title: Christianity in India

text: According to the tradition of Saint Thomas Christians, Thomas the Apostle landed in Kodungallur in the present day Indian state of Kerala in AD 52, establishing the Ezharappallikal through the conversion of local Jews and Brahmins to Christianity. After years of evangelization in South India, Saint Thomas was killed at St. Thomas Mount in Chennai in AD 72. The neo-Gothic Cathedral Basilica of San Thome now stands on the site of his martyrdom and burial. A historically more likely claim by Eusebius of Caesarea is that Pantaenus, the head of the Christian exegetical school in Alexandria, Egypt went to India during the reign of the Emperor Commodus and found Christians already living in India using a version of the Gospel of Matthew with "Hebrew letters, a mixture of culture." This is a plausible reference to the earliest Indian churches which are known to have used the Syriac New Testament; Syriac being a dialect of Aramaic. Pantaenus' evidence thus indicates that Syriac-speaking Christians had already evangelised parts of India by the late 2nd century AD.


title: Christianity in India

text: Another church tradition concerning the birth of Christ holds that Gaspar, one of the three Biblical Magi, travelled from India to find the Christ child along with Melchior of Persia and Balthazar of Ethiopia.


title: Christianity in India

text: An early 3rd-century AD Syriac work known as the "Acts of Thomas" connects the tradition of the Apostle Thomas' Indian ministry with two kings, one in the north and the other in the south. The year of his arrival is widely disputed due to lack of credible records. According to one of the legends in the "Acts of Thomas", Thomas was at first reluctant to accept this mission, but Jesus over-ruled him by ordering circumstances so compelling that he was forced to accompany an Indian merchant, Abbanes, to his native place in northwest India, where he found himself in the service of the Indo-Parthian king, Gondophares. The apostle's ministry reputedly resulted in many conversions throughout this northern kingdom, including the king and his brother. The "Acts of Thomas" identifies his second mission in India with a kingdom ruled by a certain King named Mahadwa belonging to a 1st-century dynasty in southern India.


title: Christianity in India

text: Niranam Pally also known as St Mary's Orthodox Syrian Church is believed to be one of the oldest churches in India. The church was founded by St. Thomas in AD 54. On his way from Kollam in the northeast direction, he arrived at Niranam "Thrikpapaleswaram" by sea. The church was reconstructed several times with some parts dating back to a reconstruction in 1259. The architecture of the church bears a striking similarity to ancient temple architecture. Another ancient church is St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Church, located at Palayur in Thrissur district in Kerala. According to Saint Thomas christian tradition, the Syrian church was established between 52 and 54 AD by St Thomas, where he performed the first baptism in India. This church is therefore considered an Apostolic See credited to the apostolate of St. Thomas.


title: Christianity in India

text: Although little is known of the immediate growth of the church in the northwestern regions of India, Bar-Daisan (154–223 AD) reports that in his time there were Christian tribes in North India that claimed to have been converted by Thomas and had books and relics to prove it. It is believed that by the time of the establishment of the Sassanid Empire around 226 AD, there were bishops of the Church of the East in northwest India, Afghanistan and Baluchistan, with laymen and clergy alike engaging in missionary activity. The existence of Early Christians in India is further substantiated by the records acknowledging the work of Saint Severus of Vienne, a 5th-century missionary of Indian origin who evangelised in Vienne, France.


title: Christianity in India

text: India had a flourishing trade with Central Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East, both along mountain passes in the north and sea routes down the western and southern coast, well before the advent of the Christian era, and it is likely that Christian merchants from these lands settled in Indian cities along these trading routes. The colony of Syrian Christians established at Muziris present-day Kodungallur may be the first Christian community in South India for which there is a continuous written record.


title: Christianity in India

text: The Chronicle of Seert describes an evangelical mission to India by Bishop David of Basra around the year 300, who reportedly made many conversions, and it has been speculated that his mission took in areas of southern India.


title: Christianity in India

text: It was also proposed by one scholar in 1987 that Thomas of Cana, who arrived in the Malabar sometime between the 4th and the 9th century. The community of people that came along with him is called Kanaya Christians.


title: Christianity in India

text: The Saint Thomas Christian community was further strengthened by Christian immigrants from the Middle-East. This also resulted in the establishment of Knanaya colonies in south Kerala during the 4th century. Babylonian Christians settled on the Malabar coast in 4th century AD. Mar Sabor and Mar Proth arrived in the 9th century AD.


title: Christianity in India

text: Saint Thomas Christians seem to have enjoyed various rights and privileges as well as a high status as recorded on copper plates, also known as Cheppeds, Royal Grants, Sasanam, etc. There are a number of such documents in the possession of the Syrian churches of Kerala which include the "Thazhekad Sasanam", the Quilon Plates (or the "Tharisappalli Chepped"s), "Mampally Sasanam" and "Iraviikothan Chepped", etc. Some of these plates have been dated to around 774 AD. Scholars have studied the inscriptions and produced varying translations. The language used is Old Malayalam in Vattezhuthu script intermingled with some Grantha, Pahlavi, Kufic and Hebrew scripts. The ruler of Venad (Travancore) granted the Saint Thomas Christians seventy-two rights and privileges which were usually granted only to high dignitaries. These rights included exemption from import duties, sales tax and the slave tax. A copper plate grant dated 1225 AD further enhanced the rights and privileges of Nasranis.


title: Christianity in India

text: Other references to Saint Thomas Christians include the South Indian epic of Manimekalai, written between 2nd and 3rd century AD, which mentions the Nasrani people by referring to them by the name "Essanis". The embassy of King Alfred in 883 AD sent presents to St. Thomas Christians. Marco Polo who visited in 1292, mentioned that there were Christians in the Malabar coast.


title: Christianity in India

text: The French or Catalan Dominican missionary Jordanus Catalani was the first Catholic European missionary to arrive in India. He landed in Surat in around 1320. By a separate bull, that reads "Venerabili Fratri Jordano", he was appointed the first Bishop of Quilon on 21 August 1329 AD. In 1321, Jordanus Catalani also arrived in Bhatkal, a place near Mangalore, and established a missionary station there converting many locals. He also evangelised in Thana district (Trombay) near Bombay; the descendants of these converts would later become part of the Bombay East Indian community.


title: Christianity in India

text: Thomas the Apostle is credited by tradition for founding the Indian Church in 52 AD. This church developed contacts with the Church of the East religious authorities based in Edessa, Mesopotamia at the time.


title: Christianity in India

text: Historically, this community was organised as the Province of India of the Church of the East by Patriarch of Babylon Timothy I (780–823 AD) in the eighth century, served by bishops and a local dynastic archdeacon. In the 14th century, the Church of the East declined due to persecution from Tamerlane. The 16th century witnessed the colonial overtures of the Portuguese "Padroado" aiming to bring St Thomas Christians into the Latin Catholic Church, administered by the Portuguese Padroado Archdiocese of Goa, leading to the first of several rifts in the community. The efforts of the Portuguese culminated in the Synod of Diamper, formally subjugating them and their whole Archdiocese of Angamaly as a suffragan see to the Archdiocese of Goa administered by Roman Catholic Padroado missionaries.


