² See, for example, Roberts, J. (ed.), Caste in its religious and civil character opposed to Christianity (London 1847), p. 22.Google Scholar

³ As in Europe, both these churches were socially conservative. In his Social Teaching of the Christian Churches, E. Troeltsch draws a distinction between sect and church type of religious group, which differ in their attitude to social reform. He considered both Lutheran and Catholic as church type which tended to be quietest in social and political questions.

⁴ It is, however, invidious to single out particular missions. Almost every missionary society played its part. For work among the ‘criminal tribes’, the crown must go to the Salvation Army.

⁵ Holland, W. E. S., The Goal of India (Edinburgh 1920), chapter 6.Google Scholar

⁶ Census of India, 1921, vol. III, pt. I, p. 61.Google Scholar

⁷ Quinquennial Review of the Progress of Education in Bihar and Orissa, 1922–27, p. 110.

⁸ See, for example, the comments of the Census of India, 1911, vol. v, pt. 1, p. 401.Google Scholar

⁹ Native pastors, 34; catechists, 447; pandits and boarding school masters, 87; female teachers, 24; doctors and medical attendants, 7; trained nurses, 2; government servants, 209; clerks and sub-overseers in municipal offices, 9; railway employees, 37; skilled artisans, 110; also, in the same year (1909), there were 15 aboriginal candidates for the ministry. Roy, S., The Mundas (Calcutta 1912), p. 257.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Pickett, J. W., Christian Mass Movements in India (Lucknow 1933), p. 149.Google Scholar

¹¹ Selections from memoranda and oral evidence by non-officials, Indian Statutory Commission, vol. 16, p. 440.Google Scholar

¹² The Baptists provided the Karens with their first national flag, the Bible and the sword. Mason, H., Civilising Mountain Men (London 1862), p. 262.Google Scholar The political nature of the response to Christianity owes something to the fact that the Protestant sects emphasized the Old, rather than the New Testament. The example of the people of Israel was not lost on the Karens.

¹³ Franda, M. F., ‘The Naga National Council’, The Economic Weekly, 02 1961, p. 155.Google Scholar

¹⁴ This was partly accounted for by the limited but important conversion of the Brahmins in the nineteenth century, particularly in Bengal, and the large and successful Christian community in Travancore-Cochin.

¹⁵ The proportion of various communities, per 10,000 of population:

¹⁶ Report of the Fourth Session of the All-India Conference of Indian Christians (1917), p. 15.

¹⁷ In 1929 both of the nominated representatives of the community in Bihar and Orissa were Indian Christian ministers. A Khasi Christian, the Rev. Nichols-Roy, was also elected as Member for Shillong and became Minister for Local Government in Assam under the Reforms. He was to survive to become one of the leading spokesmen of tribal interests in the Constituent Assembly.

¹⁸ The Development of Representative Institutions in the Madras Presidency since 1920 (Madras 1928), p. 41.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Of the twelve aboriginals elected to the District Board in Ranchi, half were Christians. The general success of the tribes in the two districts of Ranchi and Singhbhum, both locally and in elections to the Legislative Council, was the result of the work of a tribal Christian organization, the Unnati Samaj.

²⁰ Report of the Committee appointed in connection with the Delimitation of Constituencies and connected matters, Cmd. 5089, 1936.

²¹ Rev. Edwards, J. F., ‘India's face set towards prohibition’, National Christian Council Review, 03. 1938, p. 230.Google Scholar

²² Proceedings of the National Christian Council (1936–37), p. 18.

²³ ‘This ceaseless bribery has nothing in common with the religion which aims at saving the soul’. Radhakrishnan, S., Eastern Religions and Western Thought (Oxford 1939), p. 323.Google Scholar The term proselytism came increasingly to be used in this derogatory sense. Hodge, J., ‘The Charge of Proselytising’, National Christian Council Review, 09. 1939, p. 475.Google Scholar

²⁴ National Christian Council Review, January 1932, pp. 28–9.

²⁵ ‘I believe that there is no such thing as conversion from one faith to another in the accepted sense of the term.’ Gandhi could never credit either the statistics or the sincerity of the Christian missionary achievement. Gandhi, M., Christian Missions and their place in India (Ahmedabad, 1957), p. 144.Google Scholar The Congress Resolution on Minority Rights in 1937 referred only to the freedom to profess and practise, not to propagate.

²⁶ For Christian reactions, see the report on the Bangalore Conference in National Christian Council Review, July 1936.

²⁷ Asirvadam, J. D. and others, ‘Our duty to the Depressed and Backward Classes. An Indian Christian statement’, London Missionary Society, India Subject File 14, Depressed Classes.Google Scholar

²⁸ Bhatty, E. C., ‘The economic background of the Christian community in the United Provinces’, National Christian Council Review, 09 1938, p. 497.Google Scholar

²⁹ For an account of these developments, Rev. Weller, K. F., ‘Religious Liberty in some Indian States’, National Christian Council Review, 03 1946.Google Scholar

³⁰ This particularly became an issue in Travancore following the temple entry proclamation. Similar attempts at discrimination in British India were frustrated. The changing conditions of Hinduism and the improving facilities for the Depressed Classes did much to check the movement of conversion. Rev. Goodall, N., Report after a secretarial visit to India, Sept. 1937-April 1938, p. 48.Google Scholar

³¹ See, for example, ‘Christian missionaries—we do not want them any more: An Arya Samaj statement’, International Review of Missions, 07 1937, p. 396.Google Scholar

³² The rate of expansion of public education in this period far exceeded that of mission schools. Laymen's Foreign Missions Inquiry, vol. IV, p. 308.Google Scholar

³³ Report on Public Instruction, Assam, 1939–40, Resolution on Report, pp. 1–2.

