Thursday, October 30, 2008

India, Inc.

Our Changing World Part V

Much has been written about “US jobs going overseas.” Usually the context of this observation is negative – it’s seen as only a downer for our economy. However, as Christians, we can rejoice that hundreds of thousands of poor people in other countries are benefitting from these job exports –people made in the image of God are climbing out of abject poverty and moving towards self-sufficiency and basic prosperity. And trust me, they know and appreciate that these jobs are coming from America, which means they are more open than before, to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ, which they often associate with America.

Nowhere has this move towards basic prosperity been more dramatic than in the cities of India. And the cities of India are HUGE – imagine a skyline not that much different that Denver’s, with an urban “sprawl” about the size of metro Denver’s, but with a population of 20 million people!
Welcome to New Delhi, India. International flights pour in and out of their airport as if on a conveyor belt, and modern domestic flights (with Boeing jetliners) will whisk you out into the interior. Yes, you can take a train, but India is huge – the seventh largest nation by land mass, and second only to China in population (with a little more than a billion.) India’s economy ranks 4th in the world in “gross domestic product,” but with that vast population, a more revealing figure would be their ‘per capita income” which is 165th – that’s way down the poverty scale.

Still, India, Inc, (the slang term for their burgeoning globalized economy) is booming. When I was there two years ago, the English language papers were filled with ads that said, “If you can read this ad, we have a job for you!” Most of those jobs paid way less than $10 per hour, but in India, that’s an upper middle class salary!

So, other than having a bunch of new jobs, courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue, why is India so important in our changing world?

First, because of its recent history. Prior to World War Two, India was still a British Colony. Under Mohandas Gandhi and other leaders, independence finally came in 1947. As a “non-aligned” nation during the cold war, it was courted by Russia, who supplied much of India’s military needs. India is not a part of NATO, nor the European Union, although they were a founding member (and very active) with the UN.

Second, it’s military: India is arguably the third largest military on the planet, behind the USA and Russia.
Third, it’s resources. Per Wikipedia, “India has also become a major exporter of software as well as financial, research, and technological services. Its natural resources include arable land, bauxite, chromite, coal, diamonds, iron ore, limestone, manganese, mica, natural gas, petroleum, and titanium ore.”
Fourth, they are finding innovative uses for their large pool of educated, English-speaking people. They “export” medical and computer personnel all over the world. Their newest ting: “Medical Tourism.” British health insurance companies will buy their members two round trip business class tickets to India, have a limousine take them from airport to hospital, where their surgical needs are met by doctors trained to the same standards as British doctors – but all this at a fraction of the cost! Imagine flying to Delhi for a hip replacement, complete with a side trip out to the Taj Mahal.
Fifth, and finally – because of their spiritual openness. India IS a sub-continent full of Hindus, and it is surrounded by Muslims. Christians represent only a small percentage, but are active and growing. The ancient “caste” system is still in place, but recently, a vast move among the “Dalit” class (the untouchables) has set off alarms among the other religions. But hey, why be an “untouchable” generation after generation if you can come to Christ and be “upgraded” to first class right away! So they’re coming. People from the working classes also, who have gained access to the internet, and to cable TV, are gaining information about the Christian faith in ways that are hard for opponents to block.
What happens in the next ten years in India, in terms of people coming to Christ, could change not only that country but the world. Yet the task is formidable – foreigners (like me) are barred by law from preaching. Many of their thousands of “people groups” (ethnicities with their own language, customs, etc) still have no thriving church, or scripture in their own language. But the ancient land has come into serious contact with the new world, and there’s no turning back.
I’m glad that Bear Valley has a long term partner there, Brother Abraham, who operates a number of schools and churches in a part of India where Christians are very few. We also have one of our own families living there, among a group of people who are completely without a church in their culture. Yet a third partner, a single lady, is working in an orphanage and hopes to begin an adoption ministry. In the days to come, our involvements will only increase, and I’m sure that more short-term teams will go from BVC, to this vital and strategic land.

2 comments:

D. Gudger said...

I didn't know it was illegal to preach there - is Christianity illegal? Is the church underground?

Red Center said...

We in America tend to take our freedom of religion for granted. That is how we have lost other freedoms.