Replies

As the article says "That apart, sustained educational levels have led the Christians to a better economic status in India. According to the NSS Report, 47% of Christians in urban areas and 38% in the rural areas come within the top third of monthly earning categories, much ahead of Hindus (24%) and Muslims (20%)."

now, you need to factor in the following:
1. Christians are a small % of India's population -- 2.5 to 3%. That is still 30 to 40 million people, but small in a nation of 1.2 billion.
2. The Christians value education: they teach their young at least up to a bachelor's degree.
3. Christians also get in contact with English, Portuguese, Latin etc. and can communicate with the West, Russia, S.America etc. more easily due to this shared part-culture
4. They treat their women well and women's education is en par with men -- net result, if the mom is a college grad, it's more likely that the kids will be too

All of these contribute to a higher income -- it's far more likely that the better English speakers you hear when you get your next call from India IS Christian.

Finally, many of the upper-class hindus in urban areas were brought up in Christian schools, probably attended mass and visit churches, they are pseudo or even cultural-Christians -- many be even be Christian in beliefs and everything but in name, so the idea of Christian persecution would be abhorrent to them as well, hence the rejection of the BJP.

Christianity in India is also very ancient dating back to the 1st century AD(the first Christians were probably Jewish converts converted by St. Thomas (doubting Thomas, the apostle) who came to the Jewish community in Kerala (and this community probably dated back to 100 BC at least) and also extremely varied -- those Christians converted by St. Thomas were Syrian Orthodox Christians or Malankara Christians or Syro-Malabar Catholic Christians. THen you have Roman Catholic Christians (the largest in terms of numbers). Then, Anglicans, etc. (clubbed as CNI or CSI). And, of course, the North-east is completely Baptist.

I’ll have to take your word for all this - or, at least, the word of that article, which I looked through. I’ve actually spent rather a lot of time in India, and have to say that none of this comports with my own observations. However, I haven’t been all over - just up north - so I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of the Indian cultural “scene.” Moreover, I’ve never in my entire life met an Indian Christian anywhere, in any capacity; no doubt because - statistically, at least - they’re extremely rare.