Chapter 1

Introduction

I. Statement of the Problem

Doing mission in India is a very challenging and encouraging task. It needs lot of

strength and resources, it is often forgotten that mission is God’s work and He needs human

resource to carry it out. Every church considers doing mission as its theoretical imperative

but compromises when it comes to praxis. India being a great nation where modern

missionary movements took place is a fertile ground to carry out mission activities. After

independence and the departure of many foreign missionaries, Indians were forced to

consider mission endeavor seriously. It was by the foreign missionaries’ interest and

dedication that mission enterprise in India grew to a larger extent before independence. The

foreign missionaries brought the good news under the shadow of their western culture and

presented it gloriously in western thought and lifestyle. Some of their erroneous approaches

by the remaining missionaries gave rise to the idea of indigenous missions.

II. Elaboration of the Problem

K. M. Panikkar once predicted that, “Once the prop of colonial power and the foreign

missionary was withdrawn the church would recede and in a decade or two collapse”. 1 But it

just turned out to be the opposite; perhaps there was a time when the Indian church looked to

the mission and the missionary to, ‘take care of the things’. Now, thankfully that is no more.

As the scaffolding of the missionary endeavor was taken apart and packed up, it was

discovered that the building of the Indian church was made of far better quality materials than

had been imagined. Few foreign mission agencies were replaced by an excess of largely

indigenous agencies and societies. In midst of this transition, there still exist foreign missions
1
K. M. Panikkar, Asia and Western Dominance: A Survey of the Vasco Da Gama Epoch of Asian
History, 1498-1945 (Victoria, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1959), 286.
1
that are trying to manipulate and control the Indian churches and institutions in several areas.

The Indian churches have consciously accepted the western influences into its life and is in

the process of compromising with its traditional and cultural values that are more easily and

readily accepted by the Indian masses. Considering this issue, there need to be indigenized

mission movements that can comfortably reach the Indian masses uncompromisingly.

Foreign missions or western missions have largely influenced the Indian church in various

aspects which seems attractive, but there are people in the church who still mourn for their

cultural identity; and also people outside the church who are looking at these western

missions as a threat to nationalism.

Hence this thesis is an attempt to rediscover the glorious effects of indigenous

missions that were and are carried out by few purely Indian mission organizations / societies.

This thesis attempts nothing new or gives any recommendations but it is an assessment of the

Indigenous Missions wholly that are effective in the churches of south India. This thesis finds

some issues, characteristics and advantages of Indigenous Missions that needs attention and

evaluation. The writer having experience serving in an Indigenous church and being aware of

the challenges and limitations will stick to the ideas and insights that was obtained in his

ministry.

III. Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this research is to bring awareness and offer proposals to consider

indigenizing missions, churches. When the Indian missionaries/theologians/educators are

quite capable enough to plan and execute their mission strategies and have apt leadership

qualities to take the gospel beyond India, then why to associate with foreign missions

agencies and have grudges. Hence this study will help to reconsider some of the earlier Indian

mission movement’ methods and adapt their strategies into contemporary mission endevours.

2
It also will help to understand how mission enterprise took its shape post independence.

The objective will be:

1. To examine the pre-independence Christianity and the foreign missionaries in India

2. To analyze the foreign missions and emphasize the need of indigenization in Indian

mission methods and models

3. To identify the current issues and challenges in indigenous missions and find the

causes behind it

4. To recommend and propose the advantages in fostering indigenous mission

IV. History of Research

There are not many researches on Indigenous Missions in the recent past, except a

research done in 2013 by Dr. Raja Singh Elias who had taken up a case study on a particular

tribal group people known as ‘Kukna’ in Gujarat state, India. His thesis is titled “ Study on

the Issues of The Newly Formed Indigenous Churches in the Process Of Integration with

Established Churches, with Special Reference To Indian Evangelical Mission.” In this work

Dr. Raja had dealt mainly about the work done by IEM in establishing churches among the

‘Kukna’ people group. His main thesis is about integrating the indigenous churches planted

by IEM with the already established mainline churches. In his work Dr. Raja emphasized on

some critical understandings with the mainline churches and the indigenous churches,

leadership developments, alternative approaches in the process of integration, suggestions for

different models of integration.2 Since this study was to focus on the process of integration of

indigenous mission churches with the established churches and not on the emphasize of the

need for Indigenous missions progress and development, the writer tries in his work to give

2
Raja Singh Elias, “A Study on the Issue of the Newly formed Indigenous Churches in the Process of
Integration with Established Churches, with Special Reference to Indian Evangelical Mission,” (Unpublished
D.Min. thesis, Senate of Serampore College, 2012), 4.
3
more impression on the necessity and encouragements of new indigenous missions and to

practice its principles in the current mission methods in India.

An elaborate study on indigenous missions was done by Dr. Solomon Raj three

decades ago, who did his doctoral research in 1984 on Indigenous Mission in the state of

Andhra Pradesh. Later published his work in the book titled “The New Wine-Skins: The

Story of Indigenous Missions in Coastal Andhra Pradesh, India.” In his work Dr. Solomon

had done an in-depth study of a particular mission called ‘Bible Mission’ in Andhra Pradesh,

a church that was founded by a former Lutheran, Mungamuri Devadas. In this study Dr.

Solomon did not agree with the general condemnation of these churches as ‘sheep stealers’.

He showed in his research that ‘Bible Mission’ is a contribution to the Indian church that

throws of its ‘Latin captivity’ and started to shape its own theology, liturgy and ministry. 3 Dr.

Solomon had termed such indigenous mission churches as ‘Folk Christian Religion’. 4 Here

Dr. Solomon emphasized that a mission to be really indigenous need to be completely relying

on Indian leadership and raise all its cultural, financial and leadership resources in India.

Most of the western theologians and missionaries ignored the research done on

indigenous missional churches. They just termed this as ‘Syncretistic Christianity,’ as if

Western Christianity was not ‘a syncretism par excellence.’ 5 Dr. Walter J. Hollenweger

pointed that the new independent churches (indigenous mission churches) that Dr. Solomon

Raj has dealt, represented the future of Christianity worldwide. 6 Dr. Solomon summarized his

thesis by concluding that indigenous missions means; in the sense that those who minister

and initiate in these missions are sons and daughters of the soil and not the agents of any

foreign power.

3
P. Solomon Raj, The New Wine-Skins: The Story of the Indigenous Missions in Coastal Andhra
Pradesh, India (Delhi: ISPCK, 2003), xiii.
4
Ibid., 4.
5
Ibid., xv.
6
Ibid.
4
 R. Rajayyan, had done a study on the London Missionary Society (LMS) churches in

his M.Th thesis titled “Towards an Indigenous Church: A Historical Study of the Efforts to

Attain Selfhood in the LMS Churches in South Travancore from 1900-1947” in 1985. Here

he had focused on the efforts undertaken by the LMS churches to totally be independent from

the London mission agencies. This was one of the initiative towards indigenization of Indian

churches. Since after 1947, India became independent from the British and most of the

foreign missionaries had to leave the nation. Several churches planted by the foreign

missionaries had to be overtaken by the Indian ministers / missionaries. Efforts for selfhood

in Indian churches was the busiest task at that time. Rajayyan emphasized in his thesis on the

need for the Indian churches to be independent from the western dominion and influences.

An evaluation of indigenous missions was carried out by Jayaprakash Joshi in 1987

to assess the growth and development of about 82 indigenous mission agencies. He did this

by preparing a questionnaire and site investigation. His investigation showed there was a

steady growth in indigenous missions after independence in 1947.7 His work was actually an

attempt to evaluate a previously done study on indigenous mission by Dr. Roger E. Hedlund

and Dr. F. Hrangkhuma in their book “Indigenous Missions of India.” His study did not

include the hundreds of workers serving as independent missionaries without being attached

to any mission agency. His finding confirmed that the growth had been phenomenal, and

most Indian missionaries never leave their own country. They work with one or more of the

different Indian linguistic and other groups. He left open the possibilities of identifying

responsive groups and target populations, he also recommends research to be done to identify

effective ways and means of communications and creative training for workers in a cross-

cultural context.

7
L. Joshi Jayaprakash, Evaluation of Indigenous Missions of India (Madras: Church Growth Research
Centre, 1987), 18.
5
 Sam Lazarus in the book that he edited “Proclaiming Christ: A Handbook of

Indigenous Missions in India”, did a similar survey like Jayaprakash Joshi and included few

more indigenous mission agencies that grew after the 1980s. He had listed the directory of

Indic missions that functioned under denominational and non-denominational and

independent organizations. It was an handbook for new missionaries who wanted to join

indigenous mission agencies. Lazarus did not make any new findings in his writings but

rather emphasized the development of indigenous missions in India generally.

Richardson K. Luther, had done a study on the Lutheran churches in his M.Th thesis

titled, “An Examination of the Process of Indigenization of Andhra Evangelical Lutheran

Church from 1927-1969” in 1991. In this thesis Richardson had taken a case study on the

Andhra Evangelical Lutheran churches and their efforts in the process of indigenization. The

time limit that he had chosen is the exact time when the foreign mission agencies were

carrying out busy church planting and establishing various mission agencies. Lutherans being

the first Protestant missionaries to India did encourage indigenization and handing over

powers to the native workers. Richardson had recommended indigenization as the necessary

process among the Indian mission organizations.

Bishop. Ezra Sargunam of Evangelical Churches of India (ECI), edited a book,

“Mission Mandate: A Compendium on the perspective of Mission in India” in 1992. Here he

edited a collection of articles and mission experiences from various missionaries in India,

especially from indigenous mission agencies. ECI is also one such organization that plants

churches mostly in rural areas, and commissions indigenous missionaries to various parts of

India. In this book Dr. Ezra had emphasized the vision and mission of ECI as to identify,

disciple and transform the receptive people group in India. It evolves strategies to motivate,

train, equip and empower frontline evangelists and native (indigenous) missionaries to reach

the unreached people of India and multiply churches among them. This book also served as

6
an handbook for vocational missionaries and long term missionaries of different

denominations.

Dr. O. L. Snaitang had collected papers presented at a seminar in Shillong, India

during 1998 had compiled and edited a book “Churches of Indigenous Origins in Northeast

India”. This book was a guide to the Northeastern missionaries who mainly minister among

the hill dwellers and tribals. Dr. Snaitang had accumulated much information on the growth

and development of indigenous churches and their mission agencies. Since this deals with

Northeaster part of India, it is not taken into our account here.

R. Gnanadas, had done a study on the National Missionary Society in his M.Th thesis

titled, “Understandings and Practices of Mission of The National Missionary Society of

India” in 2000. Here he had outlined the NMS methods of establishing an indigenous church,

since NMS was one of the earliest indigenous mission organization started by the native

workers. Gnanadas had investigated on the various practices that were adapted by the NMS

in the given place, and understanding their context to present the gospel accordingly.

Dr. Roger E. Hedlund, director Emeritus of Mylapore Institute of Indigenous Studies

and managing editor of South Asian Journal of Missiological Research is a well known writer

and editor of several indigenous missions and ministries in India. In his books, “Quest for

Identity: India’s Churches of Indigenous Origin – the “Little Tradition” in Indian

Christianity” in 2000, and edited a book “Christianity is Indian: The Emergence of an

Indigenous community” and several other articles, he has studied and evaluated Indian

missions and indigenous missions in particular. He has written on the indigenous missions

from biblical and theoretical base. He asserts that indigenous Christian movements are

legitimate heirs of the biblical drive for unity in diversity. He leaves space for other

researchers to question on the raise and authenticity of such indigenous and small church

movements. He leaves with the questions like, Are they syncretic?, Schismatic?, Heretical?.

7
 Dr. Hedlund has contributed much to the Indian indigenous missions and encouraged

such missions agencies that hold good prospect to the Indian church growth. His writings are

an influence to the present writer in studying more on this missions models. Dr. Hedlund

being a foreigner in India and have influenced Indian missions from an outsider perspective.

His writings not only deal on Indian missions but also covers African indigenous missions

and other Asian home grown missions. His insights and contributions have much helped the

writer to consider studying indigenous mission within Indian churches.

Masilamani, had done a study on the National Missionary Society in his M.Th thesis

titled, “Intercultural Communication and Mission Practiced by the Indian Missionary Society

Thirunelveli” in 2006. Here he had focused on the means of communication especially in the

multi-cultured society of Thirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu state. NMS being one of the

pioneer indigenous mission organization with the principle of Indian men, Indian money and

Indian management. Masillamani had recommended various communication methods and

practices among the caste people, and emphasized on the importance of effective

communication within an indigenous church.

The writer in agreement with Dr. Solomon Raj, Dr. Roger Hedlund and other above

writers mentioned views on indigenous missions, and hence has undertaken this study to

assess the overall phenomenon, of fostering and emphasizing the need of such mission

endeavors in the south Indian independent churches. Previous writings were all done with

different perspectives of the writers in respect to their claims and emphasis. The present

writer tries to bring in the issues and advantages of indigenous missions with its positive

evaluations, and hence calls on the Indian churches, independent churches in particular to

take up missional endeavors in relation to the native (indigenous) perspectives. As the interest

and zeal in establishing indigenous missions has decreased in the south Indian churches in the

recent past, the writer’s purpose of this study is to evaluate and find the advantages in

8
indigenous mission strategies and encourage the indigenous churches, especially the growing

charismatic churches to consider the indigenous methods of taking the gospel to the

unreached; rather than adapting westernized forms and patterns.

V. Scope and Limitation

This study deals with the area of indigenous missions and churches where the

importance of indigenization is emphasized. It is not an new area of research but it is not

practiced or fostered much in the recent past. The scope of this thesis is to read into the early

writing of Indian missionaries and mission movements, by which their contributions will be

appreciated and considered to apply it contemporarily. Indian initiated mission strategies that

were forgotten or not given enough importance will be analyzed and proposed to reconsider

it. The entire thesis will mainly revolve on the Indian missionaries and Indian theologians’

thoughts and ideologies. All indigenized approaches and contributions to extend God’s

kingdom in India will be dealt with positively. This thesis also limits itself from any critical

evaluation of foreign missions in the light of their work and dedication and will limit itself

from any comparative analysis between the foreign missions and indigenous missions.

Whereas this research will bring to light the necessities for an indigenous mission and church

and emphasize on its obtainable results without compromising any cultural and traditional

values.

VI. Methodology

This is a qualitative research in which the data and information are obtained first

hand through current available literature on the specified area of research. The writer did an

analysis of the written sources and literature on indigenous missions. He also interviewed few

people who are involved in native mission organizations and indigenous church planters.

9
Libraries are the main source of data collection especially archives section; and visiting of

few indigenized churches and participating in indigenized church worships and lectures are

part of the research. Detailed study is done by first going through the previous researches

done on this area and reading through those materials and articles that are available.

Three aspects of indigenous missions will be dealt in this study.

Firstly, historical aspect will be analyzed, in which early Christianity in India which

existed before the European invasion is discussed. How the spirit of nationalism did help

Indians to integrate and co-operate to form a steady government, and how with the same

spirit it helped Christianity to take shape in the Indian soil is analyzed. This section will also

deal with few Indian theologians and their influences towards indigenous missions. This part

generally will help us to know how Christianity took shape in India during the British

presence, and why the need for indigenization of Christian mission was felt.

Secondly, theoretical aspect will be covered, in which the writer will stick to only

south Indian context; where few great mission related movements that gave momentum to

indigenous missions began. This movements were all indigenous in nature and purpose. The

concept of Indian ashrams that helped few Christian leaders to adapt a purely indianized

version of Christianity is analyzed. Beginning of ecumenical movements that involved in

uniting the churches for one purpose of propagating the gospel, and how this unity lead to the

mushrooming of several denominational and non-denominational mission societies, that did a

greater job in taking the gospel to the far ends of the nation will also be analyzed here. This

section will also deal with contemporary mission societies that pioneered in adapting the

indigenous model. This part will serve as a partial introduction to the next aspect where

indigenous missions’ actual strengths will be dealt.

Lastly, practical aspects will be dealt with, this section holds the important loci of

this thesis. Here the writer will analyze and find the characteristics and issues in indigenous

10
missions and evaluate it. Finally will recommend the advantages of indigenous missions by

referring to few pioneer missions and missionaries, that are still successful in managing and

sending missionaries cross-culturally. These missions still establish indigenous churches that

are maintained and preserved by the local leadership.

Chapter 2

Historical Aspects of Indian Indigenous Missions

I. Historical view on Indian Christianity

In this chapter the writer will take a look at few historical events and happenings that
11
paved way for Christianity to enter into India and pitch its base to propagate the gospel. Here

the writer gives an idea about certain aspects that existed and few people who contributed to

the spread of Christianity. A brief introduction to colonialism and Indian nationalism will be

covered in order to understand the socio-political climate at the time of entry of Christian

religion. A glimpse of pre-independent India and the contributions of few missionaries at that

time will also be discussed. Most of all the life and theology of few pioneer Indian Christian

leaders will help us to know what and how India was at the time of Christianity’s entry to this

vast land.

A. Introduction

Vasco Da Gama's arrival in 1498 to India established a sea route from Europe, and

during the following centuries, the Dutch, British, Portuguese, and French would build

settlements in port cities throughout the region. The collapse of the Mughal Empire in the

eighteenth century after the reign of Aurangzeb left a power vacuum that the British East

India Company and the French East India Company were eager to fill.

East India Company: This was formed by British traders to trade with India. They

set up godowns to store the goods they traded in. The protection of these godowns served as a

good excuse to build forts and maintain armies at such centers. During this time disorganized

kingdoms were fighting amongst themselves. The British took the golden opportunity to

benefit from these internal quarrels and helped one king against another. In this bargain the

British gained more power and wealth. The British trained Indian soldiers and employed

them in their army. This army was far better trained and disciplined than the armies with

small Indian kings who were just struggling to survive. Gradually the British succeeded in

capturing very large parts of India. They made treaties with kings who accepted the authority

of the British. They were kings only in name. The British very cleverly managed to collect

12
huge wealth from the people and the kings. Likewise, even the weavers of fine cottons and

silks were compelled to sell their cloth only to British traders at prices decided by them.

Anybody found selling his cloth to a trader other than the British was severely punished.

Also, no duty was charged on British goods coming to India. On the other hand, Indian

exports to Britain were subjected to high imported duty. The India cottage industry also

suffered at the hands of the British traders. India had a large handloom industry, but the

British by now had started a very big cotton textile mills in England. They needed a lot of

cotton for these mills, so cotton was purchased here at a very low price and sent to England

and in return huge quantities of cloth was sold in India. The result was that the big weaver

class in India became unemployed. People had to buy costlier British cloth, such were the

ways of the British to amass wealth in India that is to be sent back to England. Thus the

Indian farmers, weavers, traders, kings, nawabs, craftsmen were all unhappy and this

discontent led to the mightiest revolts in 1857 which was also joined by Sanyasis, Fakirs,

disbanded soldiers and British soldiers too. The British conquered India with the help of

Indian soldiers, but did not treat them properly. They were denied higher positions in spite of

their abilities. The Indians were also traded as slaves to other British colonies. The company

was indifferent to education and so the old system of education suffered under the British

rule. After this revolt the Company’s place was taken by the British government directly

which too was very harsh with Indians. In 1857, power was transferred from the East India

Company to the British Crown and India became a British colony. India fought a total of 111

wars and with Indian money and troops, British-India finally saw peace. The British

introduced modern technology with the intention to sell manufactured goods like textiles and

machines for profit. In the process of trying to make a profit and exploiting India, the British

did of course benefit India. They built railways throughout India in order to make everything

readily accessible. They established Law Courts, civil services and transport systems. They

13
also established factories, schools and universities to introduce western ideas and to

incorporate the idea of democracy. Missionaries came to India and spread Christianity. This

was all done in the name of Britain’s economy.

The colonial era started in 17th century British stepped into India in 18th century as

traders and ruled India almost between 1858 and 1947. Muslims had been ruling India for

almost thousand years but Britain had been able to gain control over them. After Britain took

control of India they made it British colony. The subcontinent was initially controlled by East

India Company, which set up number of factories and made India a traders post and proved

the most powerful company that controlled India with its direct rule as the support of some

Indian princes. India became a British colony in 1857 even as the power was transferred from

East India Company to British crown. British not only spread out their rule in India but also

in several countries in the world.

India's colonization supplied Europe with raw materials and a market for its exports

for centuries, a commercial exchange that would closely entwine the economies, cultures, and

people of India and Britain. By the late 18th century, the French had lost power in the region,

and the British dominated trade through protectionist measures that required Indian exports to

be transported on British ships. The British focused on consolidating their sovereignty,

acquiring lands by military conquest and by exploiting divisions among Indian states and

religious groups. British territory included the Punjab province and lower Burma (which

would come under their complete control in 1886), and the British spread new technologies

such as the telegraph, railroad, and steam transportation throughout the region. This

transportation network continues to flourish and grow to this day, as evidenced by the

Chennai Central Railway Station. After the violence of the Great Rebellion of 1857,

Parliament transferred the administration of the region from the British East India Company

14
to the Crown, initiating the era of the British Raj, which would end in 1947 with India's

independence.

The most ancient and preserved tradition of the Indian church says that the apostle

Thomas came to India, landing in Malabar in A. D. 52 irrespective of the truth about this fact,

it is doubtless that the Christian church has been established in south India from very early

times, probably from the 3rd century and possibly even earlier. Nestorian missionaries and

settlers also came to India, probably from about the end of the 4 th century, during the golden

age of the Nestorian missions to Asia.8 The so called ‘Nestorian’ church, known also as ‘the

church of the East’ was in fact the church of Persia. With an origin going back beyond the

Nestorian controversy and its tradition appears to have become the dominant one in south

India in the period before the arrival of the Roman Catholic missionaries at the beginning of

the 16th century.

The arrival of Vasco Da Gama at Calicut in 1498 opened a long and tragic chapter in

the history of the St. Thomas Christians.9 The Franciscans who arrived in 1500 found a

Christian church under the care of four Nestorian bishops, but it was not long before the

Roman Church began a determined effort to win their allegiance. Among the numerous

methods adopted to win the Christians away from their Persian loyalty, the bishops from

overseas were blocked and finally broken only in 1665 with the arrival of a bishop of the

Syrian church under the jurisdiction of the See of Antioch. Meanwhile the struggle between

the Roman hierarchy and the St. Thomas Christians had been a bitter one. In 1599, at the

Synod of Diamper all the members of the ancient churches except some Nestorians submitted

to Rome. The Syrian Orthodox Church is frequently called ‘Jacobite’ since they are usually

equated with ‘Monophysite.’

8
Stewart John, Nestorian Missionary Enterprise – The Story of a Church on Fire (Michigan: T & T
Clark, 1928), 94.
9
Cardinal Eugene Tisserant, Eastern Christianity in India: A History of the Syro-Malabar Church
from the Earliest Time to the Present Day (London: Newman Press, 1957), 87.
15
 The Portuguese explorers were active, and friars, in particular, seem to have

wandered singly or in small groups all over the eastern trade routes. Some of these men wrote

accounts of their travels, and these form the main source of our knowledge of the state of

Indian Christianity.10 When the Portuguese landed in Malabar soil in 1500, Admiral Peter

Alvares Cabrol came to Cranganore and first met many Christians of St. Thomas. The

Portuguese set out their voyages of discovery in the fifteenth century with a twofold motive.

First they wanted to expand their trade and the other reason was the enthusiasm for religion

which they believed and made sure that in every ship that sailed they carried with it priests to

minister to those on board. This made the Portuguese regard the evangelization of the natives

wherever they settled as a governmental and national responsibility.11

B. Early Christians of India (Thomas Tradition)

At the St. Thomas Day celebration in New Delhi on 18 th December, 1955, Dr.

Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India, made the following observation in his speech:

Remember, St. Thomas came to India when many of the countries of

Europe had not yet become Christians, and so those Indians who
trace their Christianity to him have longer history and a higher
ancestry than that of Christians of many of the European countries,
and it is really a matter of pride to us that it so happened…… 12

The history of Christianity in India goes back to the first century. There is a Christian

community in the Southwest coast of India that traces its origin back to the Apostle Thomas.

This community has preserved its Christian faith throughout the centuries in spite of the fact

that they have been surrounded by non-Christian world. When people from the West came to

10
Brown Leslie, The Indian Christians of St. Thomas: An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of
Malabar (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 11.
11
Tisserant, 11.
12
A. Mathias Mundadan, History of Christianity in India Vol. 1. From the Beginning up to the Middle
of the Sixteenth Century (Up to 1542) (Bangalore: Church History Association of India, 1989), 9.
16
Malabar, they were surprised to see how accommodating the Christians of the St. Thomas

tradition were.13

The arrival of the Apostle Thomas and his landings on the island Malankara have

been repeated in songs and verse for generation untold. Malankara was located inside a

lagoon not far from the ancient city of Muziris also known as Kodungallur. The oldest

internal tradition concerned a common belief that the Apostle came by seas from Arabia, that

he landed on the Malabar coast within a lagoon that was open to the sea, and that this was

located close to the historic seaport of Kodungallur. 14 This is held to be the first landing place

of the gospel in India. But the oldest external traditions seem also to suggest that the apostle

might first have come to India overland, that he arrived in the Indo-Bactrian/Indo-Parthian

north and later went down to south. Sources found in south India supports more the Thomas

tradition, it gives more specific indications of how what are known as Thomas Christians,

also known as Syrian Christians.15

Dating from the earliest centuries of the Christian era, these sources underlying the

Thomas tradition consist of carefully preserved oral sagas, literary texts, and genealogies,

epigraphic and numismatic data on stone tables and copper plates and coins of copper, silver

and gold and architectural remains. Stone crosses of great antiquity, perhaps dating back to

the second century, and attributed to the Apostle himself, also can be found in Quilon,

Niranam, Kotamangalam, Kottukkayal, Chayal and Palayur .16 Indigenous narratives relating

to the traditional origins of the Thomas Christians community contain the following

elements: that the Apostle landed either on the island of Malankara or on the adjacent

mainland of coastal Malabar; that he lived and worked there for a number of years; that he

13
Francis Thonippara, “St. Thomas Christians: The First Indigenous Church of India,” in Christianity
is Indian: The Emergence of an Indigenous Community, ed. Roger E. Hedlund (Delhi: ISPCK, 2000), 64.
14
Robert Eric Frykenberg, Christianity in India: from the Beginnings to the Present (New York:
Oxford University Press Inc, 2008), 99
15
Ibid.
16
Ibid.
17
sailed around Cape Comorin and up the Coromandel coast; that he stopped at Mylapore (or

Mailapur); that, after going to China, he returned to Malabar (A. D. 58); that he settled in

Tiruvanchikkulam where he remained long enough to strengthen the seven original

congregations of Malankara, Chayal, Kotamangalam, Niranam, Paravur, Palayur and Quilon;

that having trained leaders of each congregation, the Apostle departed from Malabar for the

last time (A. D. 69), leaving behind a strong, self-propagating and self-sustaining community

of Christians; and finally that having travelled widely, he made converts in Mylapore. There

he was martyred in the year 73, pierced by spear thrusts inspired by irate Brahmans.17

According to Placid T. Podipara, one of many authorities who devoted many years to

studying Thomas Christian texts, “many Thomas Christian families of Kerala still trace the

original conversion of their community to the time of the Apostle,” 18 or to any of a number of

migrations which occurred during the many centuries prior to the arrival of the Portuguese in

1498.19 Thomas Christians even claimed to be of ancient Brahmanical lineage, “some also

claimed pure Jewish Christian descent tracing them back to ancient Mesopotamia.” 20 Some of

the more recent converts to the Christian faith came from backgrounds and cultures that held

highly privileged status, regardless of whatever egalitarian doctrines they might have

personally espoused. Hints of early Christian presence in India are found in writings which

date only a century or two later than A. D. 73, the date of Thomas’ death, as this has been

preserved in local traditions of Thomas Christians. 21 From Alexandria, the citadel of early

Christian learning, a Jewish-Christian scholarly convert named Pantaenus, who had been

mentor to Clement and Origen, determined ‘to preach Christ to the Brahmans and

philosophers’.22 “According to Eusebius, he went as far as India ‘and found that Matthew’s

17
Frykenberg, 99.
18
Placid J. Podipara, The Thomas Christians (Madras: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1970), 126.
19
Frykenberg, 101.
20
Ibid., 380.
21
Ibid., 103.
22
James Noll Ogilvie, The Apostle of India (London: Baird Lecture, 1915), 35.
18
gospel had arrived before him and was in the hands of some there who had come to know

Christ’”.23 Though there was a doubt about which India; however, ‘Brahman’ mentioned by

Jerome could hardly have come from anywhere but India. Moreover Jewish communities

such as the ancient Beni Israel, dating them back to the first Exile, had already long been

settled along the shores of western India; and more Jews arrived after the destruction of

Jerusalem in A. D. 70, with yet another wave following them in the year 136. Thus, there can

be no reason to doubt that Christian and Jewish communities were already settled along the

shores of the subcontinent by the second century. 24 Quite clearly, in processes that stretched

more than a thousand years, if not longer, different Christian communities evolved within

what was a highly segmented society in Malabar. From the outset, these seem to have been

for the most part, aristocratic and indigenous elite. They were Hindu in culture, Christian in

faith, and Persian or Syrian(Orthodox) in doctrine, ecclesiology and ritual.25

Many non-Christians in India think that Christianity in India is the fruit of the mission

work of the western missionaries, so these persons want to eliminate the Christian religion

from the Indian soil. But, St. Thomas Christian community is a proof that Indian Christianity

is as old as Christianity itself. 26 These Christians developed an individuality of their own,

profoundly influenced by the socio-political environment of India, and in particular, Malabar.

The Indian church of St. Thomas had a vital, organic growth in the midst of the living

realities of India. St. Thomas Christians lived their Christ experience in the India context. The

life-style of the St. Thomas Christians of the pre-sixteenth century is of unique importance. P.

J. Podipara has briefly defined it as ‘Indian in culture, Christian in religion and Oriental in

worship’ hence there is no evidence to brand these Christians as foreigners.27

23
Frykenberg, 103.
24
Ibid., 103.
25
Ibid., 112.
26
Thonippara, 63.
27
Podipara, 127.
19
 The existence of St. Thomas Christians is a record of preservation of the rituals and

customs of an original Christian identity dating to earliest times. They were more

accommodative among non-Christians people, this stands in contrast to more militant

attitudes associated with the colonialists.

C. Colonialism and Ecclesiastical Dominion

Christians in India, over the centuries from 1599 onwards, were continually

conflicted and confused by various patterns of political behavior that were initiated by

European Christians. European Christians held positions of authority which connected them

to aspirations and pretensions of the countries in Europe from which they had come. From the

middle nineteenth century onwards, this adherence to an extension of ecclesiastical structures

would be called ‘denominationalism.’28 Whatever other label it may be called as, this

development in India was about building an ecclesiastical dominion. When they began to

control or to dominate Christians who were native to some parts of Indian continent, this

activity became a manifestation of ‘Colonialism’, the paternalistic behavior exposed India’s

Christians to subjugation and exploitation. For the most part, it was by the Anglican clergy

and missionaries who came to India not simply to spread the Gospel to people ‘dwelling in

darkness’ but with specific designs of expanding the domains of the Church of England. The

Catholics on the other hand, were never in such process to enforce complete authority or

dominion over those Christians and missionaries, even Jesuits, who lived and worked beyond

the borders of Catholic rulers.

European Christians attempt to control and exercise dominion over Indian Christians

increased during the nineteenth century onwards, especially as this was applied in relation to

manifestations of caste consciousness and caste-related customs. 29 The writer will see two

28
Frykenberg, 243.
29
Thonippara, 243.
20
specific incidents that occurred in two different part of South India, one in Travancore and

other in Tanjore:

1. Travancore: Anglican Attempts to Dominate Thomas Christians

In November 1806, Mar Dionysius I, Metran (Bishop) of the Syrian branch of

Thomas Christians of Malabar, received Claudius Buchanan who was a very old man. He

claimed to be the direct and legitimate lineal successor of the Apostle Thomas and

represented a proud and ancient people. He had been sent from Calcutta by the British to

offer an alliance and establish Anglican control. He promised the Bishop to supply printed

copies of both Syriac scriptures and Malayalam translations of scriptures since most of the

copies were ravaged by the invasion of Tipu Sultan and had caused trouble to the Malankara

Church and all Thomas Christians who were in trouble. The Bishop was pleased because he

accepted this approach as a sign of protection from the East India Company, and wanted to

extend friendship between Thomas Christians and the British Raj(Empire) .30 The Malabar

Christians who met Buchanan were ‘Hindu’ and fully in sense indigenous or ‘Native’. They

were Hindu in culture, Christian in faith and Syrian in polity, rituals and doctrines and cared

little about doctrinal disputes.

When the Portuguese arrived, they were welcomed as allies against British predators

but later resented when the Portuguese imposed a Catholic hegemony. The Archbishop of

Goa had cast aside Syrian institutions and burned Syrian libraries, this lead to the resistance

to Catholic domination. This was the situation when the first permanent British political

residents came to represent the East Indian Company’s interest in Travancore. For certain

amount of time Thomas Christians had favor from few British leaders who helped them to

have important positions in society, though this was a partiality. But this situation did not last

and the missionaries took control of the Thomas Christians and were told henceforth all
30
Frykenberg, 244.
21
ceremonies, doctrines and tires would be made to conform to the Scriptures as interpreted by

missionaries.31 When Bishop Daniel Wilson came to Travancore he took a much harder, more

principled and less tolerant norms, this caused outraged among the Thomas Christians. After

much resentment when they assembled at Mavelikkara for a synod meeting, they firmly

rejected Wilson’s views and reaffirmed the apostolic authority of their own ancient tradition.

Their action at this synod ended any formal connections between Thomas Christians and

Anglicans.

As a result, after two to three decades of Anglo-Syrian collaboration, two reform-

minded groups of Evangelical Thomas Christians emerged and broke away from the old High

Bishop ecclesiastical authority. The smaller and more dissident part of Thomas Christians

became Anglican. The larger one remained staunchly committed to the ancient Thomas

Christian traditions. In 1888, the Mar Thoma Evangelistic Association was founded for the

specific purpose of outreach to lower-caste peoples.

2. Tanjore Christians: Anglican Missionaries and Caste

The Anglican missionaries belonging to SPG(Society for the Propagation of the

Gospel) had arrived in Thanjavur to take over the positions and properties left by the last few

German missionaries who were supported by the SPCK(Society for the Promotion of

Christian Knowledge). They immediately launched attacks against customs and practices of

Christians that were practiced and held and linked to caste. Bishop Reginald Heber had

defended segregated public worship from missionary attacks. He had argued that:

Indian Christians of different castes who sat separately were no worse

than Christian masters of Christian slaves in America or Christian
gentry and their Christian servants in Europe who sat and worshipped
separately – with gentry and masters attending worship on Sunday
mornings while their menials prepared Sunday dinner or their slaves
and servants either worshipping on Sunday evenings or otherwise in
upstairs galleries during morning worship.32

31
Frykenberg, 244.
22
 But after his death positions taken by all earlier German missionaries were reversed.

Daniel Wilson, the Metropolitan Bishop of Calcutta who succeeded Heber initiated these

changes. Yet, when an actual ban was pronounced against caste discrimination and when

Paraiyar (low caste) Christians were ordered to sit on the grass mats normally used by

Vellalars (high caste) and also told to sit on the Vellalar side of the sanctuary, Vellalar

Christians abandoned the building in mass.33 At the same time, when Vellalars refused the

common cup and common bread of the Holy Eucharist, 700 of them were excommunicated

from the congregation. Petitions against missionary intrusions into their private affairs by

local Christians enraged at such provocations eventually came before the Governor of

Madras. These petitions bitterly complained against humiliation, fines, imprisonments and

beatings.34 Like many non-Christians surrounding them, such Christians who found

themselves obliged either to join or submit to domination became extremely resentful and

never forgot what they had suffered.

Caste was not just a simple matter of birth, or of blood or lineage. Each Christian

belonged to a family and a community – to a concrete entity with locality and specificity,

with face and name, with birth and blood, and with tongue and style and taste. Birth, caste,

intelligence, language, pollution, social ranking, and status were anything but common. 35 The

change was always possible; but, at best, this only, preferably, and usually came slowly, and

painfully.36 Since radical ideas from America and Europe had altered aspirations of

missionaries in India; the western ideas of equality were sought to impose upon everyone,

especially every Christian. They were calling for all to worship together in the same seats, eat

together from the same dish, drink together from the same cup, sing together the same songs,

32
Thomas Robinson, “The Last Days of Bishop Heber,” Quoted from Robert Eric Frykenberg,
Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 258.
33
Frykenberg, 258.
34
Ibid, 259.
35
Frykenberg, 259
36
D. Dennis Hudson, Protestant Origins in India: Tamil Evangelical Christians: 1707-1835 (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 140.
23
study together in the same schools, work together in the same fields, and wed together

persons of different birth.37 But the worst part was that, some of the Europeans who were

making such strong demands from others would never themselves do.

After a century of growth as Evangelical Christians, Tamil congregations found

themselves being dominated by Anglican CMS(Church Missionary Society) and SPG

(Society for Propagating the Gospel) missionaries. Nellaiyan Vedanayagam Sastriar, on

behalf of Thanjavur Christians accused missionaries of committing four cruelties, they are:

(1) Tampering with Tamil Scriptures, replacing old versions with their
own; (2) Forcing integration of all Christians into one caste, and
excommunicating form the Eucharist all who refused to comply; (3)
Prohibiting flowers for festive celebrations such as weddings and
funerals and (4) Removing Tamil lyrics and Tamil music from worship
services.38

D. Caste System Among Early Christians

Caste system is a part and parcel of Indian society in its social and religious

framework from time immemorial.39 Caste in India is classified under the law known as

‘Varnashramadharma’ given by the Hindu law giver Manu. According to this law caste is

determined by the system of ‘color coding’. All people falling within a genuinely recognized

caste belong to one of four ‘colors’ or ‘categories’ or ‘classes’ of castes. 40 Each color or

category is a ‘Varna’ (color). The highest category of color was ‘White’ This color represents

‘Ultimate Reality’ or the ‘Cosmos’, intellectuality, rationality; the people with this color were

the ‘Brahman’ caste. Next category was ‘Red’ This color represents courage, valor, rulership,

warriors; the people with this color were the ‘Kshatriya’ caste. Next category was ‘Yellow’

This color represents makes of wealth, accounting, banking, business, commercial enterprise;

the people with this color were the ‘Vaishiya’ caste. The last category which is the lowest was

37
Ibid., 143.
38
Hudson., 148-72.
39
Geroge Kuruvachira, “The Response of the Church to the Caste Problem,” in Caste Culture in
Indian Church eds. Sebasti L. Raj and G. F. Xavier Raj (New Delhi: Indian Social Institute, 1993), 38
40
Frykenberg, 44.
24
‘Black’ This color represents serving peoples in the three varnas who were ranked above

them. There is also a fifth category which is called as ‘Colorless’ these were peoples from

caste that lay beyond the pale, they are usually considered as ritually invisible or

unmentioned and too polluting to mingle among respectable peoples. People from this

category were seen as dust, excrement or filth, there were also known ‘Untouchables.’ 41 They

are also called as ‘Dalit’, Dalit comes from the root ‘dal’ meaning "oppressed," "broken," and

"crushed," which realistically describes the lives of members of this community. Even though

this group of people consists of about 15-20 percent of the Indian community it is considered

sub- or nonhuman; thus it is not included in the community’s composition. This large group

has been ejected from the contours of Hindu society; it still lives outside the gates under the

labels "outcaste," "untouchable," "exterior caste," "depressed class," and "Dalit." The Human

Rights Watch report has the following to say on the situation of the Dalits:

More than one-sixth of India’s populations, some 160 million people,

live a precarious existence, shunned by much of society because of
their rank as "untouchables" or Dalits -- literally meaning "broken"
people -- at the bottom of India’s caste system. Dalits are
discriminated against, denied access to land, forced to work in
degrading conditions, and routinely abused at the hands or the police
and of higher-caste groups that enjoy the State’s protection. . . . In
what has been called "hidden apartheid" entire villages in many Indian
states remain completely segregated by caste. 42

There is one more category or group of people that live in India apart from the caste

and casteless people. They are more or less homogeneous indigenous communities, which are

not obligated to the Indian caste system yet are marginalized by caste communities. These

have been grouped under the term "Adivasis," and they are also referred to as Tribals or

Schedule Tribes(ST). India has the largest concentration of such indigenous and tribal people.

"India has 427 ‘scheduled’ tribes -- each unique in its own right. As many as 400 tribes exist

in India; they ostensibly are a major segment of the Indian social fabric, with a legitimate

41
Ibid., 46-48.
42
Smita Narula, Broken People: Caste Violence Against India’s "Untouchable," (New York: Human
Rights Watch, 1999), 1-2.
25
share in the subcontinent’s unmatched pluralities."43 The numerous Adivasis of India can be

classified under three major racial and linguistic groups, which are spread over the

mountainous and the plateau regions of the country: the Austric Munda language family

group; the Dravidian group; and the Tibeto-Burman Mongoloid group. 44 "Adivasis" (means

the ancient or original dwellers of the land) is utilized here to retain an awareness of their

claim to being the original people of the land and to point to their cultural and religious

relatedness to things of the earth. Further, according to a recent article entitled "Call us

Adivasis, Please," Gail Omvedt suggests that this is the term by which they want to be

known.45 The Adivasis generally have lived through exploitative, oppressive and suppressive

social and political structures in India.

Caste is a social form with a history of its own which has changed, and is changing and has

certainly diverged substantially from its misty and obscure origins it also takes significantly

different forms in the various regions of India.46

Like the country, the church in India is divided on caste lines. Though the church

makes it very clear that every type of discrimination, whether social or cultural, whether

based on sex, race, color, social condition, language or religion, is to be overcome and

eradicated as contrary to God’s intent. But the virus of casteism that afflicts the church in

India seems almost invincible. The ‘casteist mentality’ is deeply ingrained in the psyche of

most sections of Indian society and of the Indian church. This mentality however is only one

aspect of a wider and more pervasive malady which grips most of the people. This is a spirit

that discriminates and throws up barriers between us humans, dividing society into factions

based not only on caste differences but also on differences of race, color, culture, religion,

43
Buddhadeb Chaudhuri, ed. Tribal Transformation in India, Vol. 2 (New Delhi: Inter-India
Publications, 1992), xiii.
44
Gail Omvedt, "Call us Adivasis, Please," The Hindu: Folio (11 July 2000): 12.
45
Nirmal Minz, Rise Up, My People, and Claim the Promise: The Gospel among the Tribes of India
(Delhi: ISPCK, 1997), 9.
46
Duncan B. Forrester, Caste and Christianity: Attitudes and Policies on Caste of Anglo-Saxon
Protestant Mission in India (London and Dublin: Curzon Press, 1980), 1.
26
language, class and political affiliations.47 The harm this can cause is compounded many-fold

when combined with the human drive for power, domination and control of others for self-

gain.

In the present Indian church one can notice that the caste factor still plays an

important role in the choice of marriage partners, the conservation of ancestral and acquired

properties within the family and caste, the choice of neighborhood to live in, the choice of

social circles in which one moves and the like. In ecclesiastical circles caste influences the

recruitment patterns of candidates to priesthood and religious life in the appointment of

pastors to parishes and religious leaders in administrations and financial institutions. There

exist tensions between the caste Christians in few states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Goa.

The SC (Scheduled Caste) Christians are still labeled as ‘Rice Christians’ who were allegedly

converted for material gain and upward social mobility, rather than out of spiritual

convictions.48 The unfortunate result is that many SC Christians suffer from the crippling

inferiority complex, taking on a servile and fatalistic attitude. Particularly in urban areas they

experience a sense of alienation from the local parishes, and feel neglected by the pastors.

