India became independent from Britain in 1947 and is the world's largest functioning democracy. The Hindu nationalist party is in power. Many in India fear an intolerant Hindu dictatorship.
Over 1 billion people live in this country which is the spiritual home of Hinduism. 96% of all Hindus live in India and the whole country is divided into the Hindu caste system. There are over 6400 different castes. Because of social barriers each functions as a separate group.
The constitution provides for full religious freedom of worship and witness for all religions. However, there was a hate campaign against Muslims in the early 1990's and against Christians in the late 1990's. Many are demanding anti-conversion legislation and legal restrictions on Christian activities. Some states have such legislation and condone violence against Christian workers. India is 29th in the world on the persecution Index. It has been 200 years since the Baptist missionary William Carey was there.
Religion breakdown: 80% Hindu; 12% Muslim; 2.5% Christian. There are 44000 missionaries from India and 1000 missionaries to India.
600 million in India live in deep poverty. Another 300 million do not have enough to live on day by day.
Primary races are Indo-aryan (75%), primarily north and central Asia. This is composed of 94 languages. The Dravidian race (23%) is located primarily in the south with 23 main languages. The Sino-Tibetans (1%) have 80 languages and the Austro-Asiatic have 16 languages. Literacy is at 62% with functional literacy much lower. However, India is no longer the world's least literate society.
The official language of the Union is Hindi which 66% speak. 19% speak English.
The economy of India is primarily agricultural but rapid industrialization and urbanization is taking place. The country is now also a nuclear power and is a world leader in computer software development. The average annual income in India is $370
Challenges:
- India has more people groups with no Christians or churches than anywhere else
in the world. - 41 million Indians have no home and many of these live in the slums
- Half the children live in poverty and many are sold into slavery to pay off their parents debt
- There is a great need for translators in India. The whole Bible is available in 53 languages; The New Testament is available in 42 languages. Portions of the Bible are being translated into 108 languages. 1449 languages do not have any Scripture.
- 100,000 Indians find out about Jesus daily through the Jesus film
