The Good of The Christian Missionaries in India

India is a vast country and all religions are home to it. The Moslems came in as conquerors and invaders and the Sikhs converted from Hindus and some Moslems. The Christians also came to India but not as conquerors or invaders. They did not come with the sword like the Moslems, but with a message of Jesus Christ. They came to spread the gospel as desired by Christ. This is the inherent difference between the entry of the Moslems and the Christians into India. As the Muslims converted with the sword, death or become a Moslem, the Christians did no such thing and did convert by plain and simple messages. Hence the number of Moslem is 100 times more than the Christians.

Not many know that the first Christian to come to India was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ, Saint Thomas. That makes it almost 2000 years back. Over the centuries many preachers and Jesuits have com to India to preach the gospel as desired by Jesus.  They have also done innumerable good things by setting up a string of schools and colleges and hospitals. Not forgetting old homes and shelters for the destitute and sick.

After 1947 however some controversy is created by resurgent Hindu organizations. They have opined that the Missionaries be sent back s they were converting people with money and other things. Perhaps there may be some truth in this, but to condemn the vast majority of missionaries is wrong and does not hold water.

I myself had my early education  in a missionary school and nobody converted me and I remain a staunch Sikh. So the allegation that these schools are converting students to Christianity is to dismissed as hogwash. What is to be appreciated is that the Missionaries went into remote areas of the Bastar region and Assam and spread education and medical services there. Some of them came from Europe and England and never went back, doing as much good as they could. It is a pity that the Hindu organizations over the last hundreds of years had no plans of reaching out to the poor in remote and inaccessible areas. Now to cry ‘foul’ is not correct.

Let us look at what the good the missionaries have done and appreciate their work.  No religion is good or bad but in case a man leaves his hearth and home to enter an inaccessible area to help though he may preach the gospel should be encouraged then condemned. In this respect the murder if Staines is reprehensible. Let us look at the positive side. The church itself now frowns on conversions with inducements and that is the step forward. I am sure the work of the missionaries will be seen in a proper light.