converts
find themselves subject to surveillance at the hands of religious leaders,
the wider community and even their own families. They often come under
pressure to renounce their faith. Churches cannot be officially registered,
meaning that all Christian worship is technically illegal. Baptisms cannot
be conducted in public and Christian burials are often denied. Despite the
constitutional provision for religious freedom, Christians (including the
present author) have suffered persecution for their faith.
Development of Church Life

Despite restrictions placed on missionary work, during the late twentieth
and early twenty-first centuries there has been a movement of conversion
to Christianity as a result of individuals experiencing a ‘power encounter’.
As a result, Christian spirituality in Bhutan is largely Pentecostal in
character, and the Pentecostal movement has been gaining ground in the
twenty-first century. Pentecostal Christians are forthright in witnessing to
their neighbours about what the love of Christ has done in their lives. This
has led many to see the Christian message in a new light.
Bhutanese Christians have responded to the suspicion with which
they are viewed by stressing their patriotism, often giving expression to
their love for their king, country and people. A biblical text that is often
invoked at church services in Bhutan is I Timothy 2: 1–3: ‘First of all,
then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercession, and thanksgivings
be made for all the people, for kings and all who are in high positions,
that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every
way.’ It is also common to invoke the words of Jesus, ‘Blessed are the
peacemakers’ (Matthew 5: 9), and to engage in prayers for peace. In this
way Bhutanese Christians position themselves as advocates of harmony
and peace building, showing goodwill toward their neighbours as they
pray for formal recognition from the state some day.
Most of the churches are locally operated, with the pastor as supreme
decision-maker. The main exception is the Catholic Church, which has a
clear hierarchical authority structure, the Kingdom of Bhutan falling under
the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Darjeeling in India. Otherwise, since
most churches are underground house fellowships, they do not have any
Bhutan 183
formal structures for the purposes of administration. House fellowship

churches vary in size, with the largest consisting of 300–500 households,
while smaller ones consist of 15 households or fewer. The larger house
fellowships can have several pastors and a board of elders and deacons
with decision-making authority. There is, however, no consistent structure
for church leadership and administration. A lack of Christian education
has inhibited the development of such structures.
By the turn of the twenty-first century, the churches were keenly aware
of the need for local institutionalised unity. In 2004 the Bhutan Council of
Churches’ Fellowship (BCCF) was formed, and it remains active. Other
umbrella bodies to be formed include the Bhutan Evangelical Alliance
(BEA) in 2007, the National Christian Council of Bhutan (NCCB) in 2008
and finally the Bhutan Christian Society in 2010–12. The churches still face
challenges due to a lack of vision and leadership in the field. For example,
none of these councils or entities have been registered with the government
agencies. The Religious Organisation Act of Bhutan 2007, which was passed
in the National Assembly of Bhutan in its eighty-seventh session, does not
clearly identify all the churches as ‘Religious Organisations’ (chapter 2: 3).
One of the major Christian projects is Bible translation. Work on the
New Testament in Dzongkha was begun in 1994 and completed in
2000. Translation work in the Tsanglha language began in 1989 and the
New Testament was completed in 2009. The Bhutan Bible Institute was
established in 2007 under the NCCB and has an enrolment of around
50 students. The General Secretary of the National Christian Council of
Bhutan, Wangchuk Lhatru, serves as its principal. A significant challenge
lying ahead is the contextualisation of theology in Bhutan, particularly in
relation to Buddhist culture and thought forms. Work in this area might
help to demonstrate that Christian Bhutanese are loyal citizens, with a
valuable contribution to make to national life.
Bibliography
Lhatru, Wangchuk, ‘Churches Together in God’s Mission – Bhutan’, in Hope Antone, Wati
Longchar, Hyunju Bae, Huang Po Ho and Dietrich Werner (eds), Asian Handbook for
Theological Education and Ecumenism (Oxford: Regnum, 2013), 466–9.
Phuntsho, Karma, The History of Bhutan (Chicago, IL: Haus Publishing, 2014).
Bangladesh
Pradeep Perez sj
Religion plays an important role in the lives of the people in Bangladesh.

The country has a majority Muslim population, at 91%, mostly Sunni.
The Hindus at 8.1% are the largest religious minority. Buddhists make up
another 0.7%. Christians of diverse denominations constitute less than 1%
of the population. Small communities of animists, Baha’is, Sikhs and Jains
are also present in Bangladesh. There are some 35 indigenous or tribal
groups in the country, each having its own distinct language. Forty-two
languages are in use in Bangladesh; Bengali is the official and widespread
language.
Bangladesh was founded as a secular democratic state in 1971.
However, in 1975 secularism was removed from the constitution. In 1988,
with a military government in power, Islam was acknowledged as the
state religion. In 1974 the country became a member of the Organisation
of Islamic Cooperation. This strengthening Islamic identity has resulted
in increasing apprehension among minority groups. At the same time,
Bangladesh has witnessed the rise of a strident marginal group of Islamic
fundamentalists. The government tries to please both people with a strong
Islamic identity and those with staunch secular thinking. This double
standard of the government has created tensions concerning the presence
of Christian missionaries. Even though the government had constitution-
ally permitted the Christian churches to have the benefit of freedom of
worship, at times it tends to be suspicious of their religious activities.
Historical Background
Portuguese traders brought Christianity to Bangladesh through the port
of Chittagong in the sixteenth century. In 1577, Emperor Akbar permitted
the Portuguese to build churches in Bengal. The Jesuit Father Francisco
Fernandez went to Chandecan, now Satkhira, in October 1599. With the
permission of King Pratapadittya he built the Church of the Holy Name
of Jesus, which was officially inaugurated on 1 January 1600. The second
church, St John the Baptist, was built in Chittagong and inaugurated on
24 June 1600 by the Jesuit Fathers Francisco Fernandez and Andre Boves.
During a conflict between the Kingdom of Arakanese and the Bengal
Sultanate the chapel was burnt down and missionaries were manhandled.
Bangladesh 185
Because Father Fernandez tried to save some Christian children and women
from being traded as slaves by the Arakanese, the Arakanese detained him
in a dark prison, where he was chained and brutally beaten. This resulted
in his death on 14 November 1602, making him the first Christian martyr
in the territory.
In 1608, Islam Khan, the Mughal Subedar of Bengal, made Dhaka the
capital of Bengal. This was followed by progress and prosperity in business,
attracting Portuguese, Dutch, French and English merchants. In 1612,
Augustinian missionaries introduced Christianity to Dhaka. In 1628, they
established the Church of the Assumption in Narinda. In 1695, the Church
of St Nicholas of Tolentino was constructed at Nagori, 25 km north-east
of Dhaka. In 1764, they built a church at Padrishibpur in Barisal district.
Another church was built at Hashnabad, 30 km south-west of Dhaka, in
1777.
Catholics
Around 1670, Dom Antonio, a young Bengali, was converted, became a
catechist and brought nearly 20,000 people to profess Christianity. The
descendants of this converted group constitute the bulk of the Catholic
communities of Dhaka, Natore and Pabna districts today. By 1673 there
were more than 30,000 Catholics in the region.
Portuguese-converted Catholics have Portuguese surnames, such as
Gomes, Gomez, Rozario, De Rozario, Cruze, De Cruze, Costa, De Costa,
Peris, Perez, Kulentunu, Tolentino, Campo, Toskanu, Ascension, Purifica-
tion, Rodriguez, Dores, De Silva or De Souza. The missionaries used to
give one Christian name and one of their surnames to the newly baptised
person. The later Catholic missionaries did not follow the Portuguese style
in naming the new Christians. They gave one Christian name but did not
change the surname of the new convert.
Christianity in Bangladesh, 1970 and 2015

Christians 237,000 0.4% 860,000 0.5% 2.9%
Anglicans 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0.0%
Independents 38,400 0.1% 298,000 0.2% 4.7%
Orthodox 200 0.0% 150 0.0% −0.6%
Protestants 69,400 0.1% 334,000 0.2% 3.6%
Catholics 120,000 0.2% 406,000 0.3% 2.7%
Evangelicals 42,000 0.1% 248,000 0.2% 4.0%
Pentecostals 6,500 0.0% 305,000 0.2% 8.9%
186 Pradeep Perez
In 1950 Dhaka became an archdiocese, with Chittagong, Dinajpur and

Khulna as dioceses. Amal Theotonius Ganguly, the first Bengali bishop,
was appointed in 1968 and by 1970 all four dioceses had Bengali bishops.
Now there are nine local bishops administering the congregations under
their jurisdictions. The Catholic Church of Bangladesh has a good number
of local bishops, priests, and both men and women religious. But there
are still a number of foreign priests, brothers and sisters working in the
country.
Today there are two archdioceses and seven dioceses in Bangladesh. The
Archdiocese of Dhaka comprises the dioceses of Dinajpur, Mymensingh,
Rajshahi and Sylhet, while the Archdiocese of Chittagong comprises the
dioceses of Barisal and Khulna. In a nation with a total population of more
than 160 million, the Bangladeshi Catholic population is 360,669, according
to the 2015 Catholic Directory, which also states that there are 107 parish
churches, 220 diocesan priests, 178 religious priests, 123 religious brothers,
1,451 religious sisters, 5 consecrated virgins, 1,130 catechists and many
educational, healthcare and welfare institutions and organisations.
Vocations to priesthood and religious life are on the increase. There are
more than 50 formation houses in the country. There are also 52 Catholic
secondary schools, about 1,000 primary schools and 60 healthcare centres
run by the missionaries.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh, founded in 1971, is
the general body of the ordinaries of Bangladesh. Pope John Paul II visited
Dhaka in November 1986. The papal ambassador heads the Apostolic
Nunciature to Bangladesh. Since his appointment by Pope Francis on 6
July 2013, Archbishop George Kochery has been the Apostolic Nuncio to
Bangladesh. Archbishop Patrick D’Rosario became the first Bangladeshi
cardinal in 2016.
The Jesuits were the first and predominant order during Christianity’s
early years in Bengal. The Augustinians, who arrived in 1612, took over the
East Bengal mission upon the departure of the Jesuits. Portuguese influence
on the Church ended in 1860 when Pope Pius IX gave the responsibility
of the Vicariate Apostolic of Eastern Bengal to the Holy Cross Fathers. In
1876, they left Bengal after handing over the mission to the Benedictine
missionaries. The Congregation of the Holy Cross Fathers returned to
Bengal in 1888. The most numerous religious congregation in Bangladesh
today is the Congregation of the Holy Cross – fathers, brothers and sisters.
Holy Cross has made an important contribution through education in both
parish schools and colleges in Dhaka, Chittagong and other parts of the
country.
Altogether there are more than 30 religious congregations for men and
women in Bangladesh. The names of the congregations and their arrival
Bangladesh 187
year to Bangladesh are mentioned here: the Pontifical Institute for Foreign
Missions (1850); the Congregation of the Holy Cross Brothers (1853); the
Sisters of Charity of Sts Bartholomea Capitanio and Vincensa Gerosa
(1864); the Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions (1883); the Salesian
Sisters of Mary Immaculate (1886); the Congregation of the Holy Cross
Fathers (1888); the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross (1889);
the Society of St Francis for Foreign Missions (1895); the Associates of
Mary Queen of the Apostles (1933, Dhaka, Bangladesh); the Catechist
Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of Angels (1952, Dinajpur,
Bangladesh); the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate (1953); the Sisters
of St Aloysius Gonzaga (1956); the Little Handmaids of the Church (1956,
Barisal, Bangladesh); the Sisters of St Anne Adoration Monastery (1967);
the Missionaries of Charity (1971); the Missionary Sisters of the Society
of Mary (1972); the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary
Immaculate (1973); the Congregation of the Maryknoll Missionaries (1975);
the Missionary Sisters of Fr De Foucault (1977); the Maryknoll Sisters of St
Dominic (1979); the Taize Brothers (1983); the Consecrated Virgins Living
in the World (1985); the Believers in Christ (1985); the Monastic Order of St
Benedict (1985); the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of Korea (1986); the
Third Order Regular of St Francis of Assisi of Penance (1987); the Sisters of
Our Lady of Sorrows (1988); the Community of Pope John XXIII (1999); the
Congregation of the Kkottongnae Brothers and Sisters of Jesus (2005); the
Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (2005); the Congregation of the Sisters
of Charity of St Vincent (2006); the Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus
(2007); the Marist Brothers (2008); and the Salesians of Don Bosco (2009).
The Holy Spirit Major Seminary in Dhaka, affiliated with the Pontifical
Urbaniana University in Rome, is the only philosophical and theological
institute for the future priests of the Catholic Church of Bangladesh. The
institution offers two years of philosophical and four years of theological
studies for graduate students. As well as providing for seminarians of
various dioceses and religious congregations and sisters from congrega-
tions of women religious, the seminary organises study programmes for
the ordinary members of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic community today has diverse origins. Catholics in
Bangladesh can be divided into five wide-ranging groups: descendants of
the Portuguese and early converts (30%), low-caste Hindu converts (20%),
converts from indigenous groups (45%), converts from Islam (3%) and
Anglicised Catholics (2%).
Protestants
Protestant Christianity first came to Bengal with representatives of the
East India Company, roughly a century after the arrival of the Portuguese
188 Pradeep Perez
missionaries. Explicit proselytisation initially was banned in British

territories by the East India Company. William Carey, the famous Baptist
missionary, came to Serampore in 1793 and evangelisation efforts were
begun. When Joshua Marshman and William Ward joined Carey in 1800,
they launched a remarkable range of activities. The Serampore missionaries
were prominent proponents of educational reform in India. They founded
a number of vernacular and formal schools and developed new curricula
and Bengali-language textbooks. They founded Serampore College in
1829, a pioneering effort in higher education that granted degrees in the
arts and sciences.
Protestant missionary efforts took root during the first half of the
nineteenth century. Baptist missionary activities began in 1816, and
soon afterward the Anglican Oxford Mission began work among the
tribal people of the low hills of Mymensingh and Sylhet. Many Christian
churches, schools and hospitals were initially set up to serve the European
community. They subsequently became centres of missionary activities, par-
ticularly among the lower-caste Hindus and tribal people. After the British
dropped their policy of non-interference in religion in 1813, missionaries
were allowed to enter British Bengal more freely. Nine mission organisa-
tions had entered Bengal by the time the British left India in 1947. By 1980
there were 21 Protestant mission groups with nearly 300 missionaries in
Bangladesh. Among the large missionary groups, the Bangladesh Baptist
Sangha (BBS) is a national association of Baptist churches. The BBS is the
oldest Protestant denomination in Bangladesh. With the independence
of Bangladesh in 1971, the church took its current name. Another notable
Protestant denomination is the Church of Bangladesh. It brings together
the Anglican and English Presbyterian Churches. B. D. Mondal was made
the first national bishop of Dhaka Diocese in 1975. Today there are three
dioceses of the Church of Bangladesh: Dhaka, Barisal and Kushtia. The
Garo Baptist Convention, named after the Garo ethnic group, is another
prominent Protestant denomination, with a history in Bangladesh going
back to 1890.
Other denominations (with starting dates for their presence in
Bangladesh) include the (Anglican) Church Missionary Society (1805); the
Australian Baptist Mission (1882); the New Zealand Baptist Mission (1886);
the Churches of God of America (1905); the Seventh-day Adventists (1919);
the Bangladesh Baptist Fellowship (1919); the Bangladesh Baptist Sangho
(1922); the Assemblies of God Church (1954); the Evangelical Lutheran
Church (1957); the Bangladesh Mission of the (American) Southern Baptist
Convention (1957); the Bangladesh Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church
(1957); the (American) Association of Baptists for World Evangelism
(1958); and the Bangladesh Lutheran Church (1979). After the Liberation
Bangladesh 189
War of 1971, new Protestant missionary societies arrived and began work
in Bangladesh. Besides evangelism, these societies have also established
various educational, healthcare and welfare institutions.
Ecumenical and Associational Developments

The minority status of Christianity has encouraged peaceful coexistence
between different denominations. Mixed marriages between spouses from
different denominations have become common. In some areas, joint prayer
meetings are becoming quite well accepted. Efforts have also been made to
develop ecumenical initiatives at the national level. The National United
Christian Forum of Bangladesh plays an important role in fostering the
unity of the Christian community. The Council for Inter-faith Harmony–
Bangladesh is a government-backed organisation created to promote
understanding and peaceful coexistence among religious communities.
The Bangladesh Inter-Religious Council for Peace and Justice is an older
ecumenical organisation that organises dialogues, meetings, seminars and
workshops on inter-religious issues.
The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council is an inter-faith
organisation that acts as an advocate for the interests of minority religious
groups. It is outspoken and has a high public profile, with frequent demon-
strations, protest rallies and press conferences. The Bangladesh Christian
Association and the Christian Association of Bangladesh are two further
activist bodies that promote the interests of the Christian community as
well as directly serving the victims of injustice.
Christian cooperative credit unions play a vital role in the financial sector
of the Christian community. In almost every parish there are credit unions
that are very active in taking care of the monetary needs of Christians.
The best-known is the Christian Cooperative Credit Union Limited Dhaka,
founded in 1955 by Father Charles J. Young csc, which currently has about
36,000 share-holding members and 47,000 members with savings accounts.
Its estimated assets are worth some Tk5 billion (US$66 million), which
makes it one of the largest cooperative organisations not only in Bangladesh
but in the whole of Asia. The Metropolitan Christian Cooperative Housing
Society is another financial enterprise, founded in 1977 with the objective
of providing Christians with social security. The Society, with some 12,000
members, has enabled around half of its members to buy a flat or a plot of
land in or around Dhaka. The Society is hailed as the best-managed among
126,000 cooperative institutions in Bangladesh.
The Association of Bangladesh Catholic Doctors was created in 2008 with
a membership of more than 100 Catholic physicians. It organises mobile
clinics and distributes free medicines in poor and needy communities.
Likewise, the Christian Medical Association of Bangladesh, a Protestant
190 Pradeep Perez
body, also aims to unite Christian doctors and medical students to act
competently and compassionately in their medical profession. The
Catholic Nurses’ Guild started in 1979 and works on spiritual formation
and additional training for Christian nurses in the country.
The Christian community has some media houses, and Christian pub-
lications include the weekly Pratibeshi, Sargamarta, BD Christian News and
Dhaka Credit News. Pratibeshi is the oldest weekly in the country, established
in 1940. BD Christian News is a newly created news site that covers news
on the Christian community of the country. Joyodhwani Media is an
inter-denominational media house that produces television programmes
with Christian content. The Bangladesh Bible Society regularly publishes
biblical literature and produces radio programmes on Christian values.
There are a number of initiatives to develop youth programmes
and activities, notably the Bangladesh Christian Students Movement,
Bangladesh Christian Students’ Welfare Association, Bangladesh Youth
First Concerns, Student Christian Movement, Jesus Youth, United Christian
Youth Forum and Magisbangla Movement.
Diverse Christian Influence and Contribution

The Christian contribution to Bangladesh’s freedom fight during the
Liberation War in 1971 cannot be underestimated. About 1,500 Christians
were involved in the fighting and 4,000 more assisted the combatants. In
their parishes and mission centres, bishops, priests, nuns and brothers
sheltered freedom fighters and war victims, and provided food, shelter
and money. The churches directly and indirectly contributed during a war
that killed 24 Christians, including three priests.
The contribution of Christians to Bengali literature is enormous. The
first Bengali prose in the form of a Catechism booklet was written by Father
Francesco Fernandez sj. It is believed that the first printed book of Bengali
prose, Kripar Shastrer Orthobhed, was written by Portuguese missionary
Father Manuel da Assumpsao. He also wrote a Bengali grammar and a
Bengali–Portuguese and Portuguese–Bengali dictionary. Dom Antonio
da Rozario, a local Hindu prince converted by the Portuguese, wrote
Brahman–Roman Catholic Sambad, a dialogue between a Roman Catholic and
a Hindu Brahmin priest trying to prove the superiority of Christianity over
Hinduism. He also started presenting the gospel message and the lives of
saints in song. His ballads, based on such figures as Anthony, Agnes, John
the Baptist, Agapith, Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary, along with the
birth of Christ and Passion of Christ, are still integral to the faith tradition
of Catholics in the Dhaka region.
Baptist missionary William Carey translated and printed the Bible
in Bengali and wrote many books, including A Dictionary of the Bengali
Bangladesh 191
Language. He also helped develop Bengali typefaces for printing and

publishing newspapers and periodicals. His colleagues John Thomas,
William Ward, Felix Carey, John Pearson and others also left their contribu-
tions in Bengali literature. Recently, two Xaverian Fathers, Marino Rigon
and Silvano Garello, have translated many works of such Bengali authors
as Rabindranath Tagore, Nazrul Islam, Jasim Uddin and Lalon Shah into
Italian. Prominent writers today who are Christians include Alfred Khokon,
Subrata Augustine Gomes, Bidhan Rebeiro and Milton Biswas.
The churches in Bangladesh have worked philanthropically in
education and healthcare, particularly for the poor and underprivileged.
In a Muslim-dominated country, running educational and welfare institu-
tions and organisations under a Christian banner remains difficult. After
the Liberation War, the Missionaries of Charity led by Mother Teresa of
Kolkata were among the first organisations to enter Bangladesh to help
the victims. These missionaries along with many others have contributed
actively during floods and cyclones in the coastal region.
Despite Christians being a small minority, some individuals have made
a considerable contribution to national life. The outstanding composer and
music director Samar Das was instrumental in establishing the Free-Bengal
Radio Station during the Liberation War. He also orchestrated and notated
the national anthem of the new country, Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Amar
Sonar Bangla’. Human rights activist Rosaline Costa has played a strong
role in raising awareness of minority and gender rights, gaining inter
national recognition. Pramod Mankin was the first Christian to become a
member of parliament, as well as Minister of Cultural Affairs and Minister
of Social Welfare Affairs. His son Jewel Areng has been elected a member of
parliament. Jewel’s cousin Raymond Areng, another prominent Christian,
is a member of the Central Committee of Bangladesh Awami League.
Andrew Kishore is a popular singer of modern songs and has had many
hits as a playback artist in Bangladeshi movies. Anima D’Costa is another
playback singer who has made a remarkable debut in this field. Notable
folk singer Anima Mukti Gomes is known for her melodious voice. Subas
Rozario is a leading proponent of lalongiti, spiritual songs in the Bengali
tradition. Lincoln Gomes, lead singer of the band Artcell, is a highly
popular figure among the youth of Bangladesh. Sekhar Gomes, Markas
Nipu Ganugly and Leo J. Baroi are Christian artists who are respected in
the field of popular music. Tony Dias is the most popular television actor
and director in Bangladesh. His wife, Priya Dias, is also an actress and
acclaimed model.
Samson H. Chowdhury, the chairman of Square Group, has overseen
a vast business empire that is influential in every sector of the Bangladesh
economy and was chairman of the Masrangaa television channel. Kaberi
192 Pradeep Perez
Gain, a professor at the University of Dhaka, is known for her outspoken

views on attitudes towards minorities and gender inequality in Bangladesh.
Major General John Gomes is a prominent figure in the Bangladesh Army,
and has been appointed ambassador to the Philippines.
Sanjeeb Drong is an ardent advocate for human rights and indigenous
peoples’ rights. Having worked in Bangladesh as a missionary since 1952,
America-born Holy Cross priest Richard William Timm won the Ramon
Magsaysay Peace and International Understanding Prize in 1987 in
recognition of his work as a teacher, as a biologist studying plant-parasitic
worms and as a contributor to relief efforts with Caritas Bangladesh.
Evangelisation: Challenges, Approaches and Activities

There are a number of reasons for the slow expansion of Christianity in
Bangladesh. One is resistance to the gospel by Muslims and Hindus. They
tend to identify Christianity with Western ideologies or cultural imperialism.
Secondly, due to resistance to the Christian message, early missionaries
focused their work on education at the expense of evangelism. A third
reason is the devastating climate, which has disheartened many mission
aries from continuing, or even starting, new efforts at evangelisation.
Unfortunately, most missionary personnel are concentrated in the urban
Dhaka region, where evangelistic progress is very sluggish. The number of
missionaries is not sufficient to meet the needs of other areas. So, potentially
responsive but unreached peoples are often neglected, notably the tribal
groups and low-caste Hindus. The churches have received requests from
some tribal and low-caste Hindu areas stating that their members wish to
become Christian. But there are simply not enough missionaries to go to
them. Among the responsive tribal groups there are two native churches,
the Garo Baptist Union and the Evangelical Christian Church. The Santals
are being evangelised by the Bangladesh Lutheran Mission and that
Christian community is growing. Many members of the Khasi tribe have
responded to the evangelistic efforts of the Presbyterian Church. In the
Chittagong Hill Tracts various Baptist groups are evangelising the tribes.
Even though Bangladesh is officially an Islamic country, the churches
have gained the support of many. The reasons behind this are manifold.
First of all, the Christian educational institutions of the country are highly
ranked. Practically every elite boy or girl wants to study in Notre Dame
University, Notre Dame College, St Joseph’s School and College, Green
Herald International School, Holy Cross School for Girls or Holy Cross
College for Girls. They flock to these Christian-run institutions because of
their service, dedication and discipline. In the medical sector, Christians
have a strong hold. Hospitals and dispensaries in every part of the country
offer easy access to the poor and afflicted of all religious groups.
Bangladesh 193
As a minority, Christians always try to dialogue with those of other

traditions of religious faith. It is important to do so in order to build mutual
fellowship. Christian schools, colleges and hospitals are living witnesses
of Christian faith. The Episcopal Commission for Christian Unity and
Inter-Religious Dialogue is particularly active, arranging a variety of
programmes, seminars, live-in experiences and prayer services with other
religious communities so as to share Christian values.
In Bangladesh, the Muslims might not agree with the Christian way
of living, but there is an increasing openness to the faith among the
Hindus and tribal peoples. Both Catholics and Protestants are developing
evangelism among these receptive communities. Among the tribal groups
the missionary approach is oriented not so much to the individual level
but to a particular tribe or caste as a whole. When this strategy is followed
there is evidence of greater growth.
The distribution of Christian literature continues to play an important
role in evangelistic efforts. Many churches and missions sell or give away a
huge amount of literature. The Christian Literature Center produces more
than a million tracts every year. The Every Home Contact organisation has
its people involved in the largest free distribution of tracts in Bangladesh.
A number of missions have sought to involve themselves in theological
education in Bangladesh. The Garo Baptist Union has a small Bible school
in Birisiri. A short-term Bible school for Santal believers is sponsored by
the Bangladesh Northern Evangelical Church. The Association of Baptists
for World Evangelism has conducted short-term Bible schools since 1963.
Some tribal people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts attend these schools
annually. However, the development of theological education has been
limited by a lack of textbooks and operating funds.
Christian relief and development works after independence and after
cyclones and famines have influenced many people to accept the gospel.
Every mission has been involved in social concern in one way or another.
There are some general hospitals, a leprosy hospital, several dispensaries
and a family-planning organisation run by both Catholics and Protestants.
Most denominational agencies are also involved in home and school
construction, childcare, agricultural development and job training. All
the Christian institutions have been active in disaster and famine relief,
medical services and a variety of development initiatives.
Bangladeshi Christians are very devout in their expression of faith.
There are a number of pilgrim centres, located in practically every diocese.
The biggest pilgrimage centre is the shrine of St Anthony of Padua at
Nagori; at that shrine, the first Friday of February witnesses the biggest
Christian gathering in the country. Popular devotion plays an important
role in the expression of the faith. A Baptist devotional movement called
194 Pradeep Perez
Sebak Sangha (Association of Disciples), started by Priyonath Boiragi, is

very active in regular prayers and preaching. The translation of the Bible
into Bengali and tribal languages is a primary task in evangelisation. After
Carey’s translation towards the end of the eighteenth century, Dominican
fathers produced a new translation of the Bible in 2000. However, the
faithful of Bangladesh prefer the translation of the Jesuit fathers of Kolkata.
Likewise, the writing and translation of liturgical books is a priority for
evangelistic work. Even though the local media houses try to satisfy
popular tastes, there is great demand for liturgical books from Kolkata
translated by the Jesuit missionaries. In Bangladesh, inculturation is a
priority, making the universal Church more and more rich and vibrant.
In all the churches and denominations liturgical singing is performed in
Bengali and in tribal languages. Christian spiritual literature is frequently
translated into Bengali as well as into tribal languages.
Christian Non-governmental Organisations

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have undeniably made major
contributions to the development of Bangladesh. Most Christian NGOs
started their work in response to the needs of the country after the Liberation
War. Caritas Bangladesh began work as Caritas East Pakistan in 1967, as
the relief and development wing of the Catholic Church. It is now one of
the five largest NGOs in Bangladesh, with more than 80 projects in six
main areas: education; social justice and human rights; healthcare; disaster
management; ecological conservation; and development of indigenous
peoples. World Vision of Bangladesh is dedicated to the wellbeing of
vulnerable children, their families and their communities. It is committed
to serve and partner with people in need regardless of religion, ethnicity,
gender and ability. At present World Vision Bangladesh is serving around
5 million people under 31 administrative districts.
The Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh was
established in 1973. It initially focused on addressing emergency needs,
through relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction. It then turned its attention
to development programmes, on human resource development to support
self-reliance, collective growth and distributive justice. Another key goal
has been the promotion of good governance and peace through education,
health and income generation, managed by community organisations.
Lutheran Aid to Medicine in Bangladesh is an integrated rural health
and development project of the World Mission Prayer League, Minnesota,
USA. The project includes a 115-bed hospital founded in 1983, which covers
a population of around 1.5 million in and around Parbatipur, in the rural
north-west of Bangladesh. The Mennonite Central Committee, a relief and
development arm of the Mennonite Church, came to Bangladesh in 1970.
Bangladesh 195
Initially the organisation focused on emergency assistance, but it gradually

expanded into a number of wide-ranging programmes in agriculture,
employment generation, education, health and peace-building.
Christian NGOs have led recovery efforts after the Liberation War
and after cyclones. In short, they are among Bangladesh’s most well
respected development organisations. Other noteworthy Christian
NGOs in Bangladesh include Christian Aid, Christian Service Society,
Christian Service International, Christian Life Bangladesh, Church of
Bangladesh Social Development Programme, Churches of God Mission,
CROSS – Communities Rural Organisation for Social Service, Compassion
International Bangladesh, Coop Benedict Memorial Society, Co-operative
Credit Union League of Bangladesh, Danish Bangladesh Leprosy Mission,
Young Women’s Christian Association of Bangladesh and Young Men’s
Christian Association of Bangladesh.
Vulnerability and Tension

Religious violence is rare in Bangladesh, but in the recent past some
incidents of violence against Christians involving radical Islamist groups
have created panic among the faithful. For example, a bomb attack during
a Sunday mass in a Catholic church in Baniarchor in southern Bangladesh
on 3 June 2001 killed nine people. Cesare Tavella, an Italian aid worker,
was shot dead in Dhaka on 29 September 2015. Parolari Piero, an Italian
Catholic priest, was shot several times on 18 November 2015 in Dinajpur.
Sunil Gomes, a veteran Christian businessman, was hacked to death in
Natore on 5 June 2016. A group of Islamic militants massacred 20 hostages,
mostly foreigners, in a cafe in Dhaka on 1 July 2016. Luk Sarkar, a pastor
of Faith Bible Church, escaped a murder attempt with injuries in Pabna on
5 October 2016.
Christians are vulnerable due to their relatively limited influence
with political elites. After the 2009 election there was only one minister
in the Awami League government belonging to the Christian community.
Christians are often reluctant to seek recourse from a corrupt and ineffective
criminal justice system. This has promoted an atmosphere of impunity
for acts of violence against them. There is therefore need for Christians
to get more actively involved in the field of politics. In their participation
and commitment they can inculcate the values of the gospel among the
majority non-Christian politicians.
Mixed marriages, in this predominantly Muslim country, are increasing
day by day. Because of the religious differences, most mixed marriages do
not work well. They end up creating confusion for the children, who do
not know which religion to follow. However, there are also some mixed-
marriage couples who succeed in creating happy families.
196 Pradeep Perez
Conclusion
Although Christians in Bangladesh are a tiny minority, the churches are
relatively vibrant. The contributions of both foreign mission aries and
indigenous Christians have proved to be highly significant in different
sectors of national life. Poverty remains a major concern and the Christian
community additionally suffers from various forms of injustice, discrimi-
nation and violence. This can lead to disillusionment, especially among
young people who think of a better future elsewhere. Nonetheless, many
Christians draw inspiration from their faith to work for social transforma-
tion. The indications are that the Christian community will continue to be
highly involved in Bangladeshi society, motivated by the dual mandate of
the love of Christ and love of one’s neighbours.
Bibliography
Costa, Jyoti F. (ed.), The Catholic Directory of Bangladesh (Dhaka: Pratibeshi, 2015).
D’Costa, Jerome, Catholic Church in Bangladesh (Dhaka: ProtibeshiProkashoni, 1986).
De Rozario, Tapan, ‘Christian Mission and Evangelisation in Bangladesh’, Bangladesh
e-Journal of Sociology, 8:1 (2011), 77–86.
Dutta, Denis, Bangladeshe Christo MondolirIthihas (Chandpur: Christian Literature Center,
1985).
Laird, M. A., ‘Christianity’, in Sirajul Islam (ed.), Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of
Bangladesh, vol. 3 (Dhaka: Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, 2003).
The Maldives
The Maldives comprises 1,190 coral atolls lying in the India Ocean to the
south-west of India and Sri Lanka. Some 200 of the islands are inhabited,
26 with a significant population. The world’s lowest country, it is severely
at risk from the rising sea-levels currently evident as a result of climate
change. The population today is just over 400,000, around 100,000 of whom
are foreign workers.
In terms of religion, the overwhelming majority of the population is
Muslims. The presence of Islam in the islands dates back to the twelfth
century, when Sunni Islam was introduced. Its history has been marked
by Sufi influence, with the graves of saints having formed a focal point for
faith. Today, Sunni Islam is the official religion of the entire country and
strictly enforced by the government. Only Muslims qualify for citizenship.
Non-Muslims (including Christians) are not eligible either to vote or to
hold public office.
The British Protectorate, which lasted from 1887 to 1965, did not result
in any missionary work or spread of Christianity among the indigenous
population. Today’s thriving tourist industry has brought many migrant
workers to the islands, but, since these are mostly from nearby Islamic
countries such as Bangladesh, the society remains solidly Islamic.
Government policy places a high premium on the Islamic identity of the
country, and conversion to Christianity is punishable by loss of citizenship
and, allegedly, torture. Public practice of Christian faith is illegal; there
Christianity in the Maldives, 1970 and 2015

Christians 220 0.2% 1,500 0.4% 4.4%
Independents 10 0.0% 20 0.0% 1.6%
Protestants 90 0.1% 640 0.2% 4.5%
Catholics 120 0.1% 810 0.2% 4.3%
Evangelicals 23 0.0% 180 0.0% 4.8%
Pentecostals 5 0.0% 160 0.0% 7.9%
Total population 116,000 100.0% 418,000 100.0% 2.9%
198 Kenneth R. Ross and Todd M. Johnson
are no church buildings, and ownership of a Bible is punishable by

death. Periodically, there are reports of Christians being arrested. Foreign
Christians who are open about their faith are liable to be expelled. The
media and Internet are strictly censored and migrants’ luggage is searched
to ensure that they do not carry any Christian literature.
Foreign workers are legally permitted to express their faith, but only
privately in their homes when no Maldives citizens are present. Catholics
(mainly Filipinos), the Church of South India, the Evangelical Mennonite
Church and the Seventh-day Adventists have a small and low-key presence
in the country. The number of Christian believers among the indigenous
population is thought to be very low, and they are obliged to observe their
faith under conditions of utmost secrecy.
It is often observed that its social and political environment makes the
Maldives one of the most unfavourable countries in the world in which to
hold and practise the Christian faith. The lack of religious freedom in the
Maldives has led to international criticism of the inadequate observance
of fundamental human rights. The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom
of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir, called on the Maldives government
in February 2007 to change the law, allowing all residents to choose their
own religion or belief. Criticism of its record on human rights and political
freedoms led the government to announce in October 2016 that it will leave
the Commonwealth.
Bibliography
Robinson, John J., The Maldives: Islamic Republic, Tropical Autocracy (London: Hurst, 2014).
Romero-Frias, Xavier, The Maldive Islanders: A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean
Kingdom (Barcelona: Nova Ethnographia Indica, 1999).
Sri Lanka
Prashan De Visser
The introduction of Christianity to the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka

is closely linked to the nation’s period of colonisation. There are some
records of a handful of small settlements of Christians in the country’s
coastal areas, established around the first century after Christ as a result of
the missionary work of the Apostle Thomas. These records, however, have
not been confirmed. As a result, historical records as well as the general
understanding among Sri Lankans is that Christianity in Sri Lanka is a
result of colonial rule.
In 1505 the Portuguese were the first to share the name of Christ in the
island, around the coastal areas of the country where they established their
rule. They introduced Catholicism to Sri Lanka and were followed by the
Dutch, who arrived in 1658. The Dutch colonisers introduced Protestant
Christianity and established the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1796 the
Dutch lost control of the island to the British, who brought with them the
Church of England; they had gained control of the entire country by 1815.
With each invasion and each colonial dominance over the island nation,
a church and a form of Christian expression and a denomination were
introduced. This led to an indelible impression in the minds of Sri Lankans
that Christianity and colonisation – and all the evils that came along with
colonial rule – were one. As such, Christianity was less associated with the
gospel of Jesus Christ and more with colonial rule and administration. Even
today, to many Sri Lankans Christianity remains the formal embodiment
of five centuries of forced European rule and subjugation. The repression,
ransacking and ruthless conduct of the colonial era significantly tainted
and distorted Christianity as a religion in the eyes of many Sri Lankans. At
the same time, there is no doubt that the colonisers, during their time of
rule, in certain instances contributed positively, through the establishment
of schools, hospitals and infrastructure.
American missionaries who went to Jaffna established the first medical
school in the country in 1848, more than two decades before the Colombo
Medical School. Foreign missionaries and missions agencies built schools,
rural hospitals, leprosy centres and hospices for the terminally ill and cared
for widows and orphans. In 1886 missionary nuns were invited to work in
public hospitals and did so until after independence. However, even these
200 Prashan De Visser
positive contributions are marred by allegations that they were done in

order to manipulate locals towards the Christian faith and colonial culture.
Admittedly, it is impossible to know the true intentions behind each action;
however, the perception of the masses is overwhelmingly negative to the
colonial experience and, by association, to the Christian faith.
Sri Lanka gained independence from the British in a peaceful transition
in 1948 and remained a member of the Commonwealth. A large segment of
the population who were recorded as Christian up to that point went back
to their original faiths of Buddhism and Hinduism, with much prejudice
and animosity towards the Christian faith. Today, five centuries after the
advent of colonial rule, the combined number of Roman Catholics and
other Christians stands at less than 9% of the total population.
The remnant who had a deeper cultural affiliation to the faith and
meaningful encounters and true revelation of the Saviour’s love remained
Christians in a post-Christian, post-colonial Sri Lanka. Thus began the
journey of Sri Lankan Christians to strive towards the independence of Sri
Lankan Christianity from the clutches of gross misrepresentations of the
Christian faith.
The Church in Sri Lanka

The most recent census in Sri Lanka, carried out in 2011, identified 1.27
million Sri Lankans (or around 6.1% of the total population) as being of
the Roman Catholic faith, while less than 300,000 Sri Lankans identified as
Christians of other denominations.
The Roman Catholic Church has deep roots in the coastal areas of Sri
Lanka, predominantly in the northern and western belt of the island.
The Portuguese established the first chapel, along with a trading post, in
Colombo in the early sixteenth century. As the Portuguese influence grew
in the island, so did Portuguese religion, and in 1551 King Dharmapala
of the Kotte Kingdom was converted to Roman Catholicism. He granted
Christianity in Sri Lanka, 1970 and 2015

Christians 1,088,000 8.7% 1,842,000 8.9% 1.2%
Anglicans 46,200 0.4% 54,000 0.3% 0.3%
Independents 21,200 0.2% 152,000 0.7% 4.5%
Protestants 65,700 0.5% 230,000 1.1% 2.8%
Catholics 954,000 7.6% 1,525,000 7.4% 1.0%
Evangelicals 29,500 0.2% 190,000 0.9% 4.2%
Pentecostals 23,300 0.2% 329,000 1.6% 6.1%
Sri Lanka 201
access and resources to the missionary work of St Francis Xavier and his
followers, and the Franciscan priests and nuns carried out evangelisation
and social work in Kotte and the Jaffna peninsula.
One of key founders of the Roman Catholic faith in Sri Lanka, Father
Joseph Vaz, was canonised in January 2015 by Pope Francis as Sri Lanka’s
first saint. He arrived in the country during the Dutch occupation. The
Dutch rulers, promoting Calvinist theology, had outlawed the practice of
Roman Catholicism introduced by the Portuguese, and Father Vaz made
it his mission to secretly serve those who stayed true to the Roman faith.
Vaz, along with other priests from Goa who joined him later, is credited
with sacrificially building up the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. During the
British era, various mission organisations in Europe were granted access to
Sri Lanka. The Catholic Church records that Oblates of Mary Immaculate
from France, Sylvestro Benedictines from Italy and Jesuits from Belgium
were among the religious groups that arrived. Several women’s religious
orders also began educational and social work.
The Diocese of Colombo was established in 1845 and renamed the
Archdiocese of Colombo in 1972. The first Sri Lankan archbishop, Thomas
Benjamin Cooray, was appointed in 1947, and in 1965 he also became the
first Sri Lankan cardinal. Today, the Roman Catholic Church is spread
across Sri Lanka, with churches in every district and ministering in all
languages and across a wide cross-section of social groups. The work of
the Catholics among the poor and with orphans and single mothers has
brought them social recognition among Sri Lankans, and some revivalist
groups within the Church are now involved in active evangelisation. The
leadership of the Colombo Diocese – in particular the current Archbishop
of Colombo, the Reverend Malcolm Ranjith – have started raising their
voice publicly on social and political issues, sometimes controversially.
The main Protestant denominations in Sri Lanka are the Anglicans,
the Methodists, the Baptists and the Salvation Army. Their networks of
churches, mission centres and schools continue to exist, but growth within
these denominations has been stagnant. The Methodist Church had a
strong ministry through education, with nearly 200 schools established
and managed by the Church, until educational reforms in the 1960s, in
keeping with the nationalist mood of the time, led to legislation that saw
the government take over all but two schools.
The Charismatic and Pentecostal Churches have seen a measure of
growth, but some scholars maintain that since the census data do not
indicate significant growth in the total number of Christians, the growth of
Evangelical and Independent Churches in Sri Lanka has been at the cost of
other Churches – primarily the Roman Catholic Church, which has seen a
decline in numbers.
The diversity – through heritage, Christian tradition, culture and geo-

graphical location – of the Church in Sri Lanka has meant that there has
been no single organisation or association that unifies the various groups.
Within the Protestant community two organisations have become the
focus of collaborative efforts: the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka,
an association of the mainline Protestant churches and affiliated organis
ations, and the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka
(NCEASL), with a membership of more than 200 churches.
Theological training and study centres are not very widespread in Sri
Lanka, with only a handful of colleges that provide recognised theological
training. The Colombo Theological Seminary, Lanka Bible College and
Seminary and Theological College of Lanka are the main Bible schools
outside those set up within each denomination or mainstream church.
The State and the Church

The Sri Lankan state, especially after it gained independence from colonial
rule in 1948, has had an uncomfortable – and sometimes openly hostile –
relationship with the churches in Sri Lanka.
Many of the founding fathers of the Sri Lankan state came from
Christian families or were educated in Christian schools and universities
and had imbibed the traditions and practices of Christianity and Christian
worship. To them, Christianity could continue to flourish alongside
Buddhism and Hinduism, and they believed that freedom from colonial
rule did not require abandonment of the colonial religion. However, the
tide of nationalism that swept through Sri Lankan politics in the years
following independence led to a rejection of Christianity along with the
other outward indicators of colonial rule – their mode of dress, their food,
their language. The growth of nationalism was prevalent across the entire
subcontinent, accompanied by a reaction against the colonial era and the
dominance of minority ethnic and religious groups that occurred during
it. As a result, the majority ethno-religious groups in the region embraced
democracy with a chip on their shoulders. Some political commentators
have observed that Sri Lanka is a curious case study, in which the majority
has the mindset of a minority.
The Sinhala Buddhist majority, though they enjoyed political dominance,
lived with an insecurity due to being isolated and ill-treated during colonial
times. Minority ethnic and religious groups were given prominence and at
times the opportunity to rule over Sinhalese communities. Thus a political
narrative that ‘this is a Sinhala Buddhist country, and Sinhalese Buddhists
should have prominence’ was a potent political theme. The nationalistic
tendencies were not limited to the Sinhalese. While Sinhala nationalism
was growing in the capital and the south of the island, Tamil nationalism
Sri Lanka 203
was gaining ground in the north. Both these narratives left the Christian
community vulnerable. They were a visible representation of the core
grievance of the nationalist movement, especially in the South.
The emerging rural churches were at the epicentre of the wrath of the
extremist nationalist movement. These were new church communities
and new believers. Their existence and passion for the gospel was now
seen as a new form of colonisation and thus met with the fury of mobs
under the guidance of the political leaders of the nationalist movement.
The elite Christian communities in the capital and in key cities were far
less impacted by this wave; the rural churches bore the brunt of its impact.
One of the key indicators of the wresting of control from the churches
was the legislation that during the 1960s nationalised hundreds of schools,
hospitals and clinics managed by mainline churches. Those who argue
that the colonial era did in fact make a positive contribution to the country
often point to the schools and hospitals established by missionaries. Even
the most vehement nationalistic movements in Sri Lanka acknowledge
the importance of these institutions. However, the nationalist movement
championed the cause of bringing the schools that were established and
governed by private Christian denominations under the Sinhala Buddhist
government’s supervision, thus removing any semblance of Christian
influence, values and teachings. The church was no longer given an
opportunity to serve the community in this manner. In many cases the
churches also no longer had the resources to manage and govern these
academic institutions, and in the midst of the financial pressure and national
istic wave these institutions were left with no choice and capitulated.
The new Sri Lankan constitution, enacted in 1972, for the first time
recognised a national, state-supported religion – Buddhism. The previous
constitutions and governance systems had stayed strictly secular. With
this recognition came resources, privileges, quotas for Buddhist clergy in
various institutes of education and, most of all, a mindset that Buddhism
prevailed above all other religions practised within Sri Lanka.
In 2004, a Buddhist-clergy-led political group within the Sri Lankan
parliament introduced a draft bill to punish all conversions, with fines and
imprisonment for those who change their religion from their birth religion.
The bill was clearly targeting Christian evangelistic work and drew much
international condemnation. This bill was presented to parliament for
a vote in 2009 but did not gain sufficient support to be passed into law.
Acts of violence against the Christian community, particularly against
independent Evangelical churches, have been widespread throughout
the country. The NCEASL attempts to record and track these attacks and,
where possible, seeks legal redress. However, many of these attacks have
gone unpunished.
Inter-religious Living
Sri Lankan Buddhists and Tamil Hindus regard Christianity as an undesired
residue of the Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial governments.
After Sri Lanka became an independent republic in 1972, influential
leaders among the Buddhist monks regained their former political and
religious pre-eminence; their attitudes towards non-Buddhist Sri Lankans,
especially the Tamil Hindus and particularly Christians, remain suspicious
and hostile. They believe that their teachings on suffering (dukka), im-
permanence (anicca) and non-individuality (anatta) have no correlating
parallels in Christianity. Likewise, they believe that their Eightfold Path
remains superior to Christian teaching. Their salvation (nibbana) does not
agree with Christian teachings of the Kingdom of God. Fundamentally,
the aristocratic Gautama Buddha, his experience of Enlightenment and his
long life to the age of 80 differ from the ordinary birth of Jesus, his suffering
on the cross for the sins of others and his short life.
Yet, Sri Lankan theologians such as D. T. Niles (1908–70), Lynn de Silva
(1919–82) and Aloysius Pieris (b. 1934) have reflected on the significance of
Christians living among and interacting with Buddhists. Pauline teaching
that the entire universe is groaning for transformation (Romans 8: 22–4)
offers a point of contact. Nothing is permanent; therefore, everything
undergoes constant change. Similarly, Sri Lankan Christians hold that non-
individuality (anatta) is real for anyone who refuses to believe in God. After
all, the Theravada Buddhists of Sri Lanka do not believe either in God or
in creation. In their estimation, Buddha was the supreme human being,
who taught fellow human beings how they could overcome suffering,
end craving (tinha) and lead a humane life. Buddhists and Christians
have conferred on the necessity of socio-political peace, social justice,
development, and stability of their societies, and their discussions continue
at various levels.
The civil war (1983–2009), waged by the Buddhist Sinhalese and the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on behalf of the Tamil Sri Lankans, was
costly. Tamil Hindu Sri Lankans who could financially afford to escape
with their lives moved to many countries in Europe, North America and
Australasia. Most of them want to return to their motherland, but they are
afraid to do so. They faithfully teach Tamil to their children and maintain
their cultural distinctiveness, at least in their homes and temples. Some
Tamil Hindu Sri Lankans, particularly in Germany, Switzerland, the UK,
Canada, the USA and Australia, met Christians in their diaspora contexts
and embraced Christianity. The visit of Pope Francis to Colombo in January
2015 and his canonisation of Joseph Vaz, the Indian Roman Catholic
missionary to Sri Lanka, drew some global attention to the Christian
community. However, the Buddhist resurgence in Sri Lanka has led to
Sri Lanka 205
the establishment of countless Buddhist temples and monasteries in the

places where the Tamils live. The Tamils are cautious, and they sense how
negatively fellow non-Tamil Sri Lankans view them. Their inter-religious
living, not merely inter-religious dialogue, has become a painful political
and economic issue.
Contemporary Challenges
Since the arrival of Christianity in Sri Lanka, over the past five centuries the
church has had an ebb and flow of experiences: a privileged position in the
colonial era, yet unable to be a testimony to the true core of Christian faith,
followed by a persecuted position in the midst of growing nationalism
and yet offering a persistent witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The
next decade will be crucial for Christianity in Sri Lanka. Will the churches
embrace the opportunities and overcome the looming challenges and find
ways to fulfil their calling? In this context, some key challenges and oppor-
tunities present themselves.
The churches need to break away from a Christian subculture that seems
to isolate itself from the rest of society. Although they live within a context
of persecution and misconceptions of Christians, the churches cannot use
this as an excuse not to engage with the broader society. Most churches
engage in evangelism and even certain social causes, yet these have
been limited to events or projects as opposed to consistent engagement.
It is long-term, consistent engagement that demonstrates the integrity of
Christian witness. This remains true not just for social causes but even
for evangelism and sharing the gospel. The whole concept of evangelistic
events outside the context of deeper meaningful relationships has limited
capacity to build disciples and be true to the Great Commission. Living
among the people, relating to their circumstances and being one with
them is the ‘incarnational’ model through which Christian faith takes root.
The church has experienced challenges in sharing the gospel and doing
meaningful works of justice because of its inability to use incarnational
approaches in ministry.
The churches can no longer ‘outsource’ consistent evangelism and
outreach through relationships with para-church movements. They can
also no longer outsource justice to Christian non-governmental organis
ations. These are opportunities for the Church to truly be ‘incarnate’,
relevant and vibrant. The Sri Lankan Church needs to ask the question,
‘If the Church ceases to exist, will the community mourn? Do we make a
difference? Do people know we truly care? Have they felt the warmth of
Christ’s love through the Church?’
Therein lies the challenge and the opportunity. This will impact the way
the churches address nationalist forces and inherited prejudices from the
colonial past. In the midst of persecution, can the Church remain loving
toward the broader community, while resisting the temptation to be bitter
and isolated from the community? Once again, choosing an incarnational
approach despite the circumstances will be crucial.
A further challenge is the growing culture of Christian consumerism.
The churches in Colombo, the capital city, have been challenged with
limited growth in the recent past. Christians in the capital have had the
luxury of comparative freedom of religious expression. These communities
represent middle- and upper-class economies and wield more influence
and enjoy more rights than their fellow Christians in rural Sri Lanka.
Many dynamic new churches seem to be emerging and powerfully
expressing the Christian message. However, the challenge remains in a
growing culture of Christian consumerism. People are looking for a better
Sunday experience, better music, better preaching and signs and wonders.
Hence, a new phenomenon of a mobile Christian community has emerged.
Instead of people digging deeper roots in their local church, there seems
to be an exodus from one church to another. This has led to a dilemma in
which the growth of one church has been the downfall of another.
This challenge can, though, be an opportunity for the leaders of these
key churches in Colombo. The church can seek to reform the mindset of
these congregants and help create communities that are eager to serve,
as opposed to depending on the quality of the service they receive. The
Colombo churches, if directed well, could truly be a blessing to the broader
Sri Lankan Church, and this can be a great opportunity for the strengthen-
ing of the Christian presence.
Another challenge the churches face is the lack of resources in rural Sri
Lanka. Pastors who embrace the call and head to serve in rural churches
make a great sacrifice. Limited educational opportunities for their children,
the ever-present threat of attacks against churches, and limited resources
among the believers of the church to sustain the pastor’s work are among
the most common personal challenges they face. In addition, the churches
also need to address many social issues that require funds that do not exist.
Once again, this provides a unique opportunity for the churches.
This has caused many pastors to become ‘tent makers’, who make their
own living by adopting a secular profession, and also look at financially
sustainable means of generating income. These sustainability enterprises
have the capacity not only to generate income but at times to create jobs
for these rural communities. The struggle that many of these rural pastors
have endured for the cause of the gospel has been a great testimony to those
in their communities. They see the authentic commitment and sacrifice and
are able to break free from some of the inherited prejudices and negative
stereotypes of the church.
Sri Lanka 207
Sri Lanka has experienced cycles of violence, with bloodshed every

15–18 years often based on communal, racial or religious lines. Some
estimates suggest that around 400,000 Sri Lankans have died from these
acts of communal violence since the country gained independence in 1948,
seven decades ago. How are the churches responding? Since the Christian
churches are the only community that brings together believers from the
Sinhala and Tamil ethnic groups, there is an onus on them to work for
peace. Christians also have acceptance within the Muslim community. If a
new cycle of violence occurs, it would be a failure of the churches if they
were not to embrace their mandate as peacemakers and bridge builders.
Having an exciting, vibrant Sunday service while your city and nation are
burning does not make for convincing witness.
Conclusion
This century has the potential to be the most vibrant century for the churches
in Sri Lanka. It is time for them to finally shake off their association with
colonialism and to demonstrate the integrity of their faith in today’s context.
With the rural churches coming of age, strong local leaders uniting across
denominational lines, the Colombo churches growing in their resources
and potential, stronger theological training in multiple zones of the country,
the vibrant growth after the war in northern Sri Lanka, and stronger and
more effective emphasis on addressing key social justice issues, along with
compelling national initiatives to bring the churches closer together and
enhance their unity, there is ground for confidence that Christianity in Sri
Lanka can sustain itself and flourish in the coming century.
Bibliography
Harris, Elizabeth, Theravada Buddhism and The British Encounter: Religious, Missionary, and
Colonial Experience in Nineteenth Century Sri Lanka (London: Routledge, 2006).
Niles, Daniel Thambyrajah, Buddhism and the Claims of Christ (Richmond, VA: Knox, 1967).
Patmury, Gloria, Church in Asia: Amidst the Many Poor and the Many Religions – A Study of
Aloysius Pieris’ Writings (Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2008).
Silva, Lynn A. de, The Problem of the Self in Buddhism and Christianity (New York: Barnes and
Noble Books, 1975).
Somaratna, G. P. V., Marriage: Some Aspects of Buddhist–Christian Encounter (Colombo:
Colombo Theological Seminary, 2006).
Major Christian Traditions
Catholics
Felix Wilfred
Catholic Christianity of Central Asia

The very small Catholic communities of Central Asia drew world
attention thanks to the visit of Pope John Paul II to Kazakhstan in 2001.
Catholics constitute a tiny proportion of the population in most parts of
the region, except in Kazakhstan, and even there they form only around
0.6%. However, the five states of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan) were once at the crossroads of
civilisations – the Silk Road of Eurasia. From its early centuries onwards,
Christianity spread in this region, which also served as a refuge for
Christians of different traditions and persuasions (Nestorians, Jacobites,
Melkites, Armenians) persecuted by the Byzantine, Persian and Ottoman
Empires. In medieval times this region saw the missionary engagement
of different Catholic orders such as Franciscans and Dominicans. The first
diocese was established at Samarkand in 1329.
Russian Orthodoxy has been the dominant Christian tradition in the
region, and has enjoyed state support even after the dissolution of the
Soviet Union. The region witnessed also the presence of Catholics along
with other Christian denominations, whose relationship with Orthodoxy
has not been smooth. The end of Soviet rule created space for the establish-
ment of organisational structures for pastoral work among the Catholic
communities of Central Asia. Some Catholic religious orders, including the
Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa’s congregation), are doing pastoral
and charitable work.
The region experienced a reduction in its Catholic population following
the mass exodus to their ancestral homelands of Europeans earlier deported
to Central Asia under Stalinist rule. However, Kazakhstan continues
to have more Catholic churches and parishes than other Central Asian
countries, especially in localities with minority German, Polish, Lithuanian
or Ukrainian populations, descendants of the large mass of deportees.
Today, there is even a seminary in Karaganda for the training of Catholic
priests. Though the majority population is Muslim, Catholics, like other
minorities in the country, enjoy freedom of worship and have established
links with Rome and other parts of Asia. The Vatican even entered into a
bilateral agreement on cooperation with Kazakhstan in 1998.
212 Felix Wilfred
A very significant development took place when the Catholic Church

in the region became part of the larger Asian Catholic structure – the
Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) – coinciding with the
Asian Synod held in Rome in 1998.
With the presence of many Evangelical, Charismatic and Pentecostal
groups, in the twenty-first century Central Asia has been witnessing much
proselytism – ‘sheep-stealing’ of one Christian group from another. This
is much resented by the Russian Orthodox Church, which feels affected
even though it is associated with ethnic and national identity. The Catholic
Church seems to maintain a distance from proselytising activities, and
in this it is on the same page as the Russian Orthodox Church. On the
other hand, both Catholics and Protestants dispute any claim of special
rights on the part of the Orthodox Church, which enjoys the same rights as
Muslims on the basis of its strong sense of ethnic and national identity and
its opposition to proselytism. Many Christian groups and movements are
faced with repression in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan because they are
not registered as official religious groups. The Roman Catholic Church has
not had this kind of experience, since it was officially registered in those
countries in 2010. Further, the Vatican established diplomatic relations
with these Central Asian states soon after their independence in 1991.
Catholicism in South Asia

Spread across different countries and professing different religions, the
peoples of South Asia share many things in common – a common civi-
lisation, colonial experience, struggle for independence, and path to
development and modernisation. They also share a history of encounter
with Christianity. Present-day India and Pakistan were not separate
national entities until 1947, and Bangladesh was part of Pakistan until 1971,
when it was liberated and became a separate nation. Sri Lanka, India and
Nepal are bound together by linguistic families (Sanskritic and Dravidian)
and religious traditions (Hinduism and Buddhism), besides strong cultural
ties. Catholic mission history, too, binds together present-day India,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. Afghanistan and Iran
have close cultural and civilisational ties with the Indian subcontinent.
Catholics in South and Central Asia, 1970

Region Total Christian Catholic % of region % of Christians
population population population Catholic Catholic
Central Asia 33,315,000 3,859,000 20,000 0.1% 0.5%
South Asia 741,255,000 23,363,000 9,875,000 1.3% 42.3%
South and Central Asia 774,570,000 27,222,000 9,895,000 1.3% 36.3%
Globe 3,700,578,000 1,229,448,000 658,556,000 17.8% 53.6%
Catholics 213
Contemporary Catholicism in South Asia has two main ancestries –

the Oriental and the Latin. The Oriental Catholics in South Asia represent
some of the earliest Christian communities outside the Roman Empire. The
Oriental Catholics in Iran belong to either the Armenian or the Chaldean
tradition, and the number of Latin Catholics there is relatively small. The
other country with an Oriental Catholic presence is India. The origin of
Oriental Catholics here goes back to the Syrian Orthodox tradition of
Thomas Christians, according to whom St Thomas, one of the 12 apostles
of Jesus, came to India in the year 52 and preached the gospel to them.
Although there are some traces of a Latin Catholic presence in medieval
times, the real beginning came with the sixteenth-century Western
missionary movement pioneered by the Portuguese crown. The Latin
Church established itself in centres like Goa, Cochin and Cranganore
(India), in Chittagong (now in Bangladesh) and in Karachi (Pakistan). This
Catholicism was linked by the same missionary movement to Southeast
Asia – Malacca, the Moluccas and East Timor.
South Asian Catholicism has experienced three types of conflict in the
course of its history. The first goes back to the Portuguese missioning,
marked by a clash with Thomas Christians, whose orthodoxy as well as
loyalty to Rome were called into question by the Portuguese missionar-
ies. The second conflict was with the system of Padroado Real (rights of
patronage), by which the Portuguese crown had the privilege of establish-
ing and promoting missions in South Asia, including the appointment of
bishops. This Padroado tradition continued through the centuries but was
challenged by Rome, which felt that the cause of mission was compromised
by the nationalistic nature of the Portuguese missions. To counter this,
Rome created the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide in 1622 with the goal
of carrying out missionary work with its own band of missionaries. The
conflict between these two powers, the Padroado and the Propaganda,
continued to cause division and duplication of missionary personnel
and resources. The third conflict Catholicism experienced relates to the
Protestant mission, supported by political powers. For example, Sri Lanka
had flourishing Catholic communities, thanks to the Portuguese mission
in Colombo, Jaffna, Mannar and other localities. However, the Dutch
Catholics in South and Central Asia, 2015

Region Total Christian Catholic % of region % of Christians
population population population Catholic Catholic
Central Asia 68,705,000 5,450,000 133,000 0.2% 2.4%
South Asia 1,823,308,000 69,834,000 22,936,000 1.3% 32.8%
South and Central Asia 1,892,013,000 75,284,000 23,068,000 1.2% 30.6%
Globe 7,383,009,000 2,408,048,000 1,197,805,000 16.2% 49.7%
214 Felix Wilfred
prevailed over the Portuguese colonial power in that island nation and
tried to eliminate all traces of Catholic tradition, introducing in its place the
Dutch Reformed Church as the only recognised Christianity. The conflict
between the Catholic and the Protestant traditions was fierce also in South
India, surrounding Tranquebar, a small port under the Danish crown,
probably the first Protestant mission in South Asia. Today, South Asia
is, so to say, in a post-denominational phase. The confessional divisions
seem to matter little in practice, as Catholics and Protestants are united in
responding to the plight of the people and society around them.
The double-jurisdiction conflict of the past between the Padroado and
the Propaganda Fide seems to continue in a different form even today,
however. While the three Catholic churches in India – Latin, Syro-Malabar
and Malankara – represent a richness in terms of diversity, nevertheless the
past few decades have witnessed tension and conflict in their relationship.
The claim of the Oriental bishops is that their churches are not to be viewed
as regional entities confined to one particular state, the state of Kerala, but
must be looked at as ecclesial traditions having jurisdiction over the whole
country (and indeed over the whole world).
The Latin bishops of India referred the matter to Rome and their
argument was based on two important grounds. First, granting all-India
jurisdiction to the Oriental churches could cause conflicts and divisions in
the Church, reminiscent of the past Padroado–Propaganda struggle. The
Catholic Church cannot afford this, since the country needs unity of action
and witness; the projection of a divided house will reflect badly on the
mission of the Church. The second major argument has been the ethnic
factor. In those places and regions where the Oriental churches tried to
do mission work, most of the priests, religious and laity connected with
the institutions of the Church, such as schools, hospitals and social work,
all hailed from the state of Kerala, with Malayalam as their native tongue.
This ethnic character of the Oriental churches in mission, especially among
the tribal peoples of India, caused serious resentment, since those from
Kerala also occupied positions of power in the Church at all levels. Local
people invoked the theory of ‘sons of the soil’ to claim the right to manage
their churches on their own. Unfortunately, there was little understanding
Changes in Catholics in South and Central Asia, 1970–2015, growth rate, % per year
Region Total population Christian population Catholic population
Central Asia 1.62% 0.77% 4.29%
South Asia 2.02% 2.46% 1.89%
South and Central Asia 2.00% 2.29% 1.90%
Globe 1.55% 1.51% 1.34%
Catholics 215
of these contextual realities on the part of the Vatican. Awareness of the

potential for mission the Oriental churches represented, and also perhaps a
guilty conscience for the way in which the Orientals were treated by Rome
in the past, led it to accede to the wish of the Orientals to establish their
own eparchies or dioceses in different parts of the country, creating once
again a situation of double jurisdiction.
From Indigenous Clergy to Clericalisation

In South Asia, the clergy play an important role in the overall management
of the Catholic Church, in its pastoral life and in the administration of
charitable, social and educational institutions. After the South Asian nations
gained independence from colonial powers in the mid-twentieth century,
the thrust towards indigenisation of clergy and hierarchy became more
pronounced, also because the expatriate missionaries who had worked
in this region by and large unhindered under the British Raj came under
severe censure from the governments (which also drastically restricted, if
not altogether banned, the arrival of new missionaries). Unfortunately, the
growing number of local clergy since then has led also to a situation of
strong clericalisation in South Asian Catholicism. It is an irony that the
move towards indigenous clergy should end up in such a situation. Strong
clericalisation has also inhibited any political role on the part of Catholics,
whereas one finds greater political involvement on the part of the Protestant
churches, thanks to the greater role the laity play in these churches.
Today, the challenges to clericalisation come from two main quarters.
First, there is the group of laity who are enlightened by the teachings
of Vatican II and its ecclesiology. They raise critical questions about the
exercise of power by the clerical leadership. The other source of critique
and contestation to clericalisation springs from groups who traditionally
suffer discrimination, especially the Dalits (formerly called ‘untouch
ables’). These groups feel that the ecclesiastical authorities cover up deep
divisions within the Christian communities.
Castes and Tribes

Caste is a pervasive social structure in South Asia – India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. In some regions it is very strong, and in
other places it is somewhat loose in its hold. This social reality is reflected in
the lives of different religious groups, such as Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims
and Sikhs. It has been no less operative in the life and functioning of the
Catholic Church since the times of Christian mission. The way it manifests
itself has to do also with the history of mission of particular denominations.
From a historical perspective, because the Protestant missionaries came
from northern European countries under the influence of the European
216 Felix Wilfred
Enlightenment, they were more egalitarian in outlook and fought against

the caste system in their mission territories. On the other hand, Catholic
missionaries, hailing mostly from the Mediterranean south, with strong
feudal anchoring, were more accommodating to the caste system.
Caste continues to be a potent factor in the life of the Catholic Church
in most parts of South Asia and operates as a divisive force, exerting its
influence in every realm of ecclesial life – in proposal of candidates for
the episcopate, in priestly and religious vocation and training, in choice of
leaders in Church-run institutions. Dalits, though they constitute a sizeable
majority of the Catholic population, suffer discrimination, as they are
considered to be outside the caste system (outcasts) and therefore impure.
Dalits hoped that conversion to Catholicism would give them dignity and
liberation from caste stigma and discrimination, but Dalit Catholics continue
to suffer discrimination in numerous ways at the hands of upper-caste
Catholics who practise open and subtle discrimination in the life of the
Church. When Dalits die they are buried in segregated cemeteries. Among
the clergy, religious and bishops, Dalits are under-represented. The long
marginalisation of the Dalits has led to the emergence of a strong Dalit
Catholic movement that fights for their dignity and for their acceptance
as equals, challenging the denial of power and leadership positions in
the Church. Dalit Catholics form about 65% of the Catholic population
in India; the proportion is even higher in Pakistan, at almost 90%. In Sri
Lanka, too, the Dalit Catholics and fisher-folk suffer discrimination at the
hands of upper-caste groups.
In South Asia, a sizeable number of people belong to tribal groups. They
are found in different parts of India, especially in the Northeast Region
bordering Bangladesh. Christians of tribal origin also live in Bangladesh on
the hill tracts. They have their own primeval religion celebrating gods and
goddesses closely bound up with nature and the forest environment. In
the late nineteenth century, as in the case of Dalits, there was a movement
of mass conversion among the tribals. This was the result of mission work
on the part of several Catholic religious congregations. Tribal Catholics
from the Oraon tribe in India constitute a very important segment of the
Catholic Church, with many vocations to priestly and religious life.
The hill tribes of Northeast India are ethnically of Mongolian stock,
and they are spread over seven states of India bordering on Bangladesh,
Myanmar and China. In Bangladesh, the tribes in Chittagong Hill Tracts
were converted to the Catholic Church, which tried to help out the new
converts, especially by imparting education. There is also a criticism that
conversion of the tribals in South Asia to Catholicism and to Christian-
ity in general has led to their uprooting from their culture, an argument
that is strongly contested. The tribal areas of South Asia have spawned
Catholics 217
several movements and armed insurrections that challenge the hegemony

of the nation-states and the imposition of uniformity. In India during the
past few decades, missionaries mostly from Kerala but also from other
states like Karnataka, Goa and Tamilnadu in South India were doing active
mission work, and most of members of the hierarchy were drawn from
among the missionaries. Today, however, increasingly the tribal Catholic
Church has shown itself to be self-supporting and is taking a more active
role in determining the life and activities of the local Church.
Official Inculturation and Popular Piety

Thanks to Vatican II, inculturation of faith and its various expressions has
become an important agenda in the contemporary faith-life of Catholics all
over the world. South Asia is no exception. This needs to be understood
against the general characterisation of Christians as foreign in their
culture, way of life and faith expressions. Challenging the allegation of
foreignness called for adopting signs, symbols and thought patterns of the
surrounding peoples. In India, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference founded
the National Biblical, Catechetical and Liturgical Centre (NBCLC) in 1967.
Under its first director, D. S. Amalorpavadass, it was an inspiration to the
process of inculturation. In reaction to this move there arose a Catholic
fundamentalist movement that found adaptation of indigenous cultural
symbols objectionable and unorthodox because of their close connection
with Hindu religious conceptions and worship.
While official inculturation came almost to a halt because of Roman
control and some local resistance, what went on unhindered were manifold
expressions of the popular piety of the people. In those pockets where the
Portuguese did mission work, the Christian communities preserved for a
long time some dramatic performances like passion plays or popular rituals
that had helped them to keep alive their faith and agency. A lot of literature
in local languages came into existence in connection with these devotions
and pilgrim centres. Vailankanni in Tamilnadu, India, is perhaps the most
well known and frequented Marian pilgrim centre in South Asia, attracting
thousands of devotees every day, who include not only Christians but also
a large number of Hindus, Muslims and others. It attracts pilgrims from
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as well. Many of the popular devotions in these
pilgrim centres are modelled after Hindu practices of worship, vows and
exorcisms connected with devotion to gods and goddesses. These practices
have great cultural appeal. Other important Catholic shrines to Mary and
other saints are located in Sardhana in North India, Madhu and Kutchathivu
in Sri Lanka, Mariambad in Pakistan and Panjora in Bangladesh.
The early twenty-first century has seen another interesting type of
popular inculturation, namely adaptation of many Pentecostal forms of
218 Felix Wilfred
worship in the Catholic popular liturgy. The earlier animosity towards

Pentecostals seems now to be on the wane, giving place to a ‘Pentecostal
isation’ of Catholic worship that many Catholics find attractive, especially
those from a Dalit background.
Popes, Prelates, Saints, Religious Orders

Papal visits have enthused Catholics and strengthened them in their faith.
The first visit of a pope to South Asia was by Pope Paul VI on the occasion
of the thirty-eighth International Eucharist Congress in Mumbai (formerly
Bombay) in 1964. John Paul II visited India in 1986 and again in 1999. The
same pope made visits to Pakistan (1981), Bangladesh (1986) and Sri Lanka
(1995). But these papal visits were also occasions of protests by Hindu,
Muslim and Buddhist groups, depending on the country, which saw them
as encouragement to conversion of peoples of other faiths to Catholic
Christianity. The visit of Pope John Paul II to Sri Lanka in 1995 was marred
by his controversial statement on Buddhism in his book Crossing the
Threshold of Hope. The visit by Pope Francis in January 2015 in some way
assuaged this anti-Catholic sentiment in that island nation, thanks to the
very positive tone in which he spoke of Buddhism in his speeches and by
his visit to a Buddhist pagoda.
Another significant development in South Asian Catholicism is the
increasing participation of South Asians in the work of the universal
Church. With the internationalisation of the Roman Curia, several South
Asian clergy were appointed to curial positions, even to some of the highest
offices. Cardinal D. S. Lourdusamy served as Prefect of the Congregation
for Oriental Churches, Cardinal Ivan Dias as Prefect of the Congregation
for the Evangelisation of Peoples, Archbishop (later Cardinal) Malcolm
Ranjit of Sri Lanka as Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and
Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai as one of the nine cardinal consultors
of Pope Francis.
Yet another aspect of South Asian Catholicism is the sudden spurt of
saints and martyrs. The past couple of decades have seen the elevation
of many South Asians to the altar – as blessed, saints and martyrs. Sister
Alphonsa, a nun who died in 1946, was elevated to sainthood; so too were
Kuriakose Elias Chavara, a social reformer and founder of the indigenous
order of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, and Joseph Vaz, an Oratorian
from Goa who went as a missionary to Sri Lanka in the eighteenth century
at a time when the Catholic Church was oppressed by the Dutch colonisers
who succeeded the Portuguese. Mother Teresa was declared a saint by
Pope Francis on 4 September 2016. The processes of canonisation of many
more South Asians are underway, and in the coming years we can expect
more canonisations.
Catholics 219
The Catholic Church has in its fold a band of committed women and
men who form part of innumerable religious congregations founded at
different times in Christian history, with about 125,000 members of various
religious orders in India alone. Some of these congregations, like the
Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, Capuchins and Carmelites, were actively
involved in the past with the work of mission in different parts of the
region. The last 100 years have seen phenomenal growth and expansion
of numerous religious orders in South Asia involved in multifarious
activities like education, medical care, homes for children, hospices for the
destitute, and care for migrants, refugees and those with different kinds of
developmental disabilities. These various orders serve like the arms of the
Catholic Church, extended far and wide to fulfil the mission of the Church.
In Bangladesh, for example, the Holy Cross Congregation is predominant
and has also supplied several bishops to that country. In Nepal, where just
over 7,000 Catholics live, the Society of Jesus is involved in promoting the
life and growth of the Church there. It also runs educational institutions.
Given that in Europe religious congregations find it extremely difficult
to survive, with a drastic reduction in vocations, South Asia presents itself
as a rich mine of human resources and of vocation to these religious orders.
Not only are vocations recruited from South Asia to these Catholic orders,
but also South Asians are increasingly placed in leadership roles in their
mother houses in Europe. The many institutions run by Catholic religious
face new challenges due to the effects of globalisation on education,
healthcare and other welfare activities, and also due to stringent state
regulations to control these institutions. When these institutions came
into existence, they were considered to be doing pioneering work, and
the Catholic Church enjoyed much public esteem for its educational and
welfare works. In present-day circumstances, with the proliferation of such
institutions on the part of many other agencies and private providers, the
public recognition and esteem of the Catholic Church is waning. However,
the Catholic social engagement and relief work in which many religious
are involved gets recognition at times of natural disasters like earthquakes,
cyclones, floods and tsunamis or of man-made disasters like forced
migration and refugee crises due to war and violence.
Catholic Theological Contributions

An undeniable groundswell of theological thinking is impacting South
Asian Catholicism, with positive repercussions in the global Church.
Many of the innovative insights and reflections within the Federation of
Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) owe their origins to the theological
thinking that is taking place in South Asia. South Asian theologies have
challenged the assumption that Greco-Roman thought and categories are
220 Felix Wilfred
indispensable for the understanding and expression of Christian faith.

Rather, South Asian theologians have drawn on the philosophical and
cultural heritage of the people of the region to interpret the gospel and
Christian faith.
This inspiration for theological thinking in modern Catholicism owes
much to Brahmabandhav Upadhyay (1861–1907), a Brahmin convert
whose efforts at indigenous theology were ahead of his time. Following
Upadhyay’s insights, some missionaries seeking a deeper experience and
understanding of Christian faith were led to an enriching dialogue with
Hinduism. The most significant among them is Jules Monchanin, who
founded also an ashram at Shantivanam on the banks of the River Kaveri
in South India. Attached to this ashram were Swami Abhishiktananda
(Le Saux), a French missionary, and Bede Griffiths, who was earlier a
Benedictine monk in his native England.
South Asian Catholic theologians have come forward with a refreshing
theology of religion, more systematically developed by such thinkers as
Raymond Panikkar, Aloysius Pieris and Michael Amaladoss. This theology
lays stress on the universal presence of the Holy Spirit in peoples of other
religious traditions, which are viewed also as means of salvation not
reducible to the Christian economy. The concept of scriptural inspiration
gets widened so as to include the sacred texts of other religions. South Asian
theology also argues for communicatio in sacris – meaning that Christian
faithful could take part in the sacred rites of other religious traditions, and
believers of other religious traditions could share worship with Christians.
Another significant theological contribution from South Asian
Catholicism has been to understand liberation in its cultural and inter-
religious premises and implications. Moved by the extreme poverty of the
people, their deprivation and oppression, theologians from this region –
like Michael Rodrigo, Tissa Balasuriya, Aloysius Pieris and S. J. Emmanuel
of Sri Lanka; George-Soares Prabhu, Samuel Rayan and Sebastian Kappen
of India; and Bonnie Mendes of Pakistan – laid the foundation for an Asian
theology of liberation that had profound influence in Southeast Asia and
East Asia as well. Bishop Leo Nanayakkara of Sri Lanka was an exceptional
leader-theologian who experimented with new forms of clergy formation
suited to the context and also responded to the challenges of the times with
initiatives for social justice and liberation of the poor.
South Asia is very active in promoting inter-religious dialogue and
understanding. However, Catholic theologians and the Church leadership
are faced also with a conflicting situation, given the ambiguity of the central
Roman Catholic administration regarding the relationship between evange-
lisation and dialogue. South Asian theologians have stated unambiguously
that dialogue is a value in itself and cannot be made an instrument for
Catholics 221
preaching and conversion. According to them, making dialogue a means

for evangelisation will undermine before the peoples of other faiths the
seriousness of the Catholic Church about inter-religious dialogue.
Church–State Relationships and Religious Violence

The minority situation of Christians creates a serious church–state problem
in this region. Conversion is one issue that assumes great importance in the
relationship between the state and Catholic Christianity. The admiration
with which institutions run by the Catholic Church and its welfare and
development activities were once regarded has given place to suspicion
about whether all these are being made use of for the purpose of conversion,
an argument often proposed by Hindu, Buddhist and Islamist extremist
religious groups. This has led to the banning of conversion, for example,
in some Indian states and increasing state control over the activities of the
Catholic Church, including the flow of foreign funds. South Asian nations
are faced with such challenges as violation of human rights, injustice,
exploitation, oppression against women, trafficking and environmen-
tal degradation. There is a general perception among critically thinking
Catholics and public-spirited persons outside the Catholic fold that the
Church leadership has failed to play any prophetic role vis-à-vis such
burning issues. This failure is interpreted as resulting from the fear of the
consequences for the running of educational and other welfare institutions.
The Church would not want to ‘rock the boat’. Hence, in general there is
a mood of compliance with the state rather than prophetic involvement.
While this is true of the leadership, nonetheless we find among Catholics at
the grassroots and among inspired clergy and religious active participation
in social movements and serious engagement for the cause of liberation.
Their involvement is giving the Catholic Church greater credibility,
counter-balancing the apathy of the leaders.
With the progressive Islamisation of Pakistan and loss of its initial secular
orientation, today Catholics, along with other Christians, are victims of
prejudice and oppression. Violence against Christians has been on the
increase since the introduction of Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law. The Pakistan
government instituted a ministry for the minorities, and it was headed by a
Catholic, Shahbaz Bhatti, who, because of his opposition to the Blasphemy
Law, met with a violent death at the hands of extremists. Though the
persecution does not come from the state, it is in a weak position to be able
to control radical Islamic groups and their persecution of Christians, who
are intimidated in their places of worship and in the everyday practice of
their faith. In India, the Catholic communities, especially those belonging
to Dalit and tribal groups in the states of Gujarat and Odisha, also face
hostility, their churches burned and their institutions subject to rampage.
222 Felix Wilfred
Conclusion
The Catholic Church in South Asia is rich in human resources. In recent
times, thanks to economic growth, the conditions of Catholics have
improved, so that they are creating their own financial and other material
resources, reducing centuries-long foreign dependence. Further, the
Catholic Church in this region has the strength and power of its many insti-
tutions. With all these assets, it is natural that there are many expectations
of the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, the output is not proportionate to
the richness it possesses. Hence a challenge for the Catholic Church for the
years to come is to maximise its potential by putting its resources at the
service of the people of the region.
The Catholic Church today depends excessively on the clergy and the
religious. As of now, there is a steady supply of vocations. But how long
this will continue, with the changes taking place in the cultural, social and
economic fields, is a critical question that needs to be faced. Signs are there
that there will be, sooner or later, a drastic decline of vocations, not unlike
the situation of the Catholic Church in Europe and the USA. Apart from the
theology of Vatican II, which speaks of the Church as people of God, even
from a pragmatic point of view it is important for the Catholic Church in
South Asia to focus attention on the laity and their involvement. There is an
added reason for empowering the laity. Given the minority situation, the
institutions of the official Church might come under government control
and censure, making their operation more and more difficult. On the other
hand, faith-inspired lay people working at the grassroots could contribute
like salt (Matthew 5: 13) to the transformation of South Asian Catholicism
and make its service to the world a more effective witness.
Bibliography
Fernando, Celestine, History of Christianity in Ceylon (1796–1903): Special Reference to the
Protestant Missions, ed. Marshal Fernando (Colombo: Ecumenical Institute for Study and
Dialogue, 2013).
Frykenberg, Robert E., Christianity in India—From Beginnings to the Present (Oxford: Oxford
Peyrouse, Sébastien, Des chrétiens entre athéisme et islam: Regards sur la question religieuse en
Asie centrale soviétique et post-soviétique (Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2003).
Walbridge, Linda S., The Christians of Pakistan: The Passion of Bishop John Joseph (London:
Routledge, 2003).
Wilfred, Felix. The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2014).
Orthodox
Romina Istratii
This essay engages with contemporary Orthodox (Chalcedonian) and

Oriental Orthodox (pre-Chalcedonian) Christian communities in South
and Central Asia. While these families of Churches are addressed together
in this essay, it should be underlined that the Orthodox and the Oriental
Orthodox have developed distinct theological, ecclesiastical and liturgical
traditions. In addition, while the broad umbrella term ‘Oriental Orthodox’
is employed for the five pre-Chalcedonian Churches, this terminology is
contemporary and should not overshadow the context-specific distinctive-
ness of each of these five Churches.
The early Christianisation of Central Asia is attributed in general to
the influence of the Hellenised and Christianised Roman Empire, with
its centre in Constantinople, and the extensive missionary activity of the
Church of the East (also known as ‘Nestorian’). The majority of present-day
Orthodox Christians in Central Asia are Slavs who inhabited the Central
Asian geography during imperial Russian expansion in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. They comprise primarily Russians, Ukrainians
and Belarusians. Central Asia is also home to a substantive Armenian
community, primarily affiliated with the Armenian Apostolic Church (also
known as ‘Gregorian’), Armenia’s national church since the early fourth
century. As one of the five Oriental Orthodox Churches which follow the
miaphysite Christology, in contrast to the Chalcedonian Orthodox Church,
the Armenians in Asia have an ancient history.
Various early writers associated apostolic activity with the spread of
Christianity in parts of present-day Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India
and Sri Lanka. The Oriental Orthodox Christians of India, who trace their
origins to the purported apostolic activity of St Thomas, cover by far the
largest proportion in South Asia. The original Syrian Christian community
has now divided into various denominations, generally as a result of
contact with Western missions from the sixteenth century onwards. These
include three Oriental Orthodox denominations: the Malankara Jacobite
Syriac Orthodox Church (MJSOC), the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church
(MOSC) and the Malabar Independent Church (Thozhiyur Church). A
community of St Thomas Christians is also known to have existed in Sri
Lanka, later to be absorbed by Western Christian missions.
224 Romina Istratii
Asia has also been home to members of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
and this reflects the history of the ancient Armenian nation, which, located
at the crux of civilisations, was shaped by numerous invasions, territorial
contentions and genocidal displacements. Due to Armenia’s proximity to
Iran, a robust Armenian community has long existed in various centres
there, with the cultural links between the two nations going back to
Zoroastrian times. The extensive activity of Armenian merchants in South
Asia led to the formation of Armenian Christian communities. Such an
ancient Armenian community still exists in India. Afghanistan and Pakistan
were also historically home to Armenian colonies.
Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox missions or diaspora
churches operate on a small scale in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh
and Afghanistan. The most robust non-indigenous Eastern Orthodox
missions are in India and Pakistan, with the Greek Orthodox mission in
India existing at least since 1980 and likely extending into Bangladesh.
Both the Greek Orthodox and the Russian Orthodox Churches operate
in Pakistan and have contributed considerably to supporting local mar-
ginalised populations, women and children through their humanitarian
programmes. Missions affiliated to the Russian Orthodox and Malankara
Indian Orthodox Churches are said to operate in Nepal.
Russian Orthodox
The beginnings of the Russian Empire can be traced to the East Slavic tribes
who inhabited the Black Sea areas from the sixth century onwards. Trade
relations and military conflicts with the Christianised Roman Empire
facilitated the spread of Christianity in these territories. In 998, St Vladimir,
Duke of Kiev, had all the inhabitants of Kiev baptised into the Orthodox
faith. With the Mongol invasions in the thirteenth century, Kievan Russia
disintegrated, to be replaced by the Grand Duchy of Moscovy (Moscow),
which proceeded to expand steadily into a vast multi-ethnic empire.
After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Russian Orthodox Church
assumed a clear mission-oriented character, which did not leave the
imperial Central Asian territories unaffected. The modern umbrella term
Orthodox in South and Central Asia, 1970

Region Total Christian Orthodox % of region % of Christians
population population population Orthodox Orthodox
Central Asia 33,315,000 3,859,000 3,366,000 10.1% 87.2%
South Asia 741,255,000 23,363,000 2,028,000 0.3% 8.7%
Globe 3,700,578,000 1,229,448,000 142,149,000 3.8% 11.6%
Orthodox 225
‘Central Asia’ pertained then roughly to the three khanates of Bukhara,

Khiva and Kokand. At the beginning of tsarist rule, the Islamic faith that had
been introduced in these territories by the Arabs since the eighth century
was not opposed. This eventually changed when the Russian colonisers
started to promote Orthodoxy actively as the official ‘state’ religion. The
conversion of the Kirghiz Turkic tribe – one of the most powerful nomadic
tribes in Central Asia, located roughly in present-day Kazakhstan – is
attributed to the work of the Kirghiz Mission. The Russian conquest of the
southern regions was accomplished in the second half of the nineteenth
century, with the Khanate of Kokand being fully annexed in 1876. By the
eve of the revolution that would lead to the overthrow of the last tsar
(Nicholas II), Russian Orthodox missionaries had reached Turkestan. In
1871, the Turkestan Eparchy was established, from which the Eparchies of
Almaty, Shymkent and Tashkent later emerged.
During the Soviet era, the Russian Orthodox Church experienced almost
total annihilation of its ecclesiastical and monastic force, with immeasur-
able destruction of churches, monasteries, sacred items and relics of saints.
This had implications also for the long-established missions of the Central
Asian territories. While the Soviets were more tolerant of Islam there, their
hostility to religion was eventually extended to all confessions. The era was
defined by destructive collectivisation schemes, inward migration of Slavs
(such as Ukrainians during the Second World War) and the later trans-
ference there from other areas of the Soviet Union of peoples who were
perceived to be hostile to the regime, such as Volga Germans and Crimean
Tatars. Traditionally, organisation in these territories had been based
on tribe, clan or religion, but the Soviets indulged in ‘nation-building’
motivated primarily by political interests to thwart united dissent. On
a more positive note, scholars attribute to this era also a campaign for
women’s ‘empowerment’ and universal literacy (achieved by the 1960s).
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church
quickly recovered, but the situation in Central Asia had changed dramatic
ally. The newly independent republics had become Muslim-majority states,
with Islam increasingly acquiring national importance. Moreover, the
Orthodox in South and Central Asia, 2015

