India: A Doubting Thomas...by law?

Indian Christians are currently being persecuted in an organized effort in India. An Indian politician has even offered a bounty on Christian clergy, according to reports. No specific denomination is being singled out as best I can read, it's across the board. Catholics are documenting this ongoing effort by both the Indian government and anti-Christian mobs within the Indian population. For those unaware, Hinduism is generally the traditional religion of peoples who have inhabited South Central Asia for many hundreds of years. Here is a link to read up on Hinduism. It is truly one of the oldest continuous pagan religions - and still very important for contemporary India.

I am not an expert on the region, but from the reports I see coming out it appears that India is trending considerably toward a Hindu-Nationalism that is attempting to boost some version of a strong traditional India. As part of that effort there are reports of formal laws either being proposed or implemented that outlaw religious conversion from Hinduism. A US agency released a report on it two years ago, here. With multiple years of reports leading to the present day, one might consider this an important variable in the geopolitical equation concerning America and what remains of Western civilization. How much of an ally or constructive partner is the Indian state to the US? Assumptions should be avoided, but perhaps the India-US relationship should receive more attention from a media ecosystem that's frozen on China-US relations. Christians in the West should take note of the rather large surge of Christian plight abroad.

India is a large ancient country that Americans frequently overlook. Maybe the American press should cover it. However, the profound ignorance and anti-intellectual aspects of the modern American elite (including legacy media) provide huge obstacles in even having the foggiest understanding of India's complexities. If the generic professional-class American thinks of India at all, then typically it's this vague notion of an exotic, mysterious place where you might get some good DoorDash take-out from and get a picture in front of the Taj Mahal. Or at one point the stereotype of the quick-stop convenience store owner. I also get the sense of a condescending elite American attitude toward Indians. A sentiment I do not share. The big university MBA class within America tend to view Indians as cheap stooges to plug and play with in economic situations. Either an ultra-cheap offshoring operation or for the skilled Indians an endless labor import commodity to fill IT and tech roles. And more recently also non-skilled roles. Press "one" for pidgin English and maybe you'll get assistance. This American managerial class uses the Indians with, at best, a surface-level understanding of the culture, motivations of the people, and history of the country. It is simply filed under box-checking and meeting the demands of the moment. Indians who become Americanized can become a great asset to the country, but for those with an axe to grind, or who simply look to exploit organizations (like is done in India so often), these immigrants can become a massive liability.

I went to both high school and college with Indians. I didn't really have any issues. They were also a small minority, and the sample size I saw was typically educated, capable, and easy to get along with. They had their own cultural characteristics (as did other immigrant groups) but, for the most part, I observed them operating well within the established American system. However, I have heard of cases in the workplace of friction resulting from Indians hating on and abusing other Indians. The abuses were real. The stratified social and religious system brought over from India did not magically stop at the American border.

As Americans, we did not really know or even care which segment of society the Indian immigrant came from. We just cared about the individual's character and skills. Old country biases can be brought over into an American-based workplace, but not everyone sees it this way. Entrenched culture doesn't just evaporate. In larger Indian transplant communities, I start to wonder how well the integration into the traditional American experiment would go. Further, we have left-wing progressives running the universities and institutions in an overtly anti-traditional way. This hurts any immigration assimilation process. I believe with the Progressive management attitude, that there is a greater likelihood of old country abuses within the USA. (I have witnessed episodes with one Indian mistreating another in an uncalled-for manner, bringing to mind the challenge of integrating people brought up in a caste system.)

Other Indian impressions have been made in the USA, too. India and Indians have had a growing reputation for scamming and fraud. For a time, I had a friend of Indian heritage send me articles on a somewhat regular basis showing corruption or financial scandals in India - it evidently is its own genre of news, like "Florida Man." If you fall out of favor there, it can apparently be cutthroat. The scamming and fraud epidemic has now become unavoidable within the USA. India is one major contributor to this epidemic. It puts a sour taste in many Americans' mouths regarding their view of India and the Indian people. Scams have moved from a nuisance into near-daily harassment for much of America, and have had an actual negative effect on the US economy.

Under the traditional American view (influenced by Christianity), it was thought bad to scam people because it was objectively wrong. It was a harm to the scam victim and a harm to one's own soul and integrity. This was part of our high-trust society. There was the shame and stigma of being a "bad" person, too. However, this viewpoint is not universal. In other countries and cultures, if a person scams you, then that's YOUR fault, not the scammer's. Scamming itself is thought of as just a daily activity. In addition, if one pulls off a successful fraud, then this can be viewed as a praiseworthy skill, not intrinsically immoral. In traditional middle America, we tend to take things for granted. Multiculturalism in the literal sense means that starkly different cultures exist in proximity. So your mode of operation might be totally incongruent with another's and vice versa. This concept is evidently too exotic and abstract for those who chant "Diversity, Diversity, Diversity," without giving any deeper thought.

I would like to now move back to the topic of Christianity and the history of India. Thomas was one of the 12 original Apostles of Jesus. According to Christian history, following the events of the Book of Acts, the early Church was formed and the Apostles went out into the world to share the Gospel. I find it ironic that the Apostle most famous for his doubts was the one who likely traveled the farthest in service of the Church. Thomas made it all the way to India. Having success where Alexander the Great failed, Thomas, as a vulnerable lone man, brought Words rather than an army with the aim of conquest. Thomas was martyred after apparently having a bit too much success in building the church in India. He upset the apple cart of power there, allegedly converting members of the governing family. Now, nearly 2,000 years later, there are still authorities in India looking to kill the Word, not only with violence but with the age-old prohibitions.

And yet there is still to this day an ancient, resilient Christian community within India, founded by Thomas himself. Do you doubt it?