title: Christianity in India

text: The death of the last metropolitan bishop – Archbishop Abraham of the Saint Thomas Christians, an ancient body formerly part of the Church of the East in 1597 gave the then Archbishop of Goa Menezes an opportunity to bring the native church under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. He was able to secure the submission of Archdeacon George, the highest remaining representative of the native church hierarchy. Menezes convened the Synod of Diamper between 20 and 26 June 1599, which introduced a number of reforms to the church and brought it fully into the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. Following the Synod, Menezes consecrated Francis Ros, S. J. as Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Angamalé for the Saint Thomas Christians; thus created another suffragan see to Archdiocese of Goa and Latinisation of St Thomas Christians started. The Saint Thomas Christians were pressured to acknowledge the authority of the Pope and most of them eventually accepted the Catholic faith, but a part of them switched to West Syriac Rite. Resentment of these measures led to some part of the community to join the Archdeacon, Thomas, in swearing never to submit to the Portuguese Jesuits in the Coonan Cross Oath in 1653. Those who accepted the West Syriac theological and liturgical tradition of Gregorios became known as Jacobites. The others who continued with East Syriac theological and liturgical tradition stayed faithful to the Catholic Church.


title: Christianity in India

text: Following the synod, the Indian Church was governed by Portuguese prelates. They were generally unwilling to respect the integrity of the local church. This resulted in disaffection which led to a general revolt in 1653 known as the "Coonan Cross Oath". Under the leadership of Archdeacon Thomas, Nazranis around Cochin gathered at Mattancherry church on Friday, 24 January 1653 (M.E. 828 Makaram 3) and made an oath that is known as the Great Oath of Bent Cross. There are various versions about the wording of oath, one version being that the oath was directed against the Portuguese, another that it was directed against Jesuits, yet another version that it was directed against the authority of Church of Rome. Those who were not able to touch the cross tied ropes on the cross, held the rope in their hands and made the oath. Because of the weight it is believed by the followers that the cross bent a little and so it is known as "Oath of the bent cross" (Coonen Kurisu Sathyam). This demanded administrative autonomy for the local church.


title: Christianity in India

text: A few months, later Archdeacon Thomas was ordained as bishop by twelve priests with the title Thoma I. At this time, Rome intervened and Carmelite Missionaries were sent to win the Thomas Christians back. Carmelites could convince the majority that the local church needs bishops and the consecration of the Archdeacon Thomas was invalid because the consecration was conducted not by a bishop, but by priests. Many leaders of the community rejoined the missionaries. But in 1663, Dutch conquered Cochin supplanting the Portuguese on the Malabar coast. Portuguese Missionaries had to leave the country and they consecrated Palliveettil Chandy kathanaar as the bishop for the Catholic Thomas Christians on 1 February 1663. Meanwhile, Thoma I appealed to several eastern Christian churches for regularizing his consecration. The Syriac Orthodox Patriarch responded and sent metropolitan Gregorios Abdul Jaleel of Jerusalem to India in 1665. He confirmed Thoma I as a bishop and worked together with him to organize the Church. These events led to the gradual and lasting schism among the Saint Thomas Christians of India, leading to the formation of "Puthenkūr" (New allegiance) and "Pazhayakūr" (Old allegiance) factions.


title: Christianity in India

text: The "Pazhayakūr" comprise the present day Syro-Malabar Church and Chaldean Syrian Church which continue to employ the East Syriac Rite (Babylonian Rite /Persian Rite) liturgy. The "Puthenkūr", who entered into a new communion with the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch, an Oriental Orthodox church, inherited from them the West Syriac Rite, replacing the old East Syriac Rite liturgy. "Puthenkūr" is the body from which present day Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Mar Thoma Syrian Church, St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and Malabar Independent Syrian Church originate.


title: Christianity in India

text: In 1453, the fall of Constantinople to Sunni Islamic Ottoman Caliphate marked the end of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire), and severed European trade links by land with Asia. This massive blow to Christendom spurred the age of discovery as Europeans started seeking alternative routes east by sea along with the goal of forging alliances with pre-existing Christian nations. Along with Portuguese long-distance maritime travelers that reached the Malabar Coast in the late 15th century, came Portuguese missionaries who made contact with the St Thomas Christians in Kerala. These Christians were following Eastern Christian practices and under the jurisdiction of Church of the East. The missionaries sought to introduce the Latin liturgical rites among them and unify East Syriac Christians in India under the Holy See. This group, which existed in Kerala relatively peacefully for more than a millennium, faced considerable persecution from Portuguese evangelists in the 16th century. This later wave of evangelism spread Catholicism more widely along the Konkan coast.


title: Christianity in India

text: The South Indian coastal areas around Kanyakumari were known for pearl fisheries ruled by the Paravars. From 1527, the Paravars, being threatened by Arab fleets offshore who were supported Zamorin of Calicut, sought the protection of the Portuguese who had moved into the area. The protection was granted on the condition that the leaders were immediately baptised as Christians and that they would encourage their people also to convert to Christianity. The Portuguese in turn wanted to gain a strategic foothold and control of the pearl fisheries. The deal was agreed and some months later 20,000 Paravars were baptised en masse, and by 1537 the entire community had declared itself to be Christian. The Portuguese navy destroyed the Arab fleet at Vedalai on 27 June 1538.


title: Christianity in India

text: Francis Xavier, a Jesuit, began a mission to the lower classes of Tamil society in 1542. A further 30,000 Paravars were baptised. Xavier appointed catechists in the Paravar villages up and down the coastline to spread and reinforce his teachings. Paravar Christianity, with its own identity based on a mixture of Christian religious belief and Hindu caste culture, remains a defining part of the Paravar life today.


title: Christianity in India

text: In the 16th century, the proselytisation of Asia was linked to the Portuguese colonial policy. Missionaries of the different orders including Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Augustinians arrived with the Portuguese colonisers. The history of Portuguese missionaries in India starts with the Portuguese clergy who reached Kappad near Kozhikode on 20 May 1498, along with the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama who was seeking to form anti-Islamic alliances with pre-existing Christian nations. The lucrative spice trade was further temptation for the Portuguese crown. When he and the Portuguese missionaries arrived, they found Christians in the country in Malabar known as St. Thomas Christians who belonged to the then-largest Christian church within India. The Christians were friendly to Portuguese missionaries at first; there was an exchange of gifts between them, and these groups were delighted at their common faith.


title: Christianity in India

text: During the second expedition, the Portuguese fleet comprising 13 ships and 18 priests, under Captain Pedro Álvares Cabral, anchored at Cochin on 26 November 1500. Cabral soon won the goodwill of the Raja of Cochin. He allowed four priests to do apostolic work among the early Christian communities scattered in and around Cochin. Thus Portuguese missionaries established Portuguese Mission in 1500. Dom Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese Viceroy got permission from the Kochi Raja to build two churches – namely Santa Cruz Basilica (1505) and St. Francis Church (1506) using stones and mortar, which was unheard of at that time, as the local prejudices were against such a structure for any purpose other than a royal palace or a temple.


