CHRISTIANS IN INDIA HAVE LONG, HONORED TRADITION IN HISTORY.Byline: Barbara Crossette Barbara Crossette (born 12 July, 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American journalist and instructor in journalism. She was Southeast Asia bureau chief and later United Nations bureau chief of The New York Times from 1994 to 2001. The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times The death of Mother Teresa has thrown a spotlight on India's Christian minority, which has played a long and significant role in the country's spiritual and intellectual history. Although European missionaries and their American counterparts were very active in the country in the century before Indian independence in 1947, they did not bring Christianity to India. Indians believe that St. Thomas the Apostle St Thomas the Apostle, Judas Thomas or Didymus, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. The Synoptic Gospels and Acts list this "twin" (Toma means twin in Aramaic, as does Didymus landed on the western coast of south India South India is a commonly used term that is used in India to refer to the South-of-India or Southern India. The Southern part of the Indian peninsula is a linguistic-cultural region of India that comprises the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the in the first century, following Jesus' exhortation to ``go forth into the world and teach all nations.'' According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. legend, he was assassinated as·sas·si·nate tr.v. as·sas·si·nat·ed, as·sas·si·nat·ing, as·sas·si·nates 1. To murder (a prominent person) by surprise attack, as for political reasons. 2. by a Hindu and is buried in Madras. The descendants of the earliest Indian Christians Politics
Roman Catholicism was introduced much later, in the 15th and early 16th centuries by the Portuguese. Protestantism was brought by missionaries in the age of empire. All across South Asia - especially in what is now Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka - Christians established the leading schools, colleges, hospitals and medical schools. Among these Christian educational institutions, still regarded as the best in India, is Calcutta's Loreto Convent School, where Mother Teresa's body lay in state last week. By the late 19th century, the impact of Christianity led some Hindu reformers to take new looks at their own religion, and several new Hindu-based movements emerged, among them the Brahmo Samaj and the Ramakrishna Mission, which became active in welfare and educational work. In a tribute Saturday to the contributions Christians have made to India, especially here in the Bengal region, The Telegraph newspaper of Calcutta recalled the work of missionary scholars who regularized and enriched Bengali grammar and encouraged writing in the Bengali language. In an editorial titled ``Hallowed Be Thy Name,'' The Telegraph said that missionary work - now Indianized, since conversion by foreigners is not permitted - had become more of a career than the kind of calling that drew the early priests and nuns. ``In some ways it is a harsher world than the one in which the foreign missionary, Bible in hand, braved malaria and trudged the Bengali countryside to teach the meek that they would inherit the world,'' the paper said. ``Mother Teresa belonged to that old school,'' it added. ``Her passing leaves her flock in a more cynical world.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, blesses Mother Teresa with incense during her funeral Mass Saturday in Calcutta. Associated Press |
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