Region Total Christian Orthodox % of region % of Christians
population population population Orthodox Orthodox
Central Asia 68,705,000 5,450,000 4,850,000 7.1% 89.0%
South Asia 1,823,308,000 69,834,000 5,160,000 0.3% 7.4%
Globe 7,383,009,000 2,408,048,000 281,838,000 3.8% 11.7%
226 Romina Istratii
Orthodox Church had to face a more diverse denominational landscape,

with many Western Christians moving into these territories to proselytise
new converts. While in Russia proper the Orthodox Church could continue
to associate itself with Russian history, state and geography, it had to
reduce this Slavic emphasis in Central Asia, where Russians had become
a minority ethnicity and where awareness of colonial history was potent.
The five Central Asian Muslim republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) currently include differently
sized minority Christian populations of Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian
Apostolic and Protestant persuasions. The ‘traditional’ Christian
nationalities are the Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians) and the
Germans, with the former being almost invariably Orthodox. The majority
of Russians are located in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan; only
several tens of thousands reside in the other two republics.
In modern times, the Central Asian republics have focused on nation-
building, which has translated into a reinvigoration of old traditions,
folklore symbols and indigenous belief systems. Formally, all the republics
are secular. Officially no religion is favoured and discrimination based on
religious identity is prohibited. However, the steady absorption of what
is considered locally as canonical Islam into national identity has been
combined with increasing state intervention in religious life and education.
As a result, Christian confessions have been affected by restrictive religious
laws, although the Russian Orthodox might have seen the least interference.
Orthodoxy in Kazakhstan traces its origins to the annexation of the
country by the Russian Empire. The Kazakh Eparchy was established in
1945, led by Archbishop Nikolai Mogilevsky. With the end of the Soviet
regime, the Church divided parishes in Kazakhstan under three eparchies.
In 2003, a metropolitan district was established in Kazakhstan, incorporat-
ing the eparchies of Astana and Almaty, Shymkent and Akmola, and Uralsk
and Guryev. A spiritual academy has existed in Almaty since 1991, offering
a four-year training course. Some of these students are sent to theological
colleges in Russia. In 1997 a branch of Saint Tikhon Theological Institute
was established in Karaganda. It is general practice for parish churches
to organise parish schools to teach the Orthodox faith. The Church also
Changes in Orthodox in South and Central Asia, 1970–2015, growth rate, % per year
Region Total population Christian population Orthodox population
Central Asia 1.62% 0.77% 0.81%
South Asia 2.02% 2.46% 2.10%
Globe 1.55% 1.51% 1.53%
Orthodox 227
operates charity organisations, such as orphanages, hospitals and homes

for the disabled and elderly. A theological seminary has been opened in
Almaty to train pastors in the Kazakh language so as to be able to use it in
Orthodox liturgical life.
Kazakhstan is a Muslim-majority country that adheres to the moderate
Hanafi school of Islam. Like all Central Asian republics, constitutionally
Kazakhstan is a secular state that protects religious freedom and rights.
The President of Kazakhstan since 1990, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has con-
sistently promoted a discourse of inter-religious dialogue and of faiths
as agents of peace through platforms such as the Congress of World
Religions. The state has supported financially the construction of both
Orthodox churches and mosques. It has, furthermore, recognised both the
Orthodox Christmas Day of 7 January and the Eid al-Adha, the second
most important Muslim celebration, as national holidays. Other Christian
minorities, however, have been less favoured.
In the early twenty-first century, the state’s religious policies have
become more restrictive, with the authorities being particularly vigilant
as regards strong religious expression, especially of bearded males, who
tend to be identified with radical Islamist groups. The state’s strong line
on religion might have started to affect also the Orthodox faithful. For
example, in 2017 an Orthodox priest was charged with violation of the Law
on Religious Activities and Religious Associations for holding worship in
the open countryside.
Kyrgyzstan was annexed to the Russian Empire in 1876, and many
Russians and Ukrainians moving into the territory. The Soviet era in
Kyrgyzstan was especially repressive, with hundreds of thousands
of Kyrgyz nomads perishing due to the collectivisation scheme. The
geography of Kyrgyzstan has contributed to most Russian Orthodox
associating with the north and indigenous (Sunni) Muslims with the south.
Since Kyrgyz identity has increasingly been associated with being Muslim,
converting from Islam to Christianity is generally frowned upon and, as
some reports suggest, might be perceived as betrayal of traditional bonds
in the local society. This is despite the fact that local laws institute freedom
to choose one’s religious affiliation. It is also reported that a large number
of foreign Muslim missionaries are trying to strengthen Islam, with foreign
funds supporting the construction of mosques and prayer rooms.
As in other Central Asian republics, it is believed that the Orthodox
Church has been losing ground to Evangelical Christianity, whose
expansion was facilitated in post-Soviet times by generous legislation that
allowed religious organisations to register if they met the threshold of 10
members. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev amended this regulation in 2008
with a prohibition on proselytisation and a requirement that 200 members
228 Romina Istratii
are needed in order to be registered as a church. It is notable, however,

that in 2015 the Church of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir,
reportedly the largest Orthodox church in Central Asia, opened in Bishkek.
Uzbekistan was annexed by tsarist Russia in the nineteenth century and
was proclaimed a Soviet republic in 1924. It became independent in 1991,
with Islam Karimov becoming the nation’s first President. Although many
Uzbeks follow the mystic form of Islam known as Sufism, Uzbekistan is
a secular state with the constitutional framework guaranteeing religious
freedom, freedom to follow or not follow a religious tradition and freedom
to establish schools to train religious personnel. However, the law includes
other stipulations that restrict religious expression in various ways. The
religious activity of unregistered religious groups is restricted. In addition,
religious groups who want to register must meet high membership
conditions and follow a labyrinthine process to qualify for registration.
Proselytising is punishable with a jail sentence of up to three years.
The aforementioned legal framework seems to have made it easier for
the government to persecute individuals on charges of religious proselytis
ation or extremism. Reports from a variety of human rights organisations
suggest that local authorities have been involved in house raids and the
harassment of vulnerable people, confiscation or destruction of religious
items and discouragement of minors from attending catechism. These
persecutions have been directed primarily at Evangelical, Baptist and
Pentecostal churches, but the Orthodox have not been unaffected.
The Orthodox faithful constitute a small portion of the national
population, mostly ethnic Russians. Reports suggest that the number of
Orthodox believers is increasing, although there might have been some
out-migration. As in other Central Asia republics, the Orthodox faithful
of Uzbekistan are described as lukewarm in their participation in Church
life. One account speaks of the large number of baptisms performed by the
Orthodox Church in Uzbekistan but affirms the widely recognised issue
that the baptised generally do not attend catechism prior to baptism and
then rarely attend church afterwards. It is reported that, since 2004, the first
Orthodox monastery for men has operated in Uzbekistan.
The Republic of Tajikistan was brought into existence by Russia in 1924,
but the fall of the Soviet regime plunged the country into civil war for the
period 1992–7. This resulted in many Christians leaving the country. The
Tajikistani state has become steadily more repressive under the presidency
of Emomali Rahmon. Since 2011, the Parental Responsibility Law has
made it illegal for minors under 18 to attend most religious ceremonies
and events. Restrictions on religious life could indicate an increasing state
concern about radicalisation, in view of reports of numerous Tajiks having
taken their families and joined the Islamic State. Manifestations of terrorism
Orthodox 229
within Tajikistan have also been reported, such as the bombing of a church
in 2000. However, this repression has not been limited to the religious
sphere only, but is also found in public life, the media and education.
Christian denominations other than the Russian Orthodox have also been
affected by repressive policies, both because they might be perceived to
be subverting indigenous traditions and because they might be associated
with Western pro-democracy interests.
The Orthodox population has been less restricted, which some have
associated with the Orthodox Church’s abstinence from evangelism and
proselytisation, contrary to the missionary approaches of Protestant and
other Christian denominations. Consequently, it is believed that Protestant
believers might now outnumber the Orthodox community. Out-migration
of Russians due to the synergistic effect of rising nationalism, language
changes and economic reasons might have contributed to a fall in numbers.
Nonetheless, it is notable that a new Orthodox church was opened in 2010
in Khujand, northern Tajikistan.
As is the case with the other Central Asian republics, the Orthodox are
said to have a relatively inactive church life, while being strong in their
beliefs. The Orthodox faith has most likely coexisted with folklore practices
or superstitious beliefs that form part of most local people’s identity.
Political analysts believe Turkmenistan might be among the most stable
former republics in Central Asia as a result of having preserved traditional
tribal structures during the Soviet era. President Niyazov, the former First
Secretary of Turkmenistan’s Communist Party, seems to have enjoyed
the support of the entire nation, including leading clergy. Constitution-
ally, Turkmenistan is a democratic and secular state, guarantees freedom
of religion and worship, and ensures that government and education are
separate from religion (article 12). The official language since 1990 has been
Turkmen (article 14). However, as with the other four republics, increas-
ingly Islam has been absorbed into the Turkmenisation agenda.
It is generally understood that there has been a clear decline of Russians
in the territory. Despite state efforts to contain the out-migration of
Russians, this might be attributed to the increasing importance of ethnicity
in finding employment, since Turkmen is the only recognised language.
However, there is no evidence of any diminishing role of the Orthodox
Church in the life of the faithful who remain.
Armenian Oriental Orthodox of Central Asia

The Armenians of Central Asia are primarily affiliated with the Armenian
Apostolic Church, although some are Catholic, Evangelical or Muslim. The
Armenian Apostolic Church is affiliated with the ancient Armenian nation,
which bordered the powerful Roman and Parthian empires in the south-west
230 Romina Istratii
and was the first to adopt Christianity officially, in 301. According to local
tradition, the Church was founded by the apostles Bartholomew and Judas
Thaddaeus and owed its wider consolidation to St Gregory. Historically,
the Armenian Apostolic faith has been inextricable from Armenian culture,
which has been embedded generally in a patrilineal clan system.
The modern Armenian community in the Central Asian republics traces
its origins primarily to Soviet rule. In tsarist Russia, many Armenians were
at the front lines of Russian expansion into the Kazakh steppes, with the
colonists leveraging their advanced linguistic and technical skills. The
genocide of the Armenians in eastern Turkey in 1915 caused the Armenian
community to spread to various destinations, including Uzbekistan, where
a large community exists today. In 1937, Soviet policies led to the resettle-
ment of more than 1,000 Armenians and Kurds to Kazakhstan from the
Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. In 1948, about 6,000 Armenians and ethnic
Greeks from Pontus were resettled in Kazakhstan from the Black Sea areas.
Like the Russian Orthodox, the Armenian Oriental Orthodox were on
the receiving end of the Soviets’ anti-religion sentiments. All Armenian
churches were closed in this era and clergy were imprisoned. Many
Armenians continued their church life underground, in private homes, or
attended services in the Russian Orthodox churches that remained open,
indicating a partial ‘Russification’ of the Armenians.
The community survives today primarily in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan
and Kazakhstan, with a few tens of thousands per republic. In Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan they appear to have fallen to fewer than 1,000. In Tajikistan,
a considerable decline in the Armenian population resulted from the civil
war that followed independence. As a result of the various resettlements of
Armenians within the Soviet Union, not all have the same political status
in the different republics. In Turkmenistan, for example, Armenians might
be Turkmen citizens, refugees from Azerbaijan or Armenian citizens. It
is reported that a few hundred thousand Armenians risk deportation in
current times, while many have repatriated to Armenia or emigrated to
Russia or elsewhere. By far the most robust Armenian community is in
Uzbekistan, in urban centres such as Tashkent and Samarkand.
Like the Russian Orthodox, the Armenian Orthodox of Central Asia have
generally abstained from proselytising the native Muslim populations.
This reflects both the rising Muslim consciousness in the republics that
prohibits this and the historically national character of the Church. The
community has generally preserved its customs and traditions, including
food, life-cycle celebrations and folklore music imbued with vernacular
religious meanings. Throughout the five republics, Armenians have shown
proclivities to invest in educational institutions for the promotion of the
Armenian language, culture and faith. Moreover, Armenians in Central
Orthodox 231
Asia have historically distinguished themselves in various professions and

sectors, including industry, government, business, the sciences as well as
the arts.
Indian Syrian Orthodox Churches in Kerala

Christianity in India is intertwined with the history of the Malabar Coast or
Malankara, which explains the present-day names of the Indian Oriental
Orthodox Churches. This geographic area coincides approximately with
the present-day state of Kerala in the south of India. Kerala came into being
in 1956 and combines the earlier princely states of Cochin and Travancore
with the territory traditionally known as Malabar. The Christian presence
traditionally is traced back to the ministry of the apostle Thomas, and
the churches that share this heritage are known as Thomas Christians.
The presence of Christians within this predominantly Hindu society
was recognised and tolerated because they were accommodated within
the structure of the caste system, with a specific status accorded to them
by the king and a distinct social and cultural identity. The nature of this
arrangement meant that explicit evangelisation of non-Christians was
neither permitted nor attempted.
The successive influence of the Portuguese and the British in Kerala
from the fifteenth century onwards led to some Thomas Christians entering
into communion with first the Catholic Church and then the Anglican
Church. In the same period, closer contacts were also established between
the Thomas Christians and the Syrian Orthodox Church. In subsequent
years, those who remained within the Oriental Orthodox tradition faced
divisions, particularly over the question of the role of the Syrian Patriarch
in the internal affairs of the Indian Church. On one side were the Christians
who continued to recognise the Syrian Patriarch as the authority of
their Church, and on the other side were those who argued for a more
independent Church with authority residing within India. The lengthy
court cases around the dispute established the need for the new Church to
retain the terms ‘Syrian’ and ‘Orthodox’ in its name, and so the Malankara
Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) evolved, in contrast to the Malankara
Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church (MJSOC). Court cases in 1995 and 2017
ruled in favour of the MOSC, although the two factions still retain their
respective positions and continue to operate as separate denominations
with their own catholicoi and ecclesiastical structures.
Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church

The MJSOC exists under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Antioch and All
the East, to whom the catholicos and metropolitans respond. The catholicos
is located in Ernakaulam in Kerala and presides over the Holy Synod, which
232 Romina Istratii
comprises the bishops. The Church currently has 21 dioceses, three of which
are outside India, and runs various associations and social programmes. It
operates a seminary for clergy training affiliated to Serampore University,
near Calcutta. The Church also runs hospitals, schools, colleges (including
one engineering college), orphanages, monasteries and convents. The
Manjaniakkara Monastery in Kerala, which holds the mortal remains of
Patriarch St Ignatius Elias, is a famous destination for pilgrimage. The
Church also runs an Internet television station, the Malankara Vision,
which aims to edify the international congregations of the Church.
Regarding the socio-cultural realities of the Oriental Orthodox
community in India, a number of trends are evident. In general, the Syrian
Christians of India are introduced to the faith from an early age. They are
thus expected to develop the general practice of attending Sunday liturgy
consistently, celebrating major Church days and keeping the 50-day fast
during Lent. However, like the rest of the society around them, emphasis
has been put on family and kinship ties, including requiring younger
members to show due respect and honour to older members. Traditionally,
marriages have been arranged and decisions about spousal choice made
by the parents or extended family members. The high education rates, out-
migration and exposure to non-local lifestyles have affected some of these
norms without obliterating them.
The demographic outlook of this community has changed radically
since 1900. While in the past girls married at an average age of less than 15
and bore a large number of children, by the end of the century the Syrian
Christians had the highest age at marriage for women, the highest rate of
use of family planning and the lowest fertility rate in Kerala. By 1991, 86%
of deliveries took place in hospital, leading to a considerable decline in the
maternal mortality rate. The community historically has also had some of
the highest education rates for both males and females. By the end of the
twentieth century, the Syrian Christians of Kerala had the highest net out-
migration rate (although in absolute numbers the Muslims of Kerala have
surpassed everyone else in emigration).
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

The MOSC is the independent Indian Orthodox Church, headed by its own
catholicos. The Church operates under a constitution introduced in 1934
and a book of canon law that was codified by the great thirteenth-century
Maphrian, Gregory Bar Hebraeus. The ultimate decision-making body on
issues of faith and theology is the Holy Synod. The catholicos resides in
Kottayam in the Catholicate Palace, built in 1961. The Malankara Syrian
Christian Association manages all the religious and social concerns of the
Church. The financial and administrative matters of the Church are the
Orthodox 233
responsibility of the Managing Committee, whose members are elected

by the Malankara Association or nominated by the Malankara Metro-
politan. An advisory council or working group prepares the agenda for
the Managing Committee and assists the Metropolitan in his duties. Each
diocese has a Diocesan Body responsible for all diocese affairs. The final
two bodies are the Parish Managing Committee and the Parish General
Body, whose members are elected. Membership is open to both men and
women who have reached 21 years of age.
The MOSC currently comprises 30 dioceses. Dioceses incorporate
Sunday schools, student and youth movements, men’s and women’s
fellowships, evangelistic societies, and charitable and educational asso-
ciations. The Church runs a number of regular publications, educational
institutions and training colleges, orphanages and hospitals. The Mar
Dionysios Seminary and the Mar Dionysios High School were established
in 1893. The Catholicate College was established in 1962. Since then, the
Church has established a medical college, several engineering colleges and
many other colleges. The Basilios Mar Thomas Charity Fund, established
in 1977, aims to help in times of natural disasters and other emergencies,
assist the weak and disabled, provide scholarships and cover wedding
expenses for those in need.
Perhaps in recognition of its own limited activity among non-
Christians historically, the MOSC has become more mission oriented. It
has also assumed an international presence through various ecumenical
engagements as a member of the World Council of Churches. It is currently
in close communion with the ‘sister’ Oriental Orthodox Churches and it
has sought rapprochement with the Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic
and Protestant Churches.
The Church has shown commitment to incorporate women more directly
in its activities, although gender issues might have acquired ecclesiologi-
cal salience only in recent times. Christian women are known to have a
long history of serving as Sunday school teachers, which could signify
a higher interest among females for spiritual matters or concern for the
moral edification of the younger generations. Nonetheless, it is notable that
women were encouraged to become members of the Malankara Orthodox
parish committees only in 1997.
In the twenty-first century, discussions among Indian Orthodox scholars
have revolved around identity-building and ‘indigenisation’, indicating
that the quest for better self-understanding and self-definition is ongoing
for this Church. The Church is also considering how its message might be
extended to non-Christians in India, in a way that is aligned to the philo-
sophical directions of the political leadership and attuned to the folklore
norms and practices of the Hindu-majority population.
234 Romina Istratii
Armenian Oriental Orthodox in India and Iran

In addition to the Syrian Christians, India is also home to an Armenian
community, which has an ancient history. The first organised settlements
are traced to the seventeenth century and the reign of Akbar, the third
Mughal Emperor, who induced Armenian traders to settle at Agra as a
way of boosting local commerce. Armenian merchants subsequently
developed communities in places such as Chennai (formerly Madras),
Surat and Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). They were generally successful in
securing commercial privileges and important societal rights, a pattern that
continued under British rule. In more recent times, Armenians have distin-
guished themselves in the legal, medical and engineering professions.
When the Armenian Republic gained independence in 1991, many
Armenians who had integrated in India chose to repatriate. Today, only
a few hundred remain, primarily in Kolkata in West Bengal, where the
Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy is located. Those in India
continue their vernacular religious life, albeit amid changing social and
political conditions. Ecclesiastically, they are under the authority of the
Catholicos of All Armenians with his see at Echmiadzin, Armenia.
A robust Armenian community has also existed in Iran, for both geo
graphical and political reasons. Historically, Armenia was caught in
territorial contentions between the Ottoman Empire and Persia (Iran) and
this led to the settlement of significant numbers of Armenians in Iran.
The Shah’s policies were favourable to Armenians, a pattern followed in
subsequent centuries, although Armenians still faced prohibitions. The
advent of Western Christian missions in Iran created new pressures for this
community, but these were eventually diffused. Due to their commercial
and linguistic skills, Armenians were often used as envoys or supported in
other ways by the Shahs. However, like all Iranians, they also experienced
exploitation within the monarchical system. Subsequently, members of the
community played an active role in Iran’s Constitutional Movement in the
early twentieth century.
Armenians are currently the largest Christian minority in Iran, with
estimates being as high as a few hundred thousand. While the majority have
been affiliated with the Armenian Apostolic Church, this ethnic community
has also included Catholics, Protestants and some Russian Orthodox.
The oldest Armenian centres are located in Iranian Azerbaijan (Tabriz)
and in Isfahan (New Julfa), where numerous churches, schools, printing
presses, sports clubs and arts associations were historically established.
New Julfa is the Armenian quarter in Iran’s Isfahan Province and counts
12 surviving Armenian Apostolic churches and one cathedral, all of which
originated in the seventeenth century. Tehran also has substantial numbers
of Armenians, primarily due to the capital’s high population growth in
Orthodox 235
recent years. The prelates who head the Church in these three provinces
are subject to the catholicos, who is located for historico-political reasons
in Lebanon as opposed to the traditional seat in Echmiadzin.
Historically, the Armenians in Iran managed to preserve their
religio-cultural identity and language, not least because of being allowed
to operate their own schools under the jurisdiction of the Church. This
was made more difficult after 1936, when Reza Shah nationalised these
schools and the number of Armenian teachers declined. Nonetheless, this
appears to have made both the lay community and Church leaders more
active in promoting community awareness of Armenian history, culture
and language. Furthermore, in the 1960s and 1970s Armenian university
departments were established for the first time in Isfahan and Tehran,
respectively. While Armenians have representation in parliament, dis-
criminatory laws have gained ground and Armenians have faced more
difficulty finding employment.
Conclusion
It may be concluded that the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox
Christians of South and Central Asia have generally managed to maintain
their life and witness to present times amid considerable social, religious
and political pressures that have made their environments more difficult.
These Christians appear to display the resilience that befits an ancient
community that was itself born in the midst of persecution.
Bibliography
Chaqueri, Cosroe (ed.), The Armenians of Iran: The Paradoxical Role of a Minority in a Dominant
Culture: Articles and Documents (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998).
Mathew, C. P. and M. M. Thomas, The Indian Churches of Saint Thomas (Delhi: DJVP/ISPCK,
2005).
Peyrouse, Sebastian, ‘Christianity and Nationality in Soviet and Post-Soviet Central Asia:
Mutual Intrusions and Instrumentalizations’, Nationalities Papers, 32:3 (2004), 651–74.
Seth, Mesrobv Jaboc, Armenians in India: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. A Work of
Original Research (Calcutta: privately published, 1937).
Zachariah, K. C., The Syrian Christians of Kerala: Demographic and Socio-Economic Transition in
the Twentieth Century (New Delhi: Orient Longman Private Limited, 2006).
Acknowledgements
The author extends thanks to Dr Erica C. D. Hunter (SOAS), Fr Baby Varghese (Orthodox
Theological Seminary, Kottayam), Dr Barakatullo Ashurov (Tajikistan Academy of Sciences),
Sarah Knight (SOAS) and Fr Jossi Jacob Ponodath (Holy Trinity Theological College, Addis
Ababa) for offering comments and directions in preparation of this essay. Errors are the sole
responsibility of the author.
United and Uniting Churches
Joshva Raja
While the origins of the Christian presence in the Indian subcontinent can
be traced back to apostolic times, it is clear that it took a new turn with the
arrival of Western missionaries from the end of the eighteenth century. In
many places the missionaries provided social uplift, protection, identity,
liberation and education besides spreading the good news of Jesus Christ
that led, in some contexts, to mass movements towards Christianity. The
interaction between expatriate missionaries and diverse local contexts
resulted in various new expressions, including hybrid, revolt, renewal and
reform developments within existing communities and the emergence of
new religious movements influenced by Christian values and faith. South
Asian countries underwent profound changes before, during and after their
independence from the colonial powers. These changes – political, social,
cultural and structural – impacted the churches and mission agencies. One
result of this was a movement to bring Christians together in united bodies
in order to witness to the good news of Jesus Christ more effectively. In
1947, the Church of South India was formed by bringing together Anglicans,
Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Congregationalists. Since then,
other churches and mission agencies have come together to form united
churches in India and in other South Asian countries. This essay considers
these uniting and united churches that have been formed in South Asia, in
light of contemporary challenges.
The Church of South India

The first Protestant mission entered South Asia in the early eighteenth
century, heralding a continuous influx of Protestant missions across a span
of more than two centuries. To India’s already diverse society, with its
different regions, religions, philosophies, castes and languages, the various
Protestant missions brought another layer of segmentation. A divided
Christian witness was, therefore, no witness at all. In such circumstances
there arose a dire need for unity among the missions that would promote
closer cooperation and initiate united action. With this motivation and
driven by a theology of unity, various Christian leaders in different parts of
India attempted to bring coordination and better working relations among
the different missions and denominations.
The formation of ecumenical alliances can be traced back to the 1860s,

when the Presbyterians in North and South India started to negotiate
for an Indian Presbyterian Alliance. The Presbyterian churches were
established through the work of the Church of Scotland Mission, the Dutch
Reformed Church in America and the Basel Mission in Switzerland and
Germany. Impetus for greater unity came from educational institutions
and theological colleges, the Young Men’s Christian Association (1890),
the Indian Missionary Society (1903) and the National Missionary Society
(1904). Such agencies played a pivotal role in promoting unity among
church leaders as they addressed issues faced by the Christian community
as a whole. These combined efforts exerted some influence toward union.
Precursors of church union in South India can be seen in the 1901 federal
union among the Presbyterian missions in South India, the American
(Dutch Reformed Church) Arcot Mission, the United Free Church of
Scotland Mission and the Basel Mission; and in the 1904 amalgamation
of two Congregational missions, the American Mission and the London
Mission. Later the Congregationalist churches in India formed an alliance
and met for the first time for their assembly in 1905. Three years later, in
1908, the South India United Church (SIUC) emerged with constituent
members (Presbyterians and Congregationalists) from the Travancore
region in India and Jaffna missions in Sri Lanka.
Next in turn, some of the Anglican bishops, inspired by the Chicago-
Lambeth Quadrilateral, took the initiative to work for the formation of a
more broadly based South India United Church (SIUC). The Edinburgh
1910 World Missionary Conference added impetus to this movement for
union among the Indian churches. Anglican Bishop V. S. Azariah and the
Reverend Vedam Santiago made the first move for a wider union when they
convened a meeting at the New Jerusalem Lutheran Church in Tranquebar
in 1919. Vedam Santiago’s perseverance and commitment through his
leadership in SIUC persuaded the different mission agencies and churches
to move towards an organic unity. The Tranquebar meeting was attended
by members of the SIUC, Anglicans, Lutherans and Methodists. However,
only two churches, the SIUC and the Anglican Church, made a start
towards organic union by drafting the Tranquebar Declaration, signing it
and sending it as an appeal to all the churches in South India to be united.
In 1925, the Methodist Church joined the union talks. At the meeting
of the Joint Committee in 1929 the three churches – SIUC, Anglicans and
Methodists – arrived at a consensus, that their ministers could administer
the Word as well as Sacraments in the Union Church. At the time this was
a unique achievement in terms of bringing together episcopal and non-
episcopal traditions. The Methodist Church was the first to vote for organic
union, in 1941, followed by the Anglican Church in 1945 and the SIUC in
238 Joshva Raja
1946. With a profound sense that they were constrained by the Holy Spirit,
all the churches now felt the express need for organic union. The Presbyteri-
ans expressed doubts about the Presbyterian principle of equality possibly
being overshadowed by the episcopal authority. The Methodists required
the participation of the Presbyters also in the consecration of bishops. The
Scheme of Union was revised in order to give effect to the aspirations of the
negotiating churches.
India gained its independence in August 1947 and the following month
the new country had a new church as the Church of South India (CSI)
was inaugurated at St George’s Cathedral in Madras. This opened a new
chapter in the history of Christianity and was hailed as a second Pentecost,
uniting both episcopal and non-episcopal traditions in one church. Four
major church traditions were united in the CSI: Anglican (Episcopal),
Congregational, Presbyterian and Methodist. Later the churches founded
by the Basel Mission also joined the CSI. This movement towards unity
is reflected in the motto of the CSI: ‘That they all may be one’, drawing
the vision from Jesus’s High Priestly prayer as recorded in John 17. Today
the CSI has a membership of around 4 million, belonging to 15,000 con-
gregations in 24 dioceses. In many places the architecture of the churches
exhibits a creative combination of Western and Indian styles. The liturgy
allows space to the local congregations to own, internalise and contextual-
ise worship according to needs of their local communities. The ministry of
the Church addresses the needs of deprived communities and those who
suffer discrimination on the basis of caste or gender. Ecological concerns
are prominent in the projects and the teachings of the Church.
The Church of North India

Geographically, the Church of North India (CNI) is in fact spread out
over northern, eastern, western and mid-India. It was inaugurated on
29 November 1970 in Nagpur in the state of Maharashtra. The CNI is a
union of six churches: the Council of Baptist Churches in Northern India,
the Church of the Brethren, the Disciples of Christ, the Church of India
(Anglican, formerly known as the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and
Ceylon), the Methodist Church (British and Australasian Conferences) and
the United Church of Northern India.
The seeds of the union were sown in the previous century when the
United Church of North India (UCNI) was formed. After decades of nego-
tiations among the above-named churches, the wider union of the Church
of North India came into being. The CNI Synod is divided into 27 dioceses.
Through the threefold ministry of bishops, presbyters and deacons and
in the organisational structures of pastorates, dioceses and the Synod,
episcopacy was received and accepted as both constitutional and historic.
Through these structures the CNI cares for the spiritual and social needs of
more than 10 million members.
Membership of the CNI is through baptism in the name of the Triune
God. The baptismal practices of various denominations of the union are
accepted as long as these are in harmony with the mind of Christ and are
not disruptive of the fellowship of his body. Both child and adult baptisms
are acknowledged. Membership is further confirmed through admission to
the Lord’s Supper.
The Church is open to divergence of faith convictions and practices,
bearing in mind that the various Christian traditions are part of the union
and plurality of faith practices in multi-religious India. Its liturgy exhibits
the influence of the Lima Document on Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry
of the World Council of Churches and of the Joint Liturgical Group in
Britain. The united churches were all linked by their claims to apostolic
succession through indispensable continuity of doctrine, of experience and
of allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ and by a fellowship in the continued
proclaiming of the message through Jesus Christ. Therefore the unity was
brought about on the basis of being part of the one, holy, catholic and
apostolic Church – the body of Jesus Christ that he continues to widen out
through succeeding generations and different ethnicities.
Why Church Union?

At least three reasons can be identified for the formation of the CSI and
the CNI. The first is a growing sense of freedom from European missions
and church organisations, alongside an increasing sense of nationalism. As
much as the history of the church in India was rooted in mission organisa-
tions, the churches in India felt the need for autonomous administration,
with senior leaders of the church coming from India itself. There was also a
growing awareness of the need to incorporate indigenous forms of worship
in the predominantly Western order of services. This was also to reflect the
rootedness of the Indian church in Indian cultural and religious soil.
Secondly, a postcolonial fervour of not being submissive had to be
balanced with the need not to disregard history completely. The church
in India has kept in creative tension, on the one hand, the history and
theology received from the West and, on the other hand, the Indian forms
of Christianity that have drawn resources from varied religions and spiritu
alities in India. It is postcolonial in the sense of identifying the influences
of dominant religious traditions that bring with them overriding cultural
and political values while at the same time incorporating resources from
Indian traditions.
Thirdly, the global ecumenical movement that emerged from ‘Edinburgh
1910’ gave further impetus to the movements for church unity that were
240 Joshva Raja
underway in India. The Edinburgh World Missionary Conference provided

fresh momentum to the church alliances that were already strongly brewing
in India.
It is appropriate to mention that the CSI and the CNI express and
exhibit a deeper ecumenical relationship as constituent members of the
Communion of Churches of India, along with the Malankara Marthoma
Syrian Church (the Mar Thoma Church, or MTC), a reformed branch of
the Syrian Christian tradition in India. The initial name of the communion
was the Joint Council of CNI-CSI-MTC. The aim of the communion is to
express a joint concern for the mission of Christ in the country today, to
give concrete expression to the relationship of full communion already
existing and also to continue or initiate negotiations for a wider manifesta-
tion of the unity of the church, so that the world may believe. This unity
is expressed through joint liturgical celebrations, publication of a common
book of worship, publication of activities of unity at the grassroots level,
formation of regional joint councils and joint evangelistic mission.
The Church of Pakistan

The Church of Pakistan, a uniting church, is the second largest church in
the country after the Roman Catholic Church. The dream of visible and
organic unity in the church in India and Pakistan, which had its beginning
in the twentieth century, also caught the imagination of Christians in
many lands. The call for unity also corresponded with the nationalistic
movement in India, and Christians responded through various Christian
organisations. In such a scenario, a unified church was seen as presenting
a more genuine expression of a native Indian church than one divided into
ecclesiastical compartments.
Negotiations for the organic union of various churches in North India,
which began in 1929, had already reached an advanced stage by the time
of Partition in 1947. The largest of the churches was the Anglican Church of
India, Pakistan and Ceylon (CIPC), which had three dioceses in Pakistan at
that time, namely Lahore and Karachi in West Pakistan and Decca in East
Pakistan (now Bangladesh), and a community of about 110,000.
The United Methodist Church in Pakistan – comprising two Conferences
in West Pakistan, Karachi and the Indus River – voted for union in March
1969 with the required majority. Later that year the Indus River Conference
voted in favour, but in February 1970 the Karachi Conference had a tied
vote. The Methodist Episcopal Church in India had decided to stay out of
the union at the last moment and there were fears that it might withdraw
in Pakistan as well. It was urged and convinced by the Reverend William
Young not to draw back, and the Conference voted by an overwhelming
majority to enter the union. The United Methodist Church in Pakistan had
about 60,000 members. The United Church of Northern India (Presbyterian)

with its three church councils – Lahore and Sialkot in West Pakistan and
Rajshahi in East Pakistan – voted in favour of the union in 1965. However,
in 1966 the Lahore Council of Churches (LCC) voted to withdraw from
the proposed union, leaving the Sialkot Church Council as the only Pres-
byterians planning to join the union in West Pakistan. As a result of the
Indo-Pakistan war in 1971, the Rajshahi Church Council in East Pakistan in
due course came to form part of the Church of Bangladesh.
The Church of Pakistan was inaugurated on All Saints Day, Sunday,
1 November 1970, at the Cathedral Church of the Resurrection in Lahore. It
had a total membership of over 200,000. The church union in Pakistan was
a historic and magnificent event. Four denominations, each with its own
unique history, convictions and organisational structure, had committed to
enter the union. The once-diverse ministries of the churches were united by
the Representative Act of Unification of the Ministry, by the mutual laying
on of hands and by prayer. A service of thanksgiving followed the inau-
guration. Since then, the Church of Pakistan has grown both numerically
and institutionally. Initially it had five dioceses, Lahore, Karachi, Multan,
Sialkot and Dhaka, the last of which became an autonomous body after
the Indo-Pakistan war in 1971. Later on, through a special resolution and
for better ministerial work, four new dioceses were created: Hyderabad,
Faisalabad, Raiwind and Peshawar. In the present context, the church,
with its eight dioceses, exists in a predominantly Islamic state. It continues
to witness through words, but particularly through its diakonia ministries
of service. Through healthcare, education and development programmes,
it serves all people.
The Church of Bangladesh

As set out above, under the church union plan of North India and Pakistan
of 1965, the Church of Pakistan was created in 1970 when the Anglican
Church, United Church, United Methodist Church and Lutheran Church
in Pakistan merged. Until 1951 the Anglican Church in East Pakistan was
under the Diocese of Calcutta. After 1952 Dhaka became a Diocese of
the Church of North India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon, and the Oxford
Mission brother James D. Blair was consecrated as the first Bishop of Dhaka
Diocese.
The Church of Bangladesh came into being as the outcome of the
separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan. This started as a movement that
focused on language and finally took shape through the Liberation War in
1971, which created a free and independent Bangladesh. For the churches,
a relationship with Pakistan was no longer possible. The Synod of the
Church of Pakistan on 30 April 1974 declared and endorsed the free and
242 Joshva Raja
independent status of the Church of Bangladesh. In the aftermath of the

Liberation War, which caused enormous damage to all sectors of society,
the leadership of the new church faced up to the realities of the situation
and played their part in the recovery process, expressing solidarity with
neighbours according to the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This process brought together the Anglican and English Presbyterian
Churches under the umbrella of the Church of Bangladesh. The initiative
began with the upgrading of the national leadership, and, through
sincere efforts of the then emerging and veteran leaders of the Church of
Bangladesh, B. D. Mondal was consecrated as the first national Bishop of
Dhaka Diocese, Church of Bangladesh, on 16 February 1975 at Epiphany
Church, Oxford Mission, Barisal. He tried to follow and further move
forward in the path of James D. Blair, encouraging more active participa-
tion of the lay leaders from all sections of the congregations of the Church
of Bangladesh.
Towards the end of the 1980s, in view of the scattered geographical set-up
of the Church, an increased volume of work, the need to operate its social
ministry more efficiently and effectively and for better overall supervision
of its pastoral work, the leadership of the Church of Bangladesh realised
and acknowledged the need for a second diocese. This was established
with headquarters in the district town of Kushtia, and Michael Baroi was
consecrated as the Bishop of Kushtia Diocese on 30 November 1990 at
St Peter’s Church, Ratanpur.
Uniting Churches Today

The CSI has grown into 24 dioceses under a bishop’s administration. The
CSI Synod is administrated by the Moderator, Deputy Moderator, General
Secretary and an honorary Treasurer – all are elected by the members of the
CSI Synod every two years. All the properties and institutions are admin-
istered by the CSI Trust Association, which is run by the General Secretary
and Treasurer of the Synod. The Church runs 2,300 schools, 150 colleges
and 104 hospitals in South India. The CSI’s bishops consecrated the first
woman bishop, the Rt Revd Eggoni Pushpalatha, in 2013 as the Bishop of
Nandyal Diocese. The CSI has taken many positive steps to bring changes
in the lives of Dalits and marginalised communities.
The CNI has a similar structure to the CSI, including a Moderator
and bishops. It has 27 dioceses covering wide areas of North India and
1.5 million members. It runs 65 hospitals and 250 educational institutions,
including some famous schools and colleges. The CNI also acts as an
advocate for justice and equality with regard to Dalits and poor people. Its
congregations engage in inter-faith and peace-building efforts in different
parts of North India.
Both CSI and CNI are connected with the Marthoma Syrian Church
through the Council of Churches in India, and the three churches are also
in communion with one another.
The Church of Pakistan, too, has taken the title of Moderator and also
Primate for their leadership positions. It has eight dioceses with eight
bishops. The Church of Pakistan is the only church in the world where
mainline Lutherans joined with Anglicans and others. Most of its activities
are similar to those of the CSI and CNI. It serves the public through its
educational and social-development organisations and medical facilities.
But Christians remain the most persecuted among the minorities in
Pakistan, particularly through the abuse of the Blasphemy Law by radical
groups within the country.
At the time of union in Pakistan, the question of the admission of women
to the ordained ministry was left for the consideration of the Synod of
the Church of Pakistan. In 2000, the Diocese of Raiwind took a unilateral
decision and ordained two women as deaconesses, followed by a third in
2013. Because the whole Church is divided on this issue, the first deaconess
is recognised as such only within her diocese, and even within the diocese
she has limited opportunities for fruitful ministry. It remains a challenge
for the Church of Pakistan to recognise women in various ministries and
the richness they can bring to the life of the Church.
United Churches’ Mission and Ministry

Christians are in the minority in all South Asian countries. United churches
and their members are minorities within such Christian minorities. In all
these countries the recent rise of fundamentalism, nationalism, extremism
and terrorism has affected the lives of churches in South Asia. Christians
are often persecuted for various reasons. In Pakistan, they are often targeted
by extreme Muslim sects, particularly those who are influenced by terrorist
ideologies. Christians are ill-treated, imprisoned and killed through
abuse of the Blasphemy Law in some contexts and instances. In spite of
persecution of Christians, the uniting churches provide education, social
development and other opportunities not only for their members but also
to other religious groups. Some churches are influenced by the Charismatic
and Pentecostal groups either within their own country or beyond. These
churches not only tend to develop a negative attitude towards people of
other faiths but also sometimes abuse their freedom of religion by openly
criticising other faiths, their forms of worship and their texts.
In all South Asian countries Christians, particularly Christians from
united churches, are the most persecuted minorities. In earlier times,
the majority religious communities were often tolerant of Christian
minorities because of their contribution to education and social services.
244 Joshva Raja
Today, however, the political majoritarianism, nationalism and globalised

conflicts, not to mention myths of conversion and misinformation, have
contributed to the persecution of minorities in general and attacks on
Christians in particular in many parts of South Asia.
In Pakistan Christians struggle with the Blasphemy Law, being accused
for no reason at times and often tortured and imprisoned. The Church of
Pakistan is a persecuted church. Despite promises of citizenship, equal
rights and opportunities, and the challenges presented by explicit legisla-
tions, the Blasphemy Law and discrimination, it has confidently managed
to remain standing. In Bangladesh there has also been an increase in attacks
on Christians and other minorities.
In India with the rise of nationalism and Hindutva, the CSI and CNI
and their institutions have become targets of arson, rape and other forms of
attack. While constitutional rights allow Christians to worship, to practise
and to proclaim their faith in public, the current trend is that Christians
are not allowed to do so in practice, nor to welcome and invite others to
their faith. The persecution in terms of discrimination, attacks and boycott
of ecumenical institutions led the CSI and CNI to come closer to other
churches in India, including the Baptist, Charismatic, Pentecostal, Syrian
and Catholic Churches, in order to find ways of expressing their discontent
with those who attack them and institutions. The CSI and the CNI formed
groups such as United Christian Voices in India that have shared platforms
with Muslims, Sikhs and Dalits to protest against attacks on all groups. This
can be a new form of ecumenism to work together and to witness to Christ
among others. The attacks and persecution against Christians have caused
the CSI and CNI to grow enormously in membership. Even in Pakistan
and Bangladesh, where the ecumenical churches are under constant attack,
they work together with other Christians and other minorities, including
Ahmadiyya Muslims, to make their voices heard. In this way the uniting
churches play a major role in engaging with other church traditions
and other religious minorities in order to work together towards peace,
development and justice at the local and national levels.
In South Asian countries, united churches have flourished through
indigenous and lay mission agencies and groups. Following independ-
ence, a few popular preachers and leaders founded indigenous mission
agencies that were supported mainly by indigenous missionaries with
local money from local people, such as the Indian Missionary Society, the
National Missionary Society (founded by Bishop V. S. Azariah), the Friends
Missionary Prayer Band (founded by Emil Jebasingh, Sam Kamalesan and
John Christopher – all from the CSI) and the Indian Evangelical Mission
(founded by Theodore William). These initiatives were a clear response to
critical remarks on foreign missionaries and foreign support for evangelical
and mission work in South Asia. Also, the Christian churches, particu-
larly the ecumenical churches and the Roman Catholic Church, continue
to improve their educational institutions, social development organisa-
tions and medical facilities in their mission fields. These mission agencies
spread among non-Christians, but not in large numbers. Their policy is not
to convert people using such allurements as education and job opportuni-
ties, nor threat or force.
The CSI and CNI welcome new believers into the Christian faith
after appropriate examination, training and education. There are inter
dependencies of the uniting churches with the overseas mission agencies
and the churches and also with developing countries around the world.
Such wider and local connections strengthen the witness of the uniting
churches as a growing body of Christ in their own and other contexts. The
overseas partners work with them as equals in networking and sharing
and supporting programmes and activities together.
While the churches are growing, some Christian fundamentalist groups
from the USA and South Korea run public programmes and use mass
media to spread a message of hatred and ignorance about local faiths as
part of their proclamation of the gospel. Such activities lead to attacks on
united churches and their institutions. The uniting churches seek to work
with these foreign groups in order to make them aware of the problems
arising from such an approach. Some of the uniting churches undergo
renewal and revival for various reasons in their countries and regions, and
thus create a lot of enthusiasm to share the gospel with many people.
While deeply committed to the ecumenical vision and working hard to
indigenise the faith, the united churches are often criticised for not adopting
or taking up local cultures. In some cases it has been difficult to discern
which culture they should adopt, as there are diverse and varied cultures
present within particular communities and villages. Wherever they have
managed to indigenise, the church has become stronger and able to bridge
issues of division within communities.
Unfortunately, some churches have adopted the caste system, which
has been very much criticised for discrimination against Dalits and
women. This has caused divisions among the churches and contributed to
the growth of Pentecostal and Charismatic groups outside the church. The
united churches are now speaking more clearly against the caste system
and in favour of justice for Dalits, women and others who are marginalised.
Some uniting churches have also been influenced by the corrupt culture
in which they live. In this sense, some of the churches are facing many
court cases for discrimination, bribery and other activities that are contrary
to gospel values. Some theologians and preachers, including overseas
partners, have challenged the corruption, discrimination and abuse of
246 Joshva Raja
power and authority of leaders within the uniting churches in India and
Pakistan. Churches and their leaders have taken steps to address these
issues very carefully.
On a positive note, the united churches have taken up local music and
lyrics for use in their worship. In India, Carnatic and Hindustani music
systems have been widely used in song music and lyrics, and in some
places the whole service is sung in Carnatic music. In Bangladesh, the local
music – Rabindra Sangeet – has been used for singing. In Pakistan, Urdu
Christian poems are very popular.
Many people from the united churches have migrated to different
parts of the world and established their own churches, such as CSI, CNI
and other uniting churches, in their new context. Others have integrated
into mainline churches and contributed to the ecumenical and mission
movements locally, nationally and internationally while they live in other
countries.
Today, the churches in South Asia have to face certain questions and
issues in order to set the direction for their future ministry and mission. First
is an issue of disparity among the salaries of the united church workers.
While some churches have a large income and others less, the disparity in
ministers’ and mission workers’ salaries reveals discrimination within the
churches and among the dioceses. In this sense, some churches send a lot
of missionaries to North India and have plenty of money in the dioceses
for themselves, but when it comes to the question of sharing or supporting
people in poverty, they tend to ask for money and support from overseas.
Second is the issue of having a culture of dependency on foreign
donations. Many of the dioceses can support orphanages and schools
for disabled and mentally challenged children by themselves, but still
they try to get support from the overseas churches in order to run these
programmes. Such a dependency culture and mindset calls for challenge,
and these dioceses and churches should be encouraged to share their
wealth with other dioceses and also to support their own poor regardless
of their religions and castes.
Even in the mission fields where they have converted and established
a number of congregations, there is a lack of follow-up work in terms of
education and social development. The united churches need to remind
themselves that they are uniting and growing churches. In this sense, they
cannot be classified according to the Western division of evangelical or
liberal churches. Rather, they are missionary churches that are confident in
witnessing and proclaiming the gospel and thus inviting and welcoming
people to be disciples of Jesus Christ. These churches relate to people
of other faiths in creative ways and stand for justice when it is needed.
The united churches in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh proclaim, serve,
witness, teach, preach and provide care for all people in South Asia by
following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and thus seeking to transform this
part of the world for Christ’s sake.
Bibliography
Harper, Susan Billington, In the Shadow of the Mahatma: Bishop V. S. Azariah and the Travails of
Christianity in British India (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000).
Rajaiah, Paul D., Ecumenism in Action: Church of South India – An Assessment (Madras: CLS,
1972).
Sundkler, Bengt, Church of South India: The Movement Towards Union, 1900–1947, revised edn
(London: United Society for Christian Literature, 1965).
Thomas, M. M., A Diaconal Approach to Indian Ecclesiology (Rome: CIIS; Thiruvalla: CSS,
1995).
Young, William G., Presbyterian Bishop (London: New Millennium, 1995).
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges the invaluable contributions to the preparation of this essay
made by the Revd Dr Chilkuri Vasantha Rao, Principal of United Theological College,
Bangalore; the Revd Dr Rohan Gideon, Tamilnadu Theological Seminary, Madurai; the
Rt Revd Samantharoy, former Moderator of the Church of North India; the Revd Evelyn
Bhajan, research student from the Church of Pakistan at Queen’s College, Birmingham; and
the Revd Hermen Haldar, St Andrew’s Theological College, Dhaka.
Protestants and Anglicans
Arun W. Jones
Christianity has a very long history in South and Central Asia, and the
strength of its presence and varieties of its manifestations in these regions
have varied greatly over time. Ancient oral and written Christian traditions
from India and Mesopotamia claim apostolic origins for the church in India,
and contemporary historians believe that Christian communities have
been present and flourishing in South India for more than 17 centuries.
Central Asia was also home to Christian communities from a very early
period. The Christian chronicler Bardaisan of Edessa, writing at the end
of the second century, mentioned fellow believers in what today are the
countries of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Such early dates for Christian
presence in South and Central Asia are not surprising, since these regions
were part of dynamic worldwide economic as well as political networks
stretching from Western Europe to Southeast Asia. Buddhism, Christianity
and Manichaeism spread along trade routes long before the expansion of
Islam in the eighth century.
The earliest Christians of South and Central Asia were culturally quite
different from Christians in the Roman Empire. In fact, some of the liveliest
and most prolific Asian Christian churches, such as the Church of the East,
or ‘Nestorian’ Church, were deemed heretical by the Western church in
the first few centuries of the Christian era. Yet Asian churches created
numerous and vigorous Christian communities that by the seventh century
were spread from Iran to China, India and Sri Lanka. While many of these
Central and South Asian Christian communities have disappeared, others
live on, thrive and multiply not only in their Asian contexts but around the
world, as active members of the church universal.
Over the centuries, a number of other Christian traditions have
established churches in South and Central Asia. These include the Roman
Catholic Church, various Orthodox churches from both the Western
and Eastern/Southern branches of Christianity, Protestant churches, and
most recently Pentecostal and Independent churches. The long-term and
variegated presence of Christianity in South and Central Asia makes it
clear that Protestantism cannot be understood in isolation in this region
of the globe. Protestants live in contact and conversation with a rich and
diverse religious milieu and history.
The first Protestants to establish churches for South and Central Asians
were the Dutch, who by 1658 had taken over Sri Lanka from the Portuguese
and forcefully and artificially transferred all Sri Lankan Catholics into the
Dutch Reformed Church. However, the Dutch did very little to provide
pastoral leadership to these Christians, most of whom quietly adhered to
Roman Catholicism. After the British took over the island nation from the
Dutch in 1796, many Sri Lankan Christians returned to the Roman Catholic
fold. In South India, German Lutheran Pietist missionaries began work in
1706, successfully establishing Lutheran churches there. In the rest of South
Asia, Protestant missions were hampered by the antipathy of the British
Empire. It was only in 1813 that missionaries were allowed to pursue their
activities freely within the Empire, giving birth to very small Protestant
communities in what are today India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Protestant
communities grew in these areas, with massive accession to Protestantism
between 1870 and 1930, as people from extremely underprivileged sectors
of society converted by the thousands. By the 1950s almost all the churches
in South Asia were indigenously controlled and operated.
Protestantism is not evenly distributed over South and Central Asia. In
Central Asia, the smattering of Protestants today mostly belong to various
minority ethnic groups such as the German Lutherans and Korean Baptists,
Methodists and Presbyterians. However, converts from other groups are
joining Protestant churches. The governments of Afghanistan, Bhutan and
the Maldives have forbidden Christianity in their countries. The faith was
allowed in Nepal only from the 1950s, so there is only a very small Christian
Protestants in South and Central Asia, 1970

Region Total Christian Protestant % of region % of Christians
population population population Protestant Protestant
Central Asia 33,315,000 3,859,000 346,000 1.0% 9.0%
South Asia 741,255,000 23,363,000 7,718,000 1.0% 33.0%
Globe 3,700,578,000 1,229,448,000 204,304,000 5.5% 16.6%
Anglicans in South and Central Asia, 1970

Region Total Christian Anglican % of region % of Christians
population population population Anglican Anglican
South Asia 741,255,000 23,363,000 48,900 0.0% 0.2%
South and Central Asia 774,570,000 27,222,000 48,900 0.0% 0.2%
Globe 3,700,578,000 1,229,448,000 47,404,000 1.3% 3.9%
250 Arun W. Jones
community there, most of it Protestant. There are small but active Christian
communities in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Of all South Asian countries, Sri
Lanka has the highest percentage of Christians in its population, although
only about 15% of them are Protestants. In terms of sheer numbers, India
has by far the largest Christian population in the region.
Many (though certainly not all) South Asian Protestant churches and
denominations were started by missionary organisations with roots in
Europe and the USA. These organisations imported with them ecclesi
astical divisions that both European and Asian Christians soon perceived
to be irrelevant in Asian contexts. Therefore, in the twentieth century, as
set out in the previous essay, movements for national churches in which
Western Protestant denominations would be united into one Asian
communion were begun in South Asia, resulting in four important united
churches: the Church of South India, the Church of North India, the
Church of Pakistan and the Church of Bangladesh. However, numerous
Protestants and Anglicans, for a variety of reasons, did not join these united
churches and today constitute a significant sector of Protestants in South
Asia. In Sri Lanka, the Anglicans and largest Protestant churches could not
achieve union and so they remain separate, even as they cooperate in many
different ministries.
The rest of this essay describes the nature and character of the con-
fessional Anglicans and Protestants: those who did not join the united
churches. Because of the relatively large size of its Christian population,
India will receive more attention than other countries in the region.
Protestants in South and Central Asia, 2015

Region Total Christian Protestant % of region % of Christians
population population population Protestant Protestant
Central Asia 68,705,000 5,450,000 116,000 0.2% 2.1%
South Asia 1,823,308,000 69,834,000 24,787,000 1.4% 35.5%
Globe 7,383,009,000 2,408,048,000 447,850,000 6.1% 18.6%
Anglicans in South and Central Asia, 2015

Region Total Christian Anglican % of region % of Christians
population population population Anglican Anglican
South Asia 1,823,308,000 69,834,000 55,100 0.0% 0.1%
South and Central Asia 1,892,013,000 75,284,000 55,100 0.0% 0.1%
Globe 7,383,009,000 2,408,048,000 90,466,000 1.2% 3.8%
Confessional Protestants and Anglicans

Despite their many differences, Protestants and Anglicans who are not
part of united churches in South and Central Asia do have some common
features. The most striking one is that they are all minority traditions in
a minority religion. That is to say, in none of the countries is Christianity
the religion of the majority of the population; and among Christians in
each country, confessional Protestants and Anglicans consist of a minority
of believers. That said, there are areas of South Asia where Protestant
churches predominate. In the states of Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland
in Northeast India, the majority of the population identifies with con
fessional Protestant churches.
Being a minority within a minority religious tradition has at least two
effects on confessional Protestants and Anglicans. First, it leaves them
socially and politically especially vulnerable to the majority population
and to governments. In Central Asia, Protestants and Anglicans are increas-
ingly harassed and persecuted, unlike the recognised Orthodox churches.
In South Asia, when radical groups wish to attack some communities,
minority Christians are an easier target than others. Second, the status of a
minority in a minority means that confessional Protestants and Anglicans
are negotiating their own religious identity in society not simply in relation
to governments and other religious traditions (Buddhism, Hinduism,
Islam) but also in relation to other Christian traditions. How do Mennonites
in Kazakhstan relate to the Orthodox Church, or Baptists in Bangladesh
identify with and distinguish themselves from Roman Catholics? Such ne-
gotiations are usually more important – and often more difficult – for the
smaller group within a minority religious tradition.
Changes in Protestants in South and Central Asia, 1970–2015, growth rate, % per year
Region Total population Christian population Protestant population
Central Asia 1.62% 0.77% −2.39%
South Asia 2.02% 2.46% 2.63%
Globe 1.55% 1.51% 1.76%
Changes in Anglicans in South and Central Asia, 1970–2015, growth rate, % per year
Region Total population Christian population Anglican population
South Asia 2.02% 2.46% 0.26%
Globe 1.55% 1.51% 1.45%
252 Arun W. Jones
Speaking very generally, confessional Protestant and Anglican churches

can be of three different types. First, they may be the church of foreign
populations or of ethnic minorities in a country. Such churches are
thoroughly enmeshed in the culture and life of particular groups of people,
and those people see the church as part of their cultural and historical
heritage. These churches can be called ethnic churches. In Central Asia,
this term would characterise German Lutherans and Korean Protestants
of various denominations. Second, confessional Protestant and Anglican
churches may be identified with a particular region, and with particular
groups of people, in a country. Lutheran churches in Andhra Pradesh,
Telangana and Tamil Nadu in South India, and Baptist churches among
the Santal and Mru people of Bangladesh, would fall into this category,
as would the Salvation Army in Sri Lanka, which is particularly strong in
rural areas. These can be termed regional churches. What distinguishes
them from ethnic churches is that other Christian traditions are operative
in the region, or among particular people. Finally, there are confessional
Anglican and Protestant churches that are spread across the nation, such as
the Methodist Church in India and the Church of Ceylon (which is part of
the Anglican communion). These can be called national churches.
The boundaries between these three different types of Protestant and
Anglican churches are certainly not hard and fast. Moreover, a church
may move from one category to another over time. For example, when
an ethnic church undertakes mission and successfully draws other people
into its fold, or when outside Christian traditions establish a significant
number of congregations among a particular people who had previously
all belonged to one church (as has happened in Northeast India), then an
ethnic church becomes more of a regional church. Alternatively, if several
regional churches from one tradition join together in some sort of con
federation, such as the Bangladesh Baptist Church Sangha, then these
regional churches can function in certain respects like a national church.
The mobility and fluidity of Christians, of Christian traditions and of
religious identity mean that any categorisation of Christians and churches
needs to be viewed as not overly precise, but rather as a heuristic device for
trying to understand a very large and complex religious landscape.
Ethnic Churches
Ethnic churches thrive when a particular group of Christians with the
same language and culture find themselves surrounded by people who are
distinctly different from them. German or Korean Protestants in Central
Asia who live among Russian or Belarussian Orthodox Christians and
Central Asian Muslims have developed ethnic churches. The ethnic church
becomes an integral part of a people’s total life and identity: their life-cycle
events, their festivals, their collective celebrations and calamities, and often
their political and social issues and crises. Ethnic churches not only are
vehicles for the conservation and development of indigenous culture and
language but also provide psychological, social and sometimes physical
protection to populations when they are threatened or attacked.
Until the last quarter of the twentieth century, a number of Protestant
churches in Northeast India were ethnic churches. The Mizos in the state of
Mizoram provide a good example. Presbyterian and Baptist missionaries
from England planted the seeds of Christianity among the Mizo people
in the first two decades of the twentieth century. The missions agreed
to work in different parts of the country, thus avoiding conflict. At first,
just a few Mizos – many of them society’s misfits – converted to Christi-
anity. These, however, became the foundation of the Mizo Presbyterian
and Baptist churches, which grew primarily due to indigenous agency,
and most rapidly because of a number of revivals. At first, Protestantism
was established as an alternative to traditional Mizo culture and religion.
However, over the course of the century, especially after the independence
of India in 1947, more and more Mizos became Baptist or Presbyterian,
thus transforming confessional Protestantism from an outsider to a
Mizo religion. It incorporated traditional music and dance into worship
and participated in traditional (though transformed) festivals and other
communal events. The fact that the Mizo people (like Nagas, Khasis and
others in Northeast India) differ from most Indians culturally, linguistic
ally, ethnically and religiously, and resisted incorporation into the Indian
nation at independence, explains some of Christianity’s attraction to these
peoples. In fact, the churches eventually got involved in the political
struggles of the Mizo people with the Indian state and army, until peace
was achieved in the 1980s. Today, other Christian traditions operate in
Northeast India, claiming the allegiance of some people in this part of the
country, thereby making confessional Protestant churches more regional
than ethnic. However, they are still very strong in the region. Moreover,
the success of confessional Protestants in Northeast India in establish-
ing themselves as ethnic churches means that Christianity as a whole has
become, in many respects, an ethnic religion in Mizoram, Nagaland and
Meghalaya. For example, over 95% of the Naga people identify themselves
as Christian.
Regional Churches
Regional churches find their strength in certain parts of a country, or among
certain groups of people, although they are not the only Christian church
or tradition in that region or among that people. The Lutheran tradition,
consisting of more than a dozen different denominations, has a strong
254 Arun W. Jones
presence in a number of different regions of India, such as the eastern part

of South India. Today, a large majority – 95% by some accounts – of Indian
Lutherans are from tribal (or Adivasi) and Dalit communities. The Indian
constitution uses the term ‘Scheduled Tribes’ to refer to those social groups
in India (including the peoples of Northeast India) who historically have
not been part of the dominant South Asian Sanskritic religious and cultural
traditions. These groups are also known as Adivasi, which means original
dwellers of the land, although they usually use their own names, such as
Santal, Bhil and Gond, to refer to themselves. The Lutheran churches are
strong among a number of these communities.
The term Dalit literally means ‘crushed, broken, scattered’ and refers to
those communities who were considered so degraded and polluted in the
traditional Hindu caste system that they were beneath the whole hierarchy.
While there is much debate about the origins, meaning and functioning of
caste in India, most scholars would agree that caste divides the population
into communities that are very roughly arranged (and arrange themselves)
hierarchically. At the top of the caste hierarchy are Brahmins or the priestly
caste (even though most Brahmins are not practising priests), followed by
communities from the warrior caste, the merchant caste and then finally
the artisan and labouring caste. Beneath these four castes or varna are a
fifth group, those who have been deemed ‘untouchable’ due to their
perceived degradation and pollution. They traditionally perform some of
the most demeaning jobs in Indian society: backbreaking work in fields,
removal of human waste and other refuse, midwifery (which brings prac-
titioners into contact with polluting bodily fluids), work at cremation sites
and leather-working. Through the centuries they have been subject to
intense discrimination and humiliation. The Indian constitution refers to
these historic untouchable and oppressed groups as the Scheduled Castes
of India, although since the middle of the twentieth century the term
Dalit has come into use. Caught in the bonds of economic, political and
social servitude – some would say slavery – and considered religiously
extremely polluted, many from these lowest classes of Indian society
became Christian in order to claim a new religious, social, economic and
personal identity for themselves. In fact, well over half of all Christians
in India come from ‘untouchable’ backgrounds. The Orthodox Christians
from Kerala, however, are from upper-caste backgrounds.
The Lutherans of Tamil Nadu in South India provide one example of
how regional Protestant and Anglican churches can function. Two German
Pietist missionaries, Heinrich Plütschau and Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg,
introduced the Lutheran tradition into the Tamil area of South India in
1706. Ziegenbalg remained in India until his death in 1719, securely estab-
lishing Protestantism there. His modus operandi was to set up Christian
schools and churches, so that Lutheranism was marked from the beginning
by both education and piety. He also studied the Tamil language in both
its prose and its poetic forms, producing dictionaries and lexicons. He was
a keen observer of local culture and religion, producing scientific (for his
time) accounts of Tamil society. With his linguistic and cultural knowledge,
he was able to translate the whole New Testament and the Old Testament
up to the book of Ruth into Tamil. This resulted in a third hallmark, along
with piety and education, of early and subsequent Indian Lutheranism:
the Christian faith had to be expressed in local languages and cultural
idioms; in other words, it had to be inculturated. Tamil Lutheranism grew
in strength of numbers and practice over the centuries. To the hallmarks of
piety, study and inculturation was added a commitment to social service,
such as medical work of various kinds.
There are three main Lutheran bodies among the Tamil people: the
Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church, with origins in German and Swedish
missionary work; the Arcot Lutheran Church, with origins in Danish
missions; and the India Evangelical Lutheran Church, which was begun
by North Americans of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. There is
also a fourth Lutheran Tamil denomination, the small Latvian Evangelical
Church in Tamil Nadu.
Since a large majority of Tamil Lutherans come from Dalit backgrounds,
the question arises as to how their faith should be inculturated into their
context. The answer is not straightforward, in either theoretical or practical
terms. For many Dalit converts, European Christianity has represented an
escape from the clutches of oppressive Indian religious and social systems.
While Dalit Christians certainly did not want to become Europeans, they
were open to learning from European missionaries and benefactors about
new ways of shaping and forming their identities as Indian Christians.
Many European hymns brought by missionaries were translated into
Tamil, for example, and these continue to be sung in Lutheran and other
churches today.
Yet Europeans did not provide the only model for Indian Christians
seeking personal, religious and social liberation. High-caste Indians, most
notably the Vellala of Tamil Nadu, had been some of the earliest converts
to the Lutheran tradition, and such upper-caste Christians also provided
possibilities for new religious identities for all Indian Christians, no matter
what their backgrounds. The hymns of Vedanayagam Sastriar (1774–1864),
still popular today, are evidence of the influence of the upper castes on the
Christian community in general. Vedanayagam was born into a family of
the Vellala caste, and his father, a Roman Catholic, embraced the Lutheran
tradition when the boy was 11 years old. The German Lutheran missionary
Christian Frederick Schwartz, impressed by the boy, took him under
256 Arun W. Jones
his wing and gave him a Lutheran education. Vedanayagam began his
ministry as a rural evangelist, then worked in schools, and finally taught at
the Lutheran seminary in Tanjore for 35 years. Over the course of his life,
he produced famous Tamil works of Christian poetry, hymns, drama and
dance.
Recent years have brought Indian Christian criticisms of both European
translated hymnody and indigenous hymnody from the high castes. The
musician and poet James Theophilus Appavoo (1940–2005), although a
member of the Church of South India, taught at the Tamilnadu Theological
Seminary, which is a joint venture of two Tamil Lutheran denominations
and the Church of South India. Appavoo employed Dalit and other village
music to create liberative and transformative songs, liturgies and other
modes of Christian expression. Rather than trying to escape Dalit cultures
and traditions, Appavoo and others like him have been pushing the Church
to embrace them, in order to break free from the shame and degradation
associated with the Dalit condition.
A final example of inculturation is found in the work of the Lutheran
artist, scholar, pastor, educator and composer Pulidindi Solomon Raj (born
1921), who is from Andhra Pradesh. Coming from a Dalit background and
raised in a middle-class family, Raj is famous for his artwork in batik and
woodcuts, which portray biblical images with Indian motifs. He has used
Dalit culture and context to shape the biblical message. His favourite story
is John 4, which he views as a liberative message of Jesus taking water from
an untouchable woman – a theme that resonates in South India, where
Dalits could not share wells with caste Indians. In such ways, Solomon Raj
has used his artwork to shape the biblical message so that it speaks directly
to the Indian, and especially Dalit, context.
National Churches
Certain confessional churches are found throughout their nation, although
they might have greater concentrations of congregations in certain parts
of the country. The Methodist Church in India, the Methodist Church, Sri
Lanka, and the (Anglican) Church of Ceylon are examples of such national
churches. National churches are held together by certain characteristics,
such as a particular system of government or a common liturgy, but they
also adapt themselves to regional and local contexts across their respective
nations. Such flexibility is absolutely necessary if the national church is to
survive, let alone thrive.
A Westerner arriving in New Delhi who wishes to attend a Methodist
worship service may be directed to the Centenary Methodist Church in
the city. The congregation meets in a large, well kept and attractive edifice.
There are both Hindi and English worship services each week, and on
Sunday mornings the church is often so full that folding chairs have to be
set up outside, where a large television monitor beams the service to the
outdoor assembly. The people who come to worship, either singly or in
families, are nicely attired. Women tend to wear traditional Indian clothing
of saris or shalwar kameez suits, made from fine-quality cloth, while men
come in well pressed shirts and trousers, with a jacket if it is cool. This is
obviously a middle- to upper-class congregation.
The worship service is liturgically well ordered: the sequence of hymns,
prayers, scripture readings, choral anthems, sermon and blessings would
be familiar to the Protestant Western visitor, as would the hymn tunes.
While the church has a number of mission and outreach activities, a visitor
may note that a significant part of this congregation’s energy is spent in
maintaining and cultivating the church community. Methodists are a
small minority among a small minority in New Delhi, and so care for the
community is an important function of this congregation, even though it is
relatively prosperous as Christian congregations go.
Once they have left their church, the members at Centenary Methodist
Church in New Delhi do not in any way stand out as peculiar among
their fellow citizens who throng the city. They work, shop, go to school,
entertain themselves at movies and restaurants, travel and generally live
just like other Indians of their social class. What distinguishes them as
Methodists is who they worship, where they worship, which religious
leaders they consult and follow, which religious festivals they attend, how
they participate in festivals of other religious traditions, who they marry
(fellow Protestants preferably, fellow Christians almost universally) and
what they eat (Christians are free to eat all kinds of meat, unlike most
Hindus and Muslims). Like other Christians, Methodists would probably
also vote in particular ways during elections, casting their votes for the
parties that are most friendly to religious minorities.
The Methodist Church in the small city (population 325,000) of Rampur,
Uttar Pradesh, India, presents in some ways quite a contrast to the rather
prosperous Centenary Methodist Church in New Delhi. The Rampur
worship service is solely in Hindi. The congregation there is visibly poorer
than that of New Delhi; while a few worshipers arrive in their cars, most
come using less expensive forms of conveyance. A number of worshipers
are from North Indian villages and have come into the city to find jobs. The
congregation has obviously dressed up for Sunday worship, but the style
and quality of their clothing are appropriate for a North Indian village
or town, rather than the flashy cosmopolitan city. The pastor stands at
the front of the church in his vestments, which probably mean more to
a humbler congregation than to a more affluent one. There is certainly a
liturgy employed for the worship service, but it is less elaborate and less
258 Arun W. Jones
formal than that at Centenary. The Methodist elements of song, prayer,

Scripture, sermon and creed are unmistakably present, but these flow
organically rather than methodically from one to the next. The youth choir
leads universally popular ‘praise and worship’ songs in the middle of the
service, singing into microphones and accompanied by guitars and an
electric keyboard.
Socially, the Methodists in Rampur both mix in and distinguish
themselves from their Hindu and Muslim neighbours very much like
their fellow Methodists in New Delhi. In their public and economic lives,
the Rampur Methodists function just like fellow Muslims and Hindus of
their own socio-economic status. It is in their communal lives, having to
do with religion, marriage, diet and political inclinations, that Christians
might distinguish themselves from their fellow citizens of other religious
traditions. The Rampur Methodists, as evident in ‘praise and worship’
singing, also see themselves as part of a worldwide church, stretching
through time and space, and including them. Such a marker of catholic
Christian identity is taken for granted in the prosperous congregations of
New Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.
So Methodist congregations can be found all over India, worshiping
in a number of Indian languages, adapting themselves to the cultures of
cities, towns and villages. What is it that makes them Methodist? There
are certain structures, a certain ethos and a certain history that bind them
together. First, all Methodist churches in India are part of a structure of
church government which, from time to time, directly impinges on the
life of each congregation. Methodist pastors are trained at particular
theological seminaries, which shape them in certain ways. All pastors are
appointed by a bishop, and so pastoral changes make congregations aware
of their bishop. Each congregation also belongs to a district headed by a
district superintendent, who from time to time visits each congregation.
Districts are part of conferences (what would be dioceses in Anglican and
Roman Catholic traditions) that are part of the whole denomination. In
such practical ways, Methodists are tied into a national church.
Secondly, Methodists in India can be called a church of the middle
classes. This designation encompasses a wide spectrum of people, from
those who are still aspiring to a middle-class status to those who have
comfortably achieved it. Most Methodists, like other Christians, have
origins in the lowest classes of society, and one of the attractions of the
denomination is that it provided, and continues to provide, a means for
upward social mobility, for example through church-run schools.
Finally, the Methodist Church in India is heir to a certain Protestant
tradition. Methodist missionaries from the USA began it in the middle of
the nineteenth century, and its life has been shaped in part by generations
of American missionaries. The organisation and structure of the denomi-

nation are taken from American Methodism. Its openness to the affective
dimension of religion, most notably evidenced in heartfelt singing and other
music, as well as in a fervent preaching style aimed at stirring the audience’s
emotions, comes from American Methodism. Even the outreach to poorer
segments of society who wish to improve themselves mirrors a sociological
characteristic of American Methodism. This is in no way to downplay the
great importance of Indian preachers, evangelists and church leaders in
the inception, growth and development of Indian Methodism. However,
these Indian leaders learned from American missionaries – as missionaries
equally learned from them – to embody a certain kind of Christianity. A
hybrid Indian–American Protestant denomination emerged. Interestingly,
Indian Methodists today are far less likely than American Methodists to be
critical of the missionaries who came and worked in India. Where the latter
see imperialistically minded Westerners, the former see dedicated and self-
sacrificing heroes.
Conclusion
As has become clear in the preceding discussion, most confessional
Protestants and Anglicans need to be viewed as part of a very complex and
pluralistic religious and social context. They construct their lives in relation
to fellow citizens who are not Christian, as well as to fellow believers who
differ from them in certain respects. What role do confessional Protestant
and Anglican churches play in the variegated religious tapestry of South
and Central Asia?
First, they add to the richness and complexity of Christian life and
witness in these regions of the world. By emphasising their historic
traditions, Christian bodies such as Anglicans in Sri Lanka, Methodists
in India, Baptists in Bangladesh and Kazakhstan, and Presbyterians in
Pakistan provide alternative ways of practising the Christian faith in their
national and regional contexts. Certainly, they have much in common with
other Christians in their native lands, especially with other Protestants.
Yet they also bring distinctive theological insights, liturgical traditions and
modes of devotion to the larger Christian community, as well as to their
religious milieu in general.
Second, confessional Protestants and Anglicans add to the richness of
the social life of the whole church, and of society. Through the centuries,
confessional Protestant and Anglican churches have brought into the
Christian fold various groups of people in South and Central Asia who
were not members of the church universal. These groups have made the
Church far more diverse than it was before, and therefore more like the
Christian vision of the kingdom of God, which consists of people from
260 Arun W. Jones
every social background and nation. Confessional churches have also

contributed significantly to social amelioration. They have provided social
services to society at large and provided uplift to millions who chose to
join the faith.
In sum, confessional Protestants and Anglicans have brought diversity
to the church universal as well as to their society and have sought the
welfare of the people in the lands where they have found a home.
Bibliography
Jones, Arun W., ‘Christianity in South Asia: Negotiating Religious Pluralism’, in Charles
E. Farhadian (ed.), Introducing World Christianity (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012),
93–107.
Kent, Eliza F., Converting Women: Gender and Protestant Christianity in Colonial South India
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).
Sharkey, Heather J. (ed.), Cultural Conversions: Unexpected Consequences of Christian
Missionary Encounters in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse
Thangaraj, M. Thomas, ‘Who Is the Other? An Indian Christian Perspective’, Journal of
Ecumenical Studies, 52:1 (winter 2017), 149–57.
Wilfred, Felix (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2014).
Independents
Roger E. Hedlund
At an early time Christianity came to South Asia, where it adapted itself to

the prevailing culture. The most notable example is the Thomas Christian-
ity of South India. Historically, Christianity has a 2,000-year tradition in
South Asia. Cult and culture combined to preserve a community authenti-
cally Christian as well as thoroughly Indian, an integral part of the culture
of the region.
South Asian Christianity experienced rebirth in countless reincarna-
tions, demonstrating the ongoing translatability of the gospel. Attempts
were made in Tamil Nadu, in Bengal and in Maharashtra to express historic
Christianity in independent Indian cultural forms. At Madurai the brilliant
Jesuit scholar Roberto de Nobili (1577–1656) completely Tamilised the
gospel. Tamil Nadu had Vedanayagam Shastriar (1774–1864), H. A. Krishna
Pillai (1827–1900) and others who enculturated the Protestant Christi-
anity of the South. In Bengal the most radical attempts were the Christo
Samaj of Calcutta (1887), led by Kali Charan Banerjee (1847–1902), and the
Church of the New Dispensation of Keshub Chandra Sen (1838–84), who,
however, remained outside the Christian fold. In Maharashtra the Brahmin
poet Narayan Vaman Tilak (1861–1919) brought the richness of the Hindu
bhakti tradition into the Marathi Church.
The term ‘Independents’ in this essay differentiates lesser-known con-
gregations and small clusters from the better-known ‘great tradition’ – the
historic Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic denominations. Frequently
overlooked, the churches and movements of the ‘little tradition’ have
become highly influential in today’s majority world. This essay focuses on
some examples of Independent churches and movements in South Asia.
Independent Churches in Chennai (Madras)

Probably more than any other major city, Chennai (Madras) is home to
a vast number of Christian denominations and institutions, including
Independent churches and related ministries. One such is the Maranatha
Full Gospel Association, founded by Pastor D. Henry Joseph and head-
quartered in Kilpauk. Originally begun as a Bible school of four students,
from it have sprung some 200 churches, six Bible schools and two primary
schools. The Trinity Full Gospel Church, led by Pastor Pratap Singh, begun
262 Roger E. Hedlund
in 1980 as a single congregation, by 1997 had grown to 45 churches with 7,000

members. Some 75% of the members are said to come from non-Christian
backgrounds. The Madras Pentecostal Assembly, with 20,000 members,
led by Pastor Stanley Vasu, is probably the oldest Pentecostal fellowship in
Chennai. The Apostolic Christian Assembly is an influential mega-church
with branches and headquarters in Chennai. The Laymen’s Evangelical
Fellowship is an example of a significant Holiness revival movement based
in Chennai, with branches in Andhra Pradesh and beyond. These are but a
few of many Independent bodies located in and around Chennai.
An interesting feature of Chennai Christianity is the existence of several
independent pastors’ fellowships that serve as informal networks between
Independent churches and leaders of several denominations. Most of
these fellowships meet monthly for inspiration, encouragement, prayer
and exchange of information under the leadership of a key pastor. Groups
may range from 20–25 in number to as large as 400–500. Similar new
Independent churches and movements are found in many parts of India.
A Sadhu and a Woman

Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889–1929) has been widely recognised as a pioneering
figure in the indigenisation of Christianity in India. Reared by his devout
Hindu mother in the best of the Sikh and Hindu bhakti traditions of prayer,
meditation, pilgrimage and study of the Scriptures, these, combined
with the Christian evangelistic tradition, had a decisive impact on young
Sundar’s formation as an Indian Christian sadhu (religious ascetic or holy
person). His was an unshakable devotion to the Living Christ, whom Sundar
claimed to have seen. It was not always so. At age 15, finding no meaning in
life, young Sundar planned to commit suicide. But first he prayed, ‘O God –
if there be a God – show me the right way…’. A bright light appeared, and
then a human figure, not of Krishna or Buddha, but of Jesus, who spoke
to him in Hindi: ‘Why do you persecute me? I gave my life for you on the
Cross.’ Sundar became an immediate devotee of Christ as his Saviour and
Lord. Rather than reject his Hindu-Sikh religious heritage, he embraced
Independents in South and Central Asia, 1970

Region Total Christian Independent % of region % of Christians
population population population Independent Independent
Central Asia 33,315,000 3,859,000 43,100 0.1% 1.1%
South Asia 741,255,000 23,363,000 3,484,000 0.5% 14.9%
Globe 3,700,578,000 1,229,448,000 95,847,000 2.6% 7.8%
Independents 263
it by adopting the Hindu way of life as a sadhu for his confession and
proclamation of the gospel as an independent Christian preacher. Baptised
at Simla, he nevertheless remained free from the imported ecclesiastical
institutions that Westernised the Indian church at that time. Sundar Singh
appropriated the gospel in an Indian mode. His spirituality was marked
by disciplined habits of Bible reading, early-morning prayer and ecstatic
visions centred on Christ. His was an experiential theology. Singh had
considerable influence on the Christian ashram movement and was the
inspiration for several South Indian Independent Christian movements.
The Mukti Church of the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission at Kedgaon
near Pune, Maharashtra, founded by Pandita Saraswati Ramabai
Dongardive (1858–1922), is an indigenous Independent creation, distinct
from ‘missionary’ Christianity, and significant as an early expression of
women’s ministry and leadership. The story of Mukti is tied closely to
that of its remarkable founder, Pandita Ramabai, follower of Christ, who
clearly distinguished the Christian faith from the Western traditions of the
colonisers. In her conversion, Ramabai neither rejected her own cultural
background nor identified with Western observances. Ramabai clearly
identified herself as an evangelical Christian Hindu. In 1897 Ramabai
invited Minnie Abrams, a Methodist Holiness missionary from America, to
minister at Kedgaon. In 1905 a spiritual revival at Mukti was to reverberate
far beyond Kedgaon. Indian Pente costalism claims Ramabai Mukti
Mission as one of its roots in India. The revival spread as Mukti bands
carried the message throughout the Maratha country. The impact of the
awakening, which was characterised by emotional phenomena, was long-
lasting in terms of conversions and changed lives. Ramabai channelled the
enthusiasm of the believing community into famine relief work as well as
social rehabilitation.
Mukti Church continues today. The legacy of ministry to needy women
and children continues. Training of members for ministry in the power of
the Holy Spirit continues to be a distinctive emphasis. Mukti Church bears
the Ramabai imprint of social vision combined with spiritual fervour.
Independents in South and Central Asia, 2015

Region Total Christian Independent % of region % of Christians
population population population Independent Independent
Central Asia 68,705,000 5,450,000 229,000 0.3% 4.2%
South Asia 1,823,308,000 69,834,000 21,125,000 1.2% 30.2%
Globe 7,383,009,000 2,408,048,000 417,884,000 5.7% 17.4%
Mukti Church is a unique indigenous legacy of one of India’s greatest

women, Pandita Ramabai, one of the makers of modern India.
Particularly notable among many others who in various ways appropri-
ated the gospel in an Indian mode are R. C. Das (1887–1976) at Varanasi,
K. Subba Rao (1912–81) in Andhra and Mungamuri Devadas (1875–1960)
of the Bible Mission at Guntur.
Pentecostal-Charismatics
A large cluster of Independent churches consists of Pentecostal fellowships,
denominations and organisations. Some are offshoots of the Indian Pente
costal Church of God (IPC), founded by K. E. Abraham (1899–1974) and
based in Kerala. Others have emerged from the more exclusive Ceylon
Pentecostal Mission (CPM), founded by Pastor Paul Ramankutty (1881–1945)
together with Professor Alwin R. de Alwis in 1923 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Now known as The Pentecostal Mission (TPM), it is a major Pentecostal
denomination based in Chennai, with branches in many countries.
The Apostolic Christian Assembly (ACA), founded in 1948 at Chennai
by Pastor G. Sundram (1909–89) as an independent Pentecostal church,
has a strong appeal to Hindus, many of whom participate in the bilingual
Tamil and English worship, which includes familiar features from Tamil
religious tradition. The charisma of the founder as a saintly religious guru
was passed to his successor, Pastor M. K. Sam Sundaram (1938–2015).
The main church at Purasawalkam has several thousand devotees at its
Sunday services. Baptisms are conducted regularly. More than 100 branch
churches have been planted, and ACA sends missionaries to North India,
where new churches have been planted in Calcutta, Chandigarh, Delhi,
Jabalpur and also in the states of Gujarat, Haryana and Bihar. ACA is a
vibrant model of an Independent South Indian Pentecostal denomination.
At Mumbai the Charismatic New Life Fellowship (NLF) is an indigenous
house-church movement led by Pastor S. Joseph. NLF owns no property but
has thousands of members functioning through cell churches throughout
the city in all the major languages of Mumbai. These and other indigenous
Christ followers have remade ‘missionary Christianity’ into various Indian
models of Independent Christian movements.
Changes in Independents in South and Central Asia, 1970–2015, growth rate, % per year
Region Total population Christian population Independent population
Central Asia 1.62% 0.77% 3.78%
South Asia 2.02% 2.46% 4.09%
Globe 1.55% 1.51% 3.33%
Independents 265
Northeast India (NEI)

Independent Churches of the ‘little tradition’ are part of the Christian
presence in Northeast India (NEI), which has the only states of India where
Christians form a majority of the population, notably Nagaland (87.5%
Christian), Mizoram (86%) and Megalaya (65%). Here virtually all of the hill
tribals are Christians. Almost without exception these fiercely independent
tribal peoples were never either Sanskritised or Islamicised. Today, the
tribal populations of the seven NEI states are primarily Christian.
Among the Independent churches of NEI, the Church of God,
Meghalaya and Assam, is of particular note, founded by local Christians
in 1902, with headquarters in Shillong, later affiliated with the larger
Church of God, Anderson, Indiana, USA. In the 1920s and 1930s other new
Independent churches included the Christ National Church, founded in
1924 by local Christians in Shillong, the Church of Christ in 1933–5 and the
Assembly Church of Jesus Christ (Full Gospel), organised in 1930. The last
is a ‘Renewal’ movement, which through a succession of issues gradually
morphed into an Independent church with its own Charismatic identity,
structure and programme, including the Doulos Bible Institute at Shillong,
founded in 1978 to train leaders.
The Church of the Full Gospel Fellowship (FGF), originally begun
as a para-church organisation in 1974, is a more recent example of an
Independent church. Initial Bible studies brought converts needing
instruction, care and discipleship. This found the Fellowship gradually
assuming additional ‘churchly’ functions. Transition to a full-fledged
church was finalised in 1995. Since that time the Church has developed
rapidly and spread through the towns and villages of Meghalaya state.
Independent churches in Mizoram include the Charismatic Isua
Krista Kohhran, organised in 1971, the earlier Tlira Pawl, founded in
1913, the Pentecostal Zakaia Pawl, organised in 1932, the communitar-
ian Khuangtuaha Pawl (1942), the revivalist Zathangvunga Pawli (1965),
Zoram Maicham (1965), the revivalist Thiangzau Church and the Mizo
Israel Pawl (1951), which believes the Mizos to be one of the lost tribes of
Israel and adheres to an Old Testament Mosaic spirituality.
A proliferation of Independent churches seems characteristic of the
numerous hill tribes and sub-tribes of Manipur, each maintaining its own
distinctive identity. The Revival Church of God, founded in 1970, and the
Christian Revival Church, started in 1975, are examples of full-gospel and
revivalist expression among the Vaiphei and Thadou-Kuki communities,
respectively.
The Nagaland Christian Revival Church, formed in 1962, encourages
singing, dancing, gestures, mass prayers, speaking in tongues and
interpretation thereof, and a holy life evident in fasting, prayer, Scripture
reading and abstinence from intoxicating drinks. Kohima Bible College

and Nagaland Bible Institute and College train evangelists, workers and
missionaries who are sent out to propagate the gospel.
The story of the Rabhas of Assam is important and corrects a common
misunderstanding that assumes the tribal converts to be victims of cultural
imperialism. In contrast to that misinterpretation, the Rabhas themselves
are competent agents who for various reasons chose to become Christians
and made Christianity part of their life and struggles. Education is one
of the benefits offered through Christianity, producing competence for
leadership in the modern world. Most Rabhas describe conversion as
change to ‘a better standard of living’ by which Christians are seen as ‘more
developed’. Conversion for the Rabhas meant adopting a more appropriate
way of life, a new dharma suitable for the modern world, a new and better
way of being Rabha.
Much of the Christian growth in NEI occurred during the twentieth
century, especially in the post-Independence era, following the departure
of the foreign missionaries.
The Assemblies of Brother Bakht Singh

The Indigenous Churches of India (the official name of the assemblies
associated with Brother Bakht Singh) must be mentioned, as well as
numerous Independent local assemblies and several breakaway denomi-
nations in Andhra Pradesh with a similar structure and pattern of worship.
Originally from a wealthy Hindu family in Punjab, Bakht Singh Chabra
(1903–2000) was converted to Christ in 1929 after reading the New Testament
while a student in Canada. After seven years overseas, he returned to India
to witness to his family and to begin an extensive preaching ministry. Bakht
Singh began his ministry in Madras (Chennai) among the various denomi-
national churches, where he stressed the importance of the Bible as the
Word of God. Several remarkable conversions are recorded. Eventually,
however, the churches became closed to the preacher from Punjab.
The first Independent assembly, Jehovah Shammah, was started at
Chennai in 1941 as a ‘true testimony’ for the Lord among people ‘dis-
satisfied with the denominational churches’. Similar assemblies were
established in other places – more than 200 local congregations in the next
20 years. Today, assemblies are found in many parts of India, as well as in
Pakistan and other countries, but especially in Andhra Pradesh. The main
centre is in Hyderabad at Hebron, which was the final resting place of the
late Bakht Singh and is the headquarters of the Indigenous Churches of
India. The Bakht Singh Movement is noted for its Bible-centred preaching
and teaching and for its evangelistic outreach. Leadership of the Jehovah
Shammah saw itself as filling a need at a time when the denominational
Independents 267
churches were caught up in the drive for church union, to the neglect
of evangelism (the Church of South India was inaugurated in 1947).
The assemblies have no official hierarchical structure or paid clergy.
Elders are set apart to guide the spiritual life of the local church. Annual
All-India Holy Convocations have been a means for a nationwide spread
of the assemblies. Statistical information is not readily available, but the
assemblies are widely dispersed in India.
The Movement may be described as ‘Brethren’, with similarities to the
so-called ‘Plymouth’ Brethren in England and the Godavari Delta Mission
in East Andhra, but with distinctive Indian characteristics. Worship is
culturally indigenous with elements derived from familiar local cultural
practices, including similarity to devotional patterns in the Gurdwaras of
Punjab: devotional singing, testimonials and shared experiences in several
languages; the congregation seated on mats on the floor, with participation
by all as moved by the Holy Spirit; and the central prominence of the Bible,
which is systematically expounded for about an hour, with translation as
required. Members carry their Bibles to the service, participate by reading
passages and follow the exposition (a significant functional substitute and
Christian adaptation of the adoration of the Granth in Sikh devotional
practice). Bible teaching is a hallmark of the assemblies. The sermons of
Bakht Singh consist of basic Bible expositions. At least 27 books of his
sermons are kept in print and available at Hebron in Hyderabad. The local
church functions as the base for leadership training. Christian character
and spiritual growth are nurtured in the assembly. Emphasis is given to
systematic Bible study.
The Bible Mission of Father Devadas

In Andhra Pradesh, the Bible Mission of Father Devadas is an example of
a folk Christian religion or folk church in India. The founder, Mungamuri
Devadas (1875–1960), was given the title ‘Father’ by his followers.
Devadas was a Lutheran who taught Telugu in the Lutheran Seminary at
Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, a keen churchman who faithfully observed
the sacraments. In the 1920s he met Sadhu Sundar Singh and served as
Singh’s translator during the Sadhu’s brief visit. It is possible that some of
Devadas’s beliefs came from Sundar Singh. Devadas also believed in extra-
biblical revelation, dreams and visions. The Lutheran Church authorities
became disturbed about teachings apparently not in accord with accepted
doctrines of the Lutheran faith. After missionaries tried but failed to
persuade Devadas to conform to Lutheran teaching, Devadas resigned
his job as an evangelist in the Lutheran mission and, on 31 January 1938,
announced that God had appeared to him in a vision and asked him to
‘come out’ of the Lutheran fold and start a new ‘Bible Mission’.
Devadas was a Telugu poet who wrote more than 50 hymns, 10 of which
appear in the ecumenical Andhra Christian Hymnal serving all Telugu
Christians and churches. He also wrote several small books and pamphlets
and published commentaries on the Book of Revelation and on the Song of
Songs. These works in Telugu reveal much of his theological thought and
his use of imagery in his exposition of the Bible.
When Devadas died in 1960, his body was buried in Kakani Garden,
which has become a popular pilgrim centre. Weekly prayer meetings for
healing were conducted there during Devadas’s lifetime and continue
today. His followers believe that Devadas’s spirit can speak to them even
today through a human medium. A collection of such messages has been
published under the title Jephthah Feast Messages, said to be ‘a parabolic
interpretation of the story of Jephthah’s daughter from the Book of Judges’.
There are reports of hundreds of indigenous Independent church groups
in Andhra Pradesh today. Many have an evolved charismatic leadership
for whom seminary training is optional, lay leadership is valued highly
and gifts of the Spirit are affirmed. Such churches manifest compassion for
the lost, Bible-centred teaching, earnestness in prayer, vibrant worship, joy
and celebration.
Hybrid Religious Borderlands