title: Christianity in India

text: In the beginning of the 16th century, the whole of the east was under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Lisbon. On 12 June 1514, Cochin and Goa became two prominent mission stations under the newly created Diocese of Funchal in Madeira. In 1534, Pope Paul III by the Bull Quequem Reputamus, raised Funchal as an archdiocese and Goa as its suffragan, deputing the whole of India under the diocese of Goa. This created an episcopal see – suffragan to Funchal, with a jurisdiction extending potentially over all past and future conquests from the Cape of Good Hope to China.


title: Christianity in India

text: The first converts to Christianity in Goa were native Goan women who married Portuguese men that arrived with Afonso de Albuquerque during the Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510. Due to the Christianisation of Goa, over 90% of the Goans in the Velhas Conquistas became Catholic by the 1700s.


title: Christianity in India

text: The Portuguese government supported the missionaries. At the same time many New Christians from Portugal emigrated to India as a result of the Portuguese Inquisition. Many of them were suspected of being Crypto-Jews and Crypto-Muslims, converted Jews and Muslims who were secretly practising their old religions. Both were considered a threat to the solidarity of Christian belief. According to Maria Aurora Couto, Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier requested the installation of the Goa Inquisition in a letter dated 16 May 1546 to King John III of Portugal, but the tribunal commenced only in 1560. The Inquisition office persecuted Hindus, Muslims, Bene Israels, New Christians and the Judaizing Nasranis. Crypto-Hindus were the primary target of the 250 years of persecution and punishment for their faith by the Catholic prosecutors. Most affected were the Shudras (12.5%) and farmers (35.5%).


title: Christianity in India

text: In 1557, Goa was made an independent archbishopric, and its first suffragan sees were erected at Cochin and Malacca. The whole of the East came under the jurisdiction of Goa and its boundaries extended to almost half of the world: from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, to Burma, China and Japan in East Asia. In 1576, the suffragan See of Macao (China) was added; and in 1588, that of Funai in Japan.


title: Christianity in India

text: The Diocese of Angamaly was transferred to Diocese of Craganore in 1605, while, in 1606 a sixth suffragan see to Goa was established at San Thome, Mylapore, near the modern Madras, and the site of the National Shrine of St. Thomas Basilica. The suffragan sees added later to Goa. were the prelacy of Mozambique (1612), Peking (1609) and Nanking (1609) in China.


title: Christianity in India

text: The Portuguese were however unable to establish their presence in Mangalore as a result of the conquests of the Vijayanagara ruler Krishnadevaraya and Abbakka Rani of Ullal, the Bednore Queen of Mangalore. Most of Mangalorean Catholics were not originally from Mangalore but from Goa, which they fled during the Sackings of Goa and Bombay-Bassein and to escape the persecution of the Goan Inquisition.


title: Christianity in India

text: The Franciscans spearheaded the evangelisation of the "Province of the North" () headquartered at Fort San Sebastian of Bassein (close to present day Mumbai), but the fort's officials were subordinate to the viceroy in the capital of Velha Goa. From 1534 to 1552, a priest by the name António do Porto converted over 10,000 people, built a dozen churches, convents, and a number of orphanages hospitals and seminaries. Prominent among the converts were two yogis from the Kanheri Caves who became known as Paulo Raposo and Francisco de Santa Maria. They introduced Christianity to their fellow yogis, converting many in the process. The descendants of these Christians are today known as the Bombay East Indian Christians who are predominantly Roman Catholics and inhabitants of the north Konkan region.


title: Christianity in India

text: In Portuguese Bombay and Bassein missionary work progressed on a large scale and with great success along the western coasts, chiefly at Chaul, Bombay, Salsette, Bassein, Damao, and Diu; and on the eastern coasts at San Thome of Mylapore, and as far as Bengal etc. In the southern districts the Jesuit mission in Madura was the most famous. It extended to the Krishna river, with a number of outlying stations beyond it. The mission of Cochin, on the Malabar Coast, was also one of the most fruitful. Several missions were also established in the interior northwards that of Agra and Lahore in 1570 and that of Tibet in 1624. Still, even with these efforts, and many vast tracts of the interior northwards were practically unreached.


title: Christianity in India

text: With the decline of the Portuguese power, other colonial powers namely the Dutch and British gained influence, paving the way for the arrival of Protestantism.


title: Christianity in India

text: Beginning about 1700 Protestant missionaries began working throughout India, leading to the establishment of different Christian communities across the Indian Subcontinent.


title: Christianity in India

text: The first Protestant missionaries to set foot in India were two Lutherans from Germany, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau, who began work in 1705 in the Danish settlement of Tranquebar. They translated the Bible into the local Tamil language, and afterwards into Hindustani. They made little progress at first, but gradually the mission spread to Madras, Cuddalore and Tanjore. The "Bishop of Tranquebar" is still the official title of the bishop of the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tamil Nadu which was founded in 1919 as a result of the German Lutheran Leipzig Mission and Church of Sweden Mission, the successors of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau. The seat of the bishop, the cathedral and its church house, "the Tranquebar House" are in Tiruchirappalli.


title: Christianity in India

text: German missionary Johann Phillip Fabricius, who arrived in South India in 1740, published the first Tamil to English dictionary and refined the Tamil Bible translation.


title: Christianity in India

text: Christian Friedrich Schwarz was a prominent German Lutheran missionary who arrived in India in 1750. His mission was instrumental in the conversion of many people from Tamil Nadu to Lutheranism. He died in Tamil Nadu and was buried in St.Peter's Church at Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.


title: Christianity in India

text: Hermann Gundert a German missionary, scholar, and linguist, as well as the maternal grandfather of German novelist and Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse was a missionary in the South Indian state of Kerala and was instrumental in compiling a Malayalam grammar book, Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam (1859), in which he developed and constructed the grammar currently spoken by the Malayalis, published a Malayalam-English dictionary (1872), and contributed to work on Bible translations into Malayalam.


title: Christianity in India

text: Eugen Liebendörfer was the first German missionary doctor in India as part of the Basel Mission. He built hospitals in Kerala and Karnataka.


title: Christianity in India

text: Another Basel Missionary Ferdinand Kittel worked in South Indian state of Karnataka in places such as Mangalore, Madikeri and Dharwad in Karnataka. He is renowned for his studies of the Kannada language and for producing a Kannada-English dictionary of about 70,000 words in 1894. He also composed numerous Kannada poems.


title: Christianity in India

text: Hermann Mögling was a German missionary to Karnataka, he is credited as the publisher of the first ever newspaper in the Kannada language called as Mangalooru Samachara in 1843. He was awarded a doctorate for his literary work in Kannada called as Bibliotheca Carnataca. He also translated Kannada literature into German.


title: Christianity in India

text: Another Lutheran German missionary to South Indian state of Kerala was Volbrecht Nagel, he was a missionary to the Malabar coast of India. Initially associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church, he later joined the Open Brethren, and is remembered now as a pioneer of the Kerala Brethren movement.