³⁴ Mackenzie, J., ‘The Conscience Clause’, National Christian Council Review, 04. 1929, p. 199.Google Scholar

³⁵ Resolution re Religious Instruction in schools, Proceedings of the Legislative Council, United Provinces, 1921, vol. III, p. 794.Google Scholar

³⁶ In 1945 the State of Travancore decided that grants should be denied to denominational schools on the grounds that such grants were a breach of religious neutrality. National Christian Council Review, Oct. 1945, p. 165.

³⁷ Gandhi, M., Basic Education (Ahmedabad, 1951), p. 70.Google Scholar

³⁸ The constitution does not describe India as a secular state, and an attempt to incorporate the word secular failed. Constituent Assembly Debates, vol. VII, p. 399.Google Scholar

³⁹ Smith, D., India and the Secular State (New Jersey, 1963), p. 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁰ Luthera, V. P., The concept of the Secular State and India (Calcutta, 1964), p. 146.Google Scholar For a different view, see Smith, D., op. cit.Google Scholar

⁴¹ This was finally effected by the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders (Amendment) Bill, 1956.

⁴² Constituent Assembly Debates, vol. III, pp. 480, 496.Google Scholar

⁴³ See, for example, Ratilal v. State of Bombay, All-India Reporter (Bombay, 1953), p. 242.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Christians constitute 52·9 per cent of the population of Nagaland. Census of India: 1961: Religion. Paper No. 1 of 1963, p. xi.

⁴⁵ Some important examples of this tendency ate the Hindu Code Bill, and public policy in relation to Hindu Endowments. The constitution in Article 25 in fact provides for a substantial degree of State regulation of Hindu religious practices.

⁴⁶ ‘…pictures of the gods adorn every state bus and every government office. Hindu festivals are public occasions, often with official speakers, and many temples are kept up at public expense as historic buildings. Hindu mythology has been discovered by the film industry…’ Grant, J. W., God's People in India (London, 1959), p. 28.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Devanandan, P. D., The Gospel and Renascent Hinduism (London, 1959), p. 12.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ The figures of Scheduled Caste converts to Buddhism have been phenomenal. In Maharashtra the Buddhist population rose from 2,487 in 1951 to 2,789,501 in 1961. Census of India: 1961, op. cit. p. viii.

⁴⁹ Report of the Christian Missionary Activities Inquiry Committee (Nagpur, 1956).Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Minz, N., ‘The impact of traditional religions and modern secular ideologies in the tribal areas of Chota Nagpur’, Religion and Society, 9, 4 (1962), p. 51.Google Scholar

⁵¹ In re Thomas, M., All-India Reporter (Madras, 1953), p. 22.Google Scholar

⁵² On reconversion to Hinduism, for example, a former Christian convert from the Scheduled Castes requalifies for all the concessions granted to the Scheduled Castes.

⁵³ The subject was fully discussed in the debate on Buddhist converts in 1961. The government argued that non-Hindu untouchables could not claim concessions on the grounds that other religions do not recognize caste, and that it would inject casteism into Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. Lok Sabha Debates, 1961, vol. LV, col. 14497.Google Scholar This fails to take into account the Sikh attitude to caste, and the fact that untouchability is a result of the conduct of caste Hindus.

⁵⁴ This charge has been made on a number of occasions. See, for example, the debate on the Thirteenth Amendment Bill. Lok Sabha Debates, 1962, vol. VII, col. 4539.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ See, for example, State of Bombay v. Bombay Education Society, All-India Reporter, Supreme Court, 1954, p. 569.

⁵⁶ In re Kerala Education Bill 1957, All-India Reporter, Supreme Court, 1958, p. 981.

⁵⁷ For an account of the difficulties facing Christian education in India, see Sadiq, J. W., ‘Present Day Problems and Opportunities in Christian Secondary Education’, National christian Council Review, 12 1951.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Report of the University Education Commission, vol. I (Simla, 1963), p. 303.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ It is now the general practice in basic schools for all pupils to take part in daily worship, which includes the reading of scriptures from various religions. Religion and Society, 4 (1954), p. 71.Google Scholar Article 27 of the constitution does not prohibit the teaching of religion in general, in state schools.

⁶⁰ It was suspected in Christian circles, however, that in laying particular emphasis on the campaign for temple entry, Gandhi was motivated less by a desire for social reform than by a determination, for political reasons, to retain the untouchables within Hinduism.

⁶¹ National Christian Council Review, May 1960, p. 174.