Throughout history, whether East or West, the Christian gospel has been a powerful ideological force for social transformation.

Whether we consider the renewal of native languages and cultures, the emancipation of women and slaves, the protection and care of newborn babies, the rise of modern experimental science, the affirmation of the dignity of even the most destitute and degraded of human beings, the church has stood out—despite its many betrayals of the gospel—as a movement deeply subversive to the status quo.

Even socialism and liberal democracy can only be understood properly against their Christian roots. Not surprisingly, wherever conversion to Christ has threatened the vested economic status or political interests of power blocs in society, the missionaries and local converts have been bitterly opposed.

Consider the Indian subcontinent, by way of illustration.

The concern of people like William Carey (1761-1834), the cobbler from Northampton who made India his home, to educate Indians in the vernacular languages of India was opposed both by the Orientalists who championed the classical languages of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic for Indian learning, and the Anglicists who wanted to transform India through English education.

Carey's printing of Matthew's Gospel was the first prose literature in Bengali. By compiling Bengali grammars, translating the Indian classics from Sanskrit into Bengali—so that ordinary men and women, and not just the pundits or scholars, could read them—Carey and his fellow Serampore missionaries paved the way for the mid-nineteenth-century 'Bengal Renaissance'.

Carey's breadth of vision was rooted in the global reach of the gospel. He provided schools for women and Dalits, an asylum for lepers, persuaded the British officials to outlaw such social evils as infanticide and widow-burning, pioneered forestry projects in Bengal and became one of the founding members of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India. Little wonder that Rabindranath Tagore called Carey the 'Father of Modern Bengal'.

The impact of Christians, whether indigenous or missionaries from Western lands, on Indian society cannot be assessed by numbers alone. The radical and unprecedented social and religious changes witnessed in nineteenth-century India were quite out of proportion to the number of converts made or churches established.

The idea of disinterested service which missionaries and indigenous Christians provided was unique. It is easy to understand charity for the sake of achieving religious merit or as an inducement to religious conversion.

But that charity and social betterment should have no other motive than love itself—this was an alien notion. Hence the suspicion with which any Christian initiatives in social welfare and social action are viewed even today by intelligent Hindus and Buddhists in Asia.

As Richard Young, a historian of nineteenth century missions in South Asia, notes:

Historically it can be argued that until Protestant Christianity arrived in South Asia the organizational infrastructure for expressing disinterested benevolence was almost entirely lacking…it might be said that the wheel of social change in South Asia has a Christian hub and a Buddhist-Hindu rim.

This is a history largely suppressed in secular and Hindu/Buddhist histories of the Indian subcontinent. The missionary movement is routinely dismissed as an adjunct of the colonial powers. Indigenous Christians are vilified by militant Hindu and Buddhist organizations as agents of Western neocolonialism. Tribal Christians in many parts of India are subjected to severe coercion from Hindu organizations, often with overt political support, to 'reconvert' to Hinduism. These tribal peoples have never been Hindus, but have followed their own primal religions.

Until the advent of Christian missionaries, native or foreign, they were illiterate and thus easily exploited by ruthless caste Hindus with the connivance of the local police. Tribal peoples inhabit rich forest areas, and their timber and other natural resources have traditionally been bought at grossly undervalued prices.

Once converted, the tribal groups learn to read and write. They are encouraged to stand up for their civil rights and to resist their exploitation. Hence the persecution they suffered today, a persecution which (like the rabble-rousing Democritus of Acts 19) is disguised in the self-righteous rhetoric of 'protecting our traditional cultures'.

Source: Vinoth Ramachandra 'Conversion and Opposition', 237-39. In Howard Peskett and Vinoth Ramachandra, The Message of Mission. Delhi: Indian SPCK and Chennai: Mylapore Institute for Indigenous Studies, 2003.

Capetz, Paul E. 2004. The First Commandment as a Theological and Ethical Principle 174-92,
in William P. Brown (editor), The Ten Commandments: The Reciprocity of Faithfulness.
London: Westminster John Knox Press 2004, shows why the 10 Commandments have always held a unique place within Judaism and Christianity as "an especially concise summary of God's will for human life".
Mangalwadi, Vishal, The Quest for Freedom and Dignity: Caste, Conversion and Cultural Revolution. Mumbai: GLS 2001, is brilliant, blunt, and brutal. No one says it better.
For an unnoticed notice of the good news' impact on India, see Burton Stein, A History of India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press 2002, 239-83.
Joseph Runzo, Nancy M. Martin and Arvind Sharma (editors), Human Rights and Responsibilities in the World Religions. Oxford: One World 2003, airs the core opinions.
Jerome J. Shestack, The Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights 31-66, in Janusz Symonides (editor), Human Rights: Concept and Standards.Jaipur: Rawat Publications with UNESCO Publishing 2002. Shestack, Chairman, International League for Human Rights, argues for human universals and documents the influence of the biblical view of Man.
Geoffrey Parrinder, Avatar and Incarnation: A Comparison of Indian and Christian Beliefs. New York: Oxford University Press 1982, clearly confirms Ramachandra's point that all worldviews are not the same—not teaching the same things and not resulting in the same lifestyles.
For a contrast and compliment, see the two assessable encyclopedias, Benjamin Walker (editor), Hindu World: An Encyclopedic Survey of Hinduism, Volumes I & II. New Delhi: Indus 1995, and Scott W. Sunquist, David Wu Chu Sing, and John Chew Hiang Chea (editors), A Dictionary of Asian Christianity. Cambridge UK: Eerdmans 2001.

R. Young, 'Ripple or Wave? Protestant Missions and the "Protestantization" of Religion in Nineteenth-Century Sri Lanka', unpublished paper delivered in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 8 February 1992
2004 UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE educational edition by Thom Wolf