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Your social standing in India might be adversely affected if 200 million "untouchables" suddenly cast off a cultural system which has oppressed them for hundreds of years and embraced Christianity--which teaches, dangerously, that all men and women are equal in the sight of God--and indeed teaches that the pariah will enter Heaven while the Brahman will most likely go straight to hell. (See the parable of the rich man and Lazarus).

Antoninus, you've got it wrong. To Hindus in urban India, caste is mostly non-existent. To those in the villages I guess it still plays a role. But, and a BIIIIG But, caste is more a case of Hindu CULTURE than religion (there's no clear dividing line), so you do have Muslims and Christians divided by Caste (again with the urban-rural divide).

And, there are many Christians in India who are converts (or whose ancestors were converts) from the upper castes -- even the Brahmins (examples in Kerala and Mangalore).

Christianity is not a religion only for the untouchables, but for all -- the equality works both ways. Also, the Dalits are now realising that there is reverse discrimination in their favor played out by the political parties, so they are bettering themselves.

To sniper: "Are you sure everybody is equal in christianity ? Tell that to the hundreds of millions of christians in Africa , who are rotting and starving to death. I am sure they will be pleased. " what's that got to do with equality as preached by Christianity? They should feel privileged at being part of such a great faith

Yup, the fact of Christianity is that it prepares you for the AFTER-LIFE, it doesn't hold out great magic works in THIS life or say that if you convert you will win the lottery. Rather, Christianity preaches that if you convert, you WILL face hardships, people WILL persecute you (and this not only includes converts from other faiths but people who convert from being just Christian in name to strong believers).

Antoninus, you've got it wrong. To Hindus in urban India, caste is mostly non-existent. To those in the villages I guess it still plays a role. But, and a BIIIIG But, caste is more a case of Hindu CULTURE than religion (there's no clear dividing line), so you do have Muslims and Christians divided by Caste (again with the urban-rural divide).And, there are many Christians in India who are converts (or whose ancestors were converts) from the upper castes -- even the Brahmins (examples in Kerala and Mangalore). Christianity is not a religion only for the untouchables, but for all -- the equality works both ways. Also, the Dalits are now realising that there is reverse discrimination in their favor played out by the political parties, so they are bettering themselves.

mostly true. india itself is like a mini europe with all its cultures and languages. i have found that hinduism in state A is different from hinduism in state B. i guess the caste system is somewhat akin to the tribal system in africa - mostly culturally

i have met a few hindus who seem to support the caste system and its hierarchical nature. but the vast majority especially in the cities think of it as bad but still use the caste structures to find a spouse because it is easy to do so.