Are Indian Christians intellectually lazy?

By M K George

Rome, Sept 4, 2022: The inspiration for these reflections came from an article by Hilal Ahmed in which he was describing what ‘BJP can teach Congress.’ He said, ‘Political success comes from ideas, not intellectual laziness.’ (Times of India 29.08.2022)

Would it be that success in Christian Mission also needs ideas and not just divine assistance alone? Intellectual laziness can be a major hurdle in the Mission entrusted to Christians to be a light on the mountaintop, and a leaven in the world. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Mt. 5. 14-16)

Let us begin with the current reality. Christian Mission is at a crisis point. Direct evangelization work is almost impossible with the number of ‘Anti-Conversion laws’ in India. Eight states have such laws sweetly named as ‘Freedom of Religion’ bills. ‘Additionally, the Himachal Pradesh (2019) and Uttarakhand legislations declare a marriage to be void if it was done for the sole purpose of unlawful conversion, or vice versa. Further, the states of Tamil Nadu (2002) and Rajasthan (2006 and 2008) had also passed similar legislation (PRS 2020). (EPW, ISSN (Online) – 2349-8846).

Educational ministries are becoming increasingly difficult because of the New Education Policy, which in effect have practically abolished the minority rights and will make it difficult for the Christians to run educational institutions for the poor. Running commercially, viable institutions will still be a possibility, but serving the poor will become at best a difficult proposition and at worst impossible.

Further, there are so many agencies coming on conducting brilliant schools, including those by businesspersons and politicians that one wonders whether Christians should any more run such institutions. I remember once Justice Kurian Joseph remarking that Christians should no more open schools in the urban areas.

Running of rural dispensaries has become very difficult or near impossible because of the stringent rules and requirements by the government. Hospital industry is growing at such an alarming speed, and one should be ready for severe competition and high rates of investment, which unfortunately very few Christian institutions can afford.

Social activists are being targeted so aggressively and incarcerated in dozens; cases are filed in thousands that many would hesitate to enter the field of social action. One cannot easily forget how even charity works done by Mother Teresa sisters are attacked and forced to close down.

Foreign contributions for Christian Mission are so much curtailed and under surveillance, that many projects for the extremely poor are stopped or reduced in scope. Local resource mobilisation has not become a culture and the sufferer is the poor and needy.

Reviewing India at 75, Debasish Roy Chowdhary argued that in India global democracy is dying (NYT 26.8.2022). He added, ‘…a deeper and much older hindrance to the development of a healthy, resilient democracy has been India’s historical failure to ensure the welfare of its poorest citizens. Hundreds of thousands of children die each year from hunger, and more than a third are stunted even as Indian billionaire’s race up the global wealth charts’.

How do all these affect the Christian Mission?

These indeed are the points of an intellectual search, analysis and understanding. Unfortunately, not even the priests and religious, the elite of the Christian churches, seem to be up to the task of studying, understanding and communicating on major issues that affect the country and the Church.

Let us take for instance the issue of ‘forced conversions’. ‘The view that mass conversions are affecting the preponderance of Hindus in the country is a factoid rather than a fact. According to the data available from Census, the size of the Christian community relative to the country’s population has either been static or been on the decline since 1971. The 1971 Census estimated that Christians accounted for 2.6% of India’s population. By 2001, this figure dropped to 2.3%. While the religious composition of 2011 Census figures has never been released, leaked data has shown that there has been a further decline in the size of the community.’

Even the educated and tolerant Indian citizen tends to believe the hyperactive publicity by vested political and fundamentalist forces on conversion as the major issue in the country. Why do the Christians not engage in an exercise across the country and come out with specific data in every area of the country? Or for that matter, why does the Constitutional freedom to profess and propagate be looked at? India is a secular country. Being secular, the Constitution of India guarantees every citizen the right to profess, practice and propagate any religion of his or her choice. Moreover, citizens also have the right to manage religious affairs guaranteed under Article 26 of the Indian Constitution. However, none of these applies to the minorities in India today. Why aren’t Indian Christians studying such issues, creating awareness and generating a dialogue with at least those people who are willing to listen?

Recently, Justice D Y Chandrachud remarked that public intellectuals have “a duty to expose the lies of the state.” He added that democracy needs the power of truth to survive, and as such, one can consider ‘speaking truth to power’ as a right as well as the duty of every citizen in a democracy. He recalled the Gandhian philosophy of ‘satyagraha’, where truth is used as a form of non-violent resistance to those in power.

It is time that Indian Christians shed their intellectual laziness. They have a call to speak truth to power, in the model of their Master, Jesus.

“If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” (John 18, 23).