Multicultural India

Just back from study leave in India. It was the latest stage in a project which I have been pursuing since 2004: Christian responses to post-modernism. Having explored post-Christian, nominal-Christian, ant-Christian and majority-Christian contexts, I wanted to learn about multiculturalism. Europeans sometimes pride ourselves on being multicultural but often we are actually behaving in anti-cultural ways as when, for the sake of political correctness and/ or avoiding offence, we limit and control the expression people give of their culture (including religion). In a truly multicultural situation, there is an acceptance, a celebration even, of the various cultures which happen to co-exist. While PM Modi and his government seem set on introducing their monocultural (Hindu-only) policy, south India is resisting in favour of retaining the multicultural profile which visitors find so vibrant and colourful. And, of course, this is the context in which mission can flourish!