Movements such as those described above are demonstrations of what
scholars Andrew Walls in The Missionary Movement in Christian History:
Studies in the Transmission of Faith (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996) and
Lamin Sanneh in Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1989) describe as the ‘translatability’ of Christianity
and. Beyond these, there is a more radical transformation of Christianity
in hybrid religious groups in the borderlands between Christianity, Islam
and Hinduism yet confessing explicit faith in Jesus Christ.
The faith relation to Jesus of several Isa-Muslim and Christ bhakti-
Hindu groups transcends the traditional denominational boundaries of
Christianity. Examination of the Isa-Muslims at Dacca, Bangladesh, shows
that faith in Jesus Christ is expressed and apprehended through Islamic
and Bengali concepts, which through extensive translation result in an
indigenous Christianisation. In the case of Khrist Bhaktas (spelt with a ‘K’)
in Chennai, the translation of faith in Christ takes place through elements
from Hindu bhakti religiosity that are brought into the Christian theological
universe. The Bhaktas become devotees at the feet of Christ, and Jesus is
their source of salvation and knowledge. Their faith is centred on Christ
but uses Hindu terminology to help comprehend the meaning of Christ.
Another example of Khrist Bhaktas is found at Varanasi. Roman Catholic
Bishop Patrick D’Souza reports a recent movement in which thousands
Independents 269
of unbaptised devotees from other religions gather regularly to receive

teaching about Jesus and to join in Christian prayers – a spontaneous
movement ‘from the Holy Spirit’. Theologian George Praseed clarifies that
the Khrist Bhakti Movement (KBM) began in 1993 when the Matridham
Ashram of Varanasi opened its doors to the Charismatic movement.
Devotees, the majority women, belong to a variety of castes and professions.
The KBM now outnumbers the Catholic population of Varanasi Diocese
and has spread to several districts in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
At Allahabad, the Yeshu Darbar (Royal Court of Jesus) is presided over
by Bishop Professor Dr R. B. Lal, Vice-Chancellor of the Sam Higginbottom
University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS). The
University is named after the founder of the original Allahabad Agricultural
Institute, Presbyterian missionary and agriculturalist Sam Higginbottom
(1874–1958), whose objective of a first-class college was achieved and
more recently expanded. The gospel is preached and prayers for healing
offered in the Yeshu Darbar services. Many travel long distances by tractor,
bus and lorry, sometimes camping overnight to attend. A growing con-
gregation of 50,000–60,000 Hindu and other devotees of Jesus assemble
weekly in the university football stadium seeking healing and release from
demonic oppression. The services are conducted in the stadium in order
to accommodate the crowds. Yeshu Darbar claims that ‘God is confirming
his word through deliverance, healing and miracles, and the gospel is
preached with power’.
A fascinating example of recent Independent church growth is found
in Punjab (northwest India): contemporary Yeshu satsangs (Jesus Truth-
Gatherings) within the wider Hindu and Sikh contexts. Yeshu bhakti
satsangs among Hindus have leaders from a Hindu bhakti tradition
who tend to de-emphasise temple rituals in preference to devotion to the
teachings of a guru. Leaders find this format conducive to the context and
it helps create a ‘socio-religiously inclusive community that is still a part
of the Hindu framework’. A variation is seen in a satsang among members
of the reformist Arya Samaj sect, whose symbols and practices are quite
different from those of a Hindu Yeshu bhakti satsang. A third category is a
Sikh Yeshu satsang displaying a hybrid mix of Christian and Sikh worship
styles and vocabulary, and attracting people from a variety of castes. All
three types of Yeshu satsang share a common background of exposure to
Christianity and to the Christian mass movements of the late nineteenth
century, which had brought tens of thousands of converts into the church
in Punjab. The resulting Dalit character of the church was shared by all the
historic Protestant denominations as well as the Roman Catholic Church.
A new factor since the 1960s is a rapidly growing Pentecostal presence
and influence in the region. Many Pentecostal churches have active healing
and prayer ministries and present Jesus as the one with the power to cure
diseases, raise the dead and drive away evil spirits — which is particularly
relevant among Sikhs, who fear attacks by evil spirits.
These are some of the beliefs and practices that shape the Yeshu satsang
ecclesial communities that relate well to the wider Hindu, Sikh and
Christian communities. Other practices of Hindu or Sikh origin include use
of indigenous worship music derived from bhakti traditions – the bhajan
in Hindu Yeshu satsangs and the kirtan in Sikh Yeshu satsangs, the use of
which invokes a feeling of reverence, order and devotion. Other worship
objects familiar to satsangis include an oil lamp, incense and coconut. Par-
ticularly in a Hindu context, use of these objects in Yeshu satsang worship
sends a positive message that here one can serve the Lord in an Indian
style. By following familiar cultural practices the satsangis hope to share
their faith with others without the alien trappings of Western Christianity.
The Yeshu satsangs are a church in the process of formation, with many
unanswered questions. Scholars point out that many bhakti movements
and other anti-caste movements that were multi-caste and multi-religious
in composition also experienced substantial growth. Leaders of the Yeshu
satsangs are confident that the pattern they are following is appropriate to
their region and will bear greater numerical fruit in due time.
Pondering the reality of a variety of recent ‘insider’ and ‘emergent’
movements, the theological question arises as to whether God is at work
beyond the confines of Christianity. If so, perhaps these are ‘hermeneutical
spaces’ wherein people drawn to Christ are working out the meaning of
this new life in the light of the cultural and religious resources at hand,
much as the earliest Christians came to terms with the implications of their
allegiance to Christ in relation to their Jewish identity. ‘Dual belonging’
seems understandable in this context, much as Pandita Ramabai regarded
herself as both Christian and Hindu.
Imaginative new ways of discipleship are needed in which those from
widely different traditions are allowed to adapt elements from their
tradition in the service of their own theological reflection. An emergent
interaction between the gospel and ‘inherited dispositions’ makes new
forms of discipleship possible as Christ completes the message of the Hindu
and Sikh scriptures. In this context, to focus on ‘ecclesial communities of
faith’ such as the Yeshu satsangs seems particularly helpful.
Nepali Christianity
The story of the church in Nepal is a record of heroic efforts by Nepali
Christians to reach their own people. Prior to 1950 no Nepali Christians
were resident in Nepal. Nepal was closed to the outside, but Nepali people
managed to seep out into India, where a number of them became Christians
Independents 271
and active evangelists. These Nepali Christians organised their own Gorkha
Mission. Contacts developed along the border, and with excursions into
Nepal as well, but there was no place for Christians in Nepal.
Revolution in 1950 brought change. Secret believers were baptised. In
1953 the Nepal Evangelistic Band received permission to open a hospital
at Pokhara. In 1954 the United Mission to Nepal was permitted to begin
medical work. Other agencies followed, but the story of the Church in
Nepal is one of Nepali Christians, many of them women, penetrating their
country with the gospel. The Nepali Church from its inception has been
indigenous and Independent in character and outlook, with emphasis on
local leadership development. Discipleship schools and Bible schools were
organised during the 1970s and 1980s. Kathmandu today has numerous
small Bible training institutes, one or two seminaries and at least one
fledgling Christian university. The Association for Theological Education
in Nepal (ATEN) serves to provide resources to meet the need of the
growing Nepali Christian movement for leadership training.
In 1991 there were more than 50,000 baptised believers in Nepal. The
exact number of Christians is not known, but in 1996 it was estimated at
about 200,000, and more recently as many as 1 million were reported, as
well as response in the diaspora Nepali community in northern India,
Bhutan and other countries. The witness of the gospel has advanced
despite persecution, imprisonment and other hardships. In 2006 Nepal was
declared a secular state and in 2007 a republic. In 2008 the monarchy was
abolished. Parts of the constitution, however, restrict freedom of religion
and prohibit conversion.
From its very inception Nepali Christianity has been described as
Pentecostal or Charismatic in character. Even before Nepal opened its
doors in 1951, Pentecostal missionaries in India were active on the Nepal
border. Some of the converts were trained at the North India Bible Institute
of the Assemblies of God at Hardoi. In Nepal converts were exposed to
Pentecostal teaching. Besides the Assemblies of God, the Agape Fellowship
and many Independent churches are Pentecostal or Charismatic. Healing
and exorcism are important dimensions of Christian witness in the
animistic context of Tantric Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism. It must
be remembered that Nepali Christianity is in its first century, a church
completely indigenous in origin. The Nepali character of the church is its
distinguishing feature.
Central Asia
What is now Afghanistan hosted a significant Christian community
(Apostolic Church of the East) from the fourth century (prior to Islam)
to the eleventh century. Most of these Christians had been eliminated by
the fifteenth century. Today, the official religion in Afghanistan is Islam,

which is practised by more than 99% of its citizens. As much as 80% of
the population follow Sunni Islam; the rest are Shias. There are also small
minorities of Sikhs and Hindus. A tiny underground Afghan church exists,
composed of former refugees who became Christians during the 1970s
while in other countries.
Since the fall of Soviet Union, the population of Kazakhstan has become
more Muslim (from 35% in 1950 to almost 70% in 2015). The Christian
population, mainly non-Kazakh in ethnicity, is largely Orthodox, though
with significant Catholic and Protestant minorities. Most Independent
groups entered the country after 1990. A significant marginal group is
Jehovah’s Witnesses, now numbering more than 40,000. There are also
Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Korean Presbyterians and various
Pentecostal groups that have been historically Russian, as well as small
Independent churches among ethnic Kazakhs.
In Kyrgyzstan the Church of the East flourished in the sixth and seventh
centuries. A historic church building from this period still stands near a
Buddhist monastery and a Zoroastrian fire temple. In modern times,
Christians have been non-Kyrgyz, primarily Russians who are Orthodox
and Germans who are mostly Catholic, Lutheran or Mennonite. Independ-
ents are mostly found in two large Pentecostal and Charismatic networks,
which have a substantial ethnic Kyrgyz presence.
Islam is an integral part of Tajik culture, which (unlike in the other ‘stans’
in this region) is more closely related to the Persian community than to the
Turkish one. Christianity has always been a minority religion in Tajikistan,
mainly Russian and Orthodox. Today, Christians are less than 1% of the
population. The Independent churches are limited to Korean Pentecostals
and Jehovah’s Witnesses. A small number of Tajik believers are found in
informal networks or house churches.
The vast majority of people in Turkmenistan are Muslim. Christians,
around 1% of the population, are mainly ethnic Russians who are Orthodox.
The Independent churches are Jehovah’s Witnesses and Pentecostals. A
small number of Turkmen believers are found in informal networks or
house churches.
Uzbekistan, too, is predominantly Muslim. The Christian community
was once 7% (also in 1970) but these were Russians, Ukrainians, Armenians
and others (mostly Orthodox). Today, Christians are approximately 1%
of the population and are still largely Orthodox. Independent churches,
however, have significant Uzbek participation. Most are Pentecostal or
Charismatic and meet in informal networks in major cities. In addition,
Koreans run a number of Independent churches, some imported from
South Korea and some begun in Uzbekistan.
Independents 273
Conclusion
Indian Independent churches tend to be ‘grassroots’ expressions of a
popular Christianity of the ‘little tradition’. Indigenous Christianity is an
authentic signature of faith wherever the gospel has taken root. It was ever
so, from the beginning. From Jerusalem onwards, the gospel expressed
itself in translated forms around the Mediterranean world, in Africa, Asia
and Europe. The phenomenon was true of what are now the established
Christian traditions of North America and Europe and is true as well of the
emerging Christianity of India, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific
region.
Bibliography
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(Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2016).
Hedlund, Roger E. (ed.), Christianity Is Indian: The Emergence of an Indigenous Community
(Delhi: ISPCK; Chennai: MIIS, 2004).
Jenkins, Philip, The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in
the Middle East, Africa, and Asia – and How It Died (New York: HarperOne, 2008).
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Evangelicals
Rebecca Samuel Shah and Vinay Samuel
In 2017, in India a church was burned down or a cleric beaten, on average,

about 10 times each week. Such incidents are based on allegations that
conversion to Christianity is the result of force, allurement or threat
of violence. Over the past decade, more and more states in India have
enacted anti-conversion laws, and pressure is mounting to pass a national
anti-conversion law. Ironically called ‘Freedom of Religion’ laws, these
measures mainly seek to restrict poor and outcaste people from converting
to Christianity. Across Central Asia, the outlook for religious freedom is
gloomy. In the US State Department’s 2017 list of the worst violators of
religious freedom, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were ‘countries
of particular concern’. Kazakhstan was not far behind and was listed as a
‘Tier 2’ country. The Central Asian republics all display worrying signs of
returning to Soviet-era type religious repression for Christians who wish
to practise their faith in peace.
What is distinctive about the Asian context is that, compared with
sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, Evangelical Christianity occupies
a minority position. In most South and Central Asian countries, Christians
account for 1–2% of the total population. The only exceptions are Kazakhstan
and Kyrgyzstan, where nearly 26% and less than 6% respectively of the
population are Christians. Although the percentage of Christians in Asia is
remarkably low, the region has the fastest-growing Evangelical population
in the world. The Evangelical population in Asia grew from 17 million in
1970 to over 200 million in 2015. While much of this growth came from
an exponential rise in the number of Evangelicals in China, we also see
significant growth among the burgeoning Pentecostal and Charismatic
churches in parts of India and Sri Lanka.
Asian Evangelicals differ from their counterparts in Latin America and
sub-Saharan Africa in the level and nature of restrictions they experience
on individual and institutional religious freedom. In Latin American, con-
stitutional and legal restrictions on Protestant churches and individuals
had been lifted by the early 1990s. In sub-Saharan Africa, apart from a
few places such as northern Nigeria, systematic repression of Christians is
the exception, not the rule. On the other hand, over the past two decades
in particular, there is widespread and growing societal opposition to
Evangelicals 275
Evangelical Christian individuals, churches and institutions in South and

Central Asia. In parts of India and Pakistan, and in most of the Central
Asian countries, state power is used in some areas to restrict and punish
Evangelical Christian beliefs, practices and institutions, even when these
are not a direct threat to the state or public order. While systematic
repression of Christians is not unique to South and Central Asia, the
religious and political landscape of the region makes opposition to Christi-
anity in general and to Evangelical Christians in particular more pervasive
and more diverse than in other parts of the world.
Empire and Evangelism

The roots of South Asian Evangelicalism can be traced back to the 1706
arrival in Tranquebar (modern day Tharangambadi in the state of Tamil
Nadu) of two Pietist German missionaries, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg
and Heinrich Plütschau. Educational innovations developed by Professor
August Hermann Francke of Halle University in Germany were already
bringing changes in northern Germany and were carried to the shores of
India by the two young missionaries. Francke maintained that true evan-
gelisation would never encompass the world unless all persons were given
the opportunity to read the Word of God in their own mother tongue.
Evangelical Christianity in the south of India was thus firmly planted well
before the British established control in the region in 1801. Other Pietist
missionaries such as Fredrerick Schwartz and Tamil Christian converts
like Vedanyakam Sastri and Satyanathan Pillai worked in collaboration
with state-sponsored agencies such as the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge (SPCK) and later with the Anglican Church Missionary Society
(CMS) and the Society for the Propagation on the Gospel in Foreign Parts
(SPG) to spread the gospel throughout the region.
Understandably, the evangelistic effort of missionaries clashed with
the goals of the East India Company, which controlled vast portions of
India. The success of the East India Company relied to a great extent on
maintaining the goodwill and support of high-caste Hindu elites. Fearing
what they called the ‘proselytising zeal’ of Christians, Company officials
Evangelicals in South and Central Asia, 1970

Region Total Christian Evangelical % of region % of Christians
population population population Evangelical Evangelical
Central Asia 33,315,000 3,859,000 53,100 0.2% 1.4%
South Asia 741,255,000 23,363,000 2,897,000 0.4% 12.4%
Globe 3,700,578,000 1,229,448,000 105,646,000 2.9% 8.6%
276 Rebecca Samuel Shah and Vinay Samuel
forbid missionary entry into Company-ruled territories. Even William

Carey, the ‘Father of the Modern Missionary Movement’, encountered
difficulty in entering India. It was not until the Danish Governor at
Serampore (Srirampur) offered him and his colleagues residence in the
Danish-controlled settlement that the mission became established. After
a long struggle and intense lobbying by leading Company directors like
Charles Grant, the renewal of the East India Charter in 1813 included a
paragraph known as the ‘Pious Clause’ that permitted missionaries to be
sent to the colonies, and those who were denied entry could appeal directly
to the Board of Control.
Even after the Charter Act of 1813 allowed foreign missionaries into
India, the governmental attitude towards missionaries remained cautious
and at times hostile. The rising and sizeable Evangelical communities in
India depended, in part, on the large number of conversions of ‘outcastes’
(henceforth referred to as Dalits) and those who belonged to the lowest
ranks of the social hierarchy, conversions that accelerated in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1928 John Mott, chair of the
International Missionary Council, noted the growth in the numbers of Dalit
converts and suggested that American Methodist bishop and missionary to
India, J. Waskom Pickett (then editor of the journal Indian Witness), conduct
a rigorous study of the conversion movements taking place in India. Mott
asked Pickett to examine both the validity and the quality of the mass
conversion movements sweeping the country.
A Conversionary Movement
A prevailing assumption on the part of mission agencies at the turn of the
nineteenth century, and one that persists to this day, is that those who
convert to Christianity do so primarily to improve their social conditions.
It is largely because of the assumption that the poor convert for social
reasons – or as one of the CMS missionaries put it in 1909, for ‘mixed or very
mixed motives’ – that more and more states in post-independence India
have enacted anti-conversion laws. Called ‘Freedom of Religion’ laws, they
seek to restrict conversion that takes place as a result of ‘force’, ‘allurement’
Evangelicals in South and Central Asia, 2015

Region Total Christian Evangelical % of region % of Christians
population population population Evangelical Evangelical
Central Asia 68,705,000 5,450,000 50,700 0.1% 0.9%
South Asia 1,823,308,000 69,834,000 11,877,000 0.7% 17.0%
Globe 7,383,009,000 2,408,048,000 322,952,000 4.4% 13.4%
Evangelicals 277
or ‘threat’. Suspicions about the motivations of converts and assumptions

about the gullibility of poor converts have even led to renewed calls by the
ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to enact a national anti-conversion bill.
However, central to Evangelical belief and missions is the conviction
that conversion to Christianity is not merely instrumental but gives all
people, and especially the poor and marginalised, a social and religious
identity rooted in a personal faith in a loving God rather than one that is
dependent on the recognition of higher castes. Evangelism enables people
to turn to Christ because they yearn for a personal experience of God that
might otherwise elude them because of their caste or social position. Free
to choose a destiny for themselves and their families, Dalits cease to be
merely recipients of religious beliefs and practices, instead becoming agents
of their own religious journey. A Dalit Christian, although still constrained
by the persistence of caste-based discrimination, might have more mobility
and agency than a caste-bound Brahmin Hindu.
An example of the radical influence of the gospel on the lives of the
poorest of the poor is seen in the case of the Nadars of South India. The
Nadars experienced a remarkable social transformation during the mass
conversion movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Regarded as outcastes, the Nadars experienced enforced debilities and
humiliations. They were excluded from entering temples, and Nadar
women were not permitted to wear clothing from the waist up. Evangelical
Protestant missionaries began social work among them, including setting
up schools and advocating for their cause against the upper castes. Over
time, Christianity made tremendous progress among the Nadars, which
resulted in social mobility and enabled them to obtain middle-class status
around the 1970s. Their descendants are conscious of the transformative
role of the gospel in the lives of individuals and groups, and this is reflected
in their enduring commitment to mission work among tribal communities
like the Dangs and Bhils of North India.
Evangelicalism in South Asia, it is vital to note, succeeds in hostile
environments because it takes advantage of any space available for its con-
versionary tendency and mission. This conversionary zeal is seen in the
Changes in Evangelicals in South and Central Asia, 1970–2015, growth rate, % per year
Region Total population Christian population Evangelical population
Central Asia 1.62% 0.77% −0.10%
South Asia 2.02% 2.46% 3.19%
Globe 1.55% 1.51% 2.51%
‘mass conversion movements’ in parts of India, which until 1947 included

Pakistan. The ‘mass movements’, as they were called by mission agencies
and Indians at the time, swelled the Christian population in British India to
more than 6 million by 1931. By the end of the nineteenth century, significant
numbers of tribal communities and Dalits had converted to Evangelical
Christianity. Almost all of the conversions in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries came from Dalit communities. As the powerful story
of Pastor Mahesh from Punjab in India illustrates, most conversions to
Evangelical Christianity even today occur among Dalits and among those
who are excluded by mainstream society.
Pastor Mahesh stands smiling broadly at the groups of women and men who
file through the doorway of the partially constructed church building in one
of the remote villages in rural Punjab. Mahesh comes from a poor, low-caste
background and used to be an alcoholic before he met Christ in a dream and
turned his life around. He attended a local Bible school and trained as a pastor.
Twenty years ago, Mahesh started a small Independent church with three
people (including his wife). Today he has more than 2,000 members and has
planted five churches in the surrounding villages. Most of his members who
belong to the lowest castes are drawn to the Christian faith because at last they
have an opportunity to find respect and value through being a part of and par-
ticipating in a faith community. For many of Pastor Mahesh’s congregants, who
exist on the periphery of society, conversion to Christianity means being able
to have a faith that is personal and inclusive and not alienating and exclusive.
A defining feature of evangelism in South Asia is the reach of the gospel

to diverse groups of individuals and communities, which has delivered
vast numbers of uneducated people from Dalit backgrounds as well as
high-caste and well educated people like Narayan Vaman Tilak (1861–1919)
and Pandita Ramabai (1858–1922). Both Tilak and Ramabai were part of the
intellectual and social elite in West India who appropriated the Christian
message while remaining true to their Indian culture. Even today, South
Asian mission groups, still thoroughly Evangelical in theology, direct their
outreach to different social groups. Some mission groups focus on evan
gelising growing numbers of young urban professionals who work in cities
like Mumbai, Delhi, Colombo, Lahore and Karachi. Others see the role of
Evangelical outreach to liberate and energise individuals and groups who
are oppressed by caste and poverty.
Underlining Hermann Francke’s earlier admonition that hearts and
souls cannot be won for Christ unless every single person has access to
the Word of God in their vernacular, an important print-based Evangelical
outreach effort called the ‘Every Home Crusade’ began in 1964. The
founders of the mission saw a need for printed material and began to
Evangelicals 279
traverse the country distributing biblical texts. The mission continues to

print and provide millions of Christian tracts and portions of the Bible at
very affordable prices, enabling large numbers of people to come to Christ.
Outreach Dynamics – Healings and Exorcisms

Healing and exorcism have been the key impetus bringing people to Christ
in South Asia. The Gujarat Christian Workers (GCW) mission to the Dangs,
a tribal community in India, exemplifies how Indian Evangelical theology
is marked by an acute awareness of evil and the ways in which all kinds
of misfortune are attributed to capricious acts of evil. (Note that Gujarat
Christian Workers is a pseudonym for a real organisation engaged in
highly sensitive and increasingly dangerous missionary work; it is used
here to protect the identity and security of those associated with it.) GCW
began as a fellowship of Vacation Bible School (VBS) teachers who felt
compelled to pray for people to come to Christ. In the late 1980s, GCW
missionaries set out into the forests of Gujarat to share the gospel and to
bring a transformation in the lives of tribal communities.
While constant poverty and powerlessness have an enervating effect on
a marginalised and predominantly illiterate community like the Dangs or
Bhils of Gujarat, healing and deliverance from evil empower them to believe
in a personal, omnipotent God who listens to everyone and who treats rich
and poor alike. GCW evangelists conduct healings and exorcisms in house
churches where other members of the villages who are interested might
attend. Testimonies and accounts of healed and converted individuals
draw people from neighbouring villages, who form the core of a house
church. Because many of the mission workers had little experience of
tackling evil spirits, they initially hoped to bring people to Christ through
prayer and other forms of evangelism. Since most of the tribal community
were illiterate, tract distribution and other forms of text-based evangelism
were useless. Yet the lingering memory of their history and the transforma-
tion of their own caste gave the GCW missionaries a purposefulness and
confidence that their work of preaching and teaching the gospel of Christ
could restore dignity and freedom to the impoverished Dangs and Bhils.
A New and Evolving Pentecostalism

The primary theological influences of Evangelicalism in Asia were the
Calvinist Reformed movement and the Holiness Methodist movement.
The focus on the authority and infallibility of the Bible was stressed by
missions like the CMS, Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Society and Bible
and Medical Missionary Fellowship, which came from a staunch Calvinist
Reformed theological tradition. The Methodist missions and the churches
that came from the Holiness movement – like the Nazarenes, Wesleyan
Missions, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance – brought to the

mission field an emphasis on discipleship for holy living and particularly
on the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification. It was this openness to
the Spirit’s work that enabled traditional Evangelicals with Reformed or
Methodist/Holiness backgrounds to work closely with Pentecostals and
Charismatics and to form united national fellowships and networks.
For most of the twentieth century, Pentecostalism was a powerful yet
complex part of the religious landscape of South Asia, such that – surpris-
ingly to some – one can already speak of something like four generations
of South Asian Pentecostals. Even so, Pentecostals and Charismatics are
a minority among South Asian Evangelicals. While many Evangelical
Protestant churches have adopted Pentecostal beliefs and worship styles,
Charismatic influences have been minimal in institutions like the mainline
Church of South India. Still, the proportion of South Asia’s Evangelical
population that is now Pentecostal or Charismatic is steadily rising.
Pentecostalism in South Asia is growing at a breakneck pace. Like
everything in India, however, it is growing in a stratified way. The middle-
class Indian Pentecostal movement characterised by mega-churches draws
its inspiration and in some cases its direction from the American Pentecostal
movement. This movement will continue to cater to urban middle-class
young people who favour its Western-style worship and its understanding
of the demands that modernity places on people. While American-style
mega-churches are being constructed to cater to one group of middle-
class and upwardly mobile Pentecostals in South Asia, a lesser-known but
equally dynamic track of Pentecostal growth winds its way through the
villages and slums of South Asia. These are the ubiquitous ‘Independent
churches’ – reminiscent of ‘storefront’ churches in urban America – that
are self-supporting micro-communities, separate from all mainstream de-
nominations, that unabashedly proclaim the full use and manifestation of
the Pentecostal gifts of the spirit. They are home largely to Dalits and poor
members of the lower castes.
Radical Discipleship and Kingdom Theology

While the Evangelical movement in South Asia regards the proclamation of
the gospel to non-believers as the primary task of the church, and though
there is a strong emphasis on evangelism with a view to conversion, Evan-
gelicalism in South Asia is rooted in a strong commitment to give primacy
to both the practice of evangelism and the care of the poor. Like their
counterparts in Britain who fought against the transatlantic slave trade,
Evangelicals in South Asia felt a moral compulsion to stand up against
the caste system. Evangelicals felt that caste-based segregation was an in
trinsically sinful system and that it was therefore their moral and religious
Evangelicals 281
duty to oppose it and to counter it by providing education and social

uplift to the poor and marginalised. The integration of social activism and
evangelism in the early life of the Evangelical movement in South Asia was
also a response to the real challenges of working and serving Christ in a
context in which they were clearly a minority faith.
From very early on in the movement, an eschatological urgency was at the
heart of missions. Evangelicals in South Asia were focused on the coming of
the Kingdom of God. They believed that in order to prepare themselves for
the ‘not yet’ they were called to serve Christ in the ‘already’. While Evan-
gelicals remained committed to the second coming of Christ, their theology
convinced them that the Kingdom was in a real sense already present and
the world therefore stood in urgent need of redemption. Compelled by this
theology, Evangelicals set out to fulfil a Kingdom agenda to restore justice
and serve a Church with real human needs.
In 1981 Vinay Samuel, an Indian theologian and Anglican priest (and
co-author of this chapter), brought together theologians and practitioners
from around the globe to create the International Fellowship of Evangelical
Mission Theologians (INFEMIT). INFEMIT provided valuable leadership
on issues of holistic mission, evangelism, proclamation, church planting
and social transformation. Inspired and empowered by the 1974 Lausanne
Covenant, which affirmed social action as an Evangelical obligation, Samuel
and other key Evangelicals in the global South firmly maintained that God’s
vision of society is actualised in social, economic and spiritual relation-
ships, so that God’s love is experienced by all communities, but especially
the poor. These leaders challenged a persistent and deep-seated view
among some Evangelicals in the West that regarded efforts to secure justice
for the poor as distractions from the true purpose of mission – evangelism
and church-planting. Under the leadership of Indians such as Imachaba
Bendang Wati (the first non-Western President of the World Evangelical
Fellowship), Thomas Samuel and Dan Prabhakar, holistic missions steadily
advanced their work to achieve equitable development, seek justice and
serve the poorest and most marginalised in their communities in South
Asia and beyond.
Evangelical Political Involvement

Ever since the holistic gospel approach found its way into the conscious-
ness and practice of Evangelicalism in South Asia, Evangelicals have played
an active role in politics. Today, Evangelicals in South Asia attempt to
influence policy and political outcome in a variety of ways. In some cases,
Evangelical churches seek to influence particular political or social issues
by organising protests or speaking out against them from the pulpit. Some
Evangelical churches in India speak out about issues concerning affirmative
action in relation to Dalits. In Pakistan, Evangelical churches endorse

particular politicians (whether or not they are Christians) who oppose the
country’s repressive Blasphemy Law. The Evangelical Fellowship of India
(EFI) documents the extent and nature of violence against Christians in
India; its reports are often used by the international community to identify
restrictions on religious freedom in India.
Direct political involvement is another way Evangelicals seek to
influence the political process. Eran Wickramaratne, the son of prominent
Evangelical pastor Colton Wickramaratne, is a cabinet minister in the
current United National Party government in Sri Lanka. Eran’s political
vision, informed by his Evangelical faith, is to uphold justice and work to
bring peace in a country that experienced a devastating 30-year civil war
that ended only in 2009.
Central Asia
Although Central Asian independence brought a brief respite for Christians
in general and Evangelical Christians in particular, the repressive religious
policies of the Soviet era have re-emerged to restrict religious freedom in
the region. The story of Evangelical Christians in these countries is one of
awe-inspiring persistence of faith in the face of relentless repression.
However, in some Central Asian countries the relationship between
Evangelical Christians and the state in the early years of independ-
ence began with promising signs for a new era of freedom. For example,
independent Kyrgyzstan adopted a law on freedom and religion on 16
December 1991 which sought to protect the religious rights of all believers.
Heartened by the favourable press for its respect for human rights and
its progress toward democratisation, large numbers of humanitarian and
religious organisations applied for and received official permission to work
in the country. Fifteen years later, in May 2006, the Kyrgyz parliament
passed a law forbidding proselytising and imposing harsh new rules for
the registration of Christian organisations. Sadly, today the discrimina-
tion against and outright harassment of Christians, including Evangelical
Christians, in Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries bears a striking
resemblance to the horrors of persecution during the Soviet era.
Protestant communities, along with Catholics, appeared in Central Asia
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Numerous immigrants
from places like Germany and Poland arrived in the newly colonised
areas. The numbers of Christians, including those of European decent,
increased steadily after the Second World War as Volga Germans from
Russia, German prisoners of war and Poles were deported to Central Asia.
Throughout the twentieth century, Evangelicals, including large numbers
of Baptists, actively served the local communities. After the Iron Curtain
Evangelicals 283
lifted in 1991, Evangelicals began to expand their efforts to evangelise

local Central Asian communities. Some Evangelical groups reported that
significant numbers of Kyrgyz, Kazakhs and Uzbeks were baptised.
Spurred by increasing repression of Christians and systematic discrimi-
nation against people of European descent in employment, Christians
began to leave Central Asia. This led to a drop in the number of Christians
in the region. Evangelicals who work in the region operate quiet but
effective missions to evangelise indigenous populations. Koreans deported
to Central Asia from close to the North Korean border under Stalin play
a significant role in Central Asian Christianity, but even they face dis-
crimination from Central Asian governments. Today, despite significant
post-Soviet emigration, Christians are still numerous in Central Asia.
Although Christians account for less than 5% of the population in Turk-
menistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, they form sizeable minorities in
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
A few Evangelical Christian organisations with pre-Soviet roots
remained active in Central Asia as unregistered groups and faced
significant repression into the 1980s. The arrival of the glasnost reforms in
the mid to late 1980s allowed some Evangelical organisations to legalise and
gave them the freedom to openly practise their faith and set up religious
humanitarian organisations and theological colleges.
An interesting and noteworthy feature of Evangelical activity in Central
Asia is seen in the work of Korean Evangelicals. Beginning in the late 1990s,
Evangelical Korean church and mission organisations began to minister
to the large number of Koreans whose ancestors had been deported by
Stalin. In the 1990s it was estimated that around 20,000 Christians lived
in Uzbekistan. Today, despite severe persecution and surveillance of
Christians, Korean Baptists continue to actively evangelise groups of
indigenous Turkic people in Uzbekistan. Korean Evangelicals are par-
ticularly adept at evangelising the indigenous people of Central Asia, in
part because they have common racial and linguistic ties. Koreans and
Kazakhs, for example, both speak an Altaic language. As a result, Korean
Evangelicals are able to learn Kazakh and other indigenous dialects faster
than Western missionaries. Almost 900 Korean mission churches are now
found in Central Asia.
Since 2008, however, repressive laws on religions, such as stringent
registration requirements for religious groups, make working in the
region both costly and difficult, even for approved groups like Catholics.
In most cases, a church needs between a hundred and several thousand
signatures before it can officially register. Unfortunately, signing a regis-
tration document during the application process might expose the names
of new converts and risk revealing their identities to the government.
Sadly, these and other stringent laws have pushed churches to exist now
as underground house churches.
Of all the Central Asian republics, Uzbekistan imposes the most severe
restrictions on church activities. Churches survive by remaining ‘inactive’
and maintaining their faith within the limits of the officially registered
church premises. In cases where churches attempt to become ‘active’ and
host Sunday schools, Bible studies, theological colleges and discipleship
programmes, they face problems with the authorities and risk having their
official registration revoked. In Uzbekistan, for example, official records
indicate that no new churches have been registered since 1999.
Remnants of Soviet-era efforts to undermine religious education for
children still exist in some Central Asian countries. In Tajikistan, the 2001
Parental Responsibility Law prohibits group religious education for children
under 18 years of age from any institution other than ones approved by
the state. Unofficial and ‘underground’ churches are strictly forbidden to
educate children. This law is particularly difficult for Christians who seek
to minister to the large numbers of young people through youth camps or
vacation Bible schools, which are strictly forbidden in cases where an or-
ganisation is not registered by the state. Such restrictive religious policies
permit hardly any religious influence on an important and growing
demographic in the region.
Besides facing restrictions on religion’s social parameters and insti-
tutional presence, thus forcing religion to be a completely private affair,
Evangelical Christians are the victims of both increasing state-level re-
strictions on religious freedom that are not unlike those of the Soviet era
and societal discrimination such as workplace exclusion and violence. In
addition, intolerant strands of revivalist movements in Islam – such as
Salafism and Wahhabism – are changing the Islamic character of societies. If
discovered, converts are harassed and, in some cases, denied access to their
Muslim families’ traditional burial sites. In certain countries, Orthodox
Church leaders have supported the efforts of some Muslim clerics (ulema)
to restrict Evangelical missionary activity. In some countries, the Orthodox
Church and the ulema have joined forces to lobby for far-reaching restric-
tions on Evangelicals and their institutions, whom many regard as the
bearers of potentially objectionable ‘Western ideas’.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Evangelical churches and organisations
became acutely aware of the immense social problems of Central Asia and
the destruction of the region’s moral fabric brought about by decades of
communism. Evangelical missionaries and agencies stepped in to serve
those they saw as ‘morally destroyed’ by atheism and where the poor,
in particular, faced the social costs of alcoholism and drug abuse, as well
as high rates of illiteracy, prostitution and unemployment. Overcoming
Evangelicals 285
substance abuse through prayer and interventions by Evangelical mission-

aries is one of the main reasons given for conversion in Central Asia.
Across Central Asia, some Evangelical missionaries continue to spread
the gospel but remain vigilant about when and how they evangelise.
For example, the New Apostolic Church, which has been registered in
Uzbekistan since 1999, is keen to retain its official status and has chosen
to avoid activities like education, civil society work and evangelisation.
Pastors know that in order to keep their registration they must be careful to
evangelise only in their sermons and during church activities. Many Evan-
gelicals who lived under the weight of Soviet repression feel that conditions
have changed little for them in Central Asia. Some church leaders accept
that in order to survive they must keep silent even amid tremendous and
often life-threatening repression. However, a few Evangelical leaders
in the region also feel that their strategy of political quietism might be
ineffective in the long run because they have forfeited their moral authority
by ignoring the regime’s abuses of religious freedom and also failed to win
new members for Christ.
Behind the repression, the Evangelical community in Central Asia
seems to be emerging silently yet powerfully as a strong witness for Christ
and his kingdom. While it is nearly impossible for Evangelicals to develop
friendly relationships with government officials, some churches have built
goodwill and demonstrate their capacity for service by working with the
needy in their communities. Converts recount how working in orphanages,
helping the sick or working with prisoners gives them a sense of purpose,
while being enveloped in the close-knit house-church communities enables
people to recover the meaning of ‘living in community’.
Liberal government policies in the early 1990s opened the door to many
Christian non-governmental agencies in Kyrgyzstan, but stringent laws
enacted in 2006 and 2008 have clamped down on religious groups, including
religious humanitarian agencies. In some cases, Christian agencies like the
YAVNA Foundation, which was started to provide education and housing
for orphans, indicate that they serve a useful communal purpose. Many
para-church organisations, while local in origin, obtain assistance from
Western churches. Although embattled, Evangelicals in the region address
a diverse array of human needs. They work with refugees by helping them
get passports and visas, which are important documents to help them obtain
legal status. They provide small and medium-sized loans to aspiring entre-
preneurs in post-conflict areas like Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan. Christian
social and economic organisations are involved in caring for the elderly,
providing vocational training, organising computer classes for local youth
and unemployed adults, and working to bolster civil society to address
government corruption.
Conclusion
Evangelical engagement in South and Central Asia plays an important role
in transforming the lives of individuals and communities. In the highly
hierarchical societies prevalent in Asia, Evangelical witness fosters greater
agency, hope, dignity and confidence among those who are excluded and
marginalised. It is vital to note that while frequently centred on evangelism
and personal witness, Evangelicals in the region also act in robust and
creative ways to promote the overall social, economic and political
wellbeing of their societies.
Bibliography
Collins, Kathleen, ‘Christian Repression and Survival in Post-Soviet Central Asia’, in Daniel
Philpott and Timothy Samuel Shah (eds), Under Caesar’s Sword: How Christians Respond to
Persecution (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 162–98.
Harper, Susan Billington, In the Shadow of the Mahatma: Bishop Azariah and the Travails of
Christianity in British India (London: Routledge, 2015).
Lumsdaine, David Halloran, Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Asia (Oxford: Oxford
Samuel, Vinay and Christopher Sugden, Mission as Transformation: A Theology of the Whole
Gospel (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2009).
Samuel Shah, Rebecca and Joel Carpenter, Christianity in India: Conversion, Community
Development, and Religious Freedom (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 2019).
Pentecostals and Charismatics
Ivan Satyavrata
The staggering diversity that marks South and Central Asia is reflected in
the various expressions of the church that have emerged from the earliest
years of the Christian era but that are manifested to an even greater degree
in the various movements broadly categorised as Pentecostal/Charismatic
that have arisen more recently. The limitations of this descriptive essay
include, firstly, the sheer scope of the task, given not only the massive
numbers of peoples, but also the fact that they comprise thousands
of sub-cultures, ethnic and racial sub-groups, tribes, religious sects,
castes, classes and other social groupings scattered all across the various
countries within this region. A second constraint is posed by the dearth of
available resources with regard to most countries within the region and
the difficulty in accessing them. The limited amount of published material
thus means that the observations focus more on countries for which data
are more readily available. Perhaps the most formidable challenge has to
do with the nature of the confessional stream in focus. Given that it is not a
monolithic church ‘tradition’ with a centralised polity or unified organisa-
tion, attempts to describe Pentecostal/Charismatic movements anywhere
in the world routinely face this challenge. The heterogeneous character of
Pentecostal/Charismatic movements in South and Central Asia is further
intensified due to the multiple and highly complex political, social, ethnic
and cultural factors at play. Within view is a wide range of Christ-cen-
tred ‘Spirit’ movements, with disparate beliefs, practices and degrees of
organisation, which we characterise as `Pentecostal/Charismatic’ based on
a few key features or family resemblances.
Beginnings
The earliest record of a modern Pentecostal outpouring in this region is of
its occurrence in India. The Pentecostal movement in India traces its roots
to a revival that broke out in May 1860 in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil
Nadu in South India in the ministry of a Tamil Anglican catechist named
John Christian Aroolappen. The revival was accompanied by various
spiritual manifestations, including visions, prophecy, healing, unknown
tongues and other Charismatic gifts, as well as intense conviction of
sin, conversion of unbelievers, concern for the poor, and people falling
288 Ivan Satyavrata
down under spiritual power. This movement had spread westward into
the neighbouring Travancore district in Kerala by 1874–5, where similar
phenomena were reported.
Four and a half decades later a series of revivals swept across India, in
1905–6, first in the Khasi Hills of Northeast India and then in the Mukti
Mission led by Pandita Ramabai and Minnie Abrams in West India. The
outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the Mukti Mission of Pandita Ramabai
in Pune, India, in June 1905 became widely known and hence more
commonly regarded as the origin of the Pentecostal revival in this region.
This awakening – accompanied by Pentecostal-like phenomena, including
prophecy, dreams, visions and ‘tongues of fire’ – encompassed most
Protestant groups and spread to other parts of India, including Bombay,
Madras, Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat and Bengal.
The emergence of Pentecostalism in Sri Lanka is closely linked to the
impact of American missionaries Alfred and Lillian Garr on the ministry of
a Church Missionary Society (CMS) worker named D. E. Dias Wanigasekara
in 1907. However, a Danish Pentecostal woman, Anna Lewini, who from
1919 spent more than three decades of her life in Sri Lanka, is considered
the real founder of Pentecostalism in Sri Lanka.
The rise of Pentecostalism in Bangladesh goes back to when it was the
East Bengal Province of British India. In 1927 a Muslim convert, Abdul
Wadud Munshi, had an experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit
through the ministry of American Assemblies of God missionary Maynard
Ketchem, stationed close to Kolkata. Munshi eventually returned to East
Bengal, where he launched a powerful Pentecostal ministry in the face of
severe opposition.
The Pentecostal movement in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh thus had
early beginnings, close to the outpourings experienced in other parts of the
world. Pentecostalism in Iran, too, had an early start, in the work of Andrew
Urshan, the son of an Iranian Presbyterian who received the baptism in
the Holy Spirit in 1908 in Chicago, where he started a Persian Pentecostal
mission. He returned to Iran as an Assemblies of God missionary in 1914
Pentecostals and Charismatics in South and Central Asia, 1970

Region Total Christian Pentecostal/ % of region % of Christians
population population Charismatic Pentecostal/ Pentecostal/
population Charismatic Charismatic
Central Asia 33,315,000 3,859,000 15,400 0.0% 0.4%
South Asia 741,255,000 23,363,000 2,949,000 0.4% 12.6%
Globe 3,700,578,000 1,229,448,000 60,965,000 1.6% 5.0%
and helped to establish an enduring Pentecostal church despite much

persecution.
The Pentecostal movement in Nepal owes its beginnings to the ministry
of Barnabas Rai at an Assemblies of God mission station on the Indian side
of the Nepal–India border in 1936. He led many Nepalis to Christ and to
the Pentecostal experience and then moved to Nepal in 1951, where he
continued his ministry. We are aware of the existence of Pentecostal groups
in Central Asian countries after the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991,
following the entrance and involvement of foreign missionaries in the
region. Details concerning the rise of Pentecostalism in the other countries
in the region are either hard to access or yet to be documented.
Lines of Development and Organisation

Following the development of the Pentecostal movement across South and
Central Asia is even more challenging than tracing its origins. In most cases
the Pentecostal presence in this region is the result of spontaneous Spirit-
inspired revivals that have given rise to the emergence of new indigenous
church movements. There are, however, several racial, regional, ethnic
and sociological factors unique to the region that have influenced the wide
range of social, ecclesial and organisational expressions the Pentecostal
movement has taken in South and Central Asia.
The emergence of Pentecostalism in the region coincided with a period
of marked geopolitical instability and turbulence. Events such as the
partition of India in 1947 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early
1990s and the resulting political reconfiguration have caused intense,
ongoing ethnic tension and regional conflict. The ambivalent response to
the Charismatic movement from the older, established churches, such as
the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, that have been entrenched
and influential in the region for centuries, has also had a significant impact,
especially in Central Asian countries.
While some church movements have closely guarded their indigenous
identity, others have welcomed outside relationships and developed
Pentecostals and Charismatics in South and Central Asia, 2015

Region Total Christian Pentecostal/ % of region % of Christians
population population Charismatic Pentecostal/ Pentecostal/
population Charismatic Charismatic
Central Asia 68,705,000 5,450,000 217,000 0.3% 4.0%
South Asia 1,823,308,000 69,834,000 23,093,000 1.3% 33.1%
Globe 7,383,009,000 2,408,048,000 635,356,000 8.6% 26.4%
290 Ivan Satyavrata
fraternal links with overseas denominational and independent groups.

In a few cases, the Pentecostal emphasis has come through missionary
influence from the West or neighbouring countries. Other factors that have
shaped the form of Pentecostalism in the region include the widespread
influence of independent healing evangelists (through mass healing and
evangelistic campaigns and their television ministries) and the emergence
of various entrepreneurial Pentecostal para-church agencies. These are just
some of the elements that have contributed to the insularity, parochialism
and fragmentation that have made Pentecostal movements in this region
among the most diverse in the world.
It appears that the earliest Pentecostal group in the region to take on
the nature of an organised movement was the Indian Assemblies of God,
formed in 1918 by a small group of missionaries and formally constituted
two years later as the North India District Council of the Assemblies
of God. It included within its jurisdiction what is today Pakistan and
Bangladesh. The South India and Ceylon (today Sri Lanka) District Council
of the Assemblies of God emerged a little later. The Assemblies of God
is currently the largest Pentecostal group with a global/trans-national
identity, having national fellowships that identify themselves explicitly as
Assemblies of God in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and
Iran. This includes groups that have ties to the Assemblies of God–USA,
Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada and sister fellowships in Australia, the
UK, Singapore, Latin American countries and other parts of the world.
There are strong national church bodies affiliated with the World
Assemblies of God Fellowship (WAGF) in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and
Kazakhstan. A number of workers from different WAGF member countries
also have varying degrees of presence and influence in the more restricted-
access countries in the region, ranging from significant in Tajikistan and
Afghanistan to minimal in Turkmenistan and the Maldives.
Other trans-national denominations or groups with a presence in this
region include the Church of God (Full Gospel), Foursquare Church,
Pentecostal Holiness Church and United Pentecostal Church. Their overseas
Changes in Pentecostals and Charismatics in South and Central Asia, 1970–2015, growth
rate, % per year
Region Total population Christian population Pentecostal/Charismatic
population
Central Asia 1.62% 0.77% 6.06%
South Asia 2.02% 2.46% 4.68%
Globe 1.55% 1.51% 5.35%
links have helped bring system and structure to some local movements, as
foreign mission partners have shared financial, human, theological and or-
ganisational resources. This then has often led to local churches and church
networks developing a trans-national organisational relationship or being
incorporated into a global fellowship. In time we see movements that were
spontaneous and lacking in organisation gradually becoming consolidated
through organisation, property acquisition, leadership development and
the establishment of educational and social-ministry units.
The birth of the Indian Assemblies of God is closely linked with the
genesis of two other large Pentecostal groups in the region: the Ceylon
Pentecostal Mission (today known simply as The Pentecostal Mission),
started in 1923, and the Indian Pentecostal Church of God, founded in
1933. These are among the earliest of Pentecostal groups in the region that
view any firm overseas organisational ties and alliances as compromising
their indigenous identity and hence choose to preserve their independent
national, regional or ethnic distinctiveness. Many of these began as
individual local churches planted by a charismatic founder-leader, which,
through multiplication, have grown to exert regional impact and, in some
cases, have even developed a pan-national presence. Others are independent
local churches of the congregational type that have become Charismatic as
the result of a spiritual revival or of embracing Pentecostal teaching and
practice. This grouping is the most heterogeneous and also constitutes the
largest segment of Pentecostals/Charismatics in the region. Some of these
have begun to reach out to neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bhutan
and Bangladesh, and several have branch churches in Middle Eastern
countries as well as in North America. The better-known among these are
the Mumbai-based New Life Fellowship, Christian Revival Church and
Full Gospel Fellowship in northeast India; Filadelphia Church in the north;
and Apostolic Christian Assembly, Maranatha Revival Church, New India
Church of God and Sharon Fellowship Church in the south.
The emergence of indigenous non-denominational Pentecostal mission
agencies is a distinct feature of Pentecostalism in the region, especially
in India, contributing significantly to the development and growth of
indigenous missions in the region. Agencies such as Blessing Youth Mission,
India Evangelical Team, Native Missionary Movement and Gospel Echoing
Missionary Society (GEMS), among others, have been involved in church
planting in strategic areas where significant numbers of people of other
faiths are being reached and faith communities established.
While the impact of the Charismatic movement upon the mainline
Protestant Church in the region is less observable, and hence difficult to
assess, the impact on the Roman Catholic Church has been significant,
especially in the Mumbai and Bangalore areas and in some southern states.
292 Ivan Satyavrata
Despite problems caused by significant losses in membership to Pentecostal

and independent Charismatic groups, the movement continues unabated.
The Charismatic movement within mainline churches has been fanned
and nourished through a number of para-church organisations and non-
denominational networks that have emerged around various charismatic
evangelists, prophets and other cult figures. Among the most influential
figures with a mass following are Paul Dhinakaran, Mohan C. Lazarus and
Father S. J. Berchmans, but there are scores of others with considerable
followings in the mainline churches. These leaders have large groups of
followers in mainline Catholic and Protestant churches. Groups like these
constitute a somewhat fluid, but distinct and influential, component of the
Charismatic movement in India.
During the earlier decades of their emergence, Pentecostal/Charismatic
movements in the region were viewed largely with suspicion and even
hostility by the older churches. This was largely due to the perception that
their offer of an alternative form of Christianity was based on the pursuit
of a subversive agenda and a threat to the survival of mainline denomina-
tions. These fears were not groundless, because while Pentecostal outreach
did make significant inroads among the unchurched, the earliest layers
of a local church or movement often consisted of members of Roman
Catholic, Orthodox or older Protestant churches. With time, however,
Pentecostals – especially in South Asia – for the most part have found
growing acceptance in mainline Christian circles and participate actively
in various interdenominational organisations and networks, in which they
are welcomed. This is true to a lesser degree in Central Asian countries,
where the Orthodox churches continue to view Pentecostals askance as
sectarian and even cultic in nature.
Autochthonous–Global Identity
In contrast to the older Christian traditions in the region, whose liturgies,
polities, architecture and even theologies continue to reflect the influence
of earlier eras of missionary transmission, Pentecostal movements have
found it easier to take on indigenous cultural clothing. One of the reasons
is rooted in the arousal of national and cultural identity emerging from the
colonial experience of most South Asian countries. The Church in India
and Sri Lanka, for instance, had been engaged in a quest for a culturally
indigenous Christian identity for almost a century prior to the twentieth-
century Pentecostal revival, and Christians there have rich contextualised
theological traditions of their own. As more recent players, Pentecostals
and Charismatics are able to build naturally on this pre-existing tradition.
A second reason relates to their own histories, by which most
Pentecostal groups in the region can claim spontaneous beginnings and
early development apart from any outside influence. Furthermore, some

of those groups that have enjoyed the benefit of overseas influence and
support have also benefitted from missionary pioneers who emphasised
indigenous principles at an early stage and facilitated the development of
national leadership.
A third reason has to do with the autochthonous character of Pente-
costalism itself: its emphasis on the freedom of the Spirit makes it readily
adaptable to a variety of cultures. Cultural diversity within the Pente
costalism in this region thus reflects the rich diversity of the various
cultures and ethnicities present there. In their emphasis on expressive
worship, spontaneous prayer, the exercise of spiritual gifts, signs, wonders
and exorcism, and their ready acceptance of the supernatural, Pentecostals
express continuity with local religious aspirations. The freedom of physical
and emotional expression one observes in Pentecostal worship in India, for
instance, bears striking similarities to the devotional patterns within the
bhakti devotional tradition in Hinduism.
On the other hand, while the Spirit leads Pentecostals/Charismatics to
assimilate some aspects of the culture of the region, the Spirit also liberates
them from other aspects. These reactionary features often constitute the
points of commonality Pentecostals in the region share with the ‘global
culture’ of the worldwide Pentecostal movement. An excellent illustration
may be observed in Kyrgyzstan, where a new but growing indigenous
Christian movement has begun to view Christianity as closer to Kyrgyz
culture and traditions than Islam. Its members adopt Kyrgyz cultural
symbols and traditions and worship using Kyrgyz traditional musical
instruments and Kyrgyz language while seated on traditional woollen
carpets rather than on chairs. On the other hand, there is a wide variety
of expression in Christian worship, with Russian- and English-language
worship songs being translated and used. We thus see Kyrgyz Christians
attempting to hold together their Kyrgyz identity and global Christian
identity along with Christians around the world.
This autochthonous–global tension is sometimes expressed in unhealthy
imbalances. For instance, the ethical rigour in some expressions of South
Indian Pentecostalism clearly betrays the cultural propensity towards
asceticism endemic to Hindu spirituality. The rigid legalism observed in
some quarters can include not only strict abstinence from alcohol, tobacco
and other intoxicants but also discarding the use of gold ornaments,
foregoing ‘worldly’ fashions, amusement and entertainment, and insistence
on celibacy for the pastoral leadership.
On the other hand, unhealthy global influence can also be observed
in some of the teaching and practices borrowed from the West, often
determined by the latest trend in North American, Latin American or
294 Ivan Satyavrata
African Pentecostalism as expounded by a visiting preacher, itinerant

missionary or television evangelist. The enduring influence and future
survival of the Pentecostal movement in the region will depend upon the
extent to which it succeeds in challenging, transforming, filling and owning
the indigenous cultures it has managed to penetrate.
Experience-oriented Spirituality
A personal experience of the Spirit is undeniably the central focus of
Pentecostal spirituality. This is a key feature of Pentecostalism all across
Central and South Asia as well. A young man in eastern Afghanistan tells
this story:
I had a copy of the Injil [New Testament] and had read parts of it. One morning
I awoke early and went to the forest for a walk in the cool part of the day. On
my walk I was met by Isa Masi [Jesus]. I was so amazed! The next day I got
up early to see if we could meet again. Yes, he was there! I was afraid to tell
anyone because I thought he might not come back. Every day for three months
I walked with him in this forest.
Such stories of supernatural encounters through visions and dreams, and

of miraculous healings and even of the dead being raised to life, are part of
the common experience of Pentecostals/Charismatics all across the region.
The ease with which the supernatural worldview of Pentecostals connects
with the various pre-Christian worldviews in the region is a key factor
contributing to the rapid spread of Pentecostalism. A major facilitator of
its cultural adaptability in the region is that the Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist
and tribal worldviews take the spirit world and supernatural phenomena
seriously. For instance, popular Kyrgyz traditional spirituality displays a
distinct openness to supernatural and other-worldly interventions in life.
Experiences of supernatural healing and of deliverance from the power of
evil forces are thus common factors in Christian conversion in Kyrgyzstan.
This appeal also resonates deeply with the aspirations of the Hindu
religious tradition of the majority population in South Asia, in which an
authentic experience of the divine is the attesting mark of any true spiritu-
ality. Pentecostals in the region thus generally display a persistent thirst
for spiritual revival and earnestly seek after spiritual God encounters. Love
of revival meetings, healing crusades, fasting and prayer, and ‘tarrying’
meetings, marked by intense and emotional participation by those present,
are thus essential aspects of the Pentecostal culture in the region.
There is also a characteristic emphasis on Charismatic gifts, especially
healing, prophecy and tongues. Much of the success of Pentecostalism in
seeing large numbers of people of other faiths turning to Christ is due to
the impact of ‘power encounters’ in which the sick experience miraculous
healing and the demonised are delivered from the power of evil spirits.
This sometimes leads to enthusiastic excesses, especially in South India,
where Pentecostal prophets are practically treated as soothsayers and often
accorded the authority and status of Hindu gurus.
The strength of Pentecostalism is its promise of a real and immediate
experience of a near-at-hand God who gives tangible evidence of his
powerful presence in the church. On the other hand, Pentecostalism’s
positive orientation to the spiritual tradition in the region also presents the
Christian witness in the region with potential pitfalls. The spirituality of
the dominant religious-philosophical traditions in South Asia is strongly
influenced by monistic tendencies. It is thus easy for Pentecostal spirituality
to be assimilated and overpowered by Hindu monism, undermining the
idea of divine and human personhood and erasing the distinction between
the Holy Spirit and human spirit. We see evidence of this in some aspects
of Pentecostal worship in which spiritual phenomena are given priority
over meaningful relational engagement and in teaching that tends to exalt
exercise of spiritual gifts over life transformation and spiritual maturity.
The ascetic tendencies within Pentecostalism reflect the influence of
Hindu mystical spirituality, which also lacks any meaningful basis for
practical ethical involvement and engagement in socio-political issues.
If Pentecostal spirituality is to survive deeper levels of encounter with
indigenous cultures and spiritualities in the region, it must be grounded
in the Christ-event, guided by an informed reading of the testimony of
Scripture and illumination by the Spirit.
Social Engagement
Although Christian missions in the region have traditionally found greater
receptivity among the poor and less privileged classes, the upward mobility
of Christians has resulted in Christianity becoming more of a middle-
class movement. A similar trend may be observed in the growth of the
Pentecostal movement in the region. In earlier decades it was by and large
a movement of the poor, with the vast majority of churches being located
in rural areas and urban slums. In recent years this trend has changed.
While Pentecostalism continues to attract the poor and socially margin-
alised, people from affluent sections and the upper classes are swelling
the ranks of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in urban centres like
Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.
Social engagement with the poor and marginalised has come somewhat
naturally to Pentecostals, for both historical and sociological reasons. The
policy of comity among mission agencies resulted in the early Pentecostal
missionary efforts being relegated to the unreached rural areas of the sub-
continent, areas which experience a high degree of social and economic
296 Ivan Satyavrata
deprivation. Access to the liberating power of the Spirit, participatory

worship, and inclusion and acceptance within an egalitarian community are
all part of the attraction to Pentecostalism of the poor and socially margin-
alised. These were features that gave it a high degree of receptivity among
urban slum-dwellers and the lower middle class when the movement
began to make significant inroads into the larger cities in the later years of
the previous century.
The following scene is from the largest red-light district in South Asia,
an evil hellhole of brutal sexual exploitation in a thriving commercial
metropolis. The corpse of a young woman, covered with a white sheet, was
being carried through the streets. She had been ill for a while with a terrible
disease. The last few days of her life were agonisingly painful, lonely and
terrifying. The madam who ran the brothel had forced four of her terrified
girls to hold the corners of the bedsheet as they dragged her body out and
tossed it into the street near a garbage dump. It lay there all day while
neighbours yelled their complaints and passers-by covered their faces in
disgust. Then a group of strangers came with a stretcher, some sheets and
flowers. These were not paramedics, family members or friends. People
wondered who they were as they watched them sing and pray softly as
they wrapped the sheets around the body gently and lovingly.
The efforts of this Teen Challenge–Project Rescue team to begin work in
the district had been frustrated and stonewalled at every corner, until the
leader saw a window of opportunity when he heard that the bodies of girls
who died of AIDS were being dumped in the streets. He and his workers
began to pick up these corpses and give them in death something that they
never had all through their lives – dignity. That’s when the wall in the
red-light district began to crack open to Christian influence. Today, there is
a church of more than 400 people at the edge of the red-light district, while
a 50-acre community called Village of Hope on the outskirts of the city
houses a rehabilitation centre and a rescue home for the children of scores
of women from the district.
In most sections of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement, social
engagement is less a missionary strategy and more a spontaneous response
to need that flows out of the life of the faith community. Hence, all across
South and Central Asia Pentecostals are engaged in a wide variety of social
ministries, ranging from emergency relief to feeding the hungry, education,
medical services, drug rehabilitation, rescue and rehabilitation of victims
of sex trafficking, ministry to street children, vocational training, micro-
enterprise and other forms of economic development, all empowering the
socially marginalised.
Of special significance in India is the impact of Pentecostalism on two
large marginalised groups excluded from the majority Hindu community,
constituting 25% of India’s total population: Dalits (untouchable outcastes)

and tribals (the original indigenous inhabitants of India). After having
been alienated and oppressed for centuries, these people have found
the Pentecostal message of free and equal access to God’s presence and
the Spirit’s empowerment extremely liberating. After being subjected to
centuries of social ostracism, economic deprivation, political discrimina-
tion and psychological intimidation by caste Hindus, Dalits and tribals
have discovered freedom, social justice, equality and dignity, as Pentecostal
faith communities across India have welcomed and embraced them with
open arms.
Leadership Empowerment and Development

While theological education has always held an important place in the
life of the church in this region, Pentecostals here are known for their
passionate pursuit of the study of the Bible and theology. Furthermore,
one of the key features of the Pentecostal movement in this region is its
emphasis on the empowerment of every believer and the bestowal of
gifts upon every member of the Body of Christ, releasing lay people for
ministry. The gap between clergy and laity is thus minimised. Although
some Pentecostal pastors still struggle with the implications of this, the
vast majority of those leading growing churches seem to practise some
form of shared ministry and leadership and are actively involved in
equipping lay people for the task. As a result, Pentecostal Bible schools and
training institutes of all kinds have mushroomed throughout South Asia
in the last three to four decades. Pentecostals are thus extremely active
in leadership training, with programmes ranging from myriad church-
based lay leadership courses to fully accredited postgraduate degree-level
institutes. Pentecostal students flood training institutes both within the
region and abroad, and the interest in higher education is perhaps greater
than anywhere else in the majority world.
The Centre for Global Leadership Development (formerly the Southern
Asia Bible College) in Bangalore is a good illustration of the robust
Pentecostal theological education available in the region. An Assemblies
of God institution established in 1951, it has provided postgraduate-
level theological education for leaders in several of the other Pentecostal
movements in the region as well. Today it offers both residential and
open-education delivery options in theological education as well as pro-
fessional Christian counselling courses. Other Pentecostal theological
institutions of repute include Filadelphia Bible College in Rajasthan, New
Theological College in Uttarkhand, COTR Seminary in Andhra Pradesh,
Faith Theological Seminary in Kerala, Nepal Theological College in Nepal
and Assemblies of God Bible College in Sri Lanka.
298 Ivan Satyavrata
There is thus a relatively high level of theological literacy among Pente-

costals in this region. The South Asia experience is in this respect in stark
contrast to Central Asia. For instance, while South Asia boasts of having the
oldest Pentecostal Bible school outside of the USA – Bethel Bible College
in Punalur, Kerala (founded in 1927) – there is little formal theological
training in most countries of Central Asia.
Growth amidst Opposition

The one feature common to all of the 14 countries in South and Central Asia
is an environment that is unfriendly to the Christian gospel. The degree of
hostility ranges from watchful suspicion and calibrated social resistance in
countries like India and Sri Lanka to active and violent religious opposition
in countries like Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and the Maldives. In most
Central Asian countries, Pentecostals are included along with other groups
that refuse to stop proselytising, that have leadership abroad, or that are
supported by Western movements and are thus considered ‘sects’, in the
same category as Scientology and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
In earlier years, laws relating to religious freedom in Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan were relatively lenient, in contrast to draconian
official religious prohibitions in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. In practical
terms, however, methods of repression today are common to all Central
Asian states, although their intensity of application might vary. They
include psychological intimidation, physical intrusion, police interruption
during worship, interrogation, fines and imprisonment.
Severe opposition to Christianity in Iran since the late 1970s to the
present has included banning Persian-language Bibles, the outlawing
of evangelism, and the arrest, imprisonment and execution of pastors.
In Afghanistan, people face death when they convert to Christianity. In
Pakistan violent attacks are directed against converts, often by terrorist and
extremist groups attempting to suppress the Christian minority. Rising
cultural-nationalistic forces – Hindu in India and Buddhist in Sri Lanka –
regularly engage in violent opposition to Christian churches and mission
stations. Pentecostals and Charismatics are usually at the receiving end of
such persecution because they tend to be at the forefront of evangelistic
and church-planting activity.
Despite this, however, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches are
growing and multiplying at an exponential pace. The most visible evidence
of this is seen in the rapid proliferation of churches in urban centres and
their rate of growth. South India has several mega-churches with a Sunday
attendance of 20,000–50,000, and the wider region has scores of churches
with more than 2,000 regular worshippers. Philadelphia Pentecostal
Church in Karachi has 42 pastors and evangelists in the city and about 50
more in the Punjab province. However, in most Muslim-majority countries

within the region, such as Bangladesh, this growth is taking place under
the radar, with believers meeting in small house churches to avoid violent
opposition.
One of the ways Pentecostals have tried to circumvent opposition to
evangelism in restricted-entry countries is through the proactive and
creative use of media, largely driven by Western Christian television
channels or local networks funded from overseas. The world’s leading
Russian-language Christian television (CNL, headquartered in Almaty,
Kazakhstan), TBN Nejat TV and Mohabat TV, for instance, constantly beam
Christian gospel programmes across Central Asia. South Asia is especially
flush with global Christian television networks such as God TV, CBN, TBN
and Daystar, in addition to a host of local Christian television channels that
broadcast programmes in various languages of the subcontinent, especially
clustered across South India. The Pentecostal-Charismatic quality of the
vast majority of the Christian programmes has not only contributed to the
growing attendance of Pentecostal-type churches, but has also produced a
significant wave of unbaptised unchurched believers in Christ who remain
embedded culturally and sociologically within other faith communities.
An unfortunate side-effect is that the Christian teaching imbibed is often
unwholesome, even erroneous, and the dominance of Western speech
and images results in the notion being reinforced that the way of Christ
is inherently Western, and that Christian mission is an attempt at Western
cultural imposition.
Within four decades the number of Muslim-background followers of
Christ in Iran is estimated to have grown from around 500 to hundreds of
thousands. According to some reports, the church in Iran is said to be the
fastest growing in the world, with the second fastest growing church in
Afghanistan. Despite their recent emergence (in the early 1990s), an official
Kazakhstan Ministry of Religious Affairs report describes Pentecostal/
Charismatic churches as the largest and most widely represented of
Protestant churches in the country. Kyrgyzstan appears to be an unusual
example of the growth of Christianity among Muslim peoples. The Church
of Jesus Christ, led by Pastor Vasili Kuzin, is the largest Pentecostal church
in Kyrgyzstan and claims more than 12,000 members. Within 20 years of its
inception, this church had at least 45 branches around Kyrgyzstan as well
as daughter churches in Germany, the USA and Russia.
Accounts of explosive growth accompanied by the language of spiritual
warfare, occasional exaggerated statistics and shallow triumphalism have
sometimes resulted in escalated opposition. Such triumphalism, which
often characterises the Pentecostal mindset, can seriously hinder the cause
of Christ in this region, with a chequered history of colonial occupation
300 Ivan Satyavrata
in which the missionary endeavour was viewed as part of the imperial

expansionist enterprise. This is one of the reasons for the Hindu national
istic backlash against Christian missions in India, commonly perceived as a
continuation of a Western-funded project of cultural imperialism designed
ultimately to destroy the cherished ancient Hindu civilisation.
The redeeming feature is that the region is also home to Pentecostals
who humbly put on the mantle of servanthood in their evangelistic and
missionary engagement, recognising that while shallow triumphalism
only creates painful barriers, sincere seekers will always be drawn to the
truth when it is presented in love and humility.
Conclusion
The vast and varied populations of South and Central Asia represent
undoubtedly the most formidable challenge to Christian missions in the
twenty-first century. In the course of its brief history, the Pentecostal
movement has demonstrated its resilience and effectiveness in penetrating
seemingly impregnable ancient bastions of resistance. The unique appeal
of the Pentecostal movement in the region is linked partly to its autoch-
thonous, culturally adaptable character and partly to its identity as an
expanding global movement.
As stewards of this ‘Religion Made to Travel’ – an empowering and
healing faith expression that has both existential relevance and practical
appeal – Pentecostals and Charismatics in South and Central Asia are
endowed with remarkable resources to face the missionary challenge of the
twenty-first century. While they joyfully celebrate their commonality with
the global Pentecostal movement, their future may hinge on recognition that
their real reason for existence is not so much to perpetuate the movement
itself but to spark renewal, strengthen unity and bring new energy and
impetus to the worldwide church-in-mission.
Bibliography
Bergunder, Michael, The South Indian Pentecostal Movement in the Twentieth Century (Grand
Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008).
Bradley, Mark, Too Many to Jail: The Story of Iran’s New Christians (Oxford: Monarch, 2014).
George, A. C., Trailblazers for God: A History of the Assemblies of God of India (Bangalore: SABC
Publications, 2004).
Hedlund, Roger E., ‘Indigenous Pentecostalism in India’, in Allan Anderson and Edmond
Tang (eds), Asian and Pentecostal: The Charismatic Face of Christianity in Asia (Oxford:
Regnum, 2005), 215–44.
Satyavrata, Ivan, Pentecostals and the Poor: Reflections from the Indian Context (Eugene, OR:
Wipf and Stock, 2017).
Key Themes
Faith and Culture
Atola Longkumer
Considering faith and culture in relation to Christianity in South and Central

Asia conjures up multiple understandings, meanings, historical experiences
and contextual perspectives. The major cultural changes occurring today
make it critically important to revisit and reassess experiences of societies
in meaning-making. For the purposes of this essay, faith is understood as
the subjective experience of an individual in relation to a personal God, as
expounded by sacred texts and affirmed through generations in codified
traditions and inspiring rituals. The broad phenomenon of religion serves
as the basis for the two terms ‘faith’ and ‘culture’ in their manifestations and
meanings for societies. Complex as they are, both categories find critical
expression in South and Central Asia, particularly in relation to Christian-
ity in its history and practical expression of its values. Christianity in this
part of the world encountered profound challenges from established faith
traditions and ancient cultures. By engaging these postures of resistance,
Christianity formulated its distinct identity and traditions. The plurality
of cultures, faith traditions and socio-economic realities provides an
opportunity for Christians to enlarge their theological self-understanding.
Asia is a continent where the roots of many ancient civilisations can
be found. South and Central Asia forms a sizeable region, with a myriad
of cultures expressed in multiple languages among diverse groups of
people and ethnicities. World religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism,
Jainism and Sikhism have their roots in Asia. Apart from these, there are
hundreds of indigenous, oral-based shamanic religiosities in these regions.
Islam, albeit an imported and imposed religion, has a significant influence
upon the cultures, with a sizeable population and a long history of creative
presence in the region. South Asia particularly provides a religio-cultural
canvas composed of tolerance, symbiosis and, at certain periods, severe
contestations between different religions. For instance, both Judaism
and Zoroastrianism were welcomed when they found their way to India
through trade or persecution.
Of the two Asian regions, socio-economically South Asia presents both
prosperity and abject poverty, embedded in varying degrees of social con-
servatism, secularism and intellectual traditions. Sacred scriptures such as
the Sruti corpus of the Indic religion – the Vedas and the Upanishads – are
304 Atola Longkumer
reified texts traced to antiquity and are a key source for often rigid cultures
sustaining faith for many devout adherents. Further, many indigenous
peoples with their vibrant cultures add to the diverse tapestry of South
Asia. Globalisation and the technological revolution of the late modern
period have also impacted the societies of South Asia, ushering seismic
changes in every aspect of life. A crucial reality that needs to be emphasised
is the value and participation of women in South Asian societies. The
forces of religions, cultural practices, globalisation and modernisa-
tion have influenced the position of women in society in complex ways.
Women in Asia continue to participate ambiguously – enjoying a degree
of empowerment while simultaneously being marginalised, oppressed by
patriarchy in its different forms. Another significant aspect of South Asia
is the challenge of the environmental shifts taking place, exacerbated by
climate changes as well as modernisation necessitated by the globalised
economy. South Asia also is home to a sizeable population that is engaged
in nature-based livelihoods, wherein cultural practices are influenced by
the natural environment. In other words, faith and culture in South Asia
also find expression in and through popular worldviews in relation to the
natural world. Furthermore, Islamic religio-cultural expansion, Western
imperialism and modern missionary movements also left indelible
imprints, legacies and heritages in the region.
Central Asian states also present a vibrant context in the post-communist
era for creative interaction for faith and culture. Geopolitically straddling
Europe and China, they are well endowed with natural resources and
sustain a diverse cultural heritage against a backdrop of Islamic civilisation.
Much of the general discussion in this essay relates to South Asia, before
Central Asia is discussed separately below.
Fluidity of Culture
The fact that culture is fluid and dynamic (as opposed to being rigid)
needs to be underscored in a discussion of faith and culture. A theoretical
framework that recognises the fluidity of culture needs to undergird a
discussion of faith and culture in South Asia, for epistemological as well as
political reasons. Emerging trends of faith and culture need to be situated
and synthesised in keen awareness of the fluidity of culture. Often,
discussion of culture in South Asia has taken place from the perspective
of a dominant tradition, with the consequence that is eclipses the many
other voices, experiences and social realities in South Asia. Moreover, the
representational perspective has often taken an absolutist position, at best
producing a lopsided view and at worst sustaining oppressive traditions.
What needs to be underscored is the fact that South Asia presents diversity
and plurality of cultures as a quintessential reality. If Indic religio-cultures
are presented as a definitive culture of South Asia, consideration needs to

be given to the oppressive caste structure that has marginalised the Dalits
for centuries. If sophisticated philosophical treatises have found favourable
audiences, the devotional, ecstatic lyrics of passionate devotees need to
be highlighted. The older traditions of Christianity need to be balanced
with today’s vibrant Charismatic Christianity that is flourishing across the
region and across socio-economic groups. For women, the social progress
and emancipation (albeit relative) from cultural practices wrought by the
Western missionaries are marred by the persistent exclusion and violation
of women in South Asia, often fed by a certain exegesis of culture.
The indigenous shamanic cultures that have sustained myriad indigenous
people (often described by terms such as tribals, Adivasis, minorities) for
generations across South Asia need to be recognised along with the tech-
nological explosion that globalisation apparently initiated in the region.
While the transplanting of Islam into South Asia is a cultural reality, the
accommodation provided to Jews and Parsis (descendants of followers of
the ancient Persian religion, Zoroastrianism) contributes to the plurality of
culture. Buddhism is generally known as a religion of East Asia, but it had
its beginning in the foothills of the Himalayas in South Asia.
Culture in South Asia therefore needs to be understood as a kaleido-
scope, presenting a different dazzling pattern at every turn. Lived ways,
social relationships, sacred texts, oral traditions, measures of human values,
notions of good and bad, material manifestations of notions (symbols)
and materiality all form part of the culture of a society. Culture is also the
site of contests and conflicts, with challenges posed by encounters with
unfamiliar perspectives and social agents. Diversity, plurality and multi-
layered social hierarchy are key to understanding emerging trends of faith
and culture in relation to Christianity in South Asia today.
The encounter between Christianity and the faiths and cultures already
existing in South Asia contributed to the nature, form, theology and
expression of Christianity in the region, with all its eclectic forms. It is un-
surprising, therefore, that the theme of gospel and culture, and a strong
commitment to engage Asian cultures, were adopted by global ecclesial
bodies such the World Council of Churches and the Federation of Asian
Bishops’ Conferences (FABC). In the early part of the last century, the
arguments of Christian missionaries and theologians of South Asia with
regard to non-Christian religions at the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary
Conference led to the shift and inclusion of other religions as crucial
dialogue partners in the evangelisation of the world with the good news
of Christ. The discussion of faith and culture in South Asia continues to
provide critical paradigms, interrogation, supplements and commentary
to Christianity in its vision of a just and healed humanity.
306 Atola Longkumer
Indigenous Christianity and Anonymous Christians

Christianity has a long history in South Asia, with its variety of traditions.
A feature these Christian traditions share is the indigeneity of Christianity.
This indigeneity, however, is not a monolith with clearly defined features.
Each context and community could present its own variety of Christi
anity with the imprint of the local culture. It can be said that the theme of
faith and culture in relation to Christianity is most potently and creatively
expressed in the many different forms it takes, shaped and interpreted by
symbols, practices, meanings, materiality and even time. The rituals of
life seasons – birth, marriage, death – are observed with explicit cultural
practices and meanings that are quite unrelated to the Bible, even in
communities that regard the Bible as the foundation of their Christian
identity and spirituality.
An illustration from the Naga tribes (indigenous peoples) of India’s
border region with Myanmar demonstrates this. Christianity is the religion
of the modern Naga people, but their cultural practices remain relatively
unchanged from the days of their ancestors, most observable in practices
such as clan relationships, land stewardship and rituals of marriage
and death. A Baptist minister typically conducts the Christian rituals of
marriage and death, but in tandem with the clan identities and customs. For
instance, the distribution of meat portion adheres strictly to the clan’s code
of social relationship during marriages solemnised by the Baptist pastor.
Similarly, in the western part of India practices from the larger cultural
background continue to direct the rituals Christians follow when a woman
loses her husband and becomes a widow. The transition to widowhood is
‘accompanied’ by Christian prayers offered by the pastor, during which a
symbolic white sari is given and the mangalsutra, the item of jewellery that
marked her as a married woman, is removed from her.
The Bible remains the sacred text for many Christians in South Asia,
directing their faith in the Triune God as vividly expressed in corporate
worship and individual commitment. However, the expression of the
Christian faith often incorporates the symbols, materials and ritual practices
of the cultural storehouse available as members of the larger society, which
are quite different from the adopted religiosity of missionary Christianity.
Culture in its multiple forms remains a critical marker for Christian-
ity in South Asia. It is difficult to point to a form or practice that can be
strictly defined as distinctly ‘Christian culture’. It is more a matter of
adaptation and accommodation through encounter with different cultures.
Observation of Christian communities across South Asia points to a pattern
of variation according to the particularity of the community and the context.
In other words, Christianity is domesticated to existing cultural practices
and the faith that Christianity nurtures takes root and shape in the cultural
meaning-making of the community. The art and practice of healing, use

of traditional medicines, the position and role of women, persistent caste
hierarchy and the relationship with the other are all conduits through which
potent cultural practices are incorporated into Christianity in South Asian
contexts. The use of these cultural symbols and practices among Christians
in the region belies the claim that Christianity is an alien religion, since it is
woven seamlessly into the cultural fabric of the people.
For various socio-cultural, religious and political reasons, a growing
number of people embrace the Christian faith but remain ‘anonymous’ and
unaccounted for in the statistics compiled by states. South Asia remains
a region where freedom of religion, tolerance of religious diversity and
dissenting voices are under persistent threat. Historically, conversion to
Christianity has been contested and controlled by the states, often with
legal prohibitions such as anti-conversion bills. Despite these measures
against conversion to Christianity, South Asia has a sizeable population
of Christians. Introduction of modern education was an integral part of
Christian mission, and therefore establishment of educational institu-
tions in the region has been linked to Christianity. The expression of
Christian mission through modern education in the sciences, technology
and humanities helped produce the cultural elite and the professionals for
the modern nation-states. Hence, the Christian educational institutions
gained a reputation for being places of excellence and success. Christian
schools, colleges and universities contribute to the introduction of Christi-
anity to students and the imparting of values that are distinctly Christian.
Unbeknown to the state and the church, encountering, understanding and
espousing of the Christian faith often take place in the process of education
in Christian institutions. Although individuals so impacted might not be
baptised into a Christian community, they are often practising Christians,
observing the festivals and seasons of the religion and above all having
a spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ, maintained through prayer,
reading the Bible, going on pilgrimages to sacred places of the Christian
faith and giving for the community needs of the church (such as construc-
tion of churches) and other social programmes of the Christian community.
While it is complicated to measure and evaluate faith expression, if
rituals and traditions are overt indicators of an inner conviction of faith,
the individuals who practise the Christian rituals as markers of being a
follower of the faith without being baptised members form an important
category of Christians in South Asia. Strict theological analysis might render
a different verdict if baptism is the criterion by which one is identified as a
Christian; nonetheless, faith expressed with markedly Christian elements
and symbols within the socio-cultural and political constraints of South
Asia adds to the complex canvas of Christianity that is unique to the region.
308 Atola Longkumer
This reality of ‘anonymous Christians’ has also contributed to missional

concepts such as ‘insider movements’ to discuss the phenomenon of
followers of Jesus embedded in a specific religio-cultural milieu. The
North Indian movement of Khrist Bhakta (Christ devotee), wherein Christ
is accepted as a god, the Bible is read and vernacular lyrics and liturgical
prayers are performed by a Christian priest, provides another example of
this phenomenological reality of faith and culture in South Asia.
Inter-religious Dialogue
Related to the earlier discussion, the plurality of religions and their
traditions and lived spiritualities continues to contribute a vital dimension
to the theme of faith and culture within Christianity. At the core of the
discourse on inter-religious dialogue is the seeking of shared meanings
and mutual transformation amidst the divergent claims on ultimate truth
and the loyalty it entails for adherents. Dialogue with other religions has
taken place from the early days of Christianity in the region and has gained
more attention and energy since the middle of the last century. Today,
inter-religious dialogue is appreciated as a crucial aspect of Christian
witness in the region. If ‘anonymous Christian’ is a category of adherents
to Christianity embedded in the religio-cultural background with critical
acquiescence to socio-political circumstances, inter-religious dialogue calls
for deliberate discussions of the divergences and conditions placed by
forces apart from the individual’s free will.
While ultimate truth claims of the different religions and their challenges
to the understanding of Christian soteriology have provided a focal point
for inter-religious dialogue, the terrain of such dialogue has enlarged,
encompassing more aspects of religious traditions and their claims on
adherents. Freedom of religion and its practice remains a crucial aspect of
inter-religious dialogue in South Asia. A rather narrow understanding of
religiosity as a fabric of culture has resulted in religious fundamentalism
and cultural rigidity, curtailing freedom for individuals to live their chosen
faith. At the same time, insisting on conventional patterns of religiosity for
converts gives rise to socio-cultural dilemmas and religio-political conflicts.
In other words, lack of openness to creativity on the one hand and the denial
of basic human rights on the other produce violations and nominality in
equal measure. Hence, inter-religious dialogue presents the opportunity
to converse on issues of faith and culture within South Asian Christianity.
In the present socio-political context, there is a growing resurgence
of religious nationalism. India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have seen
the vehement assertion of religious identity, often led by political power.
Christianity in the region cannot afford to ignore inter-religious dialogue
in its witness. Generally, the context of South Asia provided the challenge
and a rich tradition of inter-religious dialogue to both Christian mission

and academia in its theological articulations. Christians need to engage the
rich religious repositories of the region’s religions. Comparative reading
of the sacred texts, understanding of the historical exchanges between the
different religions, and the influence of the sacred texts upon the cultural
map of the region call for critical and creative inter-religious dialogue.
Amidst the undeniable globalisation and unprecedented economic
growth taking place in the region, the challenges of poverty, environmen-
tal degradation, violence against women, ethnocentrism and disparity
between the rich and the poor persist. These socio-economic challenges
provide an imperative for Christians to engage their neighbours of the
other religions to collaborate together to achieve a better life for all.
Christianity in South Asia has the critical opportunity to engage other
religions and in the process enlarge its own self-understanding. Moreover,
in dialogue with the other religions Christianity informs its mission of
witnessing to the gospel expressed in the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth.
Gender and Culture

Faith and culture in South Asian Christianity also bring to the fore the issue
of gender and the challenges it poses in the form of unjust and discrimina-
tory practices inherent in both the larger society and Christian communities.
Gender concerns pertain to both women and the third gender (known by
terms such as hijra) prevalent in South Asian societies. These societies are
generally patriarchal, with androcentric cultural practices and authority.
Women and other gender categories that do not fit into the masculine
profile are treated as subordinate and are often suppressed. Tremendous
changes in the function, participation and freedom of women have taken
place; however, exploitation and exclusion remain real experiences of
women and the third gender. The exclusion of women is prevalent in
ecclesiastical structures and organisational policies across the board in
South Asian Christianity. Many remain ambivalent about the participa-
tion of women. Cultural perceptions of the value of women and gender
stereotypes weigh heavily against the equal participation of women.
Within the discussion of gender and culture, it is important to note that
South Asia also presents a vivid tradition of the feminine dimension of the
sacred. The piety expressed to the myriad of goddesses and the devotion to
the mother are both a powerful cultural reality of South Asia society and a
contextual resource for emancipation of women. Can Christianity in South
Asia draw creative resources from sacred traditions of the feminine and
devotion to the mother as an empowerment of women?
Christianity has been a source of initiating reforms of oppressive
cultural practices pertaining to women in the region – zenana missions
310 Atola Longkumer
and women’s educational institutions played a critical role in emancipat-

ing women from seclusion. It behoves the church in the region to continue
to advocate for gender equality and freedom to participate fully in South
Asian societies.
Culture of Hospitality
Asia in general is known for its culture of hospitality, and this can be
claimed to some extent for South Asia specifically. A vivid illustration
of this hospitality can be seen in the history of encounters between the
different world religions that trace their roots and flourishing to the region.
For instance, Buddhism flourishes in the region, far beyond the place where
the Prince Gautama is said to have experienced enlightenment. Among
many reasons for this spread, the virtue of hospitality can be underlined
as a crucial factor. Legends and stories of hospitality abound in both the
text-based religions and the oral traditions of the indigenous peoples of
South Asia. Often, experiences of local hospitality by travellers and visitors
have affirmed the stories and legends of hospitality.
While a culture of hospitality does exist among many South Asian
communities, a culture of resistant parochialism exists simultaneously in
the region. Such parochialism is expressed in the vicious caste hierarchy,
ethnocentrism, regionalism and linguistic boundaries. Unfortunately, these
provincialisms produce intolerance of ‘the other’, and conflicts extend even
to Christian communities. Among some Christians, such insular attitudes
are maintained by marriage practices. Caste, language and tribal identities
determine the choice of marriage partners even in the church. The most
recent emergence of these parochialisms is seen in the refusal to share a
common cup in the Eucharist in some churches in South India. Furthermore,
some cemeteries have continued to maintain parochialisms, when a certain
caste insist on having another caste laid to rest at the ‘foot’ of the cemetery.
Christian fellowship and cooperation are often marred by such rigid paro-
chialism that is intolerant of other castes, language groups or even church
denominations. From a perspective of faith and culture in South Asian
Christianity, these traditions of both hospitality and hegemony need be
recognised and critically evaluated in developing theological discourse
anchored in the cultural resources of the region.
Migration and Environmental Changes

The global phenomena of migration and environmental changes are also
urgent cultural realities of South Asia today. Migration and environmen-
tal changes are not unrelated. Environmental changes impact communities
drastically, most acutely agricultural communities in South Asia, where life
and cultures are centred around the cycle of rains and harvest. Persistent
drought, rising temperatures and rising sea levels are bringing changes
to cultures and livelihoods in many parts of South Asia. On the one hand,
these environmental changes imperil the people whose lives depend on
the environment, and therefore they are forced to look for an alternative
mode of survival; on the other hand, unprecedented globalisation demands
labour in the fast-developing cities in South Asia. South Asian cities have
seen an influx of migrant workers, both skilled and unskilled, as part of the
‘development’ entailed by globalisation. Migration is not limited to within
a country – there is a vibrant movement of labourers between different
South Asian countries.
From a faith and culture perspective, migration of people from rural,
remote regions to the cities has presented a critical opportunity for Christi
anity. Ecumenical hospitality can be extended by the sharing of church
buildings and premises for migrant congregations. Christian witness
to migrants from other faiths is also offered by evangelical Christians
in the region. Ecumenical hospitality and evangelical Christian witness
are significant opportunities that call for commitment undergirded by
a vision of thoughtful understanding of the needs of ‘the other’. In the
complex context of migration, a Christian faith that accepts members of
another cultural group or another church tradition as sharing the grace
of God in Jesus and united in the Spirit enables ecumenical Christian
fellowship. Evangelical Christian witness calls for thoughtful generosity
and compassion in seeing God in the face of the other – the migrant.
The global phenomena of migration and environmental changes as
experienced in South Asia create an important platform for faith and
culture conversation. As multiple cultures converge, the encounter with
the other can lead to enlarging one’s perception and perspective of faith.
To be sure, encounter with the other can be intimidating and threatening.
A faith that is informed by culture and willing to engage culture persists in
meeting the other as occasioned by the global phenomenon of migration.
The issue of migration serves as an apt segue to the next section, since
there has been migration of people and cultures between South and Central
Asia, paving the way for both conquest and confluence of cultures, most
evident in the shared Islamic culture as well as the Orthodox Christianity
found in the southern tip of India.
Central Asia
Central Asia’s diverse natural conditions – deserts, enormous mountains,
rivers and the sea – contribute to its cultural heritage and make the region
a strategic location for interactions between civilisations. Here can be
found a rationale for the pairing of South and Central Asia, despite their
disparities: a contiguous geographical region that probably facilitated
312 Atola Longkumer
shared religio-cultural exchanges from antiquity, most vividly observed

in the Islamic culture in both South and Central Asia. In fact, most of the
Islamic cultures in modern India and Pakistan trace their origins to Muslim
rulers from Central Asia during the medieval period.
Culturally, ethnically, religiously and in terms of natural environment,
Central Asia forms one of the richest and most diverse regions, with a
historical tradition from antiquity. Islam and Islamic culture have been
a defining identity of the region since the ninth century and left a deep
and indelible impression on the people and culture of Central Asia until
its suppression by the rise of the Soviet Union. Bukhara, in present-day
Uzbekistan, was an important Islamic centre of learning and culture. While
Islam remains a definitive source of cultural identity of the region, other
world religions have thrived and left their imprints in the cultural map of
Central Asia as well. For centuries, the region has served as a melting pot
for inter-civilisational interaction. Shamanism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism,
Manichaeism, Buddhism, Christianity and Confucianism, with all their
diverse sub-groups, have flourished and left their cultural residues.
The historian Samuel H. Moffett entitled Part III of Volume I of his
History of Christianity in Asia ‘The Pax Mongolica: From Genghis Khan to
Tamerlane’ and the title of the first chapter in the section is ‘The Mongols
and the Recovery of Asian Christianity’. To pair the Pax Mongolica and
recovery of Asian Christianity with one of history’s most notorious rulers
seems anomalous. Moffett, however, demonstrates the role played by the
Mongols in the survival and expansion of Christianity in the region, thus
providing evidence of cultural diversity as well as of the existence of Chris-
tianity amidst powerful Islamic rule in Central Asia.
Discussion of faith and culture in Central Asia needs to reckon with the
fact that shamanism and Sufism have active participation by women in the
religious expression. From a faith and culture perspective, the ambiguous
position of women in Christianity interacting with the relatively inclusive
religio-cultural practices of shamanism and Sufism might provide critical
stimulus with regard to the practical expression of the faith.
In a religio-cultural backdrop that was predominantly shamanist,
characterised by healing and restoration exhibited in the shaman’s ability
to channel charisma as the bridge between the mundane and the sacred
realms, the interplay of faith and culture in Central Asia can be observed
in a form of Christianity that is accommodative to the immediate and
existential needs of faithful adherents. Today, the Charismatic strand of
Christianity, emphasising the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, is finding
particular resonance throughout this region.
Another development in the region is the revival of the ancient Silk
Road, which entails tremendous changes. The movement of people, ideas
and goods portends mutual influences and opportunities for a vibrant

plurality of cultures to thrive. At the same time, increasing integration
into the global economy threatens exploitation of the natural environment
together with skewed wealth distribution, rendering the most vulnerable,
such as migrants and labourers, marginalised.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 brought immense changes to
the Central Asian nations, particularly freedom of religious expression,
albeit curtailed by the states’ power and legal conditions. Indeed, a crucial
area of faith and culture in Central Asia in relation to Christianity is the
emergence of state control on freedom of religious expression. After 1989,
the Central Asian nations embraced Islam as their fundamental religious
identity despite the democratic secular principles embedded in their consti-
tutions. This development presents Christianity with both an opportunity
for inter-religious dialogue and the danger of being suppressed. Freedom
of religion – to hold a belief, to practise the faith, including witness to the
faith to neighbours – is a crucial issue at the interface of faith and culture
in contemporary times.
Meanwhile, the relative freedom of religious expression has presented
the opportunity for Christians of different traditions to witness to the
gospel – as varying church traditions interpret the evangelistic task. In
recent times, the region has witnessed both growth of and resistance to
Christianity. Apart from this phenomenon of active evangelistic Christi-
anity, the potential ecumenical relationship with the existing Orthodox
Church presents an opportunity for global Christianity.
Christianity – despite its presence from antiquity, from the time of
the Nestorian Alopen and the Mongols – has received fresh interest in
Central Asia since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the formation of the
nation-states of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turk-
menistan. Ongoing missional interests, growing academic scholarship in
the area and ecumenical collaborations will continue to contribute to the
understanding and interpretation of issues of faith and culture as Chris-
tianity interacts afresh with the cultural repository of Central Asia that
includes shamanist practices, Sufism, Islam, Buddhism, Lamaism and
Syriac Orthodox Christianity.
Conclusion
At times, the understanding of the concept of faith and culture has been
more contentious than consensual in theological discourse. Yet the concepts
of faith and culture also provide a critical anchor to express a meaningful
Christianity with integrity as regards its vision of transforming every
culture. In the context of South and Central Asia, the interplay of faith and
culture calls for a faith that is simultaneously critical and accommodative
314 Atola Longkumer
to the myriad cultures. While some broad cultural landscapes have been
highlighted as crucial loci for contextual expressions of Christianity,
the challenge remains for Christianity to be both an interlocutor and a
transformer of culture. Christians need to interrogate aspects of culture
that are exclusive and parochial, such as caste hierarchy, gender discrimi-
nation, endemic corruption and consumerism. Further, cultural practices
such as hospitality, community solidarity, care for the environment and
respect for ancestors need to find their proper places within an inclusive
community of faith.
Faith and culture will continue to be significant categories in the
expression of Christianity in South and Central Asia, as Christianity finds
both enthusiastic embrace in the region and antagonistic resistance from
fundamentalist religio-political forces. Theological creativity along with
prophetic proclamation will be needed to balance these challenges of culture
and faith in the region. A Christian faith that embraces the vulnerable,
excluded and marginalised with the values of generosity and compassion
will continue to impact communities and posit critical challenge to cultures
that are parochial and exclusive.
Bibliography
Evers, Georg, The Churches in Asia (New Delhi: ISPCK, 2005).
Foltz, Richard C., Religions of the Silk Road (New York: St Martin’s Griffin, 1999).
Moffett, Samuel Hugh, A History of Christianity in Asia from Beginning to 1500 (Maryknoll,
NY: Orbis, 1998).
Sultanova, Razia, From Shamanism to Sufism: Women, Islam and Culture in Central Asia
(London: I. B. Tauris, 2014).
Wilfred, Felix (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2014).
Worship and Spirituality
Anand Amaladass
Christianity, as we know it today, largely came to the Indian subcontinent

from the West. Worship and other forms of religious practice were
introduced to the region by Western missionaries. This tradition took root
in South Asia and brought about a great change. Its theological background
was gradually understood by the people, and they are aware of what shaped
their spirituality. In the Christian churches, a South Asian face gradually
emerged. In the name of inculturation many changes were introduced to
church structures and modes of worship. Basically, however, the Christian
identity remains the same in terms of worship and spirituality.
There are some common factors in the countries of the Indian sub
continent – India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh – such as the
shared colonialist past, the socio-economic/political situation, addressing
issues of human rights, and Christians living amidst other major religions,
notably Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Their challenges are also common,
such as dealing with people of major religious groups, the struggle to
alleviate poverty and discrimination against minorities. Though the
Central Asian context is different in significant respects, similar challenges
apply. The Christians’ message is seen as hope of liberation and their faith
is seen as a source of strength, which holds the people together.
Christian Worship
Worship (adoration) is a special form of prayer, present in the cult of
all religions in various accentuations. From the Christian point of view,
worship is the response to the inner call of the Divine, an aspect of the
belief in the God who reveals himself. Accordingly, church teaching
explains that real worship (Greek latria) belongs to God alone, in contrast
to the reverence shown to the saints (dulia). The attitude of worship is
embodied in gestures, words and silence. The Christian faith, with its
ecclesial dimension of a community of God’s people, has ritual forms of
expression in worship.
In worship, the basic truth of being a creature is realised; human
beings free themselves from slavery to things and turn consciously to the
Creator, who blesses them with the gift of their being. Worship cannot be
considered a personal achievement through dedication and cultic practice.
316 Anand Amaladass
God himself makes it possible through his self-revelation and the gift of his
Spirit. Only with the power of the Holy Spirit does worship proper to God
succeed, ‘in spirit and in truth’ (John 4: 23).
Within all the modalities of worship, the central place is given to the
liturgical service, the Eucharistic celebration, which includes aspects such
as confession, absolution, Scripture reading, affirmation of faith, inter
cessory prayers, the Lord’s Prayer and benediction. Preaching plays a key
role. Even when traditional spiritual practices, such as the Way of the Cross
or adoration in the chapel, are conducted, the role of the pastor or priest
takes centre stage. The homilies or sermons are based on exegesis of the
text and theological interpretation, with socio-political concerns expressed
in relevant messages. Preaching the gospel means being authentic (as a
sincere steward), pastoral (opening the ways of healing and reconciliation),
prophetic (addressing counter-gospel values), ecumenical (for the body of
God in all its diversity) as well as ‘missional’ (calling people to be part of
God’s mission).
Within the cycle of the liturgical year, the whole mystery of Christ unfolds
itself, not only from the Incarnation until the Ascension, but also the event
of Pentecost and the hoped-for return of the Lord. The understanding is
that the paschal mystery is experienced in and through the act of liturgy.
The celebration of annual seasons in the liturgical year – Lent–Easter,
Advent–Christmas–Epiphany – is conducted with great fervour and
involvement by the faithful congregation, determining the rhythm of the
church activities irrespective of the denomination to which they belong.
Spirituality
Spirituality is understood today as an attitude that covers the world of
facts, giving meaning. In contrast to the basic teaching and structures of
religions, spirituality covers the various religious impulses of piety and of
religious life as seen in such spheres as asceticism, mysticism, day-to-day
life, prayers, meditation and cult. In general, it is about the spirit that
animates believers and orients them to that highest reality (God) and to
various areas of life. The many-sided concept of spirituality aims finally at
‘a spirit’ that is operative in a multiplicity of forms and shows itself in them
as unifying moment.
The impulse of the spirit is realised in the intersection of tradition and
situation. Thus, every spirituality has reference to a time and a tradition.
It is important to be able to discern the spirits. For Christians, discernment
takes Jesus and the gospel as the norm and starting point. Christian spiritu-
ality thus circles around two poles: the historically shown and theologically
protected message of Jesus and the newly emerging personal or social
impulse of the spirit within the context of a particular time.
This brief statement is what the Indian church has inherited from the
West, as it was preached in India. The church required many centuries to
assimilate this understanding and find its own expression to further this
core message on Christian worship and spirituality. The Asian face of
Christian presence speaks today a different language within its tradition,
benefiting from the missionary inputs. The Spirit of Christ permeates
the life situations of the Christian communities in different ways as new
challenges confront them. The major challenge comes from the neighbour-
ing religious communities of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and
the tribal religions of India. The Indian church has been vibrant, and con-
sequently the interface with other religions has become a living reality.
As a result, the response is increasingly innovative, undaunted by the
destructive forces around. But what sustains the Christian community
with all its movements is its spirituality.
Christian Community in South Asia

