People Movements in the Hindu Context

Christ Movements in the Hindu World H. L. Richard

H. L. Richard (pseudonym) has invested 30 years in researching and publishing on issues related to Christian engagement with Hindus, including his doctoral work on the Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism, Following Jesus in the hindu Context (William Carey Library, 1998), r. C. Das: evangelical prophet for Contextual Christianity (SPCK, 1995), and exploring the Depths of the Mystery of Christ (Centre for Contemporary Christianity, 2005). He has lived in North India, Kathmandu, and South India.

The church growth movement and the study of how peoples turn to Christ began with observations of Christward movements among Hindus in India. India’s social system, with thousands of distinct sociological communities (mostly the various Hindu caste groups), provided unique bridges for the gospel to spread within communities, while also presenting unique problems for the gospel to cross multiple boundaries.

People Movements in the Hindu Context

The people movements that built the Indian church developed in various low caste and tribal groups on the fringes of Hindu society. The first great movement into the Roman Catholic Church in the fifteenth century was clearly politically motivated, as a caste of fishermen sought help from the Portuguese. Protestant-influenced movements began in the mid-eighteenth century. Currently India, like most of the globe, is in a period of rapid change, and protest and advancement movements among Dalit (formerly called “untouchable”) peoples are an important aspect of the ferment. Dalit movements were once rooted in the Christian movement but now encompass Buddhists and secularists as well, so the church is now part of the Dalit movement rather than vice versa.

Research sponsored by the government of India carried out in the 1980s identified 4,693 communities in India. Roughly 30 percent of these are Dalit and tribal communities, and among some of these groups there continue to be people movements towards Christ. The persecution of Christians in India is almost entirely in these settings where there are ongoing multiple conversions of Dalit or tribal peoples. In the early people movements, Western denominationalism was transplanted to India and little of India’s heritage was expressed in church life. But new missiological insights and initiatives that developed through the twentieth century have been embraced and implemented in India. Cross-cultural mission and contextualization principles are now evident in these new church movements, yet the movements remain predominantly among the Dalit peoples.

Reasons for the lack of response to the gospel from non-Dalit Hindus (70 percent of the Hindu people groups) are various and complex. One significant factor is certainly that the Indian church carries a double stigma in its witness to the Hindu world. One problem is that the church remains Western in many of its functions and appearances. Despite a powerful movement towards Westernization, Hindus feel a strong aversion towards foreign religions. The church is also deeply Dalit in its makeup so it is almost impossible for a Hindu to join the church and remain in good social standing in a Hindu home. There is a massive gap in perception and understanding between Hindus and Christians, and too few Christians have sought to understand Hindu perspectives on life and spirituality.

Diverse Teaching within the Hindu Context

Understanding Hinduism is a challenge. Academics struggle to define Hinduism, recognizing that the term itself is not indigenous to India but was introduced by outsiders. In its early use, it assumed a unity that was later found to be nonexistent; diversity upon diversity is the mark of Indian religiosity, and lumping it all under an “ism” suggests a unity that is simply not present. It is often pointed out that Hinduism is not creedal and does not have any essential belief system. Yet various branches do have distinctive theological traditions, like Vaishnavism. The largest section of Hindus, Vaishnavas consider Vishnu the supreme God and worship his avatars/incarnations as Ram and Krishna. There are dozens of “denominations” of Vaishnavas with distinctive minor doctrines.

Various efforts have been made to summarize the varying religious teachings within Hinduism. Hindus often summarize three paths to salvation: the path of knowledge, the path of works, and the path of devotion. Christians have tried to summarize Hinduism as having philosophical and popular branches. Neither of these summaries is very helpful due to the artificiality of each. Most Hindus engage aspects of all three of the Hindu paths and incorporate both philosophical and popular dimensions in their faith and practice.

Philosophical aspects of Hinduism often gain a large place in books, and the New Age movement has made some of these concepts quite familiar around the world. This type of “Hinduism” has been exported from India as a profound philosophy that leads individuals to higher consciousness. But this Hinduism is hardly to be found in India, where the worship of God (often with multiple images) is central to life.

Diverse Religious Practice within the Hindu Context

The most basic Hindu act is puja, or worship, which is central to family life in the home and also secondarily manifest in the temple. This fact points to a theistic core of most Hindu faith and practice. It is a dynamic theism that consistently affirms that finally there is only one God, yet sees myriad manifestations of that God under various names and guises. Most worship involves the lighting of lamps and incense, the offering of flowers and fruits, and chanting and singing before images of various gods. Idolatry is thus also basic to most expressions of Hindu devotionalism, and, along with caste, is the most complicated aspect of presenting Christ in Hindu contexts. Participation in idolatrous worship is clearly unacceptable in a biblical worldview; also biblically unacceptable is a scornful dismissal of what others hold dear (even idolatry), particularly when held by parents and elders to whom respect is owed. Negotiating appropriately between these two extremes is no easy matter.

The spiritual attitude most highly sought and valued among Hindus is bhakti, or devotion to God. Ritualism and superstition are both too prevalent in Hindu practice (as they are in other religious traditions as well), yet a heart of warm devotion towards God is the recognized ideal. It is true that some of the philosophical traditions highlight detachment above bhakti, and detachment from worldly concerns is a high value even in bhakti traditions. But bhakti and puja best define the religiosity of Hindu life, and spirituality is primarily a God-consciousness that feeds devotion and worship. Both this devotional attitude and the diverse pluralism of Hindu traditions contribute to the high esteem for Jesus Christ among Hindus. Sadly, many varieties of Christianity are not seen to be focused on worship and devotion. The person of Christ is often peripheral in church debates, and spirituality too easily declines into attending church once a week. In what are still considered Christian countries there seems to be no concern at all for the teachings of Jesus. It is no wonder that Hindus are not attracted to Christianity.

Too often the finished product of doctrinal and ecclesiastical Christianity has been imported to India, rather than planting the seed of the gospel among Hindu peoples to grow up in truly Indian ways and forms. Hindus often refer to dharma rather than the Western concept of religion; dharma is duty, law, righteousness, that which upholds society. The way of Jesus meshes with dharma, producing humble and productive members of families and society.

Complex Social Structure of Indian Society

When introducing the gospel in Hindu contexts, the changing sociological structure of Indian society is as important to grasp as Hindu religious attitudes. Individualism is gaining ground in India accompanying urbanization and modernization, yet Hindus remain deeply relational, and relationships are central in family, extended family, and caste community. Caste has a divisive aspect, and the theory of merit or demerit by birth is unacceptable. Untouchability is the most objectionable aspect of caste, and although currently rejected both legally and philosophically, the implications of untouchability are far from eliminated from Indian society. But caste as one’s identity and sense of belonging to a people is not fundamentally wrong or problematic, and historical efforts to break caste have not succeeded. Anti-caste Hindu reform movements (the Lingayats being a striking example) have ended up becoming castes, and even Christian denominations often function as separate caste-like communities instead of being yeast that spreads throughout Hindu society.

The majority of Hindus are members of the Other Backward Castes (OBC, an official government of India designation), a sector of society rapidly growing in economic and political power, often at the expense of the Dalit castes. Historically and presently there are signs of turning to Christ from a small number of the thousands of castes and communities that are OBC.

The so-called high castes of Hindus have dominated the socioeconomic and political story of India for centuries. A reactionary faction from among the high castes has recently risen to political and social strength, promoting Hinduism as the only legitimate religion of India, preaching and practicing intolerance towards other faiths, and seeking to stir up more moderate traditional Hindus. This is another aspect of the ferment of modern Hinduism that makes simplistic definitions and diagnoses impossible.

Hindus have migrated around the globe as leaders in business and education, most being from the high castes where the impact of the gospel has been negligible. This diaspora of Hindus has a disproportionate influence on Hindu issues due to their economic power, and their experience and understanding of Hinduism are impacted by their context as a minority among other peoples. The rich potential for sensitive witness for Christ among these Hindus has hardly begun to be explored by Christians around the world who now have Hindus in their neighborhoods and workplaces.

The Hope of Incarnational Movements

The principles of the people movements that have impacted the tribal and Dalit worlds of India remain valid for the higher caste peoples. Rather than calling individuals out of family and caste, the gospel needs to spread over the bridges of God that are present in caste communities. Instead of calling people to the finished product of Western Christianity, the good news of the power and grace of God in Christ needs to be presented in terms and forms that are meaningful to Hindus.

Incarnational communication in the Hindu world is only beginning as the legacy of the colonial era of Hindu-Christian interaction fades from memory. There is abundant reason for hope that Hindus will increasingly see that Jesus is the one most worthy of bhakti (devotion), as humble lives of devotion to Christ are lived out among them. “People” and “insider” movements need to develop in all Hindu communities, where a truly biblical faith that is also true to Hindu dharma is lived out and expressed in ways that resonate with traditional Hindu cultural forms and values. The rich diversity of Hindu cultures and communities await truly incarnational expressions of discipleship to Jesus.

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