By Isaac Cullum, Juicy Ecumenism.
In June, a mob of Hindu nationalists brutally attacked a group of Protestant Christians in the Eastern Indian state of Odisha for resisting pressure to convert to Hinduism. Such instances of persecution have become more common as Hindu nationalism has increased in popularity.
In 2023, India surpassed China as the most populous nation on the planet. Despite its size, India has been largely untapped by Christianity, its majority population associating with Hinduism. The current state of Christianity in India is challenged by significant Hindu opposition.
Christianity first came to India in the 1st century through the missionary efforts of St. Thomas the Apostle. The historic Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church based in Kerala, India, traces its origins to this early visit. Christianity has survived there across nearly two millennia but without massive growth. As of 2021, the Pew Research Center reports that Christians make up only 2.4% of India’s 1.4 billion population.
The first documented European missionaries to India were Portuguese Jesuits in the 16th century. Since then, there has been a consistent western missionary presence in India. The most famous of these missionaries were William Carey, “the father of modern missions,” in the late 1700s and Mother Teresa in the mid-to-late 1900s.
Despite concerted missionary efforts, it has proven difficult to reach those in India with the gospel message. Hindus make up 79.8% of India’s population and Muslims make up 14.2%. The remaining 6% of India’s population are Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, or Jains.
Religious conversion of any type is exceedingly rare in India. In their 2021 survey, Pew Research Center found that over 99% of the population remains in the religion they were raised in. When conversions do happen, they end up canceling each other out. Hinduism specifically gains as many as it loses. For example, 0.7% of respondents were raised Hindu and now identify with another religion. At the same time however, 0.8% of respondents were raised in a different religion and now identify as Hindu.