When European powers began to colonize the subcontinent in the early 1500's, Nestorian Christians were already scattered along India's southeast coast - especially in Goa and Kerala. They were referred to locally as "St. Thomas Christians"; although whether or not the apostle actually founded the church there is uncertain. They still exist today in Kerala in the form of 1.8 million Syrian Orthodox. When the Portuguese settled in Goa in 1510, one of their first orders of business was to convert the Nestorians to Roman Catholicism.

A Bishopric was established in 1534, and the Portuguese administration offered military protection from Muslim raiders to Nestorians who converted. As news of the tens of thousands of baptisms taking place reached Europe, a wave of Catholic Missions was initiated which included Francis Xavier. Xavier worked in Goa for five months, concentrating on the city's three prisons and its hospitals. Moving from Goa to the Coromandel Coast, Xavier translated the ten commandments and the Lord's Prayer (along with several Roman prayers) into pidgen Tamil and proceeded to baptize 10,000 converts in his first month.

While the Catholics were the only major force for missions in India for well over a century, their influence eventually died as a result of events in Europe and corruption in the church hierarchy. For most of the 1700's, missions were actively encouraged only in the small Danish colonies of Tranquebar and Serampore. Under the Danish Halle Mission, the first Lutheran missionaries left for Tranquebar in 1706 - Heinrich Plutschau and Bartholomaes Ziegenbalg. Both learned Tamil quickly and worked at scripture translation, eventually completing a Tamil New Testament. Ziegenbalg spent four months in an English prison as a result of his work. Plutschau returned to Europe in 1711; Ziegenbalg, after making at least 350 converts in his last year of ministry, died in Tranquebar in 1719. The Halle Mission continued for another 120 years.

While Anglican clergy existed for the care of British citizens, British Missions in India didn't begin until near the end of the 18th century; even then it was on Danish soil. William Carey, being denied permission to work in Calcutta, was forced to remove himself in 1799 to the nearby Danish colony of Serampore. (Missionaries were finally allowed restricted access to British India in 1813 and unrestricted access in 1833 - the year before Carey died.) Carey worked in evangelism, education, scripture translation and social reform, along with William Ward and Joshua Marshman. They translated portions of the Bible into no less than 36 languages, and established two important principles in Protestant missions: the equality of missionaries and new converts, and that missions should strive to be self sustaining.

Besides seeing British India open to Missions, one of Carey's greatest triumphs was the outlawing on British soil of Sati - the Hindu practice of burning widows on their husband's funeral pyre.

With an opening in 1813 of British India to missionaries, an American wave of missions began with a group of newly ordained ministers in Salem, Oregon. Gordon Hall is thought to have be the first American in Bombay. Shortly after his arrival he was followed by Samuel Nott and Samuel Newell to the first mission station for the American Baptist Missionary Union. The three of them were accompanied by Luther Rice and Adoniram Judson. Judson went on to British Burma, and Rice returned to the United States to advocate for missions. In 1815, after only three years in the city, Nott left because of health problems. Newell died of cholera in 1821. Hall died in the city in 1826. Together they translated the New Testament into the Marathi Language and opened Bombay to Missions.

The first half of the twentieth century also had its share of outstanding missionaries to India. Mary Reed arrived in India in 1885. After a brief illness, she was sent to the Himalayas to recover at a leper colony. In 1890 she returned to America on furlough and was diagnosed as having leprosy. She returned to India and worked in the leper colony until she died in 1943. Amy Wilson Carmichael arrived in South India in 1895 after 15 months of service in Japan. Her primary focus for ministry was children. In 1931 she was crippled ads the result of a broken leg and began to write devotionals.

Today, India hosts about 900 expatriate Christian workers. Between 2.5% and 4% of India is nominally Christian - about 20 to 30 million people. In 1986 the Indian Churches were estimated to have sent out about 4,200 Indians as evangelists, and church planters. This has increased significantly since that time, and major church planting work is being done among many of India's unreached people groups.

© Copyright 1997
Bethany World Prayer Center
This article (which first appeared in "Frontiers Focus" Vol 1 #3, and is used by permission),
may be copied and distributed without obtaining permission
as long as it is not altered, bound, published
or used for profit purposes.

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