Protestant Education in India

Abstract

This survey of Protestant education in India begins by tracing the history of the Gospel of Jesus Christ being taught, starting with the apostles Thomas and Bartholomew, and highlighting the Tranquebar, Serampore, and Calcutta missions of Ziegenbalg and Plutschau, Carey, and Duff, respectively. The impact of these missions included successful translation of the Bible into native Indian languages, curtailment of savage practices such as infanticide and sati (burning the widow on the funeral pyre of her husband), and the establishment of Christian colleges. Duff’s efforts in particular encouraged the British Parliament to westernize the Indian educational system, enacting the recommendations of Wood’s Dispatch of 1854. This in turn facilitated the expansion of Protestant Christianity in India during the second half of the 19th century. Also in the 1800s, the first efforts to provide formal education for Indian women occurred as the result of Protestant missionaries and reformers. Moreover, caste and gender discrimination has gradually softened as a result of Protestants teaching and practicing the Christian doctrine of respect for all humans. Contemporary Protestant education efforts in India are detailed, beginning with the key role played by Christian families, and augmented by the Church and her ministries. The wide variety of Protestant denominations advancing in the subcontinent has necessitated cooperative ecumenical unions, such as the Church of South India, the Church of North India, and the Indian Pentecostal Church of God, and joint ventures in education, such as those of the Assembly of God Education Society, the Asia Theological Association, and the Association of Evangelical Theological Education. The rapid growth of Christianity in India has encountered numerous obstacles, many of which are linked to the unfortunate perception by natives that conversion entails rejection of all Indian culture. Protestant educators thus are challenged to present the Gospel in ways that are free of unnecessary Western encumbrances. Other difficulties faced by evangelical teachers are the tendency of the majority religion Hinduism to subsume all other religions, and the popularity of religious pluralism. The Yeshu Bhaktis typify the tendency of many Indians to accept part but not all of Christianity, and to refrain from public acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as Lord. Political opposition to Christianity as a “non-Indian” religion is fomented by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.