Caste continued to have a profound influence in the churches born of caste-based mass

movements. Some castes converted away from Christianity rather than enter a church which

was of a predominantly rival caste.49 Other churches divided along caste lines, the high

egalitarian ideals of Christianity being stopped in their tracks. The previously external

problem and mission critique of caste now became internalized within the churches. Whilst

there had been general condemnation of caste outside the church, now, internal responses

47
Leslie J. Almeida, “The Indian Church and the Invincible Virus of Casteism,” in Caste Culture in
Indian Church, eds. Sebasti L. Raj and G. F. Xavier Raj (New Delhi: Indian Social Institute, 1993), 31.
48
Leslie J. Almeida, 32
49
Mark Laing, “The Consequences of the ‘Mass Movements,’” Indian Church History Review 3.5
(December 2001): 93.
27
were divided. Opposition to caste often resulted in ‘caste-keeping’ Christians being driven

into more caste affirming institutions, such as the Catholic and the Lutheran churches.50

The Indian social structure is quite complicated, for it divides society into castes and

sub-castes which reduces some communities to the level of slaves in its own country. Since

the Christian missionaries began philanthropic activities in order to improve the living

conditions of these servile people, in various parts of India, Christianity was identified with

social justice and it established itself as a defender of the oppressed. The conversion of

people from the backward classes to Christianity and their consequent admission to church

membership created a new situation and generated new problems for the church. The new

converts were economically poor and could not share in the financial responsibilities

especially in the maintenance of the priests who ministered to them.

E. Early Protestant Missionaries

Modern Protestant missions began in India not only in terms of missionary activity

but in terms of the theology of mission as well. Their roots go back to Philipp Jakob Spener

(1635-1705) and August Hermann Francke(1663-1727) and their Pietism. In his book Die

Christliche Mission – Geschichte und Theologie 51 Gerhard Rosenkranz shows, in Spener’s

own words, how he ‘earnestly thirsted after God-pleasing betterment of the Protestant church’

though separated from the world, he and his fellow ‘born-again’ brethren served the world in

selfless love; for, so they believed, thus would the will of God be fulfilled in the world

through them.52 This goal was not to create a utopian society on earth, but ‘to prepare for the

coming of the kingdom of God.’ Thus began the Protestant missions with the arrival of

Hermann Francke and Philipp Jakob Spener. Both these pioneer missionaries landed in
50
G. A. Oddie, Social Protest in India (New Delhi: Manohar, 1979), 253.
51
Gerhard Rosenkranz, Die Christliche Mission : Geschichte und Theologie (Munchen: Chr. Kaiser,
1977), 164.
52
Ibid., 166.
28
Tranquebar in the eastern coast of India on 9th July 1706. Bartholomew Ziegenbalg, the leader

of the team, was a pupil of Francke and was motivated for mission by him.53

It was on 9th July 1706, Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plutschau arrived in

Tranquebar(Tarangambadi). Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg was born in Saxony in 1682. He

studied at the University of Halle, then the centre for the Pietistic movement in the Lutheran

Church. He responded to an appeal from the King of Denmark for missionaries, and in

September 1706 he and Heinrich Pluetshau arrived in Tranquebar on the southeast coast of

India, the first Protestant missionaries in that country. 54 They began preaching, and baptized

their first converts about ten months later. They were harassed and persecuted by the Danish

Governor Johann Sigismund Hassius who saw these missionaries not only as a danger to

trade but as possibly provoking attack from the Maratha Raja of Thanjavur who had besieged

the Tranquebar at that time.55 Their work was opposed both by Hindus and by the local

Danish authorities, and in 1707 Ziegenbalg spent four months in prison on a charge that by

converting the natives he was encouraging rebellion. Later after a brief imprisonment, they

were released while Plutschau worked more with the Portuguese community, Ziegenbalg

concentrated on the mastery of Tamil culture. He sat on floor with school children and took

part in their lessons. Within one year, he delivered his first Tamil sermon and wrote his first

Tamil tract. Within two years, he had put together two Tamil dictionaries – one of 17000

words and another of over 20000 words- as well as a grammar.56 All this was possible

because of the support of a growing circle of Tamil admirers, colleagues, friends, informants

and teachers. He set up a printing press, and published studies of the Tamil language and of

Indian religion and culture. His translation of the New Testament into Tamil in 1715, and the

church building that he and his associates constructed in 1718, are still in use today. His close

53
Ibid.
54
Frykenberg, 146.
55
Frykenberg, 146.
56
Ibid., 147.
29
cooperation with the SPCK (Society for the Propagation of the Christian Knowledge) (an

Anglican group) was an early exercise of harmony between Christian communities in the

mission field. Ziegenbalg established ‘Charity Schools’ or ‘Orphan Schools’ modeled in the

Francke Weisenhaus prototype in Halle.57 In accordance with Francke’s dictum – that no

person should ever be denied access to literacy and that no person was to remain untrained in

numeracy and some practical skill – a truly revolutionary kind of modern institution began to

take shape. The disciples from there were trained as pastors and teachers. What made them

distinct from the Jesuits of the Madurai Mission, such as Roberto de Nobili and Giuseppe

Beschi, was that the Jesuits aimed mainly at capturing the respect of the Brahmanical elite,

Ziegenbalg and those who came after him strove, first of all, to provide basic literacy for the

common people and for the lowlier communities. 58 He was able to establish a seminary for

the training of native clergy. When he died on 23 February 1719, he left a Tamil translation of

the New Testament and of Genesis through Ruth, many brief writings in Tamil, two church

buildings, the seminary, and 250 baptized Christians. Today the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran

Church carries on his work. Ziegenbalg was the first scholar ever to complete a Tamil

translation of the New Testament (printed in 1714/15). Sadly, he did not survive long enough

to complete his translation of the Old Testament.

Near the end of the same century, William Carey(1761-1834) of England, former

shoemaker and then Baptist preacher who had been so inspired by deeds of Moravian and

Pietist missionaries, especially the work of Christian Friedrich Schwartz in Thanjavur and the

founder of the BMS(Baptist Missionary Society), came to India as the society’s first

missionary and landed in Hoogly(Calcutta) on 11 th November 1793, by his promotional

efforts had stirred up a wave of missionary voluntarism that, ever after he became to be

known as ‘The Father of Modern Missions.’59 Thus began what Rosenkranz rightly calls

57
Ibid., 149.
58
Frykenberg, 149.
59
Ibid., 323.
30
“The World mission.”60 Because of with the founding of this society the age of missionary

societies also began. Being an interdenominational agency, London Missionary Society’s

principle was ‘not to send Presbyterian, Independency, Episcopacy or any other form of

church order and government but the glorious gospel of the blessed God to the heathen.’ 61

Carey was not allowed to cross the Hoogly into Calcutta and so was offered a position as

professor or Oriental Languages in the newly established Fort William College. From the

salary he received he managed to secure financial support for his Serampore Mission freeing

it from anxieties and uncertainties of irregular support from the BMS. After the support from

BMS was disrupted by controversies the Serampore mission was not able to expand much

beyond the group that formed around its original ‘Serampore Brethren’ or ‘Serampore Trio’

of William Carey, Joshua Marshman and William Ward. 62 Carey’s reputation as a missionary,

orientalist, philologist and polymath had made him world famous.

The differences between these two pioneers are striking. Besides the difference in

their nationalities, Ziegenbalg was a Lutheran, while Carey a Baptist; one was a theologian

by profession, the other a shoe-maker; one studied in university and under Francke, the other

a self-educated man; one was supported by the king of Denmark, the other by a missionary

society which he himself founded. What is more remarkable is the fact of deeper similarities

in their early writings. In 1792 Carey published a book entitled ‘An enquiry into the

obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of Heathens’ in this book Carey

deal with issues similar to those considered by Ziegenbalg in his book ‘Alte Briefe aus

Indien’( this was letters written by Ziegenbalg which was later published in the form of a

book). Thus both the pioneers, Ziegenbalg and Carey saw the necessity of the response to the

sending of Christ Ziegenbalg emphasized on education whereas Carey emphasized on

60
Ibid., 193.
61
John Clark Marshman, The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward: Embracing the History
of the Serampore Mission Vol 2 (London: Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1859), 128.
62
Marshman, 128.
31
urgency. Their work was very much the same in such as; both began by a thorough study of

the non-Christian’s language, so that the gospel could be proclaimed relevantly in their

thought form. Their aims were to convert the non-Christians, establish indigenous churches

and train indigenous ministers. Thus these pioneer missionaries kept true to the original

meaning of Jesus’ command, namely to preach, teach and to baptize and thus to make

disciples of all peoples. This was the classical understanding of mission.63

F. Pre-Independence Christianity

Christianity in India looks back to the apostle Thomas as the first messenger of the

gospel to come to India. The ancient Syrian church in the south western state of Kerala traces

its beginning to this period.64 Roman Catholic missionaries came with the Portuguese in the

late 1400s. The first Protestant missionary, Ziegenbalg came to the south eastern coast in

1706. This is the beginning of Protestant Christianity in India. William Carey and others

came later.

Missionary interest began in the Indian church long before it began anywhere else in

Asia. The spirit of revival in the Mar Thoma Syrian Church in Kerala led to the formation of

the Mar Thoma Evangelistic Association in 1888. In 1903 under the leadership of Bishop

Azariah, the Indian Missionary Society(IMS) was formed in the Thirunelveli diocese of the

Anglican Church. Two years later in 1905 Bishop Azariah along with other national

Christians and a few expatriates like Dr. Sherwood Eddy, was responsible for the formation

of the National Missionary Society(NMS). Both these societies began their work in India

sending missionaries cross culturally. After this there was a period of stagnation in the history

of Indian missions. Spiritual lethargy, nominalism, and influence of liberal theology killed the
63
Ibid. 128.
64
R. E. Hedlund and F. Hrangkhuma eds. Indigenous Missions of India (Madras: Church Growth
Research Centre, 1980), 2
32
evangelistic and missionary zeal of the church.65 In the early fifties there was a fresh breath of

revival and new life in the churches in South India. It was at this time that the EFI

(Evangelical Fellowship of India) was also born and lead to the revival of missionary interest.

This led to the formation of the IEOM(Indian Evangelical Overseas Mission) in 1954 as the

missionary arm of the EFI. Later in 1965 this mission took a new shape with the name IEM

(Indian Evangelical Mission).

In the same period, other indigenous missionary movements sprang up mostly in

South India. The largest among these is the FMPB (Friends Missionary Prayer Band), this

was a result of the VBS (Vacation Bible School) in south India in 1954, and there was a spirit

of revival in the churches in south Tamil Nadu. Young people who found Christ through the

vacation Bible schools were organized into prayer fellowship which later became missionary

prayer bands.

There has been lot of happening in the history of Indian Christianity. This study will

not focus on the very earlier period of Christian presence but would rather try to consider the

20st century Christianity and the changes and trends that occurred in this period. Most of the

Christian missions happened in the Indian church during the 20st century. Many theological

thinking and developments occurred at this time. Several theologians made profound impact

on Indian theology and Indian missions particularly in Indigenous missions.

The writer will find out the causes and background of Indian settings that paved way to the

rise of Christian mission in India.

1. The Indian Revolutions

K. M. Panikkar’s book, “Asia and Western Dominance” was published precisely on

the day of Indian Independence from the British rule. This was considered to emphasize the

fact that the Vasco Da Gama era of colonialism, as Panikkar calls it, had ended and the age of
65
Ibid., 2.
33
free nations in Asia had begun.66 This was the beginning of an age of revolutions, as history

testifies. The end of colonialism was revolutionary both to the west and the east, and

therefore everyone was caught up in the revolutions following it and every area of life was

affected by this historic transition, and India was no exception. Due to the peculiarities of

Indian society and culture, the effects of this transition on India were also peculiar. Primarily

in two areas they are (1) Political and (2) Religious.

2. Political Revolutions

It can be distinctively affirmed that the 21 st century was an epoch-making period for

India, unique even in thousands of years of history of this ancient land. It was a period in

which the historical dynamism of the west had been nearly spent in the two world wars, and

as far as India was concerned, it was the end also of Pax Britannica. 67 In spite of the fact that

some western nations still enjoyed golden days in many of their colonies, they were

exhausted and were weaker – but wiser. They were weaker, because as a result of the wars

and their imperialism and subsequent evils, the dependencies had turned into free nations;

they were wiser because many of the western nations developed liberal political ideologies;

for India it took the form of the British Labor Party. These ideologies discovered that the

national movements cannot be suppressed, that their demands are healthy and justifiable.

Therefore, they recommended that the foreign ruler, for his own survival and good, must

satisfy these demands.68 Hence this was a period of the struggle between colonialism and self-

rule, or rather, the historical moment of transition from the former to the later.

66
K. M. Panikkar, Asia and Western Dominance: A Survey of the Vasco Da Gama Epoch of Asian
History, 1498-1945 (Victoria, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1959), 280.
67
Sir Verney Lovett, A History of the Indian National Movement (London: Frank Cass Publishers,
1968), 1.
68
Panikkar, 4.
34
 In India, which was called “The Pearl of the British Empire,” 69 “The symbol of Great

Britain’s greatness”, “The crown colony of the British”, this transition proved to be a total

and permanent change, and that in two ways. On the one hand, India became One nation; as

never before in all her ancient history; and on the other India became independent, as never

before in modern colonial history. After this happened, every Indian needed an opportunity to

give active expression to his feeling and ideas. This opportunity was found in the newly

emerging force called as ‘Nationalism’. Nationalism itself was the product of the Colonialism

but more important cause was the Christian missions. If colonialism evoked the political self-

consciousness of India, missions evoked the religious self-consciousness. It was more

important because religion, culture, society and stare were then - and to a lesser extent even

now - integrally united to one another, with religion as the dominating partner. Hence one

could not touch religion without disturbing this unity. Christian missions touched this

religious centre.

Indian Nationalism took several forms. The Indian National Congress which was

founded in 1885 was its symbol and was also the most powerful political party. Pandit

Jawaharlal Nehru developed nationalism on a non-communal base, thus Nehru’s nationalism,

though it was drawn by the “Mother India” spirit with its goal and objective of laboring for

India’s freedom, security and prosperity; yet it was no ‘My Country, right or wrong’

fanaticism. Later, Indian Nationalism also took on several communal forms like ‘The Muslim

League’ by the Indian Muslims, this gave rise to few other Hindu communal parties like

‘Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh’, ‘Bharathiya Jana Sangh’ and ‘Hindu Mahasabha’, these

were some of the Hindu militant political parties. All these parties could gain national

influence only after the independence.

Another characteristic of this period, apart from the above mentioned national

political parties, was the fact of certain revolutionary groups. Subhash Chandra Bose founded
69
Ibid.
35
his ‘Indian National Army’ which rejected the non-violent methods of Gandhi. On the social

side Dr. B. R. Ambedkar led the unbelievable revolution of uplifting the untouchables, the

backward classes and scheduled tribes.70 This period also saw the nation irrevocably destined

for industrialization, mainly on account of world wars. The production of war supplies

necessitated the urgent construction of railways, roads, communications, factories, power

plants etc. modernization became the national policy for the development of India. Finally,

this pre-independence period was also a period of preparation for realistic nation-building.

After the British transferred power, the Constitutional Assembly was formed, it wrote the

Indian Constitution and major national problems were researched and analyzed; economic

and social policies were decided upon; defense and foreign policies were discussed.

3. Religious Revolutions

As far as the Christian missions are concerned, the religious context of the period is

more relevant than the political context. If, colonialism touched Indian religions only

indirectly, missions confronted them directly. This confrontation was all the more crucial,

since the foreign invaders and Christian missions came together. In the time when religion,

policies, culture and philosophy were still parts of an undivided whole, this confrontation

meant touching the nerve centre of the system.

4. Renaissance and Resurgence Movements

Both renaissance and resurgence are reformation movements, complementary to one

another. While renaissance looks at a religion in its negative aspects and so aims at purging it

of these in the light of modern wisdom, resurgence looks at a religion in its positive aspects

aiming at the revival of the same. Thus one is progressive and the other conservative.

70
Ambedkar led some of these untouchables – he himself being one of them, to accept Buddhism;
thus nearly three million outcasts had accepted Buddhism in Maharashtra state.
36
Buddhism and Jainism were considered as renaissance movements, reacting against priestly

Brahmanic oppression and corruption.71 Later when the Moguls arrived and with them the

strength of Islam, King Akbar’s syncretistic efforts were a radical renaissance both of

Hinduism and Islam.

In the first half of the 20th century many of these renewals were already established;

Bishop Kulandran gives several reasons for them, they are (1) The encounter with

Christianity, (2) The influence and effects of certain men, (3) The achievement of or urge for

political freedom and (4) The effect of the revival of national culture and language. 72 There

were reformation movements within Hinduism, since Hinduism is called as the ocean of

religions rather than a religion. Its several renewals themselves became a sub-Hindu religion.

The Hindu orthodoxy represented by the Manu dharmashastra advocated the

Varnashramadharma. The vedantic schools of Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhava interpreted

the Brahmasutra variously; the Vaishnavite Bhakti and the Saivite Sakti schools with their

ecstatic and occult practices were meant more for the simple folks. 73All these reformations

occurred before the coming of the Christian missions. Some of the Hindu renewal movements

that were happening were by Raja Ram Mohan Roy who is called ‘the morning star of the

Indian renaissance and the prophet of Indian Nationalism’ was known for interpreting

Upanishads as being thoroughly monotheistic.74 Ramakrishna Paramahamsa worked to renew

Hinduism on its own ancient foundation of polytheism. The first major Hindu missionary

society is named after him. Dayananda Saraswati, with his ‘back to the Vedas’ movement

maintained the pure religion of the Vedas and sought to purge Hinduism from idol worship,

polytheism and the caste-system.75 Swamy Vivekananda took the Vedanta for his basis on

71
Bishop Sabapathy Kulandran, Facing a Renaissance (California: YMCA Publishing House, 1957),
1-3.
72
Kulandran, 1-3.
73
Ibid., 10.
74
Ibid., 11.
75
Ibid., 13
37
which he founded his Universal Religion; he combined the concept of Vedanta to the concept

of social service.76 Gopal Krishna Gokhale, the political guru of Gandhi founded the ‘servants

of India society’ very much on the pattern of the Society of Jesus. During and after

independence the nationalistic spirit gave vigor to the more radical Hindu revivals.

G. Indian Church and Nationalism

It is in the light of the above political and religious context of the period that the

Christian response should be considered. The response was both collective, by the church as a

community, as well as individual by the Indian Christian thinkers.

The impact of Nationalism gave rise to the shift from mission to church, the Indian

Christian leaders were influenced by the rising Nationalism under the ‘Swadeshi Movement’,

the Indian Christian nationalist felt that Christianity should assume an Indian expression in

life, thought and activity this was the cause that gave birth to the NMS(National Missionary

Society) in 1905.77 It was based on the principles of ‘Indian Leadership’, ‘Indigenous

Method’ and ‘Indian Money.’78 The rising national consciousness reflected in the life of the

Indian church. The national movement gave Indian Christian leaders a certain amount of self-

confidence and they began to demand for freedom to manage their own affairs in the church

also. The Indian Christians explicitly expressed their anti-missionary feelings. 79 The National

Missionary Council was sensitive to the political upheaval in the nation and its impact upon

the Indian Christians. It repeatedly reminded the missionary societies of the need for gradual

76
Ibid., 15.
77
E. C. Bhatty, “The Indian Christian Community and the Nationalist Movement,” National Christian
Council Review 62 (November 1942): 449.
78
Ibid.
79
R. Rajayyan, “Towards an Indigenous Church: A Historical Study of the Efforts to Attain Selfhood
in the LMS Churches in South Travancore from 1900-1947,” (Unpublished M.Th. Thesis, United Theological
College, 1985), 70.
38
transfer of their work to the Indian church and for a sympathetic attitude towards the Indian’s

aspiration.80

As nationalism was the moving force during the first half of the 20 th century, from

nationalism in politics to indigenization in the Christian churches was the first step in the

beginning. This period could be called as the period of Indigenization in the Indian church

history. Below the writer will see some of the areas where indigenization was attempted.

1. Indigenization

The main concern of indigenization then was to let Christianity take root in the

Indian soil. Except for the orthodox churches in Kerala where the traditions are back to their

founding by the Apostle Thomas, the church in India in general was a potted plant. In many

cases Indian churches were helped or catalyzed by the mother church in the process of

indigenization.81 Unlike political nationalism, ecclesiastical indigenization was not a

complete cutting away from the mother churches; for the indigenous church still was part of

the universal body of Christ. Thus, indigenization was a most necessary process of the Indian

church for her renewal and mission, and this was successfully carried through in several

areas.

2. Leadership

The political Quit-India movement was transformed into a more charitable demand

for native leaders in the church. Latourette observes that this demand was one of the foremost

developments in Indian Christianity during the first half of the 20th century.82 Many pioneer

leaders can be mentioned here but just to name a few; Pandit Ramabai(1858-1922) was a

pioneer and the greatest Indian Christian of her generation. Her translation of the Bible, her
80
Ibid., 71.
81
R. Rajayyan, 71
82
K. S. Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1947),
331
39
home for the destitute girls, her literary output and the periodical she printed continued to

bear fruits up to this day.83 Kanakarayan Tiruselvam Paul(1876-1931) and Vedanayagam

Samuel Azariah(1874-1945) in the south and Surendra Kumar Dutta(1872-1942) in the north

were few more who labored to develop a Christian theology of nationalism in the crucial

period of struggle for freedom.84 These leaders were influential even among the political

national leaders. Jaswant Rao Chitamber(1879-1940) and Azariah were the first Indians to be

consecrated as Bishops and were leading figures in the ecumenical conferences of the time.

Some problems of the Indian church then was the poor image of the church worker

or pastor which continues to this day, lack of proper theological training, discrimination by

many missionaries in their role as paymasters, too much church hierarchy, the peculiar

sociological elements in India, and not the least, the low salaries of the full-time Christian

workers – all these have tended to discourage Indian Christians to take up church ministry.85

3. Finance

It is in the area of financial support that indigenization was least and slowest. One

reason for this slow growth is that finance was mostly in the hands of the missionary. 86 So the

indigenous leaders were robbed of their initiatives and influences. In fact, it can be illustrated

that those laymen and ministers who refused such financial help and were solely dependent

on indigenous sources were the most effective and creative leaders. Outside the church this

dependence gave rise to the oft-voiced Hindu accusation that Indians are made Christians not

because of Christ’s love but because of mammon’s power.87 Bishop Azariah began re-

83
Ibid., 331.
84
Latourette, 332.
85
Sunand Sumithra, “Theology of Mission in Indian Context: A Study of Madathilaparampil Mammen
Thomas,” (Unpublished Ph.d dissertation, University of Tubingen, 1981), 42.
86
Eddy Asirvatham, Christianity in the Indian Crucible (California: YMCA Publishing House, 1957),
57.
87
K. S. Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity Vol IV (New York: Harper & Bros,
1970), 293-94.
40
emphasizing the much neglected teaching of Christian giving and stewardship. Gradually

even the myth of Indians being too poor to raise self-support has been exploded. Now long-

ranging strategies have been worked out and the congregations are conscientized; as a result

of all this, the churches in India are becoming financially self-reliant. 88 Many churches are

totally self-supporting and have their own missionary or service projects.

This does not mean that the connection with the mother churches has been fully cut

off. Some of the highly technical institutions necessarily need the western churches because

of the long tradition; many schools, colleges, hospitals, seminaries and student homes thrive

on the in-coming help.

4. Evangelism

As late as 1957 one prominent Indian Christian wrote: “the Indian Christian is not

spiritually ready to discharge his evangelistic responsibility.”89 Theodore Williams, perhaps

the best authority for missionary in and from the Indian churches, said that evangelism still

remains the job of the paid worker and that the lack of lay witness is the great witness. 90 Until

1930 Mass movements were strong in many parts of the land and most Christians can be

traced to these. This period also saw the birth of indigenous missionary societies. The

National Missionary society(1903) and the Interdenominational Indian Missionary

Society(1905) were the first ones. The financial policy of these societies has Indian help as

the sole support.91 This also was the period of Sadhu Sundar Singh, the best known Indian

Christian. He conducted extensive evangelistic tours of the land and also outside, but with a

thoroughly Indian touch: he introduced to the Indian church the Indian method of wandering

88
Latourette, 297.
89
Rajah D. Paul, “Missionary Activity in Present India,” in Revolution in Missions: A Study guide to
the Role of Missions in Present day India, ed. Blaise Levai (Michigan: YMCA Publishing House, 1958), 85.
90
Theodore Williams, “India, A Seething Continent,” in The Church in Asia, ed. Donald E. Hoke
(Chicago: Moody Press, 1975), 223.
91
Kaj Baago, A History of the National Christian Council of India, 1914-1964 (Michigan: National
Christian Council, 1965), 56.
41
Sadhu for religious propagation. A more significant element of the period was that, mainly

due to ecumenical and missionary consultations, the relationship between the missionaries

and the Indian church was reassessed. They were partners in obedience, it was affirmed that

every missionary who goes to India should also be called by the Indian church. As such,

sending and calling constitute the missionary calling in this approach. 92 As a result of this

assessment, a new attitude to the non-Christian religions, new frontiers of witness and a new

understanding of the church’s ministry appeared on the horizon .93

The process of indigenization in Indian Christianity was no isolated phenomenon, but

was part of the larger missionary theology being developed in the 19 th century. The new

understanding of the independence of missions from the mother churches, as presented by

Henry Venn of the Anglican Church and by Rufus Anderson of the American

Congregationalists, had found wide acceptance. They maintained that the task of task of

mission was completed as soon as it has resulted in the founding of a church and this church

has shown the three marks of maturity: self-support, self-government and self-propagation.

The Three self formulas mentioned here was developed by the American Presbyterian Nevius

during his service in China as a missionary.

5. Theology

Besides the above attempts of indigenization in government, support and

propagation, there was also the attempt in expressing the Christian gospel in the thought

forms of Indian people. This theological activity was not so much attempting to understand

Christ in terms of Indian spirituality rather endeavoring to go beyond the second-hand

theologies, and to find the relevance of the Christian gospel to the Indian situation. One great

92
Gunther Schultz, “Partnership in Obedience,” in Revolution in Missions: A Study guide to the Role
of Missions in Present day India, ed. Blaise Levai (Michigan: YMCA Publishing House, 1958), 79.
93
Alexander D. John, “New Frontiers of Witness,” in The Indian Church Identity and Fulfillment, ed.
Mathai Zachariah (Madras: Christian Literature Society, 1971), 40-49.
42
catalyst for the indigenizing of theology was the Tambaram meeting of the IMC(International

Missionary Council) and Hendrik Kraemer’s book “The Christian Message in a Non-

Christian World”.94 Kraemer’s affirmation of the uniqueness of the Christian message seemed

hard to many Indian theologians, and under the leadership of Pandipeddi Chenchiah, the

Indian group produced a critique of Kramer’s approach. The main argument was that this

approach does not do justice to the Indian situation with its plurality of religions. But the

book compelled them to study the non-Christian religions with intense meticulousness, and to

inquire into the problem of syncretism. This ‘Kramer’s shock’ was thus a new catalyst for

Indian theological renewal.95 It was recognized that, while comprehensiveness is the keynote

of Indian religions in general, commitment was the keynote of the Christian faith. This paved

the way for the ‘coming dialogue’ between the Indian religions and Christianity.

The ‘Rethinking Christianity Group’ in many ways represents the best effort of

indigenization of the period. Chenchiah’s theology of New Creation, Chakkarai’s theology of

Christology of the Spirit and Appasamy’s understanding of the Christian gospel as the Bhakti

Marga comprises the main ideas of this period. With Paul Devanandan’s contribution of a

theology of religions, indigenization reached a new peak.

6. Church

Indian interest in ecclesiology was more sociological than theological, for the above

reasons. In contrast to the Indian religious bodies which were loosely organized or

spontaneously maintained, the Christian church was seen by many Indians as being a too

rigid human institution and as being alien to Indian spirituality. Hence experiments with

forms and structures of the church were encouraged. The Hindu type of religious institution –

94
John, 54.
95
Ibid., 55.
43
‘Ashram’96 in which a group of like-minded people come together in an isolated place for

spiritual exercise of meditation and fellowship under the leadership of a central Guru and live

a strictly group life, was created for Christian people, and many were quite successful. This

form of the church was not only for spiritual benefits, but primarily to overcome the

communal/caste barriers in Christian community. In addition the church’s ministry as

represented by the clerical hierarchy also was criticized and people like Sunder Singh have

attempted to translate this in a way suitable to India. This has resulted in separating religion

from culture, since both the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist are unacceptable to the

Hindu due to the Ahimsa (non-violence) principle.

The most important and visible indigenization was done in the area of worship.

People like NarayanVaman Tilak who is called the Indian Christian poet of the 20 th century

began using Indian music and poetry in worship with great success. Indian art and

architecture were introduced in worship places instead of the western style of buildings.

Some have used Tapas, the art of concentrated meditation on the word of God, in the place of

preaching and singing. Melas, a big gathering of Christians for the purpose of spiritual

fellowship, revival and evangelization, festivals and procession as relevant types of witness

have become features now. During 60s dances and dramas which were once abomination to

Christians as being part of pagan temple worship practices, became the influential media for

the propagation of the gospel. People’s participation being maximum in these innovative

efforts, they seem to have caught fire faster than the orthodox efforts of western missionaries.

Therefore, the theological creativity of the period was a deliberate and conscious adoption of

indigenous elements

II. Indigenous Christianity and Western Christian Missionaries

96
Gerald B. Cooke, A Neo-Hindu Ashram in South India (Bangalore: Christian Institute for the Study
of Religion and Society, 1966); Pandipeddi Chenchiah, Ashrams Past and Present (Madras: Indian Book Club,
1941); Savarirayan Jesudason, Unique Christ and Indigenous Christianity (Bangalore: Christian Institute for the
Study of Religion and Society, 1966).
44
 A. Introduction

There were few issues involved in the first half of the 20 th century such as growing

nationalism, mission and the demand of indigenization and relationship between native

Christians and foreign missionaries. Many Indian leaders, during the nationalist era like Raja

Ram Mohan Roy, Keshub Chandra Sen, Lal Behari Dey and P. Chenchiah criticized the

Indian Christian community for being too non-Indian in the nature of its organization and

leadership. In the context of the growing nationalism while the foreign missionaries did not

encourage the involvement of Indian Christians in freedom struggle, their presence was

suspected and often questioned by the Indian nationalist leaders.

B. Modern Missionary Movements

The Pietistic Movement and Evangelical Awakening were significant contributing

factors for the emergence of Modern Missionary Movements in the late 18 th century and in

the 19th century as well. As the Pietistic and Evangelical leaders experienced the change of

heart and experience such spiritual transformation, they joined together in fellowship, Bible

study and all of them shared the same burden for others’ salvation. 97 This was the cause of

missionary movements in Europe and North America. The Society for Promoting Christian

Knowledge(SPCK) in England was the outcome of the pietistic influences. Its primary

mission objective was to provide ordained ministers for members of the Anglican

Communion in American colonies and to publish Christian books so as to increase the

religious knowledge alike. However, mission and ecumenical involvement that were

interrelated could be well seen its life. In 1709 it responded generously to the request of the

Lutheran Tranquebar Mission for a subsidy. It also sent a printing press and a printer and

97
O. L. Snaitang, A History of Ecumenical Movement: An Introduction (Bangalore: South Asia
Theological Research Institute, 2006), 51.
45
supported German Lutheran missionaries in several mission centers in India. 98 Even after it

had started its own mission in Madras in 1728, it still continued its help to the Lutheran

Mission. In short, from its early years there was a remarkable ecumenical co-operation for

missionary outreach in India from the early days of modern missions.

The Danish-Halle Lutheran Mission of 1705 also came out as a result of Franke’s

efforts of imparting missionary training to students of the University of Halle. Ziegenbalg and

Pluetschau, products of Pietism from Halle, were the first Protestant missionaries to South

Indian in 1706. Then Zinzendorf, Franke’s student at Orphan House, became a leader of the

remnants of the persecuted Moravians who settled at Herrnhut in 1722. He provided a sound

leadership and setup a strong missionary conviction among them. Then the Herrnhut

community turned out to be a centre of worldwide missionary vision and all of them vowed

to obey the Great Commission. Before the end of 18 th century, the Moravians had already

reached out with the message of salvation in Europe, North and South America, Africa, Asia

and the Islands of the Seas.

The famous William Carey of the Baptist Missionary Society was a product of the

Evangelical Awakening. During the Baptist ministers’ meeting in 1785, Carey suggested that

the church should start doing something in reaching out the gospel to the ‘heathens’. His

suggestion was rejected outright by the words of John Ryland who said, ‘sit down young

man; when God wants to convert the heathen, He’ll do it without your help or mine’, this

underestimation however did not put off Carey’s intense missionary desire. With the

publication of ‘An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians To Use Means for the

Conversion of the Heathens’ and his sermon on Isaiah 54:2, ‘Expect great things from God,

attempt great things for God’, there was the birth of Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) in

1792. With this the Modern Protestant Mission began and William Carey went to India as a

98
O. L. Snaitang, 51.
46
missionary in the following year. From Carey’s appeal the entire missionary movement arose

with tremendous productive results.99

Most Protestant churches in Europe and North America realized urgent need of

evangelization and quickly began to form missionary societies by following Carey’s example

and copied the organizational pattern he had established. 100 Notable among those were the

London Missionary Society(1795); the Church Missionary Society(1799); the Church

Missions to the Jews(1809); the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society(1817) all in

England, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions(1810); the Basel

Society(1815) in Germany; Swedish Missionary Society(1835) and many others.101

C. Missional Awareness in the Twentieth Century

In the beginning of the twentieth century, the awakening on evangelism had played a

major role in Missiological and theological development in India. “The Evangelization of the

world in this generation was the prime slogan of the ecumenical mission conference, held in

New York in April 1900.”102 The sole aim of the slogan was that the gospel should reach the

entire world. At the same time the theological and Missiological developments were taking

rapid changes in India. Azariah observed the transfer of responsibilities, responsible self-

government; opportunities for self-expression were phrases that had become familiar in

politics, and the rising generation of Indian Christians were most eagerly looking forward to

similar opportunities in the church. Besides, the church became mission centered.

In 1910 the world missionary conference at Edinburgh set a new direction to

partnership of the younger and the older churches in the world-mission of Christianity. A

99
Snaitang, 53
100
Ibid.
101
Ibid., 55.
102
This watchword was adopted in 1888 by American and in 1896 by the British Student Volunteer
Movement. For more information see Hans-Ruedi Weber, Asia and the Ecumenical Movement 1895-1961
(London: S.C.M Press, 1966), 59-60.
47
strong feeling had arisen among the Indian Christians that the work of evangelism should not

be left to foreign organizations. Missionary societies, such as IMS(Indian Missionary

Society) and NMS(National Missionary Society) gave Indian Christians an opportunity for

evangelization without becoming the agents of the foreign missions. As a result of that, both

the societies were administered and supported entirely by Indian Christians. A few Indian

Christians began to contribute good work to international and ecumenical theological

debates.103 Azariah once remarked that, “the missionary was then not the director but the

helper of the indigenous church, not a master but a friend of the indigenous worker, not a lord

over the faith of the converts, but the helper of their joy.”104

D. Christian Mission in Midst of Growing Nationalism

The feeling of patriotism had expressed new dimension in missionary work. 105 This

spirit sprung forth after the event of 1857, which was variously named as the ‘Sepoy Mutiny’

by the British colonial, and ‘the first war of Indian independence’ by the Indian nationalists.

Basically the nationalistic spirit was meant to oppose the colonial power. R. P. Dutt described

the nationalist struggle of 1905-34 as series of three ‘great waves of struggles’, 1905-10,

1919-22 and 1930-34.106

Nationalism first came with the demand for reform of certain abuses and for higher

posts; secondly the demand for indianization of the services and thirdly, the demand for

‘Swaraj’ meaning self-rule or sovereignty. The people who were involved in Indianization

movement respected these stages.107 Nationalism was closely a political and secular force and

‘it was very clear opposition to Christian missions, conversion and evangelism arises out of

103
Forrester Duncan, “Indian Christian Attitude to Caste in the 20 th Century,” Indian Church History
Review 9.1 (1975): 4.
104
V. S. Azariah, India and the Christian Movement (Madras: C.L.S, 1936), 111.
105
Kaj Baago, Pioneers of Indigenous Christianity (Bangalore: CISR, 1969), 3.
106
Bengt Sundkler, Church of South India, The Movement Towards Union 1900-1947 (London: United
Society for Christian Literature, Lutherworth Press, 1965), 85.
107
Vengal Chakkarai, “What is to Indianise Christianity,” The Guardian 60.39 (October, 1931): 479.
48
nationalism that is not prepared to grant the reality of any supranational truth or recognize

that man has a destiny beyond the nation. 108 Nationalist leaders treated Christianity as a

foreign religion imported by foreign rulers. They considered Christian mission in India as a

strange religion. As that time most of the foreign missionaries did not encourage Christians to

participate in national movement. This was because; Indian nationalism had imputed a Hindu

religious character.109 Gradually the missionary forces and the church in the west began to

awaken the nationalist problem in India and were prepared to make room for Indian forms or

Christianity. However, nationalism, which was growing in India before the First World War,

had developed very strongly and emphasized independence from the western rule.

E. Indian Missionary Movements in the Post-Independence Era

When India got independence in 1947, the Christian mission efforts in India were

largely dominated by overseas missions, who managed most of the churches, educational and

medical institutions that were established by them. On the other hand, most of the native

workers were involved in pioneer evangelism. The Indian Church was at that time by and

large disorganized. Theodore Srinivasagam gives his observation about the post-

independence missionary work initiatives as follows:110

1. Change of Government:

The western missionary enterprise came to an end with many western mission

agencies withdrawing from India due to the changes in the policies of the new Government of
108
M. M. Thomas, “Religious Freedom in India,” The Guardian 33.18 (May, 1945): 139.
109
David Scott, “Religious Fundamentalism and Pluralism in India,” View Point: Hindu Christian
Studies Bulletin, 7 (1994): 45.
110
Theodore Srinivasagam, Missionary Work in India after Independence (Bangalore: IEM Outreach,
August 1998), 15-16.
49
India. In the sixties, the government stopped issuing missionary visas to foreigners; hence the

entry of overseas missionaries was curtailed.

2. Lack of trained Indian Leaders:

Before Independence, in India, the overseas missionaries were in charge of most

areas of work. When they began to leave, they handed over leadership of churches and

institutions to Indian believers who were not sufficiently trained in ministry and management.

Thus the Church came into a disadvantageous position, on account of poor management and

a lack of spiritual insight. Moreover these new leaders, especially of the non-Catholic

churches, became preoccupied with property issues and other disputes, instead of taking

renewed efforts towards new missionary initiatives.

3. Church Union:

Many churches established by the overseas missionaries began recognizing their

common Christian convictions and commitment and intended to demonstrate their unity in a

visible way by forming a union primarily to exert a more effective witness through

evangelism and missionary enterprise. As a result, the Church of South India was formed in

1947, and The Church of North India in 1970. Four different church traditions had been

brought together in the CSI, namely, Anglican(Episcopal), Congregational, Presbyterian and

Methodist. All these churches had been established in India through the missionary work of

churches in Europe, America and Australia.111 Six churches formed the CNI, namely, 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

111
“History of Churches of South India,” http://www.csimichigan.org/CSIHistory.html (accessed July
21, 2014).
50
United Church of Northern India.112

4. Summary of Post-Independence Awakening:

After a long lapse of sixty years, since the launching of IMS and NMS, a new wave

of mission awareness arose among the Indian Christians. One of the first agencies to be

founded in this new era was the Indian Evangelical Mission(IEM) in 1965, through the

Evangelical Fellowship of India(EFI); and the Friends Missionary Prayer Band(FMPB) in

1967(as a missionary enterprise). Since then, hundreds of mission agencies have begun

working in many areas in India where there was no Christian presence. The Indian Missions

Association(IMA) was founded in 1977 in order to co-ordinate and assist as a national

federation of missions in India.113

5. The Nature of some of the post-Independence Mission Agencies:

The missionary movements which were formed during the post- independence era

are church related and interdenominational, led by church and lay leaders. They are

indigenous in Finance and Personnel Management. Their main focus is to plant churches

among the people groups with no Christian presence in Central and Northern India, with a

policy to integrate the newly formed indigenous churches with nearby established Churches.

They do not run large institutions that require much capital and personnel. They co-operate

and network with local churches to send missionaries and to support them with finance and

prayer. Salaries and allowances of missionaries are minimum, to help cover their basic needs,

but demanded a high level of commitment from them. It later developed into a people

movement of the Church in India. In the meantime, many CSI Dioceses started their mission

wings like Diocesan Missionary Prayer Band of Kanyakumari Diocese, founded by a Pastor,
112
“Church of North India,” http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-
churches/regions/asia/india/church-of-north-india.html (accessed July 21, 2014).
113
“From the IMA General Secretary,” http://www.imaindia.org/ (accessed Oct 18, 2014).
51
Rev. D. Elias in 1962,114 and Diocesan Board of Mission(DBM), of CSI Coimbatore Diocese.

Now the CSI Synod has its Board on Mission and Evangelism with the vision to stimulate the

evangelistic and missionary zeal in the churches with a view of equipping every member to

creatively and actively witness the risen Christ and obey His command to make disciples. It is

involved in networking with the diocesan mission wings, conducting periodical programmes

to empower the workers and plan the strategy to address the challenges in the changing

pluralistic context. With this the writer sees the emergence of denominational and inter-

denominational missionary movements with indigenous principles come into being.

F. Mission Practice and the Desire for Indigenization

The early indigenous movements among Indian Christians had started churches, such

as the Hindu church of the Lord Jesus in Thirunelveli (1858), the Christo Samaj in Calcutta

(1887) and the National church in Madras (1886). These were the first attempts in India to

create united, indigenous churches, but they never became widespread movements. 115 The

attempts of Parani Andi, Kalicharan Banerjee and Krishna Mohan Banerjee to construct

indigenous theology and worship were short-lived in influence. Twentieth century saw radical

voices arguing for a church without boundary.116 The desire for Indian Christian identity and

indigenization was not against the foreign missionaries. But it claimed for a room for local

administration, being natural and abiding to local values in the past and present. The

nationalist leaders’ struggle for independence and the nationalistic spirit which motivated

their plans to separate themselves from the mission rejecting all western and missionary

influence had its share.

114
Edwin Sobitha, A light on the Hill (Nagercoil: M. R. Publishers, 2002), 19.
115
Baago, 11.
116
Siga Arles, Theological Education for the Mission of the Church in India: 1947-1987 (New York,
Paris: Peter Lang, 1991), 36.
52
 The influence of Asian revolution had opened the eyes of people to see the necessity

for indigenization, and Indian Christian identity. The 20th century Christian church in India is

full of efforts of transforming leadership and authority from the foreign center to local center.

The indigenous concern found its expression in the forms of architecture, worship, music and

their life. Indian form of storytelling such as ‘Kathakalatchepam’117 was used in preaching the

gospel. The mission practice and the demand of indigenization were expressions of the spirit

of Christian service, which was taking hold of the church in India. In the earlier missionary

conferences the priority was given to other subjects such as evangelistic, educational, medical

work etc, but in the 1900 and 1902 missionary conferences the very first issue that was taken

up for the discussions was on ‘The Native Church’ the development of its life and character,

its self-support, self-government and self-propagation, the unity and the indigenization of the

Indian church etc.

G. The Need of Indian Christian Identity

The people of India cannot deny the contribution of the Christian missionaries. At the

same time this had, however raised the question of their Christian identity as Indians. The

nationalistic leaders often questioned the Indian Christian identity. The question of identity

became a serious issue in that context, for instance,

In music, in architecture, in seating arrangement, in the courts of the church, in the

administrational discipline, in the cloth worn by the minister and the members, in local

organization, in attitude toward national problems and leaders and finally in the relations

between Indian ministers and the non-Indian missionaries.118

Apart from that, the ordinary lay people were thinking about the Christian identity.