The Christian community in South Asia could be classified into three
groups (although the division is somewhat arbitrary). It is difficult to give
exact statistics about each group. The classifications might even overlap.
This is not exclusive to any particular country and may apply also to other
localities. But this classification is important to keep in mind when we talk
of the spiritualities prevalent in any society. This will help us to understand
the underlying modes of spiritualities, some unquestioned values and
some basic presuppositions.
The first group is the intellectual Christian ‘elites’: those who have been
exposed to Western influence, who have had the opportunity to travel and
study outside South Asia and who have worked in the religious institu-
tions. These are the ones who write in European languages and journals
and thus become the opinion-makers to some extent, with some access to
theological sophistications. The religious attitude of the majority of this
group could be summarised as follows: they are proud of their heritage
but display an indifference or lack of interest regarding the folk forms of
worship. Some can be also critical about such organised forms of religiosity.
The second group are those clerics who work in the parish structures as
well as laypeople who are good-willed but who have not been exposed to
higher learning or informed about church documents. They are, however,
optimistic and convinced of their faith tradition. They do not judge other
religions and other forms of worship. They are ready not only for peaceful
coexistence but also for genuine brotherly neighbourliness.
The third group are the simple faithful, the ‘folk’ from the villages or
living in the peripheries of the cities. They are loyal believers, who are led by
the clerics or independent preachers in the name of the Charismatics. They
318 Anand Amaladass
have not received any systematic education or formation. Their religious

values are ‘telluric’, ‘earth-bound’, autochthonous, such as taking life as it
comes to them as God-given, with resignation, passivity and surrender.
They see the supernatural powers at work in world events.
Emerging Trends in Indian Spirituality

After Vatican II there was a visible turn in the understanding of oneself in
the Christian community. There was a renewal in liturgy, church activities
and social awareness. The reform movements had a touch of nationalism,
in the name of inculturation. The liturgy was in the local languages;
lyrics and music compositions became indigenous. Church architecture
attempted to imitate the major religious traditions. In a country like India,
where there is a plurality of cultures and ethnic and linguistic variations,
one model for all did not work. The major tradition that was adopted for
liturgical celebration was questioned in the course of time.
Historically, the dawn of a new awareness in Christian thinking is
perceptible. The word ‘Christian’ may be used as adjective of Christendom
(a civilisation), or of Christianity (a religion among others) or of Christian-
ness (a personal – but not individualistic – spirituality). One need neither
belong to a civilisational culture to be a Christian nor be professing a
prescribed creed. The new trend is one of ‘Christic consciousness’. The
example of Christ is cited here – one who denounces, protests and even
transgresses, but neither deserter nor traitor. In the past, many Christians
lived this moment of Christian-ness having gone beyond Christendom and
Christianity without desertion. Some names could be mentioned: Meister
Eckhart, Nicholas of Cusa, Joan of Arc, Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas
Merton and Abhishiktananda. In other words, many contemporaries want
to be religious, even Christian, without any such labels.
Raimon Panikkar speaks of the five kairological moments of Christian
self-understanding in the course of the last 20 centuries: witnessing (of the
first Christians), conversion, crusade, mission and dialogue. As Panikkar
formulates it, dialogue itself is seen as a spiritual quest that teaches us that
no one is self-sufficient, that there are no monopolies in this wide world;
dialogue is not merely a means to get to the other, but a means to discover
oneself in greater depth.
There has also been a movement towards interiority in tune with local
traditions, with the label of the Christian Ashram movement. People
took to a monastic type of withdrawal for prayer and meditation. Some
emerged as gurus and spiritual masters to guide and inspire people who
have an aptitude for such a lifestyle. In this connection figures like Henri Le
Saux (Swami Abhishiktananda), Bede Griffiths and Sister Vandana Mataji,
among others, played a crucial role by their writings.
This kind of spirituality found expression in inter-faith dialogue. Its

proponents visited the Hindu and Buddhist ashrams and well known
masters and imitated their prayer forms and lifestyles, even changing their
own names and mode of dress. They studied the scriptures of other faiths
and took the texts as part of their para-liturgy. Many Christian clerics and
nuns began reading the Vedas from the translation of Vedic hymns by
Raimon Panikkar.
Dialogue with other religious communities was seen as building bridges,
identifying ‘homeomorphic equivalents’ (functional similarities) between
religions and cultures. For instance, Bede Griffiths, in his first book, The
Golden String (1954), and a sequel, The Marriage of East and West (1982),
highlighted his position as a Christian mystic towards the Eastern wisdom
traditions. In his book Return to the Centre (1976), Griffiths tried to integrate
the Indian spiritual heritage with the Christian perspective. For example,
he points out that the underlying philosophy of Patanjali yoga is the
separation of body and spirit and the goal of yoga is to free consciousness
from any taint of mortality. But in Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga, matter
and life and consciousness in humanity are seen to be evolving towards the
divine life and the divine consciousness, in which they are not annihilated
but fulfilled. According to Griffiths, Christian yoga would mean body and
soul being transfigured by the divine life. There is a descent of the spirit
into matter and a corresponding ascent, by which matter is transformed
by the indwelling power of the Spirit and the body is transfigured as in
resurrection.
Several Christian thinkers tried to bring in Indian elements of spiritu-
ality that are in consonance with the Christian vision. Basic Hindu texts
like the Patanjali Yoga and Bhagavad Gita were studied in depth and have
become part of the curriculum in the seminaries and formation houses. In
the yoga tradition, spiritual people are said to be gentle and non-aggressive
in dealing with others, ever attentive to the voice of truth, ever ready to
give up what they have for higher ends, focusing attention on God alone.
The means to attain this state are self-discipline, spending time in spiritual
learning, reading scriptures and fostering devotion to the Lord with daily
prayers and other spiritual exercises.
According to the Bhagavad Gita ideal, liberated people or saints are
content, at peace with themselves, filled with joy and devoted to the Lord,
after they have restrained their senses and mind, banishing all fear, anger
and covetousness. They have attained an attitude of equanimity, ‘indiffer-
ence’ (samatvam), keeping a balanced mind between the dualities of life.
Whether it is honour or dishonour, praise or blame, riches or poverty, they
remain the same; such people see everyone and everything as equal, since
they see ‘the self in everything and everything in the self’. As a result, they
320 Anand Amaladass
take delight in the welfare of all beings; the cosmic welfare becomes their
goal. Thus they contribute to the whole and are models for others by doing
their duty and taking responsibility for society.
This kind of approach is not gnostic but a search for the interiority
to discover the indwelling spirit, which does not deny the role of grace.
This input from the Indian tradition opened the door to dialogue with
Hindu/Buddhist traditions of spirituality, enriching and at the same time
challenging the Christian vision.
What Aloysius Pieris calls ‘cross-scripture reading’ is an attempt to
integrate the art of exegesis developed by Hindu/Buddhist traditions in
Asia. Pieris presents an experience of generating an inter-textual encounter
between the Hebrew-Christian Bible and the Pali Buddhist Tripitakas,
paying due regard to their divergent cultural matrices and their underlying
socio-political histories. The presupposition is, according to Pieris, that
all scriptures are a crystallisation of a collective memory of a primordial
experience of liberation, such as the Exodus and Easter, Nirvana in
Buddhism and advaitic experience in the Vedanta.
Hindus and Muslims taking to Christian themes and Christians adopting
Hindu symbols for prayers and worship added another dimension to
Christian spirituality. The suffering Christ has been a source of inspiration
to Indian artists, who could easily identify with taking up the cross daily.
The Christian artists place the Christ event in Indian cultural/religious
symbols: the Last Supper in mandala form, with Jesus sitting on the floor,
dispensing with table and chair; the joy of the Risen Jesus expressed in the
dance motif of Nataraja. But Hindu and Muslim artists seem to hint at the
socio-political dimension of the Christian message: Jesus walking among
the poor of the Nizamudin area in Delhi; the ‘Last Supper’ by M. F. Husain,
integrating human suffering with the divine presence. Iconographically,
the Asian interpretation of Christian themes discovers nuances that were
not noticed in the Western tradition.
The Poor, Oppressed and Marginalised

Mother Teresa (Saint Teresa of Calcutta) has become today a symbol of
mercy for abandoned, unwanted humanity such as the old and the sick.
She started the Sisters of Charity movement to translate God’s mercy into
action. Their constitution states that they train themselves to be extremely
kind and gentle in touch of hand, tone of voice and smile, so as to make the
mercy of God very real and to induce the dying person to turn to God with
filial confidence.
Her spirituality is vibrant in deeds and words, articulating the Christian
mystery that is hidden in the midst of the vulnerable human predicament.
She is a living symbol of Christian spirituality not only in India but all over
the world. As in Mother Teresa, one recognises in her sisters the ‘pencil of
God’, through which he leads people to experience his love. Through their
dedication Jesus is communicated even today to the poorest of the poor.
The mission hospitals were not only centres of healing but also served as
the places where the gospel was best preached in practice, removing dis-
crimination based on caste and creed.
After all, people flocked to Jesus because he had a reputation as a healer.
His healing presence is not different from his preaching. The healing
was his preaching. They go together. It is an attested fact by the wisdom
traditions of all cultures that medicine without religion does not heal – it is
no longer medicine; and religion without medicine does not save – it is no
longer religion.
The most significant achievement of Christian spirituality came in
changing the attitude of Hindus to people with low social status, whom
Christian missionaries treated as equal human beings and children of one
God. Such change is slow but it does work, as it is visible among reformers
like Gandhi. The missionaries created an awareness among the low castes
about their rights. The level of education, success and progress made in
various areas of life proved that the men and women of India could be
equal to any upper-caste person when given an opportunity.
This Christian attitude is visible in the several initiatives undertaken by
missionaries in India. Nowhere did the followers of Jesus transplant a tree
into the ocean, but when it came to the question of helping the needy and
the poor, they did greater miracles than transplanting a mountain into the
sea. In South India, Ida Scudder’s (1870–1960) hospital in Vellore and Maria
Aschoff’s (1924–2001) efforts to establish the St Thomas Leprosy Hospital
and Leprosy Centre at Chetpet are shining examples of Christian values
incarnated in the Indian soil, to mention only two among many.
Graham Staines, an Australian missionary, dedicated his life to looking
after the sick, especially those affected by leprosy, aiming to present the
healing presence of the Divine. Tragically, he and his two sons were burnt
alive in January 1999 by the forces of extremism. Forgiving such atrocities
also gives witness to Christian spirituality. His widow, Gladys Staines,
wrote after the tragic event that she was neither bitter nor angry. Her one
great desire was to see each citizen of India establish a personal relation
ship with Jesus Christ, by burning hatred and spreading the flame of
Christ’s love.
Gradually, another trend emerged in the social consciousness – namely,
people who suffered oppression and discrimination began to demand their
rightful place in the church. This initiative became known as the ‘option’
for the marginalised or the poor. They did not feel at home in the type of
liturgical reforms that were rushed into by the enlightened clergy. Hence
322 Anand Amaladass
the process of inculturation took a different turn by incorporating different

models. The artists took the lead in this – painters brought in tribal and
Dalit perspectives. It became ‘colours of liberation’. Dalit art finds its birth
in its anger at people killing each other, in its expression of its independent
identity and in a protest against popular art forms.
Theologians wrote of Jesus the Dalit (Arul Raja, 1986). Sathianathan
Clarke proposes to reclaim Dalit roots and culture against the ‘sanskritisa-
tion’ in liturgy and forms of worship and to celebrate in ways that are open
to non-Christian religious symbols and traditions. He therefore argues
that Christ transforms Christian and other faiths on an ongoing basis. This
trend brought some demographic changes in the formation of the clergy.
Though this process was perceived by some as destructive, it turned out
to have a transformative effect, converting destructive tendencies into
creative polarities.
Ambedkar, one of the leaders of India who fought for the rights of those
discriminated against, writes that Christ came to an oppressed people like
his own people in India; therefore, Jesus’s advice to the multitude who
followed him becomes of vital interest to him. Jesus taught non-violence.
To Ambedkar that is the unique thing in Jesus’s message, a unique message
that could not only save his people but also could build the kingdom of
God on earth. He further argued that Gandhi is not the originator of non-
violence, but Jesus Christ.
Trends in Spirituality
What is the Christian mission implied in the Christian spirituality in India?
It all depends how one perceives relationships between Christians and non-
Christians. This relation is not one of error to truth, darkness to light, seeds
to fruits. This does not mean levelling down Christianity to the natural
level. The seed must die, the symbol must give way to reality, the potency
must be transformed into act, in the very Christian dialectic of Resurrec-
tion. It is not passive coexistence nor complete break, but transformation,
death and resurrection. In other words, redemption is the true Christian
attitude. The Church in worship is a light in the world. According to the
Orthodox understanding, ‘liturgy is mission’.
Devotion to Mother Mary is an ongoing phenomenon in Catholic circles.
This practice was introduced by the Portuguese and French missionaries
in India. This kind of spirituality has become central to the day-to-day
religious practice of believers. This phenomenon appears in different
forms. Like the shrines of Hindu deities, there are Christian shrines along
the roadside. Mostly they are maintained by private donors, but they are
accessible to the public. In every Catholic parish church there is a special
place for Marian devotion, with processions organised by the clerics. In
addition there are Marian pilgrimage centres that attract visitors from all
parts of the region or nation.
Critical voices have been raised against this type of devotion, but this
form of devotional practice continues, as it sustains the faith of the people
and becomes the source of support for social and religious life. Sometimes
one wonders whether Mariology is more important than Christology, but
such questions have no bearing on the lives of the ordinary people without
any theological sophistication, and they are not affected by the feminist
orientation of the West. They are, rather, influenced by their Hindu
neighbours, and there seems to be even some competition and rivalry,
resulting in some local conflicts.
Popular devotions of this type, in their picturesque variety, reflect
the mystery of the divine transcendence in thousands of forms, and they
must be acknowledged precisely in their inadequacy, as we are before
the mystery; perfection is not guaranteed even in the elaborate forms
of worship. Popular devotions could serve also as checkpoints for the
theological formulations as well as providing sources for reflections.
The Retreat movement, started on a large scale in Potta, Kerala,
still attracts thousands of people. New centres are mushrooming, as
it is a powerful means of witnessing and healing. Hindus and Muslims
participate in such retreats and give public witness to the favours received
from the Lord Jesus. People seem to be in search of religious experience
and basically a meaning in life. Inner healing and reconciliation are taking
place through means such as prayer meetings. One cannot just dismiss such
forms of piety, as they provide solace and reunion for ordinary people.
Different Gifts but One Spirit

‘There is a variety of gifts but always the same spirit: there are all sorts
of service to be done but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts
of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working
in all of them’ (I Corinthians 12: 4–5). This is literally true in India, with
its multiplicity of service and pluralistic mission orientations. There is
no global spirituality. Spirituality today cannot have sources from one
single tradition. Writing about spirituality in India, which is a mosaic of
cultures and traditions, is not talking ‘about’ but talking from within the
respective traditions, representing genuine ‘Indic’ voices. We have no
universal language. Even as we talk of perfection and holiness, it is about
praxis, experience and transformation that is concretely finding different
expressions in liturgy and spirituality.
There are, for example, seven ‘tribal states’ in Northeast India: Assam,
Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland.
Their socio-political situation is different from that in the rest of the country.
324 Anand Amaladass
Their forms of worship and spirituality vary according to their cultural

practices. Commitment to missionary service is a prominent characteristic
of Christianity in this area, notably among the Mizos. When the foreign
missionaries were expelled and banned, this turn of events challenged
and forced the churches to be self-supporting and self-governing. The
missionary zeal received new impetus. The localised character of mission
activity due to their geo-ethnic character and exposure to the Western type
of education enabled them to interact with the wider world. This has its
own side-effect in the form of triumphalism: the militant language and
concept of mission still exists, which might be toned down with due critical
theological thinking.
The Christian message translated itself out of its Aramaic, Hebrew and
Judaic roots. Then came the missionary translation in its Catholic and
Protestant forms to spread Christianity. The Thomas Christianity of South
India is one example, with all its variations. They include the Orthodox
Syrian Church, the Independent Syrian Church of Malabar, the Mar Thoma
Church, the Malankara Syrian Rite Catholic Church, the Chaldean Church
of the East, St Thomas Evangelical Church and a section of the Church
of South India. Independent and Pentecostal churches in India have their
own forms of worship.
In recent years, churches of indigenous origins have also been designated
as Indian Instituted Churches, in contrast to missionary Christianity. They
have their own structures and forms of worship. The majority of India’s
Christians are from the oppressed sections of society, the products of
tribal and Dalit conversions. The new movements of Christian origin are
promising since they affirm the quest for dignity and equality.
In Central Asia, Russian-speaking minorities sustain the worship and
spirituality of the Orthodox Church. The long period of Soviet rule during
the twentieth century tested the faith of this community. The spiritual
strength of those who kept the faith during times of adversity remains
an inspiration today. The collapse of Soviet rule in 1990–1 provided an
opportunity not only for the Orthodox Church to revive but also for new
evangelical movements to establish their presence. Today, small but
growing numbers can be found in churches and fellowships that worship
in Evangelical or Pentecostal style.
Conclusion
Spirituality today does not remain with the traditional Christology that
reached South and Central Asia from the West – which is the fruit of
Christian faith in dialogue with Judaism and the Greco-Roman world
and later with the European people. Today, one talks of a ‘Christophany’
where the Spirit is at work crossing the borders beyond the rational or
doctrinal approach. The living Christ is not subordinated to the logos

Christ. The Spirit opens the door to other religions of Asia and Africa, of
which traditional Christology says nothing, except as adversaries. It is not
mere exegesis of the ‘inspired’ texts, but Christophany penetrates into
every manifestation of the human spirit. This type of optimism is at work
in the prevailing spirituality.
On the other hand, we are aware of the threat to Christian community
in India and also elsewhere. It is openly proclaimed that there is no place
for Christians in the country: ‘Either convert back to Hindutva or leave this
Hindu Rashtra’. The Hindutva-oriented Hindus define themselves as all
those who pursue religions of Indian origin, and this definition includes
three variables: territory, religion and caste or language. Such a concep-
tualisation denies equality to one or another segment of the population.
Muslims and Christians are outsiders. This type of nationalism will not
succeed, as it is empirically unsustainable and replete with contradictions.
But it can still divide, discriminate and do unpredictable damage to people.
There is an alarming increase in violence against Christian messengers.
The murder of Father Arul Doss in September 1999, in Orissa; raping and
attacking the nuns in Jhabua district and the murder of Sister Rani Maria,
both in Madhya Pradesh; attacks on Christians and the burning of Bibles
and churches, which are casually reported in the media – these are only a
few examples in Indian reality.
This leads us to raise a basic question in order understand the core of
Christian spirituality. What would disappear without Christian presence?
Not simply a heritage, a tradition, something that allows itself also to be
secularised, which could continue further even in other forms. There will
disappear a buttress, an element of contradiction, a protest, a power of
interaction. There will disappear from the world the characterising and
influencing dialectic of church and world order. Society would move itself,
as in the past, on a single axle. That could lead either to a state of stagnation
without excitement or to a pragmatically oriented world, in which nobody
will any more ‘dare the impossible’. It could also happen, and it might
be more likely, that it builds new power concentrations, as we have
experienced in the modern totalitarian regimes. Now, at the beginning of
the twenty-first century, both possibilities are open. Also, a third possibility
is not ruled out: the dialectical interplay of church and world could return
in a newer form.
Christianity is not the solution to all enigmas of the world. Nor is it
simply a principle of progress, a socio-political therapeutic. Christian-ness
is a measure – for Christians, at least, the yardstick – against which the
world will measure it and Christian-ness is a matter of loyalty to God’s
word.
326 Anand Amaladass
Bibliography
Amaladass, Anand and Gudrun Löwner, Christian Themes in Indian Art (Delhi: Manohar,
2012).
Griffiths, Bede, Return to the Centre (London: William Collins, 1976).
Panikkar, Raimon, Christianity: A Christophany – Part II (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2016).
Pieris, Aloysius, The Genesis of an Asian Theology of Liberation (Kelaniya: Tulana Research
Centre, 2013).
Wilfred, Felix, Asian Dreams and Christian Hope (Delhi: ISPCK, 2003).
Theology
Jesudas Athyal
A common factor in South and Central Asia is the Christian heritage that can
be traced back to the early centuries of the Common Era. Strong traditions
link the Apostle Thomas to the origin of Christianity in both regions.
According to this account, Thomas is believed to have gone to Samarkand
(now a city in Uzbekistan) in the first century and appointed several bishops
there. In the second and third centuries there were Christians and churches
in that region, especially Nestorian Christians. The story in South Asia is
not much different. A strong tradition links Thomas to the origin of Christi
anity in the region, according to which he landed in Cranganore (known
in the ancient period as Muziris) on the west coast of India in 52 ce and
initially preached to the Jewish settlers in and around Cochin. He subse-
quently worked among the Hindus and, in the course of time, established
seven churches in the region for the Christian converts. Thomas is believed
to have died a martyr in Mylapore on the east coast of South India.
Permeation as Christian Witness

The Christology of the early Asian Christians shaped their theology and
missionary thinking. Mission was an integral part of their Christology; they
believed their calling was to imitate Christ and to follow in his footsteps
by sacrificing themselves in order to save the world. Many of them were
traders and others were carpenters, smiths or weavers. They travelled as
pilgrim preachers, going from place to place and looking after their people
as best as they could. Preaching the gospel was a part of their everyday
life, and the gulf between the trader preacher and the monk was minimal.
The St Thomas Christians of South Asia developed their Christian
witness (outreach) in the early centuries in the midst of a predominantly
Hindu society. Though their theology and liturgy were based on the
East Syrian rite, in lifestyle and traditions they were essentially Indian.
As Anand Amaladass put it, they were ‘Indian in culture, Christian in
faith and Syrian in liturgy’. The church retained its distinctiveness, with
the occasional celebration of the Holy Eucharist and, probably, other
sacraments that distinguished St Thomas Christians from Hindus and
other communities around them. While they preserved their identity as a
distinct religious community, at the social level they integrated well with
328 Jesudas Athyal
their neighbours. Philipose Mar Chrysostom in Mission in the Marketplace

(2002) describes the pattern of Christian witness practised by the St Thomas
Christians as ‘permeation’, as they retained an organic link between faith
and context. Rather than involving themselves in overt acts of evangelisa-
tion or inter-religious conversion, the early Christians were well integrated
in the wider society, bringing with them the values of the Christian gospel.
In their attempt to integrate the Christian faith and its Semitic roots with
the religious ethos of Hinduism, they lived with the people, in accordance
with the incarnation principle. It needs, however, to be noted that for these
Christians, such integration also involved adapting themselves to the caste
hierarchy of that period, often identifying themselves not with the victims
but with the beneficiaries of the caste system.
The relationship between Christianity in Central Asia and that in South
Asia continued well beyond the St Thomas era. Historical evidence points
towards friendly ties between the Indian church and Persia (modern-day
Iran) in the early centuries and also to links between the Indian church
and the East Syrian Church. The flexibility with which the Indian and
Persian Christians balanced their identity as ‘Christian in faith and Asian
in culture’ led to an eclectic approach in developing their theology. Even
though the bishops of Iran had episcopal supervision over the Christians of
Malabar (India) from the fourth to the sixteenth centuries, the geographical
distance shielded the Indian church from the great Christological con
troversies of the Middle East during that period. As A. M. Varki discusses
in The Growing Church (1939), historians have tried to make out that the
Orthodox Syrian Church in South India was at one time Nestorian and later
Monophysite. The truth seems to be, however, simply that these Christians,
few in number and living among large non-Christian populations (and thus
lacking opportunities for frequent contacts with Christian communities
outside), welcomed with open arms whoever came from Palestine or
Persia or elsewhere without stopping to enquire into that person’s precise
doctrinal and ecclesiastical affiliations. Therefore, while quite probably the
Indian church at one time accepted Nestorian bishops and at another time
Monophysite bishops, in general it stayed aloof from the doctrines that
those bishops held and kept its faith orthodox and its succession Apostolic.
Both the St Thomas Christians and the Church of the East (‘Nestorians’)
were missionary churches in which the laity played a significant role, even
in the midst of various monastic orders. Lay Christians played a significant
role in the spread of Nestorianism in Central Asia. The Nestorians
understood service to the wider society as an integral part of their Christian
witness and established schools and hospitals along with churches. The
Church of the East in Kerala, India, continues until today as a small but
vibrant faith community and as an integral part of society.
Theology 329
The arrival in South Asia of the Western missionaries – Catholics and

Protestants – marked a turning point in the Babylonian connection of the
church. The missionaries questioned the symbiotic relationship between
the South Indian Christians and their Hindu neighbours and pronounced
as heretical many of the traditional doctrines of the local Christians. The
Synod of Diamper (1599), convened by the Portuguese Catholic mission,
underscored this position; it repudiated the view of the self-sufficiency of
every religion for human salvation and affirmed the Catholic belief that
there was no salvation outside the Church. The Protestant missions that
followed the Catholics also challenged the belief that every religion can be
an effective means of salvation for its adherents, and they underscored the
Protestant theology that personal faith in the person of Christ was essential
for salvation. Both the Catholics and the Protestants thus introduced into
traditional Indian Christianity an exclusive missiological theology that
found little salvific value in other religions and, instead, asserted that the
only means for human salvation was the Christian faith.
The eagerness of the Western Christian missions in Asia to challenge the
indigenous Christian beliefs and to preach a gospel that seemed foreign to
the local people set off a chain reaction at various levels in the region. While
the St Thomas Christians of South India initially welcomed the mission
aries, the efforts of the latter to reform some of the ancient practices of
the church coupled with the missionaries’ eagerness to welcome the Dalits
(outcastes) into the fold of the church turned large sections of the traditional
Christians against the missionaries. The marginalised sections of society,
however, responded positively to the initiative of the missionaries and,
in mass movements across South Asia, the Dalits and tribals (indigenous
people) accepted the Christian faith, thus forming the backbone of the
church in India and Pakistan. Against the dominant theological trends
among the St Thomas Christians and the missionaries, Dalit theology
emerged, rejecting the notion that a caste-ridden society and Christianity
are compatible with each other. V. Devasahayam says in Religion, State and
Communalism (1995), ‘to me the church is a place where we celebrate our
identities in Christ as the primary identity. If we still want to hold on to our
social and cultural identities, I do not know how it will become a church
of the Christ’. Dalit theology, with its emphasis on God’s affirmation of the
dignity of the Dalits and hope for a better life here and now, is one of the
dominant liberation theological trends in our times.
Religion, Dialogue and Secularism

Around the fourteenth century the church was met with the advance of
Islam and Buddhism, and for many years Christianity disappeared from
the region. During the Soviet period, all religions were heavily controlled
330 Jesudas Athyal
by the state, posing another serious threat to the church in Central Asia.
The retreat of communism in the early 1990s created a vacuum that is being
filled by various movements, not least among which has been secularism
and, as a counter force to it, the threat of religious fundamentalism. While
both Christianity and Islam have been active players in Central Asia, the
zealous efforts of foreign missionaries to Christianise, or Islamise, the
region often resulted in the evolution of religious groups that were militant
and sectarian in nature. Uzbekistan has become the main battleground
for numerous Islamist movements, while Kazakhstan has witnessed
the rebirth of Evangelical Christianity. Along with these, the traditional
national religions, too, re-entered the scene. As Central Asians rediscov-
ered the role of religion in the post-Soviet era, the freedom to propagate
religion opened the doors for many new churches and denominations, and
especially to Western missionaries, who introduced Evangelical Christi
anity to the region. While the Christian heritage of Central Asia goes a
long way back, the tumultuous social and political changes in the region
over the centuries, coupled with sharp denominational divisions within
the church, militated against the development of a mature, coherent and
contextual theology in the region.
South Asia followed a different course. The dialectical tension between
religion and secularism was a force that pushed for the renewal of religion
in the region. M. M. Thomas (1969) argues in his study that it was in the
context of the acknowledged Christ of the Hindu renaissance that questions
of Christ-centred fellowship of faith in Hinduism or Christ-centred secular
fellowship became relevant in India. Christian theologians like Raimon
Panikkar in The Unknown Christ of Hinduism (1964) saw the work of the
‘Hidden Christ’ in Hinduism just as the Hindu philosopher Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan saw in Christianity aspects of ‘Hidden Hinduism’. Neo-
Hinduism, liberation voices in Islam, Neo-Buddhism and other forms of
reformed religion emerged in South Asia as part of a secular and renascent
culture challenging the religions to be relevant in a rapidly changing
world. While secularism recognised diverse cultural and social patterns
of life among different people inhabiting the region, it also demanded
the reform of religious practices that gave spiritual sanction to injustices
such as untouchability and the oppression and marginalisation of women
and indigenous peoples. In South Asia, a renascent and secular culture
provided religions with a moral direction and spiritual foundation.
Recent decades, however, have witnessed serious setbacks to the
progressive and prophetic social vision of religions in South Asia. In
particular, the Hindus and Muslims of the region often adopt a unipolar and
hegemonic interpretation of religion with the aid of a narrow interpreta
tion of tradition and scriptures. The tension between a secular, renascent
Theology 331
and progressive culture on the one hand and nationalist, fundamentalist

and sectarian tendencies on the other will continue to determine the social
relevance of religion in the region.
Minority Consciousness
Religion as an expression of the people’s minority consciousness is an
important aspect of their daily lives. In most of Asia, Christianity exists
as a minority presence in the midst of numerous religions and secular
ideologies. Christians in Central Asia in the twentieth century faced the
unique situation of being a minority group as a believing community under
the communist atheism of Soviet Union and, simultaneously, a religious
minority in a predominantly Muslim region. The consciousness of being
a minority group in the midst of hostile faiths and ideologies shaped
their theological stance, which became essentially insular and tentative.
Even when the context changes, the minority consciousness lingers on, in
one form or another. During the post-communist period in Kazakhstan
the Orthodox Church treats both the Protestants and the Evangelicals as
minorities, while in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan the Orthodox and other
Christian groups constitute the minority under a Muslim regime. In most
of Central Asia, Christians are not only religious minorities but also often
find themselves cultural and political minorities.
The minority consciousness of Christians in South Asia is woven into
the heritage of the region, where religious minorities have a long history,
on the one hand, and, on the other, the majority Hinduism seldom spoke in
a unified or coherent voice. Such a social background, coupled with several
centuries of European colonisation and a strong missionary movement
during that period, contributed to the evolution of a mature and robust
Christian minority consciousness. In India at the time of independence and
when the constitution was being drafted, H. C. Mukherjee and Jerome de
Sousa, the Christian representatives on the Constituent Assembly, offered
to give up voluntarily any special political rights for the Indian Christians.
It is pertinent to ask the question, what is the meaning of minority con-
sciousness in Asia today? On the one hand, it may be argued that minority
consciousness is the identity of a religious, ethnic or linguistic minority
group. However, such a definition can denote exclusion and a reluctance
to be an integral part of the larger community. As Ninan Koshy puts it
in The Life, Legacy and Theology of M. M. Thomas (2016), only groups that
see themselves as different ethnically, religiously or linguistically and are
concerned to preserve their special features, however integrated they might
otherwise be as citizens of the state, should be described as minorities.
In Asia, the minority Christian communities have generally lived in an
atmosphere of distrust and fear of the majority and other minority groups.
332 Jesudas Athyal
Theologically, the church cannot be a minority community, as it represents

all people and communities in their search for humanity. The minority
consciousness of the Christians and their efforts to gain ‘minority rights’
from the political authorities would be a denial of the theological under-
standing of the church of Jesus Christ. The mission of the church is not an
exclusive one but one that includes people of all communities who accept
Jesus as decisive for their lives.
Missionary Movement versus Indigenous Christianity

The work of the Christian missionaries has long been a contentious matter
in Asia. In many parts of Central Asia, the Orthodox Church considered
itself the ‘national church’, but in places like Kazakhstan, German migration
facilitated the growth of the Lutheran and other Protestant Churches. In the
twentieth century, as Evangelical Christianity and Pentecostalism became
active, the Orthodox Church became the victim of Christian proselytism
and it joined Muslim leaders in demanding that the government
regulate the missionary activities that haemorrhage their religions. As
Sebastien Peyrouse (2007) points out, the Orthodox Church finds itself
in an ambiguous position, insisting on religious freedom for itself but
complaining that the state should not abide by any broader Western model
of freedom of religion. The other churches question whether an established
religion would guarantee religious liberty for all. At the core of freedom
of religion, they argue, are the rights of the minority religious groups and
even non-believers.
The theological affirmation of the Christian missionaries that sharing
the gospel with all people is their biblical imperative has often been a
stumbling block in Asia for the adherents of other religions. However,
since Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were Islamised only in the eighteenth
century, Islam there developed certain distinct characteristics as a relatively
benevolent and tolerant religion. The dominant Orthodox Church in the
region, on the other hand, sought to marginalise the minority Christian
groups as well as the Muslims. In short, while the inter-religious context
marked the religious landscape of South Asia, intra-religious tensions
played an important role in Central Asia
Perhaps more than any other Asian context, India grappled with some
fundamental theological questions in relation to Christian missionary work
in pluralistic societies. The Hindus who were exposed to English education
provided a fertile ground for the emergence of renascent movements.
A review of the work of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda,
Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, S. Radhakrishnan and others in
India’s renaissance is undertaken by M. M. Thomas in his 1969 study. As
he puts it, among the renascent Hindu leaders were those who maintained
Theology 333
close spiritual fellowships with Christians, and others, ‘who pursue their
devotion to Christ without such support’. Thomas traces the cases of
several, like those of Kesub Chandra Sen and P. C. Majumdar, who ac-
knowledged that Jesus Christ was the revelation of the Divine Humanity of
Sonship and who sought to redefine traditional Hinduism both as religion
and community in the light of Jesus. Sen and Majumdar even formed
a Neo-Hindu church of Christ with its own sacraments of baptism and
Eucharist. There were also Hindu groups such as that of Subba Rao of
Andhra Pradesh that were ‘committed to spirituality and religious rites
centred in the Crucified Christ as saviour and Healer’ but which decided to
stay outside the mainstream of the structured church of baptised believers.
Manilal C. Parekh, on the other hand, accepted baptism, which was
considered ‘a purely spiritual sacrament, signifying the dedication of the
new disciple to Christ’, conferring the privilege to make known the name of
Christ. He, however, believed that ‘the new disciple should remain within
his community, witnessing from there’. Kandasamy Chetty maintained a
spiritual fellowship with other Christians without joining the church by
baptism. All in all, it can be stated that the South Asian renascent leaders
made substantial contributions to the development of an indigenous
Christian theology.
The relation between religious conversion and membership in the
church was a contentious matter in South Asia. Lesslie Newbigin, who
was missionary and bishop in the region from 1936 to 1974, argued that
the adoption of the traditions and customs of the ‘Christian community’
is indeed required for one to ‘belong to Christ’. A personal commitment
to and belief in Christ needed to be nurtured within the fellowship of the
church, he affirmed. As he put it, the New Testament knows nothing of a
relationship with Christ that is purely mental and spiritual, unembodied in
any of the structures of human relationship. M. M. Thomas countered this
position by arguing that in conversion the issue is neither the participation
of the convert in a visible Christian fellowship nor the outright denial of
any form of church, but ‘the transcendence of the Church over religious
communities, which makes possible the Church’s taking form in all
religious communities’. The key question here was neither the affirmation
nor the denial of church but the question of what form the church should
take in Asia.
While a good part of the inter-religious encounter in South Asia on the
role and relevance of Christian mission stayed within the framework of
the mainline Hindu and Christian traditions, in recent years attention has
also been focused on the role ‘Little Traditions’ play in this process. Little
Traditions are the non-dominant and marginalised narratives that often get
subsumed in the mega-narrative of the mainline religions. In his Quest for
334 Jesudas Athyal
Identity. India’s Churches of Indigenous Origin: The ‘Little tradition’ in Indian

Christianity (2000), Roger Hedlund argues that Little Traditions represent
the practices and beliefs that might be different from the ‘Great Traditions’
represented by the traditional mainline churches, with their dogmas and
Christian institutions such as colleges and schools. The Little Traditions
are relatively new, decentralised and of South Asian origin, while the
grand narratives are often of Western origin. The growth of Christianity in
South Asia, from the latter part of the twentieth century, was often as de-
centralised house churches and Neo-Pentecostal movements that bypassed
the mainline, institutionalised churches and traditional liturgies and
where faith became a direct and immediate reality for the lay believers.
Tremendous growth in Christianity on these lines has been witnessed in
recent decades in Iran, Nepal, Northeast India and other parts of Asia.
Charitable Diakonia and Social Diakonia

Christian institutions such as schools, colleges and hospitals play a crucial
role in the life and witness of the church and it is important to consider
their work theologically. In Asia, where the overwhelming majority of
people profess non-Christian faiths, the public by and large respect and
acknowledge the values of integrity and equality represented by Christian
institutions that serve the public. These institutions have contributed not
only at the level of charitable diakonia, where direct help is imparted to
the people, but also in ‘social diakonia’ aimed at changing the structures
of society in the direction of justice. While considering the identity and
mission of the church in the region, such an extended meaning of the
diaconal ministry is important. In the struggles of the Asian people for the
establishment of a just society where people are liberated from the bonds
of poverty, ignorance, superstition and exploitation, the whole academic
community – Christian and non-Christian staff and students – acting as
catalysts of change have helped to bring about a deep transformation of
the unjust socio-economic structure. Particularly in South Asia, the work
of the church in the field of education has provided the social ferment for
change. Diakonia in such a context is an all-embracing term that includes
prophetic ministry and participation in the struggles for justice, becoming
an essential part of the mission of the church. The Christian mission to
society becomes true diakonia only when the social and charitable work of
the church is understood as part of the prophetic witness of the church.
Prophetic religion affirms the spiritual alienation of the human being and
therefore is an instrument of checking corruption and empowering the
oppressed and exploited in the name of justice.
Diakonia is integrally related to ecclesiology. What should be the form of
the church in societies such as Asia? The pertinent question is, how can the
Theology 335
charitable and social diakonia enrich the kerygma – witness – of the church?
As the church seeks to relate its mission to the world outside in diakonia, it
also undergoes a process of self-criticism where structures and identities
irrelevant to the mission are repeatedly challenged with the central message
of the crucified Jesus and the fellowship of the Lord’s table. It is in the
tension between the mission to the world and the openness to meaning-
fully transform one’s own structures that the Asian church seeks patterns
of diaconal ministry relevant for our times.
The Surge of Pentecostalism

During its long history in the region, during the colonial as well as the
communist periods, mainline Christianity emerged as a well entrenched
institution with power and prestige. Pentecostalism, on the other hand,
is a more recent phenomenon and took root essentially on the periphery
of the institutional church, as a protest movement that provided a space
for the people who were threatened with physical and spiritual exclusion.
While organised Christian denominations continue to wield considerable
institutional power in the region, the momentum has shifted towards the
hierarchically decentralised, non-denominational, congregational models
represented by the Pentecostal, Neo-Pentecostal and Charismatic groups.
In South Asia, the Dalit component is an important factor in Pentecostal-
ism. The emergence of the Pentecostal faith in India at the beginning of the
twentieth century, with its simple message of universal salvation devoid
of any elaborate liturgical or hierarchical framework, appealed greatly to
the lower sections of society, in particular the Dalits. Michael Bergunder in
The South Indian Pentecostal Movement in the Twentieth Century (2008) points
out that in Kerala at the beginning of the 1920s, the majority of Pentecostals
were mostly from a ‘low caste’ or ‘untouchable’ background and, therefore,
the Pentecostal movement needs to be seen against the background of
the downtrodden people’s quest to develop their moral and spiritual life
potential to survive, resist and build new alternatives, such as forming
their own spirituality, which answers their life questions and empowers
them to be dignified human beings.
Pentecostalism emerged as an alternative to the traditional Protestant
and Catholic Churches; however, there have been radical changes in recent
years. While Pentecostalism continues to be viewed as holding a viable and
holistic alternative to the ritualism and traditional patterns of the mainline
churches, the denominational Pentecostal churches themselves have
become, to a certain extent, institutionalised, in the process demonstrating
certain characteristics of the traditional churches. Further, unlike in the last
century, when Pentecostalism was embraced primarily by the Dalits and
the other lower sections of society, it is now making deep inroads among
336 Jesudas Athyal
the middle class, notwithstanding the fact that its base is still among the
poor, the downtrodden and the lower-middle-caste people. The emergence
of a wide variety of Pentecostal, Charismatic, Neo-Pentecostal, non-
denominational and mega-churches in recent decades needs to be seen as
an expression of this phenomenon.
The surge of Pentecostalism in Asia throws up significant theological
and sociological questions. The marginalised sections of society, often dis-
illusioned with the established religious structures, are seeking relevant
forms of religiosity and spirituality that will sustain them in their struggles
to survive, resist and build new alternatives in order to address both the
existential as well as the spiritual questions of life. K. C. Abraham in The
Community We Seek: Perspectives on Mission (2003) acknowledges the positive
role played by the Pentecostals in providing ‘comfort and consolation’ to the
marginalised sections, especially the youth. Pentecostalism also provides
people with an opportunity to have intimate fellowship and prayer, and it
emphasises lay participation and leadership. While it is easy to dismiss the
Pentecostals as ‘emotional and sensational’, the fact remains that they are
widely popular among large sections of Christians and represent perhaps
the fastest-growing Christian group in Asia. The theological task today
is to channel the urge for change in the direction of holistic ecclesiastical
alternatives.
Mission, Culture and Ecclesiology

The theological questions implicit in the impact of the Western mission-
aries on the indigenous cultures and churches of Asia are important. In
Central Asia the problematic relationship of the Western missionaries with
the Slavic Christians and, in particular, the Russian Orthodox Christians
created a climate for the indigenous Christian missionaries to redefine the
meaning of mission in their particular contexts. Unlike the Westerners, the
native missionaries did not try to change cultures or heritage; they spoke
the language of the local people and established churches that were in tune
with the indigenous culture. In South Asia, the ethnocentrism represented
by the Western missionaries often identified Christ and Christianity almost
exclusively with European culture. In response to the emergence of a
spirit of nationalism and self-rule in the region, however, indigenous and
contextual patterns of worship and witness gained ground in the church
from the early decades of the twentieth century onwards.
More specifically in the South Asian context, scholars have argued
that the churches have, by and large, evaded the theological problems
implicit in enhanced cultural creativity within the life of the church and the
problems of unity in the context of cultural pluralism. Indigenous ethno-
centricism often decides the character of the church at the level of the
Theology 337
local congregations, while the overall unity of the church is preserved by

maintaining a culturally rootless organisation at the top. While such a dual
approach might be acknowledging the diversity of the church, there is the
need to grapple with the cultural implications of the transcendent unity in
Christ, not only at the hierarchical level of the church but in the local con-
gregations too. In the absence of a theological critique of culture, there is the
danger of the Christian church ‘sanctifying the tribal, caste, class and folk
divisions without opening them for transformation in the light of the New
Humanity of Christ’ (M. M. Thomas, A Diaconal Approach to Indian Ecclesi
ology, CISS & CSS, 1995, 67). Authentic indigenisation/contextualisation
involves a serious effort to transform cultures from within in the light of
Christ and the quest for a dialogue among contextualised churches and
theologies regarding the core of the gospel that unites diverse cultural
expressions. Such a discussion of Christian mission, culture and ecclesiolo-
gies is relevant not only in Asia but throughout the world.
Double Baptism for Asian Christianity

Religiosity and poverty are two lingering realities in Asia and, conse-
quently, theologising in the region needs to take seriously the context of
the struggles of the people for full humanity. The Sri Lankan theologian
Aloysius Pieris (1998) has argued that this twofold characterisation
of Asia would lead to the double task for Asian Christianity or ‘double
baptism’ – namely, ‘on the Calvary of Asian poverty’ and ‘in the Jordan
of Asian religion’. Without such a baptism in Asian poverty, theology will
become a mere academic exercise. The baptism ‘in the Jordan of Asian
religion’ would be an experience of Christian collaboration and dialogue
with believers of other religions and adherents of secular ideologies. Doing
theology in Asia would require us to locate the Christian gospel in the
context of Asian religiosity and the struggles of the Asian people for full
humanity and in a situation in which the church would identify itself with
the struggles of the people for spiritual and social emancipation.
Disillusioned with a hierarchical and ritualistic religion on the one hand
and a secular worldview that disregarded the spiritual dimension on the
other, large sections of the people – particularly the poor, the marginal-
ised and the outcast – are being attracted to newer forms of religion and
spirituality, in the process upsetting traditional socio-religious/economic
and political structures. Dalit Theology, Tribal Theology and Womanist
Theology were all contextual forms of liberation theologies that sought,
in recent years, to relate theology to the regional and local contexts. Asian
theologians, however, have repeatedly pointed out that Christians should
be cautioned against treating any liberation movement as an end in itself.
No revolution by itself can usher in the Kingdom of God and, therefore,
338 Jesudas Athyal
Christians should treat the fruits of liberation struggles only as penultimate

goals, not the ultimate end. Participation in struggles for justice is the
prophetic task of Christians, but they should be humble and self-critical
while doing so. Saint Paul’s theology of state as outlined in the Epistle to the
Romans has often been cited in the Asian context. For Paul, both the state
and liberation movements needed to be freed from the self-righteousness
that comes with success and increased power. While struggles for freedom
are not capable of redeeming themselves, true redemption is possible only
by faith in the grace that God has offered to us in Christ Jesus.
True to the theological warning about treating liberation struggles as
ultimate goals, the freedom promised to the Asian people as their countries
emerged from colonialism and communism soon turned out to be a
mirage. In the second decade of the twenty-first century, five Central Asian
nations (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmeni-
stan) have been placed on the World Watch List, identifying them as the
world’s most repressive countries in terms of religious freedom. In India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh, the freedom of Christians and the other minority
communities is often threatened, proving that liberation from colonialism
and other forms of external aggression is only the starting point in the long
march towards freedom. The role of theology in such a context is to urge
the people of God to keep in dialectical tension the ultimate vision of the
Kingdom of God and the penultimate struggles for freedom, justice and
equality.
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Russia) (winter 2007), 97–115.
Pieris, Aloysius, An Asian Theology of Liberation (London: T. & T. Clark, 1998).
Thomas, M. M., The Acknowledged Christ of the Indian Renaissance (London: SCM Press, 1969).
Social and Political Context
Cedric Prakash sj
In several countries of South and Central Asia, Christianity is a vibrant

faith, with the number of new adherents increasing. Efforts are being made
everywhere to use local languages in worship and to adapt to the cultures
and customs of the local people, provided they do not go against the basic
tenets of the faith. Unfortunately, in quite a few countries in these regions,
Christianity is under siege. There are many reasons for this, including: the
rise of fundamentalists from other religions who consider Christianity a
threat not only to their traditional beliefs but also to their (often unjust
and exploitative) way of life; governments that are in nexus with these
fundamentalist forces and theocratic states in which the ‘other’ religion
(especially Christianity) is seen as ‘alien’ and Christians are treated as
second-class citizens; and, in some countries, blatant persecution of
Christians, who are killed, beaten up, incarcerated or denied their rights
to practise their religion. War and conflicts disrupt normal life in many
South and Central Asian countries today, which is a good reason for some
Christians from these trouble spots to seek refuge or asylum in materially
better-off and more secure places such as Australia, New Zealand, the UK,
the USA, Canada or one of the countries of the European Union. Finally,
in several countries, Christians – particularly because of their educational
background – are at an advantage and seek to better their prospects
elsewhere through migration. So, in effect, in spite of recent conversions in
some countries, there are declining numbers of Christians in others.
India occupies a special place in this part of Asia; with more than
1.3 billion people, it is the world’s largest democracy. India has a constitu-
tion that is secular and pluralistic in character and is not wedded to any
particular belief or ideology. Although Hinduism is the major religion in
India, the country is home to most of the major religions of the world.
These characteristics are perhaps not found in any other Asian country.
Christians constitute a tiny proportion of this population, but numerically
Indian Christians are one of the largest Christian communities in Asia. They
have contributed significantly in every possible sphere of the country’s
development since independence in 1947. Yet Christianity in India is under
siege. India therefore becomes a critical case study in the context of nations
in this region that are theocratic or simply autocratic.
340 Cedric Prakash
India
Thanks to the visionary leadership of Dr B. R. Ambedkar (Chairman of the
Drafting Committee appointed by the Constituent Assembly) and his team
of highly committed persons, India has a forward-looking and people-
focused constitution. On 26 November 1949, the constitution was enacted,
and it came into effect exactly two months later, on 26 January 1950. At the
heart of the constitution of India is the preamble, which focuses on basic
principles that are non-negotiable and that are the way of proceeding for
every citizen of India. Enshrined in this preamble are the core values of
justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. The preamble also speaks of India
being a secular state, with the understanding that India has no state religion
and that all religions are treated equally. In part III (article 25) of the consti-
tution, all citizens are given the fundamental right to freely profess, practise
and propagate their religion. This point is crucial because it has become a
bone of contention for some, and particularly for those who would like to
make India a Hindu nation-state. The constitution of India is regarded as
a sacred point of reference for all Indian citizens. However, in the past few
years (particularly since May 2014) every effort has been made to destroy
this sanctity. Critics of the constitution have made their intentions clear
and would like the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ to be abrogated from the
preamble in their long-term agenda to destroy the secular and pluralistic
fabric of India.
Since independence, Christianity has contributed significantly to
the overall development and growth of the country. John Matthai was a
minister in the interim government prior to independence. Father Jerome
D’Souza, a Jesuit educationalist, and six other Christians were members
of the Constituent Assembly after independence. Their contribution was
significant. While the constitution protected the rights of every citizen and
of minority religions, the Christian members of the Constituent Assembly
sought no other special status or privileges for the Christian community.
Although no Christian has become the president, the vice-president or
the prime minister of the country, numerous Christians have been involved
in politics. At least one has become speaker of the Lok Sabha (the lower
house) and several have become ministers in the federal government. From
the first elections, at both the national and state levels, there have been
several Christian Members of Parliament, Members of State Legislative
Assemblies and Members of Legislative Councils. There have been
Christians who have become governors, chief ministers of some states and
mayors of some of the key cities of India.
India has also had several Christian bureaucrats of the Indian Admin-
istrative Service (IAS) or the Indian Civil Service (ICS). These have held
decision-making and at times key advisory roles at the central and state
government levels. Christians have also played stellar roles in the country’s
defence forces (army, navy and air force), with a significant number
receiving national gallantry awards.
The Christians of India have rendered service in every possible field.
They are, however, best known for their contributions in the fields of
education and healthcare. Christians run some of the premier educational
institutions in India. The range includes universities (including some of the
most highly regarded), colleges, schools (higher, secondary and primary),
vocational training institutes and non-formal education programmes. There
are about 25,000 such educational institutions being run by Christians in
India today. Among them are some of the best-known schools of business
management and medical colleges. Significantly, Christian teachers,
doctors and nurses are very much in demand all over the country because
of their commitment to duty, professionalism and integrity.
The contribution of Christians in the field of healthcare is perhaps un-
paralleled in independent India. There are Christian medical clinics even
in remote areas, caring for the sick of very impoverished communities. The
work of the Australian missionary Dr Graham Staines (who has burned
alive with his two young sons in January 1999) among the leprosy patients
of Orissa is well known. Mother Teresa (today a saint of the Catholic Church)
and her Missionaries of Charity impacted on the nation in a phenomenal
way, with their free and selfless service for the dying destitute and the
poorest of the poor. The healthcare services of Christians, through their
hospitals, dispensaries and clinics, cater to thousands all over the country.
Christians have also played a significant role in the social uplift and
economic development of poor and marginalised communities in the
country. These programmes have focused on child protection, the
empowerment of women and the human rights of those who are constantly
exploited and face injustices.
Indian Christians have mastered Indian languages and dialects,
producing dictionaries and other authoritative works in every dimension
of academia. Some of them have been top historians and scientists and
contributed significantly to anthropology and botany. There are also
Christians of international repute in the fields of art and architecture.
One of the greatest contributions of Christianity to the country is in
the field of education. Through a massive educational network in both
urban and rural India, Christians have been able to empower a significant
percentage of India’s population through quality education. It is natural
that, because of this, Christians (as a community) have the highest literacy
rate in the country. This has meant greater and better employment and
more access to ‘material’ development. It is therefore not surprising that
a large percentage of Christians, particularly in urban India, belong to
342 Cedric Prakash
the country’s growing middle classes. It is not rare to notice Christians

today who are able to flaunt a lifestyle that is very different from that of
their ancestors. Many of them also have a foreign connection – they have
studied abroad, or lived there for some time for their livelihood or have
a relative settled there. These characteristics also bring in a whole range
of challenges, which include high levels of competition; added stress;
demands of a faith that calls for a simpler and less consumerist lifestyle; the
pressures to engage in more active civil and political life; the fear of ‘ghetto
isation’ because of threats from some of those of the majority community;
and, above all, the tension between a traditional upbringing and the many
demands of modernism.
The caste system has been for centuries the bane of India’s social
structure. The lowest/untouchable castes (codified in Schedule B of the
Indian constitution) are normally referred to as Scheduled Castes; however,
the preferred nomenclature is ‘Dalit’, which in Sanskrit means ‘oppressed’.
Over the years, Christianity has evangelised and embraced many Dalits
into the faith (it is estimated that today almost 70% of Indian Christians are
Dalits), giving them the much-needed feeling of dignity, equity and being
a child of God. However, not all agree with this. Caste discrimination has
also pervaded Christianity. In some places it is very visible, with separate
burial areas in Christian cemeteries and the Dalits having to sit on the floor
in some churches while those who belong to the so-called higher castes
are provided with benches and pews. Some studies also show that those
in authority in the church in India (bishops, religious superiors, principals
and administrators) are by and large drawn from higher-caste rather than
Dalit backgrounds.
There is another pertinent issue with regard to Christian Dalits: the
Indian constitution provides for certain privileges (like reservations in
academic institutions and in government jobs) for those who are Dalit. If
Dalits embrace, say, Buddhism, they are still entitled to those privileges; but
these are denied them if they embrace Christianity or Islam. The church in
India insists that Dalit Christians should not be deprived of their legitimate
rights, since years of caste oppression cannot be washed away overnight
just because a Dalit has accepted another religion. Successive governments
have been afraid to touch this contentious issue; it is not said openly, but
they are afraid that if these privileges are continued for those who convert
to Christianity or Islam, then millions of Dalit Hindus will likely leave the
Hindu fold. The issue is still in the Supreme Court of India.
In India today there is a widening gap between the rich and poor. India
is being touted as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies; unfortu-
nately, this wealth is concentrated in the hands of a very few. Just 1% of
Indians own more than 58% of the country’s wealth. Most of India’s poor
belong to the Dalit and tribal communities. It is but natural for them to seek
an escape from their poverty and misery by embracing Christianity. The
churches have stood steadfast with the poor and marginalised sections ever
since independence and through education have provided them with the
much-needed self-worth to move towards social and economic mobility.
Though it attempts to find its legitimacy in Hinduism, Hindutva is in
fact an ideology and rather different from the main teachings of Hinduism.
Its adherents are a small but vociferous group of right-wing Hindu funda-
mentalists, which include the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP; Indian People’s
Party), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP; World Hindu Council) and
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS; National Volunteer Corps). These
groups, together with some others, are collectively known in India as the
Sangh Parivar (various affiliates of the right-wing Hindus: ‘the family of
the organisation’). Their ideology is essentially fundamentalist and fascist;
they draw their inspiration from extreme right-wing ideologues like
Savarkar and Gowalkar who were hoping at one stage to establish India
as a Hindu nation-state. Their core belief is that India is only for Hindus;
adherents of all other religions are second-class citizens.
The Sangh Parivar has worked in a carefully orchestrated and
meticulous way to establish its influence in the country. While some of
their representatives were allowed to attack and demonise minorities, par-
ticularly Christians and Muslims, in various parts of India (Gujarat, Orissa,
Karnataka, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh), their strategists
(in particular think-tanks all over the country) ensured that, over the years,
key positions in the government, bureaucracy, judiciary, police, human
resource development sectors and elsewhere were gradually taken over by
their followers. The RSS, which is the mother organisation of the right-wing
Hindus, seems to have supervised all of this, including the way its political
wing, the BJP, extended its influence until it was able to come to power in
May 2014.
Fali Nariman is one of India’s most eminent jurists and a leading con-
stitutional expert. On 12 September 2014, he was invited to deliver the
Seventh Annual Lecture of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM),
which was presided over by the then Minister for Minority Affairs, Najma
Heptulla. Speaking on the topic ‘Minorities at the Crossroads: Comments
on Judicial Pronouncements’, he heavily criticised the current Indian
government for doing nothing to stop the recent attacks and tirades by
right-wing Hindu groups and individuals against minority communities in
different parts of the country. In his lecture, Nariman said that Hinduism is
losing its traditional tolerance because some Hindus have started believing
that it is their faith that has brought them political power — and because
this belief is not being challenged by ‘those at the top’.
344 Cedric Prakash
At a Virat Hindu Sammelan (World Hindu Council) held in New Delhi

at the end of November 2014, a pamphlet was distributed stating that
the five sworn enemies of Hindus are the Muslims, Marxists, mission
aries, materialism and the Macaulayites (the latter a reference to Thomas
Babington Macaulay, who championed a colonialist approach to education
during the Raj, and a term used today to describe Indians who allegedly
privilege Western ways above Indian culture). Set against these as the
agenda of the right-wing groups today are the ‘five Gs’ – gai (cow), Ganga
(the Holy River of the Hindus), Godse (the anointing of Nathuram Godse,
who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi), Ghar Wapsi (bringing back to the
Hindu fold those who have embraced Christianity or Islam) and goondagiri
(violent intimidation).
One of the strategies of the advocates of Hindutva is constantly to raise
the bogey of conversions by Christians. This is a strategy to put Christians
on the back foot and at the same time create social unrest. It is true that
over the years some Indians, mainly among the Dalits and the tribal
communities, have embraced other religions like Christianity, Islam and
Buddhism. These religions have provided them with human liberation:
greater self-worth, equality and dignity in their lives. These ‘conversions’
naturally are a threat to the right-wing Hindus, who are convinced that all
conversions to another religion have to be stopped in India.
Six Indian states have enacted such anti-conversion laws, which are mis-
leadingly referred to as ‘freedom of religion’ laws. In 1967, the State of Orissa
was the first in India to enact legislation restricting religious conversions.
The Orissa Freedom of Religion Act 1967 stipulates that no person shall
‘convert or attempt to convert either directly or otherwise any person
from one religious state to another by the use of force or by inducement
or by any fraudulent means’. The Orissa law soon became a model and a
precedent for others to follow. In 1968, the Madhya Pradesh government
enacted the Madhya Pradesh Dharma Swatantrya Adhiniyam 1968. Anti-
conversion laws in Arunachal Pradesh (1978), Gujarat (2003), Chhattisgarh
(2003), Rajasthan (2006) and Himachal Pradesh (2006) followed.
Key claims underpinning these anti-conversion laws include:
• religious conversions are effected through ‘force’, ‘inducement’ or ‘fraud’;

• these laws are necessary safeguards for the protection of ‘religious
freedom’;
• when a person changes one religion for another, it creates social disorder
and thereby foments social unrest;
• proselytising groups tried to lure the poor and illiterate to their fold
through various baits;
• Christianity and Islam are ‘alien’ to Indian culture.
Perhaps the most draconian anti-conversion law in India is the Gujarat

Freedom of Religion Law 2003, which was brought in by Narendra Modi
when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. It took a full five years for this
Act to become law after its rules were published in 2008. In 2009, the Gujarat
United Christian Forum for Human Rights and several other petitioners
challenged this law in the High Court of Gujarat. The High Court at that
time sent a notice to the Gujarat government on the constitutional validity
of this Law, but since then no hearing has taken place. The Law continues
to be in force until today.
In an act that was equally unconstitutional as (but perhaps less draconian
than) the Gujarat one, the Himachal Pradesh government enacted its
Freedom of Religion Law in 2006 and the rules to guide the implementa-
tion of this Law in 2007. The Evangelical Fellowship of India and others
challenged this Law in 2010. In a judgement delivered on 30 August 2012,
the Himachal Pradesh High Court struck down section 4 and rule 3 as
violating article 14 and as ultra vires the provisions of the constitution of
India. Unfortunately, the High Court upheld most of the other provisions
of the Law and the pertaining rules, saying that they are legal and valid
and in keeping with a 1997 judgement of the Supreme Court of India.
Those fighting against these anti-conversion laws provide a whole host
of reasons as to why they are not only constitutionally invalid but also
requiring immediate repeal. Among them are:
• they go against articles 25 and 26 of the constitution of India, which give

one the right to preach, practise and propagate one’s religion;
• they go against the laws and principles of secularism enshrined in and
guaranteed by the Indian constitution;
• the broad and vague language used in these laws can give rise to various
interpretations and easily lead to discrimination against religious
minorities by government officials, politicians and others;
• these laws are motivated by right-wing Hindu fundamentalist groups
that have their own agenda and do not wish the religious minorities to
enjoy the rights and freedoms guaranteed in the constitution;
• there are sufficient provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to
deal with any act or fraud or coercion;
• these laws are clearly in violation of international laws, including
article 18(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
1966 (ICCPR), which encompasses the right to attend and to peacefully
propagate one’s religious beliefs.
These anti-conversion laws in India are today not only a subject of debate
but are conveniently used by those who harbour ill-will towards the
346 Cedric Prakash
religious minorities, particularly Christians, to constantly discriminate

against them and attack both their intentions and their actions.
Those advocating freedom of religion in India today hope that a full
bench of the Supreme Court of India will declare that every citizen of the
country is totally free to accept a personal religion of choice; that a citizen
has a right to believe in a God or in the non-existence of a God; and that
everyone has a right to grow in belief and perhaps change that belief, not
only once but several times, if needed, during one’s lifetime.
In 1998–9, Christians in several parts of Gujarat, especially in the Dangs
district, were subject to a series of attacks. These attacks brought national
and international attention to the plight of the Christians in the state and
necessitated the visit of the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The
fact remains that none of the perpetrators of these crimes against Christians
were ever brought to trial. Hindutva advocates like Aseemanand (who
made the Dangs district and nearby Waghai his base) continued to express
hostility towards Christians in the area. The Sangh Parivar also continued
to be active in most of South Gujarat with their divisive agenda. All their
acts were legitimised in February 2006 when the government, under
Chief Minister Modi, organised a massive Shabri Kumbh Mela (Hindu
Revival Gathering) in the Dangs. On 12 February 2006, the Indian Express
(Ahmedabad) carried the headline ‘From Kumbh, Modi sends out a
warning to missionaries’. The next day the media highlighted how Modi
had ridiculed opponents of the Kumbh, referring to them as ‘arrogant
Macaulay sons’. He went so far as to tell the gathering that the Indian con-
stitution disapproved of conversions and he felt it was his constitutional
duty as the Chief Minister of the state to prevent people from accepting the
Christian faith. In fact, he gave a public warning to all Christian mission
aries on that day. Together with him in this anti-Christian rally was
Gujarat’s popular Hindu religious teacher Morari Bapu, who once again
did not spare the Christians and attacked the ruling federal government
and the then political system that apparently frowned upon any confronta-
tion with missionaries. He even claimed that plane-loads of missionaries
were coming in from the Vatican to convert unsuspecting Hindus.
The Christians of Gujarat have been under a state of siege for several
years now by Hindu extremists and with the apparent connivance of the
state government. Gujarat is a highly polarised place. From Christmas
Day in 1998 into early 1999, Christians in the Dangs were beaten up and
their houses and churches were burned. This continued for some months
in several other parts of Gujarat. Things subsided following a national
and international outcry, but that did not stop the powers that controlled
Gujarat from continued intimidation and harassment of Christians in very
subtle and indirect ways. Even today, the police in Gujarat constantly visit
Christian churches, demanding that they be allowed to inspect the baptism

registers on some pretext or other.
When the Gujarat government had tried to survey the minority
communities in Gujarat (with very loaded questions), Justice M. R. Calla,
in a common oral order dated 16 February 1999, clearly stated that no
criminal can or should be identified on the basis of religion. He asserted
that no part of the constitution permits any sort of classification of criminals
on any communal basis. He therefore declared that survey to be illegal and
invalid. In 2006, Christians in Kandhamal in the state of Orissa were subject
to severe attacks and persecution. Those responsible for these violent acts
have not been brought to book, whereas some innocent Christians are still
languishing in jail on fabricated charges.
Attacks on church personnel and other Christians have been on the
increase since 2014. In March 2016, for example, Christians at a prayer
service in Raipur, in the state of Chhattisgarh, were severely beaten and
the church was ransacked and desecrated. On Palm Sunday, 9 April 2017,
at least five incidents in which Christians were targeted were reported
from the states of Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and
Tamil Nadu. On 29 April 2017, the local government authorities, claiming
that it was ‘illegal’, destroyed a 122-year-old cross that was situated on
private land in a Christian locality in Bandra, Mumbai. There are many
reports of Christians being subjected to intimidation and harassment,
denigration and demonisation. In December 2017, a group of more than
30 Catholic priests and seminarians who were visiting villages and singing
Christmas carols in and around Satna in Madhya Pradesh were brutally
attacked by right-wing Hindu fundamentalists. That same day another
outfit subscribing to the same ideology in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, warned
the Christians there not to celebrate Christmas.
The Open Doors World Watch List for 2017, ‘which ranks countries
by the severity of persecution that Christians face for actively pursuing
their faith’, ranked India at 15, up from 31 four years earlier. The US
Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in its annual
report released in April 2017, continued to place India in ‘tier 2’ (countries
which require close monitoring because of the nature and extent of
violations of religious freedom tolerated by the government) where
freedom of religion is concerned, emphatically stating that, in the past
year, religious tolerance and respect for religious freedom had continued
to deteriorate in the country. The annua report also singled out Hindu
nationalist groups – such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Sangh
Parivar and the Vishva Hindu Parishad – as well as their sympathisers,
who perpetrated numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment and
violence against religious minorities.
348 Cedric Prakash
Muslim-majority Countries
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and the countries of Central Asia
are all predominantly Muslim, with Christians forming small minorities.
Life has not been easy for Christians in most of these. Christians experience
systematic persecution (and even martyrdom) and, with rare exceptions,
it is not easy for Christians to freely profess, practise and propagate their
faith. Pakistan is a case in point. Christians constitute around 2% (about
3.9 million) of its population, and they face many difficulties in society, not
least the infamous Blasphemy Law. The case of Asia Bibi (born 1971) gained
worldwide attention. In 2010, she was falsely convicted by a Pakistani
court for allegedly insulting the Prophet and was sentenced to death. There
were appeals from world leaders to dismiss the charges against her and
international outrage. She was finally acquitted on appeal to the Supreme
Court in 2018, after eight years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement.
After her release from prison she remained in great danger, as militant
groups called for her to be killed. Before then, two prominent Pakistani
politicians, Shahbaz Bhatti, the Christian Minorities Minister, and Salmaan
Taseer, Governor of Punjab Province, were assassinated for advocating on
her behalf and calling for the repeal of the Blasphemy Law.
In order to help change the ‘anti-Christian’ perceptions in the country,
in December 2016 the government of Pakistan launched a ‘Christmas Peace
Train’ that went round several major cities of the country and lauded
the contributions of Christians to the development and prosperity of the
country. Nonetheless, attacks on Christians continue. On 17 December
2017, at least nine people were killed and many more injured when two
suicide bombers targeted a Christian church in the Pakistani city of Quetta.
Sri Lanka
The only country in South and Central Asia with a Buddhist majority is Sri
Lanka. It is believed that Christianity first arrived on this tiny island nation
as early as 72 ce, mainly due to the influence of St Thomas the Apostle, who
a few years earlier was in South India (and might perhaps have spent some
time in Sri Lanka). Today, Christians in Sri Lanka comprise about 8% of the
country’s population, just behind the two other main minority religions,
namely Hinduism and Islam.
The Sri Lankan civil war between the Tamils and the Sinhalese lasted
for more than 25 years (1983–2009). Sadly, Sri Lanka is well known still for
these years of genocidal violence. Since there are Christians on both sides
of the ethnic divide, there were heroic examples of Christians reaching out
to those were suffering in this bloody conflict.
Christians have contributed significantly to the overall growth and
development of the country. However, like the other minorities, Christians
also are under attack in this island nation. In June 2017, the World Watch
Monitor said that at least 20 attacks on Christians and on church institu-
tions had occurred in less than six months. It was estimated that in 2012,
under the reign of the previous government, only 52 attacks on Christians
were recorded. In 2013 that figure had almost doubled, to 103 incidents.
The outlook is indeed ominous for Sri Lanka’s Christians.
It was hoped that with the election of a new government, the country
would see greater tolerance of religious and ethnic minorities, but the
contrary is happening. Unlike in the past, however, the attacks on Christians
are more subtle and strategic rather than blatant. Buddhist extremists have
been using some fairly unconstitutional laws and policies to negate the
good being done by Christians and even to denigrate the community. Legal
restrictions are being used with full connivance of government officials and
others in authority. Some churches and prayer groups have been forced
to close, Christian burials have been prevented and a number of violent
attacks have been carried out against church members.
Central Asia
From the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were
all part of the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union. Four of them
have significant Christian populations: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turk-
menistan and Uzbekistan; only in Tajikistan are Christian numbers very
small. All these countries have a Muslim majority, but unlike in several
other Muslim countries, freedom of religion is guaranteed in their consti-
tutions, though the actual implementation leaves much to be desired. In
most parts of Central Asia, the tribal or the clan identity is a determining
factor, particularly in rural areas. For a Muslim to embrace Christianity is
practically a non-issue for the state authorities, but it certainly becomes one
for the ethnic group to which the convert belongs. Several studies point
out that since the break-up of the Soviet Union, there has been a religious
revival in these independent nations. The mainstream Christian churches
have no serious problems in these countries, though there are reports of
Christians being harassed in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Christianity
in Central Asia is still largely Orthodox and generally focused on liturgical
services.
The Road Ahead

Today, Christians in South and Central Asia are involved in inter-religious
dialogue and doing their best to engage with the majority community in
countries where Christianity does not have much of a bearing. Christians
are also engaged much more in the social field, convinced that building
350 Cedric Prakash
God’s kingdom here on earth is also to work with ‘all women and men
of goodwill’ in the establishment of a more humane, just and equitable
society. The road ahead is tough, but with faith and commitment, the goal
can be met.
Bibliography
Griswold, Eliza, The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches From the Fault Line Between Christianity and
Islam (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010).
Nussbaum, Martha C., The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India’s Future
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009).
Muslim World (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015).
Robinson, Rowena, Boundaries of Religion: Essays on Christianity, Ethnic Conflict and Violence
(Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2013).
Wilfred, Felix (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2014).
Mission and Evangelism
Jacob Kavunkal svd
‘You will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1: 8; cf. Luke 24:
48). This is evangelist Luke’s version of the earliest Christian community’s
conviction concerning the Christian vocation: it is not about saving oneself
as much as it is a call in relation to the world outside. All four gospels, as
they come towards the ends of their narratives, link the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus with the outpouring of the Spirit and mission. Significantly,
the spelling out of this conviction has not been uniform at all times or in
all contexts. This essay tries to unpack the nuances of the understanding
of this mission/evangelism in South and Central Asia in the twenty-first
century.
Given that different understandings of the word ‘mission’ are possible,
for practical purposes this essay takes mission to mean Christian witnessing
as an outreach to the world so that the message of the gospel may reach
all, with the accompanying option to become disciples of Jesus Christ and,
thus, be agents of the transformation of the world. Though some might
take evangelism as the church’s organised activity of spreading the gospel,
for this essay ‘mission’ and ‘evangelism’ are interchangeable.
Until about the middle of the twentieth century, the churches in South
and Central Asia, by and large, were operating from a concept of mission
inherited from their Western counterparts: namely, saving souls by
proclaiming the gospel. However, events like the Second Vatican Council
of the Catholic Church (1963–5), the Lausanne Conference (1974) of the
Evangelical movement and the missiological statements of the World
Council of Churches (1982 and 2012), as well as parallel developments in
the world outside – such as the fall of colonialism and of communism, the
gradual emergence of a polycentric world, the growing self-confidence of
other religions of the world and the UN Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (1948) – contributed to the emergence of fresh perspectives of
mission in South and Central Asia. Though it would be an oversimplifica-
tion to generalise these evolving trends as common to all churches of these
regions, or as exclusive to them, we can still identify certain characteristics
as leading aspects of the theory and practice of evangelism in most parts of
South and Central Asia.
352 Jacob Kavunkal
The Kingdom Perspective

Characteristic of the understanding of evangelism in South and Central
Asia since the last quarter of the twentieth century is the emphasis laid on
the centrality of the kingdom of God. This is only natural, insofar as Jesus’s
own ministry was centred on the divine reign. His inaugural message at the
Nazareth synagogue is couched in the language of the kingdom. Quoting
the prophet Isaiah (61: 1–2), he proclaimed how it was the beginning of
‘the acceptable year of the Lord’ (Luke 4: 19). The ‘acceptable year of the
Lord’, in Leviticus 25, is the Year of Jubilee, when the Lord proclaims
liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants, when all shall return to
their own land and to their own families (25: 10). It was good news to the
poor, insofar as the poor were those who had lost their land and those
who had become slaves. At the time of Jesus, the poor were those who had
to depend on others for their livelihood, the blind, the lame, the leprosy-
affected and the afflicted. They were the primary beneficiaries of the arrival
of the acceptable year that Jesus inaugurated. Ringing in the acceptable
year of the Lord was the sign that Jesus was the Messiah, as can be inferred
from Jesus’s response to the disciples of John the Baptist (Luke 7: 19–22)
who approached him asking if he were in fact the Messiah.
In the context of the prevalence of the poor in much of South and Central
Asia, the churches here recognised the biblical theme of the kingdom as
especially attractive for mission practice. The kingdom paradigm provided
a vision in which people inherit an earth that includes equality and mutual
respect as well as acceptance, more so in the context of the exploitation
of one group of people by another. Mission in the kingdom perspective
involved at least a minimum level of economic growth to provide for the
livelihood of all, meeting the basic needs of all, before providing luxuries
for the affluent.
This called for a change in the policy of the majority of the churches
of the region, from a predominantly other-worldly theology and spiritu-
ality to a theology of involvement and transformation of the currently
existing reality. Theologians like Aloysius Pieris, Tissa Balasuriya, Wesley
Ariarajah, George Soares Prabhu, Samuel Rayan, Michael Amaladoss
and many others played a constructive role in evolving a theology that
underpinned a kingdom-based approach to mission. The region witnessed
a mushrooming of centres and institutes for empowerment and raising
awareness.
The Indian Catholic bishops in their statement in preparation for the
third millennium said, ‘together with all men and women of goodwill
we uphold the dignity of every person in this land and thus work that
it be gradually transformed into a community of love and sharing with
God as our common Father and Mother’. As the bishops indicated, a
kingdom-centred mission invites the Christian community to collaborate

with all forces and agencies with the welfare of humans as their aim.
For the region, the concept of the kingdom has become a ‘tensive
symbol’ (Norman Perrin) that evokes not one meaning but a whole range
of meanings. In the context of South and Central Asia it tells a story, the
story of the gospel becoming an inner force for the transformation of the
subhuman conditions to which a huge portion of the people of the area
were subjected, not only due to economic impoverishment but also due to
factors such as the imposed caste system with its enforced menial jobs, dis-
crimination against women under the prevalent patriarchal practices, the
millions of children bereft of childhood joys strangled by child labour, the
deprivation of civil rights under rampant political corruption and many
more non-kingdom situations. Even if the churches have not succeeded in
rooting out such evils, many are experiencing the work of God due to their
kingdom-motivated mission.
As God is inexhaustible, one cannot put limits to the understanding of
the kingdom of God, nor can we put borders to it. With this in mind, Asian
churches try to respond to the situations of the cry for life, cry for dignity
and cry for meaning. What must be emphasised is that in kingdom-based
mission, the building up of the institutional church is relativised in terms of
God’s mission to the world. This is justified by the images of salt, light and
leaven with which the Lord described the community. These are minority
images as well as images of expendability. The purpose of mission is not
directly church growth; rather, the kingdom reality becomes ever vibrant
in and through the church. Like salt and leaven, Asian churches continue
to be minority communities, yet with enormous responsibility to the Asian
society that suffers from the woes of a non-kingdom situation.
Asian churches become a disturbing presence from within the wider
human community through good works (Matthew 5: 16), as happened in
India when Mrs Gladys Staines – the widow of the Australian missionary
Graham Staines, who was burned to death in a jeep along with his two
sons – forgave the killers, saying she held no vengeful feelings against those
who killed her husband and children. This shook the conscience of India.
Similarly, the Christian community’s selfless service not only has won ap-
preciation but has also influenced Asian cultures to be more concerned
about those less fortunate, such as the victims of disasters, violence and
other tragedies. This cultural transformation is perhaps the greatest contri-
bution that Christian mission has effected in Asia.
In contrast to the former understanding of mission as crossing the
boundary between the church and the world of the followers of other
religions, mission in Asia has become a boundary crossing between the
kingdom situation and the absence of the kingdom situation.
354 Jacob Kavunkal
Prophetic Mission
Dovetailed into the kingdom perspective is the prophetic mission that the
churches in South and Central Asia advocate. It is a mission that seeks to
incarnate the kingdom on earth, through a lifestyle that is ‘able to wake
the world up’ (Pope Francis). Foundational to prophetic mission is an
experience of God, even as Jesus had at the time of his baptism (Mark 1: 11;
Luke 3: 22), which enabled him to be gripped by God’s feeling so that he
could speak God’s word (Luke 4: 14–21). Evangelisers are in a constant
search to discover and to put into practice what it means ‘to preach the
good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, restore sight to the
blind, let the oppressed go free and proclaim a year of favour of the Lord’ –
in other words, to continue today the prophetic mission of Jesus.
Prophetic mission is a profound relationship with God, as seen in the
case of the prophet Jeremiah (17: 14–18). Prophetic mission is not so much
a task to perform as a vocation, to enter into a relationship with God and
with the people on behalf of God, driven by a sense of mission (Amos 7:
14–16), bringing hope to the community. Jesus’s own self-perception was
that of a prophet (Mark 6: 4; Matthew 13: 57; Luke 4: 24) who had neither
the time nor the interest to move along with the religious leaders of the
time, but who was in constant fellowship with the little ones and the ‘no-
people’, weighed down by the burdens imposed upon them by rulers and
religious leaders.
The churches of South and Central Asia try to read Jesus’s mission in
the context of large-scale human suffering and marginalisation caused by
oppression imposed by fellow human beings. Here, Christian mission is
dismantling not so much religious differences as the disgusting structures
of dehumanisation, such as the caste system, and various discriminations.
The dehumanised and marginalised poor of Asia, such as the women in
the remote villages who suffer disproportionately, are crying out to be able
to live as human beings, accepted and respected as such. It is the blindness
of the powerful of society that condemns these poor to lead a life bereft of
even the vestiges of genuine human dignity. Hapless women in the isolated
areas of Nepal have to carry heavy loads of firewood to earn a living, in
the process destroying their health and wellbeing. The poor want a share
in decision-making so that they can benefit from the fruits of their labour
and the produce of their creativity. Evangelisers are joining forces with all
in raising their voices against such dehumanising factors. The disturbing
similarity between the biblical prophets’ context and the present Asian
context invites the Asian churches ‘to act justly, love tenderly and walk
humbly before the Lord’ (Micah 6: 8).
Christian community in Asia operates from the conviction that the
prophetic hermeneutic of the gospel cannot tolerate any exploitative,
divisive or oppressive force. The poor of the region have to feel that the
God of the Bible is with them and has heard their cry and seen their
affliction (Exodus 3: 7ff.), through the creation of an egalitarian and partici-
patory society. In countries like India, Christian mission cannot ignore the
struggles of the Dalits, described by Arvind Nirmal as the broken, the torn,
the split, the expended, the bisected, the driven asunder, the dispelled, the
scattered, trodden down, crushed and destroyed, to attain their rightful
place within the nation and in the church.
The primary object of mission is not the future of the church as much as
the future of humanity and of the planet earth, which has been victimised
as merely a resource to be plundered as much as possible in order to satisfy
the greed and pleasure of the relatively few who can afford it. The earth, too,
shares the lot of the disfigured and exploited poor, crying for recognition
and restoration to which Christian prophetic mission tries to respond.
Asian Christianity, like the prophets of the Old Testament, tries to
read and interpret the signs of the times from God’s viewpoint. Often it
involves conflict and risk, insofar as the message might go against the
vested interests of the privileged and the powerful, the monopolisers of
the riches who deprive many of their right to have the basic requirements
for a life consonant with human dignity. The ‘human landscape’ is the true
locale of prophetic mission (Gustavo Gutierrez). That mission led to the
martyrdom of Sister Rani Maria in Madhya Pradesh and Father Thomas
Pandimackil in Maharashtra and to the violent persecution of Christians
of the Khandamahl district in Orissa, all in India. This can be understood
from the economic reality of short supply and great demand.
In South and Central Asia, the prophetic ministry of the Christian
community is not confined to the ordained ministry. Lay people are
facilitated to discharge their prophetic ministries. Cecilia Parul Ratna,
for example, a development worker from the Catholic diocese of Barisal,
Bangladesh, puts into practice what she has learned from the annual courses
conducted for the laity by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh.
Such lay-equipment courses are common in many countries of the region.
Mission from the Margins

An associated aspect of the prophetic mission, especially of the ordinary
believers, is the evangelical shift from the centre to the periphery. Since the
rise of Latin American liberation theology, the talk of ‘mission in reverse’
has become common. Though many in Western countries understand
this in terms of the growing phenomenon of the flow of ministers from
the former ‘mission territories’ to the West, the authentic meaning of the
phrase describes how, in contrast to the former exercise of mission from
the centre to the periphery, today the periphery is assuming leadership in
356 Jacob Kavunkal
evangelism. The periphery is no more a passive and silent receiver of the

missionary enterprise managed and controlled from the centre, with the
presumption that the periphery, the poor in the wider sense, is bereft of
knowledge, power, resources and salvation.
A paternalistic and centrally stage-managed mission is giving way to a
participatory and collaborative evangelism in which the periphery is also
taking leadership and even teaching the centre. It is a form of mission that
makes use of the resources of the margins, despite their inherent vulner-
ability and powerlessness. It is the actualisation of God’s plan to recreate
what God has already created in love and wisdom (World Council of
Churches, Together Towards Life, 2013), in a spirit of solidarity in order to
transform all that denies life.
An early instance of this sort of evangelism is the Suba Seth Gedra
(Open House) movement among the rural people of Batulla, northern
Sri Lanka. It has had a galvanising impact on the people of Batulla, not
only to come together for dialogue between Christians and Buddhists, but
also to collaborate in resisting the exploitation and oppression by local
landlords. This initiative from the margin is migrating to other parts of the
region as well. There are several movements and centres for restoring the
dignity of people at the periphery in an inclusive way, without considera-
tions of religion or region. Cedric Prakash, a Jesuit priest, worked along
with the rural village people of Gujarat, India, to liberate themselves from
the clutches of local land-grabbing landlords and money lenders. People
considered to be powerless and without resources are organising to seek
justice and to change the structures of exploiting domination. Here we
experience the complexities of power dynamics sustaining the poverty of
the margins, discrimination and dehumanisation.
Mission from the margins is an alternative model of mission, in sharp
contrast to a mission done by the powerful to the powerless, the rich to
the poor. One comes across God’s alignment with those at the margins,
inviting the church to re-image mission as a work of God for the fullness
of life for all. It is witnessing to Jesus Christ, who embraced the most mar-
ginalised in the society in which he lived, pointing to the sinfulness of the
world and God’s purpose of life. In their struggles and resistance, people
at the margins encounter the God who acts in history to redeem the world.
There is a role also for the evangelists who work in the spirit of ac-
companiment and liminality, aware of their own need to be converted, to
learn from others as well as to receive. Mission from the margins reminds
the church of its pilgrim nature, not perfect, but always in need of change
and growth. It is a politically engaged mission as well, insofar as the
margins become ever conscious of their political rights and powers and
work towards change. Mission becomes ‘shape-lifting’ (Anthony Gittins).
Persons who had no participation, who were considered polluting and

the excluded, become the main agents of mission along with Jesus, ‘the
marginal Jew’ (John Meier). Those on the edge of religion, political activity
and social engagement, like migrants, women, youth, the poor and ‘no-
people’, shift the boundary to create an inclusive society, creating space for
the periphery. For example, in September 2016 the Dalit Christians of India,
in collaboration with the communists and others, organised a sit-in protest
in front of the Indian parliament against the discrimination to which they
are subjected.
Mission from the margins is the modern version of the mission that
Origen defended against the accusations of the Greek philosopher Celsus,
a critic of the early church, who held the church in contempt since it was a
community of the illiterate and the insignificant, like women, soldiers and
workers of leather.
Building Basic Human Communities

The Latin American churches have popularised the notion of Basic Christian
Communities since the mid-1960s. Though this had a creative impact on
the Asian churches as well, what has caught the imagination of the latter
is the idea of Basic Human Communities. This is only natural when we
appreciate the Asian reality of the dehumanised existence of the millions
of people who are, at the same time, very much religious and belonging to
different religions. Poverty and religiosity are two fundamental dimensions
of life in this region. Sri Lankan theologian Aloysius Pieris observed that
the churches in Asia have to go through a double baptism, in the waters of
Asian poverty as well as of Asian religiosity.
The reality of dehumanisation is aggravated by caste, gender, age, race
and similar discriminations. Mission in the context of caste discrimination
has raised the question of the authenticity of the church’s own life, in as
much as caste practices persist in one or another form in most parts of the
region, making mission value-suspect. Arvind Nirmal and several others
have contributed to the development of a theological framework in the
context of this anthropological poverty known as Dalit theology, derived
from the root dal, meaning broken/split. It is a theology evolved from the
experience of brokenness and physical hardship comparable to splitting.
No wonder the rising awareness of the ‘little ones’ of society has been
met with violent suppression on the part of vested interests. Opposition to
evangelism in the region can usually be traced to economic and political
considerations of vested interests concerned to maintain the status quo.
Efforts of Christian communities to improve the quality of life for the
depressed and oppressed ones have met with violent suppression,
frequently advertised as opposition to ‘conversion’ to a foreign religion,
358 Jacob Kavunkal
even if Christianity existed in many parts of Asia right from its inception
and, thus, is older than most other religions of the area, at least in their
present forms, including Hinduism.
Driven by Jesus’s assertion ‘Whoever does the will of God is my brother,
and sister and mother’ (Mark 3: 35), Christians in the region extend their
cooperation to all those who are interested in the quality of human
existence. It can be described as a process of forming human communities
comprising all those who have a sense of the Transcendent and wish to work
for the betterment of life. Already in the early 1980s the Jesuit missionaries
in Maharashtra, India, began to speak about Basic Human Communities,
referring to their work in the area. Nor is this specific to India alone.
The Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal takes credit as being the only Hindu
nation in the world. Any form of evangelism is closely monitored to ward
off possible conversion to Christianity, and it can invite a conviction of five
years in jail as well as an equivalent of US$470 in fines. The best expression
of evangelism is forming Basic Human Communities with a view to
enhance the quality of life for all citizens, as is done by Christian social
worker Chinimaya Blown.
This is true also in other places, such as Afghanistan, which does not
allow the practice of Christianity by its citizens. By the beginning of the
twenty-first century, Christian presence in Iran had dwindled drastically.
Though Christianity was dominant in Central Asia from ancient times,
recent developments in the region have reduced the Christian presence
almost to insignificance. In Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, most Christian
presence has been under intense pressure following the collapse of the
former Soviet Union. Only Kazakhstan tolerates the presence of Christi
anity, usually in the form of Russian Orthodoxy. In all of these countries
the best option for Christian witness is collaboration at the human level.
Inter-religious Dialogue
A safe generalisation about the peoples of South and Central Asia is that,
despite their differences, they are ‘marinated’ in religiosity. This religious
commitment and religious plurality are the leading realities of the region,
and evangelism directly or indirectly is very much contoured by this. As the
Indian sages would express it, every religion is a reflection of the inexhaust-
ible divine reality and points to that reality and mediates a relationship to
that Mystery.
It is no wonder that, for Asian churches, plurality, diversity and the
otherness of religions are not evils to be eliminated; rather, they are divine
blessings to be joyously celebrated as basic ingredients of peace and
harmony. Some Christians in Asia, like the St Thomas Christians of Kerala,
India, have the unique privilege of having existed in living dialogue with
the followers of other religions right from apostolic times. Hence, for the
Christians of the region, religious pluralism does not cause any anxiety or
fear; rather, they consider it a divine initiative.
Asian Christians reassure the followers of other religions that Christian
service is not directed against other religions as such, and does not seek
to displace them, but to realise the divine reign (Rama Rajya, according
to Hinduism), which necessarily implies harmony, integral to the Asian
worldview. Divine reign in the contemporary context cannot be ushered
in without the collaboration of all religions and nations. Each religion is a
‘doorway to God’ (Sebastian Painadath) and has a redemptive role for the
followers of the religion.
Insofar as no religion can exhaust the ultimate Mystery, religions can be
complementary to each other, and it is this conviction that enables Asian
Christians to enter into dialogue with the followers of other religious
traditions. While Christians can witness to what they have experienced
from the face of Jesus Christ, they can also be enriched by the experiences
of others. The end of every religion, termed differently, is shaped in the
context of the spiritual evolution of that particular religion and, thus, each
is integral to the universal process of the divine–human dialogue. In fact,
due to this diversity as well as the sharing of common ground, followers
of different religions are co-pilgrims, with the opportunity to learn from
each other and to be enriched. Even as informed humans have abandoned
practices like cruelty as a form of entertainment, human sacrifice, torture
and mutilation as routine punishment, slavery and genocide, enlightened
adherents of any religion would abandon any claims of religious
exclusivism and designs of displacing other religions.
For Asian Christians, acknowledging the role and the right of other
religions is not escapism from their evangelistic call; rather, it is an invitation
to follow Jesus Christ in his mission of proclaiming the arrival of the divine
reign in the context of the plurality of religions. This demands not only
religious collaboration but also the need to develop theology in partnership
with thinkers of other religious traditions, as well as their scriptures.
Raymond Panikkar, Wesley Ariarajah, Michael Amaladoss, Aloysius Pieris
and others have made seminal contributions in this direction. They focus
on common issues such as religious violence, caste and gender discrimina-
tion, and imposed poverty. Such theology enables self-disclosure as well as
self-criticism, allowing room for change on all sides and making progress
in a kingdom direction. Such inter-religious dialogue leads to a greater
insight into the God who is present and active in different religions.
In the context of the ever-vibrant and ever-active plurality of religions,
on the one hand, and, on the other, the ever-growing gap between different
human groups based on economy, race, gender, caste and power, the
360 Jacob Kavunkal
Christian community sheds any vestige of religious fundamentalism and

intolerance and comes forward to collaborate with followers of other
religions and ideologies to promote right relationships among all people
and, thus, promote justice, peace, harmony and respect for God’s creation –
in one word, the kingdom.
Promoting Response to the Gospel

It is obvious from what has been said that evangelistic engagement in
South and Central Asia is vibrant, even if most of the time it is directed
toward the realisation of a more ‘acceptable year of the Lord’. However,
when it comes to proclamation of the gospel for eliciting an explicit faith
in the Lord Jesus with the accompanying baptism, the churches face dis-
crimination, persecution and even martyrdom like that of Graham Staines,
Father Aruldoss and others, or the burning down of churches (for example
St Paul’s Lutheran Church at Mardan, Pakistan, on 21 September 2016).
Witnessing to the gospel is done not only through numerous educational
and healthcare institutions, as well as through numberless welfare centres,
but even more by patient missionaries whose proclamation is effecting
the growth of the churches in the region. There are areas like Kazakhstan
and several parts of India where the number of Christians are markedly
increasing, especially through the work of Pentecostal and Independent
churches. According to the Atlas of Global Christianity (ed. Johnson and
Ross, 2009), in the region as a whole, Christianity has grown 1.6 times
faster than the population. Whereas there were no Christians in Nepal in
1910, today there are around a million of them. The Central Asian republics
of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have a significant
Christian minority presence.
As far as Central Asia is concerned, freed from 70 years of gosateizam
(state atheism) imposed by the former Soviet Union, which rejected all
forms of religion, the open policy of Mikael Gorbachev, who ushered in
a new era of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), helped to
facilitate the revitalisation of Christian institutions in the commonwealth
nations of the former Soviet Union. It enabled also an influx of mission-
aries of different denominations, which also sounded the alarm for the
central administration of the Russian Orthodox Church. By 2001, the
religious situation in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
and Uzbekistan had changed drastically, along with a stronger presence
of Islam. All these nations except Kazakhstan passed laws favouring Islam
and Russian Orthodoxy. There have been widespread persecutions of
Baptist and Pentecostal Christians in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In
Kazakhstan, with its sparsely populated territory, there has been greater
religious tolerance, and the Catholic Church has established a regular
jurisdiction as well as, since 1999, a theological seminary. The Western

invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq had a destabilising impact on the whole
region, especially Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which border
on Afghanistan.
As Jesus, the ‘marginal Jew’, went to the periphery, missionaries like
Anthony Chacko and Thomas Solomon are working among the most dis-
advantaged people, like the Paharias of Pakur district of Jharkand, Eastern
India, who have greatly reduced in number over the past 30 years due
to isolation and lack of access to welfare facilities. Nearly half of Nepal’s
population is below the age of 18 and most of them never make it to high
school. The nation suffers from a worsening childcare system. Working
for the welfare of children can attract accusations of proselytisation and
prosecution. Yet many missionaries like Chinimaya Blown in Dhunkata,
eastern Nepal, and Agatha Thapa with the project Seto Guras (child
development centres) are involved in evangelistic activities.
Christianity in South and Central Asia is marked by collaboration
among denominations, manifested through many ecumenical and inter-
denominational ventures. There is a growing awareness of the need for
Christian unity to make evangelism more effective (John 17: 21). In India
this awareness has led to the formation of a professional group called the
Fellowship of Indian Missiologists, members of which reflect together and
publish material on evangelism.
A new dimension of Christian witness in the region is insistence on
the need for a spirituality of cultural adaptation. One comes across the
ashram lifestyle in India, the Sufi spirituality in Pakistan and the impact
of Buddhist meditation in Sri Lanka. The revival of cultures and religions
in the post-colonial era has prompted equally a movement of inculturation
among Asian churches affecting every aspect of Christian life.
Christian communities in the region have come of age to different
degrees at different places as far as the work of mission is concerned. In
contrast to the former presumption that only people of Western origin
could be missionaries, today, to varying degrees, Christians of the region
realise how their baptism is an invitation to witness to the gospel of Jesus
Christ. The churches of South and Central Asia are involved in mission not
only with a sense of being sent by God (Missio Dei) but also as participat-
ing in the Extensio Dei, God’s self reaching out. Every Christian, generally
speaking, tries to reach out to the neighbour in one way or another, even as
God reaches out to creation and to every human person.
Bibliography
Amaladoss, Michael, Making All Things New: Mission in Dialogue (Anand: Gujarat Sahitya
Prakash, 1990).
362 Jacob Kavunkal
Evers, George, The Churches in Asia (Delhi: ISPCK, 2005).