title: Christianity in India

text: In 1793, William Carey, an English Baptist Minister, came to India as a missionary but also as a man of learning in economics, medicine and botany. He worked in Serampore, Calcutta, and other places. He translated the Bible into Bengali, Sanskrit, and numerous other languages and dialects. He worked in India despite the hostility of the British East India Company until his death in 1834. Carey and his colleagues, Joshua Marshman and William Ward, blended science, Christianity, and constructive Orientalism in their work at the Danish settlement of Serampore, near Calcutta. Carey saw the dissemination of European science and Christianity as mutually supportive and equally important civilizing missions. He also supported a revival of Sanskrit science. Carey played a key role in the establishment of the Agricultural Society of India. Ward, beginning in 1806, published important commentaries on ancient Hindu medical and astronomy texts. In 1818 Carey and his fellow missionaries founded Serampore College to nurture a uniquely Indian variety of European science.


title: Christianity in India

text: The London Missionary Society was the first Protestant mission in Andhra Pradesh which established its station at Visakhapatnam in 1805. Anthony Norris Groves, a Plymouth Brethren missionary arrived in 1833. He worked in the Godavari delta area until his death in 1852. John Christian Frederick Heyer was the first Lutheran missionary in the region of Andhra Pradesh. He founded the Guntur Mission in 1842. Supported initially by the Pennsylvania Ministerium, and later by the Foreign Mission Board of the General Synod, Heyer was also encouraged and assisted by British government officials. He established a number of hospitals and a network of schools throughout the Guntur region.


title: Christianity in India

text: The Church Missionary Society ("CMS"), a mission society working with the Anglican Communion, began sending missionaries to India and established mission stations at Chennai (Madras) and Bengal, then in 1816 at Travancore. The CMS Mission to India expanded in the following years. The successors of the Protestant church missions are the Church of South India and the Church of North India.


title: Christianity in India

text: Marathi Christians can be found in the areas of Ahmednagar, Solapur, Poona, and Aurangabad. They were converted through the efforts of the American Marathi Mission, The SPG Mission, and the Church Mission Society of Church of England in the early 18th century. British missionary William Carey was instrumental in translating the Bible into the Marathi language.


title: Christianity in India

text: During the Bettiah Raj of Bihar, the ethnoreligious community of Bettiah Christians was established in India in the 17th century by Christian missionaries belonging to the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, a Roman Catholic religious order. The Capuchins were personally invited to establish the Bettiah Christian Mission by Maharaja Dhurup Singh after the Italian Capuchin priest Joseph Mary Bernini treated his ill wife. Pope Benedict XIV, on 1 May 1742, approved the appointment of the Capuchins at the Bettiah Fort in a letter to Maharaja Dhurup Singh.


title: Christianity in India

text: Many upper-class Bengalis converted to Christianity during the Bengali Renaissance under British Rule, including Krishna Mohan Banerjee, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Anil Kumar Gain, and Gnanendramohan Tagore, Aurobindo Nath Mukherjee.


title: Christianity in India

text: During the 19th century, several American Baptist missionaries evangelised in the northeastern parts of India. In 1876, Dr. E. W. Clark first went to live in a Naga village, four years after his Assamese helper, Godhula, baptised the first Naga converts. Rev. and Mrs. A.F. Merrill arrived in India in 1928 and worked in the southeast section of the Garo Hills. Rev. and Mrs. M.J. Chance spent most of the years between 1950 and 1956 at Golaghat working with the Naga and Garo tribes. Even today the heaviest concentrations of Christians in India continue to be in the Northeast among the Nagas, Khasis, Kukis, and Mizos.


title: Christianity in India

text: Indian Christians were involved even at early stages of the nationalist movement in colonial India, both in the Indian National Congress and the wider Indian independence movement:


title: Christianity in India

text: Indian Christian involvement in the early stages of the nationalist movement is also reflected in the high levels of participation in the activities of the Indian National Congress. During the period from its inception up until about 1892 all the evidence suggests that Indian Christians enthusiastically supported the National Congress and attended its annual meetings. For example, according to the official Congress report, there were 607 registered delegates at the Madras meeting of 1887; thirty-five were Christians and, of these, seven were Eurasians and fifteen were Indian Christians. Indian Christians alone made up 2.5 per cent of the total attendance, in spite of the fact that Christians accounted for less than 0.79 per cent of the population. The Indian Christian community was also well represented at the next four sessions of the Congress. The proportion of Indian Christian delegates remained very much higher than their proportion in the population, in spite of the fact that meetings were sometimes held in cities such as Allahabad and Nagpur, far removed from the main centres of Christian population.


title: Christianity in India

text: The All India Conference of Indian Christians (AICIC) played an important role in the Indian independence movement, advocating for swaraj and opposing the partition of India. The AICIC also was opposed to separate electorates for Christians, believing that the faithful "should participate as common citizens in one common, national political system". The All India Conference of Indian Christians and the All India Catholic Union formed a working committee with M. Rahnasamy of Andhra University serving as President and B.L. Rallia Ram of Lahore serving as General Secretary; in its meeting on 16 April 1947 and 17 April 1947, the joint committee prepared a 13-point memorandum that was sent to the Constituent Assembly of India, which asked for religious freedom for both organisations and individuals; this came to be reflected in the Constitution of India.


title: Christianity in India

text: There are a large number of items of artistic and architectural significance in the religious and domestic life of Indian Christians. Altars, statues, pulpits, crosses, bells and belfries of churches along with other household items are among the many things that form part of the sacred art of the Indian Christians.


title: Christianity in India

text: The following artistic elements predate European Christianity and form an integral part of the religious art and architecture of the Saint Thomas Christians:


title: Christianity in India

text: After the arrival of Vasco da Gama and more especially after the commencement of Portuguese rule in India, distinct patterns of Christian art developed within the areas of Portuguese influence, mostly along the coasts of the peninsula. The Portuguese commissioned monumental buildings and promoted architecture more than any other form of fine art. St. Francis Church, Kochi is the first European place of worship in India and incidentally also the place where Vasco da Gama was first buried. The Christian art of Goa reached its climax in church building, laying the foundations of Indian Baroque.


title: Christianity in India

text: Indian Christian architecture during the British Raj has expanded into several different styles as a result of extensive church building in different parts of the country. The style that was most patronised is generally referred to as the British Regency style followed by Neo-Gothic and Gothic Revival architecture. Most Protestant cathedrals and churches in India conform to the Neo-Gothic and Gothic Revival architecture styles. The adaptation of European architectural elements to the tropical climate in India has resulted in the creation of the Indo-Gothic style. St. Paul's Cathedral, Kolkata is a typical example of this style. St. Mary's church, Chennai, the first Anglican Church built east of the Suez is one of the first examples of British colonial architecture in India. French and Danish influences on Christian art and architecture in India can be seen in their respective colonies.


