Hindu World Prayer Guide Christians Learning about and Praying for the Hindu world Join Christians around the world in prayer for our one billion neighbors Welcome to the 15 days of Prayer for the Hindu World s many of you know, since 1993 WorldChristian.com has published an annual prayer guide calling the Church to make a concerted effort to learn about, pray for and reach A Desire to Bless out to our world’s Muslim neighbors, particularly during Ramadan. It is not our intention A with this prayer focus Several times up to 2004 we also produced an informative prayer guide booklet that focused on the Hindu world. Unfortunately, over the years we were unable to respond to to disparage India or its repeated requests to produce a new edition. But the right time may now have come. majority religion in any Over the last two years, a number of people around the world have sought me out to way. On the contrary, as convey that they sensed God was calling for a renewed emphasis on India and the Hindu Christians we embrace community. Following several meetings, I have come to feel that God was nudging me as the truth that we have well. been blessed (as Paul You hold in your hand the first fruit of a collaborative effort to mobilize the Church to learn reminds us in Galatians about and pray for our world’s over one billion Hindu adherents. 3:8) so we can be a Please join with Christians in different countries who will set aside October 8–22 to pray blessing to the nations. specifically for the Holy Spirit to move among Hindus and to reveal Jesus, the true Light of We recognize that India and Hinduism the World, to them. The time roughly coincides with a season of Hindu festivals, particularly are far too complex, and so full of great Diwali, a very popular festival of lights. traditions, to easily condense, explain or (If this timeframe does not work for your take lightly within a mere booklet. church, ministry or group, feel free to As Christians, we yearn that all the select another 15 days; there is no reason world’s people(s) will have a tangible not to pray at other times.) opportunity to comprehend the grace of Thank you for joining us. If you are God incarnated in Jesus Christ. For this able, please also consider becoming a reason, we inform ourselves, so that we regular supporter of this ministry and may understand, and learn how to pray help us to encourage understanding of for and support respectful efforts to make and prayer for our world. that grace also known within our world’s Indian and Hindu communities. Paul WorldChristian.com Additional Booklets 1 See Order Form on page 32 introduction A note on the term “Hinduism” What is their access to the Gospel? To speak of Hinduism as a religion is an attempt at simplification that Hindus comprise the second largest least-reached religious group in is ultimately unproductive. There is no central orthodoxy or set of the world. It is estimated that only about two percent of cross-cultural beliefs, adherence to which can be used to determine who is and is not missionaries focus on sharing the Gospel with them. The majority of a Hindu. What is popularly called Hinduism might be better described Hindus still live without any meaningful opportunity to understand as a diverse parliament of belief systems, each of which might have its the Gospel of Jesus Christ. separate creeds, beliefs, etc. It might be better still to speak of many Hinduisms, instead of one Hinduism. However, it is useful to recognize What are the origins of Hindu beliefs and practices? that the word “Hinduism” is in such wide use today, Many saints, gurus, authors and famous personalities have even by Hindus themselves, that its use is almost contributed to the development of the many Hinduisms. unavoidable. However, none of them are considered alone to have been the founder of the Hindu way of Who is a Hindu? life. Hindus comprise about 15 percent of the While most Hindus will affirm religious world’s population. Little discussion or texts as being valuable, there are not teaching exists in any of the numerous any sacred texts that are held to be fully Hindu traditions about how someone and equally authoritative across all of may either become or cease being a the many Hinduisms. Complex and diverse Hindu. Instead, caste traditions, historical Hindu traditions have been in existence precedence and traditional worldview hold in South Asia since antiquity. Indeed, that there are few, if any, acceptable doors for the farther we go back in history, the Hindus to cease being Hindu or for those not more difficult it becomes to identify born into the Hindu community to become one distinctive beliefs and practices. In (though some notable persons have tried). In short, fact, without a single founder, founding to be Hindu is primarily based on being born a event, or central authoritative sacred Hindu, and not on any specific creed or belief in text, the freedom to change, adopt new any particular divine being. ideas and develop new traditions has become 2 India in some Numbers one of the most common and easily recognizable traits in the Hindu HINDU DEMOGRAPHICS tradition. The Hindu community’s perception of itself continues to evolve at Globally an ever increasing pace. How this self-perception evolves will have ■ The number of Hindus around the world is projected to rise from significant implications for both Hindus as well as the rest of the world. slightly more than one billion in 2010 to nearly 1.4 billion in 2050. As a percentage of the world population, Hindus will remain fairly Why pray leading up to and during Diwali? stable at 15 percent. There are many excellent times to pray for Hindus throughout the ■ While the top-three countries with the largest number of Hindus year. The five-day festival of Diwali is probably the most well-known are India, Nepal and Bangladesh, the first two are the only countries and recognizable of all Hindu festivals. Diwali takes place in either with a Hindu-majority population. October or November each year and is popularly known as the festival of lights. Hindus often give Diwali a position of importance above all India other festivals, and during it they place particular emphasis on seeking ■ India’s Hindu adherents make up about 80 percent of the total and celebrating the blessings in their lives. So to use this prayer guide population of 1.3 billion, followed by 14.2 percent Muslim and 2.3 during Diwali seems appropriate. percent Christian (2011 estimate). Given the importance that most Hindus place on Diwali, it is ■ According to the Pew Research Center, appropriate that we should specifically pray that Hindus worldwide by 2050, India will have the distinction of would also receive the greatest blessing of all—a revelation of Jesus, having the largest populations of two of who is the Light of the World and Savior for all humanity. the three largest religions in the world— Islam and Hinduism. ■ India now recognizes 22 official languages (out of hundreds that are spoken). While Hindi is spoken by most Indians, English “Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light (a subsidiary official language) is the most important language for political, of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in commercial and national purposes. darkness, but will have the light of life.’” (John 8:12) continued overleaf North America ■ The number of Hindus in North America is estimated to rise from about 2.5 million in 2010 to nearly six million by 2050. ■ Their number in the USA will rise from about 1.8 million in 2010 to 4.8 million by 2050. Canada’s Hindu population is estimated to reach one million by 2050. CHRISTIAN DEMOGRAPHICS ■ Estimates of Indians identifying themselves as Christian range from 25–80 million. ■ The number of Christians in Nepal grew from barely a handful 65 years ago, to an estimated two percent of the current population of 29 million, making it one of the fastest growing Christian populations in the world. (https://nepalchurch.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/ history-of-christians-in-nepal/) ■ A 2013 Pew Research study reported that India has one of the highest levels of social hostilities involving religion in the world. Despite ever-growing aggressions by Hindu nationalists targeting Christians, observers agree that the bigger challenge is actually the need for training many more church leaders to pastor the influx of new believers. Sources: http://www.pewforum.org, World FactBook and Operation World 4 By Dr A M Thundiath An Indian medical professional who studied Thank you for Praying Hinduism and Islam, eager to understand what God is doing. am so delighted that 15 Days of Prayer for the Hindu World is Open Door’s World Watch List, which tracks persecution of launching … again. I was inspired by the 30 Days of Prayer for Christians, now ranks India at number 15, up from number 31 four I the Muslim World that God birthed in the early 1990’s just as the years ago. Almost daily there are reports about Hindu extremists heartland of the Muslim world entered a period of turmoil and war, targeting Christian meeting places, falsely accusing them in front of because in the midst of upheavals as—in the book of Acts—“the Word intimidated police of disturbing the peace. When these methods do of God has continued to spread and prevail mightily” (Acts 19:20).