Kavunkal, Jacob, Anthropophany: Mission as Making a New Humanity (Delhi: ISPCK, 2008).
Kim, Sebastian C. H. (ed.), Christian Theology in Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2008).
Pieris, Aloysius, Love Meets Wisdom: A Christian Experience of Buddhism (Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis, 1988).
Gender
Sheela Jeyaraj and
Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar
Regional Overview, by Sheela Jeyaraj

Gender issues in contemporary South and Central Asia engage not merely
with the biological factors of being either a woman or a man or a transgender
person. Instead, they are concerned with deep-seated prejudices and their
resultant discriminations in the socio-cultural, political and economic
realms. Four documents of the United Nations – the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (1948), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women (1979), the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995)
and the fifth goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015),
‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’ – have helped
both governmental and non-governmental agencies of the countries of
South and Central Asian to be aware of the prejudices and discriminations
against women in their natal homes, educational institutions, job markets,
political bodies and other public spheres.
For example, articles 24 and 54 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic
of Afghanistan, adopted in 2009, ensure the human and legal rights of
women, provide practical means to fight against all forms of violence
against women and girls, and form a basis for care for female victims in
special shelters and psychological rehabilitation centres. Similarly, twelfth
Five-Year Plan of Bhutan, 2018–23, emphasises ‘Gross National Happiness’
and Bhutanese policy-makers work hard to end poverty at all levels. Their
projects related to ‘Leaving No One Behind’ address gender issues. The
government of India has undertaken several projects to enable Indian
women to achieve gender equality. The Ministry of Women and Child
Development (founded in 2006) oversees the welfare of women. The Prime
Minister’s People’s Welfare Scheme (2014), the ‘Save the Girl, Educate the
Girl’ project (2015) and diverse schemes for lactating mothers and female
victims of violence seek to ensure gender justice and empowerment. In
general, women in South and Central Asia are now more aware of their
rights, privileges and obligations than ever before.
364 Sheela Jeyaraj and Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar
Discrimination against women

Despite initiatives at the level of policy, however, gender justice and
equality are still not available for most women. In particular, women
living in small towns and rural areas seldom participate in public decision-
making, economic progress or politics. They do not have equal access
to nutritious food, formal education, healthcare and employment. Their
freedom to choose a marriage partner and/or to manage their fertility rights
remains curtailed. Generally, the condition of women in the countries of
Central Asia continues to be less favourable than that of their counterparts
in South Asia. For example, Iranian policy-makers have reservations about
the dignity and equality of women in all areas of private and public life,
which the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women requires. The policy-makers believe that the requirements
of this Convention contradict their religious convictions and customs;
accordingly, they cannot envisage male subordination to female judges
or managers or military commanders. Hence, they subscribe to existing
legislation and socio-cultural habits, which invariably discriminate against
women and girls. The custom of nikah mut’ah (‘joy marriage’ or temporary
marriage) and women’s testimony in law courts as having half the value
of a man’s testimony do not comply with the Convention. Iranian women,
especially the youth, look for opportunities to express their freedom and
happiness in a responsible manner via dance or drama, but religious and
political authorities do not endorse their longing and impose restrictions to
preserve what they call ‘female modesty’.
In South Asian countries, where the fundamentalist norms of either
Sanskrit Hinduism or Theravada Buddhism prevail, the position of women
continues to be deplorable. The National Human Rights Commission in
Delhi, for example, is unable to eradicate the cults of Māttammā (‘Exchange
Mother’) or Yellammā (‘Boundary Mother’) in places like Chittoor in
Andhra Pradesh or Tiruvallur in Tamil Nadu. Families dedicate their
young daughters to the goddess Renuka Devi, who in turn ‘possesses’
them and manifests herself through them. Therefore, these consecrated
girls bear her divine energy; men who entertain sexual relationships with
them participate in this energy. This theological notion does not protect
these girls from sexual exploitation and abuse and, in many cases, they
acquire HIV and become incurable patients. Even the conservative Tamil
society does not offer protection for women in public places. Tamil cities
such as Chennai are known for sexual violence. Many young women from
backward caste groups, female construction labourers and street vendors
suffer from HIV/AIDS.
Continuing discrimination against women in India can be traced back to
some extent to the teachings concerning women in the Sanskrit scriptures.
Gender 365
These do not contain a single coherent narrative of the creation of women.

Women represent the afterthought of the primal man, who wished for a
matching companion and got a woman (Brhadāranyaka Upanishad I: 4).
Mothers who do not bear a son are viewed as not full human beings because
daughters have no salvific effect on their fathers. According to the Law of
Manu (9: 137–8), a son (putra) pulls the soul of his father out of the hell
called Put. This theological notion that the birth of a son delivers the soul
of his father from hell remains a vital force for son preference and daughter
negligence in India. Additionally, the son possesses the power to light the
funeral pyre of his deceased father as a mark of his last respect (anteyeshti)
and send the soul of his father up into the worlds of ancestors and deities.
Likewise, the scriptures of Jainism and Buddhism present women as
unequal and inferior to men; they portray women as adorable divine
beings, respectable mothers and detestable temptresses. Besides these
theological notions, Indian fathers tend to think of their daughters as
economic liabilities. Education and marriage for girls require considerable
financial investment. Keeping a girl chaste and a virgin until her marriage
is cumbersome. Finding a groom from the same caste (jāti, ‘birth group’)
is not easy. Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh men and
the men of South and Central Asian primal religions are fully aware of
the indispensability of women as mothers. They want their wives to bear
sons as their successors and inheritors. They are averse to their daughters,
but they cannot live without them. These daughters are necessary to bind
other families via marriage. Their religious institutions, however, do not
officially promote women to leadership roles and entrust them with the
power to make public decisions.
Women’s roles in church and society

Christian men in South and Central Asia know that, like them, their women
are created in God’s image (Genesis 1: 27). They can easily assert that the
death of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary has procured salvation for
both women and men. Nevertheless, their inherited theological beliefs and
church structures do not recognise leadership roles for women in preaching
God’s Word and administering the sacraments.
Christian women in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmeni-
stan and Uzbekistan live among their Muslim neighbours. Most of them
are either Russian or immigrants from European and other countries.
Their courageous piety propels them to keep the places of their worship
clean; they take care of the icons and paintings in the churches. They
provide hospitality to strangers. Some Muslim women, mostly college
and university students, secretly come into contact with Christian women
and are curious to know more about Christianity. They benefit from
Christian radio broadcasts or reading the Bible secretly. As they embrace

the Lordship of Jesus Christ and become Muslim-background Christians,
they remain within their larger socio-cultural traditions. Muslim-majority
countries do not permit Christians to engage in open missionary activities
and invite Muslims to embrace their religious faiths and practices. Some
of the diplomats and guest workers from North America, Europe, Russia
and Australia are Christians; they meet in their own diaspora congrega-
tions and do not share their Christian faith with the indigenous peoples.
Hence, Central Asian Christian women have little or no opportunity to
meet empathetic Christian women from other socio-cultural and national
backgrounds. These derive their spiritual nourishment from secret readings
of the Bible or from Christian radio broadcasts. It is true that Internet
facilities have increased in Central Asia, but few Central Asian women can
operate computers.
The status of Christian women in South Asian countries, except Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives, is better than that of their sisters in
the Central Asian republics. Christian women in India and Sri Lanka are
influential and active. They have more female children than their non-Chris-
tian counterparts in other parts of Asia. Female students perform better
in schools and colleges than male students of their age and educational
levels. The Christian Women’s Colleges in Chennai and Kolkata, the Stella
Maris College in Chennai, the Holy Cross Colleges in Tiruchirappalli and
Agartala, the Idhaya Engineering College for Women in Puducherry, the
Nirmala College for Women in Coimbatore, the Jesus and Mary College
in Delhi and the Isabella Thorburn College in Lucknow are well known
colleges for women. They impart critical thinking and provide role models
for alternative ways of organising life. The impact of these female students
continues even after marriage; their families offer better care for ageing
parents and young children. Besides these colleges for women, female
students study in several Christian co-educational institutions such as the
Madras Christian College in Chennai and St Xavier College in Mumbai.
Countless women Christian teachers shape the thoughts and lives of girls
and boys in primary and secondary schools in rural places. The Ladies’
College in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and the Hillwood College in Kandy, Sri
Lanka, have Christian missionary roots. Their services in creating women
leaders for Sri Lanka deserve attention.
Christian women in South Asia are most active in medical institutions
such as the Vellore Medical Colleges in Vellore and Ludhiana, Immanuel
Eye Hospital in Mettuppalayam, and several nursing schools in India, Sri
Lanka and Bangladesh; these provide medical care and social services.
Qualified female medical doctors, dentists and nurses can become members
of the Christian Medical Association of India. Unless medical conditions
Gender 367
warrant, these doctors and nurses conscientiously refuse to abort foetuses,

especially the female ones. Without their active intervention, the number
of aborted female foetuses would increase dramatically. Already, India
does not have enough women of marriageable age for men. Haryana and
Delhi have the lowest female populations, sometimes leading men there to
abduct women from other states to be their wives. Sexual problems such
as prostitution, pornography, trafficking, rape and divorce have increased
out of all proportion. Domestic abuse of women; the misuse and abuse of
narcotics by their husbands, sons and brothers; and resultant depression in
closed zenana drive many women in Central Asia to commit suicide.
The patriarchal societies and the religious institutions of South and
Central Asia do not educate a sufficient number of women in theological
disciplines. The theological institutions associated with the Senate of
Serampore College near Kolkata and the theological colleges affiliated
with the Asia Theological Association in Bengaluru admit qualified women
candidates for their theological courses at the bachelors, masters and
doctoral levels. The theological colleges of the Senate of Serampore train
theological students for ordained ministry in various mainline churches
such as the Church of South India, the Church of North India, the Mar
Thoma Syrian Church and the like. The South Kerala Diocese of the Church
of South India ordained the first woman priest in 1989, and the Nandyal
Diocese of the Church of South India received the first female Bishop, Eggoni
Pushpa Lalitha, in 2013. The Church of North India, the Lutheran churches
affiliated with the United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India, and the
Methodist Church in India continue to ordain women pastors. However,
the Baptist churches do not yet officially recognise women clergy. The
Bangladesh Baptist Church Sangha utilises the services of lay women
for Bible study and prayer, social awareness about HIV/AIDS and other
works among women. The Young Women’s Christian Associations in the
major cities of South Asia empower women of all faiths and persuasions to
undertake education and training, to find a job and to lead a dignified life.
The feminist struggle

Feminist Christian leaders pursue their fight for full recognition. Most of
their driving values come from Euro-American sources. Seldom are they
aware of the presence of feminist ideas in South Asian sources such as Śiva
as Ardhanārīśvara (‘the lord, whose half is a woman’) or critiques of women
such as Sītā, the heroine of Rāmāyana. Most of the Christian feminist
theologians belong to the Association of Theologically Trained Women in
India. This organisation does not operate on a regular basis. Otherwise, the
national councils of churches in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and
other South Asian countries have a separate branch for women’s work.
Nowadays, almost all female Christian theologians in South Asia engage

with the pathos of the exploited people (such as the Dalits in India); they
oppose harmful expressions of male chauvinism.
The Roman Catholic churches and the Pentecostal churches in South
and Central Asia benefit from the immense selfless service of women, yet
they do not have women clergy. Their nuns or sisters work for the welfare
of their congregations; they help needy women to get out of their misery
and to lead a more fulfilling life. Catholic nuns, almost always qualified
as teachers and counsellors, run schools for rural children, offer midday
meals and take care of the children of poor women in their day-care centres;
thus, they participate in nation-building activities. Christian orphanages
and hostels for girls in schools, colleges and workplaces serve as havens
for women of all ages and occupations. For example, the girls’ homes in
India and Bangladesh, aided by the Christian Mission Service, enable
orphan and destitute female children to experience love and joy. Through
education and vocational training, they attain a better standard of life than
other girls of their age and background.
Since the mid-twentieth century, South Asian diaspora communities
have increased in the Middle East, Europe, the USA, Canada, Southeast Asia
and Australia. Some of these emigrant women, mostly teachers, engineers
and medical professionals, were and are Christians. Originally, their
husbands accompanied them as dependants and did not have proper jobs.
This reversal of gender roles caused problems at home, in their diaspora
Christian communities and in the public. As time passed, some women
learned to adjust; others divorced their spouses and married again. The
children of these emigrants suffer a great deal; when they enter colleges,
they long for a strong identity. If their mothers are strong and determined,
the daughters and sons perform better in schools, churches and workplaces.
It is noteworthy that these Christian diaspora communities from South
Asia meet with each other according to their nationality or language or
region of origin or caste affiliations. Occasionally, they might meet in
ecumenical gatherings; otherwise, unity among these Christian diaspora
communities does not exist. The civil war in Sri Lanka dispersed the Tamil
people into all parts of the world. Some of the Sri Lankan women and
their men, whose lives had been shattered by the memories of fear, threat,
war and death, embraced Pentecostal or Charismatic versions of Christi
anity. Likewise, German emigrants who had left their properties in Central
Asia have rejuvenated German Christian congregations. At the same time,
South Asian Christian women who cannot join their husbands working
in diaspora contexts suffer the most. The absence of their husbands along
with their children growing up without the embrace of their fathers cause
difficult problems, impacting relationships and emotions.
Gender 369
Apart from these troubles of diaspora, Christian women in South and

Central Asia take a unique role in the Body of Jesus Christ. Their number
in the general population is negligible. Yet, they bear witness to the Lord
Jesus Christ in difficult circumstances in Central Asia, the Maldives,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Indigenous mission
agencies such as the Friends Missionary Prayer Band and the Indian
Evangelical Mission cannot exist without the determined involvement of
Christian women. They teach Sunday schools and vacation Bible schools
and thus generations of children receive a Christian formation. Normally,
Christian women in South and Central Asia are not concerned about the
absence of clergy among them; instead, they act as ‘salt’ and ‘yeast’ of their
local communities. Their continued witness to, and experience of, God’s
grace in Christ sustain them and their faith.
Critical Gender Perspectives, by Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar

When history is viewed through a gender lens, it is noticeable that
women’s silence is very loud. This is presented as quite normal, normative
and, at times, even ideal. Using gender as a critical perspective, it becomes
necessary to problematise this silence of women. Did the women not
speak, or was it that they were not heard? Were their voices drowned out
in the noise, or was the validity of their voices denied? Would it be doing
justice to history if women’s seeming silence and absence at various times
were simply stated as a reality? A critical ‘gender’ perspective helps to
advance the issue and explore how justice can be done to history (in terms
of correcting history) and to those who are denied their very existence in
history because of their sex, race, region, identity, religion, caste or class.
The process of gender justice and of gender relearning and redefining
our roles and identities anywhere – whatever our gender – could begin
with narrating our selves, our identities, aloud. How did we experience
our world – in terms of privilege and denied privileges? Were we allowed
to survive, merely breathe, all these days, managing with the minimum
and being grateful to God and to the systems and to the church (or any
specific institution) for who and what we are, or have become? We are born
men, women, transgender, with gifts of a spectrum of sexualities that are
expressed in different ways in our world. If we are to be consistent with
the biblically based principle of ‘abundant life and absolute justice for all’,
we cannot be selective during gender discourse and become homophobic
at one point and suddenly be open and embracing at another point of our
activism and everyday journey of life and faith. The critical perspective of
‘moral consistency’ becomes a prerequisite for anyone who aspires to be
a responsible ethical, spiritual, truthful human being. Such a gender lens
and a gender discourse open our minds, our lives and our eyes, in new
ways, to the Bible, to read as well as to interpret Scriptures that name the
sin of patriarchy.
In the early 1980s, the predominant question surrounding women’s
ordination was, can women be ordained? The response was often ‘No!
What will they do if they get pregnant? What will they do if there is a death
in a remote village? Their physical female body is a naturally vulnerable,
delicate body that might be [read as: will be] subjected to violence.’ It was
not a theological question but a question of culture that persisted, despite
the reality of women’s ordination in the Church of South India since 1976.
It is important to note that the hint of violence that might occur if women
ventured out at night seemed to be a veiled threat that violence against
their bodies was permissible if women were about to transgress the good
old cultural norms, ideals and expectations. After all, the gender expecta-
tions for women and men are not rules. Moreover, these social (patriarchal)
stipulations were for the protection of women, for their safety/security
and to keep up the honour and morality of the family. Counter-questions
include ‘Are women pregnant 365 days of the year, every year? So what if
they get pregnant while in ministry? What is it about the female body that
carries a child in the womb that projects a threatening image?’ A gender
lens helps one to realise that it is not concern for the individual female
body that lies beneath the question of ordination of women into ministry.
Instead, it is fear of the message of life that screams from the body of the
woman, with or without her consent and knowledge. Though the womb
within her body is hidden from prying eyes, the life-giving power of the
body (womb) is very loud and clear. It ought to remind everyone about
the life-giving, life-enhancing power of God, where the word brings forth
life from the womb of the earth. Any power that is built on the logic (or
ideology) of individualism and exclusivism, and legitimises violence and
abuse of power, is an ideology distorted at the roots. The hidden threat
that laces the patriarchal social expectations and the standpoints of the
churches on questions of ordination of women, or the LGBTQI issues, are
questions of power about the body, sex and sexuality. It involves a refusal
to acknowledge and affirm those bodies where one’s sex, sexuality and
sexual orientation do not conform to the dominant expectation of the few,
in the dominant society. These standpoints then become ‘official’ and are
exhibited shamelessly in relation to the body, identity and power.
This gender lens then helps in offering a critique to those churches
and traditions that do and do not ordain women. A gender lens helps to
peel off layers of patriarchal practice of abusive power in the church on
the same question of ordination of women. In some Christian traditions,
the ordination of women is clearly stated as that which will never be a
question in their churches. The Orthodox, Mar Thoma and Roman Catholic
Gender 371
Churches would proudly state they do not ordain women. Very often, these
traditions choose as spokespersons on these issues women who concur
with patriarchy and thereby do not question the non-ordination of women
as a theological issue. Instead, they cite the patriarchal paradigm and
meaning in Jesus not having women disciples among the 12 and justify the
patriarchal practice of eliminating women from the role of the priesthood.
There is an assumed privilege in possessing male genitalia that is
interpreted as ascribed God-given power to dominate. The womb, which
is hidden inside the body of a woman, swells up when bearing a child, as
if to remind the entire world that the power to give life, to produce and
reproduce life still lies with the female of the species. It seems that the womb
might as well as be outside for all the violence and discrimination it faces in
society, within a patriarchal world. Those technologies and techniques that
are invented for the sake of women and their health become suspect when
female foetuses are selectively aborted in a country like India. The silence
of the state to this atrocious reality of female foeticide and infanticide in
different states of India shows that when there is no outrage when these
incidents of violence are reported, the stories of pain are absorbed back into
the body of women. Some of those stories are even converted into stories of
women ‘murdering their own babies’, thus presenting the women as both
victims as well as crude violators of life. A gender lens thus helps to peel
off layer after layer of patriarchal privilege and practice in every religion
and society, and Christianity is not exempt from this guilt of patriarchy.
Gender as a critical lens helps to show how the identity, role and function
of the church remain patriarchal at the core, even though there are attempts
to mask that reality with token acts of conditional ordination. A gender
perspective exposes the bare truth to the world that ordination of women
as priests is not a theological question but a question of power and identity
of a masculine church that chooses to prioritise the mammon of patriarchy
rather than the God of life. A gender lens also helps to address the issue
of sexes of male and female, not as opposite sexes but as sexes that can be
viewed as continuous with the other in the spectrum of sexuality. There
is enough space for the transgenders and people of different sexualities
to find their time, space and identity within this spectrum of a body. Our
minds have functioned as tombs, entombing the prescribed/stereotyped
images of which is the right body, ideal body, normal, unbleeding body.
These images of ‘bodies’ should underline the importance of people as
human beings, as persons created in the image of God, as equals, as fellow
human beings and children of one God.
While the dominant discourse on gender included searching for relevant
theoretical tools for analysis and engaging with patriarchy, the attempt is
now being made to push the discourse further into one that would challenge
and transform our gendered spaces, time, life, experiences and our world
to be a more gender-just one. The gender-conscientised theologians, acad-
emicians and thinkers in all religions and societies might have opted for
more subtle approaches (such as being the leaven in the bread, those silent
warriors, the ‘soft feminists’ who believe that they can never do away
with the system of patriarchy, but lighten the burden of those suffering
from and within those violent spaces). When we pause to look around us,
especially at some churches, societies, cultures and traditions across South
and Central Asia, it is necessary that the web of connections of solidarity for
justice gets strengthened. The onus of bringing about change and transfor-
mation in society with regard to gender justice should lie not on the victims
and the violated ones but on those who have benefited from the system,
from those who have benefited from the power and control equation that
has been followed, by giving up those powers (not privileges) and sharing
space, time and resources with those in need, those who have been tradi-
tionally deprived of their identity, value and dignity. Gender justice as a
lens provides energy and faith to look at the basic premise of being created
equal in the image of God, on the one hand, and the purpose that Jesus
states as his own (as recorded in John 10: 10) of abundant life for all, on
the other hand. This perspective remains a challenging one for Christian
communities in South and Central Asia.
Bibliography
Banerjee, Sikata, ‘Armed Masculinity, Hindu Nationalism and Female Political Participa-
tion in India: Heroic Mothers, Chaste Wives and Celibate Warriors’, International Feminist
Journal of Politics, 8:1 (2006), 62–83.
Kane, Daniella and Ksenia Gorbenko, ‘Colonial Legacy and Gender Inequality in
Uzbekistan’, Current Sociology, 64:5 (2016), 718–35.
Nguyen, Thao, ‘Towards a Dialogical Church: Asian Bishops and Asian Catholic Women’,
Theology Today, 73:2 (2016), 149–56.
Sehin, Oleksandra, et al., ‘Engendering Hope: Women’s (Dis)engagement in Change in
Afghanistan’, Adult Learning, 20:10 (2016), 1–8.
Van Gorder, A. Christian, Muslim–Christian Relations in Central Asia (London: Routledge,
2008).
Religious Freedom
Michael Nazir-Ali
Recognition of the free exercise of religion goes back to the initial

amendments to the constitution of the USA, which were ratified in 1791 and
intended as a Bill of Rights for the American people. In modern times, the
First Amendment, about freedom of religion, is echoed in and expanded
by the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which states: ‘everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience
and religion; this right includes the freedom to change his religion or
belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in
public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance’ (article 18). The 1950 European Convention for
the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms more or less
repeats this formula. It is not until the 1966 International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights that we get further development. Here, the freedom
to choose and to adopt religious belief is explicitly recognised. The UN
Human Rights Committee has extended these protections to vulnerable
groups like women and minorities. The rights of parents to bring up their
children in conformity with their own convictions is also acknowledged, as
are the beliefs of new religious movements and atheism.
Alongside the development of international law regarding religious
freedom, however, there has been widespread refusal to enact or to respect
the provisions of international treaties by nations and even blocs of nations.
Thus, many Islamic countries have entered reservations about these
documents, which declare that they will be implemented only to the extent
that they are compatible with Sharia or Islamic law. This has also been the
case with international or regional Islamic declarations in which there is
no equivalent to article 18. Marxist states also have largely neglected the
provisions on religious freedom. There is now fresh pressure on them from
nationalistic ideologies that include a particular religious tradition in their
understanding of national identity. The safeguarding of religious freedom
is also at risk in the West, from laws and campaigning groups that seek
equality for various groups of people but refuse to recognise the conscience
of religious believers. As we shall see, to a greater or lesser extent, South
and Central Asia has experienced a number of these pressures on religious
freedom.
374 Michael Nazir-Ali
South and Central Asia is a vast region marked by great diversity in

its demography, topography and political systems. Some areas, like
Bangladesh, are very densely populated, whereas parts of Central Asia
are sparsely populated. Systems of government range from democracy
(of sorts) through to religious ideology and authoritarianism of various
kinds. In Central Asia, the vestiges of Marxism-Leninism continue to be
used by authoritarian regimes for their own ends. Both Central Asia and
South Asia have to contend with resurgent Islam, especially in its political,
and sometimes militant, forms, but other religions, such as Hinduism
and Buddhism, are also significant in terms of the recognition of religious
freedom in countries where they have influence.
There is a growing tendency towards ‘anti-conversion’ laws that restrict
or even prohibit conversion from one religion to another. A number of
factors seem to be at work here. In countries like India, there is populist
and right-wing pressure for the government to act against what is seen
as Christian and Muslim ‘proselytisation’, especially of disadvantaged
groups like the Dalits and the ‘tribals’. Ideological Hinduism in India
or ideological Buddhism in Sri Lanka are prepared to tolerate religious
minorities only if they recognise and submit to Hindu or Buddhist pre-
eminence. Radical Islamism in Muslim-majority nations like Pakistan and
Bangladesh similarly seeks to enforce, often successfully, Sharia-related
prohibitions on apostasy from Islam and extreme punishment for offences
like blasphemy against the Qur’an, the Prophet of Islam or Islam itself.
Fear of such proselytisation and the more recent concerns about Islamist
radicalisation have led the authorities to require registration of religious
groups, and the processes for such registration are becoming increasingly
onerous. The requirements are also becoming harder to meet. Varying
from one country to another, unregistered groups might need to meet in
secret and face fines – or even in some cases harsh imprisonment – if they
are caught. Religious intolerance makes it difficult for Baha’is, Christians,
Ahmadiyya and others to access social services, institutions of higher
education or even the necessities of life like clean water or places to bury
their dead.
According to the scale used by the US Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF), five countries (Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) in the region are on ‘tier 1’ (the topmost
category) as countries of particular concern. Another three (Afghanistan,
India and Kazakhstan) are on tier 2. The human rights charity Open Doors
similarly categorises Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan as having an ‘extreme’
level of persecution of Christians and others; India, the Maldives, Turkmen-
istan and Uzbekistan as having ‘very high’ levels; and Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Kazakhstan and Tajikistan as having ‘high’ levels. By both standards, only
Kyrgyzstan, Nepal and Sri Lanka in the region escape any categorisation.
Even here, however, there are serious problems.
Afghanistan
Since the removal of the Taliban regime, Afghanistan has acquired a
new constitution that commits the state to abide by both the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the supremacy of Sharia. This has
allowed the courts to defer to Sharia on matters like apostasy, blasphemy
and conversion from Islam to another religion. The well known case of
Abdur Rahman, who had converted to Christianity, is illustrative: he
was tried and sentenced to death under Sharia but was later exiled. The
numbers of religious minorities have declined in recent years, and the small
Christian community faces particular discrimination and prohibitions on
public worship. The only church building in the country, in Kabul, was
long ago demolished. Lack of pressure from the international community
is allowing the Afghan government to disregard its obligations under its
own constitution.
Bangladesh
After its bloody separation from Pakistan, Bangladesh was founded on
secular principles but has since declared Islam to be the state religion. Apart,
however, from personal and family law for Muslims, Sharia is not enforced
and religious minorities have in theory considerable freedom. This is,
though, being jeopardised by the rise of vocal Islamism, which has targeted
Shi’a Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and secularists. These groups
are vulnerable to extremist violence and to illegal seizure of property. It
would be of great help to the government in Bangladesh if support from
other states and from NGOs working in the area of fundamental freedoms
was given for anti-extremist measures. Some dialogue on this issue among
different actors might also be beneficial.
Bhutan
Moving from Muslim-majority Bangladesh to the largely Buddhist Bhutan,
although the constitution upholds freedom of religion, groups are required
to register. Yet the only ones registered at the time of writing have been
Buddhists and one Hindu group. Christian groups that have attempted reg-
istration have not received a response. Evangelical pastor Tandin Wangyal
was released after he and a fellow pastor had paid fines for showing a
film, convening unlicensed assemblies and raising funds for unauthorised
organisations. Anti-conversion laws can also be misused to harass NGOs
working in education or social service, since such ministries can be seen
as an inducement to conversion. Perhaps the King of Bhutan’s famous
‘happiness index’ would be improved if it included freedom of belief as

one of the criteria for a happy society.
India
Neighbouring India is a Goliath compared with Bhutan and was founded
on the basis of a religion-friendly secularism. This meant that religion was
allowed to influence, but not to determine, matters of public debate. Of late,
however, the position of non-Hindu religions has deteriorated following
the election of a Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party. The
party subscribes to the ideology of Hindutva, which privileges Hinduism
and regards only Hindus as proper citizens, thus potentially disenfran-
chising millions of Muslims and Christians. Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists,
as well as Dalits, are already classified as Hindus by the Indian constitu-
tion. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a party allied to the ruling
group, is self-consciously based on Hindu-Aryan dominance and has been
involved in forced and induced conversions of Christians and Muslims
to Hinduism. There have been large-scale riots against Muslims and
Christians in a number of areas and there are regular attacks on Muslim
and Christian communities on various pretexts, ranging from slaughter-
ing and eating beef (thus profaning the sacred cow) to marrying Hindu
women or forcing people to convert. A number of states have passed
‘anti-conversion’ laws targeting conversions from Hinduism as a result of
force, fraud or inducement but not the other way around. There has now
been a call for a national anti-conversion law. Although Prime Minister
Narendra Modi has affirmed the importance of religious freedom, this has
not trickled down to India’s massive bureaucracy. International human
rights monitors are still being denied visas to visit the country and assess
the situation for themselves. It is claimed that India is a democracy and
that the courts are open for people to seek redress. On the other hand,
international agencies regularly report cases of the authorities turning a
blind eye to religious persecution or even being complicit in it.
Iran
From time to time throughout its long history, the country now called Iran
has been known for its respect for freedom of belief. In biblical times this
was so during the reign of Emperor Cyrus the Great, who liberated many
oppressed peoples under Babylonian rule and allowed them to return to
their traditional homes (including, of course, the People of Israel). Under
Parthian and some Sassanid rule this was also the case, as it was in the period
before the Islamic Revolution, regardless of whatever other violations of
human rights might have occurred. All of this changed radically after the
revolution. The ideology of Wilayat-i-Faqih (rule of Shi’a divines), which
eventually gained dominance, would allow the survival of the Ahl al-Kitab
(People of the Book – Jews, Christians and, arguably, Zoroastrians) only
under strict conditions. There is currently no permission to build or even
extend non-Muslim places of worship. Present ones may be retained, but it
is difficult to obtain authority for repairs. Some churches have been closed
forcibly and their assets confiscated. Jews are continually under suspicion
of collaboration with Israel, and anyone with relatives there runs the risk
of confiscation of property on the grounds that it is ‘enemy’ property.
Faith communities such as the Baha’i have suffered even more: they have
no freedom of worship, their marriages are not recognised in law, their
children cannot attend school or university and their leadership is behind
bars. Even Sunni Muslims are not allowed to build mosques and suffer
various kinds of discrimination. As for the country’s indigenous religion,
it seems there are now more Zoroastrians in India and Pakistan than are
left in Iran.
At the same time, there is a desire for dialogue with people of other
faiths overseas. Such dialogue can be an opportunity for raising issues
concerning human rights and, particularly, freedom of belief with religious
leaders, scholars and activists. Within the government there are moderate
elements, sometimes at the highest level, who desire greater freedom in
Iran. While their efforts so far have been unsuccessful, it is both important
and useful to engage with them and encourage them in their concern for
greater openness. Iran cannot be fully readmitted to the comity of nations
and all sanctions against it removed unless there is real progress on human
rights and, especially, freedom of religion and belief. In particular, there
is a need to regularise the status of the non-ethnically based Christian
churches and of groups like the Baha’i.
Central Asia
To the east of Iran lie the five former Soviet Republics of Central Asia:
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. They
all have in common the experience of decades of a Marxist-Leninist
system and the influence of tsarist Russia before that. They have become
independent since the collapse of the Soviet Union but with little experience
of multi-party democracy, a strong civil society or an independent judiciary.
Kazakhstan
Until 2011, Kazakhstan was noted for its tolerance of religious groups, but
since the introduction in that year of a law regulating religious affiliation
and practice there has been a sharp deterioration in freedom of religion. The
government cites its fear of extremism as the reason for such regulation. All
religious groups have to register, but the process is onerous and, in practice,
registration is granted only to groups already recognised by the regime.

Recognised groups such as Hanafi Muslims are strictly controlled, while
missionary organisations such as the Tablighi Jamaat are banned, as is the
teaching of Sufism. Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism, Lutheranism and
Judaism are recognised, but this is not the case with other Protestant groups
such as Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists and even Presbyterians. They can
be arrested, fined and forbidden to leave or, alternatively, expelled if they
are foreign. For some years, President Nursultan Nazarbayev has convened
the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. Many mainline
churches send delegations to it. This might be a useful arena for a debate on
freedom of religion and belief in Kazakhstan and beyond.
Kyrgyzstan
By contrast with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan is a democracy of sorts, with the
political parties actively seeking the support of minority religious groups.
Since 2009, however, there has been a law on registration that places tough
conditions on membership for registered bodies. Many smaller bodies,
therefore, have failed to register. Russian Orthodox missionaries have
been expelled for anti-state activity, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been placed
under house arrest and various Protestant and other groups have diffi-
culties in burying their dead. The main driver for the government is the
fear of Islamist extremism, and strong measures have been taken against
organisations seen to be promoting it. The government is now intent on
regulating religious activity. It is important that this exercise is monitored
carefully so that undue restrictions are not imposed on religious freedom.
Tajikistan
Nearby Tajikistan is the only Persian-speaking nation of the five Central
Asian republics. Its people, the Tajiks, have strong links with Tajiks in
Afghanistan, where they are the second-largest community, after the
Pashtun. The country is poor and corruption is endemic. Much of the
activity in regulating religious practice has been directed against Islamic
radicalism infiltrating from nearby Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle
East generally, but groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses have also fallen
foul of the state. It seems impossible to invite fellow religionists from
outside the country, even for short periods. It would be beneficial to use
the strategic relationship that the USA has with the country to promote
fundamental freedoms, especially those of religion and belief.
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan is one of the most isolated countries in the world and has
a poor human rights record. It is preoccupied with stemming the flow of
Islamist radicalism from neighbouring Afghanistan and with a growing

presidential cult. There is a complete ban on unregistered religious activity
but, at the same time, registration is difficult and intrusive, with major
groups like the Armenian Apostolic Church, some Protestants and Shi’a
Muslims remaining unregistered in spite of having made numerous ap-
plications. The Council on Religious Affairs (CRA) has only Sunni Muslim
and Russian Orthodox representatives but controls all religious activity.
Numerous raids on unregistered bodies have resulted in fines, imprison-
ment and the confiscation of religious materials. Muslims are not allowed to
proceed abroad for religious education and only a few can perform the Hajj
annually. There have, however, been a few positive signs more recently: a
number of Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objectors have been released
from prison and an ombudsman on human rights has been appointed, but
there is still a long way to go. An obvious improvement would be to ease
registration requirements.
Uzbekistan
As with other Central Asian countries, Uzbekistan’s profile on religious
freedom issues is determined by a fear of Islamist radicalism. Many
religious groups cannot meet the stringent registration requirements and
the publication of materials is carefully controlled, as is their use. With
registration, there is a Catch-22: religious groups need to have a building
to register, but to purchase one, they need to be registered! Failure to
register results in huge fines and failure to pay leads to imprisonment.
Evangelical groups are also regarded as extremists and, until recently, the
import of Bibles was banned. It seems that a limited number of copies of
a new translation might now be allowed in. Torture remains endemic in
the prisons and is used to force people to renounce their beliefs. Again,
as with some other countries, the USA regards Uzbekistan as a country
of ‘particular concern’ yet still declines to take any action. The prognosis
seems gloomy, with little prospect of major change unless there is some
action by the international community.
Pakistan
To the east of these countries lies the nation of Pakistan, created in 1947
as a home for undivided India’s Muslims, who feared permanent dis-
enfranchisement in a Hindu-dominated independent India. Some other
minorities in the area, notably Christians, also supported its creation on
the basis that one oppressed minority would know how to make room
for other minorities. At first, such noble ideals were expressed by no less
a figure than the main founder of the country, Muhammad Ali Jinnah
(known as the Quaid-i-Adam or Great Leader). Since then, however,
the course of the country has been of a relentless drift towards Islamisa-
tion in law, intolerance of non-Muslims, ill-treatment of women and the
flourishing of extremist narratives in the media, textbooks and madrassas
(religious schools). The pace of this was accelerated during the military-led
rule of General Zia Ul Haq from 1977 to 1988. Many Sharia-based penal
and other laws were introduced, which restricted freedom of belief in a
number of ways, as well as restricting human rights in other areas. In spite
of the restoration of democracy from the late 1980s, no elected government
has been able to reverse this trend.
A particular feature of this has been the Blasphemy Law, which
prescribes a mandatory death penalty for insulting the Prophet of Islam
and life imprisonment for desecration of the Qur’an. Religious minorities
have suffered disproportionately under this Law, which has been used to
settle personal scores and to suppress freedom of expression and of belief.
It seems that a case can be registered without prima facie evidence and,
once this happens, the accused have to be taken into custody, if only for
their own protection. It is then almost impossible for them to be given bail,
as both the police and the courts are intimidated by Islamist extremists.
One well known case is that of Asia Bibi, a poor peasant woman who was
convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death for simply confessing her
Christian faith. The governor of the province where she was being held
was assassinated by his own guard for expressing sympathy for her, as
was the Christian Minister for Minorities. Attempts to release her on bail
were frustrated by extremist groups threatening to kill her. Even when she
was released in 2018 on acquittal by the Supreme Court she remained at
serious risk of being assassinated.
While repeal or substantial amendment has been the aspiration of
human rights organisations, even modest administrative arrangements,
which could make frivolous or malicious allegations more difficult, have
not been made. Having failed to legislate for a law on apostasy, it appears
that hard-line Islamists are achieving the same thing through the back
door by an administrative measure that refuses registration of citizens
as anything other than Muslim if their father was a Muslim. This makes
conversion from Islam impossible while allowing, and even encouraging,
conversion to Islam. It seems also that non-Muslims may be registered as
Muslims by default if, for example, they have a Muslim-sounding name.
Pakistan presents a paradox: on the one hand, there is parliamen-
tary democracy, a free press to some extent and an independent higher
judiciary as well as some civil society; on the other hand, terrorist organis
ations, like the Taliban and the various lashkars, seem to have free rein,
terrorising the general population with impunity and, particularly, the
religious minorities, including the Shi’a, the Ahmadiyya and Christians.
A positive change is that the teaching of hate in textbooks is now being

revised, but the reform of the madrassas still awaits completion and, in
spite of regulation, sadly there remains plenty of incitement to violence
from public address systems in mosques and elsewhere.
Pakistan is a major recipient of aid from both the USA and the UK, as
well as having preferred trading status with the European Union. This
needs to be kept in mind in attempts to improve the human rights situation
in general and freedom of religion and belief in particular. Educational aid
can be used, for instance, to make sure that the teaching of history, social
studies and religious education is free of hate. Preferred nation status with
the European Union is tied to respect for human rights and, no doubt, this
will be an element in any review of that status. It is important that the USA
heeds what its own Commission on International Religious Freedom is
saying about the country, as there will be a stable and prosperous Pakistan
only when the safety of communities is guaranteed against attacks from
extremists. This is unlikely to occur until there is equality under the law
and freedom of expression.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is on the edge of the region and, in some ways, has more
affinity with the region around the Bay of Bengal, which has been called
the Buddhist Mediterranean. We might expect that its majority-Buddhist
background and its diversity would make for harmony among the different
communities. Alas, this generally has not been the case. For many years,
militant nationalist Buddhism has been the main cause of conflict with the
Tamil ethnic minority, which consists of Hindus, Muslims and Christians.
There have also been attacks on churches and mosques and threats against
Muslims and Christians. The Christian community is unique in having
people from all ethnic groups within its ranks, but this has not spared it
the attention of the militants.
It appears that the present regime is trying to reverse the effects of this
legacy and to promote the devolution of power, national reconciliation
and tolerance. A thorough process of truth and reconciliation is required,
though, to minimise the risk of outbreaks of inter-ethnic and inter-religious
violence. Yet it should be said that an encouraging start has been made,
and other countries in the region and beyond have the opportunity to learn
from Sri Lanka in its attempts to check religiously inspired militancy.
The Maldives
Nearby is the tiny nation of the Maldives. Most people know of it as
an attractive tourist destination, with resorts for visitors from wealthy
countries. The reality for the citizens of the Maldives is quite different: it
is both an Islamic theocracy and, but for a brief democratic spring, an au-
thoritarian dictatorship. Islam is the state religion and no other religion can
be taught or practised. No churches or temples are permitted, and people
can be arrested even for worshipping in homes. Saudi Arabia apart, it is
difficult to think of anywhere else with such little freedom of religion and
of belief. An important feature is the rapid growth and influence of radical
Islam and the risk this poses for the thousands of tourists who visit every
year. The Maldives is also exporting extremists to countries like Syria. The
return of some kind of democracy and of respect for fundamental freedoms
appears to be the only hope for a loosening of this religious and political
grip on the country.
Nepal
On the other side of the subcontinent is the Hindu-majority nation of Nepal.
Until recently, it was the only Hindu monarchy in the world. This has now,
after much bloodshed, been replaced by a secular republic. Hindu extremist
organisations have not given up, however, and remain very influential
in Nepali public life. While the new constitution guarantees religious
freedom, it also forbids conversion. This prohibition is being given teeth in
the form of a proposed law that will imprison and fine anyone convicted
of converting someone to another religion. If this reaches the statute books
it will return Nepal to the situation under the Hindu monarchy, when
conversion was illegal. Non-Hindus continue to suffer discrimination in
registering their organisations, having their marriages recognised and
obtaining burial sites for their dead. Extremists have attacked churches,
though, mercifully, no one has been killed as a result.
Hindu militancy continues to grow in influence in this strategic territory
and is an aspect of the entrenched rivalry between China and India for
hegemony in the region as a whole. Maintaining a ‘religion-friendly’
secularism is necessary if freedom of religion and of belief is to survive.
Conclusion
We have seen that most countries in the region restrict freedom of religion
and belief. There are various historical, religious, cultural and political
reasons for this state of affairs. Where religion is a factor in such restrictions,
inter-faith dialogue can be an important occasion for bringing the issue
out into the open. Each party to the dialogue can then explain the roots of
its commitment to religious freedom. The concerns about extremism need
to be addressed, especially where extremist rhetoric or teaching can be
shown to lead to violence or discrimination against minority communities.
This can come about through the revision of curricula and textbooks,
regulation of the use of public-address systems and reform of educational
institutions. It is also true, of course, that this region is not unique in

restricting freedom of religion and of belief. Other parts of the world are
also doing this, whether in the name of religion or of secular ideology.
At an appropriate time, therefore, an international conference, or a series
of regional conferences, on article 18 of the UN Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, to which most states are signatories, should address a
number of these issues. These could be sponsored by the UN itself, or-
ganisations like the Commonwealth, or groups of nations and NGOs. The
primary nature of the rights recognised by article 18 needs to be upheld in
relation to ideological concerns and even claims to other rights that might
be seen as trumping religious freedom. Without freedom of expression,
belief and religion, free societies will be impossible and we will be left with
one kind of totalitarianism or another.
Bibliography
Allen, John, The Global War on Christians (New York: Image, 2013).
Felix, George, Christians in Pakistan: The Battle for Justice, (Salford: Agape, 2001).
Marshall, Paul (ed.), Religious Freedom in the World (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield,
2008).
Oliver-Dee, Sean, Muslim Minorities and Citizenship (London: I. B. Tauris, 2012).
Shortt, Rupert, Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack (London: Rider, 2012).
Inter-religious Relations
Peniel Rajkumar
Inter-religious relations in South and Central Asia cannot be reduced to

a ‘one size fits all’ category, because the nature of religious plurality both
between and within the countries that constitute South and Central Asia
is vast and varied. Therefore, any attempt to reify the religious plurality
of these regions, or the responses to this plurality, into a rigid and unified
category would be futile. Writing about inter-religious relations in South
and Central Asia entails paying attention to specific contexts in order to
discern points and patterns of convergence and divergence, from which a
broader picture of inter-religious relations can be mapped.
Mapping the Religious Contexts

Though in the twenty-first century most parts of South and Central Asia
attest to the presence of different religious and spiritual traditions, and in
some cases even the thriving of different religious communities, the reality
in most of these contexts tends to be that one religious tradition has an
overwhelming numerical majority – Hinduism in Nepal and India; Islam
in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan; and Buddhism in
Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Overwhelming numerical majority status does not
necessarily mean, however, that that religion is invariably recognised as
the state religion. The situation is remarkably diverse. South and Central
Asia have countries with a prescribed state religion, like Pakistan and Sri
Lanka; countries that are constitutionally secular and have no official state
religion, like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Nepal (the last since 2006);
countries that have embraced secularism constitutionally and yet have an
official state religion, like Bangladesh; countries that prescribe the practice
of a particular religion as a condition of citizenship, like the Maldives; and
countries with a state religion that also ascribe freedom of religion to all
and yet place restrictions on any form of missionary activity, like Bhutan.
One defining characteristic of this part of the world is that Christians do
not constitute a numerical majority in any of these countries. Nevertheless,
Christians are a significant minority – not necessarily in terms of numbers,
but by the extent of their influence, especially in the post-Soviet Central
Asian countries as well as in South Asian countries like India, Sri Lanka,
Pakistan and Bangladesh. Through their educational and healthcare in-

stitutions, Christians have had a considerable influence on society. The
minority status of Christians impinges significantly on their engagement
and encounter with people of other faiths. While in some contexts Christian
communities have sought to engage positively with the majority religious
tradition (sometimes even as part of their self-preservation and assertion
of patriotic credibility), in other contexts they have tried to multiply their
numbers through proselytism. In terms of their engagement with people
of other faiths, Christians have perceived the ‘religious other’ in the
following ways – ‘the dominant other’, ‘a potential threat’, ‘the uncivilised
and primitive other’, ‘the culpably ignorant’, ‘the gullible convert’, ‘the
enemy of God’, ‘the superstitious’, ‘the idol worshipper’, ‘the unconscious
believer’, ‘the unenlightened seeker’ and ‘the culturally religious’. These
perceptions have shaped inter-religious engagement significantly.
Inter-religious Engagement
Inter-religious interaction leading to mutual influence of religions on
one another has been a long-attested reality of South and Central Asia.
Religions have coalesced and collided in both fascinating and frightening
ways, influencing ideas of and fostering interactions between one another.
It might be fair to say that, in some cases, the past continues to have a
resilient influence on the present.
One important example of such mutual influence is the impact of the
Muslim philosopher Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (whose origins are attributed
to the city of Tus on the border of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan)
on the medieval Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas. Thinking of the
influence of the past on the present, inter-religious relations in Iran today
between Muslims and Christians are considerably enhanced by a positive
appreciation and awareness of the historic presence of Christianity in
Iran and the gentleness and generosity of Armenian Christians. There
are also instances where one phase of the history of religious interaction
is privileged over other phases in shaping inter-religious relations in the
present. For example, despite the long history of Christian presence in
Iran, the present perception of Christianity there has been shaped by the
country’s experience and encounter with more recent Western Christianity,
as well as by the experiences of persecution of Christian communities in
post-revolutionary Iran.
The quality of inter-religious relations between different faiths in
South and Central Asia is, arguably, dependent upon which experiences
of religious interaction from the past the members of particular religious
traditions choose to remember and privilege in the present. Thus, memory
continues to be a major factor in shaping religious relations.
386 Peniel Rajkumar
In many parts of South and Central Asia, especially in countries like India
and Sri Lanka, and to a certain extent in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Iran,
Christian relations with people of other faiths has been dialogue-intending.
Following the pattern in other parts of Asia, inter-religious dialogue has
been acknowledged as a credible and concrete means of Christian presence
and participation in multi-religious contexts and a creative and construc-
tive way of bearing witness to Christ. Dialogue has been highlighted as the
way of being the church, the method for doing theology and the mode of
the church’s mission in the Asian context in the twenty-first century.
In their engagement with people of other faiths, Christians in most
parts of South and Central Asia have engaged in at least one of the four
modes of inter-religious dialogue identified by the Federation of Asian
Bishops’ Conferences (FABC): the dialogue of life, which involves informal,
ongoing daily sharing of life and friendship; the dialogue of collaborative
action, which fosters collaboration in the defence and promotion of justice,
peace and ecological wholeness; the dialogue of theological reflection,
which involves enrichment by and a deeper understanding of the beliefs
and practices of other religions; and the dialogue of spiritual experience,
which brings people together at a deeper level, both to share their specific
spiritual traditions and practices with each other and to share in common
spiritual experiences.
In addition to this, taking seriously the suggestion that the church in
Asia needs to undertake what the pioneering Roman Catholic Sri Lankan
theologian Aloysius Pieris calls a ‘double baptism’ (in the Jordan of Asian
religiosity and the Calvary of Asia’s poverty), Christians, particularly in
India and Sri Lanka, have embraced what has come to be known as ‘triple
dialogue’. Triple dialogue, which Pieris has advocated through the Tulana
Research Centre for Encounter and Dialogue, envisages a dialogue not just
with the cultures and the religions of Asia but also with Asia’s poor. Triple
dialogue involves the threefold processes of inculturation, inter-religious
dialogue and integral liberation, and is seen as an effective means of
engaging with Asia’s poverty and multi-religiosity under the mission of the
church. This method of dialogue understands inculturation of the church
as inevitably entailing dialogue with Asia’s poor in pursuit of integral
liberation. However, because Asia’s poor belong to diverse religions that
play influential roles in shaping ideas of liberation, this dialogue with the
poor needs to be complemented with dialogue with other religions. In this
model, inculturation, dialogue and liberation are seen as being mutually
inter-related and integral aspects of Christian mission.
In the twenty-first century, one can say that there is either a vitality
to inter-religious engagement or a recognition of its vital importance in
most parts of South and Central Asia. It is important to recognise that
inter-religious dialogue is not an exclusively Christian enterprise. People

of various faiths have embraced inter-religious dialogue as an efficacious
and indispensable means towards peace and harmony.
Several institutions, forums and organisations have actively fostered
inter-religious dialogue at various levels. For example, the first Congress
of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions was convened in 2003 (with
further Congresses in subsequent years) through the efforts and initiative
of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
This state-sponsored initiative has contributed consistently to its objectives
of promoting global dialogue among religions and cultures by deepening
and strengthening mutual understanding and respect among different
religious communities and by promoting a culture of tolerance, cooperation
and interaction. In Iran, former President Mohammad Khatami actively
promoted inter-religious dialogue during his presidency (1997–2005),
especially through the International Centre for Dialogue Among Civilis
ations that he founded, until the Centre was closed down following the
rise of President Ahmadinejad in 2006. Despite instances of the stifling of
religious freedom in Iran, the Centre for the Study of Religions, based in
Qom, continues to have a robust inter-religious engagement even with
organisations like the World Council of Churches. Various inter-religious
councils have also been established, such as the Inter-religious Council
Nepal, set up by a Hindu, Keshab Prasad Chaulagain. Among other
things, it has engaged with the crucial question of the role of women in
peace-building, in collaboration with UN Women. Institutions with a
primarily Christian foundation that have fostered the academic study
of other religions in South Asia include the Henry Martyn Institute in
India and the Tulana Centre in Sri Lanka. The Bangladesh Inter-religious
Council for Peace and Justice (BICPAJ), which was set up by John Hastings,
an Anglican missionary in the Chittagong area of Bangladesh, is one of
several grassroots initiatives that are engaged in inter-religious dialogue
on a day-to-day basis.
There have also been attempts to engage with non-faith actors. The
best example from Asia would be the famous ecumenist M. M. Thomas’s
attempts to engage with secular ideologies. Thomas discerned in the Asian
revolution of his time (which was largely the result of secular ideologies
like Marxism) the work of what he termed ‘the cosmic Christ’, since the
process aimed to foster a fullness of life for all people. Thomas found
the most fruitful entry point for a meeting of faiths at spiritual depth in
the way in which these faiths and secular ideologies responded to what
he called the humanisation of existence in the modern word. This was a
stronger binding force for people of all faiths (and none) than a common
religiosity or a common understanding of the divine. In a further attempt
388 Peniel Rajkumar
to engage with secular ideologies, Thomas understood salvation as

humanisation and developed his theme of a ‘living theology’, which must
emerge out of a dialogical situation. Central to Thomas’s theology is the
‘Cosmic Lordship of Christ’, an influence that transcends Christianity and
provides the theological impulse to work with people of secular ideologies
like humanism, Marxism and socialism towards human development and
social transformation.
Iran also provides examples of the intertwining of dialogue and art,
given the presence of Christian imagery in Persian Sufi literature. The role
of Sufism in fostering openness between Christians and Muslims in Iran
cannot be ignored. During both the classical and modern periods, Persian
poetry has touched extensively on Jesus and other Christian themes.
Christianity and Colonialism

Conscious efforts to overcome the colonial legacy often associated with
Protestant and Roman Catholic Christianity have to a considerable extent
shaped Christian relations with other religions in India and Sri Lanka,
especially in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Acknowledging
the imperialistic underpinnings of any form of triumphalist missionary
attitude, several important Asian Christian theologians – including P. D.
Devanadan, M. M. Thomas and Stanley J. Samartha from India and Aloysius
Pieris, Lynn De Silva and Wesley Ariarajah from Sri Lanka – have argued
for a rethinking of Christian theology, eschewing any form of proselytism
and embracing inter-religious dialogue.
When discussing inter-religious relations vis-à-vis colonialism, it is
important to decry the ways in which native religious traditions were
denigrated and to acknowledge the ways in which Western imperialist
tendencies continue to permeate certain forms of Christian mission.
Christians need to be aware of the religious and cultural damage, both
perceived and real, caused by what Pieris calls the unholy alliance of the
missionary, the military and the merchant – the nexus between colonialism
and Christian mission. In countries like Sri Lanka and India, many share
the perception that Christianity was vitiated by tendencies of religious
and cultural imperialism and deeply entangled with colonialism. This is
assumed to have led to forms of ‘Orientalism’ in which Eastern religions
were understood to be inferior, as the essential ‘other’ of Western Christi-
anity. Christianity’s perceived association with a triumphalist missionary
story, in which native religions were supplanted without any credible
attempt to understand them on their own terms, continues to be a post-
colonial challenge for inter-religious relations in South Asia. The colonial
legacy still strongly influences understandings of Christianity as a foreign
religion in several Asian contexts and calls for critical engagement.
It is, however, important not to buy into a monolithic and ahistorical

version of colonialism as one examines the association of Christianity
with colonialism vis-à-vis inter-religious relations in the context of the
twenty-first century. Though it is probable that European empires invoked
religious justifications for their existence and expansion, they did not
always coerce their new subjects to embrace Christianity. In some cases
colonial rulers considered mission a hindrance to trade relations and hence
discouraged missionary activity. Therefore, the challenge for Christians
would be, on the one hand, to acknowledge with repentance the damage
done by colonialism, while also, on the other hand, recognising that the
relationship between Christianity in South Asia and colonialism is much
more complex than it is often assumed to be.
It is also important to point out how Christianity and colonialism
coalesced, not necessarily in a default negative manner at all times, with
native religious traditions. In the context of Hindu–Christian relationships
in India, even Hindu leaders, who were thoroughly anti-colonial, never-
theless embraced some liberal principles often attributed to Christianity as
well as the Enlightenment in order to combat such social practices as the
caste system and sati (the ritual burning of widows) and usher in a Hindu
renaissance. For example, Hindu reformers like Ram Mohan Roy through
the Brahmo Samaj reform movement promoted a Hindu renaissance
through a cross-fertilisation of the philosophy of the Vedanta with Christi
anity and Unitarianism. It is also important to recognise that Roy and
Keshub Chandra Sen, a fellow Brahma Samajist, were the first Indians
to construct indigenous interpretations of Jesus Christ, thus involving
themselves in a dialogue of theological exploration.
The question of colonialism continues to be important in the present
context of inter-religious relations, for two reasons: first, to help Christians
become aware of Christianity’s colonial legacy and become critical of tri-
umphalist manifestations of Christianity today; and secondly, to engage
with the virulent politics of religious nationalism in which the rhetoric of
colonialism is uncritically and ahistorically invoked to argue for secondary
citizenship for Christians in contexts that have seen the resurgence of
religious nationalism. In light of the negative stereotyping and the re-
fabrication of history by fundamentalist organisations like the Hindutva
movement in India, where Christians are branded with an ‘imperial tag’
(as foreign agents out to destabilise and divide the Indian nation), the
need for greater conversation and clarity around colonialism is evident.
Though there is no doubt that Christianity’s triumphalist colonial en
tanglements should be unequivocally decried, it is important to be alert to
the danger of displacing and projecting colonial guilt onto all Christians
in countries like India to suit the purposes of nationalism. There is a need
390 Peniel Rajkumar
to critically analyse monolithic ideas that tend to stereotype, essentialise

and universalise the relationship between Christianity and colonialism, in
order to foster honest and hospitable relationships between Christianity
and other faiths.
It should also be noted that there is a strong history of decolonisation
associated with Christianity in contexts where Hinduism and Buddhism
are the main religious traditions, as in India and Sri Lanka. Christian
attempts to participate in nation-building in India and to indigenise and
engage in inculturation of the Christian faith in Sri Lanka in the context
of the twentieth-century freedom struggles of these countries need to be
understood as incipient attempts at decolonisation. These efforts sought
to allay fears that Christianity desired the supplanting of local religious
traditions and cultures without a proper understanding of these religious
traditions. To these issues we now turn our attention.
Inculturation
An important way in which Christians sought to engage positively with
local religious traditions and cultures was through inculturation. Joshua
Fazal-ud-Din called upon Pakistani Christians as early as 1949 to indigenise
Christianity. In India and Sri Lanka, decolonisation was attempted through
inculturation to ensure that Christianity was purged of its Western influence
and intimately interwoven with native cultures and indigenous traditions.
Though Christians were on a day-to-day basis engaged in a dialogue
of life, Christian intellectuals attempted the dialogue of philosophies and
ideas by recasting the idiom of Christian theology in creative interaction
with Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions. This resulted in a renewed
intellectual interest in other religious traditions, with the intention to
identify points of resonance by way of which the Christian faith could be
deepened. Though intellectual interest in a religious tradition other than
one’s own was not really new, its post-colonial dimension gave it a unique
perspective. This expansion of the hermeneutical framework to interpret
the Christian faith reversed the tendency to undermine other religious
traditions and engendered hospitable forms of Christian interaction
with them – sometimes at the risk of being accused of syncretism and
compromise.
Inculturation of Christianity in India was attempted by missionaries
as well as by native Indians. Roberto de Nobili, a Jesuit missionary who
founded the Madurai Mission in 1606, is still remembered for his method
of inculturation, which was carried out primarily through embracing
aspects of the dominant religious tradition of India, Hinduism. Stressing
the need for inculturation of Christianity, de Nobili self-identified as a
‘new brahmin’, donned saffron robes, adopted vegetarianism and learned
Sanskrit, mainly to attract Brahmin converts. Inculturation of Christianity

provided an avenue for the cross-fertilisation of the Christian faith with
Hindu spiritual traditions of India and Buddhism in Sri Lanka.
In India, attempts to indigenise the Christian faith in close interaction
with Hindu spiritual traditions were undertaken by Krishna Mohan
Banerjee and Brahmo Bandab Upadhyaya from Bengal; Nehemiah
Nilakanta Goerh, Narayan Vaman Tilak and Pandita Ramabai from
Maharashtra; and Vedanayaga Shastriyar from Tamil Nadu, among others.
Other attempts have focussed on indigenisation of Christian communitar-
ian living, like the Ashrama movement and the insider Hindu–Christian
movement started by K. Subba Rao (1912–81), which de-emphasised the
need for baptism and other structured forms of Christianity for following
Christ. V. S. Azariah attempted the indigenisation of Christianity through
architecture. Places like the Saccidananda Ashram in Shantivanam and the
Tirupattur Ashram near Vellore have adopted symbols and philosophi-
cal concepts from the Vedanta in their architecture and vision. Raimundo
Panikkar, a Roman Catholic theologian, exemplifies what can be called
the dialogue of theological reflection in his attempts to achieve a cross-
fertilisation of Hinduism and Christianity. Panikkar argued for Christ as
the meeting point of various religions and describes the living presence of
Christ in Hinduism as the ‘Unknown Christ’.
Today, though there has been in general a generous appreciation of
Christian attempts at inculturation, this too has not been without questions.
One question often linked to inculturation is whether symbols belonging
to other religions have been inappropriately assimilated by Christians to
further the mission of the Church. Recently in India a new statue depicting
the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus as tribals has been denounced as a means
of conversion in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, sparking off protests
from non-Christian tribal groups. It is important for Christians to be
aware that a pervasive image of Christianity as a proselytising religion
foregrounds suspicions about the goals of inculturation, thus constraining
Christians from attempting native expressions of their faith.
Indian attempts to indigenise Christianity through use of the idiom of
the dominant Hindu religion has come under critical scrutiny from the
perspective of subaltern communities like the Dalits (formerly known as
untouchables), who consider themselves to be discriminated against by
these dominant systems. Therefore, there has been an attempt to engage
positively with the Dalit and tribal/Adivasi spiritual traditions in India.
Marginalisation of Religious Minorities

Inter-religious relations in South and Central Asia have also been shaped
considerably by notions of nationalism based on majoritarian religious
392 Peniel Rajkumar
identity. Conflating nationalism with religion has brought a new set

of questions that have implications for Christian self-understanding in
multi-religious contexts. For example, in the relatively recent post-Soviet
context of Muslim-majority Kyrgyzstan, where religions have gained fresh
vigour, Protestant Christians struggle with what it means to be a Kyrgyz
in a context in which it is normative to understand Kyrgyz identity as
essentially Muslim. Contesting such essentialist constructions, Kyrgyz
Christians have entered into a dynamic process of broadening notions
of Kyrgyz identity to encompass Christians through various discursive
strategies. Weaving a Christian identity with an expanded understanding
of Kyrgyz identity has helped the self-understanding of Kyrgyz Christians
and challenged the stereotyping of Kyrgyz identity as Muslim.
All the former Soviet Central Asian republics are Muslim societies, with
the lines between national and religious identity becoming progressively
blurred. The Islamisation of Central Asian identity in these states seems to
mirror the assertion of Orthodox Christianity as an integral component of
Russian identity. The conflation of religious identity with national identity
has invariably led to feelings of marginalisation among other religious
communities, hindering positive forms of inter-religious interaction.
In the context of South Asia, the question of nationalism, religious
identity and Christian self-understanding is not a recent one. Christians
in places like India have engaged with contexts in which national identity
and culture are tacitly understood in relation to the majoritarian religious
tradition. For example, in pre-independence India, in the context of the
struggle against British rule, Christians like K. T. Paul, J. C. Kumarappa,
S. K. George and P. D. Devanandan placed a high emphasis on nationalist
concerns. Devanandan, the founding director of the Christian Institute for
the Study of Religion and Society in Bangalore, recognised nation-building
and commitment to a fuller life as imperatives of Christian mission in India.
Further, Christians in pre-independence India also took up the challenge
of incarnating themselves as part of the national community. Thus, in
order to prove that Indian Christianity was an integral part of an emerging
national community, a concerted effort was made to respond positively to
the demand for a nationalistic Christianity. There was a tacit inclination to
an inordinate reification and reinforcement of ‘Indianness’ as ‘Hinduness’,
with the latter being understood in a parochial manner more identifiable
with the dominant versions of Hinduism. The nationalistic strivings of this
era meant that emphasis was placed on the Hindu–Christian characteristic
of the Christian community’s identity in India. Thus, what was envisaged
was a national Christian church shaped predominantly along Hindu lines,
which ran the risk of undercutting the plurality that characterises India,
which includes various subaltern traditions as well as minority religious
traditions. This tendency to identify Indianness with Hinduness can

have detrimental effects in contemporary India, which has witnessed the
resurgence and re-strengthening of majoritarian Hindu nationalism under
the tutelage of Hindu fundamentalist groups. One of the challenges for
Christians in contexts of nationalism is to express their nationalism in a
manner that does not result in them being coopted by the major religious
tradition that is considered to be synonymous with the nation.
Many nations are increasingly confronted with a growing tendency of
nationalistic self-identification based on religion. Such nationalism often
tends to be repressive. The resurgence of nationalism in Bangladesh, which
is predicated along religious rather than linguistic lines, is an indicator of
this phenomenon. This somehow seems to be in resonance with Buddhist
nationalism in Sri Lanka and Hindu nationalism in India. The coalescence
of religion and nationalism has resulted in violence against ethnic and
religious minorities in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, drawing attention
to the human rights and religious freedom of religious minorities. This
form of nationalism combines ethnicity with religious majoritarianism
to promote a culture of threat and fear for religious minorities. In many
contexts, nationalism based on ethnicity and blood creates notions of
graded citizenship. Adherents of minority religions are seen as a threat to
the integrity to the nation, which is identified with a particular ethnic and
religious group in a parochial and polemic manner.
Religious violence has taken a new turn in the context of global
migration through its entanglement with majoritarian nationalism. Inter-
estingly, the worst victims of religious nationalism in India and Sri Lanka
are the Muslims. Religious nationalism that has created a sense of threat
for Muslims and Christians has in some instances fostered conversations
and solidarity between Christians and Muslims while pushing Christians
to identify themselves more on the side of the majority and consciously
distance themselves from minority Muslims in others.
Religious Conversions
Religious conversions have proved to be a contentious issue in South and
Central Asia, especially where several faith traditions and denominations
do not emphasise proselytism. Hindus in India, Buddhists in Sri Lanka,
and Russian Orthodox Christians in parts of Central Asia struggle to come
to terms with the resurgence of Christian groups that place a high value
on proselytism and the ‘winning of souls for Christ’. Religious conversions
are perceived by Hindus and Buddhists as an attack on the community
and a denigration of values inherent in their religious traditions. In the
late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, retaliation for allegedly
fraudulent and forcible conversions has taken the form of violent attacks
394 Peniel Rajkumar
on Christians in India and Sri Lanka. Hindu fundamentalist groups,

citing conversions as a reason, were considered to be behind the murder
of Graham Staines, a missionary of Australian origin, and his sons Philip
and Timothy, in January 1999 and the attacks on Christians in Kandhamal
in the eastern Indian state of Odisha in December 2007 and August 2008.
Attacks on Christians, churches and Christian schools and church-run in-
stitutions, as well as forcible re-conversions, known as ghar-wapsi (literally
‘home coming’), have increased in India under the influence of Hindutva, a
Hindu nationalist movement. The 2017 World Watch List, which monitors
incidents of religious violence, places India at number 15 on the list of
countries where practitioners of faith face high risk.
Some states in India and countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal have
adopted controversial and draconian anti-conversion laws as a measure to
curtail conversions. Often these are understood as attempts to consolidate
religious nationalism by curtailing and infringing upon the religious
freedom of minorities. In such contexts, the debate about conversions has
centred around issues of freedom of religion and belief. The challenge for
Christians in South Asia is to strike a balance between the right to practise
and profess a religion of one’s choice while not infringing on others’ right
to practise their own religion without interference.
The importance of engaging with the contentious theme of religious
conversions has been recognised by global organisations like the World
Council of Churches (WCC). Triggered by the controversy around
conversions in India, the WCC’s Programme on Inter-religious Dialogue and
Cooperation, alongside the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue
of the Holy See, initiated a joint project entitled ‘Inter-religious Reflection
on Conversion – From Controversy to a Shared Code of Conduct’ in May
2006 in response to the growing apprehension surrounding conversions in
India. This project culminated in the joint production in January 2011 of a
document entitled Christian Witness in a Multi-religious World: Recommen-
dations for Conduct by the WCC, the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious
Dialogue and the World Evangelical Alliance. The document highlights the
question of inappropriate methods in Christian mission and emphasises
that the use of deception and coercive means in mission amounts to betrayal
of the gospel. It unequivocally denounces any form of economic exploita-
tion in mission and reiterates the need for Christians to distance themselves
from offering any inducement, including in situations of poverty and need.
The theme of conversions is very important in the context of the Dalit
communities in India, where Dalits convert to Christianity as a means
of liberation from the caste system. An important point of consideration
when discussing religious conversions that have been a contentious issue
in inter-religious relationships in many parts of south Asia is the question
of the agency of those people who choose to convert. Often, the economic
ally and socially disadvantaged are seen as being susceptible to material
inducement because of an exclusive and elitist understanding of free will
and autonomy as qualities only to be ascribed to the socially privileged.
Therefore, the marginalised are seen as mere objects of conversion,
incapable of exercising their free will, even when they choose to convert
on social and spiritual grounds. The influx and growth of Charismatic
religious groups in South and Central Asian countries has also resulted in
intra-Christian proselytism, which is detrimental to Christian unity.
Conclusion
Having analysed a range of themes that have proved to be integral to
inter-religious relations in South and Central Asia in the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries, we can say that there has been an increase in both
inter-religious hospitality and inter-religious hostility in many parts of
this region. What has also become clear is the intermingling of religion
and politics, which dangerously impinges upon questions of citizenship,
freedom of religion and nationalism today. The rise of majoritarian religious
nationalism in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka indicates the role of religion
as a crucial political factor in South Asia. In these contexts, the challenge
for inter-religious engagement is to reinvent itself in response to the signs
of the times and to assert its indispensability as a credible means to build
just and inclusive communities that secure the wellbeing and wholeness of
people of all faiths and none.
Bibliography:
Chia, Edmund Kee-Fook, Interfaith Dialogue: Global Perspectives (New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2016).
Khalid, Adeeb, Islam after Communism: Religion and Politics in Central Asia (Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press, 2014).
Lindquist, Steven E., Religion and Identity in South Asia and Beyond (London: Anthem Press,
2013).
Riaz, Ali (ed.), Religion and Politics in South Asia (London: Routledge, 2010).
van Gorder, Christian, Muslim–Christian Relations in Central Asia (London: Routledge, 2008).
South Asian Diaspora
Sam George
South Asians are so widely scattered around the world today that it is
popularly claimed that the sun never sets on the South Asian diaspora –
echoing what was said of the British Empire in the past. According to the
United Nations’ International Migration Report 2015, South Asia accounted
for more than 32 million emigrants worldwide. India had the highest
annual emigration in the world (16 million), and other major South Asian
emigrating countries are Bangladesh (7 million) and Pakistan (6 million).
The same year, the World Bank reported that India continues to be the
highest remittance recipient country in the world, receiving US$62.7 billion,
with the top five sources of remittance being the United Arab Emirates, the
USA, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.
It must be noted that these figures do not include what is called the
Old Diaspora – the dispersion of South Asians prior to their nationhood,
when millions were taken to work in colonial establishments around the
world as indentured labourers and who lost all links to their ancestral
homelands. Though most have amalgamated with native populations in
their adopted countries, many still consider themselves as part of the South
Asian diaspora, even if their ancestry is remotely traced to such places as
Sind or Ceylon. Furthermore, these figures are annual migrant flows and
do not include the cumulative ethnic population or children born to the
immigrants in foreign countries.
In the last five decades or so, South Asian Christians have migrated
globally in record numbers to every corner of the planet, and many from
other faith backgrounds have embraced the Christian faith in diasporic
locations. On account of their colonial connections, proficiency in the
English language, technological prowess, professional skills, a strong work
ethic, business savviness, community orientation, resilience and other
distinctive traits, South Asians have successfully transplanted themselves
to different parts of the world. South Asian Christians are more likely to
go abroad than people of other faiths and constitute a larger share of the
diaspora in many countries. Every week, all over the globe, South Asians
congregate for worship and sermons are preached with inimitable regional
flavour, along with singing of devotional songs and chanting of liturgies
in diverse South Asian languages. They carry out mission work locally
in their places of settlement and regularly send financial help to support

family and church projects back home. The diasporic displacement and
intercultural interactions have resulted in considerable alteration of belief
and practices of South Asians. There are countless creative interplays
between adopted and ancestral homelands.
This essay will succinctly trace the history of South Asian migration and
portray the great diversities among Christians of South Asian origin who
have pitched their tents in the furthest corners of the globe. It will showcase
both the triumphs and the challenges facing this scattered community and
will analyse the expansion and transformation of Christianity itself in
diasporic contexts.
History of South Asian Migration

Until recent decades, migration out of the Indian subcontinent had been
sparse and rare when compared with its vast population. Historians claim
that since ancient times people of the Indian subcontinent have maintained
communication with West Asia, the Mediterranean region, Central Asia,
China, Tibet and Southeast Asia. However, factors of geography kept the
subcontinent isolated from the rest of the world. The mountain ranges in the
north and oceans in the south were natural barriers to human migration in
and out of this region. Only through the passes of the North-West Frontier
could such invaders as the Aryans, Alexander the Great and the Moghuls
reach the subcontinent.
Most early migratory interactions, initiated by foreigners who came for
trade or conquest, took people out of this region. The migration in and out
of the subcontinent was land-based, over the ancient Indus Valley region
(modern Pakistan and north-western India) and the Indo-China region
in the east (modern Myanmar and Thailand). The discovery of monsoon
winds boosted the influx of distant merchants to southern India and
Ceylon, without having to undertake circuitous coast-hugging voyages
along Arabia and Persia. The Jewish presence in India predates Christi
anity, while Chinese and Arab sailors came to India for spices in later
centuries. Devout pilgrims visited holy places such as Kailash Mansarovar
and Haridwar, and scholars came to learning centres like Taxilla. Muslim
merchants and conquerors took converts on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca,
and European colonists took subjects back to their land as servants, soldiers
or trophies. Artisans were hired for their skills and merchants ventured to
trade centres to buy and sell for profit.
However, South Asians did not venture too far out of their native
habitations over land or sea. They did not find ways to fly over mountains
in the north or sail far beyond the long coastlines. The South Asian region
comprised hundreds of small kingdoms which kept fighting among
398 Sam George
themselves and never dreamt of conquering lands far away. They were easy
victims of foreign invaders, who took advantage of their great diversity and
exploited the subcontinent’s rich natural and human resources. The limited
modes of transportation presented a major constraint to the distances
people could travel, as most people lived in villages and depended upon
local agriculture. Exceptions were the coastal communities of Malabar and
Coromandel, which were involved in limited maritime activities and the
caravan cotton textile trade links to the Silk Road, the Middle East and East
Africa. Furthermore, South Asians lacked the technological advances in
automotives, shipbuilding, aeronautics and communications available to
their Arab, Chinese or European counterparts. Although they did not lack
courage, they did not possess any imperial aspirations, nor did they have
the means to undertake overseas voyages. At the heart of this resistance to
migration lie certain civilisational ideas that kept people imprisoned by
religious restraint to crossing large expanses of water. A major factor was
fear of the religio-social consequences of nonconformity. The twin factors
of caste endogamy and village exogamy in an arranged-marriage system
restricted marital unions within a geographical region. Moving away from
the regenerating powers of the Ganges and violating dietary and occupa-
tional rules were unimaginable for most Hindus.
There are, however, important exceptions. Buddhism originated in
India and spread to Ceylon, Southeast Asia and China through the travel
of its adherents. After his conversion, Emperor Ashoka is believed to have
sent out Buddhist monks to many parts of Asia, and Buddhist traders
were found as far as Alexandria in Egypt in the first century. The Jatakas
make reference to Buddhist merchants and their adventures on voyages to
distant lands and The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea mentions the travel of an
Alexandrian sea captain to India in the first century. The Chola Empire had
ruled Sumatra, Malaysia and parts of Southeast Asia by conquering the
Indian Oceans. The reason behind their adventurous explorations overseas
was their breaking out of Hindu religious constraints that inhibited the
crossing of seas.
Other exceptions are smaller migrant communities in India, like
Malayalam-speaking Mappilas and Tamil-speaking Chulias, who were

descendants of early Arabs and Persians who had intermarried locally and
were traders or sailors by profession. They were Islamic in faith and did
not have constraints on sailing across seas. The Hindus who went abroad
were often despised by higher-caste and orthodox Hindus for transgress-
ing rules of Kala Pani (‘black waters’). Religious texts prescribe elaborate
purification rites for those who return after touching foot on foreign soil.
They include Chettiars from Tamil Nadu, whose main activities were trade
and moneylending, and who gained a firmly established presence in Burma
and Southeast Asia, and Gujaratis, who were major traders along the
western coast of India until their dominance was disrupted by the arrival
of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean in 1498 and the Dutch and British
attempts to dominate India’s textile exports. The earliest recorded arrival
of an Indian in the USA dates to 29 December 1790, when an unnamed,
dark-complexioned ‘native of the Indies from Madras’ sailed with Captain
John Gibaut from the Malabar coast in southern India to the USA.
Waves of Migration: Different Diasporas

The dispersion out of South Asia can be divided into three major waves:
the Old Diaspora, the New Diaspora and the Modern Diaspora. The Old
Diaspora began from the early to mid-eighteenth century and lasted until
the mid-twentieth century. A large share of this wave comprised indentured
labourers on European colonial plantations, recruited to fill the vacuum
created by the emancipation of African slaves in 1833. South Asians were
taken to Mauritius, Uganda, Nigeria and Guyana (1838), New Zealand
(1840), Hong Kong (1841), Trinidad and Tobago (1845), Grenada, St Lucia
and St Vincent (1856), Natal (1860), Surinam and Jamaica (1873), Fiji (1879)
and other places. Under the system of indenture, some 1.5 million persons
were taken overseas, most of whom stayed in their new countries or sub-
sequently migrated to developed nations. The bulk of these labourers
came from Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh, Goa, Bombay and Karachi. The practice of indenture, often
described as the ‘new system of slavery’, came to an end in 1917, at the
protest of Indian nationalist reformers. This wave of migration included
convicts, soldiers and plantation supervisors as well as merchants from
Chettiar, Sindhi, Sikh and Muslim communities. Although most were
low-caste, uneducated Hindus and Muslims, some indentured labourers
were Christians, like the 6,000 Christians from Madras who were taken to
South Africa. Tamil Lutheran missionaries went to East Africa and Burma.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Anglican, Methodist
and Salvation Army ministers took South Asian Christians to the UK and
Commonwealth nations for training and missionary work.
The second major wave began after the nations of the Indian sub-
continent gained independence in the late 1940s and lasted till the early
1990s. During this wave people from South Asia migrated voluntarily to
developed countries in Europe, North America, Oceania and West Asia.
Many South Asians went to work for colonial establishments and related
institutions. In the 1960s, changes in immigration laws in the USA, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand drew many South Asians to those destina-
tions; they were mostly English-speaking educated professionals like
doctors, nurses, educationalists or traders. The oil boom in the Middle East
400 Sam George
in the 1970s and 1980s attracted large-scale immigration of unskilled and

semi-skilled labourers from South Asia to countries like Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar. Most came from
India and Pakistan, but this wave also included Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis
and Nepalis.
In the 1980s Western universities began to recruit students from Indian
universities for graduate studies and research work in scientific and
engineering colleges and companies. This wave included many Christians
from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Unlike the preceding wave of migrant
Christians, who joined ecclesial entities in the host nations as they lacked
critical mass to form churches of their own, the new migrant Christians
established South Asian churches in diasporic locations all over the world.
Most maintained close transnational ties with denominational and ecclesial
bodies in their ancestral homelands. This era was also marked by civil war
in Sri Lanka and insurgency in Pakistan, both of which scattered sizeable
numbers of Christians and others out of their homelands. Many Tamils
from Sri Lanka became Christians in Singapore, Germany, France, England
and Canada. Pakistani Christians sought asylum or relocated to English-
speaking Christian-majority countries like the UK, the USA and Canada.
The latest wave, described as the Modern Diaspora, began after the
liberalisation of the Indian economy in the early 1990s at the onset of the
computer and Internet revolution. This wave was marked by the mass
migration of software engineers and managers to Western countries,
especially the USA, Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia. This era
is also marked by large-scale investment and people from developed
nations coming to South Asian countries and creating new linkages that
further facilitated a substantial increase in emigration from South Asia. A
variety of call centres, factories, research work and back-office operations
commenced in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which helped many to
pursue better standards of life abroad. The educated masses in the cities
of South Asia were eager to explore employment opportunities anywhere
on the planet. The Y2K crisis at the turn of the millennium brought a
significant number of Indian techies to rewrite legacy computer software
within a short window of time. Their highly visible role in some of leading
technology companies, such as Microsoft, improved the profile of Indian
technology professionals and prompted a large-scale flow of Indians into
technology centres all over the world.
Increased communication, transportation and exposure to life abroad
have created a tremendous surge in the aspiration of young adults
to pursue life and work overseas. Greater affordability, mobility and
certainty of return are scattering this wave further than the earlier waves of
migrants. The dominant role of Indian technology professionals from elite
institutions in advanced nations generated a significant swell in demand

for large-scale recruitment from India, and the outsourcing revolution
spread software developers and engineers from South Asia far and wide.
They had less inhibition than earlier generations about breaking cultural
and religious barriers by uprooting and transplanting to foreign soils.
This recent wave also scattered people to remote places in the world and
remains more mobile than previous waves of migrants.
This wave of emigrants was quick to take advantage of legal provisions
in Western nations to bring more people from their homelands using
marriage, family sponsorship and business recruitment, as well as other
means, resulting in chain migration. This era also saw the beginning
of sizeable migration from other nations in South Asia, particularly
Bangladesh and Nepal, for the first time. Bangladeshi unskilled workers
gravitated towards the Middle East, while a large number of stateless
Bhutanese-Nepalese were allowed to settle in the USA and Southeast Asia.
Nepalis who had moved into the cities of India also pursued vocational
opportunities in Southeast Asia, East Asia, Oceania, North America and
Western Europe. The ethnic cleansing in Bhutan and trafficking of children
for the flesh trade also took many Nepalis overseas, among whom a
large number have embraced Christianity. War and political instability in
Afghanistan and Pakistan forced many to explore livelihoods elsewhere.
Many moved to the Middle East with hopes of eventually moving to the
peaceful Western nations.
There is also significant migration within South Asia between countries
since they gained independence. For example, the India–Pakistan partition
uprooted some 15 million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs and resulted in more
than a million people losing their lives. A large number of Nepalis migrated
to find employment or were forcibly displaced to India. War, natural
calamity and the dire economic situation forced many Bangla people to
cross the border to India, while civil strife in Sri Lanka forced many to
seek shelter in India and elsewhere. Furthermore, there is substantial
domestic migration from rural to urban centres of South Asia, where there
are better prospects of learning, livelihood or lifestyle, which are often
seen as a launch pad for an international move in the future. Many young
minors become victims of trafficking, especially young women from Nepal
and rural parts of India, who are sold into brothels in the cities of India,
the Gulf, East Asia and Europe. Many are recruited by workforce supply
companies, only to be forced into exploitative, menial and extreme work
environments in desert countries in the Gulf, while others are forced into
sexual slavery or into pornography. Some young South Asian women are
lured by visiting grooms into an arranged marriage but end up in the flesh
trade in foreign countries.
402 Sam George
Colours and Stripes of Christianity