title: Christianity in India

text: While Christians in India do not share one common culture, their cultures for the most part tend to be a blend of Indian, Syrian and European cultures. It differs from one region to another depending on several factors such as the prevailing rite and tradition and the extent of time for which Christianity has existed in those regions. The ancient Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala have a distinctively different culture when compared to Christians in other parts of the country. Historical ties with the Assyrian Church and assimilation of Indian culture have contributed to the development of a unique subculture among these traditional Syrian Christians or Nasranis of Kerala. The use of ornamental umbrellas for Christian religious festivities illustrates an example of the indigenous character of Kerala's Syriac Christianity. The "Malankara Nasranis" (Thomasine Christians) have a unique Syro-Malabarese culture which includes Christianised Jewish elements, along with some Hindu customs.


title: Christianity in India

text: As a result of the Christianisation of Goa by the Portuguese in the 16th century AD, Goan Catholics have adopted a more Western culture. The dance, song and cuisine of Goa has been greatly influenced by the Portuguese. The culture of Goan Catholics is a blend of Portuguese and Konkani cultures, with the former having a more dominant role because the Portuguese ruled Goa directly from 1510 to 1961. Mangalorean Catholics mainly migrants from the Konkan region to the Canara subregion of Carnataca, have developed a distinct Mangalorean Catholic culture. Christianity in other parts of India spread under the colonial regimes of the Dutch, Danish, French and most importantly the English from the early 17th century to the time of the Indian Independence in 1947. Christian culture in these colonial territories has been influenced by the religion and culture of their respective colonisers.


title: Christianity in India

text: Contemporary Christian culture in India draws greatly from the English culture as a result of the influence and dominance of former British Indian rule, this is evident in the culture of Bombay East Indian Christians, who were the first subjects of English rule, in the erstwhile seven islands of Bombay and the adjacent areas of north Konkan. The Book of Common Prayer is a widely used supplement for worship in the two major Anglican Protestant denominations: Church of South India and Church of North India. Today Christians are considered to be one of the most progressive communities in India. Urban Christians are to a greater extent influenced by European traditions which is considered an advantage in the business environment of urban India; this is given as an explanation for the large number of Christian professionals in India's corporate sector. The Christian church runs thousands of educational institutions which have contributed to the strengthening of Christian culture in India.


title: Christianity in India

text: Religion plays a significant role in the daily life of Indian Christians, India ranks 15 among countries with based on church attendance. Religious processions and carnivals are often celebrated by Indian Catholics. Cities with significant Christian populations celebrate patron saint days. As in other parts of the world, Christmas is the most important festival for Indian Christians. Anglo-Indian Christmas balls held in most major cities form a distinctive part of Indian Christian culture. Great Friday is a national holiday, All Souls Day is another holiday that is observed by most Christians in India. Most Protestant churches celebrate harvest festivals, usually in late October or early November. Easter and All Saints Day are also observed by many.


title: Christianity in India

text: Christian weddings in India conform to the traditional white wedding. However it is not uncommon for Christian brides particularly in the south to wear a white sari instead of a white dress (gown). Prior to the 1960s, the "dhothi" was worn by South Canarese Christian men to Church weddings and other festivities and on certain occasions, it has almost completely been replaced by the black suit and tie nowadays.


title: Christianity in India

text: The 2001 census of India recorded 24,080,016 Christians in the country, representing 2.34 per cent of the population. Pew Research Center analysed the same census figures and made adjustments to account for inaccuracies and cover-ups in self-reported religion. For example, many Indian Christians who belong to Scheduled Castes and Tribes identify as Hindu in censuses and other surveys, in order to obtain caste-based government benefits such as reservations. For this reason, estimates of Indian Christian population as well as the denominational shares in it, vary considerably. After consulting leading Indian demographers, Pew researchers adjusted the Christian share of India's population from 2.3% to 2.6%, or a total of 31,850,000 Christians. The 2011 Indian census also reported a similar Christian share at 2.3% of Indian population with 27,819,588 Christians. Some other sources provide much higher estimates of over 60 million (6 crore) for Indian Christians or about 6% of the Indian population.


title: Christianity in India

text: In 2011, Pew reported 18,860,000 Protestants, 10,570,000 Catholics, 2,370,000 Orthodox and 50,000 other Christians in India. Other sources estimate the total number of Protestants throughout the country in several hundreds of denominations at 45 million (4.5 crore). Several sources estimate Catholic population in India at over 17 million (1.7 crore) The largest denomination is the Roman Catholic Church. Anglicans within the united Church of North India and Church of South India, constitute the second largest group at over 5 million (50 lakh).


title: Christianity in India

text: The Saint Thomas Christians (Syro Malabar Church, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, Chaldean Syrian Church, CSI Syrian Christians, Mar Thoma Syrian Church, Pentecostal Syrian Christians, St. Thomas Evangelical Church and Malabar Independent Syrian Church) of Kerala form 18.75% of the Christians in India with 4.5 million of them. 310,000 were members of the Syro-Malankara Church and 4,000,000 of the Syro-Malabar Church. In January 1993, the Syro-Malabar Church and in February 2005, the Syro-Malankara Church were raised to the status of major archiepiscopal churches by Pope John Paul II. The Syro-Malabar Church is the second largest among the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches who accept the Pope as the visible head of the whole church. The Oriental Orthodox churches in India include the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church with 1120,000 members, the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church with 800,000 members and the Malabar Independent Syrian Church with 30,000 members. The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church is an Eastern Protestant denomination with 1,100,000 members.


title: Christianity in India

text: Most Protestant denominations are represented in India, as a result of missionary activities throughout the country, such as the American Missionary Association, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Mission, the Church Mission Society of the Church of England and many other missions from Europe, America and Australia. In 1961, an evangelical wing of the Mar Thoma Church split and formed the St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India which has 35,000 members. There are about 1,267,786 Lutherans, 648,000 Methodists, 2,392,694 Baptists, and 823,456 Presbyterians in India.


title: Christianity in India

text: The Open Brethren movement is also significantly represented in India. The main Brethren grouping is known as the Indian Brethren (with a following estimated at somewhere between 449,550 and 1,000,000), of which the Kerala Brethren are a significant subset. The closely related Assemblies Jehovah Shammah have around 310,000 adults and children in fellowship as of 2010. They are often considered part of the wider Brethren movement, although they were founded by an indigenous evangelist (Bakht Singh) and developed independently of the older Indian Brethren movement, which originated from missionary endeavours.


title: Christianity in India

text: Pentecostalism is also a rapidly growing movement in India. The major Pentecostal churches in India are the Indian Pentecostal Church of God, the Assemblies of God, The Pentecostal Mission, the New Apostolic Church with 1,448,209 members, the New Life Fellowship Association with 480,000 members, the Manna Full Gospel Churches with 275,000 members, and the Evangelical Church of India with 250,000 members.


title: Christianity in India

text: Christianity is the predominant religion in the North East states of Nagaland, Mizoram Meghalaya, and Manipur, and has substantial populations in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Andaman Nicobar Islands.


title: Christianity in India

text: A 2015 study estimates some 40,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to Protestantism.


title: Christianity in India

text: The census of India provides us with the official numbers for Christian population in India. The Indian census has been recorded every ten years since 1871 and has always included religion (along with population, race, rural distribution, and occupation, among others). The most recently published census is from 2011. Subsequent estimates from 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019 are also considered reliable.


