To the Least of These

Millions of Dalits Renouncing Hinduism Give India’s Church Historic Opportunity

To take the Great Commission seriously we must take India seriously.

I’ve been to almost sixty countries and no nation pulls at me like India.  With over one billion people, this ancient land of contrasts is both a rapidly emerging economic superpower and one of the poorest countries on earth.  India is a nuclear power where cattle roam the streets, a democracy that denies basic human rights to millions of its most defenseless citizens.

History indicates that Thomas, after experiencing Christ’s resurrection firsthand, risked his life and eventually was martyred as he planted the gospel in India.  The litany of those who have invested their lives for India comprises a missionary ring of honor.  Among the notables: William Carey, Amy Carmichael, E. Stanley Jones, Mark Buntain and Mother Teresa.

Thomas saw significant success for the gospel among the cultured and wealthy.  With the advent of British and American missionaries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, however, the church focused almost exclusively on the lower classes.  Despite heroic missions efforts Christians in India stalled at only around three percent of the population until recently.

But something amazing has happened in the last twenty years.  Millions are turning to Christ.  When I first went to India in 1981 there were few if any large local churches.  Today many megachurches dot the landscape and they’re multiplying rapidly.  Behind the scenes, knowledgeable missiologists believe the percentage of evangelical Christians in India now may at eleven percent or even higher.  This astounding spike in numbers of Christians in less than a quarter century is unprecedented.

Tragedy and Triumph

Such a rapid, large embrace of the gospel comes at a price.  As churches have grown so has hostility.  The brutal murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons in 1999 was denounced by most Indians.  Radicals, however, seemed emboldened by this terrorist act.  In the past Hindus were perceived as tolerant, even passive.  Now their accommodating “live and let live” mantra is often supplanted by vicious assaults against Christians.  In 2002 a Campus Crusade for Christ worker was stabbed to death.  Pastors are beaten and their families threatened.  Those who preach God’s love in Christ know they are risking their lives. “We are recording a new case of violence every 36 hours,” reports John Dayal, general secretary of the All India Christian Council (AICC).

Such vehemence belies a panicked weakness by a diminished Hinduism as the new India shows ever-increasing signs of a colossal spiritual shift.  Backlashes against India’s virile church include anti-conversion laws (in confusing contrast to the guarantee of religious freedom in India’s constitution), violence against Christians, desecration of churches and loud calls for mass re-conversions to Hinduism.  Indian Christians are often caricatured as traitors and unpatriotic.

Instead of defending Christian victims of violence, the former government’s response was to call for a debate on conversions.  The insinuation was that so many conversions are the reason for these attacks.  But it is the gospel itself that is displayed in dazzling juxtaposition to ancient religious strongholds.  Joseph D’sousa, president of the AICC, observed, “Typically the persecution of Christians in India has been about the compassionate reception Christians are commanded to give to those who are oppressed, violated and dehumanized.”  It is Christians who are feeding the poor, educating the masses and caring for the sick in striking contrast to Hinduism’s paralysis in the face of need.

While response to the gospel has been thrilling, the immensity of the task remains daunting.  Some 455,000 villages in India do not have a single church.  The largest cluster of unreached people groups in the world is in northern India, where there is only one Christian worker for every 472,000 people.  One could easily despair in view of such immense challenges but we must take the long view.  The biblical hope that infused William Carey should hearten us too.  “Though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith, fixed on the sure Word, would rise above all obstructions and overcome every trial,” Carey wrote.  “God’s cause will triumph.”

This battle for the hearts and minds of twenty-first century India is played out every day.  The stakes are high.  Extreme Hindus would even like to rename India “Hindustan,” inferring that there is no place for religious minorities.  What they call “cultural nationalism” is, according to one Christian leader, “a direct acquisition from Nazi nationalism.”  But in this case, the despised ones are not the Jews but the Dalits – India’s untouchables.

The Gospel to the Poor

One in every four persons in India is a Dalit, which means oppressed or crushed.  Hinduism has debased them with the dogma of karma and the cultural chains of the caste system.  This inhumane system divides people into four main groups: Brahmans (priests and teachers), Kshatriyas (rulers and soldiers), Vaisyas (merchants and traders) and Sundras (workers).

The Dalits are beneath all these groups – outcasts from even the lower rungs of society.  These 250 million people aren’t allowed to enter upper-caste houses, temples or fields.  As literal untouchables they can’t even draw water from village wells.

Although the 1950 constitution of the newly independent India officially abolished Untouchability, sanctioned oppression continues on a broad scale.  Mohandas Gandhi, while sympathetic to the plight of the Dalits, urged a continuation of the caste system fearing that its abolishment would cause calamitous upheaval.  “Fifty years after independence, caste prejudice and discrimination continue as a persistent disease,” D’sousa lamented.

Finally, on November 4, 2001, millions of Dalits had had enough.  Their cry for dignity could no longer be squelched.  There was a mass defection from Hinduism at a rally in Delhi attended by 100,000 oppressed people.  Gospel for Asia’s K. P. Yohannan and other Christian speakers expressed solidarity with the Dalits and declared the love of Christ and of Christians for them.

Sadly, the exaggerated hopes for “up to a quarter million baptisms in a single day” were widely touted by a few America-based ministries.  This triggered a stern reaction from India’s government.  Fearing mass conversions to Christianity, rally permits were rescinded and hundreds of thousands blockaded from attending.  Still, masses renounced Hinduism that day in what had to be the largest exodus ever out of a religion.

Dalits who become Christians continue to suffer.  Under present laws they could lose even the menial rights they may have had previously.  Recently a case went before India’s Supreme Court to legally determine whether discrimination can be made on the basis of one’s religion.  The government’s counsel has tried to get the case dismissed so that legalized discrimination can continue.  The hearing has been deferred to a later date.  “The church worldwide must understand this is not a passing fad,” warns John Gilman, president of Dayspring International.  “Those who receive Christ in this context will likely face persecution and further oppression until this 3000 year old bondage is shattered.”

Many mission leaders believe if the government-endorsed sanctions against Christian Dalits are lifted, as many as 35 million formerly Hindu Dalits will declare their allegiance to Jesus Christ.  This would be one of the most astounding evangelistic victories ever.

As in Jesus’ day, the poor have the gospel preached to them and they receive it gladly.  Every Home for Christ has blanketed India at least three times with gospel tracts.  Operation Mobilization, Dayspring International, Christ for India, Gospel for Asia and other ministries are witnessing throngs of people responding to Christ.  The ministry I serve, Global Advance, has trained thousands of Indian leaders to plant churches among the yet unreached.

An astonishing 113 million have seen Dayspring’s life of Christ film, Oceans of Mercy, produced with all Indian actors.  Close to nine million people have prayed to receive Christ at the film showings!  Along with Campus Crusade’s Jesus film 70 of India’s 407 living languages now have access to the gospel on the screen.  “When villagers see Jesus whipped and nailed to the cross, they realize that God doesn’t despise them, that they’re not sub-human and that they are loved,” Gilman says.  No wonder Mark Buntain called Oceans of Mercy the greatest evangelistic tool ever for India.

India’s Time

Millions of former Hindus are now in a spiritual vacuum.  People cannot long remain in a religious “no man’s land.”  Without large-scale evangelism now, millions could turn quickly to Buddhism or Bhooshaiti, a new-age style spirituality that deifies mother earth.  Islam, as well, is training thousands of its own preachers targeting the Dalits. 

Dalit leaders are pleading with the church in India, “Tell us about your Jesus.  Teach us your scriptures.”  Two-thirds of India’s Christians come from a Dalit background.  Thanks to the power of the gospel, throngs have broken free from the chains of untouchability.  Their transformed lives defy the fatalistic Hindu assertion that one’s lot in life can’t be altered.  They are truly born again.

There are clear steps we must take now to seize the current unparalleled opportunities for the church in India.

Mobilize prayer for India in general and the Dalits in particular. A global coalition of prayer for the conversion of millions of Dalits will bring staggering results.

Redouble evangelism in this season of reception. The recent surprise victory of a national political party more favorable to Christianity underscores that India’s time for spiritual harvest is now.  Christians worldwide should seize this day, partner with India’s churches in fresh evangelistic initiatives within the Indian context and plant thousands of churches among the Dalits and unreached peoples.

Lift the hopes and futures of the Dalits. D’sousa contents that “the Dalit cry for empowerment through quality Christian English-based education has to be heard by the worldwide church.  Jesus has given us education as the weapon of the weak.”  It is almost exclusively Christians who have created education opportunities for Dalits, both children and illiterate adults.  Jameson Titus, president of Christ for India, says, “We have dedicated our lives to help change the plight of the Dalits and raise them out of the cycle of poverty through literacy and vocational training in the love of Christ.  There is an urgency to reach this 25 percent of the Indian population as never before.”

Recently over seven hundred Dalits in a remote village sat on the ground to watch the story of Jesus.  At the invitation 65 knelt down in front of the screen where they had just seen Jesus high and lifted up.  They waited for Dayspring team members to lay hands on them and pray for salvation, healing and to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Gilman recounts that “to the backs of these new believers was a four foot high stone altar on which the temple priest regularly sacrificed animals for the sins of the villagers.  But now precious souls were on their knees receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  The giant screen acted as a cleansing divider between them and their former idolatry.  I have never seen a more awesome sight – new babes in Christ with their backs to the altar of idolatry now being washed by the blood of the Lamb!”

God’s cause will indeed triumph.

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David Shibley is president of Global Advance, a ministry that has provided on-site training for thousands of church leaders in developing nations.  The Center for Evangelism and Church Planting he founded in India trains hundreds of leaders each year.  He has traveled to India 28 times and helped establish one of the nation’s largest Bible schools.

Sources:

Books and Booklets:

Joseph D’souza, Dalit Freedom – Now and Forever (Dalit Freedom Network: 2004)

John Gilman, Freedom Cry (Dayspring International: 2004)

What is the Dalit-Bahujan Emancipation Movement All About? (All India Christian Council / Dalit Freedom Network: 2005)

Websites:

www.dalitnetwork.org

Press Statement:

“Supreme Court Hearing on Dalit Christians Adjourned Until Mid-February 2006,” Dalit Freedom Network (www.dalitnetwork.org/Press%20Statement).  Accessed February 14, 2006.

Articles:

“Quitting Hinduism: ‘Untouchables” find new dignity in Christian faith,’” Christianity Today, December 9, 2002.

“Blockbuster Evangelism,” Christianity Today, December 2003.

The Global Villager (Dayspring International: Special Edition)

Tim Stafford, “India Undaunted,” Christianity Today, May 2004.

Tom O’Neill, “India’s Untouchable,” National Geographic, June 2003.