On any Sunday morning in Queens, New York, one can find many Indian
Christian families, well dressed in brightly coloured saris and dresses,
hurrying to their churches. There are more than 200 Indian-led churches in
this most diverse part of the USA, where South Asians make up nearly 8% of
the population. Their church services are conducted in Malayalam, Tamil,
Telugu, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi and Nepali, while
they subscribe to many different denominational and doctrinal affiliations.
New York City being a gateway for post-1965 South Asian immigration,
they began to put their roots down by starting large numbers of churches
in their distinctive cultural and linguistic flavours, many of which are now
celebrating their golden jubilee anniversaries to mark fruitful ministries for
over half a century in the USA.
South Asians are very religious people, and they carry their beliefs with
them no matter where they go. Over the last century or so, Hindu/Jain
temples, Sikh gurdwaras, Indian Muslim mosques and Christian churches
have become a feature of the landscape in many cities of the world. Their
distinctive spiritual beliefs and religio-cultural practices have taken root
in places far from home and have transmuted significantly on account of
both displacement and interaction with host cultures and other religions.
Migration of people has caused some religions that began and existed
exclusively in South Asia to spread worldwide, as in the case of Buddhism,
Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism. It also made South Asians, particularly
Indians, a major Christian mission-sending force in the world as many
churches and mission agencies began to leverage their diasporas in order
to engage cross-culturally and internationally in many different countries.
Overall, South Asian Christians show exceptional openness to migrating
and are less landlocked than people of other faiths in the region. They are
sure to find Christians no matter where they go and they are proficient
in using the latest technology to stay in touch with scattered kinsfolk
back home. They were cautious about migrating during the indentured
era but overwhelmingly responded to foreign career options in the New
and Modern Diaspora periods. In the USA, at the peak of the second wave
at the end of the 1980s, nearly half of the Indian-American population
were Christians, though by 2013 that was reduced to less than one-fifth
(around 18% – 11% Protestant, 5% Catholic and 2% other Christians). This
is primarily because of the migration of nurses and doctors who came from
the Christian belts of southern India, as only Christian women pursued
these professions because of religious and cultural prohibitions against
pursuing education or jobs involving touching people of the opposite sex.
Some of the largest churches in the freer Gulf nations are majority Indian,
and many are led by Indians as well.
The first wave of the Old Diaspora found some support among mission
aries in host nations and colonial chaplains in Africa, the Caribbean, Guyana
and Fiji. But they also faced racial discrimination and were not allowed to
join with Western Christians. In most colonies they were constrained from
starting separate Indian churches by low immigrant numbers and lack of
ecclesial support, economic strength and political will. Some converted to
Christianity for greater social acceptance by colonial masters and in order
to gain access to educational and economic opportunities. Contrarily, the
New Diaspora emigrants established distinctively South Asian churches all
over the world. They could not identify with Christians in the host countries
and were often not welcome, forcing them to plant new churches with
their own languages and cultural particularities. South Asian Christians
are often mistaken for Hindus or Muslims by Christians in the West and
elsewhere, many of whom are unaware of the sizeable Christian population
in South Asia and its long history. Their characteristic Christian practices
appear foreign to the host-nation Christians, who are often reluctant to
rent facilities for worship involving a strange language and customs. Co-
incidently, a larger share of the migrant masses are Christians or become
so after migrating to foreign lands. When some host-nation churches are
struggling for survival, the immigrant Christians are bringing fresh energy
and enthusiasm to the Christian faith everywhere.
South Asian immigrants react to the alienation and uncertainty that
result from uprooting and transplantation in religious and spiritual terms,
making migration a ‘theologising experience’. The pain, loss and confusion
arising out of displacement often prompt an existential search for answers
within religious realms. An intensification of religious consciousness
occurs in diasporic settings, making faith an inimitable resource in migrant
wanderings in life. Thus it is not surprising that religious attachments
frequently intensify after migration, to a degree that surpasses the devotion
while living in the native land. The risks and the experience of a lack of
control during migration create a stronger reliance on religion, giving
adversity a spiritual tone and meaning. Diasporic realities compel people
to question age-old assumptions that they have relied on for generations.
The conceptual boundaries are traversed continuously in order to
accommodate new contextual realities. The border crossing involved in
diasporic living forces one to reconfigure boundaries repeatedly, through
maintenance, conflicts and negotiations. The uprooting, relocation and
transplanting to new soils in foreign lands can result in a crisis of identifi-
cation, belonging, meaning and, ultimately, belief about God. The deeper
quest, longing and inner transformation entailed in migratory wanderings
and diasporic living have a profound influence on how migrants perceive
their mission in life.
404 Sam George
Religious faith is central to both the maintenance ethnic identity and

community formation in a foreign land, more critical than it was in ancestral
homelands. Religious institutions are central in the settlement and incor-
poration process of immigrants. The immigrant churches often double as
community centres, offering a wide range of services and resources for
their members in a culturally appropriate manner, which not only fosters
great commitment among members but also attracts new members. It is a
safe place for immigrants, where they can use their native language, find
bonding and deal with culture-specific issues. They feel understood, cared
for and able to raise the problems facing them, which are common to other
immigrants as well. Immigrant churches provide a new support system
and are able to mobilise the entire community for better recognition in the
host society. A Sunday morning service in an ethnic church momentarily
transports worshippers to their childhood faith experience and helps
them to relish the nostalgia for the people, culture and experience of their
ancestral homelands.
South Asian Diaspora Christianity to a great extent is founded upon
linguistic and denominational lines. The great diversity and disparities
within South Asian Christianity in diasporic settings arise out of the many
languages used by Christians and are often amplified in overseas locations.
Language is a powerful glue for first-generation immigrants in foreign
countries, and spiritual realities are best expressed and understood in
one’s first language. The power of the vernacular in knitting immigrants
together in foreign lands and the effectiveness of ministry in native
tongues cannot be overstated. The geographical and cultural uprooting
provides great impetus to spiritual transformation and great momentum
to faith itself. Through interaction with host churches, denominations,
ecclesial structures and Christians in adopted homelands, South Asian
immigrants and their children import many cultural practices, like music,
church structure and activities. Over time, assimilation into mainstream
Christian culture and loss of mother-tongue proficiency are inevitable, and
the subsequent generations gradually drop out of the immigrant church
for the same reasons that attracted their parents to it.
Migratory displacement is unsettling in many ways. It creates much
guilt in relation to deserting family, estrangement from neighbours and
colleagues, struggles of fitting into a foreign culture, confusion and mis-
understanding, racism and negative experiences, survival struggles and
obligations to send remittances. Foreign-born children feel torn between
two cultures and struggle with notions of identity and belonging as they
assimilate into the majority culture. The task of ministering to the Ameri-
canised South Asian second generation (popularly called the Coconut
Generation – brown on the outside and white on the inside) is a major
challenge. As modern migration is based on education and skill, one’s

spouse might not be employable and experience professional demotion or
disparity. This is the case of women-led migration of Indian nurses and
doctors to the USA and the UK: many of their spouses did not find jobs that
were commensurate with their educational qualifications or experience,
resulting in social loss of power. They in turn monopolised status-
enhancing roles provided by the church, as most South Asian immigrant
churches maintain traditional patriarchal views.
Migratory displacement is not just geographic but also social, cultural,
economic, political and religious. It comes with the loss of order, relational
networks and the world that was familiar, with its symbolic meanings and
rituals that guided daily lives. The impact of this human and socio-cultural
displacement is both traumatic and transformative. Migrants suffer from
the guilt of abandonment, as they reminisce about the good old days while
they are at the same time fearful of ambiguous futures. Migratory displace-
ment involves grieving over the past while finding renewed courage to
face indeterminate prospects ahead. Migrants strangely feel closer to the
land they left behind that is thousands of miles away while remaining
distant and disconnected from those who live next door or colleagues at
work. At their places of settlement, migrants seek to break the bondage of
the hegemony of the majority while simultaneously resisting and creating
homogeneity among themselves. At diasporic locations, embracing the
Christian faith has helped many to break out of the shackles of ancestral
faiths and cultural bondage of South Asia. Christianity also experiences a
conversion from its archaic forms. For the host cultures, new converts as
well as future generations act as catalytic agents for this metamorphosis.
Many South Asians have joined the Christian fold in diasporic locations
as they feel less stigma and religious constraint than in their ancestral
homelands. Some renounce the faith of their forebears in order to gain
greater acceptance in their host societies, while others pursue freedom
from caste and ritual bondage. In many cases, emigrants come closer to
the message of Jesus Christ when they move to a foreign land and they feel
braver to honestly explore alternative faith claims. They question their own
traditions and sense a greater openness to new ideas and relationships.
The foreign-born generations in particular are persuaded to evaluate the
universal claims of Christianity as compared with parochial and culturally
bound faith systems. For example, about 1% of indentured labourers to
South Africa were Tamil and Telugu Christians from India, but after three
generations over one-quarter of the Indian community in South Africa,
with a much larger share in Durban, have embraced Christianity.
Migratory journeys are profoundly disruptive to faith and family life,
far beyond the imagination of the migrants at the time of departure from
406 Sam George
their homelands. The far-reaching repercussions of the decision to move

away from where you were born lasts for many decades and generations.
Diasporic living comes with many gains and losses, though at the time of
migration people are obsessively focused on the gains and tend to overlook
or are unable to foresee any potential losses ensuing from the decision
to settle in a foreign land. A major challenge for anyone from a system
of tightly knit joint family living is to live as nuclear families. Authority
figures, cultural wisdom and communal solidarity are exchanged for
freedom, individuality and loneliness. For many in Arab Gulf nations,
an employment-based visa does not allow them to bring their family to
live with them as they live and work under extreme conditions. In fact,
immigrants try to recreate what they have lost and many churches become
the extended family, where pastor and elders are surrogate fathers and the
church becomes a source of cultural wisdom, support and community.
The challenge of making a living and the stresses associated with
modern professions are unfathomable for most emigrants. Yet they live
with great motivation to succeed in order to prove to folks back home and
peers in their new context that the decision to relocate was the right one.
The pressure of keeping a job and climbing the corporate ladder comes at
a significant price. Most South Asian households are dual income, with
professional careers, which helps in maintaining high living standards but
leaves very little time or energy for family life. A sense of deserting elderly
parents back in the ancestral homeland constantly plagues emigrants, who
feel unable to do anything about it except to send more money or build big
houses with hopes of returning someday. Uncertainties about the future
and lack of contingency plans keep immigrants continually on the edge,
which leads some to a deeper religious and spiritual quest. Most parents
agonise over their inadequacy to raise children in foreign cultures as they
assimilate into host cultural realities. Life as an alien in a foreign land takes
a psychological toll over a period of time.
Conclusion
South Asian Christians have successfully transplanted themselves across
the globe. Some of them maintain ties to churches or institutions back
in South Asia, while others join local as well as international ecclesial
structures. The faith, resourcefulness and leadership of displaced South
Asians even in dire circumstances are inspiring and productive. The human
dispersion acts as a catalyst for cross-cultural diffusion of the gospel as
migrants perform the function of missionaries at the frontiers of Christi
anity. The migration of people brings them direct access to the gospel
without any socio-cultural and religious constraints, which might not have
been possible prior to migration. The experience of the global South Asian
diaspora shows that it is not to be underestimated as a significant influence

in the worldwide spread of Christian faith.
Bibliography
Baham, Arthur L., Cultural History of India (New Delhi: Oxford India, 1952).
George, Sam, Diaspora Christianities: Global Scattering and Gathering of South Asian Christians
(Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2018).
Kadekar, Laxmi N., The Indian Diaspora: Historical and Contemporary Context (Jaipur: Rawat
Publications, 2009).
Neill, Stephen, The Story of the Christian Church in India and Pakistan (Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 1970).
Rangaswamy, Padma, Namasté America: Indian Immigrants in an American Metropolis (Phila-
delphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008).
Caste and Christianity in India
Anderson Jeremiah
The ancient Indian cultural practice of the caste system forms the backbone
of Hindu social order. It maps onto the geographical diversity of language,
culture and religion, most importantly constructing a distinct system of
repressive social stratification in the subcontinent. The concept of ‘Hindu’
or ‘Hinduism’ itself is highly contested because it cannot be perceived
in the same order as other ‘world religions’. As an academic construct,
Hinduism rather refers to a wide variety of theologies, mythologies,
cultic practices and philosophies spread across India. Hinduism signifies
the disparate religious practices across the Indian subcontinent. As the
complexity of defining Hinduism illustrates, opinions can differ on the
historicity of the caste system. Interestingly, the term ‘caste’ is Portuguese
in origin, derived from the Latin castus (chaste, the unadulterated, pure
breed), and came into common usage during Portuguese colonial rule.
Caste, as an expression, was used to designate the complex social system,
as it did not fit into the early classifications of European anthropologists.
The designation became consolidated during British colonial rule of the
Indian subcontinent. Observance of the caste system can be found across
South Asian countries, not restricted to the Hindu communities alone but
permeating every other religious community in the region, as part of the
cultural fabric of the subcontinent.
Caste, Varna and Jāti

Over the years, understanding of the caste system has evolved and become
synonymous with the varna system as well as being considered identical to
various other social classifications in Indian society. The term ‘caste’ needs
to be used with caution, as it carries several meanings in modern under-
standing and the system of social stratification tends to be very complicated.
One of the ideological sources of the caste social structure can be found in
Hindu Dharma as outlined in Manusmriti or Laws of Manu. Various studies
point to the fact that there is a possible merger of two social structures, the
varna (colour/vocation) class divisions and the jāti (birth) divisions. There
are further divisions on the basis of purity and pollution, primarily at the
religious ritual level but also with significant social consequences in the
form of untouchability as well as occupational relations.
Varna literally means colour and is not a social group but a classifica-
tory unit that can be used for people as well as gods, animals, plants or
other things. The varna system of classification stems from the Vedic period
(Rig Veda) and was primarily a prescription outlining the obligations of
every individual. Within Hindu society, owing to its religious origin, it
is understood that the varna system facilitates a sense of order among
people and prevents society from disintegrating into chaos. In reference
to society, it is essentially an order of birth class, varnasramadharma, and
a division of social functions, but not a caste system as this is understood
today. The varna system was perceived as a social system based on qualities
(guna) and actions (karma), depending upon the nature of the individual.
However, the varna system as articulated in the Manusmriti followed the
principles of hierarchical classification on the basis of duty, character
and birth. There are four levels in the varna system: Brahman (priests and
teachers), Kshatriya (warriors and landowners), Vaishya (merchants and
businessmen) and Shudra (agriculturalists and labourers). According
to the Rig Veda (Purushasukta) the cosmic creation of humanity from the
sacrifice of Adi Purusha (eternal being) came in this order: the Brahman
was born from the mouth, Kshatriya from the shoulders, Vaishya from the
thighs and Shudra from the feet. However, it must be borne in mind that
the varna system was not originally a closed system but later became one.
Within each of these categories are the actual jātis, within which people
are born, marry and die. Jāti derives its root from the word jan (to be born),
which is partially synonymous with varna. Jāti as a social classificatory unit
has a presence independent from varna. It has many meanings: descent,
birth, race, family, genre, species, type, clan, state and nation. It is commonly
considered by social scientists in terms of defining subcastes. Unlike the
varna system, jāti classification is by birth and represents a closed structural
system. The varna system has been in use for more than two millennia and
is open to interpretations and misinterpretations. Nonetheless, it is strongly
held even today. However, in the Vedic Hindu system, punctuated by jāti
classifications, the untouchables are the outcastes, the avarnas, literally
outside the varna system. This exclusion of avarnas is primarily due to
the nature of their traditionally prescribed professions, which involved
polluted things, making them polluted people and pollutants in turn.
So, as mentioned above, the caste system is a catchall term that attempts
to capture the complex socio-religious stratifications and practices in the
Indian subcontinent. Besides these religious/scriptural explanations there
are various other theories explaining the emergence and function of the
caste system in the Indian socio-cultural system.
Within the context of an essentialist understanding of the Indian caste
system, it is important to develop a non-essentialist perspective on its
410 Anderson Jeremiah
workings. This can be achieved by looking at the mundane everyday

facts of life, belonging, locatedness and the relational nature of identity
formation. Identity is about the simple facts of people’s lives and how
they distinguish themselves from others through the various activities that
constitute the fundamentals of identity formation. Moreover, identity is
about belonging, which facilitates social relationships. Thus, the process
of caste identity formation, the notion of belonging and locatedness, is
expressed in people’s mundane lives through routine transactions within a
particular caste community.
Though there is a national discourse, caste identity is a product of its
social context, deriving its meaning and purpose from it. Thus, it is a social
construction and has limited significance in isolation from its social location
and community. Further, it is the community that provides the individual
with a referential caste identity, which in turn provides the individual
with a sense of belonging and meaning for existence, which would not
be available otherwise. The social relationships and networks through
which individuals experience community provide their caste identity, and
therefore a sense of belonging, which ensures the system’s continuation.
The caste system has far-reaching impact and consequences in Indian
society. It not only dictates the structure of cultural values but also becomes
an effective channel for the distribution of power and wealth, essentially
along the lines of caste hierarchy, thereby becoming a source of social and
economic inequality. The social stratification and exclusion of outcastes
is ordained, pursued and perpetuated by dominant religio-political and
socio-cultural forces, often with violent consequences. It is important to
note that the observance of caste practice is enforced through religious
adherence, social violence and community exclusion.
The Outcastes and Dalits

The significant aspect emerging from discussions of the caste system is that
a large section of people are left outside it and designated ‘untouchables’.
The outcastes were marginalised and pushed to the peripheries of Indian
society. They were socially obliged to take up menial jobs, such as manual
scavenging and burying the dead. They were also expected to clean after
themselves, so that they would not pollute anyone else. At one stage they
even had to carry an earthen pot around their neck in which to spit, as
they were not allowed spit in public places. Against this background, in
the last two centuries various self-respect movements under leaders like
Jyotirao Phule and B. R. Ambedkar mobilised the outcaste communities
to rename themselves Dalits, instead of being called untouchables or
Harijans. Harijan was a term, used by Gandhi, meaning ‘children of God’,
referring to the children of temple prostitutes. On the contrary, as an
affirmative term, Dalit means ‘broken’, ‘split-open’ and ‘oppressed’, which

captures the wretchedness of their lives. Significantly, it must be borne in
mind that Dalit, as an expression, is not a caste label. Rather, Dalit is a
symbol of change, mobilisation and progress. Dalit is also an overarching
and rallying term to represent more than 450 ‘untouchable’ communities
in India. While it might initially seem counterintuitive to appropriate
such bleak terminology, it did and does continue to raise awareness and
potentially to empower those living in such a repressive social system.
The distinction and classification based on caste and occupation persist
even today in most aspects of Indian society. Dalits continue to be the most
disadvantaged community in the country – in education, employment and
social wellbeing – and even the most exploited in the unorganised labour
market. Dalit living conditions are synonymous with dehumanisation and
degradation. According to the 2011 census, the Dalit population constitutes
about 16.6% of the total Indian population, so that more than 200 million
people experience different kinds of discrimination in their life every day.
The majority of Dalits make a living by working as daily labourers and
landless agricultural workers in the unorganised sectors of the Indian
economy, resulting in extreme poverty. Further, Dalit communities are the
most violated, both physically and psychologically, within Indian society.
Dalits are considered ritually impure and physically polluting in the
religious realm, which has serious implications for socio-cultural relations.
Dalits in general are not allowed to enter many Hindu temples, nor are
they permitted to eat in or even enter the houses of the non-Dalits.
It must be noted that caste-based discrimination in India is prohibited
under articles 15 and 17 of the constitution. The official position of the con-
stitution clearly states that there cannot be any discrimination by the state
or a citizen on grounds of caste. It goes further by abolishing caste-based
untouchability and even making such practice an offence punishable under
the law. The constitutional prohibition on caste-based discrimination and
untouchability remains, but the social practice of caste identity continues
to be relevant across the country.
Dalits in India are not a homogeneous category but a collective of
numerous sub-castes, resulting in internal fragmentation and alienation.
Adding to the external discrimination by the higher castes, internal conflict
within Dalit communities furthers their misery. Many researchers have
shown that the immediate adversaries of a Dalit community are perhaps
ironically another Dalit community that is fighting for the same resources.
In such a context, it was hoped by the Dalit leaders that the creation of
a collective Dalit identity would heal those inner squabbles and mobilise
untouchable communities towards transformation of their lowly cultural,
socio-economic and religio-political status.
Spatial Mapping: Ritualising Caste Practice

In Indian society, caste hierarchy does not exist only in the mind but,
crucially, is mapped onto geographical location. Spatial representation or
geographical locatedness in Indian communities has a direct impact on
an individual’s conception of self-identity. This social reality is nowhere
more obvious than in rural villages. The spatial nature of a village in
India is structured within a framework of centre and margin. The centre
of a village is occupied by the so-called high caste, and the farther one
moves from the centre, the lower one’s caste status is. Those who live in
the margin would be the lowest of the caste classification. Crucially, the
outcastes and untouchables will be outside this margin/periphery, literally
living outside the village, due to their polluted status. People belonging
to different caste groups internalise their physical location, which in turn
determines their social stature and identity. The demarcations existing
within a village define the nature and status of its inhabitants. Settlements
for different caste and outcaste communities are well demarcated from
each other, avoiding physical interaction between individuals and possible
cross-pollution. In other words, their physical location, whether they live
in the cherie (the untouchable settlement, also known as the basti or colony)
or in the oor (the high-caste village, gaon), determines who people are and
what their status is in the village. Even within the cherie, the particular side
of the main street on which a house is situated makes it clear whether that
household is Christian or Hindu; if the house happens to be near the church
building or the Hindu temple it has its own understood status within that
group’s ranking system.
Each caste group is obliged to respect prescribed boundaries and abide
by the rules laid down by the local high-caste community, who often turn
out to be the landowners and therefore in control of the local economy.
The very idea of the cherie represents the physical alienation, exclusion and
isolation of the untouchable communities from the hub of village life. The
location of the cherie and its dependence on the oor contributes to their
self-understanding. It is vital to note that spatial caste boundaries are the
means through which social norms and identities are reproduced.
Because the caste system is the product of a religious worldview, it is
through social religious rituals that caste discrimination and prejudices
are manifested. Within Hindu religious practice, people have been given
various roles depending upon their caste. Caste roles, such as specifically
religious roles – priest or scriptural teacher or yogi – are often reserved to
members of the Brahman community. Similarly, other roles correspond to
caste status. For instance, if life in a temple is to be properly observed, the
different roles – the priest, trustees, leaders, guards and cleaners – would
resemble their caste status. Dalits, being untouchable due to their religiously
polluting status, will not be allowed into temples, lest they pollute the
sacred space and others. Hindu religious rituals are often exclusive on the
basis of caste belonging. There are strict guidelines pertaining to who are
allowed to perform what kind of rituals; if they are not religiously followed
one might end up infuriating the gods, resulting in visible admonishment
to the entire community. Therefore, it is in the interest of everyone that
the purity of these ritual spaces be preserved. The social mapping of caste
hierarchy discussed above can be seen replicated in temple life. Even in
contemporary India, this practice of exclusive religious spaces defined by
caste affiliation is the norm.
Caste and Christianity

The advent of ‘missionary’ Christianity, which accompanied the colonial
empires in India, resulted in an interesting interaction between the message
of Christ as brought by the Western missionaries and the socio-cultural
setting of India. Beginning with the Portuguese and later the Dutch, Danish
and English, East India companies came to establish trading posts in India.
Along with the expanding armies came missionaries to evangelise the
heathens and make good Christians of them. But the relationship between
the missionaries and colonial authorities was fraught with conflict, as the
authorities felt that missionary work might be counterproductive to their
enterprise. However, the Catholic missionaries and later English mission
organisations continued their efforts and began supporting missionaries
from Europe who were willing to travel to India and other parts of Asia.
The colonial authorities had issued clear instructions that the missionar-
ies should not interfere in Indian religious tenets, particularly the caste
system. But the reform-minded missionaries had difficulty following such
a directive and had their own way of evangelising.
The Catholic missionaries accompanying the colonial power to South
India took a pragmatic approach to the caste reality. They did not want to
get embroiled in the conflict; rather, they adopted a safer method, not to
have a confrontational attitude. The resourceful missionaries also thought
that if they succeeded in getting ‘high-caste’ converts then it would trickle
down to the low caste, making their job easy. To their dismay, however, the
high-caste converts objected to sharing the worship place with low-caste
Christians. Fearing that a negative attitude towards the caste system would
affect their prospect of getting more converts to Christianity, Catholic
missionaries decided to accommodate caste practices within the church.
The early Protestant missionaries, who were drawn mostly from a
pietistic social context in Europe, had a contrasting point of view from that
of their Catholic predecessors. They considered that caste practice within
the church was an unmitigated evil and made genuine efforts to ward
off this ‘social evil’. For instance, the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta, Daniel
Wilson, spoke firmly in favour of the elimination of the caste system within
the church. He said in a briefing on 5 July 1833, ‘The distinction of castes
must be abandoned, decidedly, immediately’. But they found it to be too
complicated to manage, so they had to yield to the pressure, allowing people
from different caste groups to sit in segregated places inside the church. In-
terestingly, Bishop Reginald Heber, a pioneer Anglican bishop, supported
the segregated worship practice on the lines of caste and compared it to
the situation in America and Europe where Christian masters and slaves
worshiped in different places. Efforts were made to change such openly
discriminatory practices based on caste, but most of them failed due to the
non-cooperation of high-caste Christians. Following open opposition to
missionaries’ efforts to check caste-based discrimination within the church,
many missionary organisations decided to take up a conciliatory approach
to caste practices. The ‘missionary dilemma’ thus can be summarised in
terms of three approaches: accommodation, rejection and compromise.
All three were pursued with an intention of preserving their mission of
Christianising rather than reforming the stratified Indian society.
Further, to accommodate denominational identities along with
caste groupings, mission organisations agreed to work and concentrate
within particular territories and specific caste communities, in order to
avoid conflicts and confusion. This process of exclusive mission fields
gave impetus to denominational missionary organisations and churches
assuming distinct geographical identities that also became synonymous
with caste identities. This could be traced as the emergence of confused
identities with denominational heritage and caste at their roots. It is also
crucial to note that this method of accommodating and working within the
caste framework brought the missionaries rich dividends in terms of the
number of people converting to Christianity. The missionaries did not want
to give room for intra- and inter-caste conflict within the church, which
further encouraged different communities assuming distinct identities.
Thus, caste practice and discrimination found a firm place within the
Indian church across all denominations. The caste-based segregation mas-
querading as denominationalism runs so deep within the churches in India
that there are congregations who do not share the Eucharist or pastoral
ministry. Many attitudes and activities found within the church in India
today stem from this history and continue in order to maintain the status
quo and manage the institutional church.
Dalit Christians and the Indian Church

Dalit Christians, who constitute about 10% of the total Dalit population,
make up 70% of the Christian population in India, yet their situation is
no better than that of non-Christian Dalits. Rather, discrimination merely

assumes a different dimension and manifests itself in many patterns.
Along with the burden of being a Dalit, Dalit Christians have to endure
multi-fold discrimination, at the hands not only of the state and society
but also of the institutionalised church. Within the Indian church, caste
manifests itself in the worst forms of discrimination. Non-Dalit high-caste
Christians are often biased and discriminate against Dalits at all levels
of institutional, communal and administrative bodies. Being Christians,
Dalits are also deprived of the educational and employment benefits from
the Indian government for the Scheduled Caste category. In most cases
within the church, Dalit Christians are not even given the option to express
their voices against exploitation, because the sermons and official teachings
encourage them to be passive and submissive towards authority figures:
since their situation is the consequence of Original Sin (the fall of Adam)
they need forgiveness for their sins, not social liberation.
In the process of uncritical inculturation, the Indian churches have in-
corporated the hegemonic varna system of segregation and have thereby
become a place for further discrimination. Even though Dalit Christians
constitute the majority of the Indian Christian population they continue
to be denied educational opportunities and social responsibilities, both
within and outside the church. The Indian church is an obvious example
of division on the basis of caste, with each Christian denomination
identifying with a particular caste group, a practice that began from the
early missionary encounters with the strict adherence to caste practices
among Indian converts. Building on such attitudes, some churches even
have separate Eucharist services for Dalits and non-Dalits. This situation
partially mirrors the condition of Dalit Christians in India today. Dalit
Christians face unfair treatment in both subtle and also in very explicit
ways. This discrimination has become an inculturated habit, resulting in
segregation and ostracism. According to many studies, the dominant caste
communities continue to hold authority within the church. Deep-seated
caste prejudices continue to hold a firm grip on the church, in its institu-
tional administrative structures as well as at the congregational level.
At the community level, caste identity becomes a crucial factor with
regard to marriage, employment and death. One of the key features of caste
is preserving purity through marriage; therefore, inter-caste marriages are
socially prohibited. Anyone who breaks that norm can face dire conse-
quences, even death. Christians are not immune to this practice. It is public
knowledge that Christians from different caste groups will seek to marry
within their caste and, most importantly, avoid marrying someone of
lower caste status. Employment is another area where caste identity proves
decisive. Often, caste identity determines one’s economic status, which in
turn controls one’s ability to access education. The majority of Dalits fall
into the lowest economic category and are therefore unable to access high-
quality education and employment. Dalit Christians still remain under
the discriminatory oversight of caste Christians and other Dalit Christian
groups, facing humiliation and denial of human dignity within the walls
of the churches and beyond. There is a widespread practice among Indian
Christians of creating separate burial grounds for Dalit and non-Dalit
Christians, taking the practice of untouchability to new depths. It must
also be noted that even within Dalit Christian communities, the replication
of caste hierarchy can be observed, underlining the resilience and power of
a caste-based worldview.
Within its ecclesiastical structures, the Catholic Church in India, the
largest of the Christian denominations, is the epitome of caste prejudice.
Only 12 out of 241 bishops are from a Dalit background, whereas Dalits
make up more than 65% of the membership of Catholic congregations. The
Protestant churches in India offer some hope, with many of their bishops
coming from a Dalit background, but the church structures are such that
they still fail to implement equal opportunity for all Christians, especially
the marginalised. However, the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in
India seem to be breaking new ground by working beyond caste differences.
Caste Competition, Ideology and Politics

As indicated above, the caste system consolidated itself through private
property in India. Although the high-caste community constitutes a small
percentage of the Indian population, they control the majority of the wealth
and resources. Until recently it was even illegal for Dalits to own land.
The caste-based Indian society is sustained through inheritance of private
property and privileges preserved through birth status. This social reality
is evident among the rich and powerful, who are mostly from high-caste
communities. It had a significant impact on how the civil service, social
organisations and the government itself were run in the country, mirroring
caste-based hierarchy.
In this context, in order to redress the inequality experienced by the
outcaste and disenfranchised communities, the government introduced a
reservation policy (following the report of the Mandal Commission) that
would benefit the socially and economically backward communities. The
fact that the majority of the poor and backward communities happen to be
low-caste communities is a reflection of how the higher-caste communities
disproportionately control the wealth of the country. On the other hand,
the introduction of the reservation policy was an open acknowledgement of
the fallout of caste-based discrimination and wealth-making that resulted
in large sections of society being pushed to the margins. In addition, it
signalled the desperate need to restructure the disabilities imposed by

millennia of oppression. But reservation had another interesting twist –
it generated competition between different caste communities, who vied
for the limited resources and benefits distributed by the government.
Moreover, the complicated reservation policy that ensured positive dis-
crimination to help the underprivileged communities was restricted
to Hindus. If any low-caste and Dalit communities have changed their
religion they are not included in this policy. Therefore, particularly Dalits
from Christian and Muslim background are excluded from the benefits of
the reservation policies.
Exposing the extent to which the caste system provides ideological
heritage opens up an important critical perspective, because it is from this
standpoint that caste groups are able to draw strength and negotiate power.
Ideology as power is nowhere more explicit than in the Indian political
landscape. Moving away from the post-independence political framework,
various caste-based organisations (sabahs) have gradually become full-
fledged political parties, representing their specific constituents. This has
been fuelled by the breakdown of the traditional party system dominated
by the Indian National Congress. The realisation by various caste groups
that their interests will be served only through hard political negotiations
has resulted in significant growth in caste-based politics.
Mirroring this development, even Dalit groups have had to organise
and mobilise strategically to counter the unfair advantages enjoyed
by higher-caste groups. Beginning with the active political movement
initiated by B. R. Ambedkar, influential leaders from Dalit communities
across the country recognised the importance of political participation
to change their predicament. Complementing this process, the economic
and legal provision to the so-called low castes enabled them to unite
against so-called high-caste communities. Access to resources (economic,
employment and educational) has become the preoccupation of all political
groups, ensuring grassroots support and making it easy to achieve political
mobilisation. However, the central relationship between caste ideology
and political movement is representation. Caste-based mobilisation has
become inevitable in an increasingly polarised political landscape. Rep-
resentation is at the heart of caste-based mobilisation. Therefore, caste
in the contemporary Indian political scene is a vital factor, forcing even
traditional parties to play to caste affiliations. In this context it is safe to
conclude that caste has become an ideological trope within the Indian
political landscape. Given the religio-cultural centrality of caste practice,
it is inevitable that caste affiliation will continue to have its say in politics.
Significantly, if caste association assumes a religious nationalist role, it will
be even more complicated.
Caste in Contemporary Indian Society

In spite of the rapid changes overtaking the Indian socio-cultural landscape,
be it economic advancement or technological revolution, the role of caste
in the everyday life of an Indian remains largely unchanged. The pervasive
and adaptable nature of the caste system is such that it becomes an in-
dispensable social template by which Indians conduct their lives. Social
commensality is strictly marked and controlled by caste adherence. Key life
stages are governed by caste belonging. In particular, marriages are always
seen as affirming the caste belonging. Modernity might have challenged its
reach, but the caste system remains relevant for the grassroots.
Observing this, it could be argued that the development of modernity
in India has certainly shaped how the caste system functions, but,
crucially, it has created the need to assert caste more vehemently. Thus,
it is interesting to note that the discourse about caste is not about its dis-
appearance but rather about its resilience. The current prevalence of caste
is due to its fluid and dynamic nature as well as its integral necessity in
the fields of socio-economics, ritual and politics in India. The possibility of
social mobility accessible under caste patronage and reservation policies
makes reasserting caste identities inevitable. However, the harsh reality
of exclusion and discrimination endured by Dalits in the organised and
unorganised labour sector remains. The rapid technological advancement
has only resulted in the reinforcing of traditional boundaries, furthering
fractures and deepening fissures along caste lines. Although there are
arguments for writing the obituary of the caste system in its original form
due to deritualisation and modernisation, other social factors are actually
beginning to utilise caste demarcations for its own survival.
Over the years, the caste mechanism has evolved and adapted to
the significant social changes, accommodating political initiatives and
subverting economic policies to serve its purpose. Although untouchabil-
ity might seem out of place in the Indian context of rapid urbanisation, it
has nonetheless found interesting ways to manifest itself. The resilience
of the caste system as an institution needs to be taken seriously, as it has
become a potent political tool within Indian society. Further, the inevita-
bility of caste practice in India is found in the persistence of endogamy
and economic interdependence, and it is increasingly manifest in the
competition between castes. The preceding observations pertinently
capture the continuing viability of the caste system. The foundation of the
caste system in purity and pollution dichotomies might have undergone
substantial change to accommodate contemporary sociological challenges.
However, more recently, caste identities have become sources of political
and economic capital and carry value for social groups that strategically
work towards accessing scarce resources.
The caste system might have had its roots in the ancient Vedic scriptures
or sociological practices, but its relevance and potency in shaping con-
temporary socio-cultural moorings have not diminished. Instead, the
Indian populace continue to find new purpose and value in identifying
and utilising caste identities. The tenacity of the caste system is such that
it becomes indispensable even among religious groups that explicitly
denounce caste practices. Christianity in India is no exception, but rather
an example of how the caste system has systematically come to determine
its very life. Human dignity, respect and full inclusion – the devout hope of
Dalit Christians – remain a distant dream within Indian Christianity.
Bibliography
Clarke, Sathianathan, Dalits and Christianity (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998).
Jacobsen, Knut A. Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India (Abingdon: Taylor and Francis,
2015).
Michael, S. M. (ed.), Dalits in Modern India (New Delhi: Vistaar Publications, 1999).
Sharma, Ursula, Caste (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1999).
Vaid, Divya, ‘Caste in Contemporary India: Flexibility and Persistence’, Annual Review of
Sociology, 40 (2014), 391–410.
Tribal Identity
The terms ‘tribe’ and ‘tribal’ are used to tag a type of social organisation
with a distinctive socio-cultural identity. Though there are many such
groups in Asia, which are, as a rule, numerically much smaller units than
nations or peoples, they share across the distinguishing lines of their specific
identities characteristic traits that make it meaningful to speak of ‘tribes’,
in the plural. All of them have a concept of common ancestry and descent
and specific languages and cultural and historical traditions, and dwell in
identifiable territories, which in many cases are still considered to be tribal
land that is not privately owned. In some cases, the term ‘tribal’ overlaps
with ‘indigenous’ peoples, but not all tribal societies are indigenous in the
sense of having an aboriginal history – nor the other way around.
The term ‘tribe’ is resented by some because it is said to resonate with
nineteenth-century social evolutionist theories in which ‘tribal’ indicated
primitive culture. In India, however, ‘tribe’ is also a legal term. In order
to enjoy certain privileges provided by the Indian constitution, a group
needs to be recognised as a Scheduled Tribe or Caste. There are such tribal
communities in Indian states such as Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand,
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and the north-eastern
states and in neighbouring countries such as Nepal and Bangladesh. All of
the approximately 700 such groups in India have their own tribal names,
which the Indian census lists. The larger groups, like the Bhil, Gond and
Santal, count several million people, whereas smaller groups, like the Onge
of the Andaman Islands, comprise no more than a few hundred.
Many of these tribals call themselves Adivasi, or the ‘first dwellers’.
Although this is a Hindi/Sanskritic term, it keeps the memory that these
peoples have been living in their areas for thousands of years, long before
other groups settled there, for instance those described as Aryan or
Dravidian. Refuting the concomitant diachronic concept that these peoples
might claim to represent the indigenous (and hence older) population
of the subcontinent, the Indian constitution highlights, so to speak, the
synchronic dimension by classifying them as Scheduled Tribes of the
Indian nation of today.
Adivasi are tribals of the mainland. A second large group of tribal
communities are those of the hills of Northeast India. The Northeast region
Tribal Identity 421
of India comprises seven states: Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal

Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim. It is a region surrounded by Bhutan,
Myanmar, Bangladesh and China and is connected to the Indian mainland
only by a small corridor. Most scholars assume that the traditional tribes
in the Northeast have migrated over a long period of time into the region
from different stock, such as the Tibeto-Burman, Mongoloid or Chinese.
Having their origins in Southeast Asia, the peoples of Northeast India –
nearly 40 million inhabitants – are ethnically, linguistically, culturally and
religiously different from the rest of India and are even diverse among
themselves. Therefore, most often, the clumping of all these states under
the tag of ‘Northeast’ has tended to have a homogenising effect, with its
own set of implications for policy formulation and implementation, not to
mention local aversion to such a construct.
According to the Indian census of 2011, tribal communities in India
count around 104 million people combined, equivalent to 8.6% of the
Indian population. These numbers tend, however, to make a quite colourful
picture blurred: the 700 or so groups in India tagged as tribals because of
the above-mentioned common traits are among themselves very distinct
in their languages, cultures, histories and religions. Yet, to a large extent,
their socio-political status in relation to the rest of modern Indian society is
similar and both the Adivasi and the majority of the north-eastern tribals
are classified as Scheduled Tribes, which lends certain rights and privileges
to them according to the Indian constitution. As tribal communities and/or
indigenous peoples, they share many common concerns and face similar
threats to their existence. On the other hand, when defining their identity
by emphasising their roots, they can tend to separate from one another
because of their distinctive cultural histories.
Keeping in mind the mentioned commonalities and differences, it is
meaningful to distinguish between the two large groups – the Adivasi
and the north-eastern tribals. The first among the major differences, their
different origins and histories, has already been described. Secondly, the
Adivasi have originally a non-Hindu history and religion, but over the
centuries their culture, identity and socio-political status have been affected
by the dominant Hindu culture, which claims to be the norm. In addition,
although Adivasi are peoples rather than a caste, their status as tribals is
affected by the caste system. In contrast, the Northeast India region has
for a long time been considered by most Indians as being on the fringes
of the nation in terms of its history and has also been ignored politically,
economically and culturally. In the Northeast region, it is mainly tribes in
Assam and the valley plains that exhibit traits similar to those observed
with the Adivasi elsewhere in India. Therefore, it is necessary to differ-
entiate the north-eastern tribals further, between societies that have been
422 Marina Ngursangzeli Behera
Sanscritised and those that have not. (The majority of the north-eastern
tribes are not influenced by Sanscritised Hindu culture and are proud to
be casteless societies.) Thirdly, whereas in the mainland plains the tribal
communities are minorities in their respective federal states, they form
the majority of the population in the states of Northeast India, which
in cases like the Mizos and the Nagas have even given their name to a
state (Mizoram and Nagaland). A fourth marker could be the percentage
of Christians, which is in general much higher among the north-eastern
tribals than it is among the mainland tribals.
Many of the characteristics of the indigenous tribals of Northeast India
can be observed in similar societies in adjoining areas of Bangladesh and
Myanmar. In Nepal, however, the situation is different. Christians were not
allowed in Nepal during the period when missionaries were introducing
Christianity to Northeast India. Today, the rapidly growing Nepali church
is largely made up of Dalits, with only a few tribals. Therefore, the interplay
of tribal identity and Christian faith that has shaped societies in neighbour-
ing Northeast India is not seen in Nepal.
In Bangladesh, where the tribal population is just over 1% of the total
population, several Christian tribal communities are to be found in the
Chittagong Hill Tracts. Most of these tribes share the same ethnic origin
and belong to the family of tribes in Northeast India, such as the Garos,
the Khasis, the Jaintias from Meghalaya and the Bawm tribe, who speak
the same language as the Lai in Mizoram. There are also Santals – whose
Indian fellow tribespeople are classified as Adivasi – who are considered
to be the oldest and largest tribal communities in Bangladesh. It is mainly
these tribal communities that make up the very small Christian population
in Bangladesh, with a small percentage still following their animistic
beliefs and practices. Christianity has influenced and impacted the lives
and identity formation of these tribals in the same manner as their kindred
tribes in Northeast India, though they suffer discrimination as immigrants
into the country, where the national identity is strongly based on Bengali
linguistic and cultural identity.
As far back as the early nineteenth century, when the Baptist missionar-
ies were established in Serampore, in India, they had translated the New
Testament into the Balochee language. This allowed the Christian message
to be introduced to the tribal people found today in Pakistan and known as
the Baloch. There are, however, no churches among them today and only a
handful of Christian believers.
Culture and Tribal Identity

The term ‘culture’ is used here to comprehend the distinctive way of life,
traditions, beliefs and practices of the tribal peoples under consideration.
Tribal Identity 423
Adivasi is a Sanscritic/Hindi term. The fact that non-Sanscritic com

munities and groups have accepted the term as self-descriptive beyond
tribal boundaries signifies a growing awareness that all these peoples share
something in common that can be considered as defining aspects of their
identity. Adivasi societies live in general with and from the land, which
they consider as common ground and not as individual property. This, and
the connection to land, is the basis of their value systems and livelihood.
They formerly lived in wide and open areas, in large wooded areas, or in
hilly areas and have been small-crop farmers or fishermen. They depend
on a subsistence economy, but this makes them vulnerable to the effects of
climate like drought or too much rain. The value sets of the predominantly
small communities reflect values that are reminiscent of democracy and
emphasise common decision-making by consent and cooperation.
Spiritually and religiously, their worldview is formed by traditions and
a culture system that is based on belief in a close inter-relatedness between
human beings and what is considered as nature. These peoples draw a line
different from the prevailing one of the so-called ‘modern’ understanding.
Nature is not just raw material to be exploited, but animated natural beings
and human beings who depend on each other.
These worldviews as identity markers are threatened from within as
well as from outside: from within because by changing their life conditions
their belief systems are endangered and their communities are affected by
what could be called a cultural mainstream that causes a loss of tradition
and fosters cultural and spiritual alienation; from outside because their
traditional economies are threatened, thousands are losing their lands and
hundreds of thousands are migrating to cities hoping to find life there by
joining the cheap and uneducated workforce. There is a fear among the
Adivasi community that in the near future they might lose their ancestral
lands by being forced to migrate to urban areas and by being dispersed with
the vague hope of finding more than death there. Additionally, external
pressure (associated with globalisation and the hoped-for economic
growth) increases to exploit the natural resources in the lands occupied by
Adivasi communities – wood, water, coal and other mining products.
At this point, the Adivasi communities are weakened by their communal
owning of the land. To them, land is basically a gift to be used and does
not belong to anyone. Consequently, they do not have titles, which makes
it easier to dispossess and displace them. From the perspective of the
government, the land belongs to nobody and thus to the state, which can
make use of it in the name of national progress. In their awareness of being
Adivasis and in the fight for land and the right to adjusted and sustainable
life, many have rediscovered their cultural and religious heritage as
ecological concepts. These speak of a necessary balance between nature
and people and call for a sustainable economy. This traditional spiritu
ality adapts itself to conflict and is used as a cultural resource that evokes
critical questions and nurtures resistance.
For the indigenous people of Northeast India, who belong to traditionally
agrarian societies, land is central to their life and existence as a community.
Land is the source of life and is also sacred. The land provides them with
space, food and many of the basic resources to meet their everyday needs.
The land and their identity are intertwined in terms of community, social
system, culture, values and economic wellbeing. Traditionally, land was
never considered a private or individual property; it belonged to a higher
supreme being or power who created the whole cosmos, under whose care
and protection humans were allowed to partake of the resources or the
produce of the land only with the understanding that it was a taboo to
abuse the land or to exploit natural resources if this went beyond meeting
daily needs. The people understood themselves only as stewards and
caretakers of the land and its natural resources. It was through the land
that they interpreted what life meant and learned about the divine and the
ecological order and their interconnectedness with the rest of creation.
Traditional systems of self-governance and social customs of livelihood
remained virtually untouched during British rule. The creation of the rail
network for commercial purposes, linking the areas where tea is grown,
was the only major economic activity during the period. Globalisation,
however, has not left the Northeast region untouched and threatens
indigenous knowledge and intellectual property rights, their cosmovision,
technologies, religions, sacred sites, social structures and relationships,
wildlife, ecosystems, economies and basic rights to informed understand-
ing. Not only the natural resources but also their way of life, rituals and
habits, which have intrinsic value for the people, are threatened by being
transformed into objects for sale or when they are constructed for tourists
as one of the economic activities touted to bring prosperity to the region.
The commodification of culture itself has led to the destruction of
ancient and sacred cultural ties of the people to their land. The promotion
of the sacred groves in the region as tourist attractions is a good example.
Through an age-old practice, certain areas of land near the villages are
protected by local communities through customary taboos and sanctions
with cultural and ecological implications. They are a part of the cultural
heritage of the indigenous people. Sacred groves also contain several
medicinal plants used in ayurveda – an age-old medicinal system – and
tribal and folk medicine. Among the many types of sacred groves are those
in Meghalaya that have traditionally been considered sacred and where a
whole variety of religious beliefs and practices exist. Apart from the sacred
groves functioning as the medium through which the indigenous people
Tribal Identity 425
express their relationship with the divine and with nature, they also have a
very important socio-cultural and political function. They provide cultural
space to the community as common property and also in the assertion of
group identity and solidarity.
The varied religious festivals of the indigenous people, through which
their spirituality is closely linked to their diverse traditions and cultures,
are now being commodified and marketed through tourism. The meanings
and significance they once had for the people are now lost as they are
being replicated as a performance to cater to the expectation of the tourist
who has paid for such an experience. This leads us to the issue of the
genuineness of what is being sold and marketed, on the one hand, and, on
the other, the authenticity of what the buyers (tourists) get or receive. What
was once considered sacred and which embodied the essence of communal
wellbeing and identity is now packaged as a product to be sold to those
who are willing and able to pay.
Role of Faith and Church

One of the conspicuous features of the north-eastern tribals is that, for a
majority of them, the Christian faith has become part of their tribal identity.
The manner in which the north-eastern tribals responded to and received
Christianity and made it part of their tribal identity is not radically different
across tribes. Taking the example of the Mizos and looking closely at the
reasons why they received the gospel message can give us an idea about
why Christianity appealed to the people of the region. The Christian faith
and Christian life patterns have been reformulated in the cultural idiom of
the local communities and have thus been indigenised. This Christianity
has become so Mizo that accusing Christians in India of being followers
of a foreign religion is equivalent to claiming that Mizos are not Indian –
which would be ironic, because it is politically and culturally a contested
question how ‘Indian’ Mizoram is. This experience is shared by other tribal
communities in other states like Nagaland, Manipur and Meglalaya and
also in the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar.
For the tribals in Northeast India, to become part of a larger ‘world’
started with the imposition of the British administration in the nineteenth
century, which turned their traditional world upside down, affecting every
facet of tribal life – political, economic and cultural. When the mission
aries came with the gospel at approximately the same time, it filled the
vacuum and cultural void created by this alien rule. In that sense, the
gospel came with colonialism and became at the same time a liberating
force for the tribal community. In the whole process of the Christian faith
being translated into their culture and society, Protestant Christianity
itself was modified as a result of its insertion into a tribal worldview. The
form of Christianity that resulted among the tribal communities – with its
emphasis on the triumph of Jesus, bringing with it spiritual power and
liberation to believers – cuts across all denominations.
These reformulated beliefs and patterns have contributed in turn to
the spiritual liberation of the different tribal communities, by becoming
dimensions of a transformative spirituality to which these communities
invite their own people today to a life in abundance. One thus can identify
a transformative spirituality that already was present in the formation stage
of the north-eastern tribals’ Christianity. To explain further, for the Mizos,
the Nagas, the Khasis, the Jaintias, the Garos and the Zomi, the world was
a living organism inhabited by spirits, some benevolent and some evil.
The evil spirits inhabited trees, streams, springs, mountains and any other
object curiously shaped or deformed. The evil spirits were believed to cause
all kinds of illnesses and misfortunes and hence had a big impact on the
life of the people. In order to recover from such illnesses, these evil spirits
had to be placated by the sacrificing of appropriate animals, prescribed by
the local priest, who would perform the sacrifices. The people lived in fear,
always afraid of evil spirits, and their religious energies were centred on
propitiating these evil spirits through frequent sacrifices.
In such a socio-religious context, what made the Christian message
of the missionaries so attractive was not the message of salvation and of
Christ’s redemptive sacrifice – concepts that were strange to the tribals – but
because Christ was portrayed as one who could vanquish these evil spirits
they were afraid of, and this was a powerful deity they could identify with
and risk following.
This new identity as Christians would now help the newly converted
tribals to review their past beliefs in the light of this redemptive power
of Jesus, and this would also help them define their identity as Christians
without a discontinuity from their past. Many of their beliefs, such as
the soul going to everlasting labour or everlasting rest, would now be
reinterpreted in the light of the eternal life promised in Christ. This re
interpretation of previously held beliefs is a pattern common, though with
some variation, in the north-eastern tribals’ understanding of Christianity
and has played a major role in the different tribes accepting Christianity
and making it a part of their identity.
The tribal identity in India, while closely linked with ancestry,
community and land, has also received and in turn been moulded by the
Christian message, especially in the case of the tribal societies in Northeast
India. It was their fear of the evil spirits and the presentation of Jesus as the
vanquisher of these spirits that attracted them to the gospel. Their under
standing of a Christ who addressed a particular practical need became a
starting point for their eventual Christianisation and can be considered
Tribal Identity 427
the main reason why Christianity spread so rapidly among the tribal
communities in Northeast India. Consequently, tribal identity among
the Christian tribal communities in Northeast India and Bangladesh is
so closely interwoven with Christianity that it would be anathema for a
tribal to convert to another religion, as doing so would be regarded as also
forsaking one’s tribal identity.
We have so far briefly looked at the understanding of the terms ‘tribal’
and ‘Adivasis’ in India today. The introduction of Christianity to these
people has had a profound impact on many aspects of their lives and is
still being felt today. The gospel message brought about changes in these
societies, liberating them from various bondages, bringing about positive
social and economic changes as well as drastic changes in their worldview
as liberated people. Keeping in mind that these are not homogeneous
societies, we shall briefly look at some specific areas where Christianity
has had a major impact and how this interaction between tribal/indigenous
societies and the Christian faith has influenced these societies.
Religious Lifestyle of the People

In their old traditional faiths, the lives of tribal people were full of fear and
innumerable superstitions. They observed different kinds of taboos in order
to appease the spirits so that they might attain a good life in this world.
The function of the observation of these rites and taboos was to liberate
people temporarily from the harmful activities of malevolent spirits. But
the acceptance of the gospel of Christ liberated them from all such fears,
sacrifices to the spirits and practices of divination. Thus, today almost
all the ancestral religious rituals and practices have disappeared among
many tribes of Northeast India. Many became Christians initially because
they were convinced that the new religion was more effective than the old
religions in securing this objective. Belief in and fear of the spirits is still
widespread among tribal Christians, however. Many look upon Sunday as
a day of no work or no travel, in much the same way they observed certain
days in the old religion as inauspicious to leave the village or carry on
normal work. Others substitute the Bible for the traditional charms carried
to ward off evil spirits when travelling. Thus, Christianity liberated the
people from a worldview in which they were socially and psychologically
enslaved by their fear of spirits. Belief in the spirits continues, but it is no
longer the dominant element. Christ’s power is seen to be greater than that
of spirits.
Additionally, the sacrificial acts and elements in the ancient animistic
religion were replaced by the self-sacrificing act of Jesus. Indeed, to the
tribal converts, this is the greatest relief that the new religion has offered
them. The practice of offering food to propitiate the spirits of their dead
was totally given up, since the new religion taught that a human’s spirit
does not roam the earth.
Like the tribals in Northeast India, the Adivasis, too, were afraid of spirits.
The message of Christ being more powerful than the feared evil spirits was
one of the motivating factors for the Adivasis to follow the teachings of
Jesus Christ. Their experiences of physical and spiritual healing through
prayer (including exorcisms) were motivating factors in their acceptance
of Christianity and are not very dissimilar to the reasons the north-eastern
tribals were receptive to the gospel message.
Social Lives of the People

The introduction of Christianity brought a great transformation in the
socio-cultural life of the tribals of Northeast India. It brought tribal wars
and headhunting to an end because of the Christian emphasis on love
for neighbour and enemy alike, and it promoted a new social order. The
headhunting energy and enthusiasm were diverted towards the furtherance
of the gospel in unreached areas by the Christian witness of young people.
Villages of the same tribe that had previously been at war with each other
were brought together in presbyteries and associations. Evangelism and
church structures fostered a sense of tribal and regional identity, which
had been absent earlier. Thus, the impact of Christianity on socio-cultural
life changed the priorities of societies in the region, and there was now
greater awareness of the importance of the uplifting of society along with
the need for the spread of the gospel message.
The gospel has brought various changes in the social life of the
Adivasis as well. While previously they were referred to derogatorily as
a community of dark-skinned people and were discriminated against, the
Christian message encouraged different Adivasi groups to recognise and
accept each other positively, as one in Christ. This led to social changes
such as recognising and correcting social evils like alcohol abuse, child
labour, exploitation by moneylenders and the practice of early marriages
and divorces. The gospel message gave a sense of identity and dignity to
the community, which enabled them to address prevailing social evils.
Along with this there was also an assertion of Christian leadership in the
community and the right to participate in social and religious functions
that hitherto had been denied to the community.
Christian ministers did not force the Adivasis to change their culture,
but, rather, with the introduction of Christianity they protected and
purified their culture by giving newness to their culture within their
biblical conviction in the changing context of the world. Any changes
that took place were carried out by the people themselves, based on their
convictions, and they wholeheartedly embraced these changes.
Tribal Identity 429
Education of the People

Education and Christianity came to be closely identified in Northeast
India. Education has been one of the most powerful agencies for bringing
about transformation in the life of the people of Northeast India. Schools
were the primary agents not only of evangelism but also of the new order.
The education imparted by the Christians lifted the people from ignorance,
illiteracy, savagery and superstitions. Education prepared them for new
occupations. It gave them greater mobility and it encouraged greater
interaction with people not of their own tribes. Thus, education brought
by Christianity transformed their minds and improved their way of living
inside and outside the community. The impact of Christian influence
through literacy and literature programmes is remarkable.
In the hill areas, the impact was even greater, because the missions gave
the various tribes their first literature. Since Christianity without the Bible
was unthinkable to the Protestants, whenever the missionaries entered
into a new field, they reduced the language of that particular community
to writing. No hill tribe at that time had a written language. Christian
literature contributed to developing a sense of tribal identity. In providing
a written language, Christianity prepared the tribals to adjust to the new
social, economic and political situation in which they found themselves.
One of the major contributions of Christian organisations to the Adivasi
communities has been education. Schools were opened, and the influence
of the Christian faith motivated the Adivasis to develop and educate
themselves as well as their children. Missionaries played a significant role
in enabling them to understand the importance of education. Christian
education helped them obtain government jobs as well as to join private
companies. This helped them stand as equals with those people who dis-
criminated against them on the basis of caste. Literacy rates rose and this
improved their economic status as well.
Emergence of Tribal/Indigenous Identity

Christianity has emerged as a strong factor in modernisation and has given
the tribes a sense of identity. The phenomenal rise of Christianity in all
states of Northeast India except Arunachal Pradesh became a symbol of
tribal identity. This new faith in Christ has impelled them to complete
abandonment of the old practices and immersion in the new. Indeed, the
tribal movement in Northeast India is an aspiration and a manifestation of
the fight for identity. Hence, Christianity continues to provide an ideology
that helped the tribal people maintain their identity in the face of serious
erosion of their traditional religious, social and political institutions.
For the Christian Adivasi communities, Jesus’s kingdom values
of justice and equality continue to be the basis for the identity that the
communities express. Having experienced discrimination and exploitation

by the dominant powers that left them aliens in their own land, Christi
anity today provides Adivasis with the inspiration through which they can
assert themselves on equal terms with the societies around them.
Conclusion
Tribal communities in India – those that are termed Adivasi as well as
the tribes in Northeast India – in both the plains and the hills can seem
bewildering in their historical, social, religious, denominational and
ethnic diversity. To the large majority of non-tribal and non-Adivasi
Indians, ‘tribal’ or ‘north-eastern’ and ‘Adivasi’ are blanket terms to
refer to people of a different ethnicity or way of life without realising the
intricate and numerous differences each of these communities has among
themselves – ethnically, linguistically and culturally – even though there
are certain common socio-religious factors.
A challenge for Christian tribals and Adivasis will be the assertion of
a Christian tribal/indigenous identity, especially when Christianity is
viewed by a large majority of Indians as a Western religion. How can a
tribal/indigenous identity be asserted as a Christian one, particularly when
denominations, ecclesiastical hierarchies, church services and even archi-
tectural designs of churches are inspired by or depend on Western models?
How open are tribals and Adivasis themselves to incorporating more
indigenous and traditional practices in church administration and worship
services? It is not forgotten that Western missionaries once disapproved of
such practices as ‘un-Christian’ or as too closely identifiable with previous
non-Christian beliefs and practices. The challenge here is not so much to
counter the claims of critics that Christianity is a Western import as to
relate the faith to their own historical, cultural and religious past in such a
way that Christianity comes to be understood as a link and reinterpretation
rather than a clean break from their socio-cultural roots.
Bibliography
ChhungHrangthan, M. M. Eka and Wati Longchar (eds), Doing Indigenous Theology in Asia:
Towards New Frontiers (Nagpur: NCCI; Kolkotta: SCEPTRE; Ranchi: GTC, 2012).
Dasan, Ebenezer D., The Impact of the Gospel on the Adivasis of South Gujarat: An Investigation
into the Mission Method (Bangalore: CFCC, 2009).
Downs, Frederick S., Christianity in North-East India: Historical Perspectives (Delhi: ISPCK;
Gauhati: CLC, 1983).
Kleine, Kirsten (ed.), Adivasis: Indigene Völker in Indien (Weltmission heute: Studienhefte, issue
58) (Hamburg: EMW, 2005).
Ngursangzeli, Marina and Michael Biehl (eds), Witnessing to Christ in North East India,
Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series 31 (Oxford: Regnum, 2016).
Conclusion
The Future of Christianity in South
and Central Asia
Savithri Sumanthiran
Christianity in South Asia is widely accepted as an established faith held

by a minority of the population, with its origins in the region going back to
the first century. Yet it is widely viewed as a foreign religion established by
colonial powers and disruptive of age-old traditions and culture grounded
in dominant religions like Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism and
Jainism. South Asian theologians describe this perception as the unholy
alliance of the missionary, the military and the merchant. Christianity is
therefore often perceived as an integral part of the encroaching colonial
system that blew away all that was of cultural value on the ground.
Christianity in Central Asia likewise has a long history, having been
present in the region from at least as early as the fourth century. Yet it, too,
is commonly associated today with a colonial power, in this case Russia
and the presence of the Russian Orthodox Church. Currently, it has had to
negotiate its space in an area, on the one hand, of Soviet-shaped militant
atheism and, on the other, of being a religious minority within communities
of Muslim faith.
In the context of the presence of long-established churches – of every
denomination in South Asia and primarily the Russian Orthodox Church
in Central Asia – the central challenge to Christian communities in South
and Central Asia remains the proclamation of Jesus as Lord, as good news
to all of creation, amidst diverse people groups, cultures and ideologies.
Perhaps this challenge is not so different from the one that faced the insig-
nificant and hard-pressed communities of Christian faith under the Roman
Empire during the first century. Like St Paul the Apostle in Athens looking
for opportunities to proclaim Christ as Lord amidst a plethora of gods
and a culture of Hellenism, Christians in South and Central Asia today
proclaim their message amidst a pluralistic context and culture. How can
they proclaim Christ as Lord and live out the values of Christ’s kingdom
among diverse communities experiencing poverty, injustice, corruption
and a multiplicity of other social ills in the context of globalisation,
often-militant majority religions and the complex geopolitics of these two
regions? The Church in South Asia has been growing in numbers, though
434 Savithri Sumanthiran
this is not always officially accounted for in census returns. It is finding

expression today through prayer movements accompanied by healing and
deliverance from evil spirits in South Asia as well as dreams and visions in
Muslim-dominated parts of both South and Central Asia.
However, in both South and Central Asia the witness of the Church is
challenged by internal disunity, often leading to fragmentation and power
struggles, sometimes fought out in public spaces such as courts of law. Both
denominationalism and the explosive growth of Independent churches,
not accountable to anyone and largely funded by mission organisations
outside the home country, often impinge negatively on the witness of the
Church. A significant and troublesome feature of church life in South Asia
is the centralising of power, patriarchal and hierarchical, with minimal ac-
countability. This occurs whether the church is small or large, established
or new, and reflects the prevailing South Asian culture. Long-established
churches working with state authorities to oppress the work of evangelists
and Charismatic churches perceived to be taking away their members is a
further threat to the more vibrant churches.
Externally, churches in both South and Central Asia face the threat of
the state controlling their activities, with those who engage in evangelism
being particularly targeted. Schools refusing admission to Christian
children and promotions being denied in the workplace are examples of
the covert pressures brought to bear on Christian families. In South Asia,
the rhetoric against Christianity is couched in the language of ‘unethical
evangelism’, with the accusation that it invites people to become ‘rice
Christians’ by its engagement with poverty alleviation and social welfare.
In Central Asia, emerging out of more than 70 years of Soviet rule,
significant social, economic and political forces shape these young
democracies. Governments seeking to bring about social cohesion and
stability within their countries have become increasingly repressive and
now monitor the activities of their citizens. Religious movements or any
form of collective activism taken on behalf of any cause is considered
sufficient reason for suspicion and, sometimes, a criminal charge of
subversion. As the political leadership has consolidated its power, human
rights, including freedom of religion, have been jeopardised.
Additionally, an ideological void has been created in these post-Soviet
countries. Communities that have been Islamic for centuries are now going
back to their roots to fill this void. This is being actively supported by the
promotion of orthodox Islam as a socially cohesive force, and as an ideo
logically motivated faith, by forces from outside these countries. Islam, with
its role of forming a culture that creates an identity and national conscious-
ness, causes tensions, yet has growing popular appeal. Religious leaders
work towards uniting Muslims, to address growing social problems and to
hold at bay forces seen as harmful to the community. There is also active
debate on the question of the religious identity and expression of Islam –
whether it should be the traditional Islam practised over the centuries in
this region or the fundamental, radical form of Islam found today in the
Middle East.
As Christians share their faith with others in this context, persecution
is increasing, particularly in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. As
Central Asia grapples with the question of social cohesion and grassroots
Islam experiences a revival, governments are tending to adopt pro-Islamic
policies and therefore are becoming increasingly intolerant of Christians
practising their faith openly. Christian churches and organisations are not
permitted to register with the state as official institutions. Nor can private
homes be used as venues for corporate worship. Conversion from Islam is
perceived as a matter both of violating Islam and of being an instrument of
social fragmentation. This results in Christians facing persecution, not just
from the state but also from their own families and society at large.
The future of Christianity in South and Central Asia in the coming decades
therefore needs to be viewed through the lens of regional geopolitics,
nationalism, oppressive state structures and increasing radicalisation of
majority religions. It will also be played out in a social context of significant
and increasing disparities of economic wealth, migration, corruption and
domestic and sexual violence against women and other marginalised
groups, including minorities.
Geopolitical and Socio-economic Context

Central Asia, rich in largely untapped energy reserves of oil and gas, is
viewed by global powers as a region of strategic importance with significant
economic potential. The Russian influence in this region continues, with
the USA, China, India, Pakistan and even Japan seeking to engage with the
region through both the establishment of treaties and a platform of organis
ations and investments in the economy. Since the end of the Cold War,
South Asia, with its shared history of colonisation by the British and shared
ethnicities, languages, religions and cultures across national borders, has
experienced significant economic development and integration into the
global economy. Politically, the increasing significance of Asia in general
in the economic sphere increases the interest and involvement of global
powers, on the one hand, and the existence of a very clear competitive
dynamic between India, Pakistan and China, on the other.
In Central Asia, a significant percentage of the labour force consists of
migrant labour working in Russia and within the wider region. As such,
migrant workers contribute considerably to their economies but are poorly
protected by regulations and laws. Tajikistan, for example, is reported to be
the world’s most remittance-dependent country, with remittances equalling

half its reported gross domestic product. The US Agency for International
Development and other agencies report an increase in the trafficking of the
elderly to earn money by begging and of women for prostitution, as well
as both male and female children as young as 11 or 12 becoming victims
of sexual exploitation. The establishment of educational or other socially
useful institutions that serve the marginalised and exploited is a greatly
felt need in these countries.
With the emergence of huge infrastructure development projects such
as the Chinese ‘One Belt, One Road’ project, covering the land and sea
routes of trade from China to Europe and moving through Central Asia,
the need for professionals and skilled workers is likely to be an ongoing
requirement in coming years. This is opening opportunities for Christians
to be present in these countries as skilled workers, thereby giving them the
chance to interact with local people within their own culture, shape policies
and practices in the marketplace, invest in the lives of young Christians
and support those who come to faith and face social and political hostility.
With economic reforms now being put in place, there will be opportunities
for investment in education and training that will serve to equip the people
of these countries. Initiatives range from founding a language school to
motor repair and service stations.
Demographically, Central Asia is made up overwhelmingly of Turkic
people, with more than 200 people groups among them. Kazakhstan
and Turkmenistan are the most urbanised, with just over 50% of their
population living in urban areas, while the other countries have between
20% and 40% of the total population living in urban areas, despite a
trend towards urbanisation caused by the challenges of poverty and the
pressures of making a living. This trend presents opportunities for service
for indigenous Christians in Central Asia. They can intentionally engage
with the local community and become part of its local leadership in
addressing its everyday challenges. In this context, the ability to facilitate
the enablement of livelihood and provide basic necessities such as water,
education, healthcare and even homes for the aged would greatly serve the
needs of Central Asian communities.
South Asia, with consistent economic growth and resilience in times
of global economic crisis, is home to the largest and youngest working
population in the world. It is expected that there will be more than
1 million people reaching working age every month for the next 30 years.
It also faces environmental degradation and urbanisation brought about
by a consistently growing economy. Opportunities created by economic
development, hope of change, poverty and urbanisation form the socio-
economic landscape in South Asia. Karamat Ali, founding member of the
Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, posits that the levels
of poverty in South Asia will continue to rise and that already 60% of the
world’s poor live in South Asia, with a similar proportion of child and
bonded labour. Due to the economic challenges faced by a substantial
number of people, and the experience of oppression of minority groups in
these regions, migration of people to places outside this region for work,
security and economic reasons will continue to be a significant feature of
both South and Central Asia.
Additionally, as in Central Asia, the disparity between the urban
and rural areas continues to grow in South Asia. The development of
liveable and sustainable cities with the ability to efficiently provide water,
sanitation, transport and public services presents a formidable challenge. It
is estimated that by the year 2050, 51% of the population of South Asia will
be living in urban areas. These cosmopolitan cities are overcrowded, with
gated communities of the rich side by side with the slums that accommodate
the poor. Yet these cities have become the pacesetters for their countries,
hosting a space for a multiplicity of cultures, the arts, educational institu-
tions and the health industry, as well as being the centres for business and
government. Churches in the cities demonstrate their relevance when they
proactively become creative spaces for beauty, community and security.
For example, they can provide safe childcare, hostels for students or ac-
commodation for those who come to the city for medical care. It will be
important in this context for Asian seminaries to develop curricula and
train workers for urban mission in their specific contexts.
Mission in South Asia will become increasingly possible as Christians,
though a small percentage of the total population, take their calling to live
by biblical values seriously. Christians, often committed to education and
with access to elite Christian schools within their countries, and sometimes
to postgraduate education outside their home countries, have opportunities
to enter the public service, the professions or the marketplace. They have
the opportunity to become activists or policy-makers, thereby impacting
the dominant public debates, policies and laws of their own countries.
Christians also have the capacity to be business partners or profession-
als, especially in countries that restrict access to foreigners but with the
need to build capacity in their health and education sectors. Profession-
als like teachers, academics, healthcare workers and specialist workers
are needed in both the cities and the rural areas of all these countries. Job
creation will become South Asia’s most critical need in the next 30 years,
enabling the absorption of those entering working age. There will be
mission opportunities for those willing to live and work among the people
over the long term, becoming part of the local community. In Nepal, for
example, it is still possible for health and education professionals to get
visas if working with an established organisation like Volunteers Initiative

Nepal, Volunteer Society Nepal or Projects Abroad. Business partner-
ships with locals will not only provide opportunities for mentoring and
discipling but will also make possible job creation and societal stability in
the many underprivileged communities.
Another significant feature of South Asia is migration, with labour
migration mainly to the Gulf countries and permanent migration to
affluent developed countries. Labour migration involves women going as
domestic helpers from countries such as Sri Lanka and men working either
as unskilled labour or professionals on contracts of two or three years.
Unskilled workers confront high costs and unsafe working conditions as
they are reliant on exploitative recruiters. Reaching out to these workers
as ethical businesses that become trusted recruiters or advocacy groups
within the home countries or providers of hope, care, community and
safety nets in host countries is a significant opportunity for mission both
within and outside South Asia.
Those who emigrate permanently tend to be refugees fleeing civil war or
intense persecution or professionals or skilled workers whose exit creates a
vacuum of leadership both within and outside the Christian communities
in South Asia. The diaspora, originating from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India,
the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, are spread across more than 60 nations
worldwide and are concentrated mainly in cities. Challenges facing the
diaspora include integration into the host country while retaining their
cultural uniqueness for the first generation and issues of identity for the
second generation, growing up in their host countries but still with strong
family ties connecting them to the culture of their home country.
South Asians, by and large, do not consider religion as private and
a merely personal matter. They tend to be open to conversations about
philosophy and religion. Christians in host countries, and diaspora
Christians in particular, can find opportunities to minister to the diaspora
both in word and in deed. Diaspora Christians, with strong family and
community ties in their home countries, will have the space to dispel
notions that Christianity is a Western religion and share their stories of
change and transformation even as they support indigenous churches in
their home countries.
Increasing Radicalisation of Majority Religions

South and Central Asia is home to the largest Muslim population in
the world. India alone has approximately 200 million Muslims, mostly
moderate and well integrated yet facing oppression on a day-to-day basis.
Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives and all Central
Asian countries have majority-Muslim populations. Many communities
are funded by their resource-rich fundamentalist Middle Eastern Muslim

neighbours. Because they perceive themselves to be under threat from the
West, and live in economic hardship, radicalisation might be expected.
South Asia has seen the radicalisation of Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism,
mainly influenced and shaped by political factors. For practising Hindus
who draw on their ancient faith for daily strength and ways of living, the
Sanatan Dharma teaches them that the world is their family and all those
who practise personal religion, of whatever faith, are equal in the eyes of
the Creator God. Mahatma Gandhi’s much-loved religious song epitomises
this: Ishvar Allah tero naam, Sabko Sanmati De Bhagvan – ‘People call you
by many names but you are one; Bless everyone with this wisdom’. To
them, the idea of Hindutva, or Hindu communalism, is anathema. Nehru,
the first Prime Minister of India, described Hindutva as the Indian version
of fascism, with its doctrine of racial and cultural superiority, militaristic
ways and emphasis on national solidarity. Hindutva is viewed by many
Hindus as a political project that redefines Hinduism for political purposes
and declares that India is for Hindus alone. This discourse is dominated
by fear of the enemy – primarily Muslims, but also Christians, those who
advocate secularism and journalists who challenge Hindutva. Whether it
be Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan, the Hindutva that has emerged in
India or militant Buddhism in Sri Lanka, the removal of Western influence
and encouragement of an aggressive and nationalistic revival of these
religions have been the hallmarks of the prevailing politics in South Asia.
Christianity in South Asia therefore must find a way to survive and thrive
in countries preoccupied with nationalism, asserting their independence
from their colonial past, nation-building and globalisation.
Notwithstanding its challenging context, Christianity in South Asia has
remained resilient, with increasingly localised liturgies that seek to delve
into their own cultural roots to express their worship in ways that seem
natural in a South Asian cultural context. Likewise, Christians live out
their faith in culturally appropriate ways. The architecture of the spaces
of worship, language of worship and posture in worship look increas-
ingly Asian as they seek to become a worshipping community that uses
the distinctive cultural gifts given to them. In Pakistan, many of the Psalms
have been translated into Urdu and set to music. In India, faith practised
in the context of the ashram or other movements shaped by diverse but
authentic local cultural expressions increasingly characterise the presence
of Christian communities.
An important issue for the future of Christianity in both South and
Central Asia will be the need to invest time, resources and effort in the
development of a mature, coherent and contextual theology that is able
to present Jesus as the good news without causing offence to the Islamic
scriptures or the Prophet Mohammed. Muslims are committed to seeing

God’s values expressed in the way they live their community lives. To
articulate and live out the Christian faith in a convincing way in such a
context will involve Christians drawing out from their own Scriptures the
rich description of the kingdom of God that can shape the entire life of a
community. The churches will also need to grapple with the challenge of
social fragmentation, particularly along class and caste lines.
Given the number of people groups in these two regions, the provision
of the biblical text in local and tribal languages continues to be a critical
need. Increasing digitisation and social media present an opportunity
both to those who live within these countries and to the diaspora of South
and Central Asia to create and transmit contextually relevant material
that explains the Christian message, shares their life stories, engages in
apologetics and invites discussion in ways that might not be possible in
the closely controlled physical spaces in some countries. The digital space
is also an opportunity for Christians to disseminate biblical texts and to
present teaching material pertinent to living with integrity and as agents of
common good in countries where Christians are a hard-pressed minority.
Potential Growth Points for Christianity

In Central Asia, the median age at present is 26.7 years but is expected to
increase to 34.7 years by 2050. South Asia’s population of 1.8 billion has a
median age of 26.4 and the region is expected to have the world’s largest
young population over the coming decades. Education and job creation
are therefore the need of the hour in these two regions. Young people are
quietly becoming Christians in Central Asia. They are discovering that, as
individuals, being a witness in their workplaces is one of the safest forms
of sharing their faith in an otherwise hostile region for Christians. The Next
Generations Professional Leaders Initiative encourages and equips young
Christians to shape different areas of life with Christian values and to share
their faith in their workplaces.
As in Central Asia, in South Asia, too, the future of Christianity will
depend on how far the coming generation can ‘make disciples’ – forming
people who demonstrate integrity of faith and life. This will find expression
in purity of personal lifestyles, generosity and care demonstrated by
Christian community, commitment to excellence in the workplace and an
active engagement with the issues affecting the community and country,
whether it be the need for clean water, the safety of women from sexual
violence, the need to have fair elections or commitment to countering
corruption and interference with the judiciary.
Kazakhstan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka attract international
students from neighbouring countries. Additionally, a growing young
population with a matching growing demand for higher education in

countries with poor higher-education infrastructure, poor quality of
education or the lack of supply to match the growing demand has led to
students from both these regions becoming international students in the
developed world. The leading destinations for these students include
the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Russia, with
significant new regional hubs developing in Malaysia, the Republic of
Korea, China, the Middle East, Singapore and New Zealand. Connecting
with these students and extending hospitality and support in language
learning can open opportunities for them to explore the Christian faith.
Mentoring and coaching those who choose to become Christians can help
equip them for service and witness when they return home.
Exposing young people to Christian influence requires personal presence
as well as creative visual material in the digital space. In such countries as
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Christians are investing
time and effort in being a presence within schools and universities.
Prayer movements in South Asia are proving to be inspirational as
nations are beset by gross extremes of poverty and wealth, confronted
by natural and human-made disasters, and led by men and women who
are often inept, corrupt and peddling ethnic or religious phobias for their
own ends. Though resource strapped, local mission agencies often partner
with each other and send missionaries into different parts of the region
to live and work among people who have never experienced a Christian
presence. They take opportunities to serve impoverished and vulnerable
communities, for example enabling them to counter the trends that see
them losing their children to trafficking and being lured into the city for
slave labour. With the pressures of economic globalisation and cultural
imperialism creating a backlash often expressed as ethnic or religious
nationalism, the relevance of Christianity might hinge on how extensively
young leaders of the churches become an intrinsic part of their nations,
grappling with issues that confront their communities. Without com
promising their distinctive identity and message, they will need to be fully
immersed in the national culture and engaged with the social context.
Women in South Asia constitute close to 50% of the total population.
South Asian countries, patriarchal to the core, have all seen a marked
improvement in gender parity and access to education and healthcare over
the last decades. However, it is estimated that only one in four women
enter the labour force. Women routinely take responsibility for domestic
chores and parenting alongside their paid employment and face many re-
strictions in decision-making and mobility. Domestic violence is a regular
feature in most homes, including those of Christians. In India alone, the
number of reported cases of domestic violence has increased by more than
100% over a 10-year period. Moreover, the stigma associated with domestic
violence and a deep resistance to shaming the family name mean that most
violent incidents are unreported. Violence against women in public spaces
is also on the rise, with sexual assault and murder becoming common as a
political tool. In South Asian culture, women and men rarely mix socially;
therefore, change can be brought about only by women who are active as
educators, health professionals, counsellors and pastors, and able to canvas
for change. This presents a significant opportunity for theologically trained
Christian women to live and act among the women of South Asia, building
on the work of the few pioneers who are already active.
The illiterate and poorly educated form a significant proportion of the
South Asian population. There are vast areas in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Afghanistan and Nepal with little access even to primary education, while
demand for tertiary education is on the rise. Income inequalities influence
the enrolment of children in schools, with very low levels of government
spending on education, including vocational and technical education.
Illiteracy and low levels of educational attainment inhibit access to the
Christian message. The Joshua Project estimates that close to 90% of the
Indian population of 1.3 billion is yet to hear the Christian message in a
language and format that is accessible to them. India alone has more than
3,000 languages and more than 2,500 people groups. While the Bible has
been translated into the officially used languages of most of the countries
of South and Central Asia, the need for Bible translation and dissemina-
tion across all languages and dialects is both urgent and huge. This opens
an opportunity to use a multiplicity of media formats, like print, radio,
television and digital media. The availability of low-cost or free (open-
source) technology designed for effective and accurate Bible translation,
particularly in the context of increasing capacity among Indians, can be
expected to be a significant space for Christian mission in the years to come.
Additionally, there is a great need for Bible teachers working with artists
to create material that will reach both those who have not had the benefit of
education and those who learn through visual and auditory means. World
Vision, for example, has made use of street drama to change attitudes to
alcohol abuse, domestic abuse and family violence in whole communities.
Capturing the biblical message through dramatisation of selected texts or
setting them to music will bring new opportunities to communicate the
Christian message both with live audiences and through digital media.
Conclusion
The Church has much to unlearn, both from its colonial heritage and from
currently prevailing cultural norms, in order to carry on as a minority that
is committed to live out its faith with integrity. The peoples of South and
Central Asia hold in common the conviction that religion and spirituality
are important and integral to life. They also live in the context of religious
oppression, political instability, corruption and conflict. There are close to
7 million refugees in South Asia alone. Churches and para-church organi-
sations seeking to serve in different ways at different locations in different
countries have increasingly recognised that many of them share the same
doctrine and ways of working, and that all of them have their own strengths
and weaknesses. They are increasingly coming together around common
interests and goals to share their resources and experiences and to work as
one on a given issue or place. This trend towards working in partnership
seems likely to prove influential in the future. By working in partnership, it
becomes possible to relocate church leaders to areas requiring strengthen
ing, to send financial help in times of need and hardship, and to work
strategically in pursuit of shared goals. Today in South Asia, and to a lesser
extent in Central Asia, there is a vibrant and important trend of regional
partnerships. These range from mission agencies to reach a particular
people – either within the region or in countries outside – to partnerships
like Refugee Highway South Asia, Christian Lawyers Network, broad-
casting partnerships or the Asian Evangelical Alliance religious liberty
partnership, among a plethora of others.
Central and South Asia are and will be subject to much stress, fragmen-
tation and brokenness. Among the resources available to counter such
negative trends are rich artistic traditions and a strong culture of story-
telling. Christians can contribute by drawing on the biblical storytelling
tradition and on Jesus’s promise of good news to the poor, release for
captives, recovery of sight for the blind and freedom for the oppressed.
As Christians live out this promise among the urban and the rural, the
educated and the illiterate, the rich and the impoverished, they can show
the relevance of their message to the contemporary context and gain
traction for the future.
Bibliography
Hedlund, Roger, Jesudas Athyal, Joshua Kalapati and Jessica Richard (eds), Oxford Encyclo-
pedia of South Asian Christianity, 2 vols (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011).
Pelkmans, Mathijs (ed.), Conversion after Socialism: Disruptions, Modernisms and Technologies
of Faith in the Former Soviet Union (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2009).
Ramachandra, Vinoth, Faiths in Conflict: Christian Integrity in a Multicultural World (Leicester:
IVP Academic, 1999).
Seat, Leroy, ‘The Future of Christianity in Asia’, Review and Expositor, 103:3 (2006), 541–78.
Wilfred, Felix. The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2014).
Appendices
Christianity by Country
The table that begins overleaf provides a quick-reference, country-by-

country listing for Christianity and its major traditions for all the countries
that appear in this volume. These statistics are found in the World Christian
Database (see Methodology and Sources) and all figures relate to 1970
and 2015. Small numbers are left unrounded to distinguish known small
populations from zero but do not represent precise estimates.
The columns are as follows:
• Country (name of country in English)
• Region in which country is located
• Total population of country (United Nations estimate, 1970, 2015) and
total numbers and percentage of population in each tradition
• Percentage mean annual growth rate, 1970–2015.
The last page of the table presents regional totals.
448 Christianity by Country
1970 2015 Growth

Country Region Tradition Population % Population % rate (%),
1970–2015
Afghanistan South Asia Total population 11,126,000 100.0% 33,736,000 100.0% 2.5%
Christians 8,000 0.1% 7,900 0.0% 0.0%
Anglicans 100 0.0% 50 0.0% −1.5%
Independents 320 0.0% 4,600 0.0% 6.1%
Orthodox 0 0.0% 70 0.0% 4.4%
Protestants 1,600 0.0% 2,300 0.0% 0.8%
Catholics 2,000 0.0% 200 0.0% −5.0%
Evangelicals 570 0.0% 670 0.0% 0.4%
Pentecostals 30 0.0% 2,300 0.0% 10.1%
Bangladesh South Asia Total population 65,048,000 100.0% 161,201,000 100.0% 2.0%
Christians 237,000 0.4% 860,000 0.5% 2.9%
Anglicans 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0.0%
Independents 38,400 0.1% 298,000 0.2% 4.7%
Orthodox 200 0.0% 150 0.0% −0.6%
Protestants 69,400 0.1% 334,000 0.2% 3.6%
Catholics 120,000 0.2% 406,000 0.3% 2.7%
Evangelicals 42,000 0.1% 248,000 0.2% 4.0%
Pentecostals 6,500 0.0% 305,000 0.2% 8.9%
Bhutan South Asia Total population 298,000 100.0% 787,000 100.0% 2.2%
Christians 950 0.3% 17,500 2.2% 6.7%
Independents 500 0.2% 9,600 1.2% 6.8%
Protestants 200 0.1% 6,700 0.9% 8.1%
Catholics 250 0.1% 1,200 0.2% 3.5%
Evangelicals 70 0.0% 2,200 0.3% 8.0%
Pentecostals 420 0.1% 10,100 1.3% 7.3%
India South Asia Total population 553,579,000 100.0% 1,309,054,000 100.0% 1.9%
Christians 20,598,000 3.7% 61,617,000 4.7% 2.5%
Anglicans 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0.0%
Independents 3,192,000 0.6% 18,990,000 1.5% 4.0%
Orthodox 1,804,000 0.3% 4,975,000 0.4% 2.3%
Protestants 6,981,000 1.3% 21,478,000 1.6% 2.5%
Catholics 8,433,000 1.5% 19,882,000 1.5% 1.9%
Evangelicals 2,587,000 0.5% 10,027,000 0.8% 3.1%
Pentecostals 2,768,000 0.5% 20,485,000 1.6% 4.5%
Iran South Asia Total population 28,514,000 100.0% 79,360,000 100.0% 2.3%
Christians 268,000 0.9% 547,000 0.7% 1.6%
Anglicans 2,600 0.0% 1,000 0.0% −2.1%
Independents 1,300 0.0% 301,000 0.4% 12.9%
Orthodox 223,000 0.8% 180,000 0.2% −0.5%
Protestants 15,200 0.1% 28,400 0.0% 1.4%
Catholics 24,000 0.1% 6,000 0.0% −3.0%
Evangelicals 11,200 0.0% 73,800 0.1% 4.3%
Pentecostals 4,100 0.0% 252,000 0.3% 9.6%
1970 2015 Growth

1970–2015
Kazakhstan Central Asia Total population 13,110,000 100.0% 17,750,000 100.0% 0.7%
Christians 2,450,000 18.7% 4,623,000 26.0% 1.4%
Independents 16,500 0.1% 111,000 0.6% 4.3%
Orthodox 2,069,000 15.8% 4,241,000 23.9% 1.6%
Protestants 273,000 2.1% 50,100 0.3% −3.7%
Catholics 20,000 0.2% 128,000 0.7% 4.2%
Evangelicals 44,700 0.3% 39,100 0.2% −0.3%
Pentecostals 4,900 0.0% 113,000 0.6% 7.2%
Kyrgyzstan Central Asia Total population 2,970,000 100.0% 5,865,000 100.0% 1.5%
Christians 338,000 11.4% 320,000 5.5% −0.1%
Independents 500 0.0% 23,700 0.4% 9.0%
Orthodox 294,000 9.9% 264,000 4.5% −0.2%
Protestants 43,400 1.5% 18,800 0.3% −1.8%
Catholics 0 0.0% 500 0.0% 9.1%
Evangelicals 4,300 0.1% 1,800 0.0% −1.9%
Pentecostals 2,200 0.1% 24,000 0.4% 5.5%
Maldives South Asia Total population 116,000 100.0% 418,000 100.0% 2.9%
Christians 220 0.2% 1,500 0.4% 4.4%
Independents 10 0.0% 20 0.0% 1.6%
Protestants 90 0.1% 640 0.2% 4.5%
Catholics 120 0.1% 810 0.2% 4.3%
Evangelicals 23 0.0% 180 0.0% 4.8%
Pentecostals 5 0.0% 160 0.0% 7.9%
Nepal South Asia Total population 11,998,000 100.0% 28,656,000 100.0% 2.0%
Christians 7,400 0.1% 1,082,000 3.8% 11.7%
Independents 5,600 0.0% 848,000 3.0% 11.8%
Orthodox 900 0.0% 4,400 0.0% 3.6%
Protestants 600 0.0% 212,000 0.7% 13.9%
Catholics 300 0.0% 7,200 0.0% 7.3%
Evangelicals 1,500 0.0% 393,000 1.4% 13.1%
Pentecostals 4,700 0.0% 860,000 3.0% 12.3%
Pakistan South Asia Total population 58,091,000 100.0% 189,381,000 100.0% 2.7%
Christians 1,156,000 2.0% 3,859,000 2.0% 2.7%
Anglicans 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0.0%
Independents 225,000 0.4% 521,000 0.3% 1.9%
Protestants 584,000 1.0% 2,495,000 1.3% 3.3%
Catholics 341,000 0.6% 1,107,000 0.6% 2.6%
Evangelicals 225,000 0.4% 943,000 0.5% 3.2%
Pentecostals 143,000 0.2% 850,000 0.4% 4.0%
Sri Lanka South Asia Total population 12,486,000 100.0% 20,714,000 100.0% 1.1%
Christians 1,088,000 8.7% 1,842,000 8.9% 1.2%
Anglicans 46,200 0.4% 54,000 0.3% 0.3%
Independents 21,200 0.2% 152,000 0.7% 4.5%
Protestants 65,700 0.5% 230,000 1.1% 2.8%
Catholics 954,000 7.6% 1,525,000 7.4% 1.0%
Evangelicals 29,500 0.2% 190,000 0.9% 4.2%
Pentecostals 23,300 0.2% 329,000 1.6% 6.1%
450 Christianity by Country
1970 2015 Growth

1970–2015
Tajikistan Central Asia Total population 2,930,000 100.0% 8,549,000 100.0% 2.4%
Christians 82,500 2.8% 70,500 0.8% −0.3%
Independents 0 0.0% 3,900 0.0% 14.2%
Orthodox 62,200 2.1% 57,200 0.7% −0.2%
Protestants 20,300 0.7% 8,500 0.1% −1.9%
Catholics 0 0.0% 150 0.0% 6.2%
Evangelicals 2,200 0.1% 1,900 0.0% −0.3%
Pentecostals 0 0.0% 4,400 0.1% 14.5%
Turkmenistan Central Asia Total population 2,195,000 100.0% 5,565,000 100.0% 2.1%
Christians 117,000 5.3% 72,900 1.3% −1.0%
Independents 0 0.0% 9,100 0.2% 16.3%
Orthodox 108,000 4.9% 58,800 1.1% −1.3%
Protestants 1,600 0.1% 2,400 0.0% 0.9%
Catholics 0 0.0% 200 0.0% 6.9%
Evangelicals 350 0.0% 520 0.0% 0.9%
Pentecostals 0 0.0% 3,500 0.1% 13.9%
Uzbekistan Central Asia Total population 12,110,000 100.0% 30,976,000 100.0% 2.1%
Christians 872,000 7.2% 364,000 1.2% −1.9%
Independents 26,100 0.2% 81,800 0.3% 2.6%
Orthodox 833,000 6.9% 229,000 0.7% −2.8%
Protestants 7,400 0.1% 36,600 0.1% 3.6%
Catholics 0 0.0% 3,500 0.0% 13.9%
Evangelicals 1,600 0.0% 7,400 0.0% 3.4%
Pentecostals 8,300 0.1% 72,000 0.2% 4.9%
1970 2015 Growth