title: Christianity in India

text: The native majority of Goa is Christian. According to the 1909 statistics in the Catholic Encyclopedia, the total Christian population in Portuguese controlled Goa was 293,628 out of a total population of 365,291 (80.33%). Due to emigration of natives (mostly Goan Catholics) from Goa to cosmopolitan cities in India (Mumbai, Bangalore, etc.) and to foreign countries, as well as mass migration of non-Christians to Goa from other states of India since the 20th century, the demographics of Goa have been severely altered. Less than 50% of Indian residents in Goa are ethnic Goans.


title: Christianity in India

text: The arrival of European colonialists brought about large-scale missionary activity in coastal India and North-East India. Oppression of Hindus and the later sackings of Goa and Bombay-Bassein of those living in Portuguese India were the first known clashes.


title: Christianity in India

text: During the 1998 attacks on Christians in southeastern Gujarat, the Human Rights Watch reported that from 25 December 1988 to 3 January 1999, at least 20 prayer halls were damaged or burnt down and Christian institutions were attacked in the Dangs district, and its surrounding districts and at least 25 villages had reported incidents of burning and damages to prayer halls all over Gujarat.


title: Christianity in India

text: On 22 January 1999, an Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burnt to death by Dara Singh (Bajrang Dal) while sleeping in his station wagon at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district in Odisha, India., In the annual human rights reports for 1999, the United States Department of State also criticized India for "increasing societal violence against Christians." The report on anti-Christian violence listed over 90 incidents of anti-Christian violence, ranging from damage of religious property to violence against Christians pilgrims. The states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu passed laws placing restrictions on forced religious conversions as a result of communal tension between Christians and Hindus. The legislation passed in Tamil Nadu was later repealed.


title: Christianity in India

text: In 2007, 19 churches were burned by Hindu right-wingers in Odisha following conflicts between Hindus and Christians regarding Christmas celebrations in the Kandhamal district.


title: Christianity in India

text: In 2008, there was again violence against Christians, particularly in the state of Odisha, after the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda by Indian Maoists (communist insurgents), tensions flared between the two communities in 2008. Christians were blamed and attacked in Orissa with 38 killed and over 250 churches damaged while several thousands of Christians were displaced. Sitting BJP MLA Manoj Pradhan was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for six years by a fast track court for a murder during the 2008 communal riots in Odisha's Kandhamal district. The 2008 anti-Christian attacks in Orissa spilled over and escalated into the 2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka state. The acts of violence include arson and vandalism of churches, conversion of Christians to Hinduism by threats (force) of physical violence, distribution of threatening literature, burning of Bibles, raping of nuns, murder of Christian priests, and destruction of Christian schools, colleges and cemeteries.


title: Christianity in India

text: India is number 10 on Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List, an annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution.


title: Christianity in India

text: In spite of the fact that there have been relatively fewer conflicts between Muslims and Christians in India in comparison to those between Muslims and Hindus, or Muslims and Sikhs, the relationship between Muslims and Christians has also been occasionally turbulent. With the advent of European colonialism in India throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, Christians were systematically persecuted in a few Muslim-ruled kingdoms in India.


title: Christianity in India

text: Among the anti-Christian acts committed were those of Tippu Sultan, the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore against the Mangalorean Catholic community from Mangalore (South Canara) district along the southwestern coast of India. Tippu was widely reputed to be anti-Christian. The captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam, which began on 24 February 1784 and ended on 4 May 1799, remains the most disconsolate memory in their history.


title: Christianity in India

text: ""All Musalmans should unite together, considering the annihilation of infidels as a sacred duty, and labour to the utmost of their power, to accomplish that subject.""


title: Christianity in India

text: Soon after the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784, Tippu gained control of Canara. He issued orders to seize the Christians in Canara, confiscate their estates, and deport them to Seringapatam, the capital of his empire, through the Jamalabad fort route. However, there were no priests among the captives. Together with Fr Miranda, all the 21 arrested priests were issued orders of expulsion to Goa, fined Rs 200,000, and threatened death by hanging if they ever returned.


title: Christianity in India

text: Tippu ordered the destruction of 27 Catholic churches, all intricately carved with statues depicting various saints. Among them were Nossa Senhora de Rosario Milagres at Mangalore, Fr Miranda's Seminary at Monte Mariano, Jesu Marie Jose at Omzoor, the Chapel at Bolar, the Church of Merces at Ullal, Imaculata Conceiciao at Mulki, San Jose at Perar, Nossa Senhora dos Remedios at Kirem, Sao Lawrence at Karkal, Rosario at Barkur, and Immaculata Conceciao at Baidnur. All were razed to the ground, with the exception of the Church of Holy Cross at Hospet, owing to the friendly offices of the Chauta Raja of Moodbidri.


title: Christianity in India

text: Historian William Dalrymple states that during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Muslims sepoys were motivated primarily by resistance against a move (use of the Enfield Rifle-Musket) by the East India Company, which was perceived as an attempt to impose Christian law in Hindustan. For instance, when Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar met the sepoys on 11 May 1857, he was told: "We have joined hands to protect our religion and our faith." They later stood in Chandni Chowk, the main square, and asked the people gathered there, "Brothers, are you with those of the faith?" Those British men and women who had previously converted to Islam such as the defectors, Sergeant-Major Gordon, and Abdullah Beg, a former Company soldier, were spared. On the contrary, foreign Christians such as Revd Midgeley John Jennings, as well as Indian converts to Christianity such as one of Zafar's personal physicians, Chaman Lal, were killed outright.


title: Christianity in India

text: Dalrymple further points out that as late as 6 September, when calling the inhabitants of Delhi to rally against the upcoming British assault, Zafar issued a proclamation stating that this was a religious war being prosecuted on behalf of 'the faith', and that all Muslim and Hindu residents of the imperial city, or of the countryside were encouraged to stay true to their faith and creeds. As further evidence, he observes that the Urdu sources of the pre and post-rebellion periods usually refer to the British not as "angrez" (the English), "goras" (whites) or "firangis" (foreigners), but as "kafir" (infidels) and "nasrani" (Christians).


title: Christianity in India

text: In modern times, Muslims in India who convert to Christianity are often subjected to harassment, intimidation, and attacks by Muslims. In Jammu and Kashmir, the only Indian state with a Muslim majority, a Christian convert and missionary named Bashir Tantray was killed, allegedly by militant Islamists in 2006. However, there are cases in which a Muslim will adopt crypto-Christianity, secretly declaring his/ her conversion. In effect, they are practising Christians, but are legally Muslims; thus the statistics of Indian Christians may not include all Muslim converts to Christianity.


title: Archana Puran Singh

text: Archana Puran Singh (born 26 September 1962) is an Indian actress and television personality. She is known for her comedy roles in several Bollywood movies and as a judge in the comedy shows "The Kapil Sharma Show" and "Comedy Circus". She is mostly regarded for her role of Miss Braganza in the film "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai". Archana Puran Singh has been featured in more than 100 films and television series.


title: Archana Puran Singh

text: Archana's first marriage did not work and ended in a divorce. Thereafter she was involved with Bollywood director, Pankaj Parashar. who directed her in JALWA. She later married actor Parmeet Sethi on 30 June 1992. They have two sons, Aryamann and Ayushmaan.


title: Archana Puran Singh

text: She made her film debut with Nari Hira's TV movie "Abhishek" opposite Aditya Pancholi in 1987. Later that year, she starred in "Jalwa" opposite Naseeruddin Shah. Later, she did small roles in big banner films like "Agneepath" (1990), "Saudagar" (1991), "Shola aur Shabnam" (1992), "Aashiq Awara" (1993), and "Raja Hindustani" (1996); she did item songs in films like the Govinda-starrer thriller "Baaz" and the Suniel Shetty starrer "Judge Mujrim".


title: Archana Puran Singh

text: Thereafter, she has largely restricted herself to supporting roles in Hindi films, often in comedies. Some of her films are "Love Story 2050", "Mohabbatein", "Krrish", "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai", "Masti", De Dana Dan and "Bol Bachchan".


title: Archana Puran Singh

text: She became a television anchor, with "Wah, Kya Scene Hai" on Zee TV in 1993 which was followed by "Uncensored". She later acted in "Shrimaan Shrimati", "Junoon" and hosted "Archana Talkies" on Sony Entertainment Television. She also acted in the TV show Zee Horror Show.


title: Archana Puran Singh

text: She also directed sitcoms like "Jaane Bhi Do Paaro" and "Nehle Pe Dehla" and produced "Samne Wali Khidki".


title: Archana Puran Singh

text: In 2005, she was a contestant in the dance reality show "Nach Baliye 1", in which she participated with her husband, Parmeet Sethi; they were eliminated in the sixth episode. In 2006, she and her husband hosted another dance reality show "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa" (season 1).


title: Archana Puran Singh

text: Thereafter, she appeared as a judge on comedy shows, including Sony TV India's "Comedy Circus". She appeared as a judge in "Comedy Circus (season 1)" (2006) and "Comedy Circus (season 2)" (2008). In January 2008, she hosted "Kaho Na Yaar Hai" on Star Plus, along with her husband, Parmeet Sethi. With the end of "Comedy Circus (season 2)" in September 2008, it was followed by another show, "Comedy Circus – Kaante Ki Takkar". After "Comedy Circus – Kaante Ki Takkar", she was the judge of "Comedy Circus – Teen Ka Tadka", "Comedy Circus Ke Superstar", "Comedy Circus Ka Jadoo", "Jubilee Comedy Circus", "Comedy Circus Ke Taansen", "Comedy Ka Naya Daur", "Kahaani Comedy Circus Ki", "Comedy Circus Ke Ajoobe," and "Comedy Circus Ke Mahabali". She appeared in SAB TV's "The Great Indian Family Drama" as Begum Paro.


title: Archana Puran Singh

text: In 2019, she entered as the judge in "The Kapil Sharma Show". In 2019, she acted as Lakhan's mother, Paramjeet, in SAB TV serial, "My Name Ijj Lakhan" opposite her real life husband, Parmeet Sethi.


title: Cornel West

text: Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual. The grandson of a Baptist minister, West focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society and the means by which people act and react to their "radical conditionedness." A socialist, West draws intellectual contributions from multiple traditions, including Christianity, the Black church, Marxism, neopragmatism, and transcendentalism. Among his most influential books are "Race Matters" (1994) and "Democracy Matters" (2004).


title: Cornel West

text: West is an outspoken voice in left-wing politics in the United States. He has held professorships and fellowships at Harvard University, Yale University, Union Theological Seminary, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Pepperdine University, and the University of Paris during his career. He is also a frequent commentator on politics and social issues in many media outlets.


title: Cornel West

text: From 2010 through 2013, West co-hosted a radio program, "Smiley and West", with Tavis Smiley. He has been featured in several documentaries, and made appearances in Hollywood films such as "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions", as well as providing commentary for both films. West has also made several spoken word and hip hop albums, and due to this work, has been named MTV's Artist of the Week. West co-hosts a podcast, "The Tight Rope", with Tricia Rose. He is a frequent conversation partner with his friend Robert P. George, a prominent conservative intellectual, with the two often speaking together at colleges and universities on the meaning of liberal arts education, free speech, and civil dialogue. In 2020, he was listed by "Prospect" magazine as the fourth-greatest thinker for the COVID-19 era.


title: Cornel West

text: West was born on June 2, 1953, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and grew up in Sacramento, California, where he graduated from John F. Kennedy High School. His mother, Irene Rayshell (Bias), was a teacher and principal, and his father, Clifton Louis West Jr., was a general contractor for the US Department of Defense.


title: Cornel West

text: As a young man, West marched in civil rights demonstrations and organized protests demanding black studies courses at his high school, where he was student body president. He later wrote that, in his youth, he admired "the sincere black militancy of Malcolm X, the defiant rage of the Black Panther Party, and the livid black theology of James Cone."


title: Cornel West

text: In 1970, after graduation from high school, he enrolled at Harvard College and took classes from the philosophers Robert Nozick and Stanley Cavell. In 1973, West was graduated from Harvard "magna cum laude" in Near Eastern languages and civilization. He credits Harvard with exposing him to a broader range of ideas, influenced by his professors as well as the Black Panther Party. West says his Christianity prevented him from joining the BPP, instead choosing to work in local breakfast, prison, and church programs. After completing his undergraduate work at Harvard, West enrolled at Princeton University where he received a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1980, completing a dissertation under the supervision of Raymond Geuss and Sheldon Wolin, becoming the first African American to graduate from Princeton with a PhD degree in philosophy.


title: Cornel West

text: At Princeton, West was heavily influenced by Richard Rorty's neopragmatism. Rorty remained a close friend and colleague of West's for many years following West's graduation. The title of West's dissertation was "Ethics, Historicism and the Marxist Tradition", which was later revised and published under the title "The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought".


title: Cornel West

text: In his late 20s, he returned to Harvard as a W. E. B. Du Bois Fellow before becoming an assistant professor at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. In 1984, he went to Yale Divinity School in what eventually became a joint appointment in American studies. While at Yale, he participated in campus protests for a clerical labor union and divestment from apartheid South Africa. One of the protests resulted in his being arrested and jailed. As punishment, the university administration canceled his leave for the spring term in 1987, leading him to commute from Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, where he was teaching two classes, across the Atlantic Ocean to the University of Paris.


title: Cornel West

text: He then returned to Union Theological Seminary for one year before going to Princeton to become a professor of religion and director of the Program in African-American Studies from 1988 to 1994. After Princeton, he accepted an appointment as professor of African-American studies at Harvard University, with a joint appointment at the Harvard Divinity School. West taught one of the university's most popular courses, an introductory class on African-American studies. In 1998, he was appointed the first Alphonse Fletcher University Professor. West used this new position to teach in not only African-American studies, but also in divinity, religion, and philosophy. West was also inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa in 1998 at SUNY Plattsburgh.


title: Cornel West

text: West left Harvard after a widely publicized dispute with then-President Lawrence Summers in 2002. That year, West returned to Princeton, where he helped found the Center for African-American studies in 2006. In 2012, West left Princeton and returned to the institution where he began his teaching career, Union Theological Seminary. His departure from Princeton, unlike his departure from Harvard, was quite amicable. He continued to teach occasional courses at Princeton in an emeritus capacity as the Class of 1943 University Professor in the Center for African American Studies.


title: Cornel West

text: West returned to Harvard in November 2016, leaving Union Theological Seminary for a nontenured position as Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy, jointly appointed at the Harvard Divinity School and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of African and African-American Studies.


title: Cornel West

text: In February 2021, reports circulated that West was denied consideration for tenure at Harvard and had threatened to leave the university once again. On March 8, 2021, West announced that he would leave Harvard and move to the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He submitted a resignation letter to Harvard on June 30, 2021. West implied that the decision to deny him tenure was retaliation for his critical stance on Israel and the Palestinian cause. West wrote: “Is Harvard a place for a free Black man like myself whose Christian faith and witness put equal value on Palestinian and Jewish babies – like all babies – and reject all occupations as immoral?” In a petition, signed by over 90 organizations at Harvard, including Jewish groups such as the Jewish Coalition for Peace, students called the denial of tenure "a testament to Harvard’s continued expulsion of faculty who offer incisive analysis of white supremacy, racial capitalism, Zionism, and the military-industrial complex, all of which Professor West fervently critiques".


title: Cornel West

text: On July 1, 2021, West rejoined the faculty of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, holding the prestigious Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair. Affiliated with Columbia University, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York has served as Columbia's constituent faculty of theology since 1928.


title: Cornel West

text: The recipient of more than 20 honorary degrees and an American Book Award, he has written or contributed to over twenty published books. West is a long-time member of the Democratic Socialists of America, for which he served as an honorary chair. He is also a co-founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives. West is on the advisory board of the International Bridges to Justice. In 2008, he received a special recognition from the World Cultural Council. West is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and its World Policy Council, a think tank whose purpose is to expand Alpha Phi Alpha's involvement in politics and social and current policy to encompass international concerns.


title: Cornel West

text: West has been compared to W. E. B. Du Bois as another prolific African-American thinker. He has been cited as "[p]erhaps the most influential contemporary recover of Du Bois." By establishing West within Du Bois's tradition of racial thought, scholars emphasize the similarities in their intellectual thought and their aesthetic presences. Both Du Bois and West often wore multiple piece suits and ties. They crafted their physical attire to match that of disciplined men of the black race. Their modest clothing choices similarly reflected Du Bois's belief in "the mind and the body as disciplined and contained."


title: Cornel West

text: West has been widely cited in the popular press. His scholarship has been criticized as well as praised; "The New Republic" literary editor Leon Wieseltier called West's writing "sectarian, humorless, pedantic and self-endeared."


title: Cornel West

text: West was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1997 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999.


title: Cornel West

text: West appears as Councillor West in both "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions" and also provides the voice for this character in the video game "Enter the Matrix". In addition, West provides philosophical commentary on all three Matrix films in The Ultimate Matrix Collection, along with the integral theorist Ken Wilber.


title: Cornel West

text: He has made several appearances in documentary films also, such as the 2008 film "Examined Life", a documentary featuring several academics discussing philosophy in real-world contexts. West, "driving through Manhattan, ... compares philosophy to jazz and blues, reminding us how intense and invigorating a life of the mind can be." He also appears in conversation with Bill Withers in the Bill Withers documentary, "Still Bill".


title: Cornel West

text: West has made frequent appearances on the political talk show with his most recent appearance on June 10, 2022. "Real Time with Bill Maher".


title: Cornel West

text: A character based on West and events in his career appeared in the "" episode "Anti-Thesis", significant for introducing the recurring villain character Nicole Wallace.


title: Cornel West

text: In May 2012, West guest-starred in the sixth season of the American television comedy series "30 Rock", "What Will Happen to the Gang Next Year?."


title: Cornel West

text: On the musical front, West recorded a recitation of John Mellencamp's song "Jim Crow" for inclusion on the singer's box set "On the Rural Route 7609" in 2009.


title: Cornel West

text: In 2010, he completed recording with the Cornel West Theory, a hip hop band endorsed by West. He has also released several hip-hop/soul/spoken word albums. In 2001, West released his first album, "Sketches of My Culture". "Street Knowledge" followed in 2004. In 2007, West released "Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations", his third album which included collaborations with the likes of Prince, Talib Kweli, Jill Scott, Andre 3000, KRS-One, and the late Gerald Levert. West appeared on Immortal Technique's song "Sign of the Times", which appeared on the 2011 album "The Martyr". In 2012, he was featured on Brother Ali's song "Letter to My Countrymen", which appeared on the album "Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color".


title: Cornel West

text: In April 2019, Robert P. George and West participated in an "assembly series" discussion at Washington University in St. Louis titled "Liberal Arts Education: What's The Point?"


title: Cornel West

text: In 2000, economist and former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers became president of Harvard. Soon after, Summers held a private meeting with West, where he reportedly rebuked West for missing too many classes, contributing to grade inflation, neglecting serious scholarships, and spending too much time on his economically profitable projects. Summers reportedly suggested that West produce an academic book befitting his professorial position, as his recent output had consisted primarily of co-written and edited volumes. According to some reports, Summers also objected to West's production of a CD, the critically panned "Sketches of My Culture", and to his political campaigning, including spending an alleged three weeks to promote Bill Bradley's 2000 presidential campaign. West contended he had missed only one class during his time at Harvard "in order to give a keynote address at a Harvard-sponsored conference on AIDS." Summers also allegedly suggested that since West held the rank of Harvard University Professor and thus reported directly to the President, he should meet with Summers regularly to discuss the progress of his academic production.


title: Cornel West

text: Summers refused to comment on the details of his conversation with West, except to express hope that West would remain at Harvard. Soon after, West was hospitalized for prostate cancer. West noted that Summers failed to send him get-well wishes until weeks after his surgery, whereas newly installed Princeton president Shirley Tilghman had contacted him frequently before and after his treatment.


title: Cornel West

text: In 2002, West left Harvard University to return to Princeton. West lashed out at Summers in public interviews, calling him "the Ariel Sharon of higher education" on NPR's "The Tavis Smiley Show". In response to these remarks, five Princeton faculty members, led by professor of molecular biology Jacques Robert Fresco, said they looked with "strong disfavor upon his characterization" of Summers and that "such an analogy carries innuendoes and implications ... that many on the Princeton faculty find highly inappropriate, indeed repugnant and intolerable."


title: Cornel West

text: Harvard's undergraduate student newspaper, "The Harvard Crimson", suggested in October 2002 that the premise of the "" episode "Anti-Thesis" was based on West's conflicts with Summers.


title: Cornel West

text: West has called the US a "racist patriarchal" nation where white supremacy continues to define everyday life. "White America," he writes, "has been historically weak-willed in ensuring