The spectral presence of Christians in Indian politics | john Dayal

by John Dayal

There are hardly any Christian MPs and MLAs in India other than those elected on a political party ticket from Kerala, Andhra, Telangana, West Bengal, Karnataka, Goa, Orissa and the tiny-population north east states of Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal and Manipur.

There are almost none in the Hindi states of the Central and northern parts of India. The exception are a very few Adivasis of the Chhotanagpur contiguous belt. The total number of ministers in the Union and state governments must be at its lowest in history.

The vanishing Christian voice in a land where it has sustained itself for two thousand years is a caused of deep worry. This, naturally, must worry the leadership of the Christian community, but it must equally worry those at the highest echelons of governance for its huge implications for the political future and empowerment of the community in the country.

This takes on an urgency in the context of special investigations of electoral rolls and other electoral challenges, the decreasing birth rate of the community, the deliberate exclusion of Dalit Christians from seats reserved for Scheduled Castes, and the threat to the Scheduled Tribe status of Christian