How do Christians and Hindus relate to each other in the Vellore Area?

There are many different answers to this question!

• In the towns Christians and Hindus work together and live next door to each other without any problems. Often they are very good friends and will share happy family occasions together.
• In the villages it is often only people from the lowest castes, or dalits, who have become Christians - this means that Christians will not be invited to visit high caste Hindus' homes. Christian homes should be open to anyone.
• Some Hindus enjoy coming to Christian services although they are not believers; this is especially true at festival times. Some Christian services are even attended mainly by Hindus - for example there is a healing service once a month at Central Church which about 40 Hindu women come to and pray for healing. Christians do not normally visit Hindu temples - although they will join Hindu friends for special family occasions such as weddings.
• Christians feel it is important to help the poor whatever religion they belong to - all church schools, hospitals and all the different social and medical projects are open to everyone. Most of the people who are helped are Hindus because Hindus are more numerous in the country.
• Sometimes militant Hindus attack Christians. In Chittoor a few Hindus entered the local Christian hospital where they tore down the Christmas decorations and beat up the workers. The Christians of the town staged a silent protest march - they were joined by many Hindu friends and politicians. The local senior official, the Collector, then punished the hospital's attackers.
• When government or state grants are given out, for example to run hospitals or to educate dalits, Christians are not eligible to receive the funds. This sometimes means that the very poorest Christians will deny their faith so that they can be eligible for grant money.
• Although there ae church schools and state schools it is possible for Christians to work in state schools and Hindus in church schools. In any kind of school the majority of pupils will be Hindu.
• Christians may not always be fairly treated in the law courts.   Here is an example: imagine a group of Christians buys some land to build a church, and when the building is almost finished the statue of a Hindu god mysteriously appears in it overnight.  The Christians cannot touch the statue, because the Hindus who put it there will immediately attack them for showing such disrespect to god.  What will happen if they go to court to ask for the statue to be removed?  The most likely answer is that there will be a long and expensive court case and the end result will be that the Christians are told the land belongs to the god who has chosen to move there.  It is actually cheaper for the Christians to give up after the statue has arrived, and go and look for a new building site straight away!   This story may sound a bit far-fetched, as the same thing would not happen under English law – but this scenario has occurred more than once in Vellore Diocese – in fact the bishop himself actually lost some of his garden in the same way!
• Since 1998 there have been a number of newspaper reports about Christians being attacked, even murdered, by Hindus.  The story which everyone remembers is when the Australian missionary Graham Stains and his young sons were burnt to death, but Indian Christians have suffered also.  Most of the worst stories come from North India, and, of all the churches, the Roman Catholics have been the most affected - however, problems occur everywhere.  It is certain that some Indians are hostile to Christianity because they see it as a way in which foreign outsiders are trying to influence the politics of India – they assume that charities which support the education or health of the poor are buying the people’s faith and turning them against the government.  It is true that in the past many different missionary societies and charities did support hospitals, schools and institutions.  If you look at the names of some of the institutions in Vellore Diocese you can immediately tell that they were founded by Americans or Europeans: Beattie; Scudder; Voorhees.  When you visit places like these in the main office you will often see photographs of the principals who have run the institutions – the first photographs are always of foreign missionaries and the latest ones of Indians.  Nowadays Vellore Diocese receives very little support from abroad – all the different institutions you see on these pages are self-supporting.