Answers to Prayer

1 Praise God for Christianity's two millennia in India since the arrival of the Apostle Thomas

2 The 200 years since William Carey, the great Baptist pioneer, have been remarkable

3 Praise for continued freedom for Indian Christians to proclaim the gospel despite efforts to limit this through intimidation and persecution

4 Persecution in the 1990s has refined the Church, focused its vision and brought a greater unity of purpose than ever before

5 Praise for the flowering of Indian Christian leadership – with world-renowned Christian apologists, theologians, preachers, writers and mission leaders during the last two decades

6 The dynamic growth surge of Indian mission agencies and church-based mission initiatives from south and northeast India

7 The increase in effective grass-roots research during the 1990s

Geography

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Area 3,166,000 sq.km. A further 121,000 sq.km. of Kashmir is administered by Pakistan and China.

Population (2000) 1,013,661,777 +1.66%AGR

Capital Delhi 11.3 million.

Peoples

The racial, ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity together with the caste system complicates any analysis of the population.

Castes

Races and Languages

Forward castes (FC) 15.4%; Backward castes (OBC) 56.6%; Scheduled castes or Dalit (SC) 18.1%; Tribal or Adivasi (ST) (580) 9.5%; Other 0.4%; Indo-Aryan 75.3%; Dravidian 22.5%; Austro-Asiatic 1.13%; Sino-Tibetan 0.97%; Other 0.1%.

Literacy 62% (44% in 1981). Functional literacy much lower. No longer the world's least literate country. Official languages Hindi (language of Union, 66% speak it); English (legislative and judicial language and language of wider communication, 19% speak it). Scheduled languages 18. All languages 1,652 (1971 census). The SIL Ethnologue lists 407 living languages.

Languages with Scriptures 53Bi 42NT 40por 68w.i.p.

Economy

Predominantly agricultural with 64% of the labour force, but rapid industrialization and urbanization is taking place. HDI 0.545; 132^nd/174. Public debt 22% of GNP. Income/person $370 (1.2% of USA).

Politics

Independent from Britain in 1947.

Religion

India's constitution provides for full religious freedom of worship and witness for all religions.

Churches in India

Missionaries from India

over 44,000 in 440 agencies of which 60% are working cross-culturally in India, 440 in foreign countries.

Expatriates to India

approx. 1,000 in 184 agencies.

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