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       Christian–Hindu encounter in India: From the beginnings of Christianity in Kerala to the present day

      A key to understanding Indian Christianity is that it is the faith of a minority, and indeed a tiny minority. Just 2.3 per cent of Indians registered as Christians in the last census, and this number was down from 2.6 per cent in 1971. In numbers this is over 24 million people, a large proportion practising. Some estimates are that the figure is now around 30 million. There are, of course, enormous regional variations, with Christianity by far the majority faith in certain small north-eastern states, and comprising around a quarter of the population in the highly educated state of Kerala. Southern states also have percentages well above the average, as do certain urban areas. But other states vast in population such as the Hindi belt of North India have tiny numbers of Christians. There are less than 0.3 per cent in the largest state by population, Uttar Pradesh, and no more in the rest of the northern areas outside the cities or tribal areas. This means that Christians are, and always have been, surrounded by a vast ocean of people of other faiths; they are so often indeed just a drop in that ocean.

      Of course, the nature of the ocean around them will vary; in most areas it is Hinduism in a broad sense, but the make-up of that population varies enormously in terms of caste, main theological and philosophical traditions, deities worshipped in rural contexts and city temples, and manifestations of Hindu practice in terms of festivals and customs. Among these factors, the Dalit questions have come to the fore in recent decades, and whether Dalits see themselves as Hindu at all; and the variety of tribal belief systems and practices varies enormously regionally and locally.¹

      It is therefore impossible for Christians to live uninfluenced by these contexts. How far have expressions of Christianity changed within this environment? At the same time, what is surprising is how much influence Christianity has had on those around them, particularly Hindus. A question is how to measure this relationship – is it by the number of Hindus who have become Christians, or by the changes found in Hinduism as a result of living alongside this minority? This influence has been both upon the individuals concerned and also in the thinking and practice of the faith or faiths that make up Hinduism.

      In terms of relationships, a key question is whether Christianity is an Indian religion or not. Ambedkar was clear it was not.² He admired it greatly for the strength of its social gospel, but felt he could never join it, because it would mean joining a ‘foreign’ religion, just as much as Islam was. The Hindutva movement of recent decades has also had, as a major platform, that only Hindus can be truly Indian, and neither Christians nor Muslims can be fully trusted for their Indianness because their ultimate loyalties lie elsewhere. A diametrically opposed view was taken by India’s first prime minister, Nehru, who in Parliament in 1955, around the question of conversion and the constitution, affirmed strongly that Christianity was an Indian religion as were others. He said, vividly, ‘Christianity is as old in India as Christianity itself. Christianity found its roots in India before it went to countries like England, Portugal and Spain. Christianity is as much a religion of the Indian soil as any other religion of India.’

      I now look at the history of the major churches, in terms of their relationship with people of other faiths, especially the 80 per cent who are Hindus.

The churches in India and their interaction with Hinduism

      Orthodox (St Thomas) Christians and other faiths

      Nehru was calling attention to the very early advent of Christianity to southern India, through the agency of St Thomas or those associated with this apostle in the first two centuries of Christianity. Christianity in Kerala was not the introduction of Western colonial mission; it came from Syria, and it has always remained independent of such missions. Its history was a remarkable example of survival without help from outside for more than a thousand years. The change came with the coming of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, when parts of this Church became part of the Roman Catholic Church. But many were allowed to keep the Syrian rite and customs. Others remained within the Syrian Orthodox traditions completely. They have survived all these centuries surrounded by Hinduism, and in some areas by Islam, by becoming a kind of high caste, and being accepted by other high Hindu castes as equals. Their relationship was one of mutual respect, with strict rules against intermarriage with those ‘lower’ than themselves. They were also clear they were not to evangelize other faiths around them. These were ways of survival, and this led to fossilizing of life and liturgy.

      In the nineteenth century, some of these St Thomas Christians felt this fossilization. They felt there should be a sense of mission and theological development. They asked the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) to send missionaries to help them. The result was not what they expected. The vigour of the two missionaries sent led to a split in the Church. The Mar Thoma Church was formed, which still maintained the Syrian rite, but engaged actively in mission and evangelism to Hindus. It believed in a vigorous relationship with those around, and became a major Christian Church in terms of influence up to the present day. It holds the largest annual evangelistic convention in the world. At the same time, another mission – that which later became the Church of South India in Kerala – worked with the low caste, and formed the Diocese of Madhya Kerala. Hinduism indirectly or directly was the reason for these church divisions. If mission was to be successful, in practice it seems it had to live within the caste system. By this route, casteism became endemic in the Kerala Church, as it was to become within all the main churches, by various