By Jose Kalapura
Bengaluru , October 22, 2026: The Christian community in India has made a substantial contribution to nation-building, including in the freedom movement.
Though the Christian community in India was numerically small, it actively participated in India’s freedom movement since the mid-19th century, said speakers at a national seminar titled “Christian Voices in the Making of the Nation.” The one-day seminar was organized Oct. 17, 2026, by St. Joseph’s University, Bangalore.
About 300 scholars, historians, activists and students attended the seminar, convened by the Jesuit-run university’s Centre for Religion and Culture.
Christian leaders joined leaders belonging to other religions in the national struggle for India’s independence in 1947. Christian presence was substantial in India’s old political party, the Indian National Congress, which led the freedom movement since 1885, historians noted.
In the inaugural session, former Indian ambassador Pascal Alan Nazareth highlighted the key role of Christian leaders who wholeheartedly supported Mahatma Gandhi, who led India’s freedom movement.
In all the major protest movements against the British colonial government in India, Christians were actively present, the Gandhian scholar noted.
In his address as chief guest, Auxiliary Bishop Arockia Raj Satis Kumar of Bangalore said Christians prepared the national leaders of India through their educational institutions. They were the first to start modern colleges in India, which benefited members of all religious communities, he added.
Christians also contributed to nation-building through health care, social service, art, music, literature and cultural fields, said S. Japhet, founding vice chancellor of Bangalore Central University and chairman of the Karnataka Christian Development Corporation.
The vice chancellor of St. Joseph’s University, the Father Victor Lobo, pointed out that the students of St. Joseph’s College were among the many students who participated in the freedom movement.
In the two plenary panel sessions, four speakers each presented various aspects of Christian participation in the making of modern India.
“It is an undeniable fact that each community in the Indian subcontinent — Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsis — participated and sacrificed many lives on the altar of freedom struggle,” said the Rev. Jose Kalapura, a historian of Christianity in India.
However, recent discourses by agenda-based historians falsify facts, saying Christians were “anti-national” and “pro-British” because they belonged to the same religion as the British rulers, he pointed out.
Historical facts and records show that Christians consistently participated in all protest movements for freedom, such as the Swaraj Movement (1905), the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920), the Civil Disobedience Movement (1930) and the Quit India Movement (1942).
Giving a comprehensive view of Christians in India’s freedom movement, he said Christians had formed several national forums in different parts of India even before the 1885 founding of the national political party, the Indian National Congress, which led India’s freedom movement.
“They were prominent among the educated Indians who led the national movement for freedom and joined hands with the leaders of other religions in the common fight for national freedom and were imprisoned and suffered under the British,” he said.
“Even many foreign missionaries raised their voices against the cruel rule of the British and suffered imprisonment or deportation from the country,” he added.
“While the Indians jointly fought for freedom from the beginning, the British tried to divide them on communal lines in the 1920s and offered separate electorates based on religious identity,” he noted. “While Gandhi fought against this communal award, some community leaders were for it.”
So on the question of negotiating community rights in independent India, educated Christian leaders argued for joint electorates, as they were assured that under the new constitution of independent India, all religious communities, including Christians, would have equal rights, he pointed out.
Speaker Joshy Mathew, a professor of history at Pazhassiraja College in north Kerala, highlighted the contribution of Christian leaders in Kerala to the freedom struggle, and Denis Fernandes of Mangalore University highlighted the participation of Christians in Karnataka in the freedom struggle.
Other speakers on the two panels were Manohar Prasad, who focused on the contribution of Dalits and Dalit Christians to nation-building; advocate Flavia Agnes and Ruth Manorama, on women’s rights; and Prof. Babu Mathew, on legal justice for Dalit Christians.
Summing up, the Centre for Religion and Culture’s director, the Rev. Bala Kiran Kumar, said the seminar was intended to instill a sense of history of India’s Christian past and to inculcate Christian efforts at dialogue with other religions.