There is a deep felt urge of most Indian Christians to be independent of external control and
117
‘Kathakalatchepam’, - preaching the sermon by stories and songs. It helps people to understand
Christian message in an easy way.
118
J. Waskon Pickett, Christ’s way to India’s Heart (Lucknow: Lucknow Publish House, 1938), 109.
53
supervision thereby gaining a new status and identity as Indian Christians. Both Indian

Christians and a few western missionaries also supported the indigenous Christian effort

toward an independent missionary work. The western missionaries like H. A Popley, E.

Stanley Jones, C. F. Andrews and Dr. Paton, one of the founders of the Thirupattur Ashram,

had contributed in the formation of indigenous church in India. They played a major role

through Ashram movement and other indigenous groups such as National missionary society.

A few foreign missionaries supported indigenization directly or indirectly. For instance, in

1903 IMS(Indian Missionary Society) proposed to work in Andhra mission field with the

permission of Madras Bishop, Henry Whitehead the Bishop readily accepted the idea and

granted the area to the IMS.119 This shows the interest of foreign missionaries in the

development of indigenous form of Christianity in its varied forms. The efforts of Indian

Missionary Society had followed three important principles. Firstly, the society was

interdenominational; secondly, no financial help has to be solicited from foreign countries

and thirdly, importance has to be given to evangelization in the unoccupied areas especially

among the non-Christians who lived outside the Christian village or town areas.

Besides indianisation of hierarchy and other religious personnel in Indian churches,

the administrative heads of most Christian institutions in India like the NCCI(National

Christian Council of India), the CMAI(Christian Medical Association of India), the CNL

(Christian Nurses League) of the CMAI, SCMI(Students Christian Movement in India), the

National Council of YMCAs of India, CISRS(Christian Institute for the Study of Religion

and Society), the NMSI(National Missionary Society of India) and others are Indians and the

governing councils of most of these Christian organization have also a large majority of

Indian members.120

119
Ibid., 114.
120
K. N. Sahay, “Indigenization of Christianity in India,” Man In India 61. 1 (March 1981): 21.
54
 III. Indian Christian Theology and Theologians

A. Introduction

Indian Christian theology may be defined as theology written for the Indian Church

in Indian philosophical categories and religious terminologies by those who, whether

professedly Christians or not, with a basic knowledge and experience of Christ and an

intimate knowledge of the Indian cultures and thoughts, have tried to interpret the truth of

Christ to the people of India as meaningful and relevant to their religious and cultural

heritage and development in the context of their individual, social and national life, with a

view to making such particular insights ultimately available for universal Christianity.

Indian Christian theology is understood as reflections in an articulated form on God,

Christ and the church at the point of meeting of the Christian faith with the Indian people and

their worldviews, cultures and beliefs. 121 The earliest Christian theological response to the

predominantly Hindu India society was the way the traditional South Indian ‘St. Thomas

Christians’ in the early centuries adapted their community’s life pattern to the socio-cultural

life of their non-Christian neighbors. It is important to note that St. Thomas Christians did

attempt integration between the Christian faith with its semetic roots and the religious ethos

of Hinduism. Thus, while they demarcated themselves from the rest of the society by

professing and practicing their Christian religion, they along with their Hindu neighbors,

believed that every religion was effective as a means of salvation for its adherents and also,

adapted them socially within the caste-hierarchy prevalent in India.122

During the arrival of the Catholic and Protestant missionaries in the 16 th and the 19th

centuries respectively, the socio-theological position of the Indian church underwent a major

change. The western missionaries called the traditional doctrines of the Indian Christians as

heretical. The Roman Catholic missionaries and the Protestant missionaries repudiated the
121
M. M. Thomas and P. T. Thomas, Towards an Indian Christian Theology: Life and Thought of some
Pioneers (Tiruvalla: The New Day Publications of India, 1992), 1
122
Thomas and P. T. Thomas, 1.
55
belief that every religion is an effective means of salvation for its adherents. While the

catholic missions underscored the indispensability of the church for salvation, the Protestants

affirmed the uniqueness of the person of Christ and the need for a personal belief in him in

order to be saved.123 In short, both missions introduced into traditional Indiana Christianity,

an exclusive Missiological theology; which asserted that the only means for human salvation

is the Christian faith.

The church in India imitated the western churches and absorbed western theologies

as a whole for a long time. This prevented her from an authentic self-understanding in terms

of the theological and resultant Missiological task in India. In his critical analysis of the

development of indigenous theology in India, Russell Chandran observes several stages in the

attempt to interpret Christian faith elements in relation to ‘the Indian religious, cultural and

philosophic situation.124 In the first stage, Western missionary theologians had to rethink the

“totally negative approach to other faiths and cultures which most early Christian missions

and missionaries exhibited from their insular world view.” 125 They believed that ‘missionaries

were sent out to exterminate heathenism in India, not to spread heathen nonsense all over

Europe.’126 Robert de Nobili and Bartholomew Ziegenbalg differed from this general attitude.

Chandran points to increasing evidence through indigenous attempts at interpretation in the

second half of the 20th century that, A theology which will serve the cause of the church’s

mission in India has to take account of both ‘the faith once for all given,’ received through the

different theological formulations of the past, and the discernment of the reality of the risen

Christ in the different frontiers of the church’s mission.127

123
Ibid., 2.
124
J. R. Chandran, “Development of Christian Theology in India: A Critical Survey,” Bangalore
Theological Forum 8:2 (1976): 140.
125
Ibid., 140.
126
Arno Lehmann, It Began at Tranquebar (Madras: CLS, 1956), 32.
127
Chandran, 149.
56
 The most obvious frontier where this reality of Christ should be realized in India is

the church in her mission with the people of other living faiths. 128 Whereas ‘displacement of

other religions by Christianity’ was the goal of the church’s mission in the past, dialogue with

people of other faiths with a view to unmask the ‘hidden’, ‘unknown’, and the already present

Christ is increasingly proposed as the goal of Christian mission to the people of other faiths in

India.129

Indian Christian theological conferences have helped bring together church leaders,

Christian thinkers, theologians and theological educators to meet to formulate a relevant

theology for the Indian church. These conferences made the church and theological teachers

aware of the need for paying more attention to the cultural background of India. The Indian

Christian theological associations encourage indigenous thinking and published what was

written in its quarterly ‘Indian Journal of Theology.’ Similarly the CHAI(Church History

Association of India) began to publish its ‘Indian Church History Review.’ The cause of

indigenous theologizing in India was enhanced by these efforts and the formation of the

Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society (CISRS) with its quarterly ‘Religion

and Society.’130

Indian Christian theologians are not in the habit of writing systematic theology and

there has been little attempt to write complete Summae of theology. 131 The attempt of the

early pioneers among Indian Christian theologians was “not to produce a Summa theologica”

but to “begin new lines of thought,” to suggest possibilities of interpreting the gospel in the

Indian setting. For Indian Christian theologians, as for many contemporary Third World
128
Ibid.
129
These concepts are taken from J. N. Farquhar, The Crown of Hinduism (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1913); Raymond Panikkar, The Unknown Christ of Hinduism (New York: Orbis Books, 1981); Stanley J.
Samartha The Hindu Response to the Unbound Christ (Bangalore: Institute for the Study of Religion and
Society, 1974); and D. T. Niles, Upon the Earth: The Mission of God and the Missionary Enterprise of the
Church (New York: McGraw Hill Publishing Company, 1962).
130
Arles, 71.
131
J. R. Chandran, “The Theological Task of the Church in India,” in Indian Voices in Today’s
Theological Debate, Horst Burkle and Wolfgang M. W. Roth (Lucknow: Lucknow Publishing House, 1972),
123.
57
theologians, theology is practical theology and theology is missiology. Herbert Jai Singh

quotes, “Theological system building in terms of a logical set of propositions about the

Christian message are not of special relevance.”132

Few Indian thinkers and reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Keshub Chander Sen

and P. C. Mozoomdar, Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi the non-violent leader of the

nationalist struggle, Rabindranath Tagore etc. highlighted the Christ of the sermon on the

Mount(Roy and Gandhi), the Oriental Christ(Mazoomdar), Christ the Jeevanmukta

(Vivekananda), Christ the son of man identified with suffering humanity(Tagore) etc.

acknowledging the Christ-principle rather than of the person of Jesus Christ. Their

contributions to Indian Christian theology are quite substantial, they not only challenged

Christian thinking both western and Indian, to make Christian theology indigenous; but they

also produced some of the seminal Indian categories in which such theologization could be

pursued.133 In this context, articulate Indian Christian theologies emerged within the Indian

church. Both Neo-Hindu and Indian Christian theologies were stimulated by the presence,

attitude and impact of western missions among the depressed classes and castes of Hinduism.

Some sources of theological traditions are:

B. Sources of theological Influences

1. The Syrian Tradition

A most ancient and venerated tradition of the Indian church says that the Apostle

Thomas came to India, landing in Malabar in A. D. 52. Whatever the truth of this may be,

there is no doubt that the Christian church has been established in South India from very early

times, probably from the third century and possibly considerably earlier. Tradition further

132
H. Jai Singh, “Towards a Relevant Gospel in India,” in Indian Voices in Today’s Theological
Debate, Horst Burkle and Wolfgang M. W. Roth (Lucknow: Lucknow Publishing House, 1972), 125.
133
Thomas and P. T. Thomas, 4.
58
says that in A. D. 345, a Syrian Christian merchant called Thomas of Cana brought a group of

Syrian settlers to Malabar.134 All though the Syrian Christian community has been culturally

closely integrated with Indian society, there has been little or no attempt to work out a

theology in Indian terminology. Thus the theology of the Syrian church found as it is mainly

in the liturgy and in formularies for ordination and consecration, has remained entirely

Syrian, based on the Syriac language. They believed in the council of Chalcedon, the Indian

Syrian tradition calls for much theological explication and scholarship, especially in the field

of liturgy

2. Robert De Nobili Tradition

In 1542 the great Jesuit pioneer Francis Xavier from Portugal arrived at Goa and

worked energetically and successfully in India till 1552 when he left for China and his death.

By this time the Indian church had already been westernized and into this setting did Robert

De Nobili come as a young Jesuit missionary in 1605.135 He immediately concluded that he

could never come close to the people of India by living a European life, and so decided to act

the role of a Christian ‘Sanyasi’ and to adopt the appropriate garb and style of living. He

learnt ‘Sanskrit’ language by the help of a Brahman and became the first European to master

the language of the Hindu Scriptures. His aim was to become thoroughly ‘Brahmanized,’ to

avoid any word or deed which might give offence, and to gain a complete mastery in Sanskrit

and Tamil learning. He abstained from all pollution from defiled or tainted things, substituted

only one simple meal, and wearing the ‘sacred thread’ of the ‘twice born’ along with the

ochre robe of a sanyasi, he engaged Vedanta philosophers in public conversations and

debates, and won a following of converts and disciples, including his own guru (teacher). His

manifesto, inscribed on palm leaf and posted on his house, declared: ‘I am not a parangi

134
Robin Boyd, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology (Delhi: ISPCK, 1969), 7.
135
Vincent Cronin, A Pearl to India: The Life of Robert De Nobili (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1959),
15.
59
(Portuguese), I was not born in the land of the parangis, nor was I ever connected with their

lineage…I come from Rome, where my family holds a rank as respectable as any Rajas

(kings) in this country’ by cutting of all links with crude, beef-eating, alcohol drinking

barbarians from Europe, de Nobili, the ‘Roman Brahman’ identified himself as being Indian

and became known as ‘Tattuwa-Bhodacharia Swami.’136 Nobili hoped to master both the

Vedas and the Vedanta and so to use Indian philosophy and philosophical language as a

vehicle for conveying Christian theological truth. Though he could not succeed but he made

some literary attempts to present Christian theology in a form which would be intelligible to

the Brahmans of Madurai. De Nobili’s works were indigenous and highly original and he is

greatly to be commended for his study and use of ‘Sanskrit’ and ‘Tamil’ languages. 137 His

achievement is to be seen in his understanding and adaptation of Hindu customs and

ceremonies. He wanted his future priests to present Christianity to the Indian people in their

own languages, not in a jargon in which all religious terms were Portuguese; to depend for

support and protection on their own countrymen, not on foreigners.138

3. The Protestant Tradition

By the early years of the 17th century a different kind of Christian presence had

begun to make itself felt in India through the arrival of various western trading companies.

The East India Company waited fifty years before appointing a chaplain for its workers and

the chaplains were restricted to preach to the Indians until 1813 when the company’s charter

was renewed. For the British and the Portuguese, the official connection between the State

and the Church did not assist the building up of a truly Indian Christian tradition. 139 The
136
Vincent Cronin, A Pearl to India: The Life of Roberto De Nobili (London: Rupert Hart-Davis,
1959); Joseph Thekkedath, History of Christianity in India, Vol. II: From the Middle of the Sixteenth to the End
of the Seventeenth Century (1542–1700) (Bangalore: Theological Publications in India for the Church History
Association of India, 1982).
137
Robin Boyd, 12.
138
Stephen Neill, A History of Christianity in India: The Beginnings to A.D. 1707 (New York:
Cambridge Press, 1985), 280-282.
139
Ibid., 15.
60
history of Protestant missions in India begins with the landing of the Lutheran missionaries

Ziegenbalg and Plutschau at Tranquebar in 1706. Ziegenbalg gave first priority to the

translation of the scriptures and even completed the translation of the New Testament into

Tamil language. A new era in Protestant missionary work in India was inaugurated in 1793 by

William Carey who like Ziegenbalg gave priority to the translation of the scriptures. Through

the work of Carey and his many successors the Bible has become the treasured possession of

Protestant Christians all over India and these vernacular translations have been a primary

instrument of evangelism.140 Along with Bible translation and the daily preaching of the

gospel the early Protestant missionaries busied themselves with writings and printing in the

various Indian languages.

In the initial period missionaries brought the Christian faith and it was Hindus who

received the message. And in the course of time the Indian Christians should therefore be the

embodiment of their faith and should make the Christian message of salvation intelligible to

the non-Christian. Christianity in India felt that need to develop a theology of its own in order

to restate its Christian faith in the Indian context and with reference to the religious and

cultural tradition of India.141

C. Views of Indian Theologians

During the initial period of the propagation of the Christian faith in India, there were

only two persons involved they are (1) The foreign Christian missionary who brought the

Christian message to India and (2) The Hindus to whom the message was given. As the time

passed and as a fruit of the missionary efforts, a third person had emerged that is ‘the Indian

Christian’ who represents the jewel of redemption brought by Christ, set in the golden casket

140
Ibid., 16.
141
V. C. Rajasekaran, Reflections on Indian Christian Theology (Madras: The Christian Literature
Service, 1993), 93-94.
61
of the heritage of Hinduism.142 It should be remembered that Indian Christianity has its

anchor in Christ and sums up the devotion and loyalty of the Indian to Christ and welcomes

Jesus into the Indian heart to be the indwelling Lord. Hence, the need was felt in Indian

Christianity to develop a theology of its own, in order to restate its Christian faith in the

Indian context and with reference to the religious and cultural heritage of India.

It follows that Christians in every culture have a right to do their own theologizing

from within their own cultural setting. That in fact is what happened in the New Testament

period as the gospel moved from Jerusalem into the larger Greco-Roman world. That still

continues to happen with every fresh incarnation of the Faith. 'New concepts, new language,

new categories and new metaphors are employed to articulate the Christian gospel. 143

Indigenization of the gospel is the main task of Indian Christian theology. It means the study

of non-Christian religions with a view to understanding our non-Christian heritage and

interpreting it in the light of Jesus. The task of Christian theology in India is to evangelize the

gospel and indianize the evangel.144 The writer will see the contribution of few Indian

theologians who raised the indigenous thoughts:

1. Krishna Mohan Banerjea(1813 – 1885)

K. M. Banerjee was born in Calcutta (West Bengal) to an orthodox Brahmin family

and studied Sanskrit along with English. He came under the influence of a rationalist

professor of Hindu college and joined the reform party of agnostics and atheists to revolt

against irrational traditions of Hindu orthodoxy.145 Later he got acquainted with the young

educationalist of Calcutta, Alexander Duff who led them to the truth of Christianity. He was

142
Ibid., 94.
143
Timothy Tennent, Building Christianity on Indian Foundations: The Legacy of Brahmabandhav
Upadhyay (Delhi: ISPCK, 2000), 3.
144
Rajasekaran, 100.
145
Thomas and P. T. Thomas, 25.
62
baptized by Duff as a member of a Presbyterian denomination but later joined the Anglican

Communion. Later he was ordained as pastor and led many high caste Hindus to Christianity.

His Thought: He wrote many articles and apologies defending the authority of

Christian doctrines and the Bible. He took comparative study on the stories of creation and

fall in the Bible and the Vedas, especially the element of sacrifice which is common to

both.146 He declared that “Christ is the true Prajapati – the true Purusha (Man) begotten in the

beginning before all worlds, and Himself both God and Man; therefore, no person can be a

true Hindu without being a true Christian. 147 He insisted that “Christ is the true Purusha

begotten before the worlds, who died that you might live, who by death has vanquished death

and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.”148

2. Vengal Chakkarai(1880 – 1958)

Chakkarai was born in Tamil Nadu in a Chettiar caste; he was brought up under the

Hindu religious influences of his home. He became an agnostic at young age and then later

began to see Hinduism as an integral part of the national awakening of India. 149 He also came

under the influence of Madras Christian College’s principal William Miller who believed that

Hinduism would find its fulfillment in Christ. It was the mystery of Jesus’ cross that led him

to accept Jesus as lord and Redeemer. 150 He studied Law and practiced it for some time, later

he left and joined the staff of the Danish mission in Madras. He joined Mahatma Gandhi’s

movements and campaigns; he got interested in nationalist politics and trade union

movement.151 With justice Chenchiah, A. J. Appasamy and others Chakkarai belonged to the

Rethinking Christianity in Indian group of theologians in south India.

146
Ibid., 26
147
Ibid., 26.
148
Thomas and P. T. Thomas, 26.
149
Ibid., 28.
150
Ibid.
151
Ibid.
63
 His Thought: Besides many articles in magazines his theology is articulated in 2

books; ‘Jesus the Avatar’ and ‘Cross and Indian Thought’. He used extensive use of the

Hindu terminology in stating his faith and formulating his theology without committing

himself to any one school of Hindu philosophy. 152 His theology was primarily Christological,

according to him Jesus’ avatarship (incarnation) is permanent and dynamic because once

incarnated Jesus remains forever the God-man in human history as Mediator of true spiritual

communion between God and humanity. Chakkarai was critical of the church for establishing

itself as an ecclesiastical organization and considering its tradition as the standard of faith.

For him the two sources of authority were the scriptures and the direct experience of Jesus

Christ, other things were secondary.

3. Pandipeddi Chenchiah(1886 – 1959)

Chenchiah was born in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. He studied at the Madras Christian

College and completed Law and lectured in Madras Law College for few years. He also

served as Judge of a native state and hence was known as Justice P. Chenchiah. 153 He was

influenced by Madras Christian College principal Miller’s Christ-centered liberalism. He was

given opportunity to preach and also edited a periodical ‘The Pilgrim’ of an intellectual

group, but later resigned to retain his own independent thinking. 154 His theological writings

were heavily criticized but also attracted attention. He joined few other Christians and shared

the spirit of national awakening; this group supported the National Missionary Society, the

Christian Ashram movement and other new forms of church life in India.

His Thought : Chenchiah was the most original thinker in the Rethinking group, he

never produced books on theology but his theological thoughts is to be found in his critical

comments on Indian church’s life and mission and in his essays in the series ‘Guardian’. He
152
Ibid., 29.
153
Thomas and P. T. Thomas, 27
154
Ibid., 28.
64
wanted Indian Christianity to revitalize all scriptures and church traditions in creed, cults and

order and seek the direct experience of what he called ‘the raw fact of Christ’ which is the

only absolute for Christians.155 He spoke of the necessity to discover and recover the Pauline

theology of incarnation as New Adam. For him, Salvation is not a return to an original

paradise and to Adam before the fall but a creative evolutionary movement towards a new

human being, society and cosmos.156 This was the framework of Chenchiah’s thought

4. Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889 – 1929

Singh was born in Patiala (Punjab) in a Sikh family. His mother trained him in a

tradition combining the sick and Hindu Bhakti devotions and hoped he would become a

Sadhu, who served God by renouncing the world. At mission school he rejected the

Christianity they taught and once ever burned the Bible, but studied other Hindu scriptures;

yet did not attain peace of soul.157 When he was young he resolved one night that if spiritual

peace did not come to him during night he would commit suicide in the morning. But, that

night just before dawn he became conscious of a bright cloud filling the room and in the

cloud he saw the radiant figure of the face of Christ. He heard Christ speaking to him saying

“why do you oppose me? I’m your savior, I died on the cross for you” at that moment a spirit

of peace filled his soul.158 He decided to become a Christian. Later he began wandering and

preaching and carried only the New Testament. The consciousness of the indwelling Christ

was his spiritual strength.

His Thought: He had a logically worked out system of theology, he always taught in

parables and analogies. He was Christo-centric in his thought as he was in his life. He speaks

of Christ as the true image of God in which God created human beings; except in Jesus it is
155
Ibid., 30.
156
Ibid.
157
Thomas and P. T. Thomas, 31.
158
Ibid., 162.
65
‘only imperfectly stamped’ so that it is a ‘battered image’. He dwelt constantly on the death

of Christ as the revelation of the love of God. He points to a definition of the church of Christ

as transcending the Christian churches.159 He used to say that India greatly needed the water

of life in the Indian vessel.

5. Aiyadurai Jesudasan Appasamy (1891 – 1975)

A.J. Appasamy was born and brought up in a Christian home in Tinnevelly. He had

his English education in India and spent 7 years abroad to study Christian theology. During

his studies abroad he had valuable contacts with great western theologians and students of

Indian religions. After his return to Indian he served in Christian literature Society in madras

as its editor for English publications. He was chosen as the Bishop of the church of south

India diocese of Coimbatore. Appasamy was perhaps the first systematically trained Indian

theologian to have made a pioneering contribution to indigenous theology with professional

competence.160 His two books “Bhakti Marg” and “What is Moksha” were a professional

theologian’s effort to build an indigenous theology. He belonged to a group in south India

keen on rethinking Christianity in the Indian context.

His Thought: Appasamy was convinced that Hindu Bhakti literature with its

emphasis on a personal relationship with a God of Love has much significance for

Christianity. He emphasizes the interpersonal character of the devotees’ mystic experience of

union with God as more similarity to Jesus’ realization of his oneness with God and Father.

He interprets the relation between God, the universal Logos and the incarnate in St. John ’s

gospel as, God’s being has both personal and impersonal dimensions.161 Appasamy links sin

with Karma and defines salvation as liberation from both, through the redemptive suffering

and death of Jesus on the cross. He considered the standard of Christian faith in four-fold: (1)

159
Ibid.
160
Thomas and P. T. Thomas, 62.
161
Ibid., 164.
66
The Scriptures (Sruti), (2) The Church (Sabha), (3) Reason (Yukti) and (4) Experience

(Anubhava). He also asks Indian Christians to listen to what points to Christ in the Hindu

Scriptures.162

6. Paul David Devanandan(1901 – 1962)

P. D. Devanandan was born in Madras to a pastor and well educated mother. He

completed his education in Tiruchirapalli and Hyderabad. He taught in Jaffna College for a

period and got acquainted with K. T. Paul, the nationalist Christian leader. He completed his

doctorate in Yale. After his return to India he accepted a teaching post at the United

Theological College, Bangalore. He joined the Bangalore continuation conference led by

Chenchiah, Chakkarai and others and expressed his concern for the ‘indianisation’ of

Christianity, not only in the sense of autonomy of the churches from missions but also in the

sense of giving indigenous expression to the life and theology of the church. 163 Hendrick

Kraemer’s book “Christian Message in a Non-Christian World, made an impact on him.

His Thought: His primary concern was in the Christian participation in the nation-

building and of dialogue with religious and secular faiths. It was his conviction that the

Christian mission in the context was to be defined in a relation of dialogue with this spiritual

quest for modern India. He defined the gospel as the gift of a ‘New’ humanity, a New

Creation in Jesus Christ and the church’s role as that of bearing witness to it through active

participation in the struggle for a new society and through a life of spiritual dialogue with the

religious and secular faiths.164 For Devanandan the church is an integral ingredient in God’s

design for the world’s redemption, neither as the exclusive community of the saved, not

identified as the kingdom to come, but as an open fellowship signifying the universal activity

of Christ and welcoming into it those who acknowledge Jesus as Lord.

162
Ibid.
163
Thomas and P. T. Thomas, 165.
164
Ibid., 166.
67
 Chapter 3

Theoretical Aspects of Indian Indigenous Missions

I. Indian Christian Movements

In this chapter the writer will see some of the movements and societies that were formed

to propagate the gospel and increase the mission activities through various means. A brief

view on south Indian context of pluralistic society will help us to know the background

setting in which Christianity had to survive and carry on its great commission. Few

movements were very unique in nature that it was even labeled as non-Christian in form and

content, but those were the movements that helped to identify the real Indianness in mission

endeavors. Some of the mission movements were so native in nature that it was immediately

welcomed by the Indian community and were accepted as a standard in Christian ministry.

Ecumenical movement was one such attempt to include all into the Christian fold. As the

writer goes through in this chapter, it will help the reader to have more broader understanding

on the need of indigenization.

A. Introduction

The indigenous Christian movements belong to the so called ‘Little Tradition’ 165 of

Indian Christianity. The ‘Little Tradition’ represents the practices and beliefs of Christian

adherents which may be at variance with the dogmas and rituals of recognized ‘Great

Tradition’ Christianity. Churches of the ‘little tradition’ consist of lesser-known churches and

165
‘Little Tradition’ is a term coined by Robert Redfield and applied to India by Milton Singer and
cultural anthropologists at the University of Chicago.
68
recent new movements of Indian origin in contrast to the historic denominations and

institutions constituting the ‘Great Tradition’ in Indian Christianity which have existed since

the era of St. Thomas. These new movements for the most part are neglected by Indian

church history.

The history of Christianity generally is written from the standpoint of the ‘Great

Tradition’. Usually it is the story of western Christianity, whereas the history in the East is

neglected and not well known.166 Yet the greatest growth of the church today is taking place

in the East and the South frequently among the poor and disenfranchised, marginalized

populations. Asian incarnations of the gospel are embodied in various indigenous movements

of the sub-continent. India has seen numerous attempted incarnations of the Christian faith,

some highly successful, other less so.167 A majority of India’s Christians are from the

oppressed, the products of Tribal and Dalit conversion movements. The writer will see few of

the movements that lead to the indigenous Christian activities. But before the writer

understand these movements it is important to understand the religious setup of South Indian

context.

B. South Indian Context of Religious Pluralism

Indian society is pluralistic, more than any other country in the world. People of

different religions and cultures have lived in large communities in this country for a long time

and they continue to live so. The pluralistic situation has its own beauty and gifts. But it is not

always a virtue to be pluralistic because such a context has also created chaos as is evident

from the history of India.168 When the writer says that India is a pluralistic society, four types

166
Samuel Hugh Moffett, A History of Christianity in Asia Vol.1 Beginnings to 1500 (Maryknoll:
Orbis Books, 1998), xiii.
167
Roger E. Hedlund, “Approaches to Indian Church History in Light of New Christian Movements,”
Indian Church History Review 34.2 (December 2000): 154.
168
S. J. Samartha, “Dialogue in a Religiously Plural Society,” in The Multi-faith Context of India –
Resources and Challenges for Christians, ed. Israel Selvanayagam (Bangalore: The Board for Theological Text
Books Programme of South Asia, 1994), 1.
69
of traditions may be identified. Samartha summarizes these traditions in the following points:

(1) Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina and Sikh traditions which have originated
and grown in the Indian soil; (2) The Semitic religions of Islam and
Christianity which came to India as missionary movements. These
religions are regarded as foreign not only because they brought new
streams of culture into this country but also have their power bases
outside; (3) The tribal and primal religious traditions need to be
recognized in their own right without mixing them with Hinduism.
These traditions have unique features expressed through oral traditions
and distinctive cultural life. Their emphasis on nature is particularly
remarkable; (4) Not only religions, there are secular visions and
ideologies also in India. Secular movements and technological culture
have made a considerable impact on the life of this nation, particularly
since the beginning of this century.169

Roger Gaikwad in his thesis had pointed out that:

Religiously pluralistic societies have become an impinging fact of

contemporary human existence. It is true that in earlier times people of
different faiths did not live in complete isolation from one another; in
fact the religious traditions inter-penetrated one another. 170

There are several factors that are involved in a global change context, the two world

wars, the decline of political colonialism, the rise of new nations particularly in Asia and

Africa. In Indian context it is a daily feature to find a Hindu rubbing shoulders with a

Muslim, Christian or a Sikh in the market place or on the crowded streets, trains, schools,

office etc, many Christians are becoming increasingly aware that ‘others’ are living holistic

lives, not in spite of; but because of their respective religions and ideologies. It is such a

religiously plural context that gives rise to questions of inter-religious relationships.

Christians in the west are asking heart-searching practical questions; how should

religious education be given in schools and college? What kind of social and political co-

operation is permissible with people of other faiths? Is it proper to use Buddhist meditational

techniques in prayer, or texts from Hindu scriptures in Christian liturgy? How can one

appropriately maintain a Christian witness in a flat shared with Sikh students? Behind such

169
Samartha, 2.
170
Roger Gaikwad, “Major Issues in a Dialogical-Pluralistic Paradigm for Inter-Religious
Relationships,” (Unpublished Ph D. Dissertation, SATRI, 1995), 335.

70
practical question are deeper, theological issues. Is God the source of vitality of the faith of

adherents of other traditions? Is salvation possible outside of Christianity or is it through

Jesus Christ alone? Is the salvation of people of other faiths possible through or despite their

religious affiliations? One encounters different responses to such questions; some are

negative, some are patronizing, while some are respectfully open. Particularly in India people

had for long lived with the phenomenon of religious plurality in a spirit of general tolerance,

yet that too has had to face problems of inter-religious relationships.

South India consists of four states, they are Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh

and Kerala, and all these states have different cultural, religious, social, traditional, linguistic

and even historical backgrounds. In simple words they differ from each other sometimes even

in color of the skin, each state is richly pluralistic and religion is the very essence that

distinguishes it. In such a cloud of mixed atmosphere and with the origin of Hinduism and

Buddhism in India, religion is considered to be extremely important. Of the two religions,

Hinduism is infinitely more popular, with an incredible 82% of the population practicing it.

Within this majority, there are significant differences in the belief systems and caste

divisions. Although there is division in some areas of Hinduism, there are many areas in

common. In the shadow of Hindu dominance, there are a few followers of other beliefs such

as Christianity, Sikh and Buddhism. In S. India, religion is a way of life; it is an integral part

of the entire Indian tradition. For the majority of Indians, religion permeates every aspect of

life, from common-place daily chores to education and politics.

Secular India is home to Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism

and other innumerable religious traditions. Hinduism is the dominant faith that is practiced

widely. Besides Hindus, Muslims are the most prominent religious group and are an integral

part of Indian society. In fact India has the second largest population of Muslims in the world

after Indonesia. Common practices have crept into most religious faiths in India and many of

71
the festivals that mark each year with music, dance and feasting are shared by all

communities. Each has its own pilgrimage sites, heroes, legends and even culinary

specialties, mingling in a unique diversity that is the very pulse of Indian society particularly

in the south.

1. Tensions and Conflicts in Pluralistic Society

The dialogical-pluralistic paradigm acknowledges that religions could be involved in

communal tension and conflict in society. But religion could also be important in promoting

peace, harmony and growth in society. Religions can be instruments of deception, oppression

and conflict as well as agents of truth, liberation and peace in society. In such a situation

pluralists advise a comprehensive perspective of the forces which cause tension in society.

There are religious causes, such as exclusivistic or inclusivistic attitudes which people of one

religious affiliation adopt in relation to other people. There are also social causes for tension

in society; political forces could also cause divisions in society. In the context of communal

division tension and conflict, the pluralists assert that religions still hold the key to communal

peace and harmony.

2. Church Mission in the Context of Pluralism

The church is a community of Jesus disciples who are sent to the world with a

mission “Go into the whole world, preach the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15), “Go

therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of

the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Mt 28:19), many scholars consider this text as an

interpretation, moreover there are various other texts in the Bible that explain the nature and

function of our mission, unfortunately it is only this “great commission” text that had more

inspired the mission of the church in the past even to extent of an ‘aggressive’ mission of

72
“conquering people” for Christ by converting, baptizing and making them members of the

church. As many scholars have pointed that, the great commission must be coupled with

another strong ecclesial tradition of ‘Witnessing’ to the gospel; “you are the salt of the earth;

you are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:13-16). This latter aspect of the mission as

‘witnessing’ is more Theocentric, giving glory to God by building up God’s kingdom, it is a

community witness rather than individual proclamation. It is the spirit who impels and

compels us to proclaim the great works of God in every specific historical context. One

historical mission model cannot be simply copied everywhere and at all times. The writer re-

conceives and reinterpret the mission of the church in today’s historical context.

In the actual Indian context of religious pluralism and the immense

human misery and utter poverty, the primary path of the church
mission in India seems to be to enter into dialogue with all the major
religions of the country in creating a just and better society based on
the vision of Jesus and on the authentic human/gospel/kingdom
values. In such a context the proclamation of Jesus shall not be seen as
something totally different. It is Jesus who calls and inspires us to
enter into dialogue with all our fellow human beings, and thus to form
a new kind of fellowship cutting across the boundaries of religions,
cultures, races nationalities and languages. 171

The church’ mission is not to destroy the other religions, but to challenge and

transform them mutually and complementarily, the church has to recognize the missionary

role of the other religion too and let itself be challenged and purified in constant interaction

and dialogue with the other religions. The church’ mission is therefore not a one-way traffic,

but a process of giving and taking, resulting in mutual fruit bearing and transformation. Faith

in Christ and the hope given in Christ is the ultimate ground for our total commitment to

dialogue and liberative action. Hence proclamation of Christ, liberation and dialogue shall not

be separated, but constantly related as parts of a single process, the process of the realization

of the mystery of God’s plan of salvation which cannot be identified with our own plans and

ideas.

171
Kuncheria Pathil, “Plurality of Religions,” in Upon the Wings of Wider Ecumenism, eds. Jegadish
P. Gandhi and John K.C (Delhi: ISPCK, 2006), 217.
73
 3. Christian Response to Pluralism

Down through the centuries, The S. Indian Christians have been asking very

relevant questions – Is Christianity truly unique? Is Jesus truly the only way for salvation?

The questions have emerged even more intensely with the resurgence of religions over the

recent decades. Not only so, Christian all over has become more aware of the claims of

peoples of other faiths. And hence another question is being asked – are sincere adherents of

other religions also saved? There is an urgent need for us to face the context intellectually,

and then to affirm our belief within the climate of plurality that prevails.

Plurality is not new concept even in the Bible; during the Old Testament period the

people of God handled plurality and did it with real zeal. They showed to maintain the purity

of their own faith by distancing themselves from people of all other religions. But in doing so

they showed a misunderstanding of the privilege they had enjoyed as the people of God. This

arrogation of the blessings of God made them to refuse interaction with others. The

stubbornness of Jonah in his reluctance to preach to the Ninevites graphically symbolizes this

arrogant attitude. Dr. Ken Gnanakan notes that:

Early Christians faced with a very different context and had to work
out their attitude towards plurality within a world of hostile people.
They were forced to live alongside men and women of varying
ideologies. There was a Roman rule, a much more unfriendly
environment within which to live out their submission to God. There
were also men and women of other religious commitments, even
idolatrous and cultic groups. The apostles had also attempted to relate
Jesus Christ to these beliefs and ideologies.172

Even Jesus Christ lived and ministered in a world characterized by such plurality.

There are numerous encounters where Jesus related positively to the faith of men and women

outside the Jewish community. On the other hand, there is a commendation of the faith and

172
Dr. Ken Gnanakan, Proclaiming Christ in a Pluralistic Context (Bangalore: Theological Book Trust,
1992), 11.

74
commitment of some, even amidst of all the complexity of various other religious traditions.

Interestingly, most of Jesus’ commendation was towards men and women of the Jewish faith.

What is new today is the challenge that comes to us forcefully – a challenge not only

to recognize the presence of religions around us but also to respond to the need for our

relationship to them. We may stand up and proclaim – Jesus is the only way. But then the

Muslim stand up for what he too believes is the only truth and in doing so challenges all other

truths. We need to proclaim our claims amidst such plurality as Jesus would have us do in

today’s context. This diversity in religious pluralism is something we must learn to accept

and live within anywhere in the world. However the situation that pressures us today is not

merely to accept plurality of religions, but to recognize that our beliefs have to be spelled out

amid growing antagonism. The agenda of the pluralists in many ways comes from a Western

‘colonial’ Christianity that carried on for a long time with a negative attitude to other

religions, making little effort to discover anything of good value in them. To a large extent

most missionaries ignored the need to relate the Christian message to the beliefs of other

religions. In most cases, the Christian attitude to other faiths displayed a colonial attitude of

arrogance amidst an embarrassing ignorance of the deeper beliefs of the adherents of other

religions. In such context if the church wants to be effective in its mission, merely continuing

to state its claims will not suffice. Mission has to be carried out in an awareness of the present

context of the claims of others. Ziegenbalg found out that there is some truth in other

religions also and hence notes “I do not reject everything they teach, rather rejoice that for the

heathen long ago a small light of the gospel began to shine”. 173 It requires an understanding of

the beliefs of our neighbours, as well as becoming a more integral part of the world within

which we are called to be a witness.

173
J. R. Chandran, The Church in Mission: Universal Mandates and Local Concerns (Madras: The
Christian Literature Society, 1991), 149.
75
 4. The Pluralistic Dilemma

Political, religious, ideological and cultural pluralities are not new facts that we are

confronted with in the present world. Christians in the New Testament, even the Jews in the

Old Testament faced the pressure of plurality, sometimes in aggravating encounters even

within their own social context. The situation that presses us today is not merely to accept

plurality, particularly of religions, but to espouse pluralism, an attitude that will accept equal

validity for all religions. The pluralists are not saying anything different to what the liberal

Hindu has been saying all along- all religions are of equal value and lead to the same God.174

The agenda of the pluralists in many ways is Western. They are attempting to undo

the damage caused by the ‘colonial’ Christian attitude. Western colonial Christianity carried

on for a long time with naively negative attitudes to other religions, making little effort to

discover anything of value within them.175 Most missionaries ignored the need to relate the

Christian message to the beliefs of other religions, firmly believing that there was no

relationship with them. It was the eminent Methodist missionary Stanley Jones who

attempted successfully to build links with non-Christians in India.176 In the Indian context a

normal educated Hindu considers that the Christian faith comes under the identification of the

foreign colonialist. Majority of the Hindus looked down upon Christianity as the religion of

the pagan. Hindu reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Swami Devanandan Saraswati

and the former president of India Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan were the strong reactors to

Christian mission in India. These Hindu leaders attacked the dogmatism of Christianity with

its fixed doctrines and dogmas.

It was John Hick and Paul Knitter who offered a challenging presentation

questioning the traditional attitudes to the Christian faith in its relation to other religions. It

was Gavin D’Costa who questions the claims of the pluralistic theology as whether it is an
174
Ken Gnanakan, The Pluralistic Predicament (Bangalore: Theological Book Trust, 1992), 3.
175
Ibid., 7.
176
E. Stanley Jones, Christ of the Indian Road (Lucknow: LPH, 1925), 42.
76
appropriate or even adequate interpretation of religious plurality. 177 Quite a few theologians

have pointed out that the pluralist position is an imperialistic as it makes the other positions to

be. The commitment to pluralism today brings with it commitment to everything, which in

effect is a commitment to nothing, without adequate convictions on which to build one’s

confidence.178 In seeking to clear the way ahead, we will need to spell out some categories

which will help hook us down within reasonable limits. These categories will help us look at

both our context and the Bible, with sensitivity as well as an integrity that will do justice to

both.

C. Mass Movements

Christianity has been from the beginning of its history, an outreaching religion. This

resulted in many people accepting Christianity through the ages in many parts of the world.

In the Bible the writer can see from the book of Acts of the Apostles, that three thousand

accepted Christianity at one time and five thousand at another time. Besides various reasons,

it is found that it is not an uncommon phenomenon in the Christian history for groups of

people to embrace Christian faith. Robert Eric Frykenberg finds that,

Missionaries from abroad may have brought an initial stimulus,

together with new technologies for transmitting both Scripture and
science. But only after local agents with whom missionaries
collaborated had taken full ownership of the Christian message, and
the means for transmitting that message, was it possible for a new
movement of conversion to take root and grow.179

The common word that denoted this phenomenon was ‘Mass Movements’. The phrase

‘Group Conversion movements’ refers to groups of people converting to Christianity; they

could be from one clan or tribe or caste group or family or one community in substantial or

recognizable number.180 The term Mass Movement is well known. But to define it to the
177
Gavin D’Costa, Christian Uniqueness Reconsidered (New York: Orbis Books, 1990), 11.
178
Gnanakan, 18.
179
Frykenberg, 241.
180
D. Arthur Jeyakumar, History of Christianity in India: Selected Themes (Madurai: TTS Press, 2007),
80.
77
satisfaction of all is impossible. Different terms have been suggested such as group

movements,181 people movements,182 or as some call them as ‘winning groups’. He writer

simply consider it as fairly rapid conversions to Christianity over a fairly short period of time

without too drastically separating the converts from their original sociological groups. The

conversions may be as a result of group decisions, or as families or as individuals, who, as a

result of their conversions, were not completely ostracized, but could continue to live among

their original socio-cultural groups, although with mild 'persecutions'. This normally resulted

in the possibility of organizing the converts in churches on linguistics and socio-cultural

lines, and enhanced the converts to continuously rub shoulders with their own people, and

thereby enhancing a more intimate witness.

From around 1860 onwards, huge independently initiated conversion movements

occurred, largely to Protestant Christianity, from amongst the outcaste Hindus and the tribal

peoples. The phenomenon of mass conversion occurred in almost every province of Indian

subcontinent. Prior to this period, the Indian church was inactive, experiencing a gradual

decline in numbers. Mass movements had occurred previously, but had been of less

significance, due to both the isolated nature of the conversions, and the comparatively small

numbers involved.183 “The mass movement brought with it unique challenges that were

outside the experience and understanding of many western missionaries for whom conversion

was a very definite individual experience”.184

The original response from the lower castes groups was unwelcome and met with

great uncertainty from the missionaries. The form of conversion was not the individualistic

type favored by evangelical theology; rather it was in the form of community decisions,

181
J. Waskom Pickett, Christian Mass Movement in India (Lucknow: Lucknow Publishing House,
1933), 23.
182
Donald A. McGavran, Understanding Church Growth (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 334-36.
183
Laing, 91.
184
Colin F. Blair, “Christian Mission in India: Contributions of some Missions to Social Change,”
(Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Simon Fraser University, 2008), 44.
78
leading on to types of mass movements where the whole group entered into Christianity. 185

The earliest mass movements of conversion occurred in the Deep South India, first among

Nayars of Thirunelveli and then among Sambars in Travancore followed by Mazhabi Sikhs in

Punjab, Mundas, Orayans and Khoris of Chota Nagpur, Mahars of Maharashtra, Kammans,

Madigars in Andhra Pradesh, Garos, Khasi, Nagas and Mizo in Northeastern India. The very

such movement took place among shoreline fishing communities, given their circumstances,

their decisions were initially political – motivated by a desire to seek protection from Arab

invasions and Nayaka armies. Only later did they gain a genuine Christian knowledge to then

missionaries.186 Such mass movements to Christianity had occurred in India in the past and

more than one half of the total Christian population is claimed to be the product of these

movements.187 This movement occurred among oppressed people who were extremely

energetic and enterprising; they only needed an opening opportunity to break the stigma of

casteism by which they were shackled.188 As this movement gained momentum, as hundreds

and thousands flocked to embrace the new found faith, so that some whole villages turned

Christian and temples were turned into chapel schools. Eventually after years of slow

incubation and modest growth, massive movements of conversion broke out in several

communities. While all of the movements were inspired and led by leaders within the

respective caste in which conversions occurred, virtually all supporting infrastructures –

school to provide them with access to literacy, as well as local teacher-preacher(catechists) –

were reinforced by missionaries.189 However, most mass movements have been arrested

before the entire groups became Christian and in most cases, there do not seem to be any sign

that the movements will pick up again, although individual conversions in small and mostly

unrelated instances, are still taking place.

