Christianity becomes the majority religion in india

TFSmith121

Banned
Liberation theology?

How can Christianity become the majority religion in India under British rule?

Liberation theology?

Christianity - particularly a robust, muscular Protestant "mere Christianity" in a dissenter tradition (Methodist? Presbyterian? Baptist?) - as an alternative for the lower castes, including the "untouchables," to get ahead in a much more "British" Raj (i.e. no princely states, at least not any Hindu ones).

The point is that to overturn Hindusim, one needs a HUGE economic dynamic to take people away from a faith with incredibly deep roots, both in terms of social organization, philosophy, politics, economics, etc. in South Asia as of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries.

Accomodations with the smaller faiths - Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, even the Parsi and Jewish communities, and the animists - recognizing them as something very "different" than Hinduism will be necessary.

Then you need what amounts to a crusade against the varna system, notably the Brahmin and probably the Kshatriya castes as well. They you need the British to set aside the color line, which is going deep into ASB-land by the Nineteenth Century.

And you probably need a lot more "British" or at least European emigration to India...

Even then it would be really, really, REALLY difficult, I think.

Very different world than our own, of course.

Best,
 
By no means am I an expert on the subject, but I would think it would take the Brits bringing in Wilbert the Trusty Alien Space Bat or one of his fellow Extraterrestrial Chiroptera for that to happen. The British would have to bring in a lot of British (or other christian) colonizers to bring more influence for Christianity to the region and/or majorly decimate the native population, like with what the Europeans did to the Americas where the settlers conquered and displaced the Native Americans. Even the Muslims who conquered India didn't make Islam the majority religion.
 
Actually, you don't need a POD in British rule, all you need is St. Thomas the Apostle to convert more people. He went strait to India after Pentecost, and he established a group of Christians that actually survived to this day.
 
Actually, you don't need a POD in British rule, all you need is St. Thomas the Apostle to convert more people. He went strait to India after Pentecost, and he established a group of Christians that actually survived to this day.

Who aren't a majority anywhere in India. (St. Thomas' I mean)
 
True, but if he had been more successful, then we would have a different story on our hands.

But how successful could he be? India is huge, he may, and that's a big may, be able to convert one region, but no one man can convert the entire subcontinent. And there is a reason that he failed, even back then the local religions were deeply entrenched, even if against all odds he fully converted a region, his followers would have just as much difficulty spreading Christianity to other parts of India.
 
But how successful could he be? India is huge, he may, and that's a big may, be able to convert one region, but no one man can convert the entire subcontinent. And there is a reason that he failed, even back then the local religions were deeply entrenched, even if against all odds he fully converted a region, his followers would have just as much difficulty spreading Christianity to other parts of India.

And problem is that early Indian Christian commune hasn't any connection to Europe or even to Ethiopia. Ethiopia remained as Christian nation just because Muslims respect Ethiopian Christian because ECs gave asylum for early Muslims. But there not be any reason or way how Christian community in India could survive and Hindus and Muslims was more.
 
And problem is that early Indian Christian commune hasn't any connection to Europe or even to Ethiopia. Ethiopia remained as Christian nation just because Muslims respect Ethiopian Christian because ECs gave asylum for early Muslims. But there not be any reason or way how Christian community in India could survive and Hindus and Muslims was more.

Ethiopia remained Christian because it was never conquered by Muslims and because it has a very strong Christian tradition in its culture.
 
I think any POD needs to be very early before the Rise of Islam. There's a lot of factors against Christianity becoming the dominant religion, but if you are more interested in writing an intriguing story than plausible means to achieve it, it can be easily done.

The biggest problem is the plurality of existing religions in India. Multiple forms of Hinduism, Buddhism in both its Theravada and Mahayana variants, along with others like Jainism. This is a very crowded religious marketplace, and the indigenous karmic aspect of Indian religious tradition is another barrier.

Another factor is that India is very far from the cult center of Christianity. The eastern Mediterranean could serve as a source for additional missionaries and inspiration in both Rome and Persia, but is too distant from India. Ideally, there needs to be a much closer source of ongoing missionary activity. A more pronounced Church in Persia could be it, but it would take a few centuries before that could happen. Another possibility is that the leader of one of the earlier Indian coastal states converts early on and makes his realm a source of ongoing Christian patronage so that some part of the western coast becomes heavily Christian and therefore could influence the rest of India.

In any case, it needs early and ongoing patronage if it is going to be anything more than another weird, minority sect. So pick some local kingdom whose king is intellectual or spiritually curious (or simply impressed by the new religion for some reason) and supports it, and it somehow becomes institutionalized.

After the rise of Islam happens, it is simply too hard. Even European colonization in the 17th century or later is probably just too late for Christianity to become the majority religion. That didn't even happen with Islam. I believe Christianity needs a long time to percolate to have any hope of dominance.
 

Deleted member 67076

What if Christianity takes off in Persia and from there spreads into India with the backing of the Shahanshah?
 
Actually, you don't need a POD in British rule, all you need is St. Thomas the Apostle to convert more people. He went strait to India after Pentecost, and he established a group of Christians that actually survived to this day.

The story of St. Thomas coming to India and converting people is disputed nowadays. There is no proof of a disciple of Jesus coming to India and that too to far south like Kerala in the first century of CE. The story says that St. Thomas converted some Brahmins to the Christianity at that time. There is not much chance for it, as there were no Brahmins in Kerala at the time. Brahmins came to Kerala later. Before the arrival of Brahmins, Buddhism is said to have dominated in Kerala.

Christianity might have reached Kerala and South India through ports like Muziris. Muziris, a few miles north of present day Kochi was the most important port on the Western coastline of India in the first millenium of the CE, frequented by the Greeks, the Romans and the Arabs. The Christians, the Muslims, the Jews and the Zoroastrians, came to India along with the trade in the western coast ports. The port of Muziris is said to have been destroyed by some natural disaster like a tsunami in the beginning of the second millenium.

The arrival of Brahmins and the ascendancy of Hinduism led to the decline of Buddhism in Kerala. Remember that Shankaracharya who led a spiritual crusade against Buddhism was a Kerala Brahmin. The Brahmins who were steadfast in their enmity towards Buddhism didn't have much idea about the foreign religions confined to the coastal areas near ports and hence didn't give much attention towards those cults. Many Buddhists who were forced to leave Buddhism and who didn't want to go with the Brahmins turned towards Christianity and Islam. The places of Buddhist worship was called "palli" in Malayalam. Later churches and mosques came to be called as "pallis". Today the churches are called 'Christian pallis' and the mosques are called 'Muslim pallis' in Malayalam. The forefathers of Christians and Muslims in Kerala (about 45% of the total population) must be the Buddhists.
 
Magically stop all the other European nations from arriving to India and the Portuguese Inquisition would partially do the job. Majority is tough, though.
 
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