Region Tradition Population % Population % rate (%),
1970–2015
Central Asia Total population 33,315,000 100.0% 68,705,000 100.0% 1.6%
Christians 3,859,000 11.6% 5,450,000 7.9% 0.8%
Independents 43,100 0.1% 229,000 0.3% 3.8%
Orthodox 3,366,000 10.1% 4,850,000 7.1% 0.8%
Protestants 346,000 1.0% 116,000 0.2% −2.4%
Catholics 20,000 0.1% 133,000 0.2% 4.3%
Evangelicals 53,100 0.2% 50,700 0.1% −0.1%
Pentecostals 15,400 0.0% 217,000 0.3% 6.1%
South Asia Total population 741,255,000 100.0% 1,823,308,000 100.0% 2.0%
Christians 23,363,000 3.2% 69,834,000 3.8% 2.5%
Anglicans 48,900 0.0% 55,100 0.0% 0.3%
Independents 3,484,000 0.5% 21,125,000 1.2% 4.1%
Orthodox 2,028,000 0.3% 5,160,000 0.3% 2.1%
Protestants 7,718,000 1.0% 24,787,000 1.4% 2.6%
Catholics 9,875,000 1.3% 22,936,000 1.3% 1.9%
Evangelicals 2,897,000 0.4% 11,877,000 0.7% 3.2%
Pentecostals 2,949,000 0.4% 23,093,000 1.3% 4.7%
South and Central Asia Total population 774,570,000 100.0% 1,892,013,000 100.0% 2.0%
Christians 27,222,000 3.5% 75,284,000 4.0% 2.3%
Anglicans 48,900 0.0% 55,100 0.0% 0.3%
Independents 3,527,000 0.5% 21,354,000 1.1% 4.1%
Orthodox 5,394,000 0.7% 10,010,000 0.5% 1.4%
Protestants 8,064,000 1.0% 24,904,000 1.3% 2.5%
Catholics 9,895,000 1.3% 23,068,000 1.2% 1.9%
Evangelicals 2,950,000 0.4% 11,928,000 0.6% 3.2%
Pentecostals 2,965,000 0.4% 23,310,000 1.2% 4.7%
Methodology and Sources of Christian
and Religious Affiliation
Todd M. Johnson and Gina A. Zurlo
Unless otherwise designated, the demographic figures in this book, both

in the full-colour section and in the tables throughout, are from the World
Christian Database (Boston, MA: Brill). This essay offers a concise explanation
of methods and sources related to the database. It is adapted from longer
treatments in Todd M. Johnson and Brian J. Grim, The World’s Religions
in Figures: An Introduction to International Religious Demography (Oxford:
Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) and David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, World
Christian Trends (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2001). The World
Christian Database (WCD) includes detailed information on 45,000 Christian
denominations and on religions in every country of the world. Extensive
data are available on 234 countries and 13,000 ethno-linguistic peoples, as
well as on 5,000 cities and 3,000 provinces. Information is readily available
on religious activities, growth rates, religious literature, worker activity
and demographics. Sources are evaluated and reviewed on a weekly basis
by a professional staff dedicated to expanding and updating the WCD, and
the database is updated quarterly.
The Right to Profess One’s Choice

The starting point of this methodology is the United Nations 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, article 18:
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right
includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or
in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or
belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Since its promulgation, this group of phrases has been incorporated into
the state constitutions of a large number of countries across the world.
This fundamental right also includes the right to claim the religion of
one’s choice, and the right to be called a follower of that religion and to be
enumerated as such. The section on religious freedom in the constitutions
of very many nations uses the exact words of the Universal Declara-
tion, and many countries instruct their census personnel to observe this
principle. Public declaration must therefore be taken seriously when en-

deavouring to survey the extent of religious and non-religious affiliation
around the world.
Religious Demography
The origins of the field of religious demography lie in the church censuses
conducted in most European societies. For many years and in many
countries, churches produced the most complete censuses of the popula-
tion. They achieved this largely by recording baptisms and funerals. These
data, however, were seen not as referring to specific religious communi-
ties, but rather to the larger homogeneous societies. With the decline of
national churches in Europe beginning in the nineteenth and continuing
into the twentieth century, governments began tracking births and deaths,
eventually replacing churches as the main bodies collecting detailed in-
formation on human populations. Although thousands of sources for
international religious demography are available, ranging from censuses
and demographic surveys to statistics collected and reported by religious
groups themselves, little has been done by scholars in religion, sociology,
or other disciplines to collect, collate and analyse these data.
Sources
Data for religious demography fall broadly under five major headings:
1. Censuses in which a religious question is asked

In the twentieth century, approximately half the world’s countries asked
a question related to religion in their official national population censuses.
Since 1990, however, this number has been declining as developing coun-
tries have dropped the question, deeming it too expensive (in many
countries each question in a census costs well over US$1 million), un
interesting or controversial. As a result, some countries that historically
included a religion question have not done so in their censuses since 1990.
National censuses are the best starting point for the identification of reli-
gious adherents, because they generally cover the entire population.
2. Censuses in which an ethnicity or language question is asked

In the absence of a question on religion, another helpful piece of informa-
tion from a census is ethnicity or language. This is especially true when
a particular ethnic group can be equated with a particular religion. For
example, over 99% of Somalis are Muslim, so the number of Somalis in,
say, Sweden is an indication of a part of the Muslim community there.
Similarly, a question that asks for country of birth can be useful. If the
answer is ‘Nepal’ there is a significant chance that the individual or
454 Todd M. Johnson and Gina A. Zurlo
community is Hindu. In each of these cases the assumption is made (if

there is no further information) that the religion of the transplanted ethnic
or linguistic community is the same as that in the home country.
3. Surveys and polls

In the absence of census data on religion, large-scale demographic surveys
such as MEASURE (Monitoring and Evaluation to Assess and Use Results)
and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) often include a question
about the respondent’s religious affiliation. In some instances, demographic
surveys by groups such as UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund)
include a religious affiliation question. Demographic surveys, although less
comprehensive than a national census, have several advantages over other
types of general population surveys and polls. Demographic and Health
Surveys (DHS) are highly regarded by demographers and social scientists,
and provide valuable nationally representative data on religion. Surveys can
also be commissioned in light of a dearth of data on a particular subject and
results can be used to search for correlations between different variables.
4. Scholarly monographs
Every year, scholars publish hundreds of monographs on particular
religions or religions in particular countries or regions. Such monographs
differ from other sources in that they attempt to provide an overall profile
of religion in an area or country, bringing to light local sources of quantita-
tive data as well as qualitative information that provides layers of context
and background.
5. Religion statistics in yearbooks and handbooks

Religious communities keep track of their members, using everything
from simple lists to elaborate membership reports. The most detailed data
collection and analysis is undertaken each year by some 45,000 Christian de-
nominations and their 4.7 million constituent churches and congregations
of believers. The latter invest over US$1.1 billion annually for a massive, de-
centralised and largely uncoordinated global census of Christians. In sum,
they send out around 10 million printed questionnaires in 3,000 different
languages, covering 180 major religious subjects reporting on 2,000 socio-
religious variables. This collection of data provides a year-by-year snapshot
of the progress or decline of Christianity’s diverse movements, offering an
enormous body of data from which researchers can track trends and make
projections. Statistics collected by religious communities often enable re-
searchers to distinguish between two categories of religionists – practising
and non-practising – based on whether or not they take part in the ongoing
organised life of the religion.
In addition to the above categories, there are governmental statistical

reports, questionnaires and reports from collaborators, field surveys and
interviews, correspondence with national informants, unpublished docu-
mentation, encyclopaedias, dictionaries and directories of religions, print
and web-based contemporary descriptions of religions, and dissertations
and theses on religion. The best practices in determining the religious
affiliation of any population utilise as many sources as possible.
Affiliation
There are at least two different perspectives on what it means to be a
Christian: professing Christians and affiliated Christians. Utilising the
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a foundation,
‘professing Christians’ means all those who profess to be Christians
in government censuses or public-opinion polls, that is, who declare or
identify themselves as Christians, who say ‘I am a Christian’ or ‘We are
Christians’ when asked the question ‘What is your religion?’
However, not all those who profess to be Christians are affiliated to
organised churches and denominations. Therefore, ‘affiliated Christians’
are those known to the churches or known to the clergy (usually by names
and addresses) and claimed in their statistics, that is, those enrolled on
the churches’ books or records, with totals that can be substantiated. This
usually means all known baptised Christians and their children, and
other adherents; it is sometimes termed the ‘total Christian community’
(because affiliated Christians are those who are not primarily individual
Christians but who primarily belong to the corporate community of
Christ), or ‘inclusive membership’ (because affiliated Christians are church
members). This definition of ‘Christians’ is what the churches usually mean
by the term (and thus the WCD), and statistics on such affiliated Christians
are what the churches themselves collect and publish. In all countries, it
may be assumed with confidence that the churches know better than the
state how many Christians are affiliated to them. This therefore indicates a
second measure of the total Christians that is quite independent of the first
(government census figures of professing Christians).
Children
The family is by far the most important instrumentality through which
individuals acquire personal, cultural and social self-identification. In
consequence, children of church members are more likely to remain
members than those whose parents are not church members. Children of
ardent and practising Christians usually are, to the extent that their years
permit, ardent and practising Christians. However, many churches do not
enumerate children under 15 years. One reason is that it has been widely
noted that most conversion crises occur in the 13–20-year age group in
Christian families or in majority Christian contexts. On this view, therefore,
children who have not yet reached 15 cannot reasonably be expected to
be practising and believing Christians. The WCD takes the opposite view:
children and infants also can properly be called Christians, and can actively
and regularly (to the extent of their ability) practise the Christian faith.
Consequently, where Christian denominations do not count children in
their membership rolls, their membership is reported in our adult category.
A total community figure is calculated (in the absence of any additional
information from the denomination) by adding in the average number of
children reported in United Nations statistics for the given country. Thus,
the total community figures are comparable from one denomination to the
next whether or not they count children in their membership.
Choice of Best Data Available

Religious demography must attempt to be comprehensive. In certain
countries where no hard statistical data or reliable surveys are available,
researchers have to rely on the informed estimates of experts in the area
and subject. Researchers make no detailed attempt at a critique of each
nation’s censuses and polls or each church’s statistical operations. After
examining what is available, researchers then select the best data available
until such time as better data come into existence. In addition, there are a
number of areas of religious life where it is impossible to obtain accurate
statistics, usually because of state opposition to particular tradition(s). Thus
it will probably never be possible to get exact numbers of, for example,
atheists in Indonesia or Baha’i in Iran. Where such information is necessary,
reasonable and somewhat conservative estimates are made.
Reconciling Discrepancies in Survey Data

There are post-survey strategies that help general population surveys better
reflect the actual composition of a particular country. For instance, if in a
survey of 1,000 people, 60% were women and 40% were men, but we know
that women and men are each 50% of the country’s total population based
on a recent census, then each woman’s response on the general population
survey would be weighted down by a factor of 500/600 and each man’s
response would be weighted up by a factor of 500/400. Such adjustments
are called weighting.
Other adjustments made to general population surveys may require
taking into account that they are meant to be representative of only adult
populations. Therefore their results require adjustments, particularly if
some religious groups have more children than others in the same country.
This requires either a complete roster of members of each household or some
other way to estimate of the number of children living in the household

with the adults. When a complete roster is unavailable, most estimates of
religious affiliation of children assume that they have the same religion
as their one of their parents (usually assumed by demographers to be the
religion of the mother). Differences in fertility rates between religious
groups are particularly useful in estimating religious differentials among
children. This is because demographic projections carry forward children
born to women. It may introduce some bias to the degree that the father’s
religion is more likely to be the religion of the children than the mother.
Example: Coptic Church in Egypt

At times, the results from government censuses and information from
religious communities can be strikingly different. For example, in Egypt,
where the vast majority of the population is Muslim, government censuses
taken every 10 years have shown consistently for the past 100 years that
a declining share of the population declare themselves as or profess to
be Christians. In the most recent census, some 5% identified as Christian.
However, church estimates point to a percentage figure three times larger
(15%). This discrepancy may be due to overestimates by the churches or
attributed, at least in part, to social pressure on some Christians to record
themselves as Muslims. Further, according to news reports, some Egyptian
Christians have complained that they are listed on official identity cards as
Muslims. It also might be that church reports include Egyptian Christians
working as expatriates outside Egypt, while the census does not, or that
the churches simply overestimate their numbers.
Such a lack of clarity is compounded by media reports and even Egyptian
government announcements repeatedly claiming that Christians make up
10% or more of the country’s approximately 80 million people, despite
the fact that the census repeatedly reports only 5%. The highest share of
Christians found in an Egyptian census was in 1927 (8.3%). Figures for
Egyptian Christians declined in each subsequent census, with Christians
seemingly making up 5.7% of the Egyptian population in 1996. The report
from the most recent census, conducted in 2006, does not, however,
provide data on religious affiliation, but a sample of the 2006 census data is
available through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, International
(IPUMS). They sample the same Christian share (about 5%) as the latest
Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey, with a sample size of 16,527
women aged 15–49 years.
According to the Pew Forum’s analysis of Global Restrictions on Religion
(see www.pewforum.org), Egypt has very high scores for government re-
strictions on religion as well as high scores for social hostilities involving
religion. These factors might lead some Christians to be cautious about
revealing their identity. Regardless of the actual number, it is very likely

that Christians are declining as a proportion of Egypt’s population, even if
their absolute numbers are not falling. On the one hand, Christian fertility
in Egypt has been lower than Muslim fertility. On the other, is possible that
large numbers of Christians have left the country, although a 2012 study
by the Pew Forum on the religious affiliation of migrants around the world
has not found evidence of an especially large Egyptian Christian diaspora.
Dates of Statistics
It is important, in changing situations, to know the exact date (year,
perhaps also month and sometimes even day) to which particular statistics
apply. This methodology compares government statistics of religion with
statistics from religious communities themselves; but in doing so, it must
be remembered that a government census (or a public-opinion poll) is
almost always taken on a single, known day; whereas, by contrast, religious
statistics are compiled over a lengthy period – perhaps three, four or even
five years from the local grassroots counting of heads to final compilation of
totals by a large denomination or church. Denominational totals published
in 2015 therefore probably refer to the situation in 2012, 2011 or even 2010.
Counting Pentecostals
Three types of Pentecostals
For the purpose of understanding the diverse global phenomenon of Pente
costalism, it is useful to divide the movement into three kinds, or types. First
are denominational Pentecostals, organised into denominations in the early
part of the twentieth century. Second are Charismatics, individuals in the
mainline denominations (primarily after the mid-twentieth century). Third
are Independent Charismatics, those who broke free of denominational
Pentecostalism or mainline denominations to form their own networks.
Pentecostals (Type 1)
Pentecostals are defined as Christians who are members of the explicitly
Pentecostal denominations whose major characteristic is a new experience
of the energising ministry of the Holy Spirit that most other Christians
have considered to be highly unusual. This is interpreted as a rediscovery
of the spiritual gifts of New Testament times and their restoration to
ordinary Christian life and ministry. Classical Pentecostalism usually is
held to have begun in the United States in 1901, although most scholars
have moved to a ‘multiple origins’ theory of the birth of modern Pente-
costalism, emphasising early activity outside of the Western World. For
a brief period, Pentecostalism expected to remain an interdenomina-
tional movement within the existing churches, but from 1909 onwards its
members increasingly were ejected from mainline bodies and so forced to

begin new organised denominations.
Pentecostal denominations hold the distinctive teachings that all Chris-
tians should seek a post-conversion religious experience called baptism
in the Holy Spirit and that a Spirit-baptised believer may receive one or
more of the supernatural gifts known in the early church: the ability to
prophesy; to practise divine healing through prayer; to speak (glossola-
lia), interpret or sing in tongues; to sing in the Spirit, dance in the Spirit,
pray with upraised hands; to receive dreams, visions, words of wisdom,
words of knowledge; to discern spirits; and to perform miracles, power en
counters, exorcisms (casting out demons), resuscitations, deliverances, or
other signs and wonders.
From 1906 onwards, the hallmark of explicitly Pentecostal denomina-
tions, by comparison with Holiness/Perfectionist denominations, has been
the single addition of speaking in other tongues as the ‘initial evidence’ of
one’s having received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, whether or not one
subsequently experiences regularly the gift of tongues. Most Pentecostal
denominations teach that tongues-speaking is mandatory for all members,
but in reality today not all members have practised this gift, either initially
or as an ongoing experience. Pentecostals are defined here as all associated
with explicitly Pentecostal denominations that identify themselves in
explicitly Pentecostal terms, or with other denominations that as a whole
are phenomenologically Pentecostal in teaching and practice.
Among Protestants (coded as ‘P-’) are Pentecostal denominations such
as the Assemblies of God. Sub-categories of Oneness, Baptistic, Holiness,
Perfectionist and Apostolic were retained from earlier research. Each minor
tradition within Pentecostalism is considered to be 100% Pentecostal (all
members of Pentecostal denominations are counted as Pentecostals).
Charismatics (Type 2)
Charismatics are defined as Christians affiliated to non-Pentecostal de-
nominations (Anglican, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox) who receive the
experiences above in what has been termed the Charismatic movement.
The Charismatic movement’s roots go back to early Pentecostalism, but
its rapid expansion has been mainly since 1960 (later called the Charis-
matic renewal). Charismatics usually describe themselves as having
been ‘renewed in the Spirit’ and as experiencing the Spirit’s supernatural
and miraculous and energising power. They remain within, and form
organised renewal groups within, their older mainline non-Pentecostal de-
nominations (instead of leaving to join Pentecostal denominations). They
demonstrate any or all of the charismata pneumatika (gifts of the Spirit), in-
cluding signs and wonders (but with glossolalia regarded as optional).
Type 2 recognises the existence of Pentecostal individuals within the

Anglican, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions. These are
designated ‘Charismatic’ and evaluated by country as Catholic Charis
matics, Anglican Charismatics and so on, designating renewal within an
existing tradition. For example, the beginning of the Charismatic movement
in Anglican churches is described by Episcopal priest Dennis Bennett in
Nine O’Clock in the Morning (Alachua, FL: Bridge-Logos, 1970). Traditions
are assessed to determine what percentage of adherents identify themselves
as Charismatics, ranging from 0% to 100%. Self-identification percentages
for Charismatics were calculated by contacting renewal agencies working
within denominations.
Independent Charismatics (Type 3)

While the classification and chronology of the first two types is straight
forward, there are thousands of churches and movements that ‘resemble’
the first two types but do not fit their definitions. These constitute a third
type and often pre-date the first two types. For lack of a better term, these
are called ‘Independent Charismatics’. Part of the rationale for this term
is the fact that they are largely found in the Independent category of the
overall taxonomy of Christians. Thus, Type 3 includes Pentecostal or
semi-Pentecostal members of the 250-year-old Independent movement
of Christians, primarily in the global South, of churches begun without
reference to Western Christianity. These indigenous movements, although
not all explicitly Pentecostal, nevertheless have the main features of Pente
costalism. In addition, since Azusa Street, thousands of schismatic or other
Independent Charismatic churches have come out of Type 1 Pentecostals
and Type 2 Charismatic movements. They consist of Christians who,
unrelated to or no longer related to the Pentecostal or Charismatic denomi-
nations, have become filled with the Spirit, or empowered by the Spirit and
have experienced the Spirit’s ministry (although usually without recognis-
ing a baptism in the Spirit separate from conversion); who exercise gifts of
the Spirit (with much less emphasis on tongues, as optional or even absent
or unnecessary) and emphasise signs and wonders, supernatural miracles
and power encounters; but also do not identify themselves as either
Pentecostals (Type 1) or Charismatics (Type 2). In a number of countries
they exhibit Pentecostal and Charismatic phenomena but combine this
with rejection of Pentecostal terminology. These believers frequently are
identified by their leadership as Independent, Postdenominationalist,
Restorationist, Radical, Neo-Apostolic or ‘Third Wave.’
Thus, the third type is Independent Charismatics (also known in the
literature as neo-Charismatics or neo-Pentecostals) who are not in Protestant
Pentecostal denominations (Type 1) nor are they individual Charismatics
in the traditional churches (Type 2). Type 3 is the most diverse of the
three types and ranges from house churches in China to African Initiated
Churches to white-led Charismatic networks in the Western world. It
includes Pentecostals who had split off from established Protestant denom-
inations (Type 1) and who were then labelled as Independent. Independent
churches formed by Charismatic leaders (Type 2) who founded new congre-
gations and networks are also included. Some Independent Charismatics
speak in tongues, but healing and power evangelism are more prominent
in this type than in the other two.
Three types together

One difficulty that has plagued all researchers and historians of Pente-
costalism is what to call the overarching movement. Some have used
‘Pentecostalism’ or ‘Global Pentecostalism’, while others have used
‘Charismatic’. Still others have used ‘Pentecostal and Charismatic’. David
Barrett originally used the lengthy phrase ‘the Pentecostal and Charismatic
Renewal of the Holy Spirit’, which he later shortened to ‘Renewal’. He then
coined the term ‘Renewalist’ to refer to all three waves or types. For the
purposes of this series, we use the term ‘Pentecostals/Charismatics’ to refer
to all three types.
A demographic overview of Pentecostals/Charismatics (all types) illu
strates the complexities of both the spread of the movement across the
countries of the world and the striking diversity of the churches them-
selves. While current ways of understanding Pentecostals, Charismatics
and Independent Charismatics reveal a global movement of immense pro-
portions, perspectives on classification, counting and assessment of the
movement are likely to continue to evolve. In the meantime, hundreds of
millions of Christians across all traditions will continue to participate in
the movement – bringing vitality in some denominations and schism in
others. They will also promote social transformation in some communi-
ties and show little participation in others. What is certain is that, for the
foreseeable future, Christianity as a whole will continue to experience the
growth pains of this global phenomenon.
Counting Evangelicals
Any effective and comprehensive method for counting Evangelicals must
take into consideration denominational affiliation, self-identification and
theology. The results of counting Evangelicals are directly related to de-
nominational membership figures. Strictly speaking, denominational
affiliation means official membership on a church roll.
Method 1: Individuals in denominations that are 100% Evangelical

The first category of Evangelicals includes individuals who are found in
denominations that are coded 100% Evangelical. That is, membership of
an Evangelical council (national, regional or global) is assessed for every
denomination and those denominations that have Evangelical affiliations
are classed as 100% Evangelical. Consequently, 100% of the members of
these denominations are considered Evangelical. Using this method alone,
the WCD estimates there are 150 million Evangelicals in the world. As of
2010, the nine largest 100% Evangelical denominations in the world were
all Protestant, and the five largest 100% Evangelical denominations were
found in Brazil, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Indonesia, reflecting the global scope
of the movement.
Method 2: Individuals who self-identify as Evangelical in non-100%

Evangelical denominations
For those denominations not identified as 100% Evangelical, an estimate
is made of the percentage (0–99%) of members who self-identify as
Evangelical. Self-identification percentages for Evangelicals in non-100%
Evangelical denominations are verified by contacting key figures within
each denomination, and each estimate is sourced in documentation housed
at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity. Adding together figures
from both 100% and partially Evangelical denominations gives a total of
285 million Evangelicals worldwide. Looking at both 100% and non-100%
Evangelical denominations reveals that the movement has a significant
presence beyond Western Protestantism. Some of the denominations with
the most Evangelicals are within Anglicanism in the global South, such as
the Anglican Church of Nigeria and the Church of Uganda. Chinese house
churches (classified as Independents) taken together constitute the denom-
ination with the third most Evangelicals globally. The United Kingdom
(the Church of England) and the United States (the Southern Baptist
Convention), however, are still important locations of the movement.
Method 3: Evangelicals not affiliated with any denomination (Unaffiliated

Evangelicals)
To date, no studies have addressed directly how many Evangelicals are
denominationally unaffiliated. However, two well known realities (in
Western Christianity, in particular) appear to provide indirect evidence for
this undocumented trend. The first is reflected in recent research indicating
the unaffiliated are not uniformly non-religious. The Pew Research Center
reported that 68% of America’s unaffiliated believe in God. It is reasonable
to assume that a notable proportion of Christians is among the ranks of
the unaffiliated by virtue of Christianity being the largest religion in many

of the countries studied. The second reality is the acknowledged fact that
unaffiliated Christians often attend and are active in churches, including
Evangelical churches, without becoming official members. These unaffili-
ated Christians profess allegiance and commitment to Christ but do not
maintain church affiliation.
Dynamics of Change in Religious Populations

The question of how and why the number of religious adherents changes
over time is critical to the study of international religious demography. It
is more complex than simply ‘counting heads’ via births and deaths – a
well established area in quantitative sociological studies – but in addition
involves the multifaceted areas of religious conversion and migration.
The migration of religious people has only in the past few years become
a more researched area of demographic study, and issues surrounding
religious conversion continue to be under-represented in the field. Data
on religion from a wide range of sources – including from the religious
communities themselves, as well as governments and scholars – must be
employed to understand the total scope of religious affiliation. Given data
on a particular religion from two separate points in time, the question
can be raised, ‘What are the dynamics by which the number of adherents
changes over time?’ The dynamics of change in religious affiliation can
be reduced to three sets of empirical population data that together enable
enumeration of the increase or decrease in adherents over time. To measure
overall change, these three sets can be defined as follows: (1) births minus
deaths; (2) converts to minus converts from; and (3) immigrants minus
emigrants. The first variable in each of these three sets (births, converts
to, immigrants) measures increase, whereas the second (deaths, converts
from, emigrants) measures decrease. All future (and current) projections of
religious affiliation, within any subset of the global population (normally
a country or region), will account for these dynamics, and the changes
themselves are dependent on these dynamics.
Births
The primary mechanism of global religious demographic change is (live)
births. Children are almost always counted as having the religion of their
parents (as is the law in Norway, for example). In simple terms, if popula-
tions that are predominantly Muslim, for example, have more children on
average than those that are predominantly Christian or Hindu, then over
time (all other things being equal) Muslims will become an increasingly
larger percentage of that population. This means that the relative size of a
religious population has a close statistical relationship to birthrates.
Deaths
Even as births increase their memberships, religious communities experience
constant loss through the deaths of members. Although this often includes
tragic, unanticipated deaths of younger members, it most frequently affects
the elderly members. Thus, changes in health care and technology can
positively impact religious communities if members live longer.
Births minus deaths/total fertility rate

The change over time in any given population is most simply expressed
as the number of births into the community minus the number of deaths
out of it. Many religious communities around the world experience little
else in the dynamics of their growth or decline. Detailed projections rely
on a number of estimated measures, including life expectancy, population
age structures and the total fertility rate. This means that any attempt to
understand the dynamics of religious affiliation must be based firmly on
demographic projections of births and deaths.
Converts to
It is a common observation that individuals (or even whole villages or
communities) change allegiance from one religion to another (or to no
religion at all). Unfortunately, one of the problems in studying conversion
is the paucity of information on it. Reliable data on conversions are hard
to obtain, for a number of reasons. Although some national censuses
ask people about their religion, they do not directly ask whether people
have converted to their present faith. A few cross-national surveys do
contain questions about religious switching, but even in those surveys it
is difficult to assess whether more people leave a religion than enter it. In
some countries, legal and social consequences make conversion difficult,
and survey respondents might be reluctant to speak honestly about the
topic. In particular, Hinduism is for many Hindus (as is Islam for many
Muslims) not just a religion but also an ethnic or cultural identity that does
not depend on whether a person actively practises the faith. Thus even
non-practising or secular Hindus may still consider themselves, and be
viewed by their neighbours, as Hindus.
Converts from
Conversion to a new religion, as mentioned above, also involves conver-
sion from a previous one. Thus, a convert to Islam is, at the same time, a
convert from another religion. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries,
the most converts from Christianity were and continue to be found largely
among those in the Western world who have decided to be agnostics or
atheists.
Converts to minus converts from

The net conversion rate in a population is calculated by subtracting the
number of ‘converts from’ from the number of ‘converts to’. Conversion
to and conversion from will likely continue to play a role in changing
religious demographics in the future.
Immigrants
Equally important at the international level is how the movement of people
across national borders impacts religious affiliation. Once religious com-
munities are established through immigration they often grow vigorously
(for a time) via high birth rates.
Emigrants
In a reversal of nineteenth-century European colonisation of Africa, Asia
and parts of the Americas, the late twentieth century witnessed waves of
emigration of people from these regions to the Western world. The impact
on religious affiliation is significant.
Immigrants minus emigrants

In the twenty-first century, international migration continues to have a
significant impact on the religious composition of individual countries. One
can try to anticipate the way in which expected immigration and emigration
trends will affect a country’s population over time. One profound change
to be expected is the increase of religious pluralism in almost every country
of the world. Increasing religious pluralism is not always welcomed and
can be seen as a political, cultural, national or religious threat.
The six dynamics discussed above determine changes in religious

demographics. Gains are the result of three positive dynamics: births,
conversions to, and immigration. Losses are the result of three negative
dynamics: deaths, conversions from, and emigration. The net change in
religious demographics is the result of gains minus losses. The balance of
dynamics can be reflected in any proportions (for example, mainly births
for gains, mainly conversions from for losses) but can also be represented
by pairing the gains and losses by type: births versus deaths, converts to
versus converts from, and immigrants versus emigrants. In each case, the
net change (either positive or negative) will be the difference between the
two. This means that any attempt to understand religious affiliation in
the past, present or future must be firmly based on demographic dynam-
ics. A proper awareness of these dynamics as well as their significance is
thus vital both for undertaking and for interpreting studies of the future
of religion.
Measuring Growth Rates

The rates of growth, increase, decrease or decline of membership in many
congregations can readily be measured from their annually reported
statistics. This has been done by obtaining the statistics for two different
years, where possible five years apart (to minimise the effects of roll-
cleaning and other annual irregularities), usually 2000–5 and 2005–10, and
working out the average annual growth rate as a percentage. Great care
must be taken in such computations to ensure that the statistics used are
measuring exactly the same entity (especially geographically) for each of
the two years concerned. Growth, as a percentage increase or decrease per
year, must be measured by dividing any annual increase by the identical
category of total. Thus a church, for example, in a particular country with
500,000 total adherents (including children) in 2005 which grows to 600,000
total adherents (including children) in 2010 shows an increase of 600,000
minus 500,000 = 100,000, which divided by 5 = 20,000 a year, which divided
by the mean membership of 550,000 gives an increase rate of 3.64% per
year. In practice, the methodology follows a more accurate method by
using the 1970 to 2015 figures for each denomination to arrive at average
annual growth rates.
There are different ways of measuring the growth of a religious body.
First, one can measure either adults only, or total community including
children. Secondly, the growth rate of a church or religious grouping can
be measured over a single day, or a month, a year, a decade, or 50 years –
and all will yield differing results. This survey is concerned primarily to
measure long-term rates. A growth rate measured for a specific religious
body over a two- or three-year period may not be sustained over a decade.
Projecting Religious Populations

The starting point of future studies is natural growth of the total population
of the country or region of interest, using demographic projections as
a baseline. Three major areas beyond natural growth are utilised to
improve the projections. First, birth and death rates vary among religious
communities within a particular country. Secondly, increasing numbers of
people are likely to change their religious affiliations in the future. Thirdly,
immigration and emigration trends will impact a country’s population
over time. The highest-quality projections for religious communities are
built on cohort-component projections – ones that use differential rates
for each religion: age-specific fertility rates by religion, age structure in
five-year age-and-sex cohorts by religion, migration rates by religion, and
mortality by religion.
Unfortunately, this kind of detail is not yet available for many countries
(half of censuses do not ask a question about religion). Fortunately, the
process of filling in missing data using demographic and smaller-scale

general population surveys is underway, and as these data become available
through the Pew–Templeton Global Religious Futures Project, researchers
will have access to these data through the World Religion Database, where
they will be archived in full, with summary results available at the Pew
Forum’s website. In the meantime, projections cannot solely rely on the
cohort-component method. Instead, they use a hybrid projection method.
First, the 2015 religious composition of each country is established as
the baseline. Then, utilising the United Nations medium variant cohort-
component projections of populations for five-year periods up to 2050,
future religious shares are modestly adjusted from the 2015 baseline.
Adjustments are based on analysis of past differential growth rates of
religious groups, factoring in historical patterns of religious switching and
possible future attenuation of past trends. Finally, these projections take
into account how immigrants might alter the future religious composition
of country populations.
Ethno-linguistic People Groups

A problem for social science research is the lack of available survey
and polling data in non-Western countries. While the United States and
many European countries have a long history of engaging in this kind of
research, many – often more underdeveloped – countries can be difficult
to access and/or speak languages difficult for Western researchers. The
WCD ’s method directly addresses this methodological challenge through
its additional taxonomy of the world’s ethnic groups, which are paired
with religious statistics.
A ‘peoples’ taxonomy must take into account both ethnicity and
language. The approach taken in ‘Ethnosphere’ in Part 8 of the World
Christian Encyclopedia was to match ethnic codes with language codes,
which produced over 13,700 distinct ethno-linguistic peoples. Not all com-
binations of ethnicity and language are possible, but nevertheless every
person in the world can be categorised as belonging to an ethno-linguistic
people (mutually exclusive). For example, there are ethnic Kazaks who
speak Kazak as their mother tongue and ethnic Kazaks who speak Russian
as their mother tongue. These, then, are two separate ethno-linguistic
peoples.
The work of determining the religious breakdown of ethno-linguistic
peoples was begun in the 1970s in Africa, where many Christian churches
reported the ethnic breakdown of their congregations. Utilising data
gathered by religious bodies and in government censuses, estimates of
religious affiliation for all peoples was completed in the mid-1990s and
published in the second edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia. These
data continue to be updated and published in the World Christian Database

and World Religion Database.
Each distinct ethno-linguistic group in a country is assigned varying
shares of the 18 categories of religion. For example, the Japanese in Japan
are reported as 56% Mahayana Buddhist, 23% various New religionist,
10% agnostic, 3% atheist, 2% Shinto and 1% Christian. Each group is traced
throughout the world with the assumption that whatever their religious
breakdown is in their home country will be the same abroad. This allows
researchers to locate Christian people in predominantly non-Christian
countries. For example, the WCD reports that Pakistan – a majority-Muslim
country – is also home to over 3.9 million Christians. While Christians are
found among Muslim-majority people groups (for example, Punjabi at 4%
Christian), they are also present in the country as ex-pats, such as French
(65% Christian) and British (70% Christian).
Conclusion
There are a variety of issues related to finding and choosing the best data
sources of religious affiliation. Censuses are generally accepted as the most
reliable, but there are times when they fail to present the full picture, for
example because they omit certain regions of a country or because they
do not ask clear or detailed questions about religion. General population
surveys can often fill the gap, but, depending on their quality, they may
also have some bias. At times, religious groups may have very different
estimates of their sizes than are found by censuses and surveys, but for
some types of data, such as denominations of Protestantism, estimates by
the groups may be the best information available. Finally, for religions
such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, subgroup information is
routinely missing from censuses and surveys. Estimates for the subgroups
of these religions often rely on indirect measures, such as ethnic groups
likely to adhere to a particular subgroup or expert analysis of multiple
ethnological and anthropological sources. Thus, it is important to take into
consideration many different kinds of data in order to arrive at the best
estimate of a particular religious population in a country.
Index
Abaršahr, Turkmenistan, 61 Ahmednagar, India, 133–4, 137

Abbas, Shah, 84 Ahngnate, 161
Abbottabad, Pakistan, 109 Ahwaz, Iran, 87–8
abhangs, 137 AIDS, 27–8, 122–3, 129, 296, 364, 367
Abhishiktananda, Swami, 220, 318 Aiyanar, 149
Abraham, K. C., 336 Aizwal Theological College, 162, 164
Abraham, K. E., 264 Akaev, Askar, 75–6
Abrams, Minnie, 263, 288 Akbar, Emperor, 119, 184, 234
abstinence, 229, 266, 293 Akmola, Kazakhstan, 226
Academy of Integrated Christian Studies, 164 Aktobe, Kazakhstan, 48
acculturation, 167 alcohol(ism), 34, 135, 146–7, 151, 284–5, 293,
Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, 61 428, 442
activists, 81, 114, 134, 377, 437 Alexander II, Tsar, 55
ACTS Academy of Higher Education, 153 Alexander the Great, 397
Acts of St Thomas, 119 Alexandria, Egypt, 398
Adhav, Sunil Shamsunder, 138 Alibag, India, 132
Adi Purusha, 409 Aligarh, India, 347
Adivasi(s), 120, 144, 147–8, 151, 254, 305, 391, Allahabad Agricultural Institute, 125, 269
420–3, 427–30 Allahabad, India, 31, 125, 269
Admedabad, India, 134 All India Association for Christian Higher
adult(s), 18, 21, 33–4, 151, 167, 175, 239, 286, Education, 30, 127
400, 408, 456–7, 466 All India Christian Association, 108
Adventists, 19, 27, 44–5, 49, 61–3, 67, 70, 74–5, All-India Holy Convocations, 267
110, 132, 188, 198, 272, 378 All Saints Day, 241
Afghan(s), 16, 18, 24, 31, 35, 37–8, 61, 65, 72, All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-
95–105, 212, 223–4, 249, 271–2, 290, 294, Baptists, 74
298–9, 348, 358, 361, 363, 369, 374, 375, Almaty, Kazakhstan, 47, 225–7, 299
378–9, 384–5, 401, 438, 442 Al-Mushir, 38
Afghan Farsi (Dari), 104 Alopen, 16, 83, 313
Afghanistan, 16, 18, 24, 31, 35, 37–8, 61, 65, 96, Alpha Omega Christian Mahasangh, 140
98, 100, 104, 212, 223–4, 249, 271–2, 290, Alphonsa, Sister, 218
294, 298–9, 348, 358, 361, 363, 369, 374, al-Qaeda, 16, 18, 24
378–9, 384–5, 401, 438, 442 Altaic languages, 283
Africa(ns), 57, 273–4, 294, 325, 398–9, 403, 405, Alwaye, India, 152
461, 465, 467 Amaladass, Anand, 327
Agape Fellowship, 271 Amaladoss, Michael, 128, 220, 359
Agapith, 190 Amalorpavadass, D. S., 217
Agartala, India, 366 Amar Sonar Bangla, 191
agnostic(s), 464, 468 Ambedkar, B. R., 134, 145, 150, 322, 340, 410,
Agra, India, 119, 121, 234 417
agriculture, 17, 31, 125, 163, 167, 195, 269, 398 America(ns), 17–19, 21, 24–33, 35, 87, 98–9,
Ahl al-Kitab, 377 108, 125, 132, 143–4, 147, 152, 154, 158, 188,
Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, 90, 387 192, 199, 204, 237, 255, 259, 263, 273–4, 276,
Ahmadiyya, 244, 374, 380 280, 288, 290–1, 293, 355, 357, 366–7, 373,
Ahmed, Ilyas, 115 399, 401–2, 414, 462, 465
Ahmedabad, India, 133–4, 346 American Baptist Mission, 158
470 Index
American Board of Commissioners for Areng, Raymond, 191

Foreign Missions (ABCFM), 132 Argentina, 66
American Presbyterians, 28, 87, 108, 132 Arianism, 166, 244, 374, 383, 389–90, 393
Amirizadeh, Marziyeh, 90 Ariarajah, Wesley, 352, 359, 388
anatta, 204 Armenia, 18, 29, 31, 61, 84–7, 90–1, 97, 100,
Andaman Islands, 119, 144, 420 119, 132, 211, 213, 223–4, 226, 230, 235, 272,
Andhra Pradesh, India, 30, 144, 147–9, 153, 379, 385
252, 256, 262, 266–8, 297, 333, 364, 399, 420 Armenian(s), 18, 31, 61, 84–5, 86, 87, 90–1, 97,
Andhra Pradesh Bible College, 153 100, 119, 132, 211, 213, 223–4, 226, 229–30,
angels, 164, 187 234–5, 272, 379, 385
Anglican(s), 21–2, 28, 30, 84–6, 88, 91, 109, 116, Armenian Apostolic Church, 61, 223–4, 229,
120, 122, 143–4, 149, 152, 170, 173, 188, 201, 230, 234, 379
231, 236–8, 240–3, 250, 252, 254, 256, 258, Armenian College, 234
260, 275, 281, 287, 387, 399, 414, 459–60, army(ies), 18, 29, 52, 95–7, 109, 123, 132–3, 192,
462 201, 252–3, 341, 399, 413
Anglican Bishop of Calcutta, 414 Aroolappen, John Christian, 287
Anglican Bishop of Rochester, 116 Artcell, 191
Anglican Oxford Mission, 188 Aruldoss, Father, 360
Anglo-Burmese War, 156 Arunachal Pradesh, India, 36, 123, 156, 161,
anicca, 204 323, 344, 421, 429
animals, 75, 149, 409, 426 Aryan(s), 96, 157, 161, 168, 376, 397, 420
animism, 53, 75, 168, 174, 184 Arya Samaj, 269
Ankara, Turkey, 30, 121, 143, 151–2, 214, asceticism, 293, 316
223–4, 231–3, 240, 324 Aschoff, Maria, 321
anthropology, 23, 341 Aseemanand, 346
Antonio, Dom, 185, 190 Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, 61–3
Ao-Naga, 161–2 Ashoka, Emperor, 398
Apocrypha, 92 ashram(s), 30, 32, 37–8, 124, 126, 148, 176, 220,
apologetics, 138–9, 440 263, 269, 318–19, 361, 391, 439
apostasy, 84, 86–7, 102, 374–5, 380 Asia Graduate School of Theology, 166–7
apostle(s), 15, 23, 71, 73, 119, 143, 187, 199, Asian Evangelical Alliance, 443
213, 228, 230–1, 327, 348, 433 Asia Theological Association, 33, 153, 177,
Apostolic Christian Assembly (ACA), 262, 367
264, 291 Assam, India, 123, 156, 158, 161, 164, 265–6,
Apostolic Church of the East, 271 323, 421
apostolicity, 38 Assemblies of God, 29, 85, 87, 90, 91, 110, 170,
Apostolic Nunciature, 46, 186 173, 188, 271, 288–91, 297, 459
Apostolic Nuncio, 27, 186 Assemblies of God Bible College, 297
Apostolic Vicariate, 109 Assembly Church of Jesus Christ, 265
Appavoo, James Theophilus, 256 Assembly Hall (little flock), 130
Aquaviva, Father Rudolf, 119 Asserian, Robert, 91
Arab(s), 96, 101, 396–8, 400, 406 Associates of Mary Queen of the Apostles, 187
Arab(s), Saudi, 382, 396, 400 Association for Theological Education in
Arab Gulf, 406 Nepal (ATEN), 271
Arabia, 382, 396–7, 400 Association of Bangladesh Catholic Doctors,
Arabic, 79, 113 189
Arakanese, 184–5 Association of Baptists, 188, 193
aramaic, 152, 324 Association of Disciples, 194
Aratoon, Carapeit Chator, 132 Association of Religious Organizations of
Archbishop of Astana, 47 Kazakhstan (AROK), 49
Archbishop of Colombo, 201 Association of Theologically Trained Women,
Archdiocese of Chittagong, 186 367
Archdiocese of Colombo, 201 Assyrian(s), 28, 31, 71, 84–5, 90–1, 97, 143
Archdiocese of Dhaka, 186 Assyrian (language), 28, 31, 71, 84–6, 90–1, 97,
Archdiocese of Lahore, 109 143
Arcot Lutheran Church, 255 Assyrian (Apostolic) Church of the East, 16,
Arcot Mission, 237 28, 31, 61, 65, 70–1, 84–6, 90–1, 97, 143, 223,
Ardhanarisvara, 367 248, 271–2, 324, 328
Areng, Jewel, 191 Astana, Kazakhstan, 47, 50, 226
Index 471
asylum seekers, 105 Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity

atheist(s), 38, 43, 45, 53–4, 72, 76, 81, 174, 284, Council, 189
331, 360, 373, 433, 456, 464, 468 Bangladesh Inter-Religious Council for Peace
Athens, Greece, 413, 433 and Justice, 189, 387
Athickal, Father Robert, 126 Bangladesh Lutheran Church, 188
Atlas of Global Christianity, 360 Bangladesh Lutheran Mission, 192
Audio-Visual Service, 127 Bangladesh Northern Evangelical Church, 193
Augustine, St, 191 Bangladesh Northern Evangelical Lutheran
Augustinians, 185, 186 Church, 188
Aurangabad, India, 133 Bangladesh Youth First Concerns, 190
Australia, 17, 28–9, 79, 122, 188, 204, 290, 321, Baniarchor, Bangladesh, 195
339, 341, 353, 366, 368, 394, 399–400, 441 baptism(s), 19, 21, 25, 29, 37, 89, 101–2, 105,
Australian Baptist Mission, 188 121, 124, 151, 169, 182, 228, 239, 264, 288,
Avadi, Chennai, India, 153 307, 333, 347, 354, 357, 360–1, 386, 391, 453,
avarna, 36, 144, 148, 409 459–60
Awami League, 191, 195 Baptist(s), 15, 21–3, 27–8, 30, 33, 43–5, 49, 55–9,
Ayodhya, India, 26 61–2, 67, 70, 74–9, 110, 120, 122, 134, 149,
Azariah, Bishop V. S., 237, 244 158, 161, 165, 170, 173, 181, 184, 188, 190,
Azerbaijan, 230, 234 192–3, 201, 228, 238, 244, 249, 251–3, 259,
Azusa Street, 460 272, 283, 306, 352, 360, 367, 378, 422, 459,
462
Bab, the (Siyyid Ali-Muhammad), 26, 329 Baptist Missionary Society (BMS), 122
Babaji, 125 Baptist Union (Britain), 67, 192–3
Babri Masjid, 26 Bapu, Morari, 346
Babylon (Book of Revelation), 329, 376 Bardaisan of Edessa, 248
Bach Hospital, 109 Bar Hebraeus, Gregory, 232
Back to Jerusalem, 24 Barisal, India, 185–8, 242, 355
Bactria, Afghanistan, 65 Barkat, Samina, 114
Bahadur S. P. Singha, 108 Baroch, India, 134
Baha’i(s), 75, 90, 184, 374, 377, 456 Baroda, India, 133–4
Bahar Colony, 112 Baroi, Leo J., 191
Bahrain, 400 Baroi, Michael, 242
Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, 43 Barrett, David B., 452, 461
Bakht Singh, 266, 267 Basel Mission, 237–8
Bakiyev, Kurmanbek, 227 Basic Christian Communities, 130, 357
Balasuriya, Tissa, 220, 352 Basic Human Communities, 358
Baligati, Casiano, 127 Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health, 150
Balirāja, 37 Basilios Mar Thomas Charity Fund, 233
Balkh, Afghanistan, 61 Bassein, India, 132
Baloch, 422 Bastar District, India, 22
Bandra, India, 347 Batulla, Sri Lanka, 356
Banerjee, Kali Charan, 261 Bawm, 422
Banerjee, Krishna Mohan, 391 Bay of Bengal, 381
Bangalore (Bengaluru), India, 291, 295, 297, BBC Urdu, 111
392 BD Christian News, 190
Bangladesh, 16, 24–5, 27–8, 31, 35, 37–8, 107, Beatty, William, 133
158, 186, 188, 190, 192, 194, 196–7, 212–13, Bede Griffiths, 220, 318–19
215–19, 224, 240–2, 244, 246, 249–52, 259, Beijing, China, 363
268, 288, 290–1, 299, 315, 338, 348, 355, Beijing Declaration on Women, 363
366–9, 374, 384–7, 393, 396, 400–1, 420–2, Belarus, 43, 61, 66, 223, 226, 252
425, 427, 438, 440–2 Belarussian Orthodox Church, 252
Bangladesh Army, 192 Belgium, 201
Bangladesh Baptist Fellowship, 188 Believers Eastern Church, 31
Bangladesh Baptist Sangha (BBS), 28, 188, 252, Benedict XVI, Pope, 46, 66, 84, 121, 186–7, 201,
367 204, 211, 218, 354
Bangladesh Bible Society, 190 Benedictine missionaries, 186
Bangladesh Christian Association, 189 Bengali, 161, 184–6, 188, 190–1, 194, 268, 402,
Bangladesh Christian Students Movement, 422
190 Bengal Sultanate, 184
472 Index
Bennett, Dennis, 460 blasphemy, 17, 24, 37, 111, 113–14, 221, 243–4,
Berar Khandesh Christian Council (BKCC), 282, 348, 374–5, 380
134 Blasphemy Law, 17, 24, 37, 113, 221, 243–4,
Berchmans, Father S. J., 149, 292 282, 348, 380
Bethel Bible College, 298 Blessing Youth Mission, 291
Bethel Memorial Church, 117 blind, 86, 352, 354, 376, 443
Bettiah, India, 120 blood, 148–9, 151, 207, 348, 375, 382, 393
Bhagat, 133 Blown, Chinimaya, 358, 361
Bhagavad Gita, 319 Bodhgaya, 126
bhajans, 125–6, 136–7, 270 bodhisattva, 38
Bhaktapur, Nepal, 170 Bodos, 166
bhakti, 36, 126, 144, 149, 261–2, 268–70, 293 Bodwad, India, 137
Bharatapuzha, India, 148 Boiragi, Priyonath, 194
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 26, 277, 343, 376 Bolsheviks, 44, 52, 54–5
Bharuch (Broach), India, 132 Bombay (Mumbai), India, 15, 131–2, 134–5,
Bhatti, Clement Shahbaz, 111, 221, 348 137, 139, 141, 154, 218, 258, 264, 278, 291,
Bhils, 133, 135, 254, 277, 279, 420 295, 347, 366, 399
Bhopal, India, 121 Bombay Presidency, 137
Bhotes, 168 bombing(s), 48, 229
Bhutan, 16–18, 26, 29, 32, 35, 38, 165, 182, 212, Book of Judges, 268
249, 271, 291, 363, 366, 369, 374, 376, 384, Book of Proverbs, 92
401, 421, 438 Book of Revelation, 175, 268
Bhutan Bible Institute, 183 Bootan Mission, 181
Bhutan Christian Society, 183 Born, Pieter, 116
Bhutan Council of Churches’ Fellowship Botabaev, Pastor Kenjebek, 74
(BCCF), 183 boundaries, 165, 167, 252, 268, 310, 403, 412,
Bhutan Evangelical Alliance (BEA), 29, 183 418, 423
Bhutanese, 18, 26, 29, 180–3, 363, 401 Boundary Mother, 364
Bibi, Asia, 348, 380 Boves, Andre, 184
Bible(s), 15, 20, 22, 24, 27–30, 33–4, 56–8, 68, Bowley, William, 127
78–80, 87, 89, 91–2, 98, 104, 124–6, 129, 133, Bradley, Mark, 88
137, 142–3, 147, 150, 153, 161, 171, 173, Brahman-Roman Catholic Sambad, 190
175–7, 183, 190, 193–5, 198, 202, 261, 263–8, Brahma Samajist, 389
271, 279, 284, 297–8, 306–8, 320, 325, 355, Brahmin(s), 25, 34, 36–7, 131, 138–9, 144–5,
366–7, 369–70, 379, 427, 429, 442 190, 220, 254, 261, 277, 390–1
Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Society, 279 Brahmo Samaj, 389
Bible Mission of Father Devadas, 267 brainwashing, 26, 78
Bible schools, 58, 125, 137, 193, 202, 261, 271, Brazil, 462
279, 284, 297–8, 369 Brethren, 66, 74, 85, 122, 133, 238, 267
Bible Society of India, 30, 127 Brethren Mission, 133
Bible translation, 58, 79, 98, 183, 442 Brhadāranyaka Upanishad, 365
Bihar, 22, 30, 120–1, 123, 126, 151, 264, 269, 399 bribes, 154, 245
Bill of Rights, 373 Britain, 239, 280
Birisiri, Bangladesh, 193 British Bengal, 188
birth(s), 32, 34–6, 107, 134, 143–4, 148, 151, 173, British East India Company, 156
190, 203–4, 249, 261, 291, 306, 322, 330, 365, British empire, 249, 396
408–9, 416, 453, 458, 463–6 British India, 137, 278, 288
birthrates, 463 British Protectorate, 197
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 71, 73–4, 77, 228 British Raj, 140, 215
bishop(s), 27, 30, 34, 121, 128, 165, 186, 190, Broach (Bharuch, Gujarat, India), 132
212–14, 216–17, 219, 232, 237–8, 242–3, 305, brothels, 401
327–8, 342, 352, 355, 386, 416 brotherhood(s), 123, 151
Bishop of Kushtia Diocese, 242 Brown, Susan, 133
Bishop of Nandyal Diocese, 242 Bruce, Robert, 92
Bishop of Raiwind, 116 Brus, 166
bishopric(s), 97 Buddha, Gautama, 204
Biswas, Milton, 191 Buddhism, 16–18, 20, 29, 35, 45, 52, 97, 145,
Black Sea, 224, 230 168, 174, 180, 182, 200, 202–3, 212, 218, 248,
Blair, James D., 241–2 251, 271, 303, 305, 310, 312–13, 315, 317,
Index 473
320, 330, 342, 344, 364–5, 374, 381, 384, 268–9, 272, 282–3, 289, 291–2, 322, 324, 329,
390–1, 398, 402, 433, 439, 468 335, 341, 347, 351–2, 355, 360, 368, 370, 378,
Bukhara, Uzbekistan, 52, 225, 312 386, 388, 391, 402, 413, 416, 459–60
Bulcke, Camille, 127 Catholicate College, 233
Bulcke, Father, 127 Catholicate Palace, 232
Bulgaria, 51 Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh,
Burana Tower, 71 186, 355
Burma, 122, 134, 238, 241, 398–9 Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI),
business, 19, 28, 57, 99, 185, 191, 195, 231, 341, 30, 34, 121, 128
396, 401, 409, 437–8 Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Northeast
Buston, Tajikistan, 66 India (CBCNEI), 165
Catholic Credit Society, 120
Cabral, Joao, 181 Catholic Directory, 186
Cacella, Estevao, 181 Catholic Federation of Asian Bishops’
Cachar, India, 156, 158 Conferences, 27
Calcutta, India, 132–3, 232, 234, 241, 261, 264, Catholic Matridham, 124
320, 414 Catholic Nurses’ Guild, 190
Calicut, 132 Catholic Pontifical Institutes, 128
Calla, Justice M. R., 347 Catholicos of All Armenians, 234
Calvary, 337, 365, 386 cattle, 21, 32, 35, 146–7, 158
Calvinism, 201, 279 CBN, 299
Campus Crusade for Christ, 173 celebrations, 124, 130, 163, 230, 240, 253
Canada, 204, 266, 290, 339, 368, 399–400, 441 celibacy, 293
candles, 34 Celsus, 357
cannibalism, 78 cemeteries, 59, 76, 216, 310, 342
canon law, 152, 232 censorship, 51
Capital Development Authority, 110 census(es), 43, 70, 108, 118, 130–1, 200–1, 411,
captives, 89, 354, 443 420–1, 434, 452–8, 464, 466–8
Capuchin(s), 22, 119, 168–9, 219 Centenary Methodist Church, 256–7
Carey, Felix, 191 Central Assembly of God, 91
Carey, William, 15, 22, 28, 127, 133, 152, 181, Central Committee of Bangladesh Awami
188, 276, 452 League, 191
Caribbean, 403 ceremonies, 19, 85, 160, 228
Caritas Bangladesh, 192, 194 Ceylon, 29, 122, 134, 238, 240–1, 252, 256, 264,
Caritas East Pakistan, 194 290–1, 396–8
Caritas India, 128 Ceylon Bible Society, 29
Caritas Kazakhstan, 49 Ceylon Pentecostal Mission, 264, 291
Carmelites, 152, 218–19 Chacko, Anthony, 361
Caspian Sea, 61 Chalcedon, 30, 223
caste, 20–2, 31, 33, 36–7, 39, 108–9, 121, 124–6, Chalcedonian Orthodox Church, 223
129, 131, 133–9, 143, 146, 151, 166, 187–8, Chaldean(s), 143, 213, 324
192–3, 216, 231, 236, 238, 245–6, 254–6, Chaldean Church of the East, 324
269–70, 274–7, 279–80, 287, 297, 305, 307, Chaldean Syrian Church, 143
310, 314, 321, 325, 328–9, 335–7, 342, 353–4, Chamberlain, John, 127
357, 359, 364–5, 368–9, 389, 394, 398–9, 405, Chandecan, Bangladesh, 184
410, 414, 416, 420–2, 429, 440 Chandigarh, India, 264
catechist(s), 109, 186, 190, 228 Chandorikar, Subhash, 138
Catechist Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Changa Manga, Pakistan, 114
Mary, 187 chant(s), 18, 97, 131, 185, 224, 234, 397–9, 409
cathedral(s), 50, 55, 62, 65–6, 68, 109, 234, 238, chapel(s), 66, 100, 125, 153, 184, 200, 316
241 Chapel of Brotherly Love, 125
Cathedral Church of the Resurrection, 241 chaplain(s), 403
Catholic(s), 27–8, 30–1, 34, 38, 43–4, 46, 48–9, Chardzhou, Turkmenistan, 62
55, 65–6, 70, 74, 84–5, 87, 93, 109, 116, charismata pneumatika, 459
120–1, 124, 127–9, 132, 136, 138–9, 143–5, Charismatic(s), 21, 33, 46, 59, 67, 77, 124, 130,
148–50, 152–3, 157–8, 165, 169–70, 175, 135–6, 142–5, 149, 165, 201, 212, 243–5, 265,
181–2, 186–7, 189–90, 193–5, 198–201, 204, 268–9, 271–2, 274, 280, 292, 294, 296, 298,
212, 214, 216, 218, 220, 222, 226, 229, 231–5, 300, 305, 312, 317, 335–6, 368, 395, 416, 434,
239–40, 244–5, 248–9, 251, 255, 258, 261, 458, 460–1
474 Index
Charismatic Church of Jesus Christ, 46 Christian Mission Service, 368

Charismatic Isua Krista Kohhran, 265 Christian–Muslim relations, 93
Charter Act, 276 Christian News, 190
Chaudhry, Cecil, 109 Christian NGOs, 98–9, 194–5
Chaudhuris, 135 Christian Revival Church, 265, 291
Chavara, Kuriakose Elias, 152, 218 Christian Service International, 195
checkpoints, 323 Christian Service Society, 195
Chennai (Madras), India, 21, 31, 36, 143, Christian Student Unions, 153
152–4, 234, 238, 262, 264, 266, 268, 288, 364, Christian Study Centre, 38, 116
366, 399 Christian television, 299
Chetpet, India, 321 Christian women’s colleges, 366
Chettiars, 398, 399 Christmas, 21, 23–4, 31, 50, 111, 117, 163, 227,
Chetty, Kandasamy, 333 316, 346–8
Chhattisgarh, India, 22, 121, 343–4, 347 Christmas Day, 227, 346
Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, 237 Christmas Eve, 117
Chief Justice of Pakistan, 109 Christmas Peace Train, 348
Chief Minister of Gujarat, 345 Christ National Church, 265
Chieftainship of the Sumis, 161 Christ of the Hindu, 330
children, 19, 25–6, 29, 33, 53–4, 56, 58, 91, 103, Christology, 147, 160, 164, 223, 323–5, 327, 328
118, 122–3, 129, 146–8, 150–1, 154, 175–6, Christophany, 324–5
185, 194–5, 204, 206, 219, 224, 232, 246, 263, Christopher, John, 244
284, 296, 321, 353, 361, 366, 368–9, 371, 373, Christo Samaj of Calcutta, 261
377, 396, 401, 404, 406, 410, 429, 434, 436, Christ the King Seminary, 116
441–2, 454–7, 463, 466 Christ University, 154
China, 23–4, 65, 70, 83, 95, 168, 180, 216, 248, Chrysostom, John, 121
274, 304, 382, 397–8, 421, 435–6, 441, 461 church architecture, 318
Chinese, 18, 24, 397–8, 421, 436, 462 Churches of God Mission, 195
Chittagong, Bangladesh, 184, 186, 192–3, 213, Churches of God of America, 188
216, 387, 422 Church History Association of India, 127
Chittagong Hill Tracts, 192–3, 216, 422 Church Missionary Society (CMS), 85, 92, 122,
Chittoor, India, 364 133, 188, 275–6, 279, 288
choirs, 34, 145 Church of Bangladesh Social Development
Chola Empire, 398 Programme, 195
Chowdhury, H., 191 Church of Bangladesh, 28, 186–8, 195, 241–2,
Christ and Christianity Amongst the Iranians, 84 250
Christa Prema Seva Ashram, 126 Church of Ceylon, 29, 252, 256
Christava Brahmana Seva Samithi, 36 Church of Christ (COC), 170, 265, 333
Christian Aid, 98, 195 Church of England, 85, 93, 199, 462
Christian Alliance Mission, 133 Church of God, 123, 170, 264–5, 290–1
Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA), Church of India, 122, 134, 165, 238, 240
132, 280 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 77
Christian ashram(s), 37, 126, 263, 318 Church of North India (CNI), 30, 33, 122–3,
Christian Association of Bangladesh, 189, 195 134, 136, 238–46, 250, 367
Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), 299 Church of Pakistan, 28, 109, 116, 241, 243–4,
Christian Cooperative Credit Union Limited 250
Dhaka, 189 Church of Scotland Eastern Himalayan
Christian Dalits, 282, 342, 415 Mission, 181
Christian education, 153, 176, 183, 192, 307, Church of Scotland Missionary Society, 132,
429 237
Christian Institute Raiwind, 116 Church of South India (CSI), 21, 29–30, 33,
Christianity of India, 273 122, 144, 152, 198, 236, 238–40, 242–6, 250,
Christian Lawyers Network, 443 256, 267, 280, 324, 367, 370
Christian Legal Association, 124 Church of St Nicholas of Tolentino, 185
Christian Life Bangladesh, 195 Church of the Assumption, 185
Christian Literature Center, 193 Church of the Brethren, 122, 238
Christian Medical Association of Bangladesh, Church of the East, 16, 28, 61, 65, 70–1, 143,
189 223, 248, 271–2, 324, 328
Christian Medical Association of India, 30, 366 Church of the Full Gospel Fellowship (FGF),
Christian Minorities Minister, 348 265, 291
Index 475
Church of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles 246, 252, 256–8, 262, 266–7, 311, 316, 335,
Prince Vladimir, 23, 73, 228 337, 368, 414–16, 454, 466–7
Church of the Holy Name of Jesus, 184 Congregation for the Evangelisation of
Church of the New Dispensation of Keshub Peoples, 218
Chandra Sen, 261 Congregation of Missionary Sisters of Korea,
Church on the Rock Theological Seminary, 187
153 Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions,
Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), 187
30, 128, 165 Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus, 187
church union, 134, 237, 241, 267 Congregation of the Holy Cross Brothers, 187
circumcision, 59 Congregation of the Holy Cross Fathers,
citizenship, 20, 33, 37, 70, 197, 244, 384, 389, 186–7
393, 395 Congregation of the Kkottongnae Brothers,
civil war(s), 67–8, 98–100, 204, 228, 230, 282, 187
348, 368, 400, 438 Congregation of the Maryknoll Missionaries,
clan(s), 159, 166, 225, 230, 306, 349, 409 187
Classical Pentecostal(s), 458 Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of
cleansing, 53, 56, 401 Mary Immaculate, 187
clergy, 34, 44, 85, 121, 203, 216, 218, 220–2, Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of St
229–30, 232, 267, 297, 321–2, 367–9, 455 Vincent, 187
clinics, 172, 189, 203, 341 Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross,
Cochin, India, 213, 231, 327 187
coconut(s), 34, 270, 404 Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional
Coconut Generation, 404 Religions, 47, 378, 387
cohorts, 466 Congress of World Religions, 227
Coimbatore, India, 366 Consecrated Virgins Living in the World, 187
Cold War, 16, 98, 435 Constantine, 50
College of St Paul, 151 Constantinople, 143, 223–4
Colombo, Sri Lanka, 38, 199–202, 204, 206–7, constitution of India, 144, 340, 345
213, 264, 278, 366 constitution of Nepal, 22
Colombo Diocese, 201 constitution of the Islamic Republic of
Colombo Medical School, 199 Afghanistan, 363
Colombo Theological Seminary, 202 constitution of the Maldives, 18
colonialism, 16, 180, 207, 338, 351, 389–90, 425 constitution of the United States of America,
colonies, 15, 112, 120, 131, 133, 224, 276, 403, 373
412 contextualisation, 80, 138, 183, 337
combat, 134, 190, 389 Conventual Franciscans, 55
Committee of Religious Affairs, 68 conversion(s), 16, 18–19, 22, 24, 27, 36, 46,
Common Language Version, 92 76–81, 84, 86, 97–8, 101, 104–5, 120–1, 124,
Common Translation of Tiruviviliam, 150 130, 133–4, 137–9, 141, 145, 148, 157, 161,
Communalism, 329, 439 165, 169, 171–2, 174–5, 182, 197, 203, 216,
communion, 89, 109, 149, 151, 231, 233, 240, 218, 221, 225, 244, 263, 266, 271, 274, 276–8,
243, 250, 252 280, 285, 287, 294, 307, 318, 324, 328, 333,
Communion of Churches of India, 240 339, 344–6, 357–8, 374–6, 380, 382, 391,
communist(s), 19, 25, 36, 45, 53–4, 72, 78, 98, 394–5, 398, 405, 435, 456, 459–60, 463–5
101, 229, 304, 331, 335, 357 Coop Benedict Memorial Society, 195
Communities Rural Organisation for Social Co-operative Credit Union League of
Service, 195 Bangladesh, 195
Community of Pope John XXIII, 187 Cooray, Thomas Benjamin, 201
Compassion International, 195 Cornelius, Justice Alvin Robert, 109
conflict(s), 16, 25, 76, 79, 85, 165–6, 174, 184, Coromandel, India, 398
213–14, 220, 224, 244, 253, 285, 289, 305, Cosmas Indicopleustes, 131
308, 310, 323, 339, 348, 355, 381, 403, 411, Costa, Rosaline, 191
413–14, 424, 443 cotton, 23, 107, 398
Confucianism, 312 Council of Baptist Churches, 122, 134, 165, 238
congregation(s), 15, 21, 23, 26, 29, 33–4, 37, Council of Nicaea, 83
48, 56, 62–3, 66–7, 74, 77, 80, 85, 109, 117, Council of Religious Affairs, 63
121–3, 129, 145–7, 151, 169–70, 173–6, counselling, 122, 297
186–7, 211, 216, 218–19, 232, 236–8, 242, ‘countries of particular concern’, 274, 374
476 Index
Court of Jesus (yesu darbar), 124, 269 Day of Resurrection, 115

Cranganore, India, 213, 327 Daystar, 299
creeds, 125 deacon(s), 183, 238
Crete, 21, 150, 240, 323, 386 deaconess(es), 243
crime, 37, 68, 84, 114, 225, 346 deaf, 56
Crimean Tatars, 225 de Alwis, Alwin R., 264
Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), 345 DeBrito, Francis, 138
crops, 146, 149 debt, 146
Crossing the Threshold of Hope, 218 Decca, Bangladesh, 240
Crossroads, 95, 211, 343 de Chardin, Teilhard, 318
crusades, 142, 171, 294 Declaration of Human Rights, 26, 103, 351,
CSI Trust Association, 242 363, 373, 375, 383, 452, 455
customs, 15, 26, 84, 96, 105, 132, 137, 143–4, decolonisation, 390
151, 159–60, 163, 230, 306, 333, 339, 364, Dehqani-Tafti, Bishop Hassan, 84, 86
403, 424 dehumanisation, 354, 356–7, 411
Cyprus, 51 deities, 144, 147–9, 322, 365
Cyrus the Great, 376 Delhi, India, 37, 121, 123, 126–8, 154, 256–8,
Czech Republic, 51 264, 278, 295, 320, 344, 364, 366–7
Delhi Brotherhood Society, 123
D’Costa, Anima, 191 democracy, 26, 168–70, 202, 229, 339, 374,
D’Rosario, Patrick, 186 376–8, 380, 382, 423
D’Souza, Bishop Patrick, 268 demography, 374, 452, 456, 463
D’Souza, Jerome, 331, 340 demons, 15, 31, 90, 93–4, 98, 113–14, 117, 148,
da Assumpsao, Father Manuel, 190 154, 164, 175, 183, 205, 207, 261, 268, 285,
Da Gama, Vasco, 132 300, 306, 312, 335, 437, 440, 459
Da Rozario, Antonio, 190–1 de Nobili, Roberto, 261, 390
Dacca, Bangladesh, 268 denominations, 21–2, 26, 28–30, 46–7, 49, 59,
Dadra, India, 131 61, 65, 67, 75, 109, 136, 153, 170, 173, 184,
Daesh see Islamic State 188–9, 194, 200–1, 203, 211, 215, 223, 229,
Daily Times, 110 231, 236, 239, 241, 250, 252, 256, 261–2, 264,
Dalit(s), 21, 33, 37, 120–1, 123, 128–30, 138–9, 269, 290, 310, 330, 335, 360–1, 393, 404, 414,
141, 144–5, 149–50, 152, 215–16, 218, 221, 416, 426, 430, 452, 455–6, 458–61, 468
242, 244–5, 254–6, 269, 276–8, 280, 282, 297, deportation, 44, 230
305, 315–16, 322, 324, 329, 335, 337, 342–4, depression, 146, 367
355, 357, 368, 374, 376, 391, 394, 411–12, Deputy Head of the State Service, 63
415–19, 422 de Sousa, Jerome, 331
Dalit Bible Commentary, 129 Deuterocanon, 92
Dalit Christian Literature Conferences, 138 Devadas, Mungamuri, 264, 267
Dalit Resource Centre, 37 Devanandan, P. D., 392
Dalit theology, 33, 128–9, 138, 329, 337, 357 Devasahayam, V., 329
Daman, India, 131–2, 136, 139 Devi, Renuka, 364
dance, 32, 50, 53, 59, 91, 105, 117, 122, 142, 154, devil(s), 18, 144
159–60, 162, 203, 253, 256, 298–9, 320, 328, devotees, 125, 150, 217, 264, 268–9, 305
364, 426, 459 Dewan, Pastor Tir Bahadur, 173
Dang(s), 277, 279, 346 Dhaka, Bangladesh, 185–90, 192, 195, 241–2
Dang District, 22 Dhaka Credit News, 190
Danish Bangladesh Leprosy Mission, 195 Dhaka Diocese, 188, 241–2
Danish Colony of Tranquebar, 15 Dharavi slum, 135
Danish Crown, 214 Dharmapala, King, 200
Danish Governor, 276 Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, 152
Dari, 96, 98, 102, 104–5 Dheds, 133
Darjeeling, India, 181–2 dhimmi(s), 83
Dar-ul-Hikmat Education Centre, 116 Dhinakaran, Paul, 292
Das, R. C., 264 Dhunkata, Nepal, 361
Das, Samar, 191 diakonia, 241, 335
Das, Sat Guru, 133 dialogue, 32, 38, 47, 88, 92–3, 99, 118, 126, 128,
Dasoguz, Turkmenistan, 62 154, 189–90, 193, 205, 220–1, 227, 305, 309,
Davidovich, Vervay Alexander, 67 313, 318–20, 324, 337, 349, 356, 359, 375,
Day of Pentecost, 83 377, 382, 386–91, 394
Index 477
Dialogue Among Civilisations project, 88, 92, Drukpa, 180

387 drums, 34, 162
Dias, Cardinal Ivan, 218 Duke of Kiev, 224
Dias, Priya, 191 dukka, 204
diaspora, 24–5, 29, 32, 49, 89, 92, 105, 143, 165, Dumka, India, 123
204, 224, 271, 366, 368–9, 400, 402, 404, 438, Durban, South Africa, 405
440, 458 Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 65–8
Dibaj, Reverend Mehdi, 87 Dutch Reformed Church, 29, 199, 214, 237, 249
dictators, 86, 382 Dzongkha, 183
Dimasas, India, 166
Dinajpur, Bangladesh, 186–7, 195 earthquake(s), 30, 32, 219
Dinakaran, D. G. S., 149 East Africa, 398–9
dindi, 136, 256 East Bengal, 186, 288
diocese(s), 23, 47, 65, 86, 109, 121, 123–4, 129, Easter, 20–1, 24, 30–1, 43, 47, 50, 58, 95, 97, 111,
136, 182, 186–8, 193, 201, 211, 215, 232–3, 121, 137, 152, 163–4, 168, 181, 186, 224, 230,
238, 240–3, 246, 258, 269, 355, 367 235, 238, 248, 254, 291, 294, 316, 319–20,
Diocese of Calcutta, 241 361, 388, 391, 394, 399, 420–2, 425–6, 428,
Diocese of Colombo, 201 430, 439
Diocese of Darjeeling, 182 Eastern Orthodox, 43, 47, 224, 235
Diocese of Indore, 129 Eastern Theological College, 164
Diocese of Lahore, 109 East India Charter, 276
Diocese of Raiwind, 109, 243 East India Company, 132, 156, 187–8, 275
disabilities, 219, 417 East Pakistan, 24–5, 107, 194, 240–1
disasters, 165, 219, 233, 353, 441 East Timor, 213
disciples, 83, 122, 124, 131, 176, 194, 205, 238, ecclesiology, 215, 334
246, 265, 270–1, 280, 284, 351–2, 371, 440 Echmiadzin, Armenia, 234–5
Discipleship Training Centre, 176 Eckhart, Meister, 318
Discipleship Training School, 176 Ecumenical Institute for Study and Dialogue,
Disciples of Christ, 122, 238 38
discrimination, 15, 17, 19, 23, 37, 68, 70, 73, ecumenism, 22, 28–31, 38, 126–8, 143–4, 150,
108, 111–12, 114, 117–18, 121, 130, 149–50, 152, 165, 233, 237, 239–40, 244–6, 311, 313,
159, 215–16, 226, 238, 244–6, 254, 277, 284, 316, 361, 368
315, 321, 342, 345, 354, 356–7, 363, 371, 375, Edessa, Syria, 248
377, 382, 403, 411–12, 414–16, 418, 422, 430 education, 16–19, 21, 23–4, 27–8, 30, 34–5, 37,
disease, 71, 146, 154, 270, 296 39, 46–7, 50, 54, 57–8, 62, 66, 68, 72, 76,
dissidents, 52, 145 79, 85, 97–8, 100–1, 103, 105, 107–9, 112,
Diu, 131–2, 136, 138–9 116–17, 120–4, 127, 133, 135, 139, 142–4,
divination, 427 146, 150, 152–5, 157–8, 160–5, 170, 172, 176,
Divine Humanity of Sonship, 333 178, 181, 183, 186, 188–9, 191–5, 201, 203,
Divine Refuge Monastery, 38 206, 215–16, 219, 221, 226, 229–30, 232–3,
divinity, 31, 37, 176 236–7, 241–3, 245–6, 255–6, 266, 271, 275,
divorce, 367–8, 428 281, 284–5, 291, 296–7, 307, 310, 318, 321,
DNA, 142 324, 332, 334, 339–41, 343–4, 360, 363–8,
doctors, 57, 150, 165, 189–90, 341, 366–7, 399, 374–5, 379, 381–2, 385, 399, 402–3, 405, 411,
402, 405 415–17, 436–7, 440–2
doctrine(s), 128, 239, 267, 328–9, 439, 443 Edwardes College, 28
dogma, 334 Eggoni Pushpa Lalitha, 367
Dominican(s) (religious order), 131, 194, 211, Egypt, 398, 458
219 Eid al-Adha, 227
donors, 154, 322 Eightfold Path, 204
Doss, Father Arul, 325 Elahi, Fazal, 109
Doulos Bible Institute, 265 Elamites, 83
Dravida Munnetra Kazagam, 145 elder(s), 55, 114, 148, 153, 183, 267, 406
Dravida Samayam, 36, 149 elderly, 227, 285, 406, 436, 464
Dravidian(s), 20, 143, 144–5, 212, 420 elections, 52, 144, 257, 340, 440
dreams, 21, 32, 93, 100, 147, 267, 288, 294, 434, Elias, Patriarch Ignatius, 232
459 Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Drong, Sanjeeb, 192 Against Women, 363–4
drugs, 34 elites, 15, 195, 218–19, 275, 317
478 Index
emancipation, 54, 305, 309, 337, 399 evangelisation, 61, 157, 188, 194, 201, 218, 221,
Emmanuel, S. J., 220 231, 285, 305
empire, 43–4, 55, 65–6, 72–3, 132, 191, 211, 213, evangelism, 15, 32, 38–9, 56–9, 85, 87, 89, 122,
223–4, 226–7, 229, 234, 248–9, 349, 389, 396, 136, 138–9, 153, 161, 170–5, 178, 188–9,
398, 413, 433 192–3, 205, 229, 267, 277–81, 286, 298–9,
employment, 20, 25, 27, 37, 45, 111–12, 117, 352, 356, 358, 428–9, 434, 461
146, 195, 229, 235, 283, 285, 341, 364, 400–1, evangelist(s), 19, 27, 32–3, 56, 67, 81, 85, 87,
406, 411, 415–17, 441 99, 136, 140, 145, 157, 160, 171, 173, 192–4,
empowerment, 17, 20, 34, 108–9, 123, 139, 157, 203, 205, 233, 256, 259, 262, 266–7, 271, 275,
225, 297, 304, 309, 312, 341, 352, 363 279, 290, 292, 294, 298, 300, 313, 351, 356,
England, 85, 93, 116, 199, 220, 253, 267, 400, 359–61, 434
462 Every Home Concern, 173
English language, 15, 21, 28, 38, 46, 56, 58, 80, Every Home Contact, 193
133, 136–7, 143, 146, 148–9, 160–2, 185, 188, Every Home Crusade, 173, 278
242, 256, 264, 293, 332, 396, 399–400, 402, evil, 30–1, 33, 81, 125, 159–60, 171, 270, 279,
413, 447 294–6, 413–14, 426–8, 434
Enlightenment, 204, 216, 310, 389 evolution, 25, 44, 52, 54–5, 83, 85, 87, 92, 225,
entrepreneurs, 122, 131 271, 304, 330–1, 337, 359, 376, 381, 385, 387,
environment, 57, 75, 115, 122, 140, 175, 198, 400–1, 418, 420
216, 235, 277, 298, 304, 311–14, 401, 436 exegesis, 305, 316, 320, 325
Eparchy of Gurgaon, 121 exile, 44, 56–7, 67–8, 91, 375
Epiphany Church, 242 exodus, 98, 105, 206, 211, 320, 355
Episcopal Church (USA), 86, 88, 132, 240 exorcism(s), 217, 271, 293, 428, 459
equality, 17, 19, 33, 38, 45, 54, 126, 129, 133–4, explorers, 97
145, 154–5, 192, 238, 242, 297, 310, 324–5, Extensio Dei, 361
334, 338, 340, 344, 352, 363–4, 373, 381, 410, extinction, 22, 126
416, 429 extremism, 48, 75, 117, 228, 243, 321, 377–8,
Ernakaulam, India, 152, 231 382
Escande Chair in Asian Christian Studies, Ezhavas, 147
153
eschatology, 147 Faisalabad, Pakistan, 241
Esther, Gulshan, 115 Faith Bible Church, 195
Eternal Life Ministries Church, 110 Faith Theological Seminary, 152, 297
ethics, 164 Fakirbhai, Dhanjibhai, 137
Ethiopia, 462 family(ies), 21, 26, 30, 56, 58–9, 66–7, 81, 89,
ethnicity, 58, 72–3, 96, 107, 194, 226, 229, 272, 93, 101–3, 115, 143, 146, 171, 173, 176, 182,
393, 430, 467 194–5, 202, 212, 223, 228, 257, 277, 284, 352,
Eucharist, 34, 218, 239, 310, 316, 327, 333, 364–6, 402, 406, 434–5, 456
414–15 famine, 162, 193, 263
Euro-Asiatic Federation of Unions of Fanai, Hrangkhuma, 164
Evangelical Christians-Baptists, 74 fanaticism, 52
European Enlightenment, 215–16 farmers, 32, 146, 423
European Union (EU), 339, 381 Farsi, 96, 104
Evangelical(s), 21, 26, 29–30, 37, 39, 46, 49, fascism, 439
55–6, 59, 61–3, 67–8, 74, 76, 124–5, 129, fasting, 33, 145, 150, 265, 294
134–6, 138, 151–3, 158, 170, 183, 188, 192–3, Fatehpur Sikri, 119
198, 201–3, 212, 227–9, 244, 246, 255, 262–3, Fazal-ud-Din, Joshua, 390
276, 278, 280, 282, 284, 286, 291, 311, 324, feasts, 163
330–2, 345, 351, 355, 367, 369, 375, 379, 394, Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences
443, 463 (FABC), 27, 212, 219, 305, 386
Evangelical Alliance Mission, 37 Fellowship of Indian Missiologists, 361
Evangelical Baptist Church, 62, 67 Ferghana Valley, 32
Evangelical Baptist Union, 67 Fernandez, Father Francesco, 184–5, 190
Evangelical Christian-Baptist, 49 Fernandez, Hilary, 138
Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), 26, fertility, 147, 232, 364, 457–8, 466
123–4, 134, 282, 345 festivals, 16, 21, 32, 35, 50, 72, 144, 146, 150,
Evangelical Lutheran Church, 30, 123, 129, 253, 257, 307, 425
152, 188, 255, 367 Fiji, 399, 403
Evangelical Mennonite Church, 198 Filadelphia Bible College, 297
Index 479
Filadelphia Church, 291 Gazalkent, Uzbekistan, 56

Filipinos, 198 Gedra, Suba Seth, 356
finance, 57, 165, 173 gender, 17, 19, 152, 154–5, 170, 191–2, 194, 233,
Finland, 44, 51 238, 310, 314, 357, 359, 364, 368, 370, 372,
Finnish Alliance Mission, 181 390, 441
fishing, 134 gender equality, 19, 154–5, 310, 363
Five-year Plan of Bhutan, 363 Genesis, 291, 365
floods, 28, 191, 219 Genghis Khan, 95, 97, 312
forests, 147, 279 genocide, 230, 359
forgiveness, 36, 129, 175, 415 George, S. K., 392
Forman, Charles William, 108 Georgia, 51, 97
Forman Christian College, 24, 28, 108 German(s), 15, 19, 21, 27–8, 46, 55, 63, 66, 68,
Forrest, M., 133 70, 74, 76, 78, 117, 149, 158, 211, 249, 252,
Foursquare Church, 290 254–5, 275, 282, 332, 368
fragmentation, 157, 290, 411, 434–5, 440 German Lutherans, 15, 19, 249, 252, 255
France, 190, 201, 400, 441 Germany, 19, 46, 55, 70, 73, 77, 204, 237, 275,
Francis, Pope, 121, 186, 201, 204, 218, 354 282, 299, 400, 441
Franciscan(s), 38, 44, 55, 74, 129, 201, 211, Ghala, Oman, 156, 158, 251, 253, 265, 323, 422,
219 424
Franciscan Clarist Congregation, 129 Ghana, 32
Franciscan Devasaranaramaya, 38 Ghar Wapsi, 124, 130, 344
Francke, August Hermann, 275, 278 Ghazni, 97, 99
Free-Bengal Radio Station, 191 Ghogra, 119
freedom of confession, 45 Gibaut, John, 399
freedom of religion, 27, 45, 48, 58, 68, 130, 198, Gibbon, C. E., 109
229, 243, 271, 274, 276, 307–8, 313, 332, Gillespie, Robert, 133
344–7, 349, 373, 375, 377–8, 381–4, 394–5, Gispert-Sauch, Father George, 128
434 Gittins, Anthony, 356
Friends (Quakers), 21, 30, 36, 76, 88–9, 99, Glasgow, James, 133
126–7, 135, 151, 171, 244, 296, 369, 386 Glasgow, Scotland, 133
Friends Missionary Prayer Band (FMPB), globalisation, 24, 51, 166, 219, 304–5, 309, 311,
21–2, 31, 135, 151, 244, 369 423–4, 433, 439, 441
Friends of Trees, 126 Global Leadership Development, 297
Full Gospel Fellowship, 265, 291 glossolalia, 459
fundamentalist(s), 16, 26, 36, 100, 138, 140, Goa, India, 26, 131–2, 136, 137, 138, 151, 201,
145, 184, 217, 245, 314, 331, 339, 343, 345, 213, 217–18, 399
347, 364, 389, 393, 439 Goalpara, India, 158
funding, 31, 98 Godavari, 148, 267
funerals, 27, 59, 453 Godavari Delta Mission, 267
future, 27, 51, 54, 59, 88, 93, 105, 118, 164, Godse, Nathuram, 344
176–8, 187, 196, 246, 294, 300, 355, 401, God TV, 299
405–6, 423, 440, 461, 463, 465–7 Goerh, Nehemiah Nilakanta, 137, 391
Gomes, Anima Mukti, 191
Gadaba, 147 Gomes, Major General John, 192
Gama, Vasco da, 132 Gomes, Subrata Augustine, 191
gambling, 159 Gonbad-e-Kavus, Iran, 88
Gamits, 135 Gond, 254, 420
Gandhi, Mahatma, 26, 321–2, 332, 344, 410, Gondhi, 144
439 Good Shepherd College of Cultural Studies,
Ganges River, 22, 119, 344, 398 153
Ganguly, Theotonius, 186 Gorbachev, Mikael, 360
Ganugly, Markas Nipu, 191 Gordon, Adoniram Judson, 108
Garasia Bhils, 135 Goreh, Nehemiah, 137, 139, 391
Garello, Silvano, 191 Goreh, Nilkanth, 139
Garo Baptist Convention, 188 Gorgan, Turkmenistan, 85, 87
Garo Baptist Union, 192–3 Gorkha Mission, 169, 271
Garo Hills, 158, 161 Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast
Garos, 422, 426 (GBAO), 65
Garr, Lillian, 288 Gospel and Plough Church, 125
480 Index
Gospel Echoing Missionary Society (GEMS), healing, 31–3, 81, 89, 115, 119, 123, 125, 136,
291 142, 145, 154, 171, 268–9, 271, 287, 290,
Gospel of John, 78, 92 294–5, 300, 307, 312, 316, 321, 323, 428, 434,
Gospel of Matthew, 92 459, 461
Gossner Lutheran Mission, 120 health, 17, 20–2, 24, 27, 39, 109, 112, 115,
Gowalkar, M. S., 343 121–3, 145, 147–50, 154, 163, 186, 189, 191,
Gracias, Cardinal Oswald, 218 194–5, 219, 241, 293, 341, 354, 360, 364, 371,
Graham, Billy, 321, 341, 353, 360, 394 385, 436–7, 441–2, 454, 457, 464
Grain Bank, 120 healthcare, 17, 20, 24, 27, 109, 112, 121–3, 186,
Gram Sabha, 122 189, 191, 194, 219, 241, 341, 360, 364, 385,
Grand Duchy of Moscovy, 224 436–7, 441
Grant, Charles, 276 heaven, 32, 75, 160, 162
Granth, 267 Heber, Bishop Reginald, 414
Greater Grace World Outreach, 61 Heber College, 153
Greece, 51 Hebrew, 20, 150, 320, 324
Greek(s), 20, 93, 131, 224, 230, 315, 357 Hebrew-Christian Bible, 320
Greek Orthodox Church, 93, 224 Hedlund, Roger, 334
Green Herald International School, 192 hegemony, 217, 310, 382, 405
Gregorian(s), 223 Heinrich Plütschau, 254, 275
Grenada, 399 Helen Orthodox Cathedral, 50
Griffiths, Bede, 220, 318–19 hell, 365
Gross National Happiness, 180, 363 Hellenism, 433
guitars, 34, 258 Henriques, Francis, 119
Gujarat, India, 22, 26, 131–3, 135–7, 139–41, Henry Martyn Institute, 37, 116, 387
151, 221, 264, 279, 288, 343–7, 356, 420 Heptulla, Najma, 343
Gujarat Christian Workers (GCW), 279 Herat, Afghanistan, 61, 99
Gujarat United Christian Forum for Human herbs, 126
Rights, 345 hermeneutics, 159
Gujarat United School of Theology, 137 heroes, 32, 109, 259
Gujranwala Theological Seminary, 24, 28, heterogeneity, 43, 166–7
116 Hevadiwela, India, 38
Gulf Wars, 152 Hidden Christ, 330
Guntur, India, 264 Hidden Hinduism, 330
guru(s), 34, 124, 126, 133, 180, 264, 269, 295, Higginbottom, Sam, 31, 124–5, 269
318 High Court of Gujarat, 345
Gurukul Lutheran Theological College, 152 Hillwood College, 366
Gurungs, 168 Himachal Pradesh, 344–5
Guryev, 226 Himachal Pradesh High Court, 345
Guryevskiy, 47 Himalayas, 95, 126, 180, 305
Gutierrez, Gustavo, 355 Hindi, 21, 127, 136–7, 139, 161, 256–7, 262, 402,
Guwahati, 158 420, 423
Guyana, 399, 403 Hindi Belt, 21
Hindu(s), 15–16, 20–3, 25–6, 30, 32–7, 95, 97,
Hafeez, Junaid, 113–14 103, 107, 119, 124, 126–7, 131, 133–4, 136,
Hajj pilgrimage, 72, 379, 397 138–40, 142, 145–6, 148–9, 158, 162, 168,
Hall, Eric, 109 170–2, 174–5, 180, 184, 187–90, 192–3,
Hanafi(s), 65, 227, 378 200, 202, 204, 212, 215, 217–18, 220–1,
harassment, 24, 26, 63, 228, 282, 346–7 231, 233, 244, 246, 251, 254, 257–8, 261–4,
Hardoi, 271 266, 268–72, 275, 277, 293–8, 300, 303,
hardship, 21, 27–8, 59, 83, 94, 148, 271, 357, 315, 317, 319–23, 325, 327–33, 339–40,
439, 443 342–8, 358–9, 364–5, 374–6, 379, 381–2,
Hare Krishnas, 75 384, 387, 389–4, 398–9, 401–3, 408–9,
Haridwar, India, 397 411–13, 417, 421–2, 433, 439, 454, 463–4,
Harijans, 410 468
Haryana, India, 264, 347, 367 Hindu Brahmin, 190
Hashnabad, Bangladesh, 185 Hindu Dharma, 408
Hastings, John, 387 Hindu Mahasabha, 25
Hazarajat, Afghanistan, 99 Hindu Rashtra, 124, 325
Hazaras, 95–6, 101–2, 104 Hindu Revival Gathering, 346
Index 481
Hindutva, 20–1, 25–6, 124, 139–40, 244, 325, Immanuel Eye Hospital, 366
343–4, 346, 376, 389, 394, 439 immigrant(s), 15, 18, 45, 131, 282, 365, 396,
Hindu Yeshu, 269–70 399–400, 402, 403–6, 422, 463, 465–6, 467
historiography, 164 imperialism, 192, 266, 300, 304, 388, 441
HIV/AIDS, 27–8, 122–3, 129, 364, 367 imperial Russia, 54, 223
Hmar, 166 imprisonment, 63, 72, 90, 113, 130, 169, 203,
Hnuni, R. L., 164 271, 298, 374, 379–80
Hoffmann, John-Baptist, 128 incarnation, 35, 316, 328
holidays, 50, 55, 105, 115, 227 income, 56, 112, 194, 206, 246, 406, 442
Holiness Methodist, 279 inculturation, 138, 149, 194, 255–6, 315, 318,
Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of 322, 361, 386, 390–1, 415
the East, 28 Independent churches, 136, 201, 248, 261–2,
Holy Books of the Torah, 99 264–5, 271–3, 280, 360, 434, 461
Holy Cross College, 192, 366 Independent South Indian Pentecostal, 264
Holy Cross Congregation, 219 Independent Syrian Church of Malabar, 324
Holy Cross Fathers, 186–7 India, 15–16, 18, 20–3, 25–6, 29–39, 83, 95–7,
Holy Cross School, 192 107–9, 116, 120, 124, 126, 128, 130, 132, 134,
Holy See, 46, 48, 394 136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 146, 148, 150, 152,
Holy Spirit Major Seminary, 187 154, 158, 160, 166, 168–9, 180–2, 187–8,
Holy Spirit, 33, 149–50, 153, 187, 220, 238, 263, 197–9, 204, 212–21, 223–4, 232–3, 236–44,
267, 269, 280, 288, 295, 312, 316, 458–9, 461 246, 248–59, 261–4, 266–7, 269–71, 273–82,
Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, 287–93, 295–300, 303, 306, 308, 310–12, 315,
23, 47 317, 319–25, 327–32, 334–5, 337–9, 341–8,
homosexuality, 19 352–3, 355–8, 360–1, 363–71, 374, 377, 379,
Hong Kong, 399 382, 384, 386–403, 405, 410, 412, 414, 416,
Hooper, William, 127 420–2, 424–30, 435, 438–42
hospice, 199, 219 India Evangelical Lutheran Church, 255
hospital(s), 28, 30, 35–6, 85–6, 97–8, 108, 110, India Evangelical Team (IET), 291
118, 123, 133, 150, 154, 172, 188, 192–3, 199, Indian Administrative Service, 340
203, 214, 227, 232–3, 242, 321, 328, 334, 341 Indian Assemblies of God, 290–1
hospitality, 21, 311, 314, 365, 395, 441 Indian Catholic Bishops, 352
hostility, 99, 221, 225, 292, 298, 346, 395, 436 Indian Civil Service, 340
house church(es), 62, 85, 88–91, 93, 102, 135, Indian constitution, 25, 156, 254, 342, 345,
272, 279, 284, 299, 334, 461–2 420–1
households, 32, 103, 183, 406 Indian Evangelical Mission (IEM), 31, 135,
Hovsepian Mehr, Bishop Haik, 87 151, 244, 369
human rights, 25–6, 36, 91, 103, 114, 128, 140, Indian Evangelical Team (IET), 135, 291
165, 191–2, 194, 198, 221, 228, 282, 308, 315, Indian Express, 346
341, 345, 351, 363–4, 373–81, 383, 393, 452, Indian Instituted Churches, 324
455 Indian Missionary Society, 30, 151, 237, 244
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 114 Indian National Congress, 140, 417
hunger, 112 Indian Ocean, 197, 199, 398–9
hunting, 88, 158–9, 163, 428 Indian Orthodox Church, 224, 231, 232
Huntington, Samuel P., 88 Indian Pentecostal Church of God, 264, 291
Husain, M. F., 320 Indian Pentecostal Mission, 133
husbandry, 56 Indian Presbyterian Alliance, 237
Hyderabad, India, 37, 116, 145, 241, 266–7, 295 Indian Society for Promoting Christian
hygiene, 163 Knowledge (ISPCK), 127
hymns, 21, 87, 137, 146–7, 149, 160, 162, 255–7, Indian Theological Seminary, 153
268, 319 Indian Witness, 276
India Pentecostal Church of God Northern
icon(s), 31, 255, 365 Region, 123
ideology, 25–6, 45, 68, 72, 76, 124, 139–40, 145, indigenisation, 162, 215, 233, 262, 337, 391
160, 174, 339, 343, 347, 370, 374, 376, 383, Indigenous Churches of India, 266
417, 429 individualism, 145, 370
Idhaya Engineering College, 366 Indonesia, 456, 462
Ilam District of Nepal, 22 Indus River, 97, 240
illiteracy, 285, 429, 442 Indus River Conference, 240
illness, 53, 426 industrialisation, 144
482 Index
Indus Valley, 397 Islamic law, 373

inequality, 192, 410, 416 Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, 16
infant(s), 53, 371, 456 Islamic Propagation Society, 86
Injil, 99 Islamic Revolutionary Committee, 25
injustice, 189, 196, 221, 330, 341, 433 Islamic State (IS, ISIL), 19, 97, 100, 228, 241
Inquisition, 26 Islamic Studies Association, 126
Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 187 islamist(s), 195, 221, 227, 330, 374, 378–80
Institute of the Incarnate Word of Argentina, Islam Khan, 185
66 Ismaili Muslims, 65
intellectuals, 92, 139, 390 Israel, 25, 59, 80, 265, 376–7
Inter-Church Service Association, 30 Issok-kol, Kyrgyzstan, 71
International Christian Community of Kabul, Italian language, 87, 158, 168, 191, 195
100 Italy, 143, 201
International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR), 345, 373 Jabalpur, India, 127, 264
International Eucharist Congress, 218 Jacobites, 20, 143, 211, 223, 231
International Fellowship of Evangelical Jaffna, Sri Lanka, 199, 201, 213, 237
Mission Theologians (INFEMIT), 281 Jahangir, Asma, 198
International Missionary Council (IMC), 276 Jai Jeshu, 125
International Nepal Fellowship, 170, 172 Jains, 20, 131, 144, 184, 303, 317, 365, 376, 402,
inter-religious dialogue, 47, 92, 193, 205, 433
220–21, 227, 309, 313, 349, 359, 386–8, Jaintia, India, 156, 165, 422, 426
394 Jaipur, India, 119
Inter-religious Dialogue of the Holy See, Jalalabad, Afghanistan, 99
394 Jalna, India, 133
intersectionality, 159 Jamaica, 399
Interserve, 181 Jambhekar, Balshastri, 134
interventions, 285, 294 Japan, 435, 468
intolerance, 310, 360, 374, 380 Japanese, 57, 468
Iraivan, 150 Jatakas, 398
Iran, 16, 18, 25, 28, 31, 37–8, 61, 84, 86, 92, Jebasingh, Emil, 244
94–5, 98, 104, 212–13, 223–4, 235, 248, 288, Jeevan Dhara Ashram, 126
290, 298–9, 328, 334, 348, 358, 374, 377, Jehovah Shammah, 266
384–8, 438, 456 Jehovah’s Witnesses, 49, 68, 75, 110, 272, 298,
Iranian(s), 18, 25, 31, 61, 65, 85, 87, 89, 91–3, 378
101, 234, 288, 364 Jenkins, Francis, 158
Iranian Bible Society, 87, 89 Jephthah Feast Messages, 268
Iranian constitution, 85 Jerusalem, 24, 237, 273
Iraq, 25, 361 Jesuit(s), 22, 119–20, 132, 181, 184, 186, 194,
Ireland, 133 201, 219, 261, 340, 356, 358, 390
Irish Presbyterian Mission, 133 Jesuit Fathers of Kolkata, 194
Iron Curtain, 283 Jesus the Dalit, 322
Irular, 147 Jesus Truth-Gatherings, 269
Isabella Thorburn College, 366 Jesus Youth, 190
Isai, 17, 173 Jews, 35, 53, 85–6, 97, 131, 305, 377
Isa Mashaiak, 79 Jhabua, India, 325
Isa Masi, 294 Jharkhand, India, 120–1, 361, 391, 420
Isfahan, Iran, 84, 86, 90, 234–5 jihad, 98, 100, 124
Ishapriya, Sister, 126 Jinnah, Muhammad Ali, 107–8, 379
Islam, 16–19, 23–5, 27, 35, 37, 43–5, 48, 50, Joan of Arc, 318
52–4, 61, 65, 68, 71–3, 75–6, 80, 83–7, 90–3, jobs, 18, 35, 54, 98, 103, 110–12, 122, 146, 155,
96–105, 107, 110, 112–15, 126, 168, 184–5, 206, 254, 257, 342, 353, 368, 402, 405, 410,
187, 191–2, 195, 197, 221, 225–29, 241, 248, 429
251, 265, 268, 271–2, 284, 293–4, 303–5, John, Gospel of, 78, 92
311–13, 315, 330, 332, 342, 344, 348, 360, John, Joshua, 115
363, 373–6, 378–82, 384, 392, 398, 433–5, John Paul II, Pope, 47, 66, 186, 211, 218
439, 464, 468 John the Baptist, 184, 190, 352
Islam, Nazrul, 191 John XXIII, Pope, 187
Islamabad, Pakistan, 110, 112 Joint Liturgical Group, 239
Index 483
Jordan, 131, 337, 386 Kazakhstan Ministry of Religious Affairs, 49,

