LAND, PEOPLE AND LANGUAGE

When the Christian faith first made contact with the Indian sub-continent, the peoples of that area had already had a long experience of life – political, intellectual and religious. It is against this background that the story of Christianity in India has to be displayed.

The sub-continent enjoys a startling variety of scenery and climates, from the highest mountains in the world to the flat Gangetic plain, from the freezing climate of the high mountain valleys to the perpetual summer of Kerala, from the stark dryness of the desert to the exhausting humidity of Bengal.

It might seem that nature intended the great peninsula to be cut off from human habitation. The long coast-line can boast of only one first-class harbour, Bombay, though there are many smaller havens and roadsteads adequate to the needs of the small ships of past ages. A mountain chain almost unbroken for two thousand miles places formidable obstacles in the way of the traveller. The matted jungle of the eastern frontier poses no less serious an impediment to immigration.

Yet from very ancient times human beings have found ways to overcome the obstacles. The spade of the archaeologist has revealed the presence of human beings in the palaeolithic and neolithic ages; some of the present day inhabitants may be descendants of these ancient peoples. In consequence of these invasions continued over many centuries India is a land of many races belonging to at least five different stocks.