India: An Introduction
India is a great country and totally different from any other nation in the world. It is the world's second most populous country teaming with over one billion people. India is the seventh largest country in the world in areas. The total area covered by the country is equal to one third the area of the United States. New Delhi is the capital of the country. The name of the country is derived from the Old Persian name for the river Indus. India is a developing country with China on the North-East, Pakistan on the West, Burma and Bangladesh on the East and Nepal and Bhutan on the North. It was a British colony for more than a century since 1858 until independence was declared on August 15th 1947 as a result of the non-violence movement organized by Mahatma Gandhi. As a sign of development, India has ventured into many fields of development with numerous achievements in science and technology. The architecture of the ancient monuments and the pleasant climate in specific parts of the country attracts tourists from around the world.

India is one nation in name, but it is also an agglomeration of nations. It is many countries in a harmonious one, and one country with a cacophony of many countries.

The Indus region has always been a fertile, technologically advanced, and highly literate region of the world. It is mentioned twice in the book of Esther, and was known to the Jews a thousand years before that and many kings in the Bible presumably had business links that extended via sea up to India. The abundance of rivers and fertile land caused people in Indus region to spread around and settle everywhere. Gradually these settlements developed into autonomous kingdoms each with their own language, culture and custom. Eventually even these multiplied within individual kingdoms into many more sub-languages and subcultures.

Around two millennia ago there arose a loose unification among these people due to multiple reasons, such as powerful conquerors who annexed vast territories into their kingdom, marriage alliances with powerful kings, and military protection offered to smaller kingdoms by their more powerful neighbors. This process of annexation and federation caused a Universalist and Pluralist cultural and religious outlook to develop, where everyone zealously guarded his culture and customs, but also allowed space for others to grow. The resultant philosophical and cultural outlook in a refined and codified form is the present day Hinduism. It is the most Pluralist and Universalist way of life in the world, and has the power to assimilate every viewpoint, Eastern or Western. Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism grew up here as autonomous religions, but have been assimilated into the larger Hinduism in such a manner that their autonomy is not affected but at the same time they are part of the Hindu society and culture. In addition, there are thousands of Indian neo-religions which are part of Hinduism, but which enjoy autonomy at the same time. The Sindhis and Parsis came here with a totally different theology, but have become an integral part of the Indian society due to the same factors. The final result is a country which is one, but which is also many. A unique country indeed.

Peoples

People from several races make up India, among whom the Aryans (prominent in North India) and Dravidians (prominent in South India) are the largest groups. There are also many of Australian, African, and even Mongoloid origin. Except for the last group mentioned above, there has been much mingling and intermarriage and it is not always possible to analyze or isolate these groups or races. Moreover, instead of classifying on the basis of races, it is more objective and helpful to classify Indians on the basis of what is rightly called a "People Group". A "People Group" is a natural classification, based upon clusters made by people themselves. Such large people-groups form on the basis of customs, caste and culture. There is great deal of uniformity and unifying factors within a given people-group, while at the same time many things isolate and insulate one people-group from other people groups. In 1991 as many as 4,635 people groups were identified in India. Sharing the gospel in a focused manner within one people group is more easy and fruitful compared to preaching randomly to multiple people-groups. In addition, there are over 6,400 castes among the Hindus, with many social barriers among different castes though all of them are Hindus and Indians. There is no country anywhere which has so much diversity, and yet India is one nation in spite of it.

Castes

Caste is basically an Indian and a Hindu concept. Hindus, who form over 80% of the Indian population, are divided into as many as 6400 castes, with a clear hierarchy of castes from the highest to the lowest. One-sixth of the Hindus belong to the higher castes, and they control the bulk of the big business, larger institutions, and the most lucrative jobs. However successive governments have been doing everything for the upliftment of the lower castes.

Society

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

Languages

There are in excess of 1,652 languages and dialects, of which over 400 are classified as "living languages" which makes it a daunting task to provide Scripture to everyone in their first language. However, the need is met for time being to a great degree by the 18 major languages of India, which if used with vision can reach almost the entire population. For example, only about 41 million people have Hindi as their first-language but as many as 400 million can comfortably understand messages given in Hindi. This has been facilitated by the mass-media and also by the multi-language policy of the education system. Every Indian school-student has to learn at least two languages (the local language plus Hindi), but in most states they also have to learn English and Sanskrit. This is tough on students but great for national-integration, communal harmony, and easier information-dissemination. This also helps Christians to spread the love of Christ without having to preach in numerous languages at the same time.

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

The Christian Faith in India

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

Several smaller states in the North East also have a high Christian population that might reach ninety percent of the total population of the state. Thus a small number of small-sized southern and North Eastern states account for sixty percent or more of the total Christian population. The rest, when spread over the remaining large states, reduces Christians to an insignificant minority there. In some states only one person among 1,000 to 10,000 people is a Christian, and many of these are only nominal Christians. Thus the distribution of the Christian population in India is highly uneven. This creates serious challenge for those who move to new areas to share the message of Christ because on Sundays they might have to travel more than 100 kilometers to reach the nearest Christian fellowship. In certain remote areas this distance can be even greater.

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

New Testament Pattern Assemblies in India

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

In about 110 years the Indian assemblies have grown to 2,200 congregations, the bulk of which are situated in two states: Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. In the last five decades, pioneer missionaries, mostly from the tiny southern state of Kerala, have gone to almost all other states to share the gospel. Numerous assembly testimonies have thus been established in the unreached areas. Furthermore, an increasing number of local people from these areas are committing themselves to go into full-time ministry among their own language-groups.

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

Current Evangelistic Trends

The Indian assemblies have learnt to adapt to the changing circumstances, and as a result there are numerous types of evangelistic ministries.

Open-air preaching is becoming increasingly difficult, but still continues to be an important method for sharing the gospel. In recent decades there has been an increase in house-to-house visitation and sharing of the gospel. In a society where women are averse to visit the houses of strangers, sisters' teams go for house-to-house visitation in southern parts of India and receive a warm welcome from the unchurched. The results of such a personal approach have been gratifying.

Literature evangelism plays an important role in India. The high literacy-rate has produced a minimum of 500 million people who are functionally literate, and open to literature evangelism. Many assembly ministries and evangelists use this opportunity, and use literature produced either by them or by other agencies such as the Bible Society. Of late, assembly-based movements like SBS (Evangelistic fellowship for Children) have started targeting unreached and unchurched Indian children through VBS and Children's Clubs. Others use the Internet, Radio, TV and even CDs for evangelistic activities.

The assemblies in India are actively involved in sharing the gospel with millions at the dawn of the twenty-first century.