Jordan of Severac, 131 299
Jorhat, India, 37, 164 Kedgaon, India, 263
Joseph, Pastor D. Henry, 261 Keitzar, Renthy, 164
Joseph, Pastor S., 135, 264 Keraites, 16
Joshua Project, 442 Kerala, India, 15, 108, 143–4, 147–8, 152–3, 214,
journalists, 26, 38, 81, 439 217, 232, 254, 264, 288, 297–8, 323, 328, 335,
jubilee, 352, 402 358, 367
Judaism, 45, 52–3, 303, 312, 324, 378, 468 Kerman, Iran, 88
Judicial Pronouncements, 343 Kermanshah, Iran, 88, 90
Jungle Tribes Mission, 133 Kerr, Alexander, 133
justice, 33, 38–9, 63, 109, 111, 125, 128, 130, Ketchem, Maynard, 288
133, 145, 165–6, 170, 189, 194–6, 204–5, 207, Ketlar, Winfried, 127
220–1, 242, 244–6, 281–2, 297, 330, 334, 338, Khamenei, Ayatollah, 90
340–1, 347, 356, 360, 363–4, 369, 372, 386–7, Khanate of Kokand, 225
429, 433 Khasi Hills, 158, 161, 288
Justice Party, 145 Khasi-Jaintia Church Leaders’ Forum
(KJCLF), 165
Kabul, Afghanistan, 99–100, 375 Khatami, Mohammad, 88, 90, 92, 387
Kadavul, 150 Khiva, Uzbekistan, 225
Kafiristan, Afghanistan, 97 Khokon, Alfred, 191
Kailash Mansarovar, 397 Khond, 147
Kakani Garden, 268 Khrist Bhakti Movement (KBM), 124, 268, 269,
Kala Pani, 398 308
Kalimpong Mission, 181 Khuangtuaha Pawl, 265
Kalliana (Kalyan), 131–2 Khujand, Tajikistan, 66, 229
Kamalesan, Sam, 244 Khulna, Bangladesh, 186
Kanchipuram, India, 153 kidnapping, 99
Kandahar, Afghanistan, 99 Kiev, Ukraine, 224
Kandhamal, India, 347, 394 killing(s), 67, 78, 99, 322
Kandy, Sri Lanka, 366 Kilpauk, India, 261
Kannada, India, 144, 148, 154 king(s), 22, 95, 132, 182, 410
Kantha, Rewa, 133 Kingdom of Arakanese, 184
Kappen, Sebastian, 220 King of Bhutan, 180, 375
Karachi, Pakistan, 28, 116, 213, 240–1, 278, 298, Kinnaird College, 28, 108
399 kinship, 232
Karaganda, Kazakhstan, 46, 49, 211, 226 Kipgen, Mangkhosat, 164
Karakalpak, 57 Kirantis, 168
Karimov, Islam, 52, 228 Kirghiz Mission, 225
Karjat, India, 132 kirtans, 126, 136–7
karmasamsara, 36 Kishore, Andrew, 191
Karnataka, India, 144, 147–8, 152–3, 217, 343 Kochery, Archbishop George, 186
Karnataka Theological College, 152 Kochi, India, 145
Karthak, Pastor Robert, 173 Kokand, Uzbekistan, 225
Kathmandu, Nepal, 169–73, 271 Kolhapur, India, 132
Kaufmann, General, 73 Koli Patels, 135
Kaveri River, 148, 220 Kolkata (Calcutta), India, 15, 132–3, 191, 232,
Kazakh(s), 16, 19, 23–4, 27, 31, 38, 44, 46, 48, 234, 241, 258, 261, 264, 320, 367, 414
50, 52, 57, 61, 70, 78, 211, 225–7, 230, 251, Konkani, 132, 136–7
259, 272, 274, 283, 290, 298–9, 313, 330–2, Korea, North, 283
338, 349, 358, 360, 365, 374, 377–8, 384, 387, Korea, South, 19, 49, 57–8, 75, 77, 79, 245, 272
435–6, 440 Korean(s), 57–8, 70, 74, 272, 283
Kazakh Eparchy, 226 Korean diaspora, 49
Kazakhstan, 16, 19, 23–4, 27, 31, 38, 44, 46, 48, Korean language, 18, 46, 49, 57–8, 70, 74, 77,
50, 61, 70, 211, 225–7, 230, 251, 259, 272, 80, 249, 252, 272, 283
274, 283, 290, 298–9, 313, 330–2, 338, 349, Koshy, Ninan, 331
358, 360, 365, 374, 377–8, 384, 387, 435–6, Kottayam, India, 152, 232
440 Kotte, Sri Lanka, 200–1
Kazakhstan Evangelical Alliance (KEA), 49 Koya, 147
484 Index
Koz’mins, Ivan and Vasiliy, 67 law(s), 17, 22, 24, 37, 45, 48–9, 63, 86, 100,
Kozhikode, India, 132 110–11, 113, 152, 169, 175, 180, 198, 203,
Krishna, 75, 148, 261–2, 330, 332, 391 221, 227–8, 232, 243–4, 274, 282, 284, 344–5,
Kristhukula Ashram, 32 348, 364–5, 373, 375–8, 380–2, 411, 434, 463
Kshatriyas, 36, 144, 168, 409 Law of Manu, 365, 408
Kubegenov, Talgat S., 74 lawyers, 38, 81, 443
Kudai, 79 Laymen’s Evangelical Fellowship, 262
Kuki(s), 166 Lazarus, Mohan C., 292
Kuki Rebellion, 162 ‘Leaving No One Behind’, 363
Kuknas, 135 Lebanon, 235
Kulateivam, 149 Lenin, Vladimir, 54
Kulithalai, India, 148 Lent, 150, 232, 316
Kumarappa, J. C., 392 Lepchas, 168
Kumbh Mela, 346 leprosy, 117, 122–3, 181, 193, 195, 199, 321,
Kunbis, 131 341, 352
Kurds, 230 Leprosy Centre, 199, 321
Kurgonteppa, Tajikistan, 66 Leprosy Mission, 181, 195
Kuruba of Karnataka, 147 Le Saux, Henri, 220, 318
Kurukh, 127 Levant, 16, 34, 51, 104, 138, 205, 250, 270, 316,
Kushtia, 188, 242 330, 335–7, 371, 411, 418, 440
Kutchathivu, Sri Lanka, 217 Leviticus, 352
Kuwait, 396, 400 Lewini, Anna, 288
Kuzin, Pastor Vasili, 77, 299 Lhatru, Wangchuk 183
Kyrgyz, 24, 27, 70–2, 74–81, 227, 272, 282–3, liberalisation, 88, 400
293–4, 392 liberation, 18, 30, 32–4, 123, 129, 144, 150, 164,
Kyrgyzstan, 16, 23–4, 27, 31–2, 38, 65, 72, 74, 188, 190–1, 194–5, 204, 216, 220–1, 236,
76, 78, 211, 226–7, 230, 272, 274, 282–3, 285, 241–2, 255, 315, 320, 322, 329–30, 337–8,
290, 293–4, 298–9, 313, 332, 338, 349, 360, 344, 355, 386, 394, 415, 426
365, 375, 377, 384, 392 liberation theology, 164, 355
Kyrillos VI, Pope, 46, 66, 84, 121, 186–7, 201, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, 18, 204
204, 211, 218, 354 Liberia Council of Churches (LCC), 241
liberty, 17, 81, 112, 134, 332, 340, 352, 354, 443
labour, 23, 27, 54, 57, 123, 146, 166–7, 254, 311, Lievens, Constant, 120
313, 353–4, 364, 396, 399–400, 405, 409, 411, Life Fellowship Association, 135
418, 426, 428, 435, 437–8, 441 Life of Baršabbā, 87
Lady Wellington Hospital, 112 Lima, Peru, 239
Lahore, Pakistan, 24, 28, 38, 108–10, 112–13, Lima Document, 239
116, 240–1, 278 Limus, 168
Lahore Council of Churches, 241 literacy, 54, 68, 104, 112, 117, 122, 225, 285,
Lahore High Court, 113 298, 341, 429, 442
Lahore Waste Management Company, 110 literature, 51, 63, 84–5, 93, 99, 137–8, 154, 171,
Lai, 422 173, 190–1, 193–4, 198, 217, 388, 429, 452,
laity, 214–15, 222, 297, 328, 355 460
Lakeview Bible College, 153 Lithuania(n), 55, 211
Lakshadweep, India, 144 little flock, 130
Lal, Bishop Dr R. B., 125, 269 Little Handmaids of the Church, 187
Lamaism, 313 Little Traditions, 333–4
Lam PhajoDrukgom, 180 liturgy, 15, 34, 137, 218, 232, 238–9, 256–7, 316,
landowners, 56, 409, 412 318–19, 322–3, 327
Lanka Bible College, 202 loans, 285
Laos, 165 lobbying, 276
Last Supper, 320 Logos Nepal, 177
Latif, Nazir, 109 Lonavala, India, 132
Latin America, 26, 273–4, 290, 293, 355, 357 London, UK, 85, 122, 132–3, 237
Latter-day Saints (Mormons), 77, 110 London Missionary Society (LMS), 122, 133
Latvian(s), 44 loneliness, 146, 406
Latvian Evangelical Church, 255 Longchar, Narola, 164
Lausanne Conference, 351 Longhcar, A. Wati, 164
Lausanne Covenant, 281 Longkumer, Limatula, 164
Index 485
Lord’s Supper, 239 Malankara Marthoma Syrian Church, 240

Lothas, 161 Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC),
Lourdusamy, D. S., 218 143, 223, 231
Love Maharashtra Society, 135 Malankara Syrian Catholic Church, 121, 324
Loyola College, 153–4 Malankara Syrian Orthodox Theological
Lucknow, India, 366 Seminary, 152
Ludhiana, India, 154, 366 Malankara Vision, 232
Luke (book of), 89, 228, 351–2, 354 Malay, 15, 95, 115, 126, 144, 148, 154, 180–1,
Lutheran(s), 15, 19, 27–8, 30, 43, 45–6, 50, 61–3, 214, 305, 358, 398, 402, 441
67–8, 74, 120, 122–3, 129, 149, 151–2, 188, Malaya, 15, 95, 126, 144, 148, 154, 180–1, 214,
192, 194, 236–7, 241, 243, 249, 252, 254–6, 305, 358, 398, 402
267–8, 272, 332, 360, 367, 378, 399 Malayalam, 15, 144, 148, 154, 214, 398, 402
Lutheran Aid, 194 Malaysia, 115, 398, 441
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, 46, 74, 255 Maldives, the, 16, 18, 31, 35, 37–8, 198, 249,
Lutheran Seminary, 256, 267 290, 298, 366, 369, 374, 382, 384, 438
Mal Pahariya, 127
Macau, 151 Malto, 22, 144, 151
Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 344, 346 Mamayusupov, Omurzak, 71
Madhu, Sri Lanka, 217 Manakala, India, 152
Madhya Pradesh, India, 21, 36, 121, 325, Manas, 80
343–4, 347, 355, 420 Mandal Commission, 416
Madhya Pradesh Dharma Swatantrya Mandi Bahauddin DHQ Hospital, 111–12
Adhiniyam, 344 Mangs, 133
Madras (Chennai), India, 21, 31, 36, 143, 145, Manichaeism, 248, 312
152–4, 234, 262, 264, 266, 268, 295, 364, 366, Manila, Philippines, 137, 333
399 Manipur, India, 156, 158, 161–2, 165, 265, 323,
Madras Christian College, 153, 366 421, 425
Madras Pentecostal Assembly, 262 Manipur Baptist Church Council (MBCC),
Madras Theological Seminary, 152 165
Madurai, India, 37, 145, 152, 261, 390 Manipur Revival Movement, 162
Madurai Mission, 390 Manjaniakkara Monastery, 232
Magars, 168 Mankin, Pramod, 191
magic, 33, 168 Mannadiyar(s), 147
Magisbangla movement, 190 Mannar, Sri Lanka, 213
Maharaj, Chhatrapati, 134 Manuel, Father, 190
Maharashtra, India, 131–9, 141, 238, 261, 263, Manusmriti, 408–9
343, 355, 358, 391, 420 map(s), 119, 309, 312, 408, 413
Maharashtra Bible College, 137 Maphrian, 232
Maharashtra Village Ministries (MVM), 135 Maranatha Full Gospel Association, 261
Mahar(s), 133 Maranatha Revival Church, 291
Mahayana Buddhism, 18, 180, 468 Maratha, 131, 138, 263
Mahesh, Pastor, 278 Marathi, 136–7, 261
Maicham, Zoram, 265 Mar Chrysostom, 328
Maimal, Sister, 115 Mardan, Pakistan, 360
mainline churches, 21, 33, 136, 145, 203, 246, Mar Dionysios High School, 233
292, 334–5, 367, 378 Mar Dionysios Seminary, 233
Maitreya Xavier Charitable Society (MXCS), marginalised, 123–4, 128, 242, 245, 277, 279,
121, 126 281, 286, 295–6, 304–5, 313–14, 321, 329,
Maitri Bhavan, 126 333, 336, 341, 343, 354, 395, 410, 416, 435–6
Majumdar, P. C., 333 Maria, Sister Rani, 129, 325, 355
Malabar, 121, 143, 214, 223, 231, 324, 328, Mariambad, Pakistan, 217
398–9 Marian devotion, 217, 322–3
Malabar coast, 231, 399 Marist Brothers, 187
Malabar Independent Church, 223 market(s), 144–5, 363
Malacca, Malaysia, 213 marriage, 20–1, 27, 54, 66, 72, 103, 105, 143–4,
Malankara Association, 233 147–8, 151, 189, 195, 232, 258, 306, 310, 319,
Malankara Indian Orthodox Churches, 224 364–7, 377, 382, 398, 401, 415, 418, 428
Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church Marshall, Azad, 116
(MJSOC), 223, 231 Marshman, Joshua, 188
486 Index
Mar Thoma Church, 30, 123, 143–4, 170, 233, Merv, Turkmenistan, 61
240, 243, 324, 367, 370 Mesopotamia, 248
Martyn, Reverend Henry, 37, 84–5, 116, 127, Methodist(s), 28–9, 33, 46, 58, 109–10, 122,
387 132–4, 136–7, 152, 170, 173, 201, 236–8,
martyr(s), 83, 87–8, 101, 185, 218, 327, 348, 355, 240–1, 249, 252, 256–9, 263, 276, 279–80,
360 367, 399
Marvrud, Turkmenistan, 61 Methodist Bible Seminary, 137
Marxism, 344, 373, 374, 377, 387–8 Methodist Episcopal Church, 132, 240
Mary (and Joseph), 119 methods, 101, 156, 167, 171–2, 178, 298, 394,
Mary, Virgin, 187, 190, 391 447, 452, 458, 466
Maryam (Iraqi schoolgirl), 89 Metropolitan Christian Cooperative Housing
Mary College, 366 Society, 189
Maryknoll Sisters of St Dominic, 187 Metropolitan of Astana, 47
Mary Magdalene, 190 Mettuppalayam, India, 366
Mashhad, Iran, 87–8 Michael I, pope, 66
Mashihi, Daud, 173 Middlecoat, Commander Mervyn, 109
Masih, Manzoor, 113 Middle East, 20, 25, 75, 86, 88, 152, 291, 328,
Masih, Rehmat, 113 368, 378, 398–9, 401, 435, 439, 441
Masih, Salamat, 113 Middle East Episcopal Church, 88
Masih, Saleem, 114 middle passage (Atlantic slave trade), 280
Masrangaa Television, 191 migration, 19, 44, 50, 59, 85, 141–2, 144, 219,
mass, 19, 44, 59, 109, 114, 133, 135, 141, 145, 225, 228–9, 232, 283, 311, 332, 339, 393,
149, 157, 161–2, 165, 195, 211, 216, 236, 245, 396–8, 400–3, 405–6, 435, 437–8, 463, 465–6
265, 269, 276–8, 290, 292, 329, 400 Mikaelian, Reverend Tateos, 87
Massey, James, 128–9 militants, 195, 381
Mataji, Sister Vandana, 318 military, 17, 24, 43–4, 55–6, 66, 98, 109, 111,
materialism, 344 120, 157, 184, 224, 364, 380, 388, 433
Matridham Ashram of Varanasi, 269 milk, 34, 55, 95
Matthai, John, 340 Ministry Association of the Christian
Matthew, Apostle, 71 Brahmins, 36
Matthew (book of), 71, 83, 92, 125, 182, 222, Minnesota, 194
353–4 minorities, 15, 17, 23, 25–6, 28, 31–2, 35, 38, 68,
Mauritius, 399 85–6, 90, 110–11, 113, 124, 145, 192, 211,
Mazandaran Province, Iran, 88 221, 227, 243–4, 252, 257, 272, 283, 305, 315,
Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, 99 324, 331, 343, 345–9, 373–5, 379–80, 393–4,
Mecca, 72, 397 422, 435
Medes, 83 Minz, Nirmal, 128–9
media, 19, 33, 71, 75–7, 86, 89, 102, 104, 111, miracle(s), 21, 146, 161, 171, 269, 321, 459–60
113, 121–2, 145, 149, 164–5, 167, 190, 194, Missio Dei, 361
198, 229, 245, 262, 295, 299, 312, 325, 334, missiology, 152
345–6, 358, 380, 411, 414, 440, 442, 457 Missionaries of Charity, 27, 55, 187, 191, 211,
Medical Missionary Fellowship, 279 341
medicine, 154, 189, 194, 307, 321, 424 missionary(ies), 15–16, 20–2, 24–30, 32, 39,
meditation, 37, 262, 316, 318, 361 44–6, 48–50, 55, 57–8, 61, 65–8, 73–7, 79–81,
Mediterranean, 216, 273, 381, 397 83–6, 92, 97, 108, 110, 115–16, 120–2, 132–9,
mega-church, 135, 262, 280, 298, 336 141, 143, 148, 151, 157–62, 165, 167, 181–2,
Meghalaya, India, 156, 158, 251, 253, 265, 323, 184–94, 196–7, 199, 201, 203–4, 211, 213,
422, 424 215–18, 220, 223, 225, 227, 229, 236–7, 240,
Meier, John, 357 244, 246, 249–50, 253–5, 258–9, 263–4,
Meitei, 166 266–7, 269, 271, 275–7, 279–80, 283–5,
Melkite(s), Catholic, 211 288–96, 300, 304–6, 315, 317, 321–2, 324,
Memorial Christian Hospital, 109 327–31, 333, 336, 341, 346, 353, 356, 358,
Mendes, Bonnie, 220 360–1, 366, 369, 378, 384, 387–90, 394, 399,
Mennonite(s), 27, 30, 43–6, 55–6, 62, 66–7, 70, 406, 413–15, 422, 426, 429–30, 433, 441
74, 194, 198, 251, 272 Missionary Alliance, 132, 280
Mennonite Central Committee, 194 Missionary Sisters of Father De Foucault, 187
merchants, 18, 97, 131, 185, 224, 234, 397–9, Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate, 187
409 Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary, 187
Merton, Thomas, 318 Mission of Help, 15
Index 487
Mitchell, Donald, 132 Muslim(s), 15–18, 23–5, 27–8, 31–2, 36–8, 45,
Mizo Israel Pawl, 265 48, 52–4, 59, 61, 63, 65, 68, 70–3, 75–6,
Mizoram, India, 156, 158, 162, 165, 251, 253, 79–81, 83–8, 90–3, 96–7, 100–1, 103–4,
265, 323, 421–2, 425 107–8, 110–16, 119–20, 131, 133, 144, 150,
Mizoram Presbyterian Church, 165 158, 184, 191–3, 195, 197, 207, 211–12, 215,
Mizos, 159, 162, 166, 253, 265, 324, 422, 425–6 217–18, 225–7, 229–30, 232, 243–4, 252,
modernisation, 97, 134, 166, 212, 304, 418, 429 257–8, 268, 272, 284, 288, 299, 312, 320, 323,
modernity, 280, 418 325, 330–2, 343–4, 349, 365–6, 374–81, 385,
Modi, Narendra, 345–6, 376 388, 392–3, 397, 399, 401–3, 417, 433–4,
Moffett, Samuel H., 312 438–40, 453, 457–8, 463–4, 468
Moghuls, 397 Muslim-background Christians, 366
Mogilevsky, Archbishop Nikolai, 226 Muslim League, 108
Mohabat TV, 299 Muttahedeh, Reverend Iraj, 86
moksa, 34 Muziris, 327
Molokans, 55–6, 62 Myanmar, 28, 165, 216, 306, 393, 395, 397,
Moluccas, 213 421–2, 425
monarchy, 97, 169, 180, 271, 382 Mylapore, India, 143, 327
monasteries, 18, 38, 61, 71, 187, 205, 225, 228, Mymensingh, Bangladesh, 186, 188
232, 272 myths, 129, 244
Monastic Order of St Benedict, 187
Monchanin, Jules, 220 Nadars, 277
Mondal, B. D., 188, 242 Nagaland, India, 156, 158, 161, 165, 167, 181,
Mongol(s), 96, 224, 312–13 251, 253, 265–6, 323, 421–2, 425
Mongolia, 16, 216 Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC),
monks, 32, 44, 97, 152, 204, 398 165
Monophysite(s), 328 Nagaland Bible Institute, 266
Monserrate, Anthony, 119 Nagaland Christian Revival Church, 265
morality, 22, 154, 370 Nagaland Mission Movement, 181
mortality, 232, 319, 466 Nagapattinam District, 150
Moscow, Russia, 27, 47, 50, 54, 224 Nagar Haveli, India, 131
Moscow Patriarchate, 27, 47, 50 Nagas, 157, 159, 161, 166, 253, 306, 422, 426
Moses, 99 Nagori, Bangladesh, 185, 193
mosques, 45, 72, 84, 107, 113, 227, 377, 381, 402 Nagpur, India, 238
mother(s), 54, 59, 103, 201, 363, 365, 368 Namgyal, Jigme, 180
Mother Church (Christian Science), 27, 67, 173 Nanayakkara, Leo, 220
Mother of the Church Seminary, 46 Naqshbandiyya Orders, 32
Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu), 117, Nariman, Fali, 343
182, 191, 211, 218, 320–1, 341 Narinda, India, 185
Mott, John, 276 Naryn, 76
Mru, 252 Nasarah (Nazarenes), 279
Muftiate, 73 Nasir, K. L., 116
Mughal(s), 157, 185, 234 Natal, South Africa, 363, 399
Mughal Emperor, 157, 234 Nataraja, 320
Mujahedeen, 98, 100–1 National Assembly of Bhutan, 183
Mukherjee, H. C., 331 National Association of Baptist Churches, 188
Mukhia, Pastor David, 173 National Biblical, Catechetical and Liturgical
mukti, 32, 148 Centre (NBCLC), 217
Mukti Church/Mission, 263, 288 National Catholic Institute of Theology, 116
Mumbai, India, 15, 131, 134–5, 139, 141, 154, National Christian Council (China), 29, 183,
218, 258, 264, 278, 291, 295, 347, 366 202
Mundari, 127 National Christian Council of Bhutan
Munshi, Abdul Wadud, 288 (NCCB), 29, 183
murder, 86–7, 111, 114, 129, 195, 325, 371, 394, National Christian Council of Sri Lanka, 29,
442 202
Murmis, 168 National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri
museums, 44 Lanka (NCEASL), 29, 202
music, 32, 80, 87, 102, 105, 126, 133, 136, 149, National Churches Fellowship of Nepal
159–60, 162, 165, 191, 206, 230, 246, 253, (NCFN), 22, 37
256, 259, 270, 293, 318, 404, 439, 442 National Human Rights Commission, 364
488 Index
nationalism, 16, 139–40, 202, 205, 229, 239, New Zealand, 17, 28, 188, 339, 399, 441
243–4, 308, 318, 325, 336, 389, 391–5, 414, New Zealand Baptist Mission, 188
434–5, 439, 441 Next Generations Professional Leaders
National Missionary Society of India, 30, 151, Initiative, 440
237, 244 NGOs see non-governmental organisations
National United Christian Forum of nibbana, 204
Bangladesh, 189 Nicaea, 83
National Volunteer Corps, 343 Nicholas II, 225
nation-building, 225, 368, 390, 392, 439 Nicholas of Cusa, 318
Native Missionary Movement, 291 Nicobar Islands, India, 119, 144
Natore, Bangladesh, 185, 195 Niger, 274, 399, 462
natural sciences, 17, 28 Nigeria, 274, 399, 462
navy, 341 Niles, D. T., 204
Nazarbayev, Nursultan, 46–8, 51, 227, 378, 387 Nirmal, Arvind P., 138, 355, 357
Nazarenes, 279 Nirmala College, 366
Nazareth, Israel, 309, 352 nirvana, 320
Nazir-Ali, Michael, 116 Nishan-e-Quaid-e-Azam, 117
Nebit Dag, Turkmenistan, 62 Niyazov, Saparmurat, 229
Neo-Buddhism, 330 Nizamudin, India, 320
Neo-Hinduism, 333 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), 78,
Nepal, 16, 22, 30, 32, 35, 37–9, 165, 170, 172, 81, 98–9, 129, 165, 172, 177, 194–5, 375, 383
174, 176, 178, 180, 212, 215, 219, 224, 249, North America, 17–19, 25, 29, 132, 143, 147,
271, 289–91, 297, 308, 315, 334, 354, 358, 152, 154, 204, 255, 273, 291, 293, 366, 399,
360–1, 367, 375, 384, 387, 394, 400–2, 420, 401
422, 437–8, 441–2, 453 North-East Frontier, 158
Nepal Baptist Council, 173 Northeast India Christian Council (NEICC),
Nepal Bible Ashram, 176 165
Nepal Bible Society, 173, 177 Northeast India Committee on Relief and
Nepal Evangelistic Band, 271 Development (NEICORD), 165
Nepali(s), 170–1, 173–5, 178, 180, 271, 289, 382, Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church
400–2, 422 (NELC), 123, 188
Nepali Isai Mandali, 173 North India, 30, 33, 120, 124, 126, 128, 130,
Nepalganj, Nepal, 169, 170, 173 134, 136, 144, 151, 169, 217, 240–2, 246, 250,
Nepal Theological College, 297 257, 264, 271, 277, 290, 308, 367
Nestorian(s), Church of the East, 70–1, 80, 97, North India Bible Institute of the Assemblies
132, 211, 223, 248, 313, 327–8 of God, 271
networks, 17, 31, 46, 88–9, 102, 201, 248, 262, North Korea, 283
272, 280, 291–2, 299, 405, 410, 458, 461 North Western Gossner Evangelical Lutheran
Nevaket, Kyrgyzstan, 71 Church, 129
New Apostolic Church, 46, 49, 110, 285 Norway, 181, 463
Newars, 168–9 Norwegian Santal Mission, 181
Newbigin, Lesslie, 333 Notre Dame College, 192
New Delhi, India, 37, 256–8, 344 Notre Dame University, 192
New India Church of God, 291 Nuh, V. K., 164
New Jerusalem Lutheran Church, 237 nun(s), 55, 117, 129, 190, 199, 201, 218, 319,
New Julfa, Iran, 84, 234 325, 368
New Life Churches, 135 Nuristan, Afghanistan, 97
New Life Fellowship (NLF), 135, 264, 291 nurses, 190, 341, 366–7, 399, 402, 405
New Life Movement International (NLMI),
135 Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 187, 201
New Life School of Mission, 153 Oceania, 399, 401
New Millennium New Testament, 92 Odisha, India, 36, 221, 394, 420
New Religious Movements (NRMs), 75, 236, oil, 17, 24, 270, 399, 435
373 Old Testament, 92, 255, 265
New Sky, 46 Oljeitu, 16
newspapers, 111, 191 Oman, 400
New Testament(s), 57, 78, 84, 89–90, 92–3, 99, One Belt, One Road (OBOR), 436
127, 151, 175, 183, 255, 266, 333, 422, 458 Onge of the Andaman Islands, 420
New Theological College, 297 Open Doors, 347, 374
Index 489
Open Theological Seminary, 24 238, 241, 243–4, 246, 249–50, 259, 266, 275,
Operation Mobilisation (OM), 34, 135, 173, 176 278, 282, 290, 298, 308, 312, 315, 329, 338,
oppression, 54, 67, 83, 92, 151, 220–1, 269, 321, 348, 360–1, 366, 369, 374–5, 377–8, 380–1,
330, 342, 354, 356, 417, 437–8, 443 384–6, 390, 393, 395–7, 400–1, 422, 435,
orality, 22, 154, 370 437–9, 441–2, 468
Oraon, 216 Pakistan Bible Society, 28
Oratorians, 218 Pakistan Institute of Labour Education, 437
order(s), 19, 24, 32, 50, 57, 61, 65, 67, 73, 81, Palestine, 328
84, 87, 95, 165, 201, 211, 219, 324, 328, 353, Pali Buddhist Tripitakas, 320
435, 465 Palm Sunday, 347
Order of Pius IX, 47 Pamba, India, 148
ordination, 50, 236, 364, 370–1 Panch Mahal, 133
Organisation of Culture and Islamic Relations Pandimackil, Father Thomas, 355
(OCIR), 92 Panikkar, Raymond, 220, 318–19, 330, 359,
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, 184 391
Oriental Catholics, 213 Panjora, Bangladesh, 217
orientalism, 388 Panvel, India, 132
Oriental Orthodox Churches, 223–4, 230–3, para-church organisations, 33, 285, 292
235 paradigms, 305
Origen, 357 Parbatipur, Bangladesh, 194
Original Sin, 415 Parekh, C., 333
Orissa, India, 325, 341, 343–4, 347, 355 Parekh, Manilal, 137
Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 344 Parental Responsibility Law, 228, 284
Orlovka Adventist Church, 74 Paris, France, 25, 47, 66, 109, 121, 123, 152, 186,
orphan(s), 55–6, 165, 199, 201, 285 189–90, 211, 226, 233, 317, 322, 343, 347,
orphanage(s), 26, 135, 227, 232–3, 246, 285, 459
368 Paris Foreign Mission Society, 152
Orthobhed, Kripar Shastrer, 190 Parish General Body, 233
Orthodox Seminaries, 152 Parish Managing Committee, 233
Orthodox Syrian Church, 223, 231, 324, 328 parliament(s), 18, 86, 191, 203, 235, 282, 340,
Orthodox Theological Seminary, 152 357
Orthodoxy, 19, 23, 27–8, 31, 38, 43–4, 47, 49, Parochial Church of Mary Magdalene, 65–6
51, 53–5, 59, 61–3, 65, 68, 70, 73, 75–6, 78, Parochial Church of the Archangel Michael,
80–1, 85, 93, 139, 143–5, 148, 152, 160, 66
211–13, 217, 224, 226, 228, 230, 232, 248, Parochial Church of the Iberian Icon of the
251–2, 254, 261, 272, 284, 289, 292, 311, 313, Mother of God, 66
322, 324, 328, 331–2, 336, 349, 358, 360, 370, Parochial Church of the Intercession of the
378–9, 392–3, 398, 433–4, 459–60 Holy Virgin, 66
Osh, Kyrgyzstan, 285 Parsis (Zoroastrians), 305
ostracism, 59, 102, 105, 148, 297, 415 Parson, Leslie, 127
Ottoman Empire, 211, 234 Parthians, 83, 229, 376
outcasts, 21, 36, 139, 216, 276–7, 297, 329, partnership(s), 76, 123, 359, 443
409–10, 412 Pashto (Pashtuns), 95, 96, 97, 98, 102, 104–5,
outreach, 50, 61, 97, 102, 135–6, 141, 172, 205, 378
257, 259, 267, 278, 292, 327, 351 Pashto Bible, 98
Oxford Mission, 188, 241–2 Passion of Christ, 190
passports, 35, 90, 285
Pabna, Bangladesh, 185, 195 pastor(s), 33, 48–9, 59, 81, 91, 109, 117, 125,
Pachuau, Lalsangkima, 164 145, 147, 151, 161, 165, 173, 183, 206, 227,
Padmanji, Baba, 137 258, 262, 285, 297–8, 367, 442
Padmasambhava, Guru, 180 Patanjali yoga, 319
Padrishibpur, Bangladesh, 185 Patna, India, 119, 121, 126, 169
Padroado Real, 213 Patriarch of Antioch, 231
Paharias of Pakur, 361 Patriarch St Ignatius Elias, 232
Painadath, Sebastian, 359 patriotism, 182
Pakhtun, 95 Paul, K. T., 392
Pakistan, 15–18, 23–5, 27–8, 31, 35, 37–8, 75, Paul II, Pope John 46, 66, 186, 211, 218
95, 97–8, 101, 108, 110, 112, 114, 116, 118, Paul VI, Pope, 218
122, 134, 194, 212–13, 215–18, 220–1, 223–4, Pax Mongolica, 312
490 Index
peace, 22, 26, 29, 52, 103, 116, 130, 165–6, 170, Philippines, 57, 192
182, 189, 192, 194–5, 200, 204, 207, 227, 242, philosophy, 58, 126, 152, 177, 319, 389, 438
244, 253, 274, 282, 317, 319, 345, 348, 358, Phule, Joytirao, 134
360, 386–7, 401 Pickett, J. Waskom, 276
Peace, Ramon Magsaysay, 192 Pieris, Aloysius, 204, 220, 320, 337, 352, 357,
Pearson, John, 191 359, 386, 388
Pentateuch, 92 Piero, Parolari, 195
Pentecost, 21, 29–31, 33, 39, 46, 49, 59, 67, 70, Pietists, 15, 249, 254, 275
74–5, 77, 79, 83, 85, 87, 91, 109, 123, 133, piety, 21, 255, 309, 316, 323, 365
135–7, 142–5, 147–8, 170, 173, 182, 201, 212, pilgrimage, 21, 32, 72, 150, 193, 232, 262, 307,
217–18, 228, 238, 243–5, 248, 262–3, 265, 323, 397
269, 271–2, 274, 280, 288, 290, 292, 294, 296, Pillai, H. A. Krishna, 148, 261
298, 300, 316, 324, 332, 334, 336, 360, 368, Pillai, Satyanathan, 275
416, 459–61 Pimenta, Simon, 138
Pentecostal(s), 21, 29–31, 33, 39, 46, 49, 59, 67, Pious Clause, 276
70, 74–5, 77, 79, 85, 87, 91, 109, 123, 133, Pius IX, Pope, 47, 186
135–7, 142–5, 147–8, 170, 173, 182, 201, 212, Pius XII, Pope, 46, 66, 84, 121, 186–7, 201, 204,
217–18, 228, 243–5, 248, 262–3, 265, 269, 211, 218, 354
271–2, 274, 280, 288, 290, 292, 294, 296, plantations, 399
298, 300, 324, 332, 334, 336, 360, 368, 416, pluralism, 75, 138, 336, 359, 465
459–61 Plymouth Brethren, 74
Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, 290 poetry, 84, 136, 154, 256, 388
Pentecostal Church Sun Bok Ym, 46 Pokhara, Nepal, 169–70, 172–3, 271
Pentecostal Fellowship, 29, 262, 264 Poland, 44, 51, 282
Pentecostal Holiness Church, 290 police, 74, 105, 111, 114, 155, 298, 343, 346, 380
Pentecostal Mission, 133, 264, 271, 288, 291, policy, 17, 20, 24, 27, 45, 47, 51, 72–3, 75, 89, 91,
295 105, 156–8, 169, 180, 188, 197, 245, 281, 295,
Pentecostal Zakaia Pawl, 265 352, 360, 363–4, 416–17, 421, 437
people(s), 18, 61, 72–4, 81, 95–6, 102, 121, 144, politicians, 35, 111, 140, 164, 195, 282, 345, 348
151, 156–59, 161, 163–4, 167, 192–4, 212, politics, 16, 18, 23, 26, 97, 101, 156–7, 166, 181,
214, 217–18, 220–1, 225, 253–4, 265, 287, 195, 202, 281, 340, 364, 389, 395, 417–18,
299, 304, 306, 310, 330, 358, 366, 376, 420–3, 433, 435, 439
442, 452, 467 polls, 454–6
People of Israel, 376 Pondicherry University, 153
People of Jesus, 17 Pontifical Athenaeum of Philosophy, 152
People of the Book, 377 Pontifical Council, 394
percussion, 101, 219, 406 Pontifical Institute, 128, 152, 187
Perestroika, 54, 74, 360 Pontifical Urbaniana University, 187
Periyar River, 148 Pontus, 230
Perrin, Norman, 353 Poona, India, 126, 132
persecution, 15, 17–18, 44, 52, 58–9, 63, 68, 71, poor, 15, 26, 28, 36, 45, 49, 55, 58, 95, 107, 110,
83, 86, 88, 92, 120, 130, 141, 148, 168–9, 175, 112, 120, 122, 126, 128–9, 154, 189, 191–2,
178, 182, 205–6, 221, 228, 235, 243–4, 271, 201, 220, 242, 246, 274, 276–7, 279–81, 284,
282–3, 289, 298, 303, 339, 347–8, 355, 360, 287, 295–6, 309, 320–1, 336–7, 341–4, 352,
374, 376, 385, 435, 438 354–7, 368, 378, 380, 386, 416, 437, 441, 443
Persia, 15–16, 65, 83–7, 91–4, 96–7, 100, 131, pornography, 367, 401
143, 211, 234, 272, 288, 298, 305, 328, 378, Portugal, 143
388, 397–8 Portuguese, 15, 20, 26, 131–2, 136, 139, 143,
Persian(s), 16, 65, 83–7, 91–4, 96–7, 100, 211, 151, 157, 181, 184–7, 190, 199–201, 204,
272, 288, 298, 305, 328, 378, 388 213–14, 217–18, 231, 249, 322, 329, 399, 408,
Peshawar, Pakistan, 28, 110, 241 413
Peshwas, 131, 138 Portuguese Crown, 213
Peters, Andrej, 76 Portuguese Goa, 26
Pettinger, T. D., 133 Portuguese Jesuits, 181
Pew Forum, 457–8, 467 post-Soviet countries, 45, 47
Pew Research Center, 462 Potta, India, 323
Peyrouse, Sebastien, 332 poverty, 30, 107, 112, 196, 220, 246, 278–9, 303,
Pfau, Dr Ruth, 117 309, 315, 319, 334, 337, 343, 356–7, 359, 363,
Philanthropic Academy, 234 386, 394, 411, 433–4, 436–7, 441
Index 491
Prabhakar, Dan, 281 226, 229, 233–4, 236, 250, 252, 254, 258,
Prabhu, George Soares, 220, 352 260–1, 269, 272, 274, 277, 280, 282, 288,
Prabu, 32 291–2, 299, 324, 329, 331–2, 335, 378–9, 388,
Pradhan, Pastor Ganga Prasad, 22 392, 402, 413, 416, 425, 429, 459–62, 468
Prakash, Cedric, 356 Protestant mission(s), 15, 49, 67, 79, 122,
Prasad, Dr Deeneswar, 127 132–4, 158, 188–9, 213–15, 236, 249, 277,
Praseed, George, 269 329
Pratapadittya, King, 184 proverbs, 92, 99, 146
Pratibeshi, 190 Psalms, book of, 92, 99, 160, 439
prayer, 21–2, 30–1, 33, 47, 53, 56, 89, 91, 102, publishing, 47, 50, 58, 99, 191
115, 124–6, 135, 145, 149, 151, 153, 173, 182, Puducherry, India, 144, 150, 366
189, 193–4, 227, 238, 241, 244, 257–8, 262–3, Pulidindi, Solomon Raj, 256
265, 268–70, 279, 285, 293–4, 306–8, 315–16, Punalur, India, 298
318–20, 323, 336, 347, 349, 367, 369, 428, Pune (Poona), India, 126, 132, 134, 137, 139,
434, 441, 459 141, 263, 288
preaching, 20, 34, 56, 119, 123, 125–6, 133, Punjab, India, 108, 111–13, 115, 119, 126,
135–7, 142, 145–7, 149, 154, 162, 169, 171–2, 266–7, 269, 278, 288, 299, 348
194, 206, 213, 221, 244–6, 259, 263, 266, 269, Punjab Cardiology Hospital, 111
279, 294, 316–17, 321, 327, 329, 345, 354, Puntamba, India, 132
365, 396 Purasawalkam, India, 264
Preaching Songs, 162 purification, 398
Prefect of the Congregation, 218 Purushasukta, 409
Presbyterian(s), 21–2, 28–30, 49, 58, 85, 87–8, Pushpalatha, Rt Revd Eggoni, 242
91, 108–9, 122, 132–3, 158, 165, 170, 173,
188, 192, 236–8, 241–2, 249, 253, 259, 269, Qadiriyya, 32
272, 288, 378 Qalandarabad, Pakistan, 109
Presbyterian Church of India (PCI), 165 Qatar, 396, 400
Presbyterian Church of Ireland, 133 Qom (Qum), Iran, 90, 92–3, 387
Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, 28, 109 Quaid-i-Adam, 379
Presbyterian Medical Board, 109 Queen of Angels, 187
Presbyterian mission, 22, 108, 132–3, 158, 237, questionnaire(s), 454–5
269 Quetta, Pakistan, 108, 110, 117, 348
priest(s), 33, 55–6, 66, 86, 109, 116, 119–22, 127, Qur’an, 374, 380
131, 152, 168–9, 181–2, 186–7, 190, 192, 195,
201, 211, 214, 216, 227, 238, 254, 281, 308, Rabhas of Assam, 266
316, 347, 356, 367, 371, 409, 412, 426, 460 race, 66, 181, 357, 359, 369, 409
printing, 191, 234 racism, 59, 102, 105, 148, 297, 404, 415
prison, 48, 63, 72, 83, 87, 90–1, 113, 122, Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli, 330, 332
129–30, 169, 178, 185, 203, 230, 243–4, 271, radicalism, 378–9
282, 285, 298, 348, 374, 379–80, 382, 398 radio, 19, 98–9, 102, 104, 127, 190–1, 366, 442
Progressive Association of the Dravidians, 145 Rahman, Abdul, 18, 97, 375
propaganda, 19, 78, 91, 213–14 Rahman, King Abdur, 97
Propaganda Fide, 213–14 Rahmon, Emomali, 228
prophecy (gift), 33, 125, 28–8, 294 Rai, D. R., 173
prophet(s), 79, 113, 292, 295, 348, 352, 354–5, Rai, Pastor Barnabas, 173, 289
374, 380, 440 raids, 97, 228, 379
Prophet Mohammed, 113, 440 railway, 120
Prophet of Islam, 374, 380 Raipur, India, 121, 347
proselytism, 21, 23, 67, 68, 86, 97, 181, 212, 228, Raiwind, Pakistan, 109, 116, 241, 243
230, 275, 282, 298, 332, 344, 385, 388, 391, Raj, Solomon, 256
393, 395 Rajahmundry, India, 267
prosperity gospel, 136, 142 Rajasthan, India, 121, 297, 344, 347, 420
prostitution, 34, 285, 367, 436 Rajput, India, 119
Protection of Human Rights, 373 Rajshahi, Bangladesh, 186, 241
protest(s), 25, 218, 281, 318, 391 Rajshahi Church Council, 241
Protestant(s), 15, 23, 27, 30–1, 39, 43–6, 48–50, Rakhsha, Gau, 124
54, 61–3, 65–8, 74–6, 79–80, 87, 90–1, 116, Ramabai, Pandita, 137, 139, 263–4, 270, 278,
122, 127–8, 132–4, 136, 139, 143, 148, 150–2, 288, 391
154, 158, 188–9, 193, 199, 201–2, 212–15, Ramadan, 150
492 Index
Ramankutty, Pastor Paul, 264 Revelation, Book of, 175, 268

Rama Rajya, 359 revival, 27, 46–7, 125, 161–2, 201, 245, 253,
Rampur, India, 257–8 262–3, 265, 284, 287–9, 291–2, 294, 313, 346,
Ranade, Madhav Govind, 134 349, 361, 435, 439
Ranchhod, Karsan,, 133 Revival Church of God, 265
Ranchi, India, 120–1, 127–8 revolution, 25, 44, 52, 54–5, 83, 85, 87, 92, 225,
Ranjith, Reverend Malcolm, 201, 218 271, 304, 337, 376, 385, 387, 400–1, 418
Rao, K. Subba, 264, 333, 391 rhetoric, 382, 389, 434
rape, 244, 367 rhythm, 149, 316
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), 25, 124, rights, 20, 25–6, 32–3, 35–7, 47, 83, 91, 103,
139, 343, 376 107, 114, 122, 124, 128, 134, 140, 151, 165,
Ratanpur, India, 242 175, 191–2, 194, 198, 206, 212–13, 221,
Ratna, Cecilia Parul, 355 227–8, 234, 244, 282, 308, 315, 321–2, 331–2,
Ravals, 135 339–42, 345, 351, 353, 356, 363–4, 373–81,
Ravanbakhsh, 88 383, 393, 421, 424, 434, 452, 455
Rawalpindi, Pakistan, 24, 38, 108, 116 Rigon, Marino, 191
Rayan, Samuel, 128, 220, 352 Rig Veda, 409
Ray of Hope, 78 Rini Ralte, 164
Rebeiro, Bidhan, 191 Rishikesh, India, 126
rebellion, 162 rite(s), 16, 72, 121, 159, 163, 220, 322, 333, 398,
reconciliation, 105, 123, 125, 162, 170, 316, 323, 427
381 ritual(s), 15, 21–3, 26, 28, 32–4, 37, 39, 45–6,
reconstruction, 194 50, 56, 67, 72–3, 75, 80–1, 93, 98, 103,
Reformed Churches, 29, 109, 199, 214, 237, 115–16, 121, 124–5, 128, 135, 137, 141–2,
240, 249, 279–80, 330 144–7, 150, 153–4, 159–62, 164, 170, 174–6,
refugee(s), 28, 98, 105, 122–3, 219, 230, 272, 182, 190–1, 194, 217, 226, 233, 239, 263,
285, 438, 443 265, 267, 269, 281, 287–8, 291, 293, 295,
regulations, 48, 68, 219, 435 299, 303, 306–8, 316, 320, 324, 330, 333–7,
rehabilitation, 30, 154, 165, 194, 263, 296, 363 359, 361, 366, 369, 384, 386–7, 389, 391,
Rehman, Rashid, 113–14 395, 402–6, 408, 411, 413, 418, 423–8, 443,
relief, 17–18, 32, 55, 165, 192–4, 219, 263, 296, 458
427 rivalries, 143
religiosity, 78, 80–1, 268, 306, 308, 317, 336–7, Rodrigo, Michael, 220
357–8, 386–7 Rohingya, 28
religious affiliation, 227, 377, 454, 458, 464, Roman Catholic(s), 31, 38, 43–4, 46, 49, 55,
466, 468 66, 70, 74, 85, 93, 121, 132, 149–50, 152–3,
religious diversity, 43, 101, 307 158, 169–70, 175, 190, 200–1, 204, 212,
religious freedom, 17, 22, 26, 36, 48, 51, 63, 220, 233, 240, 245, 248–9, 251, 255, 258,
75–6, 81, 93, 107, 114, 140, 180, 182, 198, 268–9, 289, 291–2, 368, 370, 386, 388, 391,
227–8, 274, 282, 284–5, 298, 332, 338, 460
347, 374, 376, 378, 382, 387, 393–4, 443, Roman Curia, 218
452 Roman Empire, 213, 223–4, 248, 433
religious identity, 26, 58, 80–1, 96, 226, 251–2, Rome, Italy, 143, 187, 211–15
277, 308, 313, 392, 435 Rostampour, Maryam, 89
Religious Organisation Act of Bhutan, 183 Rouhani, President Hassan, 91
Religious Organisations of the Council of Roy, Raja Ram Mohan, 332, 389
Religious Affairs, 63 Royal Court of Jesus, 124, 269
renewal, 122, 132, 145, 236, 245, 265, 276, 300, Russia, 16, 19, 23, 27, 43–4, 47, 50, 54–6, 59, 70,
318, 330, 459–61 73, 77, 224, 226, 228, 230, 282, 299, 366, 377,
repentance, 389 433, 435, 441
Representative Act of Unification of the Russian(s), 19, 23, 27, 31, 43–7, 49–51, 53–7,
Ministry, 241 61–3, 65–8, 70, 72–3, 76–80, 93, 211–12,
research, 17, 80, 137, 145, 152–3, 268, 386, 400, 223–7, 229–30, 234, 252, 272, 293, 299, 324,
411, 437, 454, 456, 459, 461–3, 467–8 336, 349, 358, 360, 365, 378–9, 392–3, 433,
respondent(s), 454, 464 435, 467
restoration, 178, 312, 355, 380, 458, 460 Russian Baptists, 49, 57, 74, 76–7
resurrection, 31, 36–7, 241, 319, 322, 351 Russian Empire, 43–4, 55, 66, 72–3, 224, 226–7,
retirement, 86, 116 349
Revadanda, India, 132 Russian Orthodox Holy Synod, 50
Index 493
Russian Orthodox, 19, 23, 27, 31, 43–4, 47, Satcitānanda, 148
49–50, 53–5, 61–3, 65, 68, 70, 73, 76, 78, Satkhira, Bangladesh, 184
211–12, 224–7, 229–30, 252, 336, 358, 360, Satna, India, 347
379, 393, 433 Satralkar, Vishwas Anand, 138
Russian Revolution, 44 satsang, 126, 269–70
Russification, 78, 230 Saudi Arabia, 382, 396, 400
Russlanddeutsche, 19 Savara, 147
Ruth (book of), 255 Savarkar, 343
‘Save the Girl, Educate the Girl’ project, 363
Sabarkantha, 135 Sayyah, Reverend Arastoo, 86
sacraments, 120, 146, 151, 237, 267, 327, 333, Scandinavian Alliance Mission, 181
365 Scheduled Castes, 254, 342, 415
Sah, R., 127 Scheduled Tribes, 156, 254, 420–1
Sahiwal, Pakistan, 28 schism, 15, 67, 460–1
saint(s), 50, 77, 190, 197, 217, 225, 241, 315, 319 Schneider, F. E., 127
Saint Petersburg, Russia, 44, 55 school(s), 18–20, 26, 28–9, 35–6, 47, 53, 58, 72,
Saint Tikhon Theological Institute, 226 85, 87, 98, 109–10, 118, 122–3, 133, 146, 148,
Salafis, 284 150, 153–4, 158, 164, 166, 172, 181, 186, 188,
Salesian Sisters of Mary Immaculate, 187 193, 199, 201–3, 214, 226, 228, 232–5, 242,
Salesians of Don Bosco, 181, 187 246, 255–6, 258, 261, 271, 277, 284, 297, 307,
Salsette, India, 132 328, 334, 341, 366, 368–9, 380, 394, 429, 434,
Salvation Army, 29, 123, 132–3, 201, 252, 399 437, 441–2
Samara, Russia, 63 Schulz, Benjamin, 127
Samarkand, Uzbekistan, 52, 211, 230, 327 Schwartz, Fredrerick, 275
Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, science, 17, 28, 31, 48, 52, 58, 62, 68, 103–4, 119,
Technology and Sciences (SHUATS), 31, 125, 128, 180, 188, 215, 231, 269, 307, 353,
125, 269 373, 467
samsara, 36 Scientology, 298
Samudre, Vasant Bhaurao, 138 Scotland, 132, 181, 237
Samuel, Thomas, 281 Scott, David, 158
Samuel, Vinay, 281 Scripture(s), 20, 78, 89, 93, 100, 102, 104–5,
Sanatan Dharma, 439 127–8, 136, 142, 257–8, 262, 265, 270, 295,
sanctification, 160, 280 303, 316, 319–20, 330, 359, 364–5, 370, 419,
sanctions, 25, 377, 424 440
Sangeet, Rabindra, 246 Scudder, Ida, 321
Sangh, Rashtriya Swayamsevak, 25, 124, 139, Sebak Sangha, 194
343, 347, 376 Second Vatican Council, 351
Sangh Parivar, 25, 343, 346 Second World War, 19, 68, 225, 282
Sangtams, 161 sect(s), 46, 48, 75, 78, 133, 243, 269, 287, 298
sanitation, 17, 110–12, 122, 437 secularism, 90, 184, 303, 330, 345, 376, 382,
Sanneh, Lamin, 268 384, 439
Sanskrit, 20, 25, 36, 137, 143–4, 148, 150, 161, security, 17, 19, 23–4, 31, 63, 89–91, 99–101,
163, 212, 254, 265, 342, 364, 391, 420, 422, 104, 114–15, 117, 151, 168, 189, 202, 279,
423 370, 437
Santa Claus, 21 seekers, 37, 100, 102, 105, 125, 300
Santals, 127, 181, 192–3, 252, 254, 420, 422 segregation, 280, 414–15
Santiago, Reverend Vedam, 237 Semey, Kazakhstan, 47
Saraks, 61 seminaries, 24, 28, 46, 55, 116, 137, 151–3,
Sardar, Sunil, 125–6 187, 202, 211, 227, 232–3, 256, 267–8, 297,
Sardhana, India, 120, 217 361
Sargamarta, 190 Sen, Kesub Chandra, 333
Sarkar, Luk, 195 Senate of Serampore College, 30, 33, 152, 367
Sassanids, 376 Seng Khasis, 159
Sastri, Vedanyakam, 275 Serampore, India, 15, 22, 30, 33, 128, 133, 152,
Sastriar, Vedanayagam, 255–6, 261, 391 188, 232, 276, 367, 422
Satan, 25 Serampore College, 128, 152, 188, 367
Satanic Verses, 25 sermons, 79, 267, 285, 316, 396, 415
Satara, India, 126 servants, 111, 397
Satcitānanda Ashram, 32 Seto Guras, 361
494 Index
settlement(s), 43–4, 199, 230, 234, 276, 397, Sinhalese, 18, 26, 29, 202, 204, 348
404–5, 412 Sisters of Charity, 320
Seventh-day Adventists (SDA), 19, 27, 49, Sisters of Charity of Sts Bartholomea
61–3, 67, 70, 74–5, 132, 188, 198, 272, 378 Capitanio and Vincensa Gerosa, 187
sex, 34, 181, 296, 369–70, 402, 466 Sisters of Jesus, 187
Shabri Kumbh Mela, 346 Sisters of Mary Immaculate, 187
Shah, Lalon, 191 Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows, 187
Shah, Prithvinarayan, 169 Sisters of St Aloysius Gonzaga, 187
Shah, Reza, 235 Sisters of St Anne Adoration Monastery, 187
Shaivism, 34, 36, 144, 147–9 Sitara-e-Imtiaz, 117
Shaktism, 144, 147–9 Sitara-e-Quaid-e-Azam, 117
shamanism, 53, 75, 79, 312 Sitara-i-Jurat, 109
Shammah, 266–7 Slav(s), 70, 73–4, 224, 226, 336
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, 23 slave(s), 185, 352, 399, 414
Shangri-La, 180 slavery, 254, 315, 359, 399, 401
Shantinagar, 113 Slovakia, 51
Shantivanam Ashram, 148, 220, 391 slums, 122, 280, 295, 437
sharia, 24, 37, 86–7, 100, 373–5, 380 Snaitang, O. L., 164
Sharif, Prime Minister Nawaz, 112 social action, 30, 128, 165, 171–2, 281
Sharma, Sudhir Deviprasad, 138 social consciousness, 321
Sharon Fellowship Church, 291 socialism, 388
sheep, 95, 142, 212 social service, 27–8, 32, 37, 39, 121, 123, 195,
Shenouda, Pope, 46, 66, 84, 121, 186–7, 201, 243, 255, 260, 366, 374–5
204, 211, 218, 354 Society for the Promotion of Christian
Shi’a Islam, 16, 52, 85, 90, 96, 375–6, 379–80 Knowledge (SPCK), 122
Shillidy, John, 133 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
Shillong, India, 37, 265 (SPG), 122, 132–3, 275
Shinde, Ashish, 140 Society of Biblical Studies (SBS), 127
Shining Hospital, 172 Society of St Francis, 187
Shinto, 468 Society of the Service of Christ’s Charity,
Shiraz, Iran, 86 126
Shiva, 148 sociology, 453
Shivaji, Chhatrapati, 131 Sogdian(s), 61, 65
shrines, 217, 322 Sogdiana, 65
Shudras, 409 soldiers, 18, 29, 32, 357, 397, 399
Shymkent, Kazakhstan, 47, 225–6 Solomon, Thomas, 361
Sialkot, Pakistan, 109, 115–16, 241 Somalis, 453
Sialkot Church Council, 241 Soodmand, Pastor Hossein, 87
Sialkot Convention, 115 Sopara, 132
Sikh(s), 97, 103, 126, 144, 184, 215, 244, 262, soteriology, 308
267, 269–70, 272, 365, 376, 399, 401–2 soul(s), 32, 88, 144, 278, 319, 351, 365, 393,
Sikh Yeshu, 126, 269–70 426
Sikkim, 156, 158, 421 South Africa, 57, 399, 405
silk road(s), 16, 97, 211, 312, 398 South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian
Silk Road of Eurasia, 211 Studies (SAIACS), 153
Simla, India, 263 Southern Asia Bible College, 297
Simon the Zealot, 83 Southern Baptist Convention, 188, 462
Simpson, Albert Benjamin, 132 South Gujarat, 135, 140, 346
sin, 32, 35–6, 38, 53, 84, 147–8, 287, 370, 415 South Indian Pentecostal Movement, 335
Sind, 396 South India United Church (SIUC), 237
Sindhi(s), 399 South Kerala Diocese of the Church of South
Singapore, 290, 400, 441 India, 367
Singh, Pastor Pratap, 261 South Korea, 49, 57–8, 75, 77, 79, 245, 272
Singh, Raja Dharup, 119 Soviet Central Asia, 19, 70, 75, 284, 384, 392
Singh, Sadhu Sundar, 22, 126, 262–3, 267 Soviet era, 57, 62, 98, 225, 227, 229, 282, 284,
Singh, Samundar, 129 330
Singha, 108–9 Soviet Union, 16, 45, 52–4, 56–7, 59, 65, 67–8,
singing, 89, 136, 149, 159–60, 165, 194, 246, 70, 72, 74–6, 78, 81, 95, 211, 225, 230, 272,
258–9, 265, 267, 347, 396 284, 289, 312–13, 331, 349, 358, 360, 377
Index 495
Spain, 143 student(s), 18, 24, 56, 116, 122, 125–6, 132, 135,
Spanish language, 26, 158 146, 153–4, 172, 176, 183, 187, 190, 226, 261,
spirits, 30, 32–3, 164, 171, 270, 279, 295, 316, 297, 307, 334, 365–7, 400, 437, 440–1
426–8, 434, 459 Student Christian Movement of India, 30
Spiritual Administration of Muslims in Student Christian Movement of Pakistan, 28
Kyrgyzstan (SAMK), 73 subjugation, 199
spirituality, 15, 32–4, 39, 80, 137, 150, 159–60, Sudan, 150
164, 182, 263, 265, 293, 295, 306, 320, 324, Sudras, 36, 144
333, 335–7, 361, 425–6, 443 suffering, 28, 38, 94, 100, 105, 117, 161, 175,
spiritual warfare, 299 204, 320, 348, 354, 372
Square Group, 191 Sufis, 32, 90, 197, 228, 312–13, 361, 378, 388
Sri Aurobindo, 319 suicide, 48, 146, 262, 348, 367
Sri Lanka, 16, 18, 26, 29, 32, 35, 38, 151, 197, suicide bombing, 48
200, 202, 204, 206, 212–13, 215–18, 220, 223, Sultan Mahmood of Ghazni, 97
237, 248–50, 252, 256, 259, 264, 274, 282, Sumatra, 398
288, 290, 292, 297–8, 308, 315, 337, 349, Sumis, 161, 167
356–7, 361, 366–8, 374–5, 384, 386–8, 390–1, Sumru, Begum Johanna, 120
393–5, 400–1, 438–41 Sundaram, Pastor M. K. Sam, 264
Sri Lankan Parliament, 203 Sunday school, 56, 233, 284, 369
Sruti corpus, 303 Sundram, Pastor G., 264
St Albert’s College, 128 Sunni Muslims, 16, 44, 50, 52, 61, 65, 96, 184,
St Anthony of Padua, 193 197, 227, 272, 377, 379
St Francis Xavier, 201 supernatural, 80–1, 293–4, 318, 459–60
St George’s Cathedral, 238 superstition, 334, 427, 429
St Gregory, 230 Supreme Court of India, 165, 342, 345–6
St John the Baptist, 184 Surat, India, 115, 132–4, 234, 405
St Joseph Pontifical Seminary, 152 Surat-Al Imran, 115
St Joseph Seminary Mangalore, 152 Surinam, 399
St Joseph’s School, 192 surveillance, 182, 283
St Lucia, 399 survey(s), 84, 347, 453, 455–7, 464, 466–8
St Nicholas, 65, 185 survival, 292, 294, 311–12, 377, 403–4, 418
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, 360 Suryavanshi, Satyawan Namdev, 138
St Paul the Apostle, 433 sustainability, 206
St Peter’s Church, 242 Suyab, Kyrgyzstan, 71
St Peter’s Pontifical Institute Bengaluru, 152 Sweden, 44, 453
St Roch, 66 Swedish Mission (KMA), 181
St Stephen’s College, 154 switching (religions), 464, 467
St Thomas Christians, 15, 30, 143, 223, 327–9, Switzerland, 204, 237
358 Sylhet, 158, 186, 188
St Thomas Evangelical Church, 324 Sylvestro Benedictines, 201
St Thomas Leprosy Hospital, 321 symbols, 21, 80, 148, 217, 226, 269, 293, 305–7,
St Thomas the Apostle, 348 320, 322, 391
St Thomas Theological College, 28 syncretism, 390
St Vincent, 187, 399 Synod of Diamper, 329
St Vladimir, 224 Syria, 15, 25, 28, 30–1, 61, 65, 71, 84–6, 90–1,
St Xavier College, 366 97, 121, 143, 152, 213, 223, 232, 234, 240,
Staines, Gladys, 321, 353 243–4, 313, 324, 327–8, 367, 382
Staines, Graham, 321, 341, 353, 360, 394 Syrian(s), 28, 30–1, 71, 84–6, 90–1, 97, 121, 143,
Stalin, Joseph, 19, 44, 57, 67, 74, 283 152, 213, 223, 232, 234, 240, 243–4, 324,
statistics, 85, 108–9, 299, 307, 317, 447, 453, 327–8, 367
455–6, 466–7 Syrian Orthodox, 143, 152, 213
Stella Maris College, 154, 366 Syrian Patriarch, 231
stereotypes, 164, 206, 309 Syro-Malabar Church, 143
stewardship, 154, 306 Syro-Malankara Church, 121, 143
stories, 15–16, 32, 80, 85, 129, 146, 151, 164,
292, 294, 310, 320, 371, 421, 438, 440 Tablighi Jamaat, 378
stress, 33, 48, 123, 145, 182, 220, 266, 279, 342, taboos, 147, 163, 424, 427
390, 406, 443 Tabriz, 234
Struggle-Hope-Empowerment projects, 109 Tagore, Rabindranath, 191, 332
496 Index
Taize Brothers, 187 the Maldives see Maldives, the

Tajik(s), 24, 52, 95–6, 102, 228, 378 theocracy, 381
Tajikistan, 16, 23–4, 27, 31–2, 38, 66, 68, 70, 95, theologians, 16, 56, 116, 128, 138, 164, 204, 220,
211, 226, 228–30, 248, 272, 274, 283–4, 290, 245, 281, 305, 322, 330, 337, 352, 367–8, 372,
298, 313, 338, 349, 360–1, 365, 374, 377, 384, 388, 433
435 Theological College of Lanka, 202
Taliban, 16, 18, 24, 99–101, 111, 375, 380 theological education, 58, 62, 152–3, 176, 178,
Tamangs, 168 193, 271, 297
Tamerlane, 97, 312 theology, 15, 21, 33–4, 39, 58, 93, 104, 116,
Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church, 255 125–6, 129, 137–8, 142, 145–6, 150, 152, 154,
Tamil language, 255 162, 164, 166, 176–7, 183, 201, 220, 222, 232,
Tamil Lutherans, 15, 255–6, 399 236, 239, 263, 278–9, 281, 297, 305, 328, 330,
Tamil Nadu, India, 15, 143, 144, 148–50, 152–3, 338, 352, 355, 357, 359, 386, 388, 390, 439,
217, 252, 254–5, 256, 261, 275, 287, 347, 364, 461
391, 398–9 Theravada Buddhists, 18, 38, 204, 364
Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary, 152, 256 Thiangzau Church, 265
Tamil Sri Lankans, 204–5 Third Order Regular of St Francis of Assisi of
Tamil Tigers, 29 Penance, 187
Tanjore, India, 256 Thirunaal, Punita Anthoniyar, 150
Tank, Pakistan, 108 Thomas, Apostle, 15, 119, 143, 199, 231, 327
Tannirpalli, India, 32 Thomas, John, 191
Tansen, Nepal, 172 Thomas, Kenneth, 92
Tantric Hinduism, 271 Thomas, M. M., 143, 330–3, 337, 387–8
Tarangambadi, India, 151 Thomas, St, 15, 28, 30, 83, 108, 116, 119, 143,
Tarumitra, 126 149, 199, 213, 223, 231, 261, 321, 324, 327–9,
Taseer, Salmaan, 111, 348 348, 358
Tashauz, Turkmenistan, 62 Thompson, John, 127
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 23, 54–6, 59, 225, 230 Thozhiyur Church, 223
Tatar(s), 57, 67, 161, 225 Thrissur, India, 145
Tavassoli, Sasan, 92 Tibet, 168–9, 181, 397
Tavella, Cesare, 195 Tibetan Buddhism, 271
Taxila, Pakistan, 15, 109, 397 Tieffenthaler, Joseph, 199
Taylor, J. V. S., 133 Tilak, Narayan Vaman, 126, 137, 139, 261, 278,
Taylor, William, 132 391
teacher(s), 58, 81, 153–4, 161, 165, 176, 233, Timm, Richard William, 192
235, 279, 341, 366, 368, 409, 437, 442 Timothy, 182, 394
technology, 17, 31, 100, 105, 117, 125, 155, 269, Tiruchirappalli, India, 148, 153, 366
307, 400, 402, 442, 464 Tirunelveli, India, 287
Teen Challenge, 296 Tirupattur, India, 32, 126, 391
Tehran, Iran, 28, 85–7, 90–2, 234–5 Tirupattur Ashram, 391
Telangana, India, 144, 252 Tiruvallur, India, 364
television, 19, 89, 93, 190–1, 232, 257, 290, 294, tithing, 21
299, 442 Tlira Pawl, 265
Telugu, 144, 148, 150, 154, 267–8, 402, 405 tobacco, 293
temples, 107, 146, 148, 204–5, 277, 382, 402, Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan, 71
411, 413 Tolentino, Bangladesh, 185
Tengir, 79 tolerance, 48, 88, 103, 145, 175, 303, 307, 310,
Tengri, 75 343, 347, 349, 360, 374, 377, 380–1, 387
tent makers, 206 Tolkapiyam, 144
terrorism, 23–4, 47–8, 107, 228, 243 tombs, 371
Thaddaeus, Judas, 230 tongues, 125, 161, 164, 265, 287–8, 294, 404,
Thadou-Kuki, 265 459–61
Thailand, 165, 397 torture, 130, 197, 244, 359, 379
Thakors, 135 totalitarianism, 383
Thana, India, 132 Tourani, Ghorban, 88
Thane, India, 15, 132, 139, 141 tourism, 425
Thanzauva, K., 164 trade, 16, 23, 34, 95, 97, 100, 132, 143, 151,
Thapa, Agatha, 361 184–5, 224, 234, 248, 280, 303, 327, 389,
Tharangambadi, India, 15, 275 397–9, 401, 436
Index 497
trader(s), 23, 97, 100, 143, 151, 184, 234, 327, Tursunzoda, Tajikistan, 66
398–9 Tus, Iran, 385
trafficking, 122, 221, 296, 367, 401, 436, 441 Twelver Ja’fari, 18
training, 21, 28–30, 33, 36, 58, 68, 89, 93, 98, Two-Nation Theory, 107
108, 116–17, 122–3, 133, 142, 147, 152, 154,
164, 170, 176, 190, 193, 202, 207, 211, 216, Uddin, Jasim, 191
226, 232–3, 245, 263, 267–8, 271, 285, 296–8, Uganda, 399, 462
341, 367–8, 391, 399, 436 Ukrainian(s), 43, 61, 66, 74, 211, 223, 225–7,
Tranquebar, India, 15, 151, 214, 237, 275 272
Tranquebar Declaration, 237 Ul Haq, General Zia, 380
transformation, 47, 103, 151, 163–4, 204, 222, unchurched, 292, 299
268, 277, 279, 281, 295, 308, 322–3, 334, 337, unemployment, 112, 285
351–3, 388, 397, 403–4, 411, 428–9, 438, 461 UN Human Rights Committee, 373
translatability, 261, 268 Unification Church, 75
transmigration, 144 Union Church, 237
trauma, 29, 37, 405 Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith,
Travancore, India, 231, 237, 288 46
travel, 115, 163, 174, 257, 269, 300, 310, 317, Union of Evangelical Christian Baptist
327, 398, 413, 427 Churches of Turkmenistan, 62
treaties, 373, 435 Union of Evangelical Christians of Tajikistan,
Treaty of Yandabo, 156–7 67
tribal(s), 20–1, 37, 39, 127–9, 133–5, 138, 141, Union of Evangelical Churches of Uzbekistan
156–60, 162, 164–6, 184, 188, 192–4, 214, (UECU), 56
216–17, 221, 229, 254, 265–6, 277–9, 294, Union of Evangelical Students of India (UESI),
310, 317, 322–4, 337, 343–4, 349, 391, 422, 135
424, 426, 428, 430, 440 Unitarianism, 166, 389
Tribal Mission of the Indian Pentecostal United Arab Emirates, 396, 400
Mission, 133 United Bible Societies (UBS), 78
Tribal Study Centre, 37 United Christian Hospital, 109
Trinidad and Tobago, 399 United Christian Voices, 244
Trinity Full Gospel Church, 261 United Christian Youth Forum, 190
Trinity Theological College, 164 United Church of Northern India (UCNI),
tripitaka, 320 122, 134, 238, 241
Trippel, Philipp, 74 United Evangelical Lutheran Church, 30, 152,
Tripura, India, 156, 158, 323, 421 367
Tripureshwor, Nepal, 171 United Free Church of Scotland Mission, 237
Trivandrum, India, 145 United Kingdom, 462
Truth Seekers, 37 United Methodist Church, 240–1
Tsanglha, 183 United Mission to Nepal (UMN), 29, 37, 170,
tsars, 72 172, 271
Tshering, Father Kinley, 182 United National Party, 282
Tulu, India, 144 United Nations, 88, 107, 180, 363, 373, 396,
Tumanjants, Isaj, 62 447, 452, 454–6, 467
Tungabadra, India, 148 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),
Tura, India, 161 31, 454
Turfan, Turkmenistan, 61 United Nations Development Programme
Turk(s), 97, 283, 313, 349 (UNDP), 107
Turkestan, 52, 55–6, 70, 225 United Nations International Migration Report,
Turkestan Eparchy, 225 396
Turkey, 75, 84, 88, 230 United Pentecostal Church, 290
Turkmen, 16, 23–4, 27, 31, 38, 62, 95–6, 102, United Society for the Propagation of the
211–12, 226, 229–30, 272, 274, 290, 298, 331, Gospel (USPG), 122
338, 349, 358, 360–1, 365, 374, 377, 384–5, United States of America (USA), 18, 24–6, 49,
436 51, 57, 59, 75, 77, 79, 85, 194, 204, 222, 245,
Turkmenbashi, 62–3 250, 258, 265, 290, 298–9, 339, 368, 373,
Turkmenistan, 16, 23–4, 27, 31, 38, 62, 95, 378–9, 381, 396, 399–402, 405, 435, 441, 458,
211–12, 226, 229–30, 272, 274, 290, 298, 331, 462, 467
349, 358, 360–1, 374, 377–8, 384–5, 436 United Theological Seminary of Maharashtra,
Tursunov, Ernst, 78 137
498 Index
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Vedanta, 320, 389, 391

(UDHR), 26, 103, 351, 363, 373, 375, 383, Vedas, 36, 303, 319
452, 455 vegetarianism, 390
University Grants Commission, 153 Velankanni, India, 150
University of Dhaka, 192 Vellala, India, 255
University of Madras, 31, 153 Vellore, India, 145, 154, 321, 366, 391
University of Mysore, 153 Vellore Medical Colleges, 366
Unknown Christ of Hinduism, 330, 391 Vendrame Missiological Institute, 37
UN Special Rapporteur, 91, 198 vernacular(s), 160, 188, 230, 234, 278, 308, 404
Untouchables, 131, 134, 144, 254, 256, 297, 335, vestments, 25, 143, 257, 435
342, 391, 409–10, 412 victims, 29–30, 32, 111, 124, 189–91, 221, 266,
UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 284, 296, 328, 353, 363, 371–2, 393, 398, 401,
103, 351, 383 436
Upadhyaya, Brahmo Bandab, 220, 391 video, 98
Upanishads, 36, 303 Vietnam, 165
uprisings, 52 Vijayawada, India, 145
Uralsk, Kazakhstan, 226 Village of Hope, 296
urbanisation, 144, 418, 436 Village of the Dead, 163–4
Urdu, 38, 111, 127, 246, 402, 439 violence, 26, 38, 100, 140, 146, 157, 168, 174,
Urshan, Andrew, 288 195–6, 203, 207, 219, 274, 282, 284, 309, 322,
Urumia, Iran, 90 325, 347–8, 353, 359, 363–4, 370–1, 375,
US State Department, 274 381–2, 393–4, 410, 435, 440–2
Uttar Pradesh, India, 21, 36, 120–1, 124, 257, Virat Hindu Sammelan (World Hindu
269, 347, 399 Council), 344
Uttarkhand, India, 297 Virgin Mary, 187, 190, 391
Uyghurs, 24 virtue, 166, 310, 463
Uzbek(s), 16, 20, 23, 27, 31–2, 38, 54, 56, 58, 61, Vishnu, 22, 35, 148
65, 70, 72, 76, 79, 95–6, 102, 211–12, 226, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), 25, 343, 347
228, 230, 248, 272, 274, 283–5, 290, 298, Vivekananda, Swami, 332
312–13, 327, 330–1, 338, 349, 358, 360–1, Vladimir, Archbishop, 73, 76
365, 374, 377, 384, 435 vocation(s), 186, 216, 219, 222, 267
Uzbekistan, 16, 23, 27, 31–2, 38, 54, 56, 58, 61, Volga Germans, 44, 225, 282
65, 70, 95, 211–12, 226, 228, 230, 248, 272, volunteer(s), 146, 165, 438
274, 283–5, 290, 298, 312–13, 327, 330–1, Volunteers Initiative Nepal, 438
338, 349, 358, 360–1, 365, 374, 377, 384, 435 Volunteer Society Nepal, 438
von Kaufmann, Konstantin, 55, 73
Vacation Bible School, 279, 284, 369
Vaigai River, 148 Waddell, Bahram, 86
Vaiphei, 265 Waddell, Jean, 86
Vaishnavism, 34, 36, 144, 147–9, 409 Waghai, India, 346
Vajpayee, Prime Minister Atal Bihari, 346 Wahhabism, 284
Valde, S., 127 Wakhan, Afghanistan, 99
Valde-Bulcke Bible, 127 Waldegrave, Granville Augustus William, 56
values, 20–1, 30–1, 36, 45, 48, 50, 103, 144, 150, Walls, Andrew, 268
153, 159–61, 164, 175, 190, 193, 195, 203, Wangchuck, King Jigme Singye, 180
236, 239, 245, 303, 305, 307, 314, 316–18, Wangyal, Tandin, 375
321, 328, 334, 340, 367, 393, 410, 423–4, 429, Wanigasekara, D. E. Dias, 288
433, 437, 440 war(s), 16, 19, 25, 29, 32, 67–8, 98–100, 109,
Varanasi, India, 124, 126, 264, 268–9 152, 156, 189–91, 194–5, 204, 207, 219, 225,
Varki, A. M., 328 228, 230, 241–2, 282, 339, 348, 368, 400–1,
varna, 20, 36–7, 144–5, 148, 254, 409, 415 428, 435, 438
Vasai, India, 134, 136, 138–9 Ward, William, 188, 191
Vasavas, 135 water, 35, 95, 112, 151, 256, 357, 374, 398, 423,
Vasu, Pastor Stanley, 262 436–7, 440
Vatican, 34, 47, 49, 93, 211–12, 215, 217, 222, Wati, Imachaba Bendang, 281
318, 346, 351 Way of the Cross, 175, 316
Vatican II, 34, 215, 217, 222, 318 wealth, 21, 23, 33–4, 72, 115, 145, 148, 154, 166,
Vattalil, Mariam, 129 198, 200, 246, 266, 313, 342, 360, 381, 383,
Vaz, Father Joseph, 201, 204, 218 399, 410, 416, 435, 441
Index 499
weapons, 19, 25, 98 World Watch List (WWL), 338, 347, 394
weddings, 59 World Watch Monitor, 348
Welsh Presbyterian Mission, 158 worship, 15, 20–1, 24, 27–9, 31–2, 37–9, 58–9,
Wesleyan Methodists, 152 63, 72, 79–80, 83–4, 89, 91, 97, 107, 126,
West Bengal, 234 135, 137, 143, 146–50, 160, 162, 165, 167,
Western Europe, 17–20, 25, 29, 75, 152, 248, 170, 174–5, 180, 182, 184, 202, 211, 217–18,
401 220–1, 227, 229, 238–40, 243–4, 246, 253,
Westernisation, 163 256–8, 264, 266–70, 280, 293, 295–6, 298,
West India, 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 288, 306, 316, 320, 322, 324, 336, 339, 365, 373,
397 375, 377, 382, 385, 396, 403–4, 413–14, 430,
West Pakistan, 116, 240–1 435, 439
West Pakistan Christian Council, 116 worshipper(s), 31, 84, 148, 298, 404
White Russians, 43
Wickramaratne, Colton, 282 Xaverian Fathers, 191
Wickramaratne, Eran, 282 Xavier, Francis, 132, 151, 201
widows, 29, 147, 199, 389 Xavier Colleges, 154
Wilayat-i-Faqih, 376 xenophobia, 101
Wilder, R. G., 132 Xinjiang Province, 24
William, Theodore, 244
Williams College, 132 Y2K, 400
Wilson, Daniel, 414 Ya, Danilenko I., 67
witchcraft, 21, 33 Yachts, William, 127
witnessing, 141, 182, 212, 246, 309, 318, 323, Yantsen, Herman, 55
333, 351, 356, 360 YAVNA Foundation, 285
womanist theology, 337 Year of Dialogue Among Civilisations, 88
women, 17–18, 21, 26, 28–9, 32–3, 37, 54, 56, Yellammā, 364
88–9, 103, 108–9, 114, 122–3, 128, 133, Yepthomi, Najekhu, 164
145–9, 153, 155, 185–7, 195, 201, 219, 221, Yeshu Darbar Church, 124–5, 269
224–5, 232–3, 243, 245, 257, 263–4, 269, Yeshu Satsang, 126, 269–70
271, 277, 296, 304–5, 307, 309–10, 312, 321, yoga, 319
330, 341, 349, 352–4, 357, 363, 365–71, 373, Young, Father Charles J., 189
376, 380, 387, 401–2, 405, 435–6, 438, 440–2, Young, Reverend William, 240
456–7 Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA),
Wood’s Despatch, 158 28, 30, 128, 195, 237
workplaces, 176, 368, 440 Young Women’s Christian Association
World Assemblies of God Fellowship (YWCA), 28–30, 38, 128, 195, 367
(WAGF), 290 youth, 50, 56, 88, 108, 122, 136, 165–7, 173,
World Bank, 107, 396 176, 190–1, 233, 258, 284–5, 291, 336, 357,
World Christian Database (WCD), 447, 452 364
World Christian Encyclopedia (WCE), 467 Youth With A Mission (YWAM), 173, 176
World Communion of Reformed Churches Yusefi, Reverend Mohammed Bagher, 87
(WCRC), 109
World Council of Churches (WCC), 93, 109, Zabur, 99
233, 239, 305, 351, 356, 387, 394 zakat, 72
World Evangelical Alliance (WEA, World Zaranj, Afghanistan, 99
Evangelical Fellowship), 281, 291, 384, 394 Zarephath Bible Institute, 24
World Hindu Council, 25, 343–4 Zathangvunga Pawli, 265
World Mission Prayer League (WMPL), 194 zenana, 133, 309, 367
World Missionary Conference (Edinburgh), Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, 180, 181
237, 240, 305 Ziai, Aslam, 116
worldview(s), 75, 78–9, 100–1, 170, 175–6, 294, Ziegenbalg, Bartholomäus, 151, 254
304, 337, 359, 412, 416, 423, 425, 427 Zomi, 426
World Vision, 165, 194, 442 Zoroastrian(s), 52, 83, 85–6, 92, 97, 131, 224,
World War II, 19, 68, 74, 225, 282 272, 303, 305, 312, 377

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EDINBURGH COMPANIONS TO GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY

Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity

Combines empirical data and original analysis in a uniquely

Editorial Advisory Board

Christianity in South and

Kenneth R. Ross, Daniel Jeyaraj and

© editorial matter and organisation Kenneth R. Ross, Daniel Jeyaraj and

Edinburgh University Press Ltd

Typeset in Palatino and Myriad

ISBN 978 1 4744 3982 4 (hardback)

Series Preface viii

West India 131

Major Christian Traditions

While a number of compendia have recently been produced on the study

1. Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa

9. Christianity in Eastern and Southern Europe

As series editors, we rely heavily on the regional expertise of the

Kenneth R. Ross and Todd M. Johnson

Atul Y. Aghamkar is Director of the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s

Anand Amaladass is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, editor of Satya

Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar is presently a pastor in the Evangelical

Mehak Arshad (MPhil in English literature) is a researcher and teaches

Barakatullo Ashurov is a Visiting Scholar in Near Eastern Languages and

Jesudas Athyal is former Associate Professor of Dalit Theology and Social

Marina Ngursangzeli Behera, a Presbyterian from Mizoram, India, is

Prashan De Visser is President and founder of Global Unites, an inter­

Leonard Fernando sj is Principal of Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi,

Gulnar Francis-Dehqani is Bishop of Loughborough within the Church

Alina Ganje was born in Kazakhstan and holds a master’s degree in

Roger E. Hedlund is Director Emeritus of the Mylapore Institute for

Romina Istratii successfully defended her PhD thesis at the School of

Anderson Jeremiah is Lecturer in World Christianity at Lancaster

Daniel Jeyaraj is Professor of World Christianity and Director of the

Sheela Jeyaraj is an ordained presbyter of the Church of South India and

Youshib Matthew John is Research Coordinator at Lahore College of

Todd M. Johnson is Associate Professor of Global Christianity and Director

Arun W. Jones, Dan and Lillian Hankey Associate Professor of World

Jacob Kavunkal svd teaches missiology and is Head of the Department

Feruza Krason holds a Master of Arts (Biblical Languages) from

Atola Longkumer, a Baptist from Nagaland, teaches religions and missions

Michael Nazir-Ali is President of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research,

Pradeep Perez sj is a research scholar of the folk tradition of Christian

David Radford is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of South Australia.

Peniel Rajkumar is Programme Executive for Inter-religious Dialogue

Kenneth R. Ross, formerly Professor of Theology at the University of

Ivan Satyavrata spent several years in Christian leadership training

Rebecca Samuel Shah is a research professor at Baylor University’s Institute

Bal Krishna Sharma is Principal of Nepal Theological College in

Savithri Sumanthiran is an accountant by profession and has over 25

Tandin Wangyal is founder of Bhutan Theological Seminary. An ordained

Felix Wilfred is Emeritus Professor of the State University of Madras,

Kaholi Zhimomi is Assistant Professor at the United Theological College,

Hindus Muslims Sikhs

Religions in South and Central Asia, 1970 and 2015

Christianity in South and Central Asia, 1970–2015

Christians by Country, 2015

Religious affiliation, 1970 and 2015

Major Christian Traditions, 1970 and 2015

27.2 million 75.3 million

% of country population The largest Christian populations in South and Central

9.9 million 23.1 million

% of Christian population Catholicism has remained stable proportionally in the

3.5 million 21.4 million

Series Preface viii

West India 131

Prashan De Visser is President and founder of Global Unites, an inter