(Put together by Bernard Ellis in Calcutta some time before 1966.)

Bernard was still struggling every day with the complexities brought about by the huge variety of languages, cultures and ethnic diversity of India which Carey, Marshman and Ward had to start grappling with from 1799 onwards. Baptist Mission Press was, with nearly 150 years experience, recognized as one of the best equipped printers in India to handle some of those complexities.

1. The Indian sub-continent is as big as Europe (excluding Russia) and extends from the latitude of Sicily to within 4 degrees of the Equator.

2. The greatest mountains in the world form the northern wall.

3. It is half the size of the USA but has 3 times its population.

4. The population density varies from 4,000 per square mile in Cochin to 6.5 per square mile in Baluchistan.

5. India is the seventh largest country in the world.

6. India stretches 2,000 miles from north to south.

7. North-East Assam is the wettest place in the world, with an average rainfall of 500 inches annually.

8. In the Thar desert and in Rajputana, the average rainfall is 5 inches annually.

9. Two-thirds of the people live in one-fourth of the country.

10. Average life expectancy in 1954 was 32.

11. There is one doctor for every 5,000 inhabitants.

12. There are many more differences of race, language, and culture in India than there are in Europe. The difference between a Punjabi and a Bengali, or a Lushai and a Madrassi, are far more pronounced than between an Englishman and a Russian or a Hungarian.

13. There are 240 recognized languages in India and 24 of those languages are spoken by 1 million people.

14. 150 million (out of a total population of 436.5 million in 1961) speak Hindi, Urdu, Hindusthani and Punjabi.

15. 33 million speak Telegu.

16. The remainder (253.5 million) speak Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, Gujrati, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sanskrit, etc., in that order.

17. In 1961 there were 107 towns with a population of over 100,000. There were 558,000 villages, for India is a country of villages.

18. The railway system is the largest in Asia and the 4th largest in the world. (In 2006 it employed one and a half million people.)

19. According to the Baptist Union of India there are 3,375 Baptist churches and more than 400,000 baptized believers.

20. In numbers the Church of India and Ceylon represents a minority. Less than 2 per cent of the total population. One writer says this: 'The Christian message does not spring from India's ancient religious heritage.. The Christian message often pronounces judgment on traditional thought and piety. [But,] in spite of those circumstances Scripture circulations continue to increase and set up new records.'

21. Half the Christian population of India is Roman Catholic.

22. Sixty per cent of those who are not Roman Catholic live in South India.

23. Most of the remaining non-Roman Catholic population live in Assam where the Christian Church continues to increase by leaps and bounds.

24. In many spheres Christians have shown the way. Before World War Two 90 per cent of the nurses of India were Christians.

 

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