185
Blair, 44.
186
Frykenberg, 208
187
Actual statistics are not available. The claim varies from around 60% to as high as 85%.
188
Frykenberg, 208.
189
Ibid., 229.
79
 The general opinion was that the term mass movement is deficient to describe the

Christian-ward movements of people groups in India. For some, it is not only inadequate; it is

misleading and also derogatory and therefore, should never be used. Conversion movement

was suggested, but after much discussion, it felt that the term does not maintain the unique

feature of the movements.190 A majority of India’s Christians are from the oppressed, the

products of tribal and Dalit conversion movements. Conversion movements in India not

infrequently have been movements of social counterculture, movements of affirmation in

quest of dignity and equality. In India today, however in North as well as South, a number of

subaltern movements are taking place in which oppressed peoples are finding dignity in a

new identity as disciples of Jesus Christ. For many, upward mobility resulted from

conversion by which the downtrodden discovered new dignity and hope. 191 Not all

conversions are among the oppressed, of course, nor are all the emerging churches of

indigenous origins to be so classed, but nevertheless subaltern categories are critical in the

broad sweep of diversity among India’s indigenous Christian movements.192

McGavran rightly said that different kinds of people movements will occur in

different types of people groups.193 Group decision is probably the only possible Christian-

ward movement among the people groups who are tight, closed, powerful, highly satisfied,

well-disciplined and proud peoples. This means that the nature of the movement is largely
194
determined by the nature of the group. Whatever the patterns of conversions may be, the

converts were allowed to remain in their socio-cultural groups, although with some

persecutions, and they were not ostracized. Thus, the converts continuously rub shoulders

with others of their own people, enhancing continuous Christian witness.

190
Hrangkhuma, Christianity in India: Search for Liberation and Identity (Delhi: ISPCK, 2000), XIX.
191
Roger E. Hedlund, “Indian Christians of Indigenous Origin and Their Solidarity with Origin
Groups,” Journal of Dharma 24.1 (1999): 19.
192
Roger E. Hedlund, “Approaches to Indian Church History in Light of New Christian Movements,”
Indian Church History Review 34.2 (December, 2000): 157.
193
Hrangkhuma, XX.
194
Ibid.
80
 Prior to the onset of the mass movements, missionary efforts had been focused on

urban centers, seeking to win individual converts from the elite Brahmans, and demanding

that such convert renounce caste, the hope being that this ‘top down’ method would

precipitate conversion amongst the lower caste. In contrast to strenuous missionary efforts,

producing meager results amongst the elite, the mass movements occur rurally, the converts,

initially being almost exclusively from the lowest rung of society. 195 An unprecedented and

for the missionaries, undesirable feature was the conversion of groups, rather than of

individuals. There was a general consensus amongst missionaries that caste hindered, rather

than helped, the spread of the gospel. Missionary consternation was acute as low caste

converts rigorously maintained caste and family ties, rather than renouncing them, caste

helping rather than hindering the pattern and spread of the movements. With rapid growth of

the mass movements, missionaries were “forced to decide how best to respond to the Dalit

initiative”.196 Prior to the onset of the mass movements, the Indian church existed as a tiny

elite group of high caste converts. The entrance, in their thousands of illiterate villagers had a

profound impact on the demographics within the church. The heart of the church moved from

the cities into the villages.197

The distinguishing features of Christian mass movements are a group decision

favorable to Christianity and the consequent preservation of the converts’ social integration.

Whenever a group, larger than the family, accustomed to exercise a measure of control over

the social and religious life of the individuals that compose it, accepts the Christian religion,

the essential principle of the mass movements is manifest. 198 The size and distribution of the

group are of immense interest, but that do not affect the principle. A mass movement may

comprise either a large or a small group. Christian missionaries did not invent the mass
195
Laing, 92.
196
J. C. B. Webster, The Dalit Christians: A History (Delhi: ISPCK, 1992), 38.
197
Laing, 93.
198
J. Holmes Smith, “A Summary of Dr. J. Waskom Pickett’s ‘Christian-Mass Movements in India,’”
in Movements of the Depressed Classes into Christianity (Lucknow: Lucknow Publishing House, 1936), 8.
81
movement as a facile method of getting converts. Much of the expansion of

Mohammedanism in India, before the modern era of Christian missions, took place through

mass movements. Significantly, the survey shows that a strong western influence has not

been the cause of these mass movements. “Mass movements have not occurred in areas

where western influence has been most strongly felt, nor have the movements generally

developed in areas where missionary forces have been most numerous or longest at work.”199

Apparently the features most common to the beginning of the movements in different

areas are that missionaries and ministers of the church did not seek them, and that they began

through the conversion of individuals who refused to be separated from their caste fellows

and went among them as witnesses for Christ. The real founder of the early Indian churches

in Travancore was not Ringelraube(German missionary) but Vedamanickam(a local layman),

In Krishna district it was not Darling(American missionary), but Venkayya(a local farmer), In

Sialkot(North India) it was not Gordon(American missionary), but Ditt(a local merchant).

Before these movements began, the missionaries practically in every area were working

primarily for the higher castes, hoping that they might first be won and might then take over

the winning of the lower castes.200 They sought individual converts and tried to destroy their

connection with caste. They saw castes only as obstructions to the spread of the gospel, never

as channels along which it would spread. Robert Eric Frykenberg points that,

Most significantly what may be called ‘mass conversions’ or

wholesale transformation occurred mainly among avarna (low caste)
and adivasi (tribal) peoples. It is not surprising that, even before the
full dawn of the modern missionary movements out of Europe and
America had broken, the earliest mass movements of conversion
occurred in the deep South India.201

The motives or causes for such movements were/are very much mixed. J. Waskom

Pickett in his book ‘Christian Mass Movements in India’ says.

199
Ibid., 7.
200
Ibid., 8.
201
Frykenberg, 207.
82
 The preaching of the gospel often awakens in the mind of the
receptive hearer a desire for self-improvement and a fuller, as well as
a better life, appreciation of kindness shown to him/her, hope of
escape from century old wrongs previously endured without question,
and ambition for his/her children.202

It can be said that, people became Christians in order to get liberated spiritually,

socially and in other related areas, and to be treated as human beings i.e., to get an identity.

Frykenberg feel that, the mass conversion movements occurred among people whose despair,

leaving them nowhere else to turn, responded to the Christian gospel. 203 The reasons for these

changes can be partly traced to the Protestant missionary activities that took place during the

late nineteenth and early twentieth century, but the enormous success of these movements

could not have been achieved without the initiative and enthusiasm of the thousands of dalits

who converted in mass. The expansion of Christianity in the late nineteenth century India

cannot be understood without understanding its relationship to the marginalized dalits.

The fear that the reception of large numbers of the depressed classes into the church

would interfere with the winning of the upper classes seems to have restrained a section, at

least, of the missionaries in every area when movements were beginning. But the harvest

expected of the upper classes in their conversion would not have occurred in any of the

numerous areas without the movement of depressed classes.204 It is important to know that

conversion is not a magic solvent of all the social problems of the depressed classes. There is

no religion of which it can be guaranteed that conversion to it would automatically remove

their social disabilities. This is true of Islam, Christianity or any other religion. Worship in

terms of Christian teaching has given many of these mass-movement converts a desire to

share their blessings with their Hindu neighbours. Thus they have acquired a sense of

mission, which is having revolutionary effects upon them. The worship program of various

mass-movements groups seems to have contributed to improved relations with their

202
J. Waskom Pickett, Christian Mass Movements in India (New York: Abingdon, 1933), 157.
203
Frykenberg, 241.
204
Smith, 8.
83
neighbours in another way also.

“Before their conversion to Christianity the religion of these groups

was regarded by both Hindus and Muslims as of an extremely lower
order. After their conversion, the growth of self-respect, the
acquirement of belief in a personal God who takes an interest in them
and to whom they offer prayer and praise and the assembling in
church all seem to contribute to the raising of standards in social
living.”205

Christian faith has never been bound by or restricted to any one culture. In has been

bound by no single sacred language-in-text, such as Arabic has been within Islam; nor any

one sacred blood or earth, or language-in-genome, as has been Aryan and Brahmanical or

Sanskriti and Vedic lore as embodied in ideologies of ‘Hindutva.’ No one single human

culture has even been, in and of itself, sacred. Yet all cultures have been capable of becoming

sacred, to a greater or lesser degree, depending on how much their essentials could be

transformed so as to reflect everlasting verities that are truly sacred. What can be inferred

from the mass movements is the manifestation of manifold instances of the ‘indigenous

discovery of Christianity’ rather than instance in the (Western) Christian discovery of

indigenous societies.206

D. Cross-Cultural Movements

The Church has a long and glorious history of cross-cultural missions. The apostle

Paul was a cross-cultural missionary in that he went outside his own people, the Jews, and

outside his own country, Israel, and preached the Gospel to the Gentiles. William Carey and

Amy Carmichael in India, Hudson Taylor in China, and David Livingstone in Africa are all

examples of cross-cultural missionaries. It is not difficult to see that cross-cultural mission

work is indispensable to the great commission. How can a people group who is entirely

without the Gospel come to a saving knowledge of Christ unless missionaries from another

205
Pickett, 131.
206
Lamin Sanneh, Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2003), 19.
84
culture are sent to them? A cross-cultural mission is biblical, historical, and necessary

wherever there exists a people group completely devoid of the Gospel message or where the

Church is still struggling to take root in a culture or people group. In many areas of the world

today, there are entire people groups that have no knowledge of Christ. For them to be

reached, Christians must leave their own peoples and lands and go to them, bearing the Good

News.

Although Christianity is believed to have reached India during the first century, the

pioneer missionaries who came to India were of German origin, Lutheran by confession,

sponsored by a pious Danish king and supported by the Society for Promoting Christian

Knowledge from England. It was only in post-independent India the resurgence of missions

occurred.207

Many mission movements in India can be attributed to the western pioneering

Protestants who set the foundation for the success on which Indian missionaries now build.

Indian missionary numbers grew in huge numbers; Larry Plate classifies India as first among

the Two-Thirds World missionary-sending countries.208 Since the second half of the 20th

century, a number of missionary movements have sprung up. In northeast India, the regional

churches view missionary work as their main task. Hence, the “Nagaland Missionary

Movement of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council, the Zoram Evangelical Fellowship, and

the Presbyterian Synod of Mizoram are some of the indigenous denominational mission

agencies that have emerged.”209

In south India, several prominent organizations like the Friends Missionary Prayer

Band, the Indian Evangelical Mission, and the Indian Missionary Society emerged out of

prayer meetings or other gatherings. Some organizations in north India, such as the Rashtriya
207
Dino L. Touthang, “Cross-Cultural Mission Movements in India,” in Emerging Missions
Movements: Voices of Asia, ed. Bambang Budijanto (Colorado Springs: Compassion International, 2011), 86.
208
Robert Eric Frykenberg, Christians and Missionaries in India: Cross-Cultural Communication
since 1500 with Special Reference to Caste, Conversion and Colonialism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 42.
209
K. M. George, Christianity in India through the Centuries (Hyderabad: Authentic Press, 2007), 73.
85
Susamachar Parishad (National Good News Organization), were born out of the Evangelical

Fellowship of India Conference. The booming growth of the emerging non-western

missionary movement offers lessons on recruitment for mission mobilizers around the world.

Contrary to predictions, the number of cross-cultural non-western missionaries serving

internationally has still not exceeded those from the west. The non-west has, however, far

surpassed the west in its rate of growth. The number of major part of world missionaries grew

at a remarkable rate in the 90s. The western rate of increase during the same time was only 12

percent.210 If this comparison is seen broadly including those serving cross-culturally but

within their own national boundaries, the figures would include high rise in numbers among

Indian missionaries. With such a high increase, India is the largest missionary-producing

country, with about four-fifth of the world total. This growth in missionaries and mission

agencies is an expression of the indigenous nature of Indian Christianity. Though they serve

in their own country, Indian missionaries are indeed cross-cultural because they face ethnic,

cultural, and language barriers larger than those faced by many international missionaries.

This is because India is a country with many cultures and dialects within her borders. As the

largest non-western producer of cross-cultural missionaries, India’s mobilization progress

needs to be identified. Research has been done among a sample of her indigenous cross-

cultural mission organizations to study the origin, progress, impact and challenges of in-

country mission movements that could be replicated in other countries.

The tremendous growth of churches in India could be attributed to the work of cross-

cultural missionaries. They carry out a dual mission, going among the poor, oppressed and

outcasts and also among the Hindus. They often find the former responsive to the gospel

while the latter remain critical of Christianity. Cross-cultural missionaries contribute to the

awakening of the consciousness of the oppressed classes, resulting in their social-economic

210
David Harley, Preparing To Serve: Training for Cross-Cultural Mission (Pasadena: William Carey
Library, 1995), 38.
86
transformation.211 The poor and the oppressed respond to the gospel because it promises them

self-worth and dignity. The message communicated to them from scripture is one of new life

and confidence.

1. Types of Missions

As mission agencies enlarged their territory and their work progressed, they realized

the need for capacity-building of their missionaries. While some sent to be trained in

established theological colleges, other started their own training centers. This was so the

training could be tailored directly to the challenges they faced in the field. While these Bible

colleges and training centers contribute to missionary preparedness, few maintain high

standard or create an impact on the society. The various of types of missions that is carried

out are outlined below:

Evangelism: Outreach ministries are carried out in different ways. Some mission

agencies specialize in certain areas, such as personal evangelism, audio/video ministry,

sending Christian books to people in authority, internet ministry, healing ministry, book stalls

in markets, radio and TV ministry, prison ministry, ministry among sex workers, ministry

among drug users, literature distribution and street plays.

Church Planting among People Groups: Mission agencies identify a people group

where the gospel has not reached and then send missionaries to that location. The

missionaries learn the local dialect and preach the gospel. They start prayer meetings, do

house-to-house visitation, begin Sunday schools for children, and hold church services in

homes until they can have a worship center. Once the response is good, more missionaries are

sent. Local people are trained, ordained and given the responsibility of outreach and

conducting Sunday services. Eventually some mission agencies hand over these church plants

211
Touthang, 87.
87
to mainline churches.212

Translation Ministry: While establishing churches among unreached people groups,

many organizations identified the need for providing scripture in the native languages. This is

no small undertaking in India, where there are more than 400 languages, 4 language families

and 11 major scripts. In response, mission agencies emerged to focus solely on translation

ministry,

Social Concern Ministry: While getting involved with poor communities, mission

agencies also sought to address people’s physical needs. They started schools, hospitals,

children’s homes, literacy programs, community health programs, self-help groups, and

vocational training programs. The Friends Missionary Prayer Band started a separate

organization called ‘Navjeevan Seva Mandal’ (New Life Serving Organization) to take care

of social-concern ministries.213 However many mission agencies use social-concern ministries

not as an integral part of mission but as an added activity to evangelism, which is considered

the core of mission. One of the major contributions mission agencies made in the social

sector is to provide a proper education to more than a million children. 214 Mission agencies

have also contributed to improvements in the health systems in the local communities where

they work and have provided significant relief during times of disaster. International agencies

such as Campus Crusade for Christ and Youth for Christ have influenced Indian churches in

starting chapters. Indigenous mission agencies have also formed wings to address the needs

of youth and lead them to the Lord.

2. Challenges Facing Mission Agencies

The needs in India are paradigmatic for the needs in many other places. While the

number of Christians and missionaries is increasing, only a small percentage of ministries are

212
Touthang, 89.
213
Ibid., 90.
214
Touthang, 90.
88
targeting the genuinely unreached. By one estimate, only 10 percent of Indian Christian

ministry is carried out among the unreached, and only 2 percent is concentrated on the

neediest non-Christian majorities. If this is correct, it means that 90 percent of full-time

ministers are working among Christians, and most of these Christians are from two minority

communities, the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes. 215 One means of correcting this

imbalance would be to step up recruitment for genuine mission work. In order to improve

recruitment, the motivational dynamics of enlisting cross-cultural missionaries needs to be

better understood. Similar situations exist in other countries and lessons that can be learned

from India may have relevance for settings elsewhere. Too many missionary movements

concentrating in one area can deter the very cause of evangelism by creating confusion

among the locals. This results in wasting resources that could be diverted to some other place.

As evangelism is the whole aim of all missions, it could be beneficial to have a common

training course for evangelists.

Rising fundamentalism and intolerance of the majority faith toward other faiths

present big challenges to mission agencies. The passing of anti-conversion bills by certain

states have caused mission work to be seen as fraudulent, which creates problems for house

churches. Mission agencies need to find innovative methods to share the gospel to meet this

challenge. Ethnic and caste-based violence are also increasing and pose a great hindrance to

missions. Missionaries from south and northeast India are mainly involved in cross-cultural

mission. But local leadership has been built in these places, and they can see cross-cultural

missionaries as a threat as they usurp leadership positions. Mission agencies need to address

this conflict of interest in order to move forward. Several new mission agencies and Bible

colleges are started every year. Most function like private enterprises with no accountability

and many people aspiring for positions of top leadership. Western mission agencies that

support these organizations are only looking at the numbers rather than at accountability.
215
Ibid., 94.
89
Knowledge management is another area of weakness in mission agencies. Past experiences

are not recorded and therefore are not available to help other agencies not repeat the same

mistakes. One challenge that is common in south Indian mission agencies is that recruiting

committed and qualified missionaries. Mission agencies are not a priority for today’s youth.

The Indian missions association is trying to play a crucial role in providing guidelines in this

regard.

E. Ashram Movements

Ashram concept is not at all new to Indian society. In the ancient times, children were

sent to the ‘Ashram’ or ‘Gurukul’ for study. They spent almost 10-15 years there and then

came back to face the challenges in life. During their stay in the Ashram, they learned by

listening, watching and imitating their gurus and teachers. Christ likeness in Christianity is

possible as and when one decides to follow the Lord in listening and obeying Him, obedience

is said to be better than sacrifice and Christian Ashram is just the same. 216 These communities

are true families in Christ, predominantly lay, sharing the life of the people around them and

communicating the gospel through diversified ministries of service at a cost so low that

foreign assistance is not needed. One of the important aspects of Ashram is interpreting the

life and message of Christ in Indian form. Dr. Jones expressing his view on this very

important issue had said that:

The reason that the Indian Christian has not made any real
contribution to Christian theology is because he has been trying, to
think through western forms and here he is like a fish out of water. But
now that India is awakened and self-conscious and the process of
denationalization is probably over, we may expect that genius to work.
We must be willing to trust the Indian to make his contribution…every
nation has its peculiar contribution to make to the interpretation of
Christianity. The Son of man is too great to be expressed by any one
portion of humanity. Those that differ from us will probably contribute
most to our expression of Christianity.217
216
John R Biswas, “The Relevance of the Ashram Model for Contemporary Christian Witness in the
Indian Setting,” Contemporary Christian 1.1 (August 2009): 41.
217
E. Stanley Jones, Christ of Indian Road (Lucknow: Lucknow Publishing House, 1925), 25.
90
 Christian ashrams in India have been seen as a hopeful kind of institutional

indigenization; a truly Indian expression of the Kingdom of God as opposed to the foreign

idea of the Church introduced from the West; an honorable Christian association with

Gandhian nationalism; a shrewd and cheap vehicle for evangelization; and a setting for

Indian spirituality and locus for inter-faith dialogue. 218 The Christian ashram is a different

type of religious organization from the three main types that grew up in the West: the church

(including church, sect and denomination), the monastery and the utopian community. India

is the land of several living religions. Traditionally the concept of ‘Ashram’ came through the

Hindu religious tradition where a guru(teacher) devoted himself to prayer, meditation, study

and spiritual discipline and instructs his disciples around him. The whole surroundings or

communal life is called ‘Ashram’. R. W. Taylor says about Ashram as: “it is national soul of

India expressing itself in religion, the central characteristic of which would be simplicity of

life and an intense spiritual quest.”219 When Sadhu Sundar Singh lived the life of a ‘Sanyasi’

the Indian Christians started the ‘Christian ashrams’ which were more indigenous expression

of Christianity.220 R. Pierce Beaver states about Christian Ashram in India as follow:

As ashram is an ascetic community characterized by fellowship, mutual

bearing of burdens, common worship, silent meditation, intercession and
study, living a close family life under a rule of discipline to the glory og
God to the service of the most needy and to the gospel. It is one form of
the Indian holy life baptized into the service of Jesus Christ and his
church.221

The idea of founding Christian ashrams originally came almost entirely from Indian

Christians who were very concerned about their own involvement in mission in their own

country. Sometimes foreigners also influenced. C. F. Andrews took part as the only European,

in the conference of the National Missionary Society at Delhi and made a bold plea for
218
Richard W. Taylor, “Christian Ashrams as a Style of Mission in India,” International Review of
Mission 68.1I (1979): 288.
219
Richard W. Taylor, The Contribution of E. Stanley Jones (Madras: CLS, 1973), 81.
220
B. V. Subbamma, “Christian Ashrams in India,” The Lutheran Quarterly 24.1 (February, 1972): 13.
221
R. Pierce Beaver, “Christian Ashrams in India,” National Christian Council Review 86.1 (January
1966): 21.
91
making ashrams a vehicle for the evangelization of India.222 The need for Ashram was felt

after the First World War(1914-1918). Faced with this world full of desperate social need,

almost messianic national aspirations, underlying race tensions, and chaotic international

relations, what was the task of Christian students? Pious words, religious emotions,

campaigns and movements were no longer a valid answer. A deeper, more lasting, for less

spectacular and all the more convincing answer had to be sought.223

In such situation, the Ashram at Thirupattur was started. National Christian Council

controlled this Ashram. As the general secretary of NCC, Azariah had visited the Ashram and

stated that, the whole structure presents the most pleasing spectacle of a Christian church in

indigenous style. In spite of such captivating features of work, devotion and architecture, I

discovered that the whole community at the ashram is in one sense in fellowship with no

particular ecclesiastical body and in another sense is in fellowship with all.224

In the same understanding of religious devotional life these Christian ashrams had

been introduced to the churches of south India. S. Jesudasan, one of the pioneers of Christian

ashrams in India says:

The history of Christian ashrams began at a more recent period where

some Christians both missionaries and Indians in India began to feel a
great obstacle to the understanding of the message of Christ is the
deep rooted opinion in the mind of the people of India that
Christianity was a foreign religion. The opinion has been complicated
by the fact of the political donation of the Christian nations of the west
over the east.225

Ashrams attempt to express visibly the ideal of the reconciliation of people from

different ethnic groups, possessing variant cultures and reflecting heterogeneous social

background, by corporately using the life-pattern of the culture-area. Ashrams have provided

a natural method for the mingling of cultures in India.226 Ashrams have demonstrated that
222
Sundkler, 86.
223
Hans-Ruedi Weber, Asia and the Ecumenical Movement 1895-1961 (London: SCM, 1966), 81.
224
V. S. Azariah, “The South India Church Union,” The Guardian 11.34 (August 1933): 400.
225
S. Jesudasan, Ashrams, Ancient and Modern (Vellore: Sri Rama Chandra Press, 1937), 11.
226
Donald Fossett Ebright, The National Missionary Society of India-1905-1942: An Expression of the
Movement Toward Indigenization within the Indian Christian Community,” (Published Doctoral Dissertation,
92
Christ can unite people of different creeds, castes and colors into brotherhood. Ashrams also

followed the dialogue method with the Hindus, because the responsibility of the church in

India is to speak dialogically with all people of other faith of India. 227 The Christian ashram

movement in the church paved a new way in the indigenous evangelistic pattern among the

Hindus. Many Hindus from caste background expressed a great desire for the gospel. In order

to help them to understand Christ, ashram movement came into existence and started to grow

with the people who participate in work and worship of ashram. Let us see an example of

such movement that happened in ‘Matri Dham’ ashram.

Khrist Bhakta Movement: Khrist Bhaktas are devotees of Christ, but outside the

limits of the church. It is a large group of people whose number is on constant increase and

their emergence has turned out to be a very special movement in Varanasi(North Indian

Hindu religious city) and around.228

Varanasi(Benares) or Kashi is one of the most ancient living cities of the world.

Situated on the bank of Ganges River, with its innumerable temples and shrines, it is known

for its religiosity. Kashi is the citadel of Hinduism, like Rome is for Catholics. The people

here are very deeply religious, majority of the people are not affected by fundamentalism and

fanaticism as in some other parts of India. People of all faiths seek God earnestly and are in

favor of a life of love and mutual collaboration. 229 Indian Missionary Society (IMS) had

started a religious center here in the form of an Ashram. The leaders there started small prayer

groups which had good response among the local villagers. Although efforts to share the

Christian faith with the totally non-Christian population had been there since the beginning,

the prayer meetings made a breakthrough in bringing success towards sharing the word of

Divinity School in Candidacy, Chicago, Illinois, 1944), 194.

227
Richardson K. Luther, “An Examination of the Process of Indigenization of Andhra Evangelical
Lutheran Church from 1927-1969,” (Unpublished M.Th. Thesis, Senate of Serampore College, 1991), 145.
228
Joseph Mattam and Joseph Valiamangalam, eds. Emerging Indian Missiology: Context and
Concept (Delhi: ISPCK, 2006), 181.
229
Ibid., 182.
93
God. People from all castes and creeds enter the ashram premises with deep faith and

conviction that Jesus will give them healing and vision. During ‘Satsang’(prayer meeting) the

Word of God is preached in simple manner and simple language, people experience the love

of God and they turn home singing God’s praises, enjoying their Bhakti or devotion and the

mystical union with Christ and realizing his great love, about whom they had not heard in the

past.230

The Khrist Bhaktas comprise of people from different castes of Hinduism and also

from the so-called out castes. The number of people from the backward castes, low castes and

Harijan communities are more than the upper castes. These people are being denied the God-

experience by the high castes Hindus for centuries.231 The Ashram here is welcoming to them

with their own cultural settings, this atmosphere of devotion, local culture and simplicity

complement the religiosity or devotion of the people. These poor people come here seeking

God not expecting any material help, although poor they contribute generously towards the

expenses of prayer meetings, retreats etc. Hundreds of Khrist Bhaktas are part of this

indigenous mission movement, the devotees who throng here show great interest in listening

to the preaching based on the Bible, the hunger and thirst for the Word of God is clearly seen

here.232 These simple people also organize regular prayer meetings in their own villages and

impact their social and moral life. This is a people’s movement not of the church, the growth

of the Khrist Bhakta movement like the parabolic mustard seed proves the fact that it is a

movement of the Spirit and it is being led by the Spirit.233

1. Bhajans

230
Ibid., 183.
231
Mattam and Valiamangalam, 183.
232
Ibid., 185.
233
Ibid.
94
 This is the traditional form of singing in Hindu worship. It is an expression of deep

love and devotion to god. Bhajan is worship accompanied by music with the instrument like

bells, cymbals and other instruments. The leader will sing a verse and the congregation will

respond by repeating it. This is very common feature of the worship among the Indian

villagers, so the ashram leaders used it as a powerful means of communication of the gospel.

2. Kalakshepam or Harikatha

This is a popular means of communicating the Hindu Puranas(sacred writings). This

is performed by a leading singer and he is assisted by an assistant singer or a full choir and an

orchestra made up of indigenous musical instruments. The performance will be both through

singing and speech. The leader expounds between songs. It helps the minds of the audience

very much in getting a clear understanding about the story. This method was adapted by the

Christian ashrams too.

3. Burrakatha

This is a very attractive method followed by the villagers for a long time. There will

be one lead singer with two assistants who used indigenous bands for beating in between. The

main singer stands in the middle and use songs and speech alternatively, both men and

women participates in this. The ashramites were trained in this art and ashram organized

many burrakatha programmes for the villagers. This is a most practical way to communicate

the gospel to all villagers.234

4. Use of Folk Media

Christmas and Good Friday are two occasions when large turnout of people visit

ashrams. From the early morning hours of 24 th December, they begin flocking to the ashram.

234
B. V. Subbamma, Christ Confronts India (Madras: Diocesan Press, 1973), 166.
95
Professional artists perform a long drama based on the nativity events, though out the night

there will be folk singing on the birth and life of Jesus. 235 The devotees return in the morning

of 25th to continue the celebrations in their villages. On Good Friday too, a passion play forms

the essential part of the liturgical services. For the simple village folk drama is a real

enactment of the scriptural and historical events. The artists who perform these dramas are

not all Christians.

5. Indigenous Worship

Christian worship is worship of God through Jesus Christ. Traditionally, the Indian

church followed biblically based worship. From the beginning Christian worship in the

Indian church was in a more westernized form. Worship is identified by Christians and differs

from country to country in view of traditional cultures. The purpose of indigenization is to

remove the alien cultural elements and confront everyone with the message of the cross and

the resurrection of the lord in terms he understands. 236 When the Indian church started to

indigenize its structure and habits, the habits of worship also was greatly indigenized. C.B.

Firth comments on indigenous worship as:

The indigenization of worship is a subject indeed requiring great care.

There must first of all be an understanding of the substance of
Christian worship. The substance does not vary from country to
country, and therefore, nothing must be allowed to impair it.
Moreover, since Christian worship is essentially corporate, and
corporate worship is almost unknown to Hinduism, there is bound to
be a large element in our worship which looks strange to a Hindu, as
strange as Mohammadan worship…probably, the best kind of
indigenization is that which comes about of its own accord and
unnoticed over the years, as people instinctively do things in the way
which is most natural to them.237

235
Mattam and Valiamangalam, 187.
236
J. R. Chandran and W. Q. Lash, eds. Worship in India (Bangalore: Indian Continuation Committee
on Worship, East Asia Theological Commission of WCC, 1961), 10.
237
C. B. Firth, An Introduction to Indian Church History (Madras: CLS, 1961), 251.
96
 In 1938, the International Missionary Council at Tambaram, Madras also urged the

younger churches to follow indigenous worship as the best way of presenting the gospel of

Jesus to the people of other faiths.238

Some of the Indian church leaders were strongly influenced by the ashram

movement. One of the important conferences was called as All India Conference of

Christians in 1912, Calcutta. K. T. Paul advocated “The Ashrams as the most valuable

indigenous method of missionary work and as one means of paving the way for Christian

unity.”239 The Thirupattur Ashram’s primary aim was: To work for unity not only of the

different Christian denominations but also to finding a solution for the unpleasant

relationships specially on racial grounds between Indian Christians and foreign missionaries.

The ashram also felt that would help in bringing about union if it could show both to the

Christian and non Christian friends (in India) that Christianity was not an entirely foreign

religious manners and expressions; but it was something that could express its witness and

devotional life in terms that are purely indigenous and natural to the country.240

The ashram’s approach was very relevant to indigenization method of evangelism.

One of the founders of the Thirupattur ashram, Jesudasan says, “Training in the religious life

Christian worship, prayer, meditation, retreats and in a disciplined life of self denial and

simplicity, are central facts of Christianity and evangelism.” 241 The need, which these

Ashrams met, was primarily that of providing a place where new converts and inquirers may

stay for brief period in order to get themselves adjusted to their new relationships or to learn

more about what the Christian religion is. Ashrams were considered one of the vehicles for

promoting the indigenous approach of evangelism in India.

238
Subbamma, 138.
239
Sundkler, 87.
240
Weber, 82.
241
Savarirayan Jesudhasan, Guru Kula and Christian Ashrams (Thirupattur: Christukula Ashram,
1967), 13.
97
 F. Evangelical Movements

Protestant churches in India were direct results of the European and American

colonial, commercial and missionary expansion during the post-reformation period,

particularly the 18th and 19th centuries. What developed in India was a perfect imitation of the

western patterns, with minor alterations either proposed by a few bearers of western

Christianity or more often demanded by Indian converts.242 Both the denominational disunity

of Christians and the development of polarization within Indian Protestantism had their

precedents in western Christianity.

In India evangelicals are found predominantly in the historical larger Protestant

churches, which themselves are active members of the World Council of Churches and the

National Christian Council of India.243 In the early decades of 20th century, their missionary

zeal and passion for unity were concretized in the formation of the Indian Missionary Society

(1903), the National Missionary Society(1905), the South India United Church(1908) and in

negotiations towards the United Church of North India. Other evangelicals belong either to

small denominations or to the Pentecostal streams. Most of the smaller denominations are

products of the new churches and their missions, a vast majority of them from America. Since

they were not totally cutoff from their foreign missions they lacked voice of their own and

exist as strictly guided and governed appendages of the western missions. A few are

indigenous independent church groups such as the Subba Rao Movement in Andhra Pradesh

and the Bakht Singh movement.

242
References are made to Lazarus, Lal Behari Day, Parani Andy, Sadhu Sundar Singh and series of
others who in different ways questioned western patterns of theological understanding as well as polity and
started new trends within protestant churches. See for details Kaj Baago, Pioneers of Indigenous Christianity
(Madras: CLS for CISRS, 1969); “The First Independence Movement among Indian Christians,” Indian Church
History Review 1.1 (June 1967); Stephen Neill, Builders of the Indian Church (London: Edinburgh House Press,
1934).
243
Siga Arles, Missiological Education: An Indian Exploration (Bangalore: Centre for Contemporary
Christianity, 2006), 168.
98
 Evangelicals within the mainline churches were actively involved in the National

Missionary Council, later National Christian Council, cooperating in mission to Muslims, the

Evangelistic Forward Movement, social services, rural education and reconstruction

programmes, medical missions and relief work.244 Indian evangelicals continue to emphasis

and practice biblical concepts of mission and evangelism from within the church in India,

drawing inspiration and information from wider ecumenical developments, as well as from

evangelical conferences and consultations.

1. The Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI)

The representatives of International Association of Evangelicals, Dr. Clyde W.

Taylor and Dr. J. Elwyn Wright visited Indian in 1950 in the course of their world journey to

encourage the formation of evangelical autonomous organization in India. Their meetings in

India brought together representatives of evangelical missions who decided to form an All

India Fellowship of Evangelicals.245 At the first meeting in 1951 at the Yeotmal Bible School

of the Free Methodists, the policy and purpose of the Evangelical Fellowship of India were

drawn up and the EFI was officially constituted. The EFI adopted a position of neutrality

towards the ecumenical movement, while fully appreciating the convictions of those who

differed. The purpose of the EFI was stated as:

To provide fellowship among Evangelical Christians and be a means of unified

action directed towards (1) Spiritual revival in the church, (2) Active evangelism, (3)

Effective witness to, and safeguard of, the evangelical faith in the church in all of its

agencies.246 The two important points of EFI are, “(1) it does not claim exclusive

244
Kaj Baago, History of the National Christian Council of India, 1914-1964 (Nagpur: National
Council of Churches in India, 1965), 157.
245
J. McMahon, To God Be The Glory: An Account of the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s First
Twenty Years, 1951 – 1971 (Delhi: Masihi Sahitya Sanstha for EFI, 1970), 1-12.
246
Ibid., 9.
99
representation of all evangelicals thinking in India and (2) it is not desirous of duplicating

functions well performed by the National Christian Council”.247

The EFI carried out numerous activities; a major act was that of creating unity in

evangelical theological education through the organizing of the Union Biblical Seminary

(UBS) at Yeotmal in 1953. UBS became a central factor in the development of the

evangelical ministry and movement in India. It brought together few Radio broadcasting

associations, the Evangelical Literature Fellowship of India, Christian literature producers

such as Evangelical Literature Service of Madras, Gospel Literature Service of Bombay,

Masihi Sahitya Sanstha of Delhi, Operation Mobilization and others for mutual edification

and combined effort in meeting the need of education of the church. 248 Through all these

activities EFI secured co-operation in many areas, where resources would go much further

working together than separately.

EFI’s missionary concern was structured in 1954 as its ‘world vision’ movement,

named later in 1957 as ‘Indian Evangelical Overseas Mission. Concern for Christian

education led EFI to bring together Sunday Schools, Christian education, Vacation Bible

Schools, youth and adult education programmes under its Christian Education Department

(CEEFI), which through its conferences and training programmes on national and regional

levels trained Christian educators for the churches. EFI’s theological concern led to the

formation of its Evangelical Theological Commission(ETC) which was replaced later by the

Evangelical Theological Society(ETS).

2. Theology of Mission among Evangelicals

The statement of faith of the EFI reveals the way evangelicals in India expressed

their faith. With regard to the unity of Christians, structural, organic and conciliar unity was

247
Ibid., 13.
248
Arles, 173.
100
considered secondary compared to the spiritual unity already accomplished in Christ. The

unity of mankind was understood as only possible within the church, which one entered

through conversion and baptism. Non-Christians were considered lost. Dialogue was

entertained only in as far as it helped evangelism. But to most evangelicals, straightforward

involvement in dialogue was a waste of time. Ecumenical Christians were seen as betraying

the gospel when they talked of the wider ecumenism and of Christ outside the church.

Theological pioneering hence was feared as endangering to the soul. Therefore evangelicals

majored in defensive Christo-centric and Church-centric theology rather than creative

indigenous theology. Their emphasis on practical theology was governed by scriptural

paradigms rather than contextual societal demands. Because of its diversity, the evangelical

movement inevitably was pushed towards setting up its own structures of theology,

theological education, mission and ministry in post-independence India.249

G. Theological Education

The church in India, as part of the universal church, goes through her own travails in

articulating her understanding of her mission and her ministry within her particular socio-

economic, political and religious context. ‘Mission’ identifies the goal and purpose of the

church in a given setting; ‘Ministry’ distinguishes the methods and modes used in order to

accomplish those goals and purposes.250A consistent rethinking of those goals, purposes,

methods and modes in relation to one’s context is necessary if the church is to remain

relevant. It is first the task of ‘theologians’ to rethink and articulate these factors in every age

and it is then the responsibility of the ‘theological educators’ to teach every new generation of

Christian ministers the relevant understanding of the mission of the church and to train them

both for their ministry to the church and for their task of equipping the church for her

249
Arles, 180.
250
Ibid., 3.
101
ministry to the world. ‘Church’ here is used not in its strictly institutional sense, but as ‘the

people of God.’ Understanding may never be a rigidly singular entity in the increasingly

pluralistic modern world, where plural conceptions demand equal right of existence in every

sphere of life.

Tradition says that even within the first century St. Thomas established seven

churches in South West India in the modern Kerala state, for which the ministry was trained

in informal style as junior men became apprentice disciples to be trained by the senior

pastors.251 After a long period of inactivity and no missional growth of the church in India, the

Roman Catholics arrived in sixteenth century Counter Reformation mood with Francis

Xavier at Goa and systematically established their mission and ministry training programme

through their many orders and have grown the largest Christian faction in India. 252 The first

Protestants were the German Lutherans at Tranquebar Mission in 1706 who initiated Tamil

New Testament translation and the first catechist and clergy training. 253 The British Baptists

arrived led by William Carey in 1793 and opened the first college for all of Asia – Serampore

College in 1818, which later grew to be the mother institution for theological education of the

mainstream Protestant churches of India and neighboring countries.254 Anglicans built the

Bishops College in Calcutta in 1820. The Reformed, the Methodist, the Presbyterian and the

Congregational as well as the Baptists set up their own training institutions through the

nineteenth century. During this time, ministerial training was ‘elementary’, ‘denominational’,

‘male’ and characterized by its ‘isolation from the general trend of academic education’ in the

country.255

251
Cyril B. Firth, An Introduction to Indian Church History (Madras: CLS, 1983), 304.
252
Stephen Neill, A History of Christian Mission (London: Penguin History of the Church, 1990), 151-
178.
253
Brijraj Singh, The First Protestant Missionary to India: Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, 1693-1719
(Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999), 195.
254
George Howells ed. The Story of Serampore and Its College (Serampore: College Council, 1927),
116.
255
A. D. Lindsay, Report on Christian Higher Education in India (London: OUP, 1931), 237.
102
 There were two major developments in the first half of the Twentieth century that

were significant in the journey of Theological Education in India. Firstly, the renewal of

Serampore Council and the initiating of the Affiliation process by the Senate of Serampore

College which gave a national structure to develop guide and govern Theological education.

Second was the establishing of the United Theological College at Bangalore in 1910 by the

cooperation of several mission societies to develop a training programme with better facilities

of library and faculty to cater for leadership development.

IMC(International Missionary Council) motivated NCCI(National Christian Council

of India) to interpret the identity, mission and effectiveness of the Christian Colleges

including five of the BD(Bachelor in Divinity) level Theological Colleges in 1928. The report

indicates that great growth of educational and missionary training. 256 Within a decade after

that, IMC again inspired NCCI to make a survey of theological and biblical training

institutions in India. Charles W. Ranson led the study from Tambaram 1938, and the report

‘The Christian Minister in India’ of 1945 proves the first major source of information on the

status of theological training in India.257 Here again, the denominational, regional, elementary

and male clergy orientation were heavy. Only a decade later, in 1955, M. H. Harison Report 258

refers to the first entry of women into theological training through a specialized institution

such as Christhu Seva Vidyalay, Chennai. It also informs of the initiatives to set up colleges

in local languages to promote relevant training for ministry. Through the next decades

emerged Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary (1969), Kerala United Theological Seminary,

Andhra Christian Theological College and Karnataka Theological College – all in South

India where Christian presence was considerably higher.259

256
Lindsay, 237
257
Charles W. Ranson, The Christian Minister in India (London: Lutterworth Press, 1946), 317.
258
M. H. Harrison, After Ten Years – A Report on Theological Education in India (Nagpur: BTE-
NCCI, 1957), 71.
259
Siga Arles, “Indigenous Dalit and Tribal Missiologies and Missiologists,” in Emerging Challenges
to Mission, ed. Siga Arles (Delhi: ISPCK, 2012), 107.
103
 There were two kinds of institutions. First were the colleges of the mainstream

churches that were affiliated with the Senate of Serampore College. Secondly, the Bible

Schools of the many denominations that were of lower standard and were keenly identified as

evangelical in their perceptions and did not seek affiliation with Serampore. They did not

wish to be shaped and controlled by Serampore. National Council of Churches of India

initiated its Board of Theological Education(BTE) to bring these institutions into a co-

ordination and offered accreditation under BTE. When the Missionary Movement under IMC

gave birth to the Ecumenical Movement in the World Council of Churches in 1948, the

evangelicals viewed the increased emphasis of unity that they feared was minimizing the

emphasis on evangelism and mission, and so, they set up World Evangelical Fellowship

(WEF) in 1951 to safeguard evangelism and mission. This paved the way for a global

polarization within the church. Sadly, there developed competitive and duplicating emphases

of the ecumenicals and evangelicals. The church has to be innately evangelical and

innovatively ecumenical if it should be true to the gospel. The church of south India is rooted

in evangelical faith and operates with ecumenical width. Theological Education Fund(TEF)

motivated the pursuit after contextual theology and thus, contextual theological education.

These were significant positive developments that impacted the developments of theological

education in India.

Evangelicals soon formed Asia Theological Association(ATA) that helped to provide

incentives to shape evangelical theological education. Many Indian institutions that identify

themselves as evangelical withdrew from Serampore affiliation and became accredited by

ATA. The next forty years saw an uneasy and unhappy development of ecumenical

theological education under Serampore and evangelical theological education under ATA.

After this, there were only a few colleges that are affiliated with Serampore, which are

‘evangelical’ by choice. Serampore, though often assumed as ‘ecumenical’ is inclusive of

104
ecumenical and evangelical emphases. From the fifties, there had been a mushrooming of

indigenous missions of India. Many of them have developed their missionary training

programmes, centers and institutions, several of them under Indian Institute of

Missiology(IIM). This keeping in accordance with global trend has registered itself as Indian

Institute of Inter Cultural Studies. From the above mentioned institutions it can be added up

to a considerable number of institutions for theological and Missiological education in India.

Thus, theological education happens in India in several streams (1) Serampore, (2) ATA, (3)

Pentecostal, (4) Missionary Societies, (5) Para-church Ministries and (6) Linked with foreign

colleges or universities.

Most of the training that prevails in Indian Christian community seems to be catering

for the training of grassroots-level workers. Bible colleges and seminaries train the next

higher levels of evangelists, pastors and teachers. Whatever the number, the training of a

ministry to the existing church is the task of theological colleges and the training of a

missional outreach to those outside the church is the challenge to the mission training

structures. Both the processes are happening in India in multiple ways.

The writer will see few theological education institutions that were the factors which

helped the church and in understanding of mission and ministry.

1. The Reorganization of Serampore College

Serampore college started by William Carey, Joshua Marshman and William Ward in

1818 and favored with the Royal Charter issued by the King of Denmark in 1827, had the

special place of a pioneer institution for theological education in India. 260 George Howells the

Baptist missionary principal of Serampore College expected Serampore College at once to

“be a Protestant college of the Propaganda for the thorough equipment of missionaries”, an
260
For account of the history of Serampore College, see George Howells, The Story of Serampore and
its College (Serampore: College Council, 1927), 116; Wilma Stewart, ed. The Story of Serampore and its
College (Calcutta: The Council of Serampore College, 1960), 124.
105
arts and science college for general education, a teacher training college to prepare school

masters, an oriental institute for academic study and original work in Sanskrit, Arabic and

Buddhist sacred literature, a study centre for missionaries from all over India, a literature

centre to produce Christian theological and general literature adapted to India, a library and

reading room with a museum of interesting items.261

The committee setup by the Madras Decennial Missionary Conference of 1902

considered the possibility of an interdenominational senate. This resulted in the opening of an

interdenominational senate and the Baptist Missionary Society in 1925 that agreed to accept

financial responsibility for the college. Serampore has contributed much to the development

of Christian ministry in India by providing an umbrella structure as the degree granting

authority.262 It attempts to unify the theological focus of the colleges with a common

curriculum, provides for common theological research and interaction among educators and

evaluates the colleges for excellence.

2. The Establishment of the United Theological College, Bangalore

The establishing of a mission college at Bangalore with the aim to train young men

as students for the work of the ministry of the Christian church, and for the other departments

of labor, for propagating and defending the Gospel in the surrounding and adjacent countries

was proposed as early as in 1826 by London Missionary Society (LMS) missionaries Stephen

Laidler and James Massie.263 Seventy years later in 1896 another LMS missionary, Walter

Joss, once again proposed a United Theological College to be located at Bangalore, “to be a

first-rate theological school, serving more than one denomination and drawing on the

261
Arles, 5.
262
Ibid., 7.
263
S. Laidler and J. W. Massie, “Religion in India: A Voice Directed to Christian Churches for
Millions in the East,” Quoted from J.R. Chandran, “The First Fifty years of the College,” in Fifty Years of
Service 1910-1960; Golden Jubilee Volume (Bangalore: UTC, 1960), 101.
106
resources of more than one church tradition.”264 Rev. Dr. James Duthie of LMS invited

representative missionaries from several missions and discussed the idea of establishing a

‘higher theological college’. He emphasized the need for co-operation and joint action to

enable men to study theology with a broader outlook and presented a scheme for the founding

of a new college. With the willing support of the Home Boards of various denomination

missions and within four years plans were well ahead and the first council met in march 1910

at Bangalore and the college itself, the United Theological College was opened in July 1910.

Though different heritages – Presbyterian, Congregational and Methodist – came together in

the United Theological College, all agreed to unite with no other safeguard. The teaching of

the college is based on the doctrines held in common by the Evangelical churches of

Christendom.265

The primary aim of UTC is the advanced theological training for the ordained

ministry of the church.266 UTC continued to remain as a union institution, with staff and

governing board members drawn from several evangelical churches and serving students of

varied backgrounds.267

3. The Lindsay Commission Report on Christian Higher Education

The church in mission faced a new situation in India during the first half of the

twentieth century. Education was taken up by the government on larger scales and Christian

colleges were affiliated to the government universities. Then the question arose: What is the

mission of the Christian college in modern India? This became the question of much gravity

in 1929 when Christian college representatives met. At their request the NCCI through the

International Missionary Council organized the Lindsay Commission on Christian Higher

264
N. Goodall, A History of the London Missionary Society 1895-1945 (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1954), 66.
265
Maclean, “The History of the College,” The Bangalore ITC Magazine, 4.1 (October 1935): 38.
266
Chandran, 112.
267
Charles W. Ranson, The Christian Minister in India (London: Lutterworth Press, 1946), 109.
107
Education in India to study and evaluate the contribution of Christian colleges and to sharpen

their focus.268 Not all Christians or missionary societies saw the importance of secular

education as their responsibility.

The important points that the Lindsay Commission dealt was as follows:

a) the place of theological education in the program of higher

education of the church in India; b) a general plan for the development
of theological education in India; c) the content of theological
education best adapted to the needs of the Indian church at that time
and d) the training of theological teachers. 269

4. The Contribution of Tambaram Conference of 1938 to Theological Education

When the International Missionary Council met in Tambaram in 1938, it recognized

the statistical realities that India had many non-Roman Christians worshipping groups

shepherded by ordained men and un-ordained. Tambaram took note that

Year after year the church in India received very large additions through conversion

from Hinduism. Some hundreds of new congregations are being formed every year, calling

for the appointment of ministers and pastors.270

That the general education and training of the ministers and pastors was ‘inadequate,

lagging behind’ compared with the advance in education and general culture experienced by

church members, the laity in secular professions. 271 Though there were (a) Bible schools for

the training of full-time un-ordained workers in the church (b) theological schools for the

training of the ordained pastoral ministry and (c) theological colleges for more advanced

training.272 They were not recruiting and training sufficient numbers of full-time Christian

workers. It was said that, the need for more and better qualified ministers to the existing

congregations as well as the rapidly increasing number of new congregations is very great

268
Arles, 196.
269
Arles, 198
270
Quoted from “The New Statistical Survey of the World Mission of the Christian Church” in The
Life of Church (Vol. 4), 229
271
Ibid., 230.
272
Ibid., 204-8.
108
and very urgent.273 This was the case with the Protestant churches that resulted from the

eighteenth and nineteenth century missionary expansion of the Western churches in India.

The Tambaram report made certain observations about the place of Christian higher

education in the shaping of the secular witness of the Christian laity, as well as the place of

Christian theological education in enhancing the specialized ministry. It acknowledged that

“education is and must always be a major concern of the church.” 274 With regard to

theological education, Tambaram felt that the condition of theological education was “one of

the greatest weaknesses of the whole Christian enterprise” in that “almost all the younger

churches are dissatisfied with the present system of training for the ministry and with its

results.”275 After two decades the Theological Education Fund picked up the standards to

develop macro-level researches, revisions and revitalization of theological education.276

H. Ecumenical Movements

This movement has played a very important role in the Indian missions, before the

western missionaries left India each denominations had its own policies and constitutions.

After their departure, the Indian church leaders were left with a major task of integrating and

co-operating with each denominations for the common goal of propagating the gospel. A

detailed look at facts and the reasons for the necessity of this movement is discussed below.

1. Introduction

The history of Christianity in India is viewed as an integral part of the socio-cultural

history of the Indian people rather than as separate from it. The history will therefore focus

attention upon the Christian people in India, upon who they were and how they understood
273
The New Statistical Survey of the World Mission of the Christian Church, 230.
274
Ibid., 54.
275
Arles, 35.
276
Christine Lienemann-Perrin, Training for a Relevant Ministry (Madras: CLS for PTE/WCC, 1981),
252.
109
themselves; upon their social, religious, cultural and political encounters; upon the changes

which these encounters have produced in them and in their appropriation of the Christian

gospel as well as in the Indian cultures and society of which they themselves were a part.

Christianity rather than any one section of the Christian church will form the other basic

framework for the study. Denominational diversities will not be ignored or played down.

The ecumenical movement exists to work for two great aims – the unity and the

renewal of the church.277 By the third decade of the 19 th century onwards mission and

cooperation had declined. Therefore, denomination among the Christians was not a new

phenomenon in the mission history, but the motivation for the unity was a new attempt in that

context. Union was felt to be a pressing need for intensification of evangelistic efforts. 278

Constantly, churches carried out ecumenical activities throughout the centuries. The 20 th

century was a great beginning of the ecumenical era. Azariah, as one of the pioneers, was

intimately involved with all the major personalities and organizations that had pioneered the

south Indian ecumenism. Azariah forcefully expressed that:

India has great admiration for Christ, but we fail to carry it further
because over again the anti-Christian divisions of caste we have no
true Christian unity into which the convert can pass. Divided
Christendom is a source of weakness in the West; in non-Christian
lands it is a sin and a stumbling block.279

The task of ecumenism was to seek unity and renewal of the Indian church and

mission. Few leaders accented the need of the united church in India and argued against

division along caste, racial or linguistic lines. 280 The spirit of ecumenism led few leaders to

become the pioneers through whom the church of India struggled with some of its major

tasks: the mass movement, self-support, church union and the problem of co-operation

between foreign and native workers. During the 1st decade of the twentieth century especially,
277
David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Missions (New York: Orbis
Books, 1991), 458.
278
D. A. Thangasamy, Indian and the Ecumenical Movement (Madras: The Christian Literature
Society, 1973), 3.
279
Ibid., 4
280
V. S. Azariah, “Church Union in South India”, The Harvest field 39. 9 (September 1919): 333.
110
the missionary co-operation became prominent in ecumenical history. When at the Edinburgh

1910, the missionaries’ failure was strongly expressed, and the Asian nationalism had reached

its height in the lecture. The missionary was seen as the paymaster and the native worker as

servant, and thus no self-respect and individuality could grow in the Indian church. 281 Azariah

once quoted: “‘our money our control’ must go. We shall learn to walk only by walking -

possibly only by falling and learning from our mistakes, but never by being kept in leading

strings unto we arrive at maturity.”282 It was clear that the importance of friendship rather than

subordination in the relationship between the foreign and native mission. In any attempt to

communicate the message of the Christian gospel, it is indispensable not to over look these

spiritual traits of the Indian. Only then can he communicate the gospel to the heart of the

Indian listeners.

The concern for Evangelism and the concern for Unity have always gone together in

the Ecumenical Movement. In the missionary thinking and striving they have been the two

sides of the ecumenical coin. From the early days of Protestant missionary work in India,

missionaries in particular have been exercised over both the fact and the frustration of

denominational churches in India. Members of the different churches in India, too, were on

the whole unhappy and rather puzzled about the existence of so many different

denominations in India which were matters of the historical and geographical accidents of

missionary societies starting work in particular areas and at particular times rather than

matters of convictions about doctrines and forms of church government. 283 There was also a

stir among some of the more thoughtful Christian laymen in India to start a national church.

Though several attempts by individuals and small groups – such as the secession of the

‘Hindu Church of the Lord Jesus’ at Nazareth in Thirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu from the

Anglican Communion, Parani Andi’s National Church in Madras and K. M. Banerjea’s

281
Azariah, 335.
282
Weber, 118.
283
Thangasamy, 39.
111
Calcutta Christo Samaj – ended in failure, the questioning they had started about both unity

and indigenousness persisted and brought tangible results after two or three generations.

2. Relationship Between Ecumenicals and Evangelicals

Historically a sense of distrust has been implanted in the minds of the ‘evangelicals’

about the ‘ecumenicals’- as not rooted in the authority of the Bible, as not committed to

evangelism and church growth and – as not promoting conversion. This suspicion led to

enmity. At times this was promoted by the international links and monetary investments from

the global structures.

As the controversies went on, it was in the congress organized by the Evangelicals in

Lausanne called as ‘International Congress on World Evangelization’ that many evangelicals

from various denominations met for re-evaluating and re-considering their missionary

theology and their relationship and concern with the WCC’s Ecumenical movement 284. In all

their writing and discussions, there was a sign on regret and repentance. John Stott, a leading

evangelical theologian and New Testament scholar, presented in his paper,

We all know that during the last few years, especially between
Uppsala and Bangkok, ecumenical-evangelical relations hardened into
something like a confrontation. I have no wish to worsen that
situation… we have some important lesson to learn from our
ecumenical critics. Some of their rejection of our position is not
repudiation of biblical truth, but rather of our evangelical caricature of
it.285

The WCC was aware of the fact that a large proportion of its membership was

constituted by evangelicals. It realized that the real issue was not evangelical versus

ecumenical any more. The WCC’s ‘World Mission and Evangelism’ director, Philip Potter

undertook a review of the WCC’s role in evangelism and sensed that evangelism was a

neglected vocation in its life. Therefore, sincere effort was undertaken to see how the

284
Alan J. Baileys, “Evangelical and Ecumenical Understanding of Mission,” International Review of
Mission (October 1996): 493.
285
Ibid.
112
testimony of the Evangelicals could be integrated as essential elements of the ecumenical

life.286 On the other hand, evangelicals were also proposed by Bishop Mortimer Arias to take

a holistic approach, which should include whole Gospel for the whole human beings fot the

whole world. He suggested that,

The proclamation of the Good News is not limited to the transmission

of the content of the Gospel and of the Christian doctrine, but that
loving, quiet and respectful participation in the life of our neighbors, a
readiness to help and to be involved in their everyday concerns,
belongs to the very essence of proclamation. 287

Gradually attempts were made for convergence between evangelicals and the

ecumenicals though they were not fully accepting each other’s stands. A church-centric view

of mission had been developing in the ecumenical movement which was carefully criticized

by a group of theologians in India known as ‘re-thinking group’. They pointed out that the

institutional church was trying to usurp the place of the gospel and the kingdom of God. 288

Thereafter, the WCC became conscious of it and prepared their conferences about witnessing

to the kingdom, which declared that the kingdom of God must give direction and shape to the

activities of every church, particularly in the most important areas of worship, fellowship,

learning, service and witness.289

a. Ecumenicals As an Identity

The technical usage of the word ‘ecumenical’ as an identifier of a group of people,

perhaps, was a twentieth century phenomenon. When the missionary movement was globally

organized under the International Missionary Council and the two study commissions – ‘faith

and order’ and ‘life and work’ – emphasized the need for the unity of the body of Christ, in

286
Dipankar Haldar, “Towards Convergence of Ecumenism and Evangelicalism in Post-Edinburgh
-1910 Era: Quest for Faithful Christian Witness to People of Other Faiths,” in Edinburgh 1910 Revisited –
“Give Us Friends”: An India Perspective on One Hundred Years of Mission, ed. Frampton F. Fox (Bangalore:
Asian Trading Corporation, 2010), 332.
287
Jan Anchimiuk, “Comprehensive Proclamation: An Antidote to Pastoral Inertia – Response to
Bishop Mortimer Arias,”, International Review of Mission 257 (January 1976): 38.
288
Jonas Jorgensen, :Among the Ruins – Dr. Kaj Baago’s Theological Challenge Revisited”,
Bangalore Theological forum 33.1 (2001): 92.
289
Your Kingdom Come, Report on the World Conference on Mission and Evangelism (Geneva: WCC,
1980), 8.
113
the process of the birthing of the World Council of Churches, this concept was conceived and

the word was coined.290 To embrace the whole inhabited earth – Oikumene - led to

‘ecumenism’ as the process. The Missionary Movement gave birth to the Ecumenical

Movement with the formation of WCC.

The ecumenical mission had aimed for the ‘humanization of the society’ which

sought for political and social liberation of all human beings. 291 In later periods, two ethical

issues had dominated the ecumenical missions (1) relation to non-Christian religions and

cultures and (2) relation to political and social revolution, driven by rising nationalism,

particularly after World War II.292 Thus, the ecumenical discussions on mission gradually

moved away from a church-centric to a world-centered view. The Geneva Conference of

Church and Society in 1966, the Uppsala Assembly of the World Council of Churches in

1968, and the Mission Conference at Bangkok in 1972, also thought in the same line, which

emphasized not on what God was communicating and doing in the Church, but on what God

was saying and doing in the world. Accordingly, the Christian mission was understood as

serving the needs of the world and making life on earth more human. 293 In 1982, the WCC’s

central committee approved the statement, ‘Mission and Evangelism – An Ecumenical

Affirmation”, which received wide appreciation from the mainline churches, Anglicans,

Orthodox, the Roman Catholics and the Evangelicals. This statement focuses on seven

‘ecumenical convictions’, they are (1) conversion (2) the gospel to all realms of life (3) the

church and its unity in God’s mission (4) mission in Christ’s way (5) good news to the poor

(6) mission in and to six continents and (7) witnessing among people of living faiths. These

convictions are in line with the central mission emphasis of churches in the contemporary

290
Siga Arles, “Relations between Ecumenicals and Evangelicals in Asia,” in Asian Handbook for
Theological Education and Ecumenism, eds. Hope Antone, Wati Longchar et. al. (Oxford: Regnum Books
International, 2013), 94.
291
T. V. Philip, Edinburgh to Salvador (Delhi: ISPCK & CSS, 1999), 99.
292
John Macquarrie and James Childress eds. A New Dictionary of Christian Faith (London: SCM
Press, 1967), 177.
293
Philip, 98.
114
ecumenical movement.294

b. Evangelicals As an Identity

The technical use of the word ‘evangelical’ as an identifier of a group of people was

a much older phenomenon in the history of the Christian church. Even at the period of

Reformation, we hear of the protesting groups referred to as evangelicals. Within the western

church the identity of certain groups as evangelicals was common. When the missionary

expansion of the church happened during the 18th and the 19th centuries in the Eastern parts

and the Southern hemisphere, the church not only spread with its denominational divisions

but also with its division as the evangelicals and liberal churches, later the ecumenical

churches.295 The spirit of ecumenism in India led to the formation of the Church of South

India (CSI) already in 1947, even before the formation of the WCC in 1948. The spirit of

evangelical faith commitment in India led to the formation of the Evangelical Fellowship of

India (EFI) even ahead of the formation of WEF in the same year 1951.296

Arthur F. Glasser classified the evangelicals into five groups. They are as follows:

(1) The Separatist Fundamentalists: they preserve hostility with the

WCC and the evangelicals who are not on parallel line with them.
They are anti-charismatic. They formed ‘Fellowship of Missions’
(FM) in order to further the testimony of separation from all apostasy
and perversion of the truth, through the Bible-believing missionary or
church fellowship in as many countries as possible. (2) The Low-Key
Dispensational Evangelicals: they belong to the independent faith
missions and some smaller evangelical denominations. They tend to
keep themselves away from ecumenical encounter. (3) The
Charismatic Evangelicals: this group ranges from traditional
Pentecostals to the newer mainline church charismatics. The mainline
charismatics hope for bringing renewal to all churches within or
outside the WCC and even to the Roman Catholics. (4) The
Ecumenical Evangelicals: this group is cautiously open to the positive
values of critical scholarship and they feel obligated to pursue
ecumenical relations. They also desire to rouse the social
responsibility among all the evangelicals. (5) The non-conciliar and

294
Eugene L. Stockwell, “Conciliar Missions,” in Towards the 21st Century in Christian Mission, eds.
James M. Philips and Robert T. Coote (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1998), 22.
295
Stockwell, 21-23.
296
Arles, 96.
115
 traditionally orthodox communions: they highly cherish in their rich
historic roots. Their main thrust is to preserve those values of the
Reformed or the Lutherans, the Mennonites or the Brethrens. 297

The evangelicals always compared the best in ‘evangelicalism’ with the worst in

‘ecumenism’. They charged the ecumenicals for their liberalism, loss of evangelical

conviction, universalism in theology, substitution of evangelism with social action, and

search for unity at the expense of biblical truth.298

3. Witnessing to People of Other Faiths

One of the major questions that should be asked among the Indian Christians in their

context is how can we be faithful to our Christian confession while we are open, adventurous

and discerning in our encounter with representatives of other religions? This calls the

Christians to search for some possible faithful approaches for witnessing to people of other

faiths. Christians are called for tolerance towards other religions. This is particularly felt in

the context of militant Hinduism and militant Islam. While Hindus and Islamists freely

practice militancy in India, Christians are expected to be ‘peace loving’ and tolerant citizens.

If ‘freedom of religion’ is equal for all religions, it should apply to Christianity too. Ken

Gnanakan writes:

It is an urgent challenge to adopt a positive attitude to other religions,

seeing them all as valid. No longer can we hold an idea of uniqueness
that will challenge other religious positions. In our world, being torn
apart by various forces, Christians are called to seek a mutuality that
will result in harmony.299

Christian faith has to examine itself in contrast to other non-Christian faiths in terms

of what each religion has to offer. The Hindu idea of God does not contain the thought of any

holy and gracious Will from which forgiveness of sin, and deliverance from moral evil, may

297
Arthur F. Glasser, “Evangelical Missions,” in Towards the 21st Century in Christian Mission, eds.
James M. Philips and Robert T. Coote (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1998), 11.
298
Eugene L. Smith, “The Wheaton Congress in the Eyes of an Ecumenical Observer,” International
Review of Missions (October 1966): 481.
299
Ken Gnanakan, Kingdom Concerns (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1993), 16.
116
be looked for. The gospel of Christ enlightens the conscience as to its great need, and is a

message of salvation. Regarding Indian religions, Shantanu Dutta rightly points out that “The

key symptoms of our nation’s downfall are corruption, intolerance, fanaticism, injustice and

hypocrisy- all in the name of religion.”300

All religious traditions naturally good and those they are all meaningful attempts to

understand the one and the same God. One’s life in India will surely take into relation with

people of many religious traditions including Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sick

and Parsee individuals. For most of the people an organized and formal understanding of

religious diversity was wither unknown or a non-issue.301 Hinduism is more than a religion.

The religious belief of the Hindu grew out of the social structure. 302 Religions are seen as

taking parallel paths, which means that they do not cross and hence do not hinder with each

other. Each religious tradition is totally self-sufficient. Such an understanding isolates groups

into different sections and tolerance is interpreted as non-interference. Mahatma Gandhi

advocated the equality of all religions, he believed that each religion was true and each

deserved his/her reverence and respect. He said, ‘each religion has its own contribution to

make to human evolution.’303 But, Jesus Christ is incomparable with any gods and goddesses

or godmen. The task of Christian theology should be to identify with other cultures, as has

been done since the beginning of the church. Some of the Indian theologians have tried to

fuse the best elements of Christianity and Hinduism and resulted in syncretism. Stephen

Neill gave the following counsel to Christian theologians trying to contextualize the gospel

to Indian culture.

“We must recognize afresh the immense spirituality of Jesus Christ.

Under the influence of ‘comparative religion’ and similar tendencies
we have been too much inclined to find parallels to the works of Jesus

300
Shantanu Dutta, India Waiting for Dawn (Mumbai: GLS Publishing, 2005), 133.
301
Abraham P. Athyal and Dorothy Yoder Nyee, eds. Mission Today: Challenges and Concerns
(Chennai: Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, 1998), 106-107.
302
S. Massey, Christian Missionaries in South Asia (Delhi: Sumit Enterprise, 2007), 32.
303
Athyal and Dorothy Yoder Nyee, 111.
117
 here, there and everywhere, and to suppose that he can be filled into
the category of prophet, or genius, or religious leader, or whatever we
prefer. But this is simply wrong. Jesus cannot be understood in any
dimensions other than His own. He has called into being a new world
of reality in which only those are at home who call him Lord. When
Christians use the word ‘God’, they mean the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ and nothing else. This is a truth we forge at our peril.” 304

There is an inherent difference between the Gospel of Christ and the non-Christian

religions. Seamands writes, “between the non Christian religions and the gospel is that there

is no intrinsic relationship between these religions and their founders, while in the Christian

faith there is such relationship.”305 Our faith in the gospel of Christ also gives us the answer

why we proclaim our faith and why we try to bring people to Christ. One of the greatest

strength of our Christian faith is that we have not only a ‘story to tell’ but also an ‘experience

to share’ with our non-Christian neighbors. But this is not true with non-Christian religions. 306

Dr. Hendrik Kramer declared that our attitude towards non-Christians must be ‘a remarkable

combination of downright boldness and of radical humility.’307 Seamands further comments,

‘the Christian witness must be tolerant in his attitude toward the views of other people, but at

the same time be uncompromising in the claims of the gospel. To be tolerant means to be

open-minded, fair-minded, sympathetic, understanding of the other person’s position.

Toleration must be based on truth.

Among many approaches such as Dialogical and Gospel Inculturational approaches,

there could be few more steps that the writer seems to consider in witnessing to non-

Christians, such as:

a. Inclusivistic Approach to Witness

304
S. D. Ponraj, An Introduction to Missionary Anthropology (Chennai: Mission Educational Books,
1993), 88-89.
305
John T. Seamands, Tell it Well: Communicating the Gospel across Cultures (Chennai: Mission
Educational Books, 2000), 68.
306
S. Devasahayam Ponraj, “Edinburgh 1910 and Christian Mission among Other Faiths,” in
Edinburgh 1910 Revisited – Give Us Friends: An India Perspective on One Hundred Years of Mission, ed.
Frampton F. Fox (Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2010), 74.
307
Seamands, 55.
118
 In this approach people are open in acknowledging that there are elements of truth in

other religions also, while believing that all elements of truth are fully revealed in Christ or

Christianity. Gavin D’Costa writes, “This approach affirms the salvific presence of God in

non-Christian religions, while still maintaining that Christ is the definitive and authoritative

revelation of God.”308 So, Christian men and women will have respect for all people of other

faiths having salvation in them, while they believe that Christ is the only savior who is the

definitive and authoritative revelation of God. The Christians owe the message of God’s

salvation in Jesus Christ to every people. True witnessing is not one-way but two-way;

Christians need to become aware of the deepest convictions of their neighbors, while they are

able to bear an authentic witness in a spirit of openness and trust with deepest commitment to

Christ who calls others to himself.

b. Diakonic Approach to Witness

The word ‘Diakonic’ derives from the Greek word diakonia meaning ‘ministry’,

‘service’, ‘help’, ‘support’ etc. Jesus said, “…the Son of Man came not to be served but to

serve, and to give his life a ransom for many”(Matt 20:28). Accordingly the early church

gave importance to diakonia.309 So the world-wide church and mission agencies from the

beginning, have been taking the ‘Diakonic’ ministry seriously for dialogue and involvements

in social structures through various compassionate services in continuation with Jesus’

ministry of love, care, kindness and justice. This approach can be adventurous in and through

effective interactions with people of other faiths. In a pluralistic country like India, hundreds

of mission agencies have been witnessing through their diakonic services to people of other

faiths and are experiencing meaningful interaction and transformation. The missionaries

considered the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ as the basic means of bringing

308
Gavin D’Costa, Theology and Religious Pluralism (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986), 80.
309
Dipankar Haldar, New Testament Revisited (Raghabpur: Raghabpur Seva Niketan, 2008), 18-42.
119
individual and social transformation.310

c. Ecumenical – Evangelical Approach to Witness

The two powerful approaches, ecumenical and evangelical, need to be seen and

understood as integral. They both are engaged and helpful for meaningful and effective

sharing of the Good News of God’s kingdom in a pluralistic context. In this approach it is

humbly expected that the ecumenicals need to become more evangelical and the evangelicals

need to be more ecumenical in their personal and social life and approach. Though they may

appear to be different, yet they have a common goal in their approaches, the goal of sharing

the Good News of God’s kingdom. Hence the combination of the rich experiences of both the

approaches can create more meaningful and relevant scope of witness. A person balanced

with these intrinsic characteristic may experimentally be called “Ecugelical,” who will

imbibe both evangelical and liberal qualities to be faithful to Christian confession, as well as

open and discerning in their encounter with people of other faiths.

d. Christo-centric Approach to Witness

One of the best approaches that one can be equipped with for meaningful witness in a

pluralistic world is to have a Christo-centric life and approach. Christ represents and

maintains a unique unity in the Triune God. In his Theocentric approach, Jesus attempts to

bring unity among all God’s children, as John testifies, “…Jesus was about to die for the

nation, not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God”(John

11:51-52). As a dynamic and exemplary leader, Jesus Christ showed us how to relate to, and

behave and work with people of diverse cultures, traditions and religions. He appreciated the

goodness in the ‘other’, mingled freely with people of all walks of life, showed mercy to all

310
Pratap Chandra Gine, The System of Elementary Education of the Serampore Mission (Jorhat: D. R.
Gine, 2001), 29.
120
people equally, gave special attention to the poor, oppressed, marginalized and women who

were in the periphery. He was intrinsically ecumenical, evangelical and dialogical. Therefore,

a Christocentric approach can help us to have a faithful and meaningful encounter with

people of other faiths.

4. Inter-Religious Dialogue

The Oxford English Dictionary defines dialogue as “A conversation or

discussion.”311 The first director of “Dialogue with People of Living Faiths and Ideologies”

which is the sub-unit of World Council of Churches(WCC) S. J. Samartha defines dialogue

as: “Dialogue is a part of the living relationship between people of different faiths and

ideologies as they share in the life of the community.” 312

Hence dialogue is something which involves two or more persons to initiate; this is

quite opposite to monologue where only one person speaks and other just listens. Dialogue

can take place anywhere and with anybody at any context in life, it is actually a way of life,

and it is a personal encounter in community. Dialogue just happens when people meet each

other irrespective of religion, culture, nationality, race etc, dialogue takes place orally or in

literary forms in which two or more parties engage in discussion.

The Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions defines dialogue as: “dialogue

includes face-to-face conversations involving persons who have fundamentally different

religious convictions for the purpose of understanding and growth.” 313 When dialogue occurs

among the people of different religions and ideologies it becomes inter-religious dialogue. It

is something where people from different faiths come together to have a conversation or

discussion about each other’s faith. Furthermore, the idea of dialogue conveys the impression
311
James A. H. Murray ed. et al. The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1998).
312
S. J. Samartha, Courage for Dialogue (New York: Orbis Books, 1982), 1.
313
Moreau A. Scott, ed. Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions (Michigan: Baker Books, 2000),
274.
121
that mission is not just a matter of doing things for people. It is first of all a matter of being

with people, of listening and sharing with them. 314 Dialogue is in fact an integral aspect of

mission. To be in dialogue is therefore, to be part of God’s continuing work among us and our

fellow human beings.315 A dialogue which is safe from all possible risks is not a true dialogue.

The meeting with men of other faiths or of no faith must lead to dialogue, a Christian’s

dialogue with another implies neither a denial of the uniqueness of Christ, nor any loss of his

own commitment to Christ, but rather that a genuinely Christian approach to others must be

human, personal, relevant and humble.316 Dialogue depends upon mutual understanding and

mutual trust, dialogue makes it possible to share in service to the community and ultimately

dialogue becomes the medium of authentic witness. The real dialogue takes place in an

ultimate, personal depth; it does not have to be a mere talking about religions, but something

does distinguish real dialogue. Dialogue challenges both partners, takes them out of the

security of their own prisons their philosophy and theology have built for them, confronts

them with reality, with truth…a truth that demands all.317 The founding of the World Council

of Churches(WCC) in 1942 increased the pace of inter-religious and interfaith dialogue. The

Church teaches us that we have much to communicate and much to learn. This whole world

of positive relations with the followers of other religions for the sake of God’s kingdom is

summed up in the word ‘Dialogue’.

There was an increasing awareness in the ecumenical movement that Christians, in a

pluralistic world, must go beyond considering people of other faiths as objects of Christian

Missions and count them as partners in a global community confronting urgent issues like

peace, justice and survival of humankind in the world. Dialogue, according to the Bible

makes people relational, communitarian, and this worldly. In the light of this biblical
314
Donal Dorr, Mission in Today’s World (New York: Orbis Books, 2000), 16.
315
Samartha, 11.
316
Norman Goodall, ed. The Uppsala Report 1968 : Official Report of the Fourth Assembly of the
World Council of Churches, Uppsala July 4-20, 1968 (Geneva: WCC, 1968), 29.
317
Sir Norman Anderson, Christianity and World Religions (England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1970), 192.
122
approach, Christianity is not individualistic, non-relational and other-worldly. 318 In Indian

context, the Asian Christian Theology has taken this dialogical approach seriously, having

moved beyond the traditional doctrinal or denominational debates, transcended the barriers of

fundamentalism and fanaticism and promoted ecumenical and dialogical theology. 319 This

dialogical position began to search for new relationships between people of different faiths

and ideologies.320 Many evangelicals saw this dialogue program as having taken away the

missionary commitment and lead on to a syncretism. Russell Chandran of India defended the

new approach saying that the search for human community with people of other faiths and

dialogue with them is not only the consequence of human considerations of tolerance,

religious harmony and peace but it is also deeply rooted in our confession of Jesus Christ. 321

He felt that our knowledge and experience of Christ can be enriched by the response of the

people of other faiths. Witnessing to Christ, for him was a two way movement of mutual

learning and enrichment.322 Regarding the complaint on syncretism, Lynn A. de Silva of Sri

Lanka argues that dialogue, far from leading to syncretism, is a safeguard against it, because

in dialogue we get to know one another’s faith in depth. For him the real test of faith is the

faith-in-religion.323 The dialogical approach in mission motivated the church and the

communities to break the barriers of religious hatred and exclusivism and include

inculturation of the Gospel. It will be a great help and may even be an instrument of church

growth if the indigenous missions enter into dialogue with people of other faiths. The word

‘conversion’ has become a threat to many non-Christians in India, probably dialogue and

interfaith fellowship will help the new indigenous missions to witness to non-Christians in a

318
Somen Das, Dharma of the Twenty-First Century (Calcutta: Punthi Pustak, 1996), 141.
319
Ibid., 281-82.
320
Philip, 208.
321
Haldar, 337.
322
David M. Paton ,ed. Breaking Barriers (Nairobi: SPCK, 1975), 71.
323
Ibid., 72.
123
 more friendly way.324 Dialogue is an open relationship with people of other faith; it minimizes

the differences in religions. It is better to present the uniqueness of Christ not as a dogma but

as a shared experience. The dialogue of cultures leads to the discovery of the relationship

between the Holy Spirit in the Christian faith and the spirit’s preserving action in all cultures.

Dialogue and proclamation of the gospel are integral but dialectical and complementary

dimensions of the church’s mission of evangelization. 325 Authentic dialogue includes a

witness to one’s total Christian faith, which is open to a similar witness of the other religious

believers. Thus proclamation is the affirmation of and witness to God’s action in one’s

religion.326

a. Dialogue in the Pluralistic Context

During the last few decades, questions about religious and cultural pluralism and the

growing influence of secular and technological thinking have attracted renewed interest in the

churches. Christian groups in predominantly Marxist societies are also seeking ways to enter

into a new dialogue with their neighbors. Everywhere there is a fresh sense of urgency to build a

creative relationship. As interests in dialogue have grown, so has its actual practice, enabling

various religious communities to understand one another better and to work more closely

together. People engaged in dialogue in a pluralistic society have felt their own faith challenged

and deepened by the new dimensions of religious life which they have observed. Communities

in dialogue function as leaven in the larger community, facilitating the creation of a society

transcending religious barriers. This experience however, has also provoked questions about

some of our theological presuppositions about people of other faiths and their convictions.

We stand at a historic moment when the Christian theological tradition

must take full account of the experience of those who have been living
for centuries in religiously plural societies, as well as of the

324
P. Solomon Raj, The New Wine-Skins: The Story of the Indigenous Missions in Coastal Andhra
Pradesh, India (Delhi: ISPCK, 2003), 42.
325
Mattam and Joseph Valiamangalam, 137.
326
Mattam and Joseph Valiamangalam, 137.
124
 convictions of those who are newly stimulated by the broadening
religious plurality of their surroundings.327

Great number of Christians has lived for centuries in a religiously plural society like

the one mentioned above. Today as more and more communities and nations become multi-

religious, we as Christians need to respond thoughtfully and faithfully to the fact that many of

our neighbors, with whom we live and work, live their lives by other faiths.328 The pressure of

pluralistic societies compels us to look at our respective religious traditions in the light of

others. They demand an examination of our attitudes to peoples of other faiths. “We are

passing through a process of self-searching, self-criticism and self-understanding. We are

witnesses to and participants in this rethinking process”. 329 In a multi-cultural and multi-

religious context, to be a Christian is to be inter-related, inter-human and inter-religious.

“Dialogue is not a concept, it is people, men and women, sharing the meaning and mystery of

human existence, struggling together in suffering, hope and joy.” 330 Christians are called to

bear witness to the good news, a witness expressed through the work of proclamation, in the

liturgy of the church, and in the life of service. As Christians we have often thought of

ourselves as the bearers of the message and others as mere recipients. The S. Indian context

gives much more opportunities for Christians to engage in dialogue, because here the people

of other faiths are more open in nature and consider all possible ways to know the ‘Truth’.

It is Christian faith in the Triune God… which calls us Christians to

human relationship with our many neighbours. Such relationship
includes dialogue: witnessing to our deepest convictions and listening
to those of our neighbours. It is the Christian faith which sets us free
to be open to the faiths of others, to risk, to trust and to be vulnerable.
In dialogue, conviction and openness are held in balance.331

327
World Council of Churches: Sub-unit on Dialogue with People of Living Faiths and Ideologies, My
Neighbor’s faith – and Mine (Delhi: ISPCK, 1988), viii.
328
Ibid., 2.
329
C. D. Jathanna, ed. Dialogue in Community (Mangalore, India: The Karnataka Theological Research
Institute, 1982), 161.
330
Stanley Samartha, “Dialogue and Politicisation of Religions in India,” International Bulletin of
Missionary Research 8.3 (1984): 150.
331
World Council of Churches: Sub-unit on Dialogue with People of Living Faiths and Ideologies, My
Neighbor’s faith – and Mine, 32.
125
 b. Nature and Purpose of Dialogue

At the outset it should be noted that dialogue is not the matter of a conference only.

Dialogue stands for an attempt on the part of Christians in a post-colonial and pluralistic

society to build up new relationship with their neighbors of other faiths. It gives them a call to

discard the old, negative, exclusive and triumphalistic attitude which has resulted in negative

consequences. Essentially dialogue is a mood, spirit and attitude in relationship. In a

dialogical relationship, there is no demand to give up one’s owns faith commitment; a

particular kind of exclusivism only is rejected. 332 There must be more co-operations for

common purposes in society, deeper than this; we need to share in the suffering and

hopelessness of people. Our Christian identity, affirmation of the centrality of Christ in our

life and the Trinitarian nature of God cannot be diluted.

Some areas of dialogue are as follows:

(1) Dialogue operates in community life. People are already in dialogue in their day to

day life mutually sharing their joys and sorrows. They also help each other in crucial

tasks.

(2) Dialogue of action and working together for justice and peace irrespective of

religious persuasions has been a major concern in recent discussions on inter-faith

dialogue; its cooperation is desirable and inevitable.

(3) Dialogue promotes exchange of theological views which deepen our understanding

and develop critical appreciation of religious values. The tension between evangelism

and social action seems to widen the polarization in the Christian circle.

(4) Inter-faith dialogue helps us to remove our misconceptions about other religions.

Hindu, Muslim, and other friends also will have the opportunity to remove their

doubts about us. Misconceptions about others abound in each religious tradition, but a
332
Samartha, 7.
126
 closer look with friendly attitude may correct them and help them to be more positive

about such practices.333

Genuine dialogue has to take place at many levels. Intra-faith dialogue is as important

as inter-faith dialogue. In India there are two parallel movements. Christians committed to

social justice form the first one and the other group concentrates on the theological question

like ‘what is the relationship between our Christian faith and other faiths?’ 334 These two

movements should get together because they realize that questions of justice and peace deep

down touch religious roots.

5. Church Union

“Disunity of Christians”, which remained “a public contradiction of the Gospel” was

challenged in India .335 Bengt Sundkler in his volume ‘church of South India: The Movement

Towards Union 1900-1947.”336 describes the developments of the first half of the 20 th century.

At a provisional synod at Vellore in October 1901, the Presbyterians, who were known as the

Irish Presbyterians in Gujarat and Scottish Original Seeders in Central Provinces, were united

in the Presbyterian Union. The Reformed Church of America, which worked in Vellore and

Madurai areas, joined later. The Congregationalist Union, arising from the work of the

London Missionary Society and the American Board, was formed at Madura in July 1905.

These together became the South Indian United Church in 1908.337 The negotiations between

333
Ibid., 8.
334
Samartha, 9.
335
Lesslie Newbigin in a radio broadcast, 13 October 1953; Quoted from R. D. Paul, The First
Decade: An Account of CSI (Madras: CLS, 1958), 1.
336
Sundkler, 31-33.
337
Ibid., 36-49.
127
the SIUC, the Anglicans and the British Methodists,338 through the following decades,

catalyzed by the 1919 Tranquebar, the Lambeth and the IMC conferences and studies,

culminated on the 27th of September 1947. Then 290,000 members of the General Assembly

of the SIUC, 500,000 Anglicans under the jurisdiction of the General Council of the Church

of India, Burma and Ceylon and 220,000 of the South Indian Provincial Synod of the

Methodist Church united together in one church, as the Church of South India.

While elsewhere the church continued the “public contradiction of the Gospel” by

her disunity, the Christian church in South India recognized that only a reconciled church

could credibly proclaim the enabling grace of the gospel to reconcile the factions within

India. The Inaugural address declared:

God has matched us with His hour; the Church of South India has an unparalleled

opportunity. The reconciliation between our divergent elements…enables us with fresh

conviction and force to proclaim the Gospel of reconciliation to all the clashing elements in

this nation’s life.339

Reconciliation is both a prerequisite as well as an aspect of the mission of the church

in India. The Derby Report in 1946340 criticized the proposal union as neither sufficiently

Indian nor sufficiently radical.341 It states that:

The scheme as it now stands suggests too much an attempt to

reconcile divergent Western traditions, instead of asking rather what
form of faith and of catholic order an indigenously Indian Church
ought to be developing…Instead of taking for granted the need to
combine the ‘contributions’ of the Episcopalian, Presbyterian and
338
It is specified British Methodists, since the American Methodists chose to stay outside the
negotiations and still remain a separate group known as the Methodist Church in India.
339
Sundkler, 339. For an account of the inaugural of the CSI, at St. George’s Cathedral, Madras see R.
D. Paul, “The Inauguration and After,” in The Madras Diocesan Magazine (December 1947), 29; Michael
Hollis, The Significance of South India (London: Lutterworth Press, 1966), 80.
340
The Archbishop of Canterbury appointed a committee of theologians in the year 1946, to consider
the proposed basis of union and constitution of the future Church of South India, under the chairmanship of Dr.
A. E. J. Rawlinson, Bishop of Derby. The committee was ‘overweighed on the critical side’ as per The South
India Church: An Open Letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury to Bishop Neill, 10, Quoted from Bengt
Sundkler, Church of South India, The Movement towards Union 1900-1947 (London: United Society for
Christian Literature, Lutherworth Press, 1965), 335, 419. This committee’s report was known as the ‘Derby
Report’.
341
Derby Report.
128
 Congregationalist traditions, its authors might in more radical fashion
have sought to go behind and beneath all these to the form of the
Church as it appears in the Bible and in the early centuries. 342

Some Indian Christians in the 19th century tried to form a church that did not have

any institutional principles or doctrinal emphasis, namely. Hindu Church of the Lord Jesus

(1858), The National Church of Madras(1886) and the Christo Samaj of Calcutta(1887). 343

Few more attempts to construct indigenous theology and worship were short lived in

influence. The 20th century saw radical voices argue for a church without boundary. 344 At the

1915 Madras Missionary Conference, Advocate O. Kandaswany Chetty argued why he was

not a Christian, saying that when a Hindu remains within the Hindu society even after

realizing Jesus Christ as his savior, he has a better chance of preparing the way for a

movement form within Hindu society towards Christ, influencing more Hindus to experience

Jesus Christ. O. K. Chetty formed the ‘fellowship of the followers of Jesus’ to provide a sense

of unity and fellowship among those who believed in Jesus but did not join the Christian

church through baptism and church membership. Here was an attempt to remove the

separating wall of institutional churches in order that Hindu Indian could feel inside the

salvation God offered in Christ.

The self understanding of the church is vitally important to the mission of the church.

That in turn determines the shape of the ministry and its training. CSI essentially concerned

itself with those within the boundaries of the existing churches in south India. The desire for

unity was felt keenly by missionaries who found ‘divisions’ intolerable in the context of the

mission field. The two significant events of 1947, national independence and church union,

aroused the church in India to actively develop her self-identity, to form regional and

342
The Derby Report, “The South India Church Scheme, London, 1946,” Quoted from Bengt
Sundkler, Church of South India, The Movement towards Union 1900-1947 (London: United Society for
Christian Literature, Lutherworth Press, 1965), 346-349.
343
Kaj Baago, “The First Independence Movement among Indian Christians,” Indian Church History
Review 1.1 (June 1967): 71.
344
This is similar to the view and concern expressed by M. M. Thomas. See Paul Loffler, Secular Man
and Christian Mission (Geneva: CWME/WCC, 1968), 16.
129
vernacular union institutions with an ecumenical perspective and to identity her mission in

India with fresh vigor, in order that her ministry could be trained to meet the real needs of the

people India.

II. Contemporary Indigenous Missionary Movements / Societies

A. Introduction

Although the fact that Apostle Thomas landed in India and sowed the seed of

Christianity, two thousand years ago, for a longtime since then the gospel remained restricted

only to the southern part of India. The early Syrian Church and Catholic Church made

notable contributions to the spreading of Christianity. Protestant Christianity had its root in

the Indian soil in the 18th century. In the following years, several missions and missionaries

came to India due to missionary awakening in the West.

During the 19th century and early 20th century, a number of missionary organizations

came into existence. They included denominational churches and missions and inter-

denominational indigenous missions.345 The 2nd half of the present century witnessed the

springing up of more evangelical missions, independent missionary movements and mission

coordinating associations. Many theologians have studied the growth of Missionary

Movements in India.

India though rich in wealth, ruled by kings as it was of several small kingdoms, had

to face the onslaught of the Mughals and others. The Portuguese and Dutch established their

Colonies in India. The British East India Company overpowered others and later the British

took over. Though the best was taken from India still the country also benefited in many

ways. The wave of nationalism in India arose to meet the challenge of foreign

345
J. M. Jeyasingh, “Indigenous Missionary Movements: A Critical Study,” in Christianity is Indian:
The Emergence of an Indigenous Community, ed. Roger Hedlund (Delhi: ISPCK, 2000), 208.
130
denominations.346 The spirit of freedom arose in several sections of the society. ‘The

intelligentia in India, the Peasants, the Artisans and the workers all played their part in the

freedom struggle.’347

The oldest mission agencies active at present originated in the early 20th century by

the western mission agencies. However, in the post-independence period, many more

agencies were started. They differ from one another in purpose and perspective. Some

originated when churches started mission wings with the burden to reach out to other areas.

These wings later became separate legal entities but maintained strong links with the

churches that started them. They are sustained solely by the support they receive from their

mother churches.348 Other mission agencies were offshoots of groups that started to pray for

the nation. Later they received the burden to send missionaries to the unreached areas. Still

others were formed in response to a need identified after certain key conferences or as an

outreach of a network. Some agencies began with one person’s vision of reaching out to a

people group, language group, or region. Others formed as breakaway groups due to

differences in ideology or practice.349

There are many indigenous missions that are operating in various parts of India. Most

of these missions are not directly associated with mainline churches or denominations. As

said previously indigenous churches or missions begins with initiatives from few leaders who

don’t see Indigenity in either mainline churches or western influenced churches. Devadas

from Bible Mission in Andhra Pradesh is an exclusive example who ignored all that is

institutional in the church and started a purely native church. Most prominent indigenous

mission organizations that are currently active and growing in South India are Friends

Missionary Prayer Band(FMPB), India Evangelical Mission(IEM), and Gospel Echoing

346
Stephen Neil, The Story of the Christian Church in India and Pakistan (Michigan: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970), 377.
347
V. C. George, Christianity in India through the Ages (Thiruvalla: Thiruvalla Publishers, 1972), 9.
348
Touthang, 87.
349
Ibid., 88.
131
Missionary Society(GEMS). These missions all had a humble beginning and were started by

simple laymen who had zeal to reach the gospel to the unreached and hence gathered in

groups to pray and support for that cause. There are other indigenous missions that are active

in other parts of India; since the writer limits his study only to South Indian churches he will

pay attention only on these three mission organizations. To get a glance on how and what

makes these missions growing, the writer will see some highlights of these mission

organizations.

As the denominational missionaries’ coming to India increased in number, the East

India Company’s Charter was renewed in 1813, by which the restrictions against the missions

were removed. Ultimately, the denominational spirit was higher than the spirit of

evangelization.350 As a result many missionary movements began to take shape some were

denominational and others were inter-denominational. Few important ones are briefed below:

B. Indian Missionary Society(IMS)

IMS was founded in 1903 by a group of Indian Christians among them the late Bishop

Azariah as an indigenous mission agency to preach the gospel to the Indians using Indian

personnel and Indian finance. The policies and practices of the IMS are patterned after the

earlier SPG and CMS for Great Britain pioneer preaching of the gospel, planting the church

and training local leadership, medical ministry, general education, orphan care and uplift of

the poor and backward.

There has been a steady increase in the number of active missionaries. IMS fields

include Dornakal in Andhra Pradesh, inaugurated in 1903 where fresh conversations

continued among the Lambadi tribal people as well as among Reddiars and other Hindu

castes. In Tamil Nadu a ministry is carried on among the few tribal people in Thirunelveli and

Ramnad districts. IMS is recognized by the church of south India and supported by
350
Jeyasingh, 212.
132
Thirunelveli diocese. No foreign funds are accepted. Support is raised through voluntary

contribution and annual IMS festivals in the churches. No specific missionary training is

offered, graduates are preferred as candidates. Bible school and practical experience are

desired. The working principles of IMS are: “Indian men, Indian money, Indian management

and Indian area of work where no other missionary society is working.” 351 IMS works with an

aim to foster missionary spirit in close association with the Church of South India, Church of

North India and similar organizations. It is holistic in its approach. The Indian Christians

were excited to share their resources and experiences for this indigenous endeavor.

C. Indian Evangelical Mission(IEM)

On 15th January 1965, Theodore William initiated a meeting at Devlali Maharashtra

with fellow Indians of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) to revive missionary

interest. It was in this context, the Indian Evangelical Mission was formed. This was a result

of the outworking of the Lausanne International meetings. This was a move amongst Indian

leaders to form their own missionary group dependent on India resources rather than foreign

funding and support.352 The Evangelical Fellowship of India was formed to counter the

growing liberal thinking among the missionaries and the mainline churches. Later the

Evangelical Overseas Mission, now called the Indian Evangelical Mission was formed.353

This mission is Indian in nature, and has sent missionaries overseas to work among

Indians and others. It has its own training centre where they send their missionaries. They

also use other Bible schools and theological institutions. Their annual conventions are

conducted in different parts of the country as their work is drawn from all over the country.

The other ministries of IEM include evangelism, church planting, Bible translation, literacy

351
S. Devasagayam Ponraj, Pioneers of the Gospel (Bihar: Mission Educational Books, 1993), 92.
352
Blair, 51.
353
John Amalraj, “The Emergence of Indigenous Missions in India and its Impact on the Indian
Church,” Indian Missions (May 1998): 4.
133
program, medical work, teaching, training, literature and audio albums production. It also

cooperates with local churches and conducts missionary meeting and conferences to

challenge Christians to be involved with mission.354 A monthly magazine called as IEM

Outreach is printed in eleven Indian languages.355 It is a fact that IEM has been doing

effective indigenous and cross-cultural communication of the gospel even today.

D. Friends Missionary Prayer Band(FMPB)

Friends Missionary Prayer Band is an indigenous movement presenting the gospel to

the unreached people groups in India. It is a people movement and in obedience to the Great

Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ, FMPB plans bring transformation among the

marginalized, neglected and backward people in India. Especially it works in among the

primitive and people of the soil who are basically underprivileged in all aspects of the life. 356

This was a humble beginning by an evangelist by name Brother P. Samuel, who started the

Vacation Bible School(VBS) ministry in his home town in Thirunelveli in 1952, an exciting

development started. The teaching material was filled with a missionary theme. Children and

youth brought to Christian commitment were organized into prayer groups with a missionary

burden. Out of those prayer groups grew the Friends Missionary Prayer Band in 1959. 357 This

being an all Tamilnadu movement, it soon spread to the Tamil diaspora elsewhere and

attracted wider participation and is the largest of the indigenous mission societies. In 1967 the

first missionary was sent to the hill tribes in Dharmapuri district in Tamilnadu. By 1972 the

vision enlarged to include the eleven states of North India. Through a network of local prayer

groups, district level ‘Gideonite meetings’ and area level ‘challenge meetings’ and the annual

354
Masillamani, “Intercultural Communication and Mission Practiced by the Indian Missionary
Society Tirunelveli,” (Unpublished M.Th. thesis, Senate of Serampore College, 2006), 12.
355
Theodore Srinivasagam, “Indian Evangelical Mission,” A Dictionary of Asian Christianity, ed.
Scott W. Sunquist (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing Co., 2001), 368.
356
Friends Missionary Prayer Band – 25th Silver Jubilee Issue (Madras: Friends Missionary Prayer
Band Publication, 1991), 12.
357
Arles, 197.
134
conference, FMPB presented its burden to ‘Go or Send’. From Mark 16:15 a motto was taken

to ‘Preach, Teach, Train, and Establish’. The missionary theme was effectively communicated

and thousands gathered in annual meetings and hundreds of youths and couples responded to

a call to pioneer missionary service. Few characteristics of FMPB are given below:

FMPB’s vision statement: Building Transformed Communities by reaching the

unreached Indians with Good News of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.358

FMPB’s mission statement: To serve as an arm of the church, committed to work for

the renewal of the church, sharing the missionary vision as the contextual obedience to the

call of God in our times, mobilizing prayer support, raising Indian resources and thereby

enabling men and women to serve the church in mission within the country and does service

to the poorest of the poor to impact the society.359

FMPB’s financial management: Being an indigenous movement, financial support is

received only from Indian Christians and membership is restricted to them. Indians living

outside the country can contribute and can be members to support the ministry. Individuals,

families, prayer groups, regular institutions and churches’ prayer support this ministry. FMPB

has a set up ‘Steering Committee for Ancillary Needs’(SCAN) which raises finance for the

ancillary needs of the ministry.360

FMPB’s unreached frontiers: The ministry is done systematically among 257 people

groups. The ministry in the new frontiers begins with a survey. It proceeds to the opening of

mission stations in receptive areas. Then preaching the good news, disciplining the new

believers, planting churches, appointing elders, raising the local evangelists, training the

358
Friends Missionary Prayer Brand, Manual for Missionaries (Chennai: Friends Missionary Prayer
Band Publication, 2006), iv.
359
Ibid.
360
Long Range Planning Context: 1986-1990, Friends Missionary Prayer Band file, Salem Planning
Conference, Bethel, Danishpet (September 23-25, 1985).
135
national leaders, and strengthening the churches to become self-supportive, self-governing

and self-propagative.361

Socio-Economic up-liftment programs: FMPB gives a holistic approach to its

ministry. It works in partnership with its sister concerns and other organizations especially

with Christian NGOs. By doing so it has launched more than 46 socio-economic upliftment

programs in all the mission fields with a view to give dignity and status to the hitherto

neglected people.362

Church planting: Though FMPB is not a church or a denomination but only a

missionary organization, it plants churches across the country and incorporates it with the

local churches. It became a church planting movement in 1977.363 The interesting point is

that, though the congregations formed and the churches planted are in the remote even in the

remotest part of the country, the missionaries become like clergies as in the mainline churches

and the worship pattern is like in the traditional churches.

Theology of mission: From being a prayer movement it became a missionary

movement, then a church planting movement and in 1987 emerged as a Holistic people

movement. The theology of mission of FMPB is ‘Evangelism and Social-mandate.’ Holistic

Mission is usually accepted as a mission which addresses the body, mind and spirit in human

beings. It is not exclusively addressed to spirit, aimed at conversion and personal

discipleship, nor is it exclusively concerned with social gospel, tending to care merely for

people’s physical welfare.364 Biblical view of ministry is best understood as service which

reflects the nature and purpose of God. In the context of mission, Jesus’ servant life and work

361
Friends Missionary Prayer Band, A Beacon of Hope to Hopeless (Chennai: Friends Missionary
Prayer Band Publication, 2008), 2.
362
Friends Missionary Prayer Band, A Beacon of Hope to Hopeless, 5.
363
Ibid., 2.
364
Brain Woolnough and Wonsuk Ma, eds. Holistic Mission: God’s Plan for God’s People (Oxford:
Rengum Books International, 2012), 4.
136
on earth is the foundation of ministry cross-culturally. Ministry is therefore best seen as

integrated or holistic ministry.365

Education and socio-economic Program: In late 1990’s FMPB started schools in the

mission fields and gave education to the children from in and around the village. As it works

in the remote places of our country, the schools run by FMPB attract students from radius of

150-200kms; at most of the places it is from whole district. 366 After evangelism and church

planting running across the nation, schools, vocational training centers, nursing courses,

tailoring and computer education have become primary ministry in the agenda of FMPB.

FMPB has regional offices in many states and districts. It draws candidates from

graduates of evangelical seminaries such as South India Biblical Seminary(SIBS), Union

Biblical Seminary(UBS), Hindustan Bible Institute(HBI) and trains more workers at the

Bethel Bible Institute and Kalvary Bible Seminary.

E. National Missionary Society of India (NMSI)

In the history of missions, the birth of an indigenous and inter-denominational

missionary society is a remarkable event. That event happened in December 25, 1905, by the

birth of the National Missionary Society of India(NMSI). Seventeen delegates from the

Indian Christian community, who were from different parts of India, Burma and Ceylon,

speaking eight different languages and representing five major denominations met with a

great missionary zeal and formed the NMSI. 367 Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah played a

significant role in the formation of the NMSI. Though he was instrumental in the formation

of the Indian Missionary Society(IMS) which purpose was to “develop an indigenous

organization and to promote the missionary spirit of the native church in order to spread the
365
John Corrie, ed. Dictionary of Mission Theology. Evangelical Foundations (Illinois: Inter-Varsity
Press, 2007), 227.
366
Friends Missionary Prayer Brand, “A Beacon of Hope to Hopeless”, 2.
367
R. Gnanadas, “Understandings and Practices of Mission of The National Missionary Society of
India,” (Unpublished M.Th thesis, Senate of Serampore College, 2000), 5.
137
gospel in India and other lands, Early in 1903, his vision was not yet fulfilled, because IMS

was a denominational organization.368 He realized that without a united venture of mission,

the Indian Christians could not reach the un-evangelized villages in India. The memorandum

called on to awaken in people a national consciousness, to create in them a sense of true

patriotism, and to unite in the cause of the evangelization of India. The Indian Christians of

all denominations and provinces had joined together with the leaders to organize a National

Missionary Society of India which will be conducted by Indian men, supported by Indian

money and controlled by Indian management.369

This movement formulated the core principles of Swadeshi(one’s own) Indigenous

and the propagation of the gospel. It works with the churches, for the churches and on behalf

of the churches in India. It is the member of the National Council of Churches in India

(NCCI). The Vision is, “India for Christ”, and the Mission is, “To proclaim the Gospel of

Jesus Christ to Indians, by Indians, with Indian money and methods.” 370 The methods

followed by NMSI in communicating the gospel are: Open air meeting, Praying for the sick,

Youth meeting, Personal evangelism and House visiting, Distribution of gospel tracts and

Cottage prayer meetings.371

Most new ventures are results of visionary factors; similarly the formation of NMSI

had different factors which motivated the pioneer leaders. The writer will see few of them

briefly

1. Influence of Young Men Christian Association (YMCA)

368
Ebright, 67.
369
Ibid., 81.
370
Raja Singh Elias, “A Study on the Issue of the Newly formed Indigenous Churches in the Process
of Integration with Established Churches, with Special Reference to Indian Evangelical Mission,” (Unpublished
D.Min. thesis, Senate of Serampore College, 2012), 28.
371
Masillamani, “Intercultural Communication and Mission Practiced by the Indian Missionary
Society Tirunelveli,” (Unpublished M.Th. thesis, Senate of Serampore College, 2006), 13.
138
 YMCA was founded in 1844 by George Williams; the aim of this society was to win

other young men to Christian faith. Latourette states that “The idea of a Young Men’s

Christian Association, as the group called it, was contagious, for it came on a rising tide of

the Evangelical Movement.”372 Within a decade, the association spread to the other continents

and it appealed chiefly to those of the lower income of the white collar class. YMCA was

born out of evangelism, prayer meetings and Bible study; it added educational, social and

athletic facilities to promote the wholesome life of young men and boys.373 V.S. Azariah was

appointed as the travelling secretary of YMCA and was sent to Jaffna to study the missionary

works by the native youth in Jaffna.

2. Influence of Student Volunteer Movement (SVM)

SVM was founded in 1886 under the leadership of D. L. Moody. The movement

spread to the colleges, universities and theological seminaries within a short period. On the

basis of SVM, Student Christian Movement(SCM) of Great Britain and Ireland became major

agency for volunteer Christian activity. General Secretary of World Student’s Christian

Fellowship J. R. Mott conducted international conferences. Two founding leaders of NMS

were inspired by Mott’s conferences, one of them wrote in “the young men of India” in 1913

about his experience with J. R. Mott; seventeen years ago the call came to me, an

undergraduate in Madras at the YMCA, through Dr. Mott. I did not sign the volunteer card; I

said serving God is not serving a foreign missionary…my objection of seventeen years has

been decisively removed on this day (referring to the NMS). 374 One of the major influencing

factors was SVM to the formation of the NMSI.

372
Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christianity (London: Eyre and Spottis Woode Ltd, 1953),
1187.
373
Latourette, 1187-88.
374
Ebright, 59.
139
 3. Influence of Home Missionary Societies (HMS)

Another factor of the formation of NMSI was the emerging tendency of the

formation of Home Missionary Societies. This was started by the young churches in their

lands to evangelize their homeland. Donald F. Ebright states “Because the small, isolated

denominational missionary societies were part of a growing movement that culminated in the

NMS, it is important that we examine them.”375 Mott’s proposal of Home Ministry influenced

the Indian Christian community. When Mott saw the growth the Home Missions, he said: “It

shows that the spirit of evangelism has taken roots in the native churches and it is proving

itself in them capable of growth.”376 Home Missions Society(HMS) kindled the Indian

Christian community the need and their role in the evangelization of India.

4. Influence of Nationalist Movement

In the later decades of the 19th century and the early period of the 20th century, India

had witnessed several nationalist movements. As a result of the freedom struggle, the East

India Company rule was ended and that made more difficult for Indians. India came under the

direct control of British government by Queen’s order. By the end of 19 th century, the

nationalist movement gathered more influence and became more strengthened.

The educated people conveyed their ideas on nationalism and the atmosphere was

suitable to spread and to attract the people in India. J. Masselos describes “The western-

educated were instilled with liberalized ideas in the context of times and also having vested

interests.377 He says, “British rule had a part to play in the development of political awareness

and in the emergence of a national consciousness.”378

375
Ibid., 16
376
The Tinnaveli Church Missionary Society District Church Council “The Fifteenth Annual Report,
1905,” Quoted from Donald Fossett Ebright, The National Missionary Society of India-1905-1942: An
Expression of the Movement Toward Indigenization within the Indian Christian Community,” (Published
Doctoral Dissertation, Divinity School in Candidacy, Chicago, Illinois, 1944), 194.
377
Jim Masselos, Nationalism on the Indian Subcontinent: An Introductory History (Melbourne:
Thomas Nelson Limited, 1972), 43.
378
Ibid.
140
 5. Influence of Religio-Cultural Movements

Another impact of nationalism was related to religion and culture. Due to the English

education the people were enlightened and let them wither to reform their own living faiths or

to embrace Christianity. English education also influenced the Christianity in India and it led

to indigenization movements. The English education system introduced the western thoughts

to the Indians, and it influenced the hearts and minds and helped in rethinking of their

religious practices and led to the reformation of Hinduism. Along with other religions in

India, Christianity also underwent nationalist movement. The mass movements towards

Christianity from other living faiths and the missionary work resulted in a rapid numerical

growth of the Indian Christian community. 379 Most of the educated converts became minister

of the church. Thereby, the Christian community in India got good leadership from India

itself.

379
Latourette, 1316.
141
 Chapter 4

Practical Aspects of Indian Indigenous Missions

A. Indigenization Defined

The meaning of the term indigenization is related to the local religious culture. To cite

one observation, whenever Christianity crosses new cultural boundaries, the question of how

it mingles and interacts with the traditional culture and world view of the locality arises. In

the history of the modern missionary movement, the attempts to relate Christianity with

culture have been given various names such as accommodation, adaptation, indigenization,

acculturation and inculturation.380

The word indigenization was a much-talked-about subject in the missionary circles in

the beginning of the 20th century. “Indigenization in the third world” as held by K. P. Aleaz,

“is a matter of decolonization” he continues, “...it is not updating theology to suit a new

situation, but rather throwing off of an imposed, alien and alienating system of doctrine and

worship in order to allow third world experience of Jesus to find their creative manifestation

in total freedom.”381 Western Christianity assumed that their theology was universally

relevant and supra-cultural. Therefore they exported their culture together with the Christian

faith. When we think about indigenization the immediate perception in our mind is that of

adopting some cultural values and customs of other religions. Therefore Kaj Baago says,

Indigenization does not mean the mere adoption of certain Indian

customs – sitting on the floor, building churches in Dravidian style,

380
Lalsangkima Paachuau, “Ethnic Identity and Christianity in North East India: A Socio-Historical
and Missiological study with Special reference to Mizoram,” (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Princeton
Theological Seminary, Princeton, 1998), 4.
381
K. P. Aleaz , “Indigenization,” in Dictionary of Third World Theologies, eds. Virginia Fabella and
R.S. Sugirtharaj (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2000),106.
142
 etc. the Indian church may adopt such customs and still remain a
foreign body. Neither is indigenization simply the introduction of
certain Sanskrit terms in Bible translations or sermons, however
important this might be. Real indigenization means the crossing of the
borderline. It means leaving, if not bodily at least spiritually, western
Christianity and the westernized Christian church in India, and
moving into another religion, another culture, taking only Christ with
oneself. Indigenization is evangelization. It is the planting of the
gospel inside another culture, another philosophy and another
religion.382

It is clear that no one word has been found to be altogether satisfactory for

expressing the concern and phenomenon described by the term indigenization. However, the

likeminded approach of D. S. Amalorpavadass and J. R. Chandran towards indigenization is

appropriate in this study. Amalorpavadass stated that,

Indigenization does not refer exclusively or unilaterally to traditional

cultures and religions. It is not a mere going back to the source; it is
not a mere recognition of one’s heritage. It means, above all, being
present today and looking to the future, being taken up in the very
dynamism of personality development, group life and history.
Indigenization takes account of all the realities that constitute human
existence today that shape the life of societies and nations that mark
the history of the world.383

Indigenization means solidarity with humans and involvement in all issues and

problems, and entry into the dynamism and adventure of human history with all that they

imply, and in all that they demand. The church’s being present everywhere with humble

‘diakonia’ in testimony of the gospel and of the kingdom. Thus indigenization is a concern

for the contemporary reality as integrated in the culture and life of today’s human. The

present may have their roots and moorings in the past, its dynamic orientation in so far as she

is relevantly present to the living, moving and actual reality.384

Amalorpavadass opines that the problem of adaptation or acculturation is a very

complicated one. It is not specific to this or that activity of the church, but is interconnected

in relation with all the aspects of its very mystery and mission. Thus the mission of the

382
Baago, 85.
383
D. S. Amalorpavadass, Towards Indigenization in the Liturgy (Bangalore: National Biblical
Catechetical and Liturgical Center, 1971), 19.
384
D. S. Amalorpavadass, 21.
143
church at every form of ministry should be adapted to the country, to its culture and religious

tradition.385 Acculturation or adaptation is a simultaneous act of every form of ministry,

whether missionary or pastoral activity and an integral part of the whole mission of church.

By adaptation not only will the church be able to fulfill her mission, but she will also realize

her catholicity or universality. The above understanding of indigenization, adaptation and

accommodation are intimately linked to each other.

1. Indigenization by the Dalits and the Tribals

Christian history is generally told from the dominant tradition’s view. The question

of identity concerns all sections of the Indian Christian community. Dalits and Tribals as well

as Thomas Christians, indigenous peoples and cultures, movements of renewal and

revitalization are involved in the search for identity.

India has witnessed the rise of many subaltern groups that find in Jesus a new

inspiration and empowerment to carry on the struggle for their own liberation.386 A

subaltern387 approach to Christian studies seeks the viewpoint of the non-elite. In terms of

Christian institutions in India, perspectives arising ‘from below’, through local initiative, may

be classed as subaltern. These people from lower class in the society would adopt the local

culture to express their though-forms in local language rather than high language like

Sanskrit to confess their Christian faith.388 The involvement of God in everyday human

affairs, a realm of theology outside the scope of western theological worldview – churches of

indigenous origins are vibrantly filling the unmet needs gap. Theirs is a theology of God in

385
Ibid., 32.
386
Indian Theological Association, “The Significance of Jesus Christ in the Context of Religious
Pluralism in India,” Third Millennium: Indian Journal of Evngelization 1.4 (Oct – Dec 1998): 88-96.
387
The term “Subaltern” is from Ranajit Guha who first used it in the late nineteen-seventies. It means
subordination of South Asian society under British colonial rule. It also means the power of the indigenous elite
over other sections of the population. See Ranajit Guha’s “Preface” in Subaltern Studies I, 1982, vii.
388
S. Theodore Baskaran, “Indigenization in South Indian Churches: Some Issues,” Religion and
Society, 36.4 (December 1989): 34-35.
144
cosmic history, of God involved in human history, as well as a God of the natural order. 389

Churches of indigenous origins utilize both the indigenous art forms (folk music) and

practices of healing and exorcism. These churches respond to the culture of which they are a

part. They are subaltern in a double sense, pertaining to the weaker sections of society and

arising spontaneously through indigenous initiatives.390

The writer will see few areas in India where indigenization began as the necessity for

identity:

2. The Case of Churches in Andhra

The churches of Andhra illustrate the tension between Great Tradition Christianity

and subaltern ‘little traditions’. Conversions in Hyderabad area a century ago were drawn

mainly form subaltern society, the so-called untouchables. Theirs was a religion of village

deities and goddess worship, ghosts and spirits, magic and witchcraft. 391 But churches of

missionary Christianity were churches of classical Great Tradition Christianity. Theology and

liturgy were borrowed from the West, there was little cultural adaptation. Inherent needs

were not met by the ‘high’ formal Christianity. Hence a theology of people emerges from

subalternate communities. Indigenous theology therefore may be defined as theological

reflection organized in local categories and addressing local questions, i.e. it reflects the life-

patterns and thought-forms of local Christians, without which society stagnates.392 Outsiders

may have a role in the theologizing process, but local Christians are the ultimate formulators

of their Christian life and theology.

389
Paul G. Hiebert, Anthropological Reflections on Missiological Issues (Grand Rapids: Baker Books,
1994), 198-199.
390
Roger E. Hedlund, Quest for Identity: India’s Churches of Indigenous Origin: The “Little
Tradition” in Indian Christianity (Delhi: ISPCK, 2000), 11.
391
P. Y. Luke and John G. Carman, Village Christians and Hindu Culture (London: Lutterworth Press,
1968), 29, 35.
392
Lois Fuller, “The Missionary’s Role in Developing Indigenous Christian Theology,” Evangelical
Missions Quarterly 33.4 (October 1997): 406.
145
 3. The Case of the Shanars’ (Nadars)
An investigation of the SPG mission to the Nadars and Paraiyas caste people

concluded that their conversion resulted in transformation and ‘a process of integration into

the mainstream of Indian society.’393 By affirming the dignity of the oppressed, Christianity

interacted with indigenous cultures at its roots. Christianity empowered untouchable

communities shedding social stigmas in order to obtain respectability and social

transformation for those who knew them not. 394 The converts do not lose their traditional

identity, rather Christianity helped them to recover their local culture which was further

refined through interaction with the Gospel.395 The Nadars were attracted to Christianity as a

religion ‘not too foreign to their own’, hence a spiritual motive for their conversion was

uppermost. Paraiyars and Nadars (then known as Shanars) were considered untouchables,

engaged in polluting occupations, consigned to menial labor and a slave status. Through

conversion the Nadars in particular gained new dignity and no longer remained subservient.

Conversion as social protest was only one factor, the other being a genuine spiritual quest. 396

These conversion movements were genuine movements of the poor and oppressed, often in

the face of severe persecution.

4. The Case of the Malayarayans

In the midst of social change, exploitation by European planters, Tamil traders, a new

cash economy, cholera and fever, the Malayarayans of Kerala state determined to embrace

Christianity. “Their system of belief, land, sickness and cure were under threat, their

movement to Christianity was a move towards sources of power.” 397 There questions were not
393
Samuel Jayakumar, “The Impact of SPG Missions on the Dalits of Tirunelveli-1830-1930,”
(Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Open University, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, 1998), 2.
394
Ibid., 46.
395
Ibid., 55.
396
Hedlund, 13.
397
George Oommenn, “Re-reading Tribal Conversion Movements: The Case of the Malayarayans of
Kerala, 1848-1900,” Religion and Society (June 1997): 71.
146
the same as those of the outsiders, but were framed according to a pre-existing world view:

questions regarding land, ancestors, spirits and gods old and new. 398 Pre-existing religious

ideas played a role in Malayarayan conversion to Christianity; they had appropriated new

ways to deal with their changing world view. The tribes of India have found religious

fulfillment, cultural affirmation and identity where Christianity penetrated. “A new sense of

human and community worth was regained in the church by each tribe that received the

Gospel in good numbers.”399 Minz argues that there is no discontinuity between the Gospel

and culture and he refers the tribe as indigenous peoples. Tribal Christianity affirms an

indigenous worldview which in many respects resembles the worldview of the Bible.400

5. Indigenous Peoples
Nirmal Minz refers to the tribes as indigenous people in India. From a tribal

perspective Minz discusses the implications of tribal alienation from the land. Global

ecological problems are very much tied up with the exploitation of the tribes. Tribals are not

the only indigenous people of India. These also include the Dalits as well as others. The

greatest response to the Christian message in India has come from these two categories.

Christianity brought a new dimension into the life of the tribes which is seen in the believing

community. Tribes formerly enemies now face each other as brothers and sisters in Christ

while retaining their distinctive names, language and culture. 401 Tribal Christians stand in

solidarity with indigenous groups in preserving traditions, values and cultures. The other

indigenous category consists of Dalit groups. Fr. Stephen Fuchs says ‘enforced social contact

with high-caste Hindus has reduced them to the state of servility and un-touchability.’ 402 The

gospel divine truth must not be separated from human values and social ideology.
398
Hedlund, 15,
399
Minz, 32.
400
Ibid., 116.
401
Ibid., 45.
402
Stephen Fuchs, At the Bottom of Indian Society: The Harijan and Other Low Castes (New Delhi:
Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt., ltd., 1981), 40.
147
Christocentric humanism is part of the gospel and has a witnessing dimension of its own. 403

Religion and social change may simultaneously take more than one direction. The classic

Village Christians and Hindu Culture by Luke and Carman is a study of the interaction of

Andhra Christians where it reveals that Christian and traditional beliefs and practices exists

side by side with considerable intermingling of concepts and rituals.404

B. Elements in Indigenous Missions

The elements associated in the indigenous missions are reflected in the following

areas such as, church building, worship pattern, music in worship, offerings/collections, lyrics

and drama in worship, financial independence, leadership, mission society, and training. It

would help us to understand each of this as the writer briefly summarizes it:

1. Church Building

Indigenous mission leaders encouraged the churches to be built in a Indian

architectural style with sand and stone. The structure should not reflect western type of
architecture but be suitable to Indians. Use local workmen and designers; adopt symbolic arts
from Indian culture. They urged the new converts to build worship places with their own
ability and expectations. Initially church buildings were constructed in the western style,
which was inevitable in the early stages. However, as the missionary work became church-
centric, it was only natural that the churches should adopt Indian architecture.

2. Worship

Worship is considered as a part and parcel of life in all religions in India. Further the

indigenous music, art and drama are linked with the day to day life of the village people.

Insights were drawn from Hindu and occasionally Muslim tradition in devising indigenous

forms of liturgy, music, drama, architecture, festivals and Christian expression.

403
A. G. Honig, “Asia: The Search for Identity as a Source of Renewal,” in Missiology, An
Ecumenical Introduction, eds. F. J. Verstraelen, A Camps et. al. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 316.
404
Hedlund, 22.
148
 Indigenization of worship means giving the Indian expressions to the

accompaniments of worship. Worship belongs to universal human nature, while its outward

expression may vary from race to race; and human beings what they are, may vary from man

to man too. And yet a few suggestions may be made to provoke thought and

experimentation.405

Just like the Hindus include 3 kinds of worship such as individual worship, family

worship and congregation worship. Christians must also practice such kinds of worship to

identify themselves into the Indian community.

3. Music

Music is considered as one of the important art forms of Indian culture, and it has

taken as inevitable place in the worship in all religions. Basically there are two great schools

of music in India, the Carnatic music of the south and the Hindustani music of the north. The

liturgical renewal has brought with it also renewal and restoration of Indian music. Indian

musical instruments, too occasionally begin to show themselves in churches during the

liturgy. The village Indian churches needed Indian musical instruments more than the western

organs. The order of service and the other old hymns of the Christian church can all be

rendered in suitable vernacular tunes.

4. Offering / Collection

In an indigenous church, all worship is an act of offering. Which means to adore God

is common to all religions and offering is an act of worship. The western pattern of offertory

collection was not appropriate to the Indian church. The offertory bag attached to a long stick

gives the idea of collection and not offering. The contributions of the people are also

increased by the adaptations of methods that will appeal to them. They enjoy harvest festivals

and they love to bring to God a portion of their harvest produce.

405
Susan Billington Harper, In the shadow of the Mahatma Bishop V. S. Azariah and the Travails of
Christianity in British India (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000), 261.
149
 5. Lyrics and Drama

Lyrics and drama had played a major role in indigenous churches. They advocated

the use of local songs, dances and dramas of indigenous media, which would be more helpful

to convey the gospel to Indians. Azariah said, “The gospel and the Christian teachings are

presented in lyrical form just as the great Indian scriptures are recited and sung in the streets

and villages by itinerant singers.”406 In fact, modern drama had its origin in the sacred plays

enacted in the precincts of churches for the purpose of giving instructions to Christians in the

truths of religion.407 Azariah was able to give a strong lead towards experimenting with the

traditional and popular means of communication such as Bhajans, Kirtans and

Kathakalashepams.

6. Financial Self-hood

The three self-formulas was adopted by many indigenous leaders and implemented in

the 20th century Indian church. Azariah was a leader in helping the Indian church to face the

problem of its own support. This may be considered as a Moratorium policy of indigenous

church in India. The leaders taught Christian giving as the responsibility of every Christians;

further giving was not limited to money but also extended to the whole life of a person who

was called by God. Bishop Neil says, “Training from the start in the principles of Christian

giving on biblical lines, Azariah taught his people that even the poorest family could set aside

daily a handful of grain.”408

Christian giving was considered as one of the main resources for the development of

indigenization. This was related to the early church in Macedonia which was the first cited

example for giving. Giving in their case was an evidence of God’s grace to them, because it

406
D. Pakiamuthu, Azariah, the Apostle of India, in Birth Centenary of Bishop Azariah (Thirunelveli:
Diocesan Press, 1974), 83.
407
V. S. Azariah, “Bishop Azariah on Theological Education,” The Guardian 10.13 (May 1932): 156.
408
Stephen Neil, The Unfinished Task (London: Edinburgh Press, 1958), 128.
150
was manifested in the midst of affliction and deep poverty. Christian giving entails all areas

of missionary work, for instance education, health and social service, moral and spiritual

values that was rendered towards humanity for a better community. Giving and self-support

was the first duty of the indigenous church for evangelism

7. Leadership

Mission became a household word during the 18th century, because of the mission

societies. The Indian Missionary Society of Thirunelveli(1903) and the National Missionary

Society(1905) were founded with indigenous leadership and local resources in India. The

important factor for the church expansion in early period was the personal testimony of the

believers and the witness offered by the life of the Christians, both corporately and

individually. The message was preached in a self-propagating way such as: 1) the Christian

message was one concerning a living God, 2) Christian message was the message concerning

Jesus Christ with an offer of forgiveness of sins and a new life in him, 3) Christian message

was that of the indwelling spirit and 4) Christian message must include the offer of life in a

fellowship.409 The evangelization of India depended not only on the faithful proclamation of

the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but also on the witness given by the life of those

who call themselves Christians.410 The church and mission was run by the three self-formulas,

and the leadership of an indigenous pattern implemented in India.

8. Mission Society

Native people and a few of the foreign missionaries welcomed the need of

indigenous leadership in mission. To create awareness about missionary work among the

Indian Christians, Azariah said Christians have to stir up themselves and their sons and

409
V. S. Azariah, “The Expansion of Christianity in India,” National Christian Council Review 5.5
(May 1935): 228.
410
V. S. Azariah, “The Expansion of Christianity in India,” National Christian Council Review 5.3
(April, 1935): 173.
151
daughters for the cause of the evangelization of India. 411 Azariah desired to look to the leaders

of the Indian church not to grudge but to give up their best sons towards this noblest of

enterprises. He also wanted the pastors to recruit Indian missionaries for the Indian church.

9. Training

In India, 90% of people live in the villages, therefore the priority was to train

teachers and pastors for the development of the village people. Because, in places where mass

movement to Christianity took place, the first request from new Christians was ‘send us a

teacher’. The responsibility of a teacher, according to the expectation of the people, was two-

fold” he was a secular teacher in the school and a church worker in local village church. Few

teacher’s training institutes were established to prepare instructors for elementary school and

few divinity school was also established to train and ordain candidates. Text books in

vernacular languages were also published to aid in training. In his convocation address at

Serampore University, Azariah stressed that, “Rural India is the unsophisticated genuine

India, Rural India is the religious India, Rural India is the needy India, and Rural India is the

India of the indigenous church.412

Most of the missionaries are untrained for the Indian context, therefore there is a

need for proper indigenous missionary training program. This was true both for

denominational and inter-denominational missionary efforts. Therefore, in villages the

workers were an easy approachable persons to the new converts in the mission field. The paid

worker is a creation of the modern missionary enterprise. He is called by various names:

mission agent, village worker, mission helper, lay worker, teacher, catechist, teacher-catechist

and so forth. More over in the village the lay worker was the village school master, un-

411
V. S. Azariah, “The National Missionary Society of India,” The Harvest Field 17.6 (June 1906):
250.
412
V. S. Azariah, “Bishop Azariah on Theological Education,” The Guardian 10.1 (May 1932): 156.
152
ordained village pastor, village doctor, village arbitrator and village legal adviser. 413 The

obligation of village worker training was an important role to implement indigenous pattern

of missionary work in the field.

Carey and the Serampore Mission laid the ground for the development of indigenous

Christianity through their translations of the Bible into Bengali and scores of other South

Asian languages, and the accompanying literary and publication activities which also were

major contributing forces in a Bengali cultural awakening. Carey went beyond the elegant

language of the educated elite to record the colloquial language of the masses which had its

own diction and distinct style. “This work gave to spoken dialects in Bengali a status and a

recognition such as was not given in the past.”414

Indigenous Christianity is as old as Christianity itself. The earliest indigenous church

was at Jerusalem.415 As biblical scholar Lucian Legrand states, “The Christian faith was

strictly indigenous only to Palestine.”416

C. Characteristics of Indigenous Missions

The mass movements in the 18th and the early part of 19th century are the work of the

missionary societies from the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Canada and the United

States of America. Today while the so called mainline churches, which are the fruit of the

foreign missions, have almost become stagnant, the small missions and indigenous churches,

led by charismatic leaders are growing each day. Most of the members of the mainline

churches, at some time or other, associate themselves with the indigenous churches. There is

413
V. S. Azariah, “The Training of the Village Work in India,” International Review of Missions 1
(July 1923): 362.
414
Roger E. Hedlund, “Indian Instituted Churches: Indigenous Christianity Indian Style,” Mission
Studies 16-1. 31 (1999): 29.
415
Acts 1:12-14
416
Samuel Escobar, “Missiological Approach to Latin American Protestantism,” International Review
of Mission 87.345 (1998): 169.
153
a general disillusionment about the mainline churches, among their own members, as they do

not find charismatic leadership among their pastors and bishops, but see them as

administrators maintaining power and authority, controlling the resources and institutions of

the church.417

The mainline churches are in the center of the city or town, whereas the charismatic,

indigenous churches are generally in slums and outskirts of the cities and mostly in villages

without even a proper address. While the mainline churches are at the center among the

educated lower and upper middle classes, mainly consisting of professionals and business

people, the indigenous mission churches are among the Dalits and illiterate poor sections of

the society, mostly from the landless labor groups.

Following are the few characteristics of the indigenous missional churches stated by

Most. Rev. P. Victor Premsagar:

1. Indigenous missions mostly depend on believers and no so much on properties

and institutions. Their members are attracted not by the opportunities that they can

get from them, but just on account of the ministry of spiritual nurture available in

their churches. They offer no material benefits, they are faith missions dependent

upon God and the believers. The poor are not comfortable when they come to the

mainline churches because they feel our of place in the company of the affluent

elite.418

2. They reject ornaments and the practice of wearing white dress by all when they go

to the church. The village Christians of the mainline churches hardly find a

welcome in their own affluent churches. They rather find warm welcome from

people of their kind along with their simple life style.419

417
Most Rev. P. Victor Premsagar, “Are Indigenous Churches A Silent Protest against the So-called
Mainline Churches? Appendix Two,” in The New Wine-Skins: The Story of the Indigenous Missions in Costal
Andhra Pradesh, India, P. Solomon Raj (Delhi: ISPCK, 2003), 164.
418
Premsagar, 165.
419
Ibid.
154
3. A sense of freedom is expressed in worship services, there is no fixed liturgy and

people read the Bible passages during the course of the sermon. Singing is given

importance, the preaching is from the Bible expounding in terms of the spiritual

demands and challenges.420 The preachers bring special appeal to the believers.

4. Emphasis is given to prayer and the power of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Believers are free to express their praise and thanksgiving to God without

restrictions or code of conduct.421 People with certain spiritual gifts enrich the

church by serving each other. Anybody is given opportunity to serve in the church

voluntarily. Believers can come to church anytime to pray and special prayer

meetings and all night prayer or early morning prayer is encouraged.

5. The dedication of the indigenous pastors, their prayer life, personal piety,

humility, their time availability, utter dependence on God is very much

appreciated by their members.422 They visit even the farthest living member to

pray and provide pastoral care for them.

6. The members of the indigenous churches contribute liberally. Most of them, even

daily laborers ungrudgingly give their tithes. The members of mainline church

who invite indigenous pastors for prayer and care give more generously to them

because they feel that indigenous pastors are faith workers. 423 It is often

complained that indigenous churches engage in sheep stealing from the mainline

churches. But it is the other way - the sheep themselves choose better pastures.

7. Indigenous pastors often invent new lyrics, catching their experience in songs,

attracting simple and educated people alike. Members of the mainline churches

420
Ibid.
421
Ibid.
422
Premsagar, 165.
423
Ibid., 166.
155
 often sing them in their own prayers at home and in community gatherings. Some

of them are even included in the hymnbooks of the mainline churches.

Dr. Solomon Raj lists few features that are necessary to be a real indigenous mission, such as:

Non-compromise ethics,

A non-negotiable authority of the Bible,

Only Christ making the difference between heaven and hell,

Financially independent of foreign money,

Completely relying on Indian leadership,

Able to raise all its cultural, financial and leadership resources in India.

Dr. Solomon Raj also sees there are three ways in which these Indigenous Missions

originated in India, they are:

First, leaders of the older denominational churches have started new churches like in

the case, Devadas, who either for theological reasons or due to leadership conflicts separated

from the mother church. These groups did well in the course of time and grew in

membership. Such missions are called as ‘Radical starters.’424

Second, were also started by leaders in the older churches but as special prayer and

revival cells. These leaders in the first place did not want to make their own churches or

denominations but gathered people(Christians) and offered a special fellowship and little

more ‘spirit’ to their religion. The members of these groups first retained their membership in

their mother-churches. Brother Bhakta Singh’s group is an example of this kind. Such

missions are called as ‘Slow Developer groups.’ 425 Gradually these groups become almost

new denomination.

424
Solomon Raj, 9.
425
Ibid.
156
 There is a third kind of groups started by leaders outside the church almost like

rivals. Some of them, like K. Subba Rao, have never been baptized and never called

themselves ‘Christians’. Such groups are called as ‘Critical outsiders.’426

D. Pioneers of Indigenous Missions and Ministries

Primitive Christian indignity is preserved in at least six South Indian Christian

denominations that claim and accept the Thomas apostolic tradition as to the origins of

Christianity in India. These include the Orthodox Syrian Church (in two sections), the

Independent Syrian Church of Malabar (Kunnamkulam Diocese), the Mar Thoma Church, the

Malankara (Syrian Rite) Catholic Church, the (Chaldean) Church of the East, the St Thomas

Evangelical Church (two factions), and a section (CMS) of the Church of South India as well

as Indian Syrian Christians in Brethren, Independent and Pentecostal churches in India.427

As Felix Wilfred observes, the Thomas Christians are 'of the soil' and as an integral

part of the social and religious fabric of the region for nearly two thousand years have lived

in harmony with the culture and traditions of their Hindu and Muslim neighbors.428

Ancient South Asian Christianity has experienced rebirth in countless reincarnations.

A broad diversity of indigenous Christianity is found in India, demonstrating the ongoing

translatability of the gospel. Attempts were made in Tamil Nadu, in Bengal and in

Maharashtra to express historic Christianity through Indian cultural forms. At Madurai a

brilliant Jesuit scholar and missionary Robert de Nobili, completely ‘Tamilised’ the gospel.

Tamil Nadu had its own Vedanayagam Shastri and Krishna Pillai and others who enculturated

the Protestant Christianity of the South. In Bengal the most radical attempts were the Christo-

Samaj and the Church of the New Dispensation of Keshub Chunder Sen who, however,
426
Ibid.
427
Leslie Brown, The Indian Christians of St. Thomas (Madras: B. I. Publications, 1980), 3, 5.
428
Felix Wilfred, “Whose Nation? Whose History?,” in The Struggle for the Past: Historiography
Today, eds. Felix Wilfred and Jose D. Maliekal (Chennai, University of Madras: Department of Christian
Studies, 2002), 80.
157
remained outside the Christian fold. In Maharashtra the Brahmin poet, Narayan Vaman Tilak,

brought the richness of the Hindu Bhakti tradition into the Church.

Others who in various ways appropriated the gospel in an Indian model included

Sadhu Sundar Singh, R. C. Das at Varanasi, Subba Rao in Andhra, Devadas of the Bible

Mission at Guntur, Bro. Bakht Singh, and countless others.

1. Mukti Mission - Pandita Rama Bai

In Maharashtra, Pandita Ramabai(1858-1922) was a social activist and radical

advocate of women's rights and egalitarianism. A Marathi Chitpavan Brahmin convert to

Christianity, her life has been a challenge to many. An articulate spokesperson on behalf of

suppressed Hindu women, her advocacy has earned her a place of honor in modern Indian

history.429 Ramabai is also important in the study of indigenous Christianity. Baptized in

England, her understanding of Christianity was not confined to the Anglican Church. She was

able to distinguish the Christian Faith from the Western traditions of the colonizers. In her

conversion Ramabai neither rejected her own cultural background nor identified with Western

observances.430

The distinctive contribution of Ramabai to indigenous Christianity in India is not so

well known. In 1897 at Kedgaon, thirty-five miles beyond Pune, Ramabai launched a

ministry for needy women and children. 'Ramabai thus became the pioneer-founder of an

indigenous national evangelistic mission in India -probably the first of its kind.431

The Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission continues to be active today meeting the needs

of abused and abandoned women and children, a living institutional testimonial to the

incarnational witness of Ramabai.

429
S. M. Adhav, Pandita Ramabai (Madras: CLS, 1979), 238-41.
430
Gauri Viswanathan, Outside the Fold: Conversion, Modernity, and Belief (Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 1998), 121.
431
Adhav, 18.
158
 A first-hand account by Minnie Abrams describes the weeping and praying of the

repentant Mukti girls as well as the dramatic manifestations which accompanied the new

“baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire”. 432 According to several authorities, Pentecostalism in

India has its roots in Maharashtra at the Ramabai Mukti Mission, Kedgaon. 433 J. Edwin Orr

documents the spread of the revival as the Mukti bands carried the message throughout the

Maratha country. Characterized by emotional phenomena, the impact of the awakening was

long-lasting in terms of conversions and changed lives.434 Ramabai channeled the enthusiasm

of the believing community into famine relief work as well as social rehabilitation.435

Mukti mission continues today the legacy of ministry to needy women and children.

Training of members for ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit continues to be a distinctive

emphasis. Mukti mission bears the Ramabai imprint of social vision combined with spiritual

fervor. Mukti mission is a unique indigenous legacy of one of India's greatest women, Pandita

Ramabai Saraswati, “One of the makers of modern India.”436

Among the many Indian initiated Christian movements, the Indigenous Churches of

India(the official name of the assemblies associated with Bro. Bakht Singh) must be

mentioned, as well as numerous independent local assemblies and several break-away

denominations in Andhra Pradesh. At Madras the Laymen's Evangelical Fellowship is an

example of a significant holiness revival movement. Other similar new independent churches

are found in many parts of India. The largest cluster consists of numerous indigenous

Pentecostal fellowships, denominations and organizations. Some of these are off-shoots of the

432
Minnie F. Abrams, The Baptism of the Holy Ghost & Fire (Kedgaon: Pandita Ramabai Mukti
Mission, 1999), 1-3.
433
Ivan M. Satyavrata, “Contextual Perspectives on Pentecostalism as a Global Culture: A South Asian
View,” in The Globalization of Pentecostalism: A Religion Made to Travel, ed. W. Dempster, Byron D. Klaus
and Douglas Petersen (Carlisle, UK: Paternoster, Regnum Books, 1999), 204.
434
J. Edwin Orr, Evangelical Awakenings in India (New Delhi: Masihi Sahitya Sanstha, 1970), 111-14.
435
Jessie H. Mair, Bungalows in Heaven: The Story of Pandita Ramabai (Kedgaon: Pandita Ramabai
Mukti Mission, 993), 79.
436
So designated by Nicol MacNicol in his scholarly biography Pandita Ramabai (Calcutta:
Association Press, 1926).
159
Indian Pentecostal Church of God(IPC) based in Kerala; others have emerged from the more

exclusive Ceylon Pentecostal Mission(CPM). At Mumbai the charismatic New Life

Fellowship is an indigenous house church movement that owns no property but has thousands

of members functioning through cell churches throughout the city.

2. The Pentecostal Mission or Ceylon Pentecostal Mission(CPM) – Raman Kutty

The exclusivistic Ceylon Pentecostal Mission, now also known as The Pentecostal

Mission or The Pentecostal Church, is an indigenous movement originating in South India. 437

Its founder, Ramankutty, born in 1881 to Hindu parents in Trichur District, Kerala, was

converted to Christianity in Sri Lanka(Ceylon) at the age of eighteen through a vision of

Christ which caused him to begin secretly to pray and meditate on Jesus.438

His ministry developed gradually. People were attracted to his new fellowship called

the Ceylon Pentecostal Mission. Among those who joined was a college lecturer, Alwin R.de

Alwis. Under the leadership of Pastor Paul and Bro. Alwin the CPM ministry spread beyond

Colombo to Tamil Nadu and Kerala, then to other countries.439

Several distinguishing features are to be noted. Fulltime CPM workers were expected

to practice an ascetic life-style including celibacy, obedience to the chief pastor, communal

living (including disposal of private possessions) in faith homes, corporate prayers beginning

at 4.00 a.m., and the wearing of white dress as a biblical principle. From the beginning,

437
Information about the Ceylon Pentecostal Mission is provided by one of its stalwart members, Bro.
Paul C. Martin in a paper entitled Ά Brief History of the Ceylon Pentecostal Mission' presented at the
Hyderabad Conference on Indigenous Christian Movements in India, 27 to 31-October 1998, 6.
438
Ibid.
439
Ibid., 8.
160
indigenous forms of worship were incorporated. Worshippers were seated on mats on the

floor - similar to Buddhist and Hindu worship procedures. Domestic musical instruments for

worship, singing of indigenous tunes, and other local cultural practices were common

features, all of which gave the CPM an identity of its own, yet the main driving force was the

healing ministry.440

The CPM laid the foundation for other Pentecostal ministries not only in Sri Lanka

and India but beyond. Today, says Paul C. Martin, the CPM under various names, is one of

the largest Pentecostal movements in the world with branches in several countries. The CPM

was always innovative from its inception.

3. Gospel Echoing Missionary Society(GEMS) – Augustine Jebakumar

The story of the Gospel Echoing Missionary Society(GEMS) is a remarkable account

of one local church in mission. It is a record of the achievement of one local church in South

India, the GEMS House of Prayer at Chrompet, Chennai, whose concentrated missionary

outreach has brought an entire new denomination into existence in an area of North India

where previously there was no church.

Many projects are carried out including three children's homes plus a home for 100

children of stonecutters and a home for sixty polio children. GEMS also operate seventy-

seven middle schools and four English schools including a high school. Out of sixty-nine

linguistic dialects in Bihar, GEMS concentrates mainly in three major Hindi dialects of

Bhojpuri, Maitali, and Magai.441

The Mission works mainly in neglected areas of North Bihar, Central and West Bihar.

The GEMS approach includes a balanced program of medical ministry involving a hospital

and clinics, free medical camps, education, and social services including emancipation of
440
Ibid., 40.
441
Information provided by Mr Goforth, son of the GEMS Mission director in Bihar, Pastor Augustine
Jebakumar, by telephone at Chrompet-Chennai, on 11 January 1999.
161
children from bonded labour. Because of this benevolent social dimension the Mission is

well-accepted in Bihar, despite some opposition and persecution. 442 It is a significant

achievement in North India through the concerted cross-cultural missionary effort of a single

local congregation in South India.

E. Three-self Principles

The three-self principles, which state that a church should be self-governing, self-

propagating and self-supporting are associated today with the names of Henry Venn and

Rufus Anderson. During the mid-nineteenth century, both Venn and Anderson independently

arrived at similar positions, though the two men came from very different ecclesiastical

traditions.443 They followed each other’s writing and, in the view of R. Pierce Beaver,

unintentionally came to be seen as a united voice for three-self ideology. 444 This did not

become the mission dogma until the problem of financial independence principle became

important. Though Venn and Anderson’s proposals ha many supporters, making this concept

of three-self church planting clear has been attributed to Robert Speer, who followed

Anderson in leading the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

(ABCFM).445 Roland Allen made a major contribution toward legitimizing three-self theory

by developing a biblical basis for indigenous church methodology.446

Among the pioneers of indigenous theory, John Nevius is important for popularizing

the concept of financial self-support. As a Presbyterian missionary with experience in china,

442
Pastor Augustine Jebakumar, telephone interview, Chrompet-Chennai, on 13 January 1999.
443
Hans Kasdorf, “Indigenous Church Principles: A Survey of Origin and Development,” in Readings
in Dynamic Indigeneity, eds. Charles H. Kraft and Tom N. Wisely (Pasadena, California: William Carey Library,
1979), 71-86, Quoted from K. S. Imchen, Issues in Contemporary Christian Mission (Kolkata: Sceptre, 2013),
277.
444
Pierce Beaver, “The Legacy of Rufus Anderson,” Occasional Bulletin (July 1979): 94-97 Quoted
from K. S. Imchen, Issues in Contemporary Christian Mission (Kolkata: Sceptre, 2013), 285.
445
Wilbert R. Shenk, “Rufus Anderson and Henry Venn: A Special Relationship?,” International
Bulletin of Missionary Research (October 1981): 168-72.
446
Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? (London: World Dominion Press, 1953),
136.
162
Nevius pointed to some success using indigenous church-planting methods. His methods

were adapted by the Korean missionaries and have contributed to the financial self-

sufficiency of the Korean churches today. Nevius was outspoken in criticizing the ‘old

method’ of using foreign-supported native workers to plant indigenous churches. Instead, he

proposed that native workers should remain in their regular jobs while they served

evangelists.447 He urged that local evangelists should live as normal, self-supporting citizens

rather than as agents in the pay of foreigners, a practice that frequently involved sending them

to strange places and separating them from their customary contacts and local resources.

Nevius stressed that a core value of the new system is the requirement of self-support from

the beginning of a mission effort:

The Old System strives by the use of foreign funds to foster and
stimulate the growth of the native churches in the first stage of their
development, and then gradually to discontinue the use of such funds;
while those who adopt the New System think that the desired object
may be best attained by applying principles of independence and self-
reliance from the beginning.448

Nevius was not totally opposing the use of outside funds for carrying out mission

work. He did believe, however, that ‘the injudicious use of money and agencies depending on

money have retarded and crippled the work and produced a less self-reliant Christians than

we otherwise supposed to be.449

Other proponents of three-self method were V. S. Azariah a notable Christian leader

who after the Indian independence in 1947 became the Anglican Communion’s first Indian

bishop, was a pioneer of indigenity. He is credited with founding two of the first Indian

mission organizations, which were based on the motto “Indian men, Indian money and Indian

management.”450 R. C. Das was another Indian Christian spokesman who had deep
447
Frampton F. Fox, “Foreign Money for India: Antidependency and Anticonversion Perspective,” in
Issues in Contemporary Christian Mission, K. S. Imchen (Kolkata: Sceptre, 2013), 277.
448
John Nevius, Planting and Development of Missionary Churches 4thed. (Phillipsburg, New Jersey:
Presbyterian and Reformed, 1958), 8.
449
Ibid., 47.
450
Susan Billington Harper, “Ironies of Indigenization: Some Cultural Repercussions of Mission in
South India,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 19 (1995): 16.
163
convictions about avoiding financial dependency. He edited three different Christian

magazines that he used as a platform for launching a powerful critique of the Indian church

and Christian missions. Both Azariah and Das used the languages of the three-self principles

to argue for independent Indian missions. During 1960’s several prominent Indian missions

organizations developed based on the principles of three-self, especially on self-support

policy.451

F. Contextualization and Indigenization

Charles Kraft says that the purpose of communication is “to bring a receptor to

understand a message presented by a communicator in a way that substantially corresponds

with the intent of the communicator.”452 Contextualization is an effort to understand and take

seriously the specific context of each human group and person on its own terms and in all its

dimensions – cultural, religious, socio-political, economic – and to discern what the gospel

says to people in that context. In the debate over indigenization, the occupation with cross-

cultural translation of the faith implied a preoccupation with one’s interpretation of that same

faith. Indigenization meant the translation into ‘native’ cultures of a missio Dei previously

adopted by the missionary. Indian theologians realized that “the gospel had been brought to

India from countries where the seed had already been subjected to an indigenization.”453

The very fact that the writer speaks about contextualization implies that our faith and

life are not fully inserted into Indian culture, or in other words, that the Christian and

religious life of Indian remain something foreign to India. For the production of any creative

work we have to be truly rooted in our tradition. In India everything has an inborn nature with

it, whether it is culture, tradition, language, religion or life style. Hesselgrave defines

Contextualization as: “The communication of the Christian message in a way that is faithful
451
K. S. Imchen, Issues in Contemporary Christian Mission (Kolkata: Sceptre, 2013), 278.
452
Charles Kraft, Christianity in Culture (New York, Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1979), 147.
453
W. Lash, “Reflections on Indigenization,” The Indian Journal of Theology 4. 2, (1955): 25-29.
164
to God’s revelation especially as it is put forth in the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, which is

meaningful to respondents in their respective cultural and existential contexts.” 454 With this

understanding even in India gospel has to be contextualized in a way it is reachable even to

the unreachable despite the barriers. Contextualization is necessary to present the gospel

transparently and make it convenient in such a way; it is understandable by anybody,

anywhere.

The concept of contextualization was introduced in 1972 by the WCC in response to

the need for reform in theological education. The difference between indigenization and

contextualization is stated in Ministry in Context, published by the WCC Theological

Education Fund (TEF). It states that;

Indigenization tends to be used in the sense of responding to the

Gospel in terms of a traditional culture. Contextualization, while not
ignoring this, takes into account the process of secularism, technology
and the struggle for human justice, which characterizes the historical
moment of nations in the Third World.455

Contextualization is claimed as the capacity to respond meaningfully to the gospel

within the framework of one’s own situation. Contextualization is not simply a fad or a

catchword but a theological necessity demanded by the incarnational nature of the word. 456

The word indigenization, which means ‘to bear or to produce within’, is not a static concept.

James O. Buswell urges that “it is particularly appropriate for the church as the point where

Christianity is indigenous within a culture.”457 The term is less abstract and technical than

‘context’ and more symbolic and effective. It is more easily understood by ordinary people

who use it. Contextualization is part of a wider theological debate. The shift from the issues

454
David Hesselgrave, & Rommen E, Contextualization: Meaning, Method and Models (Grand Rapids:
Baker Book House, 1989), 143.
455
Bromley, Ministry in Context (Kent: Theological Education Fund, 1972), 20.
456
Bruce J. Nicholls, Contextualization: A Theology of Gospel and Culture (Illinois: Intervarsity Press,
1979), 21.
457
James O. Buswell, “Contextualization: Theory, Tradition and Method,” in Theology and Mission,
ed. David J. Hesselgrave (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978), 93-94.
165
of indigenization to those of contextualization is part of a much wider theological concern for

understanding the function of the church in the world.

Inculturation, indigenization, and contextualization are evangelistic-apologetic

concepts, inculturation and indigenization are apologetic methods focused on the

translation/interpretation of a received text for a given culture, where as contextualization

sees this translation / interpretation as a dialectical process in which text and context are

interdependent. The agenda of the first is what the German theologians called it as “History

of Salvation”; the agenda of the second is what, since Uppsala 1968 has been called

“Salvation in History.”458

In summary, discussions on Inculturation focus on the symbolic exchange between

the faith being preached and the receiving culture. Debates over indigenization include this

cultic agenda but go a step farther with the inclusion of conscious power struggles between

foreign missionaries and national leaders. Reflections on contextualization represent a third

level of interpretation of the faith, in which, to the cultic aspects and the intra-church power

struggle is added a process of conscientization about power struggles in the world, in which

the church participates either actively or passively.459

G. Issues in Indigenous Missions

According to Ray Eicher, former Director of OM India, a mission passes through four

stages in its lifetime. It starts with a few individuals who have a special ethos and vision. It

becomes a movement and thrives on the move and achieves many things on the way. It is

vibrant when it moves. Thirdly, it becomes an institution with norms, laws, policies, a certain

458
Harvey Conn, “Contextualization: Where do we Begin?,” in Evangelicals and Liberation, ed. C.
Armerding (Nutley, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publication co., 1977), 93.
459
Ruy O . Costa, “Introduction: Inculturation, Indigenization and Contextualization,” in One Faith,
Many Culture (Maryknoll, New York: Boston Theological Institute Annual Series vol.2, 1988), xiii – xiv.
166
amount of stability and consolidation. The last stage is monumental. It just stays and does

nothing, ineffective and mediocre.460

Many of the missionary movements like Student Volunteer Movement(SVM), Young

Men’s Christian Association(YMCA), Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA),

Young People’s Missionary Education Movement(MEM), The Laymen’s Missionary

Movement(LMM) and several movements became monuments.461 The same thing could

happen to any of the contemporary missions if the original vision is not kept alive. The Indian

missions which are already more than 25 years old have many difficulties. Several missions

have neither worker nor leaders, the only thing left standing are gigantic buildings and the

members of the same family running it.462

The whole process of indigenization is not without its own problems, and the way to

a truly indigenous church in India is not without its own risks. But the problems are worth

facing and the risks are worth taking. Once the church is aware of the possible pitfalls and the

great gains that could be derived, the journey is necessary to take up.

There is a lot of talk about syncretism, like indigenization, the word syncretism is

also hard to define. It is hard to make a difference between syncretism and adaptation.

Chenchiah made some important statements during the time of Tambaram conference along

with Dr. H. Kraemer. He examined the view that syncretism is “a patching up of incompatible

religions, moralities, philosophies and theologies.”463 But he argued that this view of

syncretism would not, on the other hand, make a patchwork of compatible ideas and doctrines

syncretism. Compatibility to Chenchiah is the test and not the patching up. He also maintains

that syncretism is inevitable when verities meet, and it is a natural and inevitable process

460
Ray Eicher, Lecture, OM Leaders’ Meeting, Bombay 1986.
461
Ralph Budelman, “The Awakening of Student and Laymen: A Call for A Mission Renewal
Movement,” in Inheriting God’s Perspective, ed. Ralph Budelman (Bangalore: Mission Frontiers, 1996), 49.
462
K. Rajendran, Which Way Forward Indian Missions? (Bangalore: SAIACS Press, 1998), 168.
463
D. A Thangasamy, The Theology of Chenchiah, Confessing the Faith in India: Series No. 1
(Bangalore: YMCA/CISRS, 1966), 173.Ibid.
167
when different religions meet. The distinction between acceptable and rejectable syncretism

is not in its constitution but in its behavior. 464 Chenchiah claimed that he had not seen

syncretism in India, syncretism in the sense of mixing up of religions. He may be right when

he says that those who say that all religions are the same are exactly those who don’t take any

of them seriously.465

The famous Wheaton Declaration of the Evangelical Foreign Mission Association

and the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association defined syncretism as the attempt

to unite or reconcile biblically revealed Christian truth with the diverse and opposing tenets

and practices of non-Christian religions or other systems of thought that deny it. 466 The

Wheaton Congress held the view that syncretism readily develops where ‘the gospel is least

understood and experienced’. The Congress further made a declaration with regard to mission

and syncretism, acknowledging the uniqueness and finality of Jesus Christ and pledged to

“explore the dangers of syncretism.”467

On the other hand Indian theologian M. M. Thomas did not find purely negative

sense of the word syncretism to be helpful. 468 In an article on ‘Christ-centered syncretism’,

Thomas examined Kramer’s thought on the subject.469 Kraemer defined syncretism as an

‘illegitimate mingling of different religious elements’ over against adaptation, which is

legitimate. Thomas rightly says that the church, in trying to avoid illegitimate mixing of

heterogeneous elements, has gone too far and stopped legitimate interpretation which is

necessary for adaptation. Thomas holds that in the post-Tambaram post-Kraemer period any

effort at indigenization of Christianity was dubbed syncretistic without even being examined.

464
P. Solomon Raj, A Christian Folk Religion in India: A study of Small Church Movement in Andhra
Pradesh, with Special Reference to the Bible Mission of Devadas (Bangalore: Centre for Contemporary
Christianity, 2004), 267.
465
Raj, 180.
466
“Wheaton Declaration”, International Review of Missions 55 (1966): 462.
467
Ibid., 463.
468
Harold Turner, “Religious Movements in Primal Societies,” Mission Focus 9.3 (1981): 87.
469
M. M. Thomas, “Christ-Centered Syncretism,” Religion and Society 26.1 (1979): 26-35.
168
There is a real place for experimentation in adaptation which should not suffer from fear of

syncretism in the Christian church. The Christian community should be able to take the

responsibility of discriminating the non-Christian rituals and customs but be open to adapt

certain meaningful actions. Confusion comes when contextualization is confused with

syncretism. The former represents the expression of biblical faith in the socio-cultural milieu

of the converts – the interaction of the text with context – whereas the latter means the

intermingling of incompatible elements from opposing systems of belief. For example, the

use of Sanskrit terminology to express Christian concepts is seen as contextualization,

whereas reformulation of Christian theology according to Hindu religious definition is

syncretism. Syncretism has no place in biblical faith, whereas contextualization is both

legitimate and essential.470

There is also much controversy about church architecture in India. Bishop Azariah’s

experiments in the Cathedral at Dornakal were truly prophetic. When Dr. Solomon Raj tried

to introduce Indian classical dance in expressing the gospel to the church, there were many

objections by the Christians with several questions, but the Hindus quickly identified with the

medium and through the medium the message of Christ. Whatever is true to the spirit of the

gospel, whatever is compatible stays on, and the rest dies. Sometimes things which

disappeared have returned when the church understood their meaning better. It must be

understood that when the gospel comes into contact with any religion it judges that host

religion. It did this to Judaism, it did this to Greco-Roman culture, and it does this to

Hinduism too. It is vital and important for the Christian church to have dialogue with

Hinduism, not only at the philosophical and intellectual level but also at the popular level.

This kind of encounter will enrich the Indian church and make it truly indigenous.

Adinarayana points that’s:

470
Roger E. Hedlund, “Models of Indian Church Growth Ministry,” in New Horizons in Christian
Mission: A Theological Exploration, ed. Victor Premsagar (Chennai: Gurukul Lutheran Theological College &
Research institute, 2000), 500.
169
 Indigenization is not an academic job where experts go into
committees and draw up a list of innocuous ideas that can be ‘safely’
implanted in an exotic soil. It must be the result of the dynamic spirit
of Christ, working through the form of Hindu thought, adapting,
molding, or transforming as the case may be. It must be the natural
result of two spiritually minded groups living together as one family
and sharing together their difficulties, ideas and ideologies. 471

The Need for strategic planning: Indian missions grew after 1947, but methods of

evangelism and the needs are different now. Missions have to re-think to revitalize their mid-

term of life. Some missions seem to be slowing in effectiveness, growth and in leadership-

building. Some have internal struggles of ethos, leadership and materialism. Each mission

needs strategic planning to set the tone for the future. 472 Missions need to re-evaluate their

policies and methods and place fresh emphasis on training national leadership, evangelism

and urgent use of Christian literature. A strategy is an overall approach, plan or way of

describing how we will go about reaching our goal or solving our problem. 473 D’Souza from

OM observed that the major missions in India have already and most aim to win the

winnable that is the tribals and the poor. 474 Theodore Srinivasagam advises three levels of

effective cross-cultural evangelism – (1) getting existing churches to evangelize their

neighborhood, (2) Christians in secular jobs finding employment in areas that needs

witnesses and (3) Missionaries sent cross-culturally to establish new churches.475

Partnership: The task of fulfilling the Great Commission is much greater than most

of us estimate. A refusal to work in partnership with others comes from a wrong sense of

success. Patrick Joshua said that to evangelize India five things are needed: (1) Personal

prayer (2) Commitment and renewal (3) Sacrifice of personal and funding for mission (4)

More new missionaries; discipleship and incarnational lifestyle to the poor and (5)

471
S. P. Adinarayana, “Indigenization of Worship and its Psychology,” Journal of Theology 5.2, 27-30
472
Rajendran, 169.
473
Stalney Soltau, Facing the Field (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1959), 107-109.
474
D’Souza, OM Interview, Hyderabad, April 15, 1997. Quoted from K. Rajendran, Which Way
Forward Indian Missions? (Bangalore: SAIACS Press, 1998), 170.
475
Theodore Srinivasagam, “The Need for Effective Cross-cultural Evangelism,” in Mission Mandate
(Chennai: Mission India 2000, 1992), 253.
170
Partnership.476 Partnership between Indian missions and the churches, partnerships among the

missions, partnerships between Indian missions and international missions, and partnership

between evangelistic missions and development missions is a must. 477 The partnership

between the church and mission must be firm and tangible. The need for partnership among

ministries with common goals is articulated in several conferences, but practically not much

has been done. Mutual agreement and oral consent is not partnership. In addition

international and Indian partnerships are growing. The phrase ‘indigenous mission’ was very

attractive in the first few decades of independence but now it is a negative word to isolate it

in the global scene.478

The Myth of Indigenous Funds: There are many discussions on indigenous and local

funds. Some foreigners would like to know when the Indian church is going to become

responsible financially for the evangelization of India. The answers are not simple in the

light of the immense need in the nation. The India church is young as far as Indian

missionary endeavor is concerned. Some assume the church in India is weak and

irresponsible and does not see the necessity to give for missionary work. 479 To understand

this statement, the following factors have to be kept in mind. The church in India has given

much towards meeting the needs for their own evangelism in the past many decades. The

church in India is small compared to the vast task of Indian evangelization. The vast majority

of the church is from the lower, Dalit strata of society which is unable to bear the whole

burden of the huge task. Ashish Massey, a Christian sociologist and journalist reflected, “The

Christians are simply poor. They get little opportunity to seek employment outside church

476
Patrick Joshua, Interview at SAIACS, Bangalore, Oct 15, 1996. Quoted from K. Rajendran, Which
Way Forward Indian Missions? (Bangalore: SAIACS Press, 1998), 172.
477
Kingsley Arunothaya Kumar and R. Billy, “‘Evangelical Mission Thought and Practice’ – Could it
be more Indian?,” in Pilgrimage 2100, eds. Siga Arles & Benwati (Bangalore: Centre for Contemporary
Christianity, 1995), 79.
478
D’Souza, OM Interview, Hyderabad, April 14, 1997. Quoted from K. Rajendran, Which Way
Forward Indian Missions? (Bangalore: SAIACS Press, 1998), 174.
479
Mr. Ebenezer Sunder Raj, Interview, Quoted from K. Rajendran, Which Way Forward Indian
Missions? (Bangalore: SAIACS Press, 1998), 188.
171
institutions. They have very little role in business.”480 Some missions claimed they were

indigenized and there was great applause for their efforts. Most of these barely meet the

needs of the missionaries. Their missionaries work with the ethos of ‘sacrifice’. The human

cost of maintaining these missions is too high.481 Indigenization is something of a myth and

only partial. Foreign sources are sizeably curtailed and the indigenized sources have not

developed so far to fill the gap. Consequently, the Indian church may not be able to bear all

the financial demands of the great needs of all the missions in India in all their evangelistic

and the social activities. However, the Indian church has the manpower which can be trained

to evangelize India and in the neighboring countries.482 Therefore, by and large it is good idea

to support missionaries with Indian funds and use overseas funds for projects, training and

other capital expenses.

H. Evaluations of Indigenous Missions

Great awakening was brought by The Lausanne congress on World Evangelism,

especially in the Third World and Asian countries. Many who subscribed to the congress

returned with a renewed zeal to cater to the needs of their country. In recent years a new

interest to study the process of church helped to bring the awareness of the urgency of the

task to be accomplished. This resulted in the increase in the indigenous mission agencies and

decrease in the number of foreign missions and missionaries. “indigenous missionary

societies are an important expression of Protestant missionary activity in India.” 483 This

agencies has been publicized as a recent development of Third World missions whereas

actually it is an old phenomenon in India.

This mission agencies must be evaluated keeping few factors in mind, they are a)
480
Ashish K. Massey, “Challenges to Mission in North India,” in Proclaiming Christ, ed. Sam Lazarus
(Madras: CGAI, 1992), 89.
481
Rajendran, 188.
482
Rajendran, 190.
483
Jayaprakash, 1.
172
Aims and Objectives, b) Cross-cultural Ministry, c) Church Planting, d) Finance and e)

Structure. Below the writer will see each of this in a nutshell;

1. Aims and Objective:

It is imperative for every agency to have clearly defined aims and objectives. Aims

are the broad based principles which the agency tries to accomplish and which explain its

existence to the world outside. To achieve this aims there must be goals, this must be clear,

realistic and time-bound. Many agencies send missionaries without setting goals and

wasting resources. The agencies must train the leaders in forming specific aims and goals in

accord with the missionary task. Care must be taken that promotional work should not take

the place of working to fulfil the primary objectives. 484 When articulating aims and

objectives, the custom, culture and background of the people with whom they are working

must also be taken into consideration.

2. Cross-cultural Ministry:

Missionaries are essential in India. A study shows that 98% of the Indian evangelism

is directed to 2% of the nominal Christian population neglecting the masses who are waiting

for someone to bring them in.485 Much of the emphasis on caring and nurturing among the

Indian mission societies leaves the majority of the non-Christian population untouched. In

Indian the Christian minority is concentrated in the southern states and the north east. The

rest of the country is largely neglected.

3. Church Planting:

It is part of the New Testament pattern. There is no emphasis on buildings in the New

Testament, but everywhere groups of believers or disciples were gathered together for

484
Jayaprakash, 3.
485
Ibid., 6.
173
worship and witness. Church planting essentially means forming groups of believers who

meet regularly. Moreover in the Indian context where, the Christians are minority, it is far

more important that thry meet often and have a sense of belonging to each other. The

missionary task is to being all peoples of faith and obedience. Evangelization of majority

populations, of religious minority groups, of urban masses, of unreached villages of the

oppressors as well as the oppressed is neglected. Church planting is to be the primary

concern of the missions.486

4. Finance:

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when there was an increasing emphasis on

mission many western missionaries and missions established their work in various parts of

the world and they lacked no financial resources. At the time the work was small and the

number were few, missionaries did not find it difficult to help these new converts in various

beneficial ways. But this led to a dependent attitude and the converts did not learn the giving

aspect and always looked up to the foreigner to receive. What began as a blessing became a

hindrance and till this day the Indian church has not been able to come out of this. But now

the foreign missionaries are withdrawn, the indigenous leaders have to take up the

responsibility. The church in India is learning to give. The indigenous mission societies are

part of the growing sense of responsibility for the gospel. Some of the indigenous agencies

depend strictly on local support raised through various means. Few examples of such

agencies are, Indian Missionary Society (IMS), National Missionary Society (NMS) and

Friends Missionary Prayer Band (FMPB). There are various support pattern shown by a

study,487 such as:

1. Agencies who do not accept any help from abroad

486
Jayaprakash, 7.
487
Ibid., 8-9.
174
 2. Agencies supported partially from abroad and from India also

3. Agencies which receive money from abroad only for a few specific projects, but

the missionary support is raised from India.

4. Agencies managed by Indians completely but the total finance comes from abroad

5. Agencies supported by individuals and friends

6. Agencies supported by independent congregations

7. Agencies finding individual sponsors for each mission

8. Agencies in which the mission is supported by his home church

9. Denominational agencies

10. Agencies finding self-supporting method.

5. Structure:

Every missionary needs to have a home base which will support him financially and

spiritually. The missionary is accountable to the church. The church is to be actively involved

in his ministry. Yet, a local church with many other concerns may not be able to give itself to

the administration of the missionary work.488 This is where the church delegates this

responsibility to the mission agencies. Effective administration is necessary for carrying out

the missionary task. The purpose of structure is to accomplish in an effective way. Thus there

needs to be a simple structure with the board of Executive Committee plus officers for

carrying out the day to day task of the agency. Structure is intended to ensure meaningful and

effective communication among people who are involved in the common task. Efficient use

of human resources for the greater good of God’s kingdom should be the burning desire of all

agencies.

Observations indicates that all agencies are effective at promotional works, many are

weak in the field work. All the mission agencies need to recognize the need for prayerful
488
Ibid, 17.
175
planning and goal setting, greater effectiveness will come with careful planning for

evangelization of specific urban and rural population. 489 The increase in the indigenous

mission agencies, personnel, independent gospel workers, and the heightened evangelistic

awareness of the churches and Christian organizations is an encouraging sign. This gives us

hope that the day is not far off when India will pay its allegiance to Christ. The trend has

already begun and is expected to gain momentum in the days to come.

I. Advantages of Indigenous Missions

Before the writer understands the advantages, it must be iterated that the indigenous

missionary strategy does not eliminate the need for cross-cultural missionaries. This is not an

either/or, but a both /and situation. This is not an argument for a cessation on Western and

European missionaries, but fully recognizes the need for thousands more on the field! Here I

simply seek to prove that the indigenous missionary strategy is an equally practically

missionary method. Indigenous missionaries are better equipped to communicate the gospel

in culturally appropriate ways and in the local language, as they are from the areas where

they minister. It is also strategic and healthy for any movement to be ultimately led by

indigenous ministers. Also indigenous leaders do not have to climb over the many social and

cultural barriers that are faced by international missionaries. They are able to live at the level

of the people they serve. It is truly amazing to see the Gospel being preached to those who

have never heard it before, and see it become relevant to them because it is being preached

from one of their own.490 I would like to highlight few advantages in promoting indigenous

missionaries:

Human Resources: It is a fact that, before going to war, military strategists considers

the size of their population as opposed to that of their enemy. This simply shows that the
489
Jayaprakash, 21.
490
“Indigenous Missionaries,” http://www.ietmissions.org/what-we-do/training-of-indigenous-
missionaries-and-church-planters/ (accessed November 20, 2014).
176
amount of human resources available to carry out a task is extremely important. The world is

a very large place, with more than seven billion people. If every Christian in America were a

foreign missionary, there would still not be enough missionaries to preach the Gospel to all

peoples. If we continue to depend only upon missionaries from the West, much of the world

will never hear the Gospel.491

Financial Resources: It costs a great deal of money to send and support North

American and Western European missionaries. Many missionary families require thousands

of dollars a month to work in a foreign land where the average salary is often less than few

hundred dollars a month. In contrast, the indigenous or native missionary is able to live on the

same salary as his fellow countrymen. This adds up to a tremendous increase in economic

power. For what it costs to support one North American missionary with a monthly support

of, for example $ 4,000. It may be possible to support 20 indigenous missionaries with that

money.

Language and Culture: Any cross-cultural missionary will testify that language and

culture are two of the greatest obstacles to the work. It often takes a cross-cultural missionary

his first term (4-5 years) just to learn the language and adjust to the culture. Five years and a

quarter of a million dollars are spent on the mission field to learn the language, adjust to the

culture, and do a minimum of ministry. In contrast, the indigenous or native missionary has

no need to learn the language or adjust to the culture that he has known since birth. From his

very first day on the mission field, the indigenous missionary can concentrate on his two

priorities - evangelizing the lost and planting churches.492

Identification: There is much anti-American and anti-European bias in many of the

least evangelized countries of the world including India. In many people groups, it is virtually

491
“Advantages of Sending and Supporting Indigenous or Native Missionaries to Reach their Own
People,” http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/the-advantages (accessed November 16, 2014).
492
“Advantages of Sending and Supporting Indigenous or Native Missionaries to Reach their Own
People,” http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/the-advantages (accessed November 16, 2014).
177
impossible for a Western missionary to preach the Gospel, because he is rejected for his

nationality long before he has the opportunity to communicate his message! In contrast, the

indigenous missionary has little problem with such bias, because he is of the same flesh and

blood as those to whom he preaches. When he is rejected, it is not for the sake of his flag, but

for the sake of his Gospel. Another problem that missionaries from the West often face is

their inability or unwillingness to live on the same level as those to whom they minister. 493

Western missionaries often live in homes that seem like mansions to the native; they drive

expensive cars, while the native takes a bus; and they send their children to private school,

while the native sends his to public school. In contrast, the indigenous missionary’s support is

adjusted according to the average salary of his own country. He lives in the same

neighborhood, he takes the same bus, and his children attend the same school.

No Difficult Transitions: For the cross-cultural missionary, church planting is often

not as difficult as the later transitional period, when he bids farewell, and the church comes

under national leadership. The church often suffers a great deal during this transitional period,

losing members, and becoming greatly discouraged.494 Having experienced the prestige of a

Western missionary as pastor, the church is often no longer willing to accept one of its own.

This is not a problem when the church is planted by an indigenous missionary and is under

his leadership from beginning to end.

Focus: It seems that many North American and Western European mission agencies

have lost their focus. The Great Commission is first and foremost about preaching the

Gospel, discipling believers, and planting churches. Many Western agencies seem to have a

very high number of missionaries working as administrators and “facilitators,” while few are

ministering as preachers and church planters.

493
Ibid.
494
“Advantages of Sending and Supporting Indigenous or Native Missionaries to Reach their Own
People,” http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/the-advantages (accessed November 16, 2014).
178
 Chapter 5

Conclusion

Early in the writer’s ministry, as soon as he started thinking seriously of ministering to

his own countrymen, he was reminded of the value and necessity of "Indigenous Missions."

It is something he had continued to believe in and have never questioned—and which seems

so obviously scriptural and wise to him that he had sometimes wondered why others don’t

see it as clearly, or how they justify some of their methods and practices. Webster

defines indigenous as "existing, growing, or produced naturally in a region or country;

belonging to, as a native..." When this is applied to missions, it means the church in any given
179
nation should be homegrown, a natural expression of Christ within its own culture; not

unnecessarily influenced, controlled, or supported by foreigners, even though they may have

originally introduced the gospel.

Practically, this falls into two broad categories. God wants His church to be:

(1) Culturally in context, without losing or veiling the unique biblical message of the gospel,

and (2) Self-sustaining, without being fiercely independent of the rest of its brethren around

the world. We see this pattern clearly in the New Testament. The Jewish and Gentile

churches had significant cultural and social differences, which sometimes caused some

friction (Acts 15, for example), yet both managed to maintain the integrity and content of the

message itself. They were independent of each other—there was no paternalism on

Jerusalem’s part, no overbearing government or outside financial support—yet they enjoyed

fellowship and spiritual support, and helped each other now and again as there was need.

Indigenous Christianity is as old as Christianity itself. The Jerusalem church consisted of

thousands of believing Jews gathered by the twelve into a Messianic community. In India,

Christian indigenity begins with the earliest Thomas Christians. Historically, indigenous

Christianity has a 2000 years’ tradition in South Asia. Cult and culture combined to preserve

a Christian community which is authentically Christian as well as thoroughly Indian. 495 As

Felix Wilfred observes, the Thomas Christians are ‘of the soil’ and as an integral part of the

social and religious fabric of the region for nearly two thousand years and have lived in

harmony with the culture and traditions of their Hindu and Muslim neighbors.496

A broad diversity of indigenous Christianity is found in India. Attempts were made in

Tamil Nadu, in Bengal and in Maharashtra to express historic Christianity through Indian

cultural forms. At Madurai, the brilliant Jesuit scholar, Robert de Nobili, completely

Tamilized the gospel. Tamil Nadu had its own Vedanayagam Shastri and Krishna Pillai and

others who encultured the Protestant Christianity of the South. In the East, the most radical
495
Leslie Brown, The Indian Christians of St. Thomas (Madras: B. I. Publications, 1956), 3, 5.
496
Wilfred, 80.
180
attempts were made in Bengal by the Christo-Samaj and the Church of New Dispensation of

Keshub Chander Sen who, however, remained outside the Christian fold. In the West, a

Brahmin poet from Maharashtra Narayan Vaman Tilak, brought the richness of the Hindu

Bhakti tradition into the church. Others who in various ways appropriated the gospel in an

Indian mode included Sadhu Sunder Singh in Punjab, R. C. Das at Varanasi, Subba Rao in

Andhra, Devadas of the Bible Mission at Guntur, Bro. Bakht Singh, Pandita Ramabai and

countless others.

The writer would like to mention three implications that are necessary to comprehend,

what makes indigenous missions difficult, what methods can help it to grow and sustain and

the dilemma that exists in indigenous missions.

Cultural Offences

Unfortunately this has rarely been the case in modern missions. In the last few

centuries of church history the sending countries have considered themselves culturally and

socially superior to the host countries, and there has usually been a great economic

discrepancy as well. Missionaries have seen themselves as being sent to countries

enshrouded not only in spiritual darkness, but social and technological darkness, too. Their

mission has been not only to save people’s souls, but also to correct their misguided social

customs and set their cultures straight. They have taken these ‘poor child-like creatures’ into

their care, supported them, built schools and hospitals, and did their very best to westernize

them.

As a result, the church is viewed in many lands especially in India today, not only as

a foreign presence, but as an insult to the integrity of the indigenous people. It demeans

181
them; it makes them culturally and economically beholden to ambitious foreign empire-

builders. It fosters subservience in the hearts of the national Christians and a patronizing

superiority in the hearts of the missionaries and their foreign sponsors. And it creates all sorts

of problems for the national church. In many places, for example, missionaries have

emphasized proper and modest dress as a testimony to the gospel. Women are dressed in

western frocks or dresses, and told not to wear jewelry and other vain things. But that

jewelry may be part of their wedding dowry, and to remove it is the equivalent of disowning

their husbands; furthermore that frock may cover their breasts and bellies more properly, in

accordance with western custom, but leaving their calves uncovered is something a modest

and upright Indian woman would never do.

Western missionaries are always raising money to build churches. But do the national

people feel comfortable in giant, cold and cozy structures with benches? Their custom may

be to sit in a circle where they can see each others’ faces, rather than in rows of benches,

seeing only the backs of their fellows — while watching a performance on a stage that seems

more like politics or theater, than a humble spiritual man guiding his disciples. The worship

may seem strained and stiff too, because of the unnatural seating, and the unfamiliar music

style (many missionaries will not adopt the local traditional music which they call as ‘heathen

devil music’ of the host country, but instead make clumsy translations of western hymns and

choruses).

These attitudes and opinions are picked up by national pastors and evangelists who

find themselves opposing many of the innocent customs of their people, and trying to

overcome formidable barriers to their message that needn’t have been erected in the first

place. These workers frequently dress western, send their children to western colleges, and

buy into western concepts of successful ministry like the accumulation of lands and

buildings. The end result is a church that is as foreign and out of context in the host country.

182
 The Three Selfs

The second implication of Indigenity is self-reliance, though not at the expense of

Christ-reliance of course. The church on the mission field should be self-propagating, self-

governing, and self-supporting, just like the churches in the sending countries. To be

dependent upon foreigners in any of these areas is just as demeaning and unhealthy as the

cultural aspects the writer had discussed above. Nationals can more easily reach their own

people than missionaries and foreign evangelists who have serious linguistic and cultural

barriers to overcome: self-propagation is obviously preferable. If nationals are working the

field, they should have the authority to govern it, too; policy cannot be dictated from

denominational headquarters thousands of miles away by missions’ boards that have no

practical knowledge or experience of the people they affect by their decisions: self-

government is a necessity to maintaining the integrity and dignity of the church in any nation.

The third element of the self-sustaining church is a little harder for many to embrace

because of the practical implications — missionaries, national leaders, and sending

congregations are all hesitant when it comes to self-support. The native pastors are

concerned that if their income will be cut out, then their own congregations will not step in to

compensate it. Sometimes it is right, because the congregations had never been trained to

tithe and support their leaders — it is always been taken care of by their benefactor, the

missionary. The missionary himself is afraid that there will be no church to speak of, that all

his labor will be in vain if the financial support from abroad is cut off. And the

congregations back in their land have been trained by the missionaries to expect to support

the missions’ churches. They just give the impressions that, they have so much and their poor

brethren in third world countries have so little—it is only Christian to give to them.

183
 Yet all three "selfs" are essential to the health and integrity of the work of Christ. If

any one of them is taken away, then we will have a national church that lacks credibility in

the community around it. Non-Christians look upon the believers as people who have been

bought off for a bowl of porridge, who have renounced their own culture and loyalties for

gain. Native church leaders are seen as ingratiating, subservient hirelings who obey the rules

to foreigners—and, sadly, many of them are just that. The national church is deprived of the

struggles, the growth, and the discipleship that comes with growing, governing, and

supporting itself.

The Indigenous Dilemma

The principles of indigenous missionary work are scriptural and it is recommendable.

The practical outworking of it, however, is not always as clear-cut as it seems to the idealistic

young missionary on his first trip to the field. Many indigenous organizations have been

trying unsuccessfully for years to please their foreign churches. They don’t want that the

support and guidance is just cut off and leave the mission work to fall apart, yet the gradual

approach do not seem to be working either. Others who plant indigenous churches right from

the start find that many of them eventually join up with some other mission organization that

will support them. The missionary who receives foreign support for himself, but insists on

indigenous support for his national workers and churches has to somehow explain why he

lives so much better than them, and why he doesn’t share some of the wealth. When it comes

to hospitals, schools, and other large endeavors, the dilemma is all the more pronounced.

Even colleges in foreign countries, whether religious or secular, are not supported by the

tuition of the students alone; they rely heavily upon government subsidies, grants from

various foundations, and gifts from former alumni. How much more a Bible School in third

world countries, where the standard of living is far lower?

184
 Cultural lines are not so clearly marked out today, either. Film and music industries

have popularized western culture in many parts of the world, and the young people are

especially drawn to it. The missionary who tries tribal/folk music and a village approach in a

metro city like Bombay or Delhi will find himself seriously out of step with the very ones

who would otherwise have been the most receptive to his message. It is more complex than

we ever dreamed. It is difficult to draw a hard line on the issue of Indigenity. The principles

nevertheless hold true. Missionaries must be knowledgeable of the people they work among,

and must stay in tune with every development. They must pray earnestly for direction; they

must analyze every new outreach in the light of its possible impact, not just for the immediate

future, but for long-term effect. They must decide whether or not to financially endorse

certain programs, where to draw the line, and how to keep it from getting out of hand. They

must avoid making the national church dependent and start developing programs that help

them become self-sustaining. "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to

fish and you feed him for life."

Supporting churches back in the sending countries must be more discerning. They

must develop a mission’s philosophy instead of allowing themselves to be persuaded by

every emotional appeal; they must become informed of the realities of modern missions and

throw away the old stereotypes of people with half-naked dress and tribal costumes living in

coconut or palm leaves huts. They must ask the right questions and make the right decisions

when it comes to who and what to support in other lands. The existing church must be

balanced to offer help where it is needed most and send laborers where they will be the most

effective. Understanding the concept of indigenous missions is a major ingredient in this

preparation.

The Indian missionary movement is an expression of indigenous Christianity.

Following Independence, Indian mission organizations mushroomed. Apart from well-known

185
agencies such as the Friends Missionary Prayer Band and the Indian Evangelical Mission,

many lesser known societies came to light. Most of mission agencies are experiencing steady

increase in personnel. Since the formation of the India Missions Association in 1977 the

numbers have multiplied, and a greater degree of collaboration is evident in projects of

mutual concern.497 Mission is not confined to mission agencies and missionary personnel.

This is demonstrated by creative missionary projects of indigenous churches carried out

directly by church members. Indigenous missionary institutes of the Catholic Church also

carry forward the evangelization mandate in India today.498

Indigenous missions has proven adaptable and resilient, an Indigenous missionary is

capable of doing far greater works in extending God’s kingdom than a foreign missionary,

being already hard at work in their own countries, these men and women of God are

evangelizing entire villages/towns/cities, planting new churches, building medical clinics,

schools, childcare centers etc. It isn’t necessary for them to be uprooted and transported, at

great expense, to some strange, distant land. They already know the culture, the customs, the

laws, the language, they could live much more economically in their own countries than a

foreign missionary. In fact, the expense in most cases is practically one-tenth of what it would

cost to bring a missionary from a foreign country and sustain him while on the field. So they

encounter fewer barriers in witnessing for Christ. They can go where no “foreigner” ever

could.

Indigenous Christianity is an authentic signature of faith wherever the gospel has

taken root. It was ever so from the beginning ‘once the church moved out of Jerusalem in the

first century, the gospel was almost never expressed in the same culture except in translated

form..499
497
Rajendran, 72.
498
Sebastian Karotemprel, ed. Heralds of the Gospel in Asia: A Study on Missionary Institutions in
Asia (Shillong: Sacred Heart Theological College, 1998), 47.
499
William A. Smalley, Translation As Mission (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1991),
154.
186
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abrams, F. Minnie. The Baptism of the Holy Ghost & Fire. Kedgaon: Pandita Ramabai Mukti
Mission, 1999.

Adhav, S. M. Pandita Ramabai. Madras: CLS, 1979.

Adinarayana, S. P. “Indigenization of Worship and its Psychology.” Journal of Theology 5.2,

27-30.

“Advantages of Sending and Supporting Indigenous or Native Missionaries to Reach their

Own People.” http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/the-advantages. (accessed
November 16, 2014).

“Advantages of Sending and Supporting Indigenous or Native Missionaries to Reach

their Own People.” http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/the-advantages. (accessed
November 16, 2014).

Aleaz, K. P. “Indigenization.” in Dictionary of Third World Theologies. edited by Virginia

Fabella and R. S. Sugirtharaj. New York: Orbis Books, 2000:106-09.

Allen, Roland Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours?. London: World Dominion Press,
1953.

Almeida, J. Leslie. “The Indian Church and the Invincible Virus of Casteism.” in Caste
187
 Culture in Indian Church. eds. Sebasti L. Raj and G. F. Xavier Raj. New Delhi:
Indian Social Institute, 1993.

Amalaraj, John. “How Many Indigenous Missions are members of IMA?.” India Missions
Association. Hyderabad (July 2005): 1-4.

________. “The Emergence of Indigenous Missions in India and its Impact on the Indian
Church.” Indian Missions (May 1998): 4-6.

Amalorpavadass, D. S. Towards Indigenization in the Liturgy. Bangalore: National Biblical

Catechetical and Liturgical Center, 1971.

Anchimiuk, Jan. “Comprehensive Proclamation: An Antidote to Pastoral Inertia – Response

to Bishop Mortimer Arias.” International Review of Mission 257 (January 1976): 38-
40.

Anderson, Norman. Christianity and World Religions. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1970.

Arles, Siga. “Relations between Ecumenicals and Evangelicals in Asia.” in Asian Handbook
for Theological Education and Ecumenism. edited by Hope Antone, Wati Longchar
et al Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2013: 94-99.

Arles, Siga and Gnanaraj. D, eds. Towards Indigenous Missions and Theological Education:
Esssays in honour of John S. Thannickal. Bangalore: Centre for Contemporary
Christianity, 2012.

________. “Indigenous Dalit and Tribal Missiologies and Missiologists.” in Emerging

Challenges to Mission. edited by Siga Arles. Delhi: ISPCK, 2012: 107-09.

________. Missiological Education: An Indian Exploration. Bangalore: Centre for

Contemporary Christianity, 2006.

________. Theological Education for the Mission of the Church in India: 1947-1987. New
York, Paris: Peter Lang, 1991.

Asirvatham, Eddy. Christianity in the Indian Crucible. California: YMCA Publishing House,
1957.

Athyal, P. Abraham and Dorothy Yoder Nyee. eds. Mission Today: Challenges and Concerns.
Chennai: Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, 1998.

Azariah, V. S. India and the Christian Movement. Madras: C.L.S, 1936.

________. “The Expansion of Christianity in India.” National Christian Council Review

5.5 (May 1935): 226-30.

________. “The Expansion of Christianity in India.” National Christian Council Review

5.3 (April, 1935): 173-75.

188
________. “The South India Church Union.” The Guardian 11.34 (August 1933): 400-09.

________. “Bishop Azariah on Theological Education.” The Guardian 10.13 (May 1932):
156-58.

________. “The Training of the Village Work in India.” International Review of Missions
1 (July 1923): 362-66.

________. “Church Union in South India.” The Harvest field 39. 9 (September 1919):
333-36.

________. “The National Missionary Society of India.” The Harvest Field 17.6 (June
1906): 250-54.

Bago, Kaj. Pioneers of Indigenous Christianity. Bangalore: CISR and CLS, 1969.

________. “The First Independence Movement among Indian Christians.” Indian Church
History Review 1.1 (June 1967): 69-76.

________. “The First Independence Movement among Indian Christians.” Indian Church
History Review 1.1 (June 1967): 31-36.

________. A History of the National Christian Council of India, 1914-1964. Michigan:

National Christian Council, 1965.

________. History of the National Christian Council of Indio, 1914-1964. Nagpur:

National Council of Churches in India, 1965.

Baileys, J. Alan. “Evangelical and Ecumenical Understanding of Mission.” International

Review of Mission (October 1996): 490-92.

Baskaran, S. Theodore. “Indigenization in South Indian Churches: Some Issues.” Religion

and Society 36.4 (December 1989): 34-35.

Beaver, R. Pierce. “The Legacy of Rufus Anderson.” Occasional Bulletin (July 1979): 94-97.

________. “Christian Ashrams in India.” National Christian Council Review 86.1

(January 1966): 21-25.

Bhatty, E. C. “The Indian Christian Community and the Nationalist Movement.” National
Christian Council Review 62 (November 1942): 449-52.

Biswas, R. John. “The Relevance of the Ashram Model for Contemporary Christian Witness
in the Indian Setting.” Contemporary Christian 1.1 (August 2009): 41-44.

Blair, F. Colin. “Christian Mission in India: Contributions of some Missions to Social

Change.” Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Simon Fraser University, 2008.

Boyd, Robin. An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology. Delhi: ISPCK, 1969.

189
Bosch, J. David. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Missions. New
York: Orbis Books, 1991.

Bromley. Ministry in Context. Kent: Theological Education Fund, 1972.

Brown, Leslie. The Indian Christians of St. Thomas. Madras, B.I. Publications, 1980.

Budelman, Ralph. “The Awakening of Student and Laymen: A Call for A Mission Renewal
Movement.” in Inheriting God’s Perspective. edited by Ralph Budelman. Bangalore:
Mission Frontiers, 1996: 49-53.

Buswell, O. James. “Contextualization: Theory, Tradition and Method.” in Theology and

Mission. edited by David J. Hesselgrave. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978:
93-94.

Chakkarai, Vengal. “What is to Indianise Christianity.” The Guardian 60.39 (October, 1931):
479-83.

Chandran, J. R. The Church in Mission: Universal Mandates and Local Concerns. Madras:
The Christian Literature Society, 1991.

________. “Development of Christian Theology in India: A Critical Survey.” Bangalore

Theological Forum 8:2 (1976): 140-46.

________, J. R. “The Theological Task of the Church in India.” in Indian Voices in Today’s
Theological Debate. Horst Burkle and Wolfgang M. W. Roth. Lucknow: Lucknow
Publishing House, 1972: 121-25.

________. and W.Q. Lash, eds. Worship in India. Bangalore: Indian Continuation
Committee on Worship, East Asia Theological Commission of WCC, 1961.

Chaudhuri, Buddhadeb. Editor. Tribal Transformation in India, Vol. 2. New Delhi: Inter-
India Publications, 1992.

Chenchiah, Pandipeddi. Ashrams Past and Present. Madras: Indian Book Club, 1941.

Chetty O. K. speech reprinted from Madras Christian College Magazine. 1915, 352-55.

“Church of North India.” http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-

churches/regions/asia/india/church-of-north-india.html. (accessed July 21, 2014).

Conn, Harvey. “Contextualization: Where do we Begin?.” in Evangelicals and Liberation.

edited by C. Armerding. Nutley, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publication
co., 1977: 93-95.

Corrie, John. ed. Dictionary of Mission Theology. Evangelical Foundations. Leicester: Inter-
Varsity Press, 2007.

Cooke, B. Gerald. A Neo-Hindu Ashram in South India. Bangalore: Christian Institute for the
Study of Religion and Society, 1966.
190
Costa, O. Ruy. “Introduction: Inculturation, Indigenization and Contextualization.” in One
Faith, Many Culture. Maryknoll, New York: Boston Theological Institute Annual
Series vol.2, 1988: xiii – xiv.

Cronin, Vincent. A Pearl to India: The Life of Robert De Nobili. London: Rupert Hart-Davis,
1959.

Das, Somen. Dharma of the Twenty-First Century. Calcutta: Punthi Pustak, 1996.

D’Costa, Gavin. Christian Uniqueness Reconsidered. New York: Orbis Books, 1990.

________. Theology and Religious Pluralism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986.

Dorr, Donal. Mission in Today’s World. New York: Orbis Books, 2000.

Duncan, Forrester. “Indian Christian Attitude to caste in the 20th Century.” Indian Church
History Review 9.1 (1975): 4-9.

Dutta, Shantanu. India Waiting for Dawn. Mumbai: GLS Publishing, 2005.
Ebright, Donald Fossett. The National Missionary Society of India-1905-1942: An
Expression
of the Movement Toward Indigenization within the Indian Christian Community.”
Published Doctoral Dissertation, Divinity School in Candidacy, Chicago, Illinois,
1944.

Eicher, Ray. Lecture, OM Leaders’ Meeting. Bombay 1986.

Escobar, Samuel. “Missiological Approach to Latin American Protestantism.” International

Review of Mission 87.345 (1998): 161-73.

Farquhar, N. The Crown of Hinduism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1913.

Fernando, Leonard and G. Gispert-Sauch. Christianity in India : Two thousand years of faith.
New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2004.

Firth, Cyril B. An Introduction to Indian Church History. Madras: CLS, 1983.

Forrester, Duncan B. Caste and Christianity: Attitudes and Policies on Caste of Anglo-Saxon
Protestant Mission in India. London and Dublin: Curzon Press, 1980.

Fox, F. Frampton. “Foreign Money for India: Antidependency and Anticonversion

Perspective.” in Issues in Contemporary Christian Mission. K. S. Imchen. Kolkata:
Sceptre, 2013: 277-81.

Friends Missionary Prayer Band. – 25th Silver Jubilee Issue Madras: Friends Missionary
Prayer Band Publication, 1991.

Friends Missionary Prayer Band. A Beacon of Hope to Hopeless. Chennai: Friends

Missionary Prayer Band Publication, 2008.
191
Friends Missionary Prayer Brand. Manual for Missionaries. Chennai: Friends Missionary
Prayer Band Publication, 2006.

Friends Missionary Prayer Band. Long Range Planning Context: 1986-1990, Salem Planning
Conference, Bethel. Danishpet (September 23-25, 1985).

“From the IMA General Secretary.” http://www.imaindia.org/. (accessed July 21, 2014).

Frykenberg, Robert Eric. Christianity in India: from the Beginnings to the Present. New
York: Oxford University Press Inc, 2008.

________. Christians and Missionaries in India: Cross-Cultural Communication since

1500 with Special Reference to Caste, Conversion and Colonialism. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2005.

Fuchs, Stephen. At the Bottom of Indian Society: The Harijan and Other Low Castes. New
Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1981.

Gaikwad, Roger. “Major Issues in a Dialogical-Pluralistic Paradigm for Inter-Religious

Relationships.” Unpublished Ph D. Dissertation, SATRI, 1995.

George, V. C. Christianity in India through the Ages. Thiruvalla: Thiruvalla Publishers, 1972.

George, K. M. Christianity in India through the Centuries. Hyderabad: Authentic Press, 2007.

Gine, Pratap Chandra. The System of Elementary Education of the Serampore Mission.
Jorhat: D.R. Gine, 2001.

Glasser, Arthur F. “Evangelical Missions.” in Towards the 21st Century in Christian Mission.
edited by James M. Philips and Robert T. Coote. Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans, 1998: 10-12.

Gnanadas. R. “Understandings and Practices of Mission of The National Missionary Society

of India.” Unpublished M.Th thesis, Senate of Serampore College, 2000.

Gnanakan, Ken. Kingdom Concerns. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1993.

________. Proclaiming Christ in a Pluralistic Context. Bangalore: Theological Book

Trust, 1992.

________. The Pluralistic Predicament. Bangalore: Theological Book Trust, 1992.

Goodall, Norman. ed. The Uppsala Report 1968 : Official Report of the Fourth Assembly of
the World Council of Churches. Uppsala July 4-20, 1968 (Geneva: WCC, 1968):29-
34.

________. A History of the London Missionary Society 1895-1945. Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1954.
192
Haldar, Dipankar. “Towards Convergence of Ecumenism and Evangelicalism in Post-
Edinburgh -1910 Era: Quest for Faithful Christian Witness to People of Other
Faiths.” in Edinburgh 1910 Revisited – “Give Us Friends”: An India Perspective on
One Hundred Years of Mission. edited by Frampton F. Fox. Bangalore: Asian Trading
Corporation, 2010: 332-39.

________. New Testament Revisited. Raghabpur: Raghabpur Seva Niketan, 2008.

Harley, David. Preparing To Serve: Training for Cross-Cultural Mission. Pasadena: William
Carey Library, 1995.

Harrison, M. H. After Ten Years – A Report on Theological Education in India. Nagpur: BTE-
NCCI, 1957.

Harper, Susan Billington. In the Shadow of the Mahatma Bishop V.S. Azariah and the
Travails of Christianity in British India. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 2000.

________. “Ironies of Indigenization: Some Cultural Repercussions of

Mission in South India.” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 19 (1995):
16-19.

Hedlund, E. Roger and Paul Joshua Bhakiaraj. eds. Missiology for the 21st Century : South
Asian Perspectives. Delhi: ISPCK,2004.

________. Quest for Identity: India’s Churches of Indigenous Origin: The “Little
Tradition” in Indian Christianity. Delhi: ISPCK, 2000.

________. “Models of Indian Church Growth Ministry.” in New Horizons in

Christian Mission: A Theological Exploration. edited by Victor Premsagar. Chennai:
Gurukul Lutheran Theological College & Research institute, 2000: 500-502.

________. “Approaches to Indian Church History in Light of New Christian

Movements.” Indian Church History Review. 34.2 (December 2000): 153-170.

________. “Approaches to Indian Church History in Light of New Christian Movements.”

Indian Church History Review 34.2 (December 2000): 154-59.

________. “Approaches to Indian Church History in Light of New Christian

Movements.” Indian Church History Review 34.2 (December, 2000): 155-59.

________. “Indian Christians of Indigenous Origin and Their Solidarity with Origin
Groups.” Journal of Dharma, 24.1 (1999): 13-27.

________. “Indian Instituted Churches: Indigenous Christianity Indian Style.”

Mission Studies 16-1. 31 (1999): 26-35.

Hedlund, E. Roger and F. Hrangkhuma. eds. Indigenous Missions of India. Madras: Church
Growth Research Centre, 1980.
193
Hesselgrave, David & Rommen E. Contextualization: Meaning, Method and Models. Grand
Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989.

Hiebert, G. Paul. Anthropological Reflections on Missiological Issues. Grand Rapids: Baker

Books, 1994.

“History of Churches of South India.” http://www.csimichigan.org/CSIHistory.html.

(accessed July 21, 2014).

Honig, A. G. “Asia: The Search for Identity as a Source of Renewal.” in Missiology, An

Ecumenical Introduction. edited by. F. J. Verstraelen, A Camps et al. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1995: 316-19.

Howells, George. ed. The Story of Serampore and Its College. Serampore: College Council,
1927.

Hrangkhuma. Christianity in India: Search for Liberation and Identity. Delhi: ISPCK, 2000.

________. and Sebastian C.H. Kim. The Church in India: It’s Mission Tomorrow. Delhi:
ISPCK, 1996.

Hudson, D. Dennis. Protestant Origins in India: Tamil Evangelical Christians: 1707-1835.

Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.

Imchen, K. S. Issues in Contemporary Christian Mission. Kolkata: Sceptre, 2013.

Indian Theological Association. “The Significance of Jesus Christ in the Context of Religious
Pluralism in India.” Third Millennium: Indian Journal of Evngelization 1.4 (Oct –
Dec 1998): 88-96.

“Indigenous Missionaries.” http://www.ietmissions.org/what-we-do/training-of-indigenous-

missionaries-and-church-planters/. (accessed November 20, 2014).

Jathanna, C. D. ed. Dialogue in Community. Mangalore, India: The Karnataka Theological

Research Institute, 1982.

Jayakumar, Samuel. “The Impact of SPG Missions on the Dalits of Tirunelveli-1830-1930.”

Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Open University, Oxford Centre for Mission
Studies, 1998.

Jesudason, Savarirayan. Guru Kula and Christian Ashrams. Thirupattur: Christukula Ashram,
1967.

________. Unique Christ and Indigenous Christianity. Bangalore: Christian

Institute for the Study of Religion and Society, 1966.

________. Ashrams, Ancient and Modern. Vellore: Sri Rama Chandra Press, 1937.

Jeyakumar, D. Arthur. History of Christianity in India: Selected Themes. Madurai: TTS Press,
194
 2007.

Jeyasingh, J. M. “Indigenous Missionary Movements: A Critical Study.” in Christianity is

Indian: The Emergence of an Indigenous Community. edited by. Roger Hedlund.
Delhi: ISPCK, 2000: 208-10.

Jones, E. Stanley. Christ of Indian Road. Lucknow: LPH, 1925.

John, Stewart. Nestorian Missionary Enterprise – the story of a Church on Fire.(Michigan: T

& T Clark, 1928.
John, D. Alexander. “New Frontiers of Witness.” in The Indian Church Identity and
Fulfillment. edited by Mathai Zachariah. Madras: Christian Literature Society, 1971:
40-49.

Joshi, L. Jayaprakash. Evaluation of Indigenous Missions of India. Madras: Church Growth

Research Centre, 1987.

Joshua, Patrick. Interview at SAIACS, Bangalore: Oct 15, 1996.

Karotemprel, Sebastian. ed. Heralds of the Gospel in Asia: A Study on Missionary

Institutions
in Asia. Shillong: Sacred Heart Theological College, 1998.

Kasdorf, Hans. “Indigenous Church Principles: A Survey of Origin and Development.” in

Readings in Dynamic Indigeneity. edited by Charles H. Kraft and Tom N. Wisely.
Pasadena, California: William Carey Library, 1979: 71-86.

Kraft, Charles. Christianity in Culture. New York, Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1979.

Kulandran, Sabapathy. Facing a Renaissance. California: YMCA Publishing House, 1957.

Kumar, Kingsley Arunothaya and R. Billy. “‘Evangelical Mission Thought and Practice’ –
Could it be more Indian?.” in Pilgrimage 2100. edited by Siga Arles & Benwati.
Bangalore: Centre for Contemporary Christianity, 1995: 79-83.

Kuruvachira, Geroge. “The Response of the Church to the Caste Problem.” in Caste Culture
in Indian Church eds, Sebasti L. Raj and G. F. Xavier Raj. New Delhi: Indian Social
Institute, 1993.

Laidler, S. and J. W. Massie. “Religion in India: A Voice Directed to Christian Churches for
Millions in the East.” Quoted from J.R. Chandran. “The First Fifty years of the
College.” in Fifty Years of Service 1910-1960; Golden Jubilee Volume. Bangalore:
UTC, 1960.

Laing, Mark “The Consequences of the ‘Mass Movements.” Indian Church History Review
3.5 (December 2001): 93-95.

Lash, W. “Reflections on Indigenization.” The Indian Journal of Theology 4. 2, (1955): 25-

29.

195
Latourette, K. S. A History of the Expansion of Christianity Vol IV. New York: Harper &
Bros, 1970.

________. A History of the Expansion of Christianity. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode,

1947.

Lehmann, Arno. It Began at Tranquebar. Madras: CLS, 1956.

Leslie, Brown. The Indian Christians of St. Thomas: An Account of the Ancient Syrian
Church of Malabar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Lienemann-Perrin, Christine. Training for a Relevant Ministry. Madras: CLS for PTE/WCC,
1981.

Lindsay, A. D. Report on Christian Higher Education in India. London: OUP, 1931.

Loffler, Paul. Secular Man and Christian Mission. Geneva: CWME/WCC, 1968.

Lois Fuller, “The Missionary’s Role in Developing Indigenous Christian Theology,”

Evangelical Missions Quarterly 33.4 (October 1997): 406.

Lovett, Verney. A History of the Indian National Movement . London: Frank Cass Publishers,
1968

Luke, P. Y. and John G. Carman, Village Christians and Hindu Culture. London: Lutterworth
Press, 1968.

Maclean. “The History of the College.” The Bangalore ITC Magazine.

MacNicol, Nicol. Pandita Ramabai. Calcutta: Association Press, 1926.

Macquarrie, John and James Childress eds. A New Dictionary of Christian Faith. London:
SCM Press, 1967.

Mair, H. Jessie. Bungalows in Heaven: The Story of Pandita Ramabai. Kedgaon: Pandita
Ramabai Mukti Mission,1993.

Marshman, John Clark. The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward: Embracing the
History of the Serampore Mission, Vol 2. London: Brown, Green, Longmans, &
Roberts, 1859.

Masillamani, “Intercultural Communication and Mission Practiced by the Indian Missionary

Society Tirunelveli.” Unpublished M.Th. thesis, Senate of Serampore College, 2006.

Masselos, Jim. Nationalism on the Indian Subcontinent: An Introductory History. Melbourne:

Thomas Nelson Limited, 1972.

Massey, Ashish K. “Challenges to Mission in North India.” in Proclaiming Christ. edited by

Sam Lazarus. Madras: CGAI, 1992: 89-93.

196
Massey, S. Christian Missionaries in South Asia. Delhi: Sumit Enterprise, 2007.

Mathew, C. V. Integral Mission: The Way Forward, Essays in Honour of Dr. Saphir P. Athyal.
Kottayam: Christava Sahitya Samithy, 2006.

________. Mission In Context: Missiological Reflections, Essays in Honour of Roger and

June Hedlund. Delhi: ISPCK, 2003.

Mattam Joseph and Joseph Valiamangalam. eds. Emerging Indian Missiology: Context and
Concept. Delhi: ISPCK, 2006.

McGavran, A. Donald. Understanding Church Growth. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982.

McMahon, J. To God Be The Glory: An Account of the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s

First Twenty Years, 1951 – 1971. Delhi: Masihi Sahitya Sanstha for EFI, 1970.

Minz, Nirmal. Rise up, My People, and Claim the Promise: The Gospel among the Tribes of
India. Delhi: ISPCK, 1997.

Moffett, Samuel Hugh. A History of Christianity in Asia Volume II: 1500-1900. Maryknoll:
Orbis Books, 2005.

________. A History of Christianity in Asia Vol.1 Beginnings to 1500.

Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1998.

Mundadan, Mathias. History of Christianity in India Vol. 1. From the Beginning up to the
Middle of the Sixteenth Century (Upto 1542). Bangalore: Church History Association
of India, 1989.

Murray, James A.H. ed. et al., The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd edition. Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1998.

Neil, Stephen. A History of Christian Mission. London: Penguin History of the Church, 1990.

________. A History of Christianity in India: The Beginnings to A.D. 1707. New York:
Cambridge Press, 1985.

________. The Story of the Christian Church in India and Pakistan. Michigan: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970.

________. The Unfinished Task. London: Edinburgh Press, 1958.

________. Builders of the Indian Church. London: Edinburgh House Press, 1934.

Nevius, John. Planting and Development of Missionary Churches 4thed. Phillipsburg, New
Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1958.

Newbigin, Lesslie. in a radio broadcast, 13 October 1953. Quoted from R. D. Paul, The First
Decade: An Account of CSI. Madras: CLS, 1958: 1-7.
197
Nicholls, Bruce J. Contextualization: A Theology of Gospel and Culture. Illinois: Intervarsity
Press, 1979.

Niles, D. T. Upon the Earth: The Mission of God and the Missionary Enterprise of the
Church. New York: McGraw Hill Publishing Company, 1962.

Oddie, G. A. Social Protest in India. New Delhi: Manohar, 1979.

Ogilvie, James Noll. The Apostle of India. London: Baird Lecture, 1915.

Omvedt, Gail. "Call us Adivasis, Please." The Hindu: Folio (11 July 2000): 10-13.

Oommenn, George. “Re-reading Tribal Conversion Movements: The Case of the

Malayarayans of Kerala, 1848-1900.” Religion and Society (June 1997): 66-82.

Orr, J. Edwin. Evangelical Awakenings in India. New Delhi: Masihi Sahitya Sanstha, 1970.

Paachuau, Lalsangkima. “Ethnic Identity and Christianity in North East India: A Socio-
Historical and Missiological study with Special reference to Mizoram.” Unpublished
Ph.D. Dissertation, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, 1998.

Pakiamuthu, D. Azariah, the Apostle of India, in Birth Centenary of Bishop Azariah.

Thirunelveli: Diocesan Press, 1974.

Panikkar, K. M. Asia and Western Dominance: A Survey of the Vasco Da Gama Epoch of
Asian History, 1498-1945. Victoria, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1959.

Panikkar, Raymond. The Unknown Christ of Hinduism. New York: Orbis Books, 1981

Pathil, Kuncheria. “Plurality of Religions.” in Upon the Wings of Wider Ecumenism. edited
by Jegadish P. Gandhi and John K.C. Delhi: ISPCK, 2006.

Paton , M. David. ed. Breaking Barriers. Nairobi: SPCK, 1975.

Paul, D. Rajah. “Missionary Activity in Present India.” in Revolution in Missions: A Study

guide to the Role of Missions in Present day India. edited by Blaise Levai. Michigan:
YMCA Publishing House, 1958: 83-89.

Paul, R. D. “The Inauguration and After.” in The Madras Diocesan Magazine. December
1947: 29-33;

Philip, T.V. Edinburgh to Salvador. Delhi: ISPCK & CSS, 1999.

Pickett, J. Waskon. Christ’s way to India’s Heart. Lucknow: Lucknow Publish House, 1938.

________. Christian Mass Movement in India. Lucknow: Lucknow Publishing House, 1933.

Podipara, J. Placid. The Thomas Christians and their Syriac Treasures. Alleppey: Prakasam
Publications, 1974
198
________. The Thomas Christians. Madras: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1970.

Ponraj, S. D. “Edinburgh 1910 and Christian Mission among Other Faiths.” in

Edinburgh 1910 Revisited – Give Us Friends: An India Perspective on One Hundred
Years of Mission. edited by Frampton F. Fox. Bangalore: Asian Trading
Corporation, 2010: 74-79.

________. An Introduction to Missionary Anthropology. Chennai: Mission Educational

Books, 1993.

________. Man on the Mission Field. Bihar: Indian Institute of Multi Cultural Studies, 1991.

________. Church Growth Studies in Mission. Bihar: Indian Institute of Multi

Cultural Studies, 1991.

________. Church Planting Approach to Mission. Bihar: Indian Institute of Multi Cultural
Studies, 1987.

Raj, P. Solomon. A Christian Folk Religion in India: A study of Small Church Movement in
Andhra Pradesh, with Special Reference to the Bible Mission of Devadas. Bangalore:
Centre for Contemporary Christianity, 2004.

________. The New Wine-Skins: The Story of the Indigenous Missions in Coastal Andhra
Pradesh, India. Delhi: ISPCK, 2003.

Rajasekaran, V. C. Reflections on Indian Christian Theology. Madras: The Christian

Literature Service, 1993.

Rajayyan, R. “Towards an Indigenous Church: A Historical Study of the Efforts to Attain

Selfhood in the LMS Churches in South Travancore from 1900-1947.” Unpublished
M.Th. Thesis, United Theological College, 1985.

Rajendran, K. Which Way Forward Indian Missions.? Bangalore: SAIACS Press, 1998.

Richardson, K. Luther. “An Examination of the Process of Indigenization of Andhra

Evangelical Lutheran Church from 1927-1969.” Unpublished M.Th. Thesis, Senate
of Serampore College, 1991.

Robinson, Thomas. “The Last days of Bishop Heber”. Quoted from Robert Eric Frykenberg,
Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2008.

Robinson, Charles Henry. History of Christian Missions. Edinhurgh: T & T Clark, 1915.

Rosenkranz, Gerhard. Die Christliche Mission : Geschichte und Theologie. Munchen: Chr.
Kaiser, 1977 .- Took help from a German professor to read this part.

199
Sahay, K. N. “Indigenization of Christianity in India.” Man In India, 61, 1, (March 1981): 21-
25.

Samartha, Stanley. “Dialogue in a Religiously Plural Society.” in The Multi-faith Context of

India – Resources and Challenges for Christians. edited by Israel Selvanayagam.
Bangalore: The Board for Theological Text Books Programme of South Asia, 1994:
1-6.

________. “Dialogue and Politicisation of Religions in India.” International Bulletin of

Missionary Research 8.3 (1984): 150-54.

_______. Courage for Dialogue. New York: Orbis Books, 1982.

_______. The Hindu Response to the Unbound Christ. Bangalore: Institute for the
Study of Religion and Society, 1974.

Sanneh, Lamin. Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2003.

Satyavrata, M. Ivan. “Contextual Perspectives on Pentecostalism as a Global Culture: A

South Asian View.” in The Globalization of Pentecostalism: A Religion Made to
Travel. edited by W. Dempster, Byron D. Klaus and Douglas Petersen. Carlisle, UK:
Paternoster, Regnum Books, 1999: 204-07
.
Sargunam, M. Ezra. ed. Mission Mandate. Madras: Mission India 2000, 1992.

Seamands, T. John. Tell it Well: Communicating the Gospel across Cultures. Chennai:
Mission Educational Books, 2000.

Schultz, Gunther. “Partnership in Obedience.” in Revolution in Missions: A Study guide to

the
Role of Missions in Present day India. edited by Blaise Levai. Michigan: YMCA
Publishing House, 1958: 76-82.

Scott, A. Moreau. ed. Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions. Michigan: Baker Books,
2000.

Scott, David. “Religious Fundamentalism and Pluralism in India.” View Point: Hindu
Christian Studies Bulletin, 7, (1994): 45-49.

Shenk, R. Wilbert. “Rufus Anderson and Henry Venn: A Special Relationship?.”

International Bulletin of Missionary Research (October 1981): 168-72.

Singh, Brijraj. The First Protestant Missionary to India: Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, 1693-
1719. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Singh,H. Jai. “Towards a Relevant Gospel in India.” in Indian Voices in Today’s Theological
Debate. Horst Burkle and Wolfgang M.W. Roth. Lucknow: Lucknow Publishing
House, 1972: 125-29.
200
Smalley, A. William. Translat ion As Mission. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press,
1991.

Smita, Narula. Broken People: Caste Violence against India’s "Untouchable". New York:
Human Rights Watch, 1999.

Smith, J. Holmes. “A Summary of Dr. J. Waskom Pickett’s ‘Christian-Mass Movements in

India.’” in Movements of the Depressed Classes into Christianity. Lucknow:
Lucknow Publishing House, 1936: 4-5.

Smith, L. Eugene. “The Wheaton Congress in the Eyes of an Ecumenical Observer.”

International Review of Missions. (October 1966): 481-85.

Snaitang, O. L. A History of Ecumenical Movement: An Introduction. Bangalore:

BTESSC/SATHRI, 2006.

Sobitha, Edwin. A light on the Hill. Nagercoil: M. R. Publishers, 2002.

Soltau, Stalney. Facing the Field. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1959.

Srinivasagam, Theodore. “Indian Evangelical Mission.” in A Dictionary of Asian

Christianity,
edited by Scott W. Sunquist. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing Co., 2001:
368-71.

________. Missionary work in INDIA after Independence. Bangalore: IEM Outreach,

August 1998.

________. “The Need for Effective Cross-cultural Evangelism.” in Mission Mandate.

Madras: Mission India 2000, 1992: 253-57.

Stewart, Wilma. ed. The Story of Serampore and its College. Calcutta: The Council of
Serampore College, 1960.

Stockwell, Eugene L. “Conciliar Missions.” in Towards the 21st Century in Christian

Mission.
edited by James M. Philips and Robert T. Coote. Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans, 1998: 21-23.

Subbamma, B. V. Christ Confronts India. Madras: Diocesan Press, 1973.

________. “Christian Ashrams in India,” The Lutheran Quarterly 24.1 (February,

1972): 13-17.

Sumithra, Sunand. “Theology of Mission in Indian Context : A Study of Madathilaparampil

Mammen Thomas.” Unpublished Ph.d dissertation, University of Tubingen, 1981.

Sundkler, Bengt Church of South India. The Movement towards Union 1900-1947. London:
United Society for Christian Literature, Lutherworth Press, 1965.
201
Taylor, W. Richard. “Christian Ashrams as a Style of Mission in India.” International Review
of Mission 68.11 (1979): 281-293.

________. The Contribution of E. Stanley Jones . Madras: CLS, 1973.

Tennent, Timothy. Building Christianity on Indian Foundations: The Legacy of

Brahmabandhav Upadhyay. Delhi: ISPCK, 2000.

Tisserant, Eugene Eastern Christianity in India: A History of the Syro-Malabar Church from
the Earliest Time to the Present Day. London: Newman Press, 1957.

Thangasamy, D. A. Indian and the Ecumenical Movement. Madras: The Christian Literature
Society, 1973.

________. The Theology of Chenchiah, Confessing the Faith in India. Series No. 1
Bangalore: YMCA/CISRS, 1966.

Thannickal, John S. Ashram: A communicating Community. Bangalore: Centre for

Contemporary Christianity, 1975.

The Derby Report. “The South India Church Scheme, London, 1946.” Quoted from Bengt
Sundkler. Church of South India: The Movement towards Union 1900-1947. London:
United Society for Christian Literature, Lutherworth Press, 1965, 346-349.

Thekkedath, Joseph. History of Christianity in India, Vol. II: From the Middle of the
Sixteenth to the End of the Seventeenth Century (1542–1700.) Bangalore:
Theological Publications in India for the Church History Association of India, 1982,
212.

The New Statistical Survey of the World Mission of the Christian Church in The Life of
Church (Vol. 4): 229-32.

Thomas M. M. and P.T. Thomas. Towards an Indian Christian Theology: Life and Thought
of some Pioneers. Tiruvalla: The New Day Publications of India, 1992.

________. “Christ-Centered Syncretism.” Religion and Society, 26.1 (1979): 26-35.

________. “Religious Freedom in India.” The Guardian 33.18 (May, 1945): 139-42.

Thonippara, Francis. “St. Thomas Christians: The First Indigenous Church of India,” in
Christianity is Indian: The Emergence of an Indigenous Community, edited by Roger
E. Hedlund. Delhi: ISPCK, 2000, 60-67.

Touthang, Dino L. “Cross-Cultural Mission Movements in India.” in Emerging Missions

Movements: Voices of Asia. edited by Bambang Budijanto. Colorado Springs:
Compassion International, 2011: 86-88.

Turner, Harold. “Religious Movements in Primal Societies.” Mission Focus, 9.3 (1981):
87-90.
202
Viswanathan, Gauri. Outside the Fold: Conversion, Modernity, and Belief. Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1998.

Weber, Hans-Ruedi. Asia and the Ecumenical Movement 1895-1961. London: SCM, 1966.

Webster, J.C.B. The Dalit Christians: A History. Delhi: ISPCK, 1992.

“Wheaton Declaration”. International Review of Missions 55 (1966): 462-67.

Williams, Theodore. “India, A Seething Continent.” in The Church in Asia. edited by Donald
E. Hoke. Chicago: Moody Press, 1975: 221-24.

Wilfred, Felix. “Whose Nation? Whose History?.” in The Struggle for the Past:
Historiography Today. edited by Felix Wilfred and Jose D. Maliekal. Chennai,
University of Madras: Department of Christian Studies, 2002: 80-84.

World Council of Churches. Sub-unit on Dialogue with People of Living Faiths and
Ideologies, My Neighbor’s faith – and Mine. Delhi: ISPCK, 1988.

Woolnough Brain and Wonsuk Ma. eds. Holistic Mission: God’s Plan for God’s People.
Oxford: Rengum Books International, 2012.

Your Kingdom Come. Report on the World Conference on Mission and Evangelism. Geneva:
WCC, 1980.

203