The Oriental Orthodox thread mentioning the Malankara church in India got me thinking. Despite the native Malankara church and the Catholics each having a presence in India for centuries – and the Anglicans and other Protestant groups being around for quite a while, too – how has Christianity remained such a small presence in India, despite the massive population?
I stumbled across an article from the Malankarans (https://archive.is/CEruY):
>“To understand India, you have to understand the Casteism, the Caste System,” [said] Metropolitan Mor Coorilos…Even though the Caste System is now considered illegal by the country’s own constitution (and it has been for several decades), the Castes are embedded very deep to the culture, the daily life, the people’s minds and in Hinduism. As Metropolitan Mor Coorilos stated, to oppose the Caste based society is to oppose Hinduism. If you don’t believe in the system, you are not Hindu.
>It is said that Orthodoxy was brought to the land by St. Thomas, disciple of Jesus Christ and a humble fisherman. This view has been tested and challenged by the academics and thinkers, but certain is that the first Christian influences arrived to the country in the very first centuries AD. Because of this origin the Orthodox tradition in India is Syrian and it is part of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. As a minority in a country where majority of the people are Hindu and where attitudes against other religions have increasingly hardened and even come hostile, the Orthodox Church has created itself a place among the people and the system. Metropolitan Mor Coorilos named this place to be a Myth. According to the myth, when St. Thomas arrived to India, he chose to convert only from the upper class. This would mean that all the Orthodox Christians in India are the descendants from the upper class, the Brahmins [~5% of the population]. This creates kind of balance, that has offered a chance to co-exist mainly peacefully next to the Hindu Caste system.
>Unfortunately, this has also had an exclusive effect on the church. It is the main reason why the church has not been active on the Missionary field, because that would mean opening the door for the Dalits and an indigenous people called Adivasi, who are together considered the lowest group of people in India. This is a situation that Metropolitan Mor Coorilos is actively trying to change…Many consider Metropolitan Mor Coorilos to be very unorthodox in his activities. His Eminence is convinced that if the Christian churches would have been more active in their mission to help the downcast and persecuted, India would be greatly more Christian society today.
If this is true, castes have been interfering with Christian activity in India since Day one. Did St. Thomas really make such a colossal error in judgement, only converting from the upper classes of Indian society to ensure that the church would survive?
More below on how this has affected other churches.