Dr Ram Puniyani, staunch secularist and activist that he is, has painted a lucid picture of the present political scenario, with specific reference to the Minorities in India. I have been asked to speak on our Christian Response to the same. Before I go to my presentation I place before you a few facts, figures and myths.
After the elections to five State Assemblies the media hype would have us believe that the real winner is the BJP; and the death knell has been sounded for the Grand Old Party – the Congress. This is a myth, for the facts and figures are to the contrary. From the data published in The Week (29/5/16) we find that of the 824 seats that were up for grabs, the maximum number of 211 was won by Mamta’s TMC. Jayalalithaa’s AIDMK came a distant second with 138 seats and the Congress was a close third with about 135 seats. This was followed by 127 to the LDF, 89 to the DMK and a mere 64 to the BJP! So the facts differ from the myth.
From the foregoing we see that of the two major protagonists, the Congress and the BJP, the former won 16% of the seats, and the latter just 8%, or less than half of what the Congress won. Sure the BJP vastly improved its tally and wrested Assam from the Congress, but it can hardly be termed the emphatic victory that the BJP, aided by a pliant media, seeks to project. The real pity is that that the Congress itself is unable to counter the propaganda, the media myth. The Grand Old Party could verily be renamed the Greatly Obfuscated Patrimony.
Now let us move to another myth – conversions, so blatantly hyped, especially in the first year of Modi rule. It probably waned after a rap on the knuckles by buddy Barak Obama. The Hindutva brigade cried itself hoarse about mass conversions, and orchestrated some Ghar Wapsi (home coming) spectacles. Then came a selective release of data from the Census 2011, which clearly showed that the Christian population of India has remained static at 2.3% since 1971.
Why have the previous UPA and the present NDA Govts not released the entire religion wise data of the Census 2011? What are they hiding or afraid of? Let the truth be out, and be addressed accordingly. A recent selective release showed that 31% of Hindus had child marriages, which was even more than the Muslims at 30%. So let us go by facts, not myth. In the absence of data from Census 2011 we have to fall back on the Census 2001 (see tables).
We find that the Population Growth Rate (PGR) for the 40 years from 1961 to 2001 is 134%. The Christian PGR at 124% is 10 percentage points less than the national average. Andhra Pradesh (even before the bifurcation of Telengana) has actually seen a negative PGR of –17 percent over 40 years. Andhra has a high percentage of Dalit Christians. Does this mean that vast numbers of them have apostatized, because they can’t get Govt benefits as SCs? Is this not concrete proof that rather than Christian “missionaries”, it is the Govt “machinery” that is indulging in conversions through fraud and inducement? Christians in Bihar came down drastically, but that is because of the formation of Jharkhand.
TABLE A – Population Growth Rate from 1961 to 2001 (40 years)
| Category | 1961 | 2001 | % age Growth | 1961 %age of Pop | 2001 %age of Pop | %age point change |
| All Religions | 439,234,771 | 1,028,610,328 | 134 | |||
| Muslims | 46,940,799 | 138,188,240 | 194 | |||
| Christians | 10,728,086 | 24,080,016 | 124 | |||
| Christians in Delhi | 29,269 | 130,319 | 345 | |||
| Christians in Bihar | 502,195 | 53,137 | -89 | |||
| Population of Goa | 626,667 | 1,347,668 | 115 | |||
| Christians in Goa | 227,202 | 359,568 | 58 | 36 | 27 | – 9 |
| Christians in Andhra | 1,428,729 | 1,181,917 | -17 | |||
| Population of Kerala | 16,903,715 | 31,841,374 | 88 | |||
| Christians in Kerala | 3,587,365 | 6,057,427 | 69 | 21 | 19 | – 2 |
What warrants serious attention is the status of Christians in Kerala and Goa, the two States with the oldest Christian communities. The PGR of Christians in Kerala at 69% is just about half of the national average, and in Goa, at 58%, it is just 43% of the national average. As a result, the percentage of the Christian population in Kerala has dropped from 21 to 19, and in Goa from 36 to 27. It is anybody’s guess that the Census 2011 (if and when revealed) will show a continually decreasing trend. From the Christian perspective it is an alarming picture of Ghar Khali (empty churches) rather than Ghar Wapsi. Are we becoming an endangered species like the Parsees and the vultures? Let us move to the next two tables.
TABLE B -Proportion in Age Group (0-6 years)
| Category | Percentage |
| All India | 15.9 |
| Muslims | 18.7 |
| Christians | 13.5 |
| Christians in Goa | 9.6 |
| Christians in Kerala | 11.2 |
The population in the age group 0 – 6 years is indicative of population growth. Again, against the national average of 15.9 percent, among Christians it is 13.5 percent, and in Kerala/ Goa even less at 11.2 percent/ 9.6 percent. This establishes that we Christians are following Responsible Parenthood, and not breeding like rats. A plausible reason for this is the much higher literacy rates among Christians, particularly women, as evidenced in the next table.
TABLE C – Literacy Rates (in percent)
| Category | All | Female |
| All India | 64.8 | 53.7 |
| Christians | 80.3 | 76.2 |
| Christians in Goa | 83.8 | 78.8 |
| Christians in Kerala | 94.8 | 93.5 |
On the negative side is the Category of Workers (occupation or source of livelihood). 58 percent of Indians are occupied with the land. In contrast 44 percent Christians are so occupied and in Kerala/ Goa it is a mere 24 percent/ 11 percent. Are we drifting away from being sons of the soil? The occupation “Others” I presume, refers to the service class. Here again as against the national average of 38 percenrt Christians are a high at 53 percent, which goes up to 74 percent/86 percent in Kerala/ Goa.
Does this indicate that the Christians of India lack skills, land and entrepreneurship? Are we a salaried service class, content with working for others? I see this as a major weakness in the Christian community, even in well-established societies like Kerala/ Goa. Are we just happy looking for jobs in MNCs/ BPOs/ KPOs etc? While looking for a match for my daughter on shaadi.com it was pretty obvious that all “qualified” Catholic bachelors belonged to the salaried class. I see this as a fault line in the Christian community. The sections of society that have a major impact on public life are the ones involved in agriculture or entrepreneurship. I see this as a major drawback in the demographic profile of the Christians of India.
TABLE D – Categories of Workers (in percent)
| Category | All India |
Christians |
Christians in Goa | Christians in Kerala |
| Cultivators | 31.7 | 29.2 | 4.8 | 12.8 |
| Agricultural Labourers | 26.5 | 15.3 | 6.6 | 11.2 |
| Household Industry | 4.2 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 2.5 |
| Others | 37.6 | 52.8 | 85.4 | 73.5 |
While at the point of demography and conversions, the so-called “Freedom of Religion Acts” in various States are actually anti-conversion laws aimed at the Christians. Though the earliest was enacted over 60 years ago in MP, there has not been a single conviction under these Acts.
In Christianity conversion should never be an act of inducement or fraud (terminology used in the aforesaid Acts). Rather it is an act of love, which attracts. Let me tell you a little parable. A tourist went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. He was impressed and shared the photos on WhatsApp with his family. He then ate some Petha (ash gourd preserve), for which Agra is equally famous. It was delicious. His thoughts flew to his son back home. He bought some to share with him. He couldn’t keep something so wonderful all to himself. This experience is encapsulated in this Hindi phrase that I have coined, “Baap khaya Petha, yaad aaya beta”. So evangelization is an act of love, to share with others the Amrit that I myself have tasted.
I will touch on just one more point regarding our Response – the Respondents. I will here restrict myself to our representatives/ spokespersons on TV debates. Be it the CBCI, or the couple of laypersons that sometimes appear, they seem to be very dogmatic in their utterances. It is almost as though they are looking over their shoulders to receive a “shabaash” from their ecclesiastical masters. Many of them seem ignorant of the Church’s teaching on delicate issues. They are also not camera friendly, so critical in a media driven age. This despite the CBCI running a communications institute like NISCORT in the Capital. It does not seem to have produced a single national level Communicator.
In contrast, look at the media savvy BJP. At the risk of sounding sexist I must state a reality. They invariably have Shazia Ilmi (wearing all her war paint) or Saina NC as their spokespersons on TV shows. Nirmal Sitharaman was also a regular before she became a Minister. Even the relatively rustic TMC used suave Derek O’Brien’s command over the English language to forcefully project their views. Mumbai and Delhi are the media hubs. We urgently need to identify TV friendly spokespersons that are properly briefed, to project the views of the community and its stand on sensitive issues of faith and morals.
They need to be equipped with facts and figures, in order to counter the various myths, disinformation or malicious propaganda that the present political dispensation (fakes and phekus) seem to excel in. Satyamev Jayate (Truth shall prevail) doesn’t happen automatically. We have to make it happen.
(The writer is a former National President of the All India Catholic Union)