Easter time - Christianity in India

Happy Easter to all my friends celebrating around the globe today. Easter is a time to rejoice and be thankful. 

How old us Christianity in India? St. Thomas, one of the apostles of Jesus, came from Jerusalem to the south western coast of kerala in 52AD. AND the earliest Christians in India, were Jews settled in India before the birth of christ, who later converted. Then Christianity got a boost in Portuguese, French and then British rule and can be seen in places like Goa, Pondicherry and the big cities like Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and New Delhi.

India has a beautiful and ancient multi religious culture, and this has nothing to do with western idea of tolerance and plurality.  Infact it's just opposite. It's immersion and singularity. You "tolerate" what you don't or cannot accept as your own. You be plural, when you don't see oneness.

The India I love is the place, 

Many Hindus see Buddha or Christ and even Allah as Other forms of God, just like Rama, Ganesha, Shiva. It's very easy for a average Hindu to accept other religion as theirs and celebrate with them or follow thier teachings. 

This is similar to other Asian countries like China and Japan too. You can be a Shinto AND a Buddhist etc. There is no exclusion or tolerance needed in this approach. It's called Vasudhaiva Kudumbakam, meaning the world is one family. This is not tolerance and plurality. This is immersion and oneness.

The problem arises, when (false practitioners) Abrahamic religions, insist there is only one God and one Book and its only Christ or Allah, and only Bible or Koran - and we dont accept orher gods as our own. For a civilisation like India, which peacefully embraces even foreigners with different religions and thier gods as one of thier own family, terms like conversion and proselytization are alien terms. 

Some of my best friends and classmates are Christians. I studied in Christian missionary run schools. I got operated by many doctors who are Christians. I would like to thank them all for thier generosity and wish them happy Easter.

Nash Narasimhan Tupil
17-April-2022

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