There are about 50m Christians in India, with Catholics being the largest single group. Xtians are believed to have arrived as early as c.52 CE.

A simplified understanding of Xtian arrival in India is the following:

Thomas the Apostle is reputed to have arrived in India around 52-58 CE. Legend has it that he performed many miracles and healings (he saved 92 from death, 260 from devils, 230 from leprosy, 220 from paralysis & 250 from blindness).

Many families in Kerala still trace their conversion to the time of the Apostle. There are families which claim to have held hereditary priestly (kattanars) or episcopal office (metrans) since that time.

On July 3 each year Thomas Christians recite a prayer reputed to have come from his own lips when he was killed by Brahmans. True or not it indicates the beliefs of these Xtians that they have an ancient church.

An account of Thomas’s missionary journeys is found in the Acts of Thomas (possibly second century) [see interesting extracts on pp. 150-151). Whatever the truth of these tales there was enough commercial trade (blown back and forth between Africa/Arabia and India by the monsoon and other trade winds) too say that Xtians came early to India.

There had also been Christians further west in Persia but these communities died out, probably because they used Syriac and not Pahlavi (= Persian) in the liturgy and because it had a very monastic and celibate emphasis (almost Manichean) which weakened it among the laity. In 345 there was a persecution of Persian Christians by the Zoroastrian leadership and many fled to the Malabar coast, where they prospered as traders.

Later, after the rise of Islam, more Christians fled east to India where they were often given land by local rulers (usually demarcated by the traditional method of allowing a female elephant to roam free). Islam resulted in a separation of these communities from European Xty (Greek and Latin alike).

These Xtians became part of the caste system, occupying a fairly high position in the caste hierarchy. And they adopted many local customs while remaining Syrian Christians in doctrine, ecclesiology and ritual.

Today, at least six communities claim descent from the Apostle Thomas. They are:

The European Influence (the "Farangi")

The Portuguese arrived about 1500. They had the padronado system, which was papal sanction given to local political and religious leaders to run local afairs (e.g. in Goa the padronado was the Archbishop and a Council). Reports from this time put the number of Thomas Christians at anywhere from 70,00 to 200,000.

Early relations were cordial but this did not last. When the European priests learned of the beliefs and practices of the Thomas Christians (esp. their ‘Nestorianism’) they tried to impose Roman doctrine and practice. European priests objected to the fact that the locals would not call Mary ‘Theotokos’ but only ‘Mother of Christ’. They also refused to have images because this was too like the Hinduism from which they wished to distinguish themselves. They waited 40-80 days for baptism and their priests dressed like other people and married. They did healings, exorcisms, divinations of appropriate days for weddings, etc. Celebrations like the first mass of a newly ordained priest (‘kattanar’) were regarded as pagan by Europeans (they would have days of fasting and penance and nights of dancing and drums. They also did things like ‘trials of ordeal’ (walking on fire, swimming among crocs, putting your arms into boiling oil) which were regarded as superstitious by Europeans.

On the other hand the Indians were shocked at the rude manners and beef-eating habits of the Europeans, their sexual activities, their aggressive behavior and religious intolerance.

The Portuguese imposed Latin practices such as mandatory confession. When, towards the end of the 16^th c. the local religious leader Mar Joseph rejected this and re-introduced the old ways they shipped him off to Rome as a heretic (they did this 3 times and he died in Rome in 1569).

In 1599 the Latins held the Synod of Diamper at which most of the characteristic beliefs of the Thomas Xtians were condemned as heresy (e.g. their belief that the Patriarch of Babylon was the ‘Universal Pastor of the Catholic Church’). Speaking against the Pope of the Council of Trent was made a punishable offense.

This attempt at imposition of Roman rule did not succeed. Conflict went on for centuries as Thomas Xtians simply did not want Rome to rule over them. In 1653 they attempted to bring a new prelate from Babylon but this was thwarted by a Portuguese blockade. There was a large gathering at which people swore under oath never to accept a Farangi prelate. Then they installed their own Metran for the first time ever. To this day. the Malankara church commemorates this event as the time they reasserted their independence. In 1663 the Dutch defeated the Portuguese and thereafter the RC church was unable to impose its will on Indian Xtians.

Of course Catholics continued to evangelize, often moving inland. One people, the Paravas of the Gulf of Manar, converted en masse by 1537, partly as a result of receiving Portuguese protection in local wars. They were fishermen and this was ritually polluting. Francis Xavier visited them a decade after their mass conversion. They first of all learned Christian beliefs by rote memory and they are resolutely Christian to this day.

One of the most important of the later missionaries was the Italian Jesuit Constanzo Guiseppe Beschi (1680-1747). He became a leading scholar of Tamil and produced dictionaries, grammars, commentaries, etc. as well as much poetry and philosophy of his own. Read from Hastings p. 170 about the regal style in which he traveled.

The first Protestant missionaries in India arrived in 1706. Literacy - to enable people to read the Bible - was v. important for them and they established schools and trained their catechists very well. In 1715 the NT was translated into Tamil by Bart. Ziegenblag. His aim was that every human person should be able to read the Gospel in their own language. He also wrote a book (Genealogy of the Malabarian Gods) which was important in understanding local Hinduism but which conservative Christians criticized.

The most important Protestant missionary of the 18^th c. was Christian Frederick Schawrtz (1750-1798). He was fluent in at least 7 languages and ran a team of preachers across southern India. They converted quite a lot of people and founded schools, hospitals and voluntary self-help associations. Some of the schools were so good that high-caste Indians tried to have their children enrolled. Many of the most important of the leadrs of these initiatives were Tamils.

The political power of the Empire was not that interested in religion, even thought it often used missionaries as military chaplains or as diplomats. For example, many Christians who were persecuted by Hindus appealed to London for protection but this was seldom forthcoming.

The most important Protestant missionary of the 19^th c. was the Baptist William Carey. In the wake of the ‘Great Awakening’ he promoted voluntarism and many missionaries came to India from Britain, America, Canada, Australia and Scandinavia. Many of these missionaries in the 19^th c. opposed local practices such as female infanticide and widow-burning. However, the political leaders of the Raj were always very wary of missionary activity which would cause local unrest. Some Hindus thought of Christianity as the ‘handmaiden of imperialism’ (p. 181).

Sometimes when pious Christians opposed local practices (e.g. local festivals with dancing girls) the political leaders silenced them, fearing unrest.

There was also tension between Christians themselves. There were Catholic, Protestant and Thomas Christians vying for the same territory. There was some ‘sheep-stealing’ but also it was the case that new missionaries tended to go to more remote areas. The result of this was that many people from indigenous religions became Christian without ever being Hindu; this has meant that they do not fit into the caste system and this continues to cause friction with the National Government.

But the big issue for all Christians was ‘caste, culture and acculturation’ and it continues to this day. In general Christians were opposed to colonialism. Part of this is because so many missionaries were not British; the Catholics were often Irish, Italian, French, etc. and the Protestants were often from North America or Northern Europe. The nationalist anti-imperialist movement often received support from missionaries (and many of these were friends of Gandhi).

The Christian ideal of the equality of all humanity meant rejection of the caste system. But this was often more complicated. One Anglican missionary (George Pope) had some Christians publicly flogged for refusing to abandon caste rules and practices. Yet other Anglican missionaries were criticized for preaching only to Brahmans. Among the Catholics, the French tended to work with the caste system while the Irish opposed it and the Italians were divided.

This also effected Indian converts themselves. In the late 19^th c. there was a mass conversion of dalits but they remain to this day un-integrated with other higher caste Christians.

Some of the more liberal missionaries subscribed to ‘fulfillment theory’, i.e. all religions come from God and Hinduism can lead people to Xty so it is important to be positive towards Hinduism and understand it. This theology was put forward at the Parliament of World Religions at Chicago in 1892 and the World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh in 1910. More conservative missionaries stressed the distinctiveness and superiority of Christianity.

Among Catholics the caste system caused problems. In 1744 the pope (Benedict XIV) said that Catholics of high and low caste should hear mass together, but this was often circumvented by the clever use of different doors or seating different castes in different parts of the church. The low-caste Mukkavan fishermen wrote to Rome asking how they could not become priests seeing as the first Pope was a fisherman.

Since 1947 missionaries from abroad have all but disappeared from India. Anglicans, Congregationalists and Methodists came together to form the Church of south India. Baptists, Lutherans and other Protestants retained their separate identity.

Among Catholics the Portuguese influence has waned. 3 issues: how to implement Vat 2; how to resolve tensions between Latin Catholics and the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara churches; the development of Christian ashrams and their attempts to develop a Christian-Hindu spirituality. The Indian catholic church is almost unique in the Southern hemisphere in the number of priests it produces and it now exports many missionaries.

Hindu nationalism and hostility towards Christians has increased markedly. The BJP and other groups make up the Sangh Parivar (‘Society of families’) or ‘Saffron Brotherhood’. Christian church building are often destroyed on the spurious grounds that they stand on the land of some Hindu temple.

The Christian Dalit (= Crushed) has been growing much stronger. There is also resistance movements among the indigenous Christians of the North east, many of whom are Christians (Nagaland is the only Indian province with a Christian majority). And there is also increased awakening of the Pentecostal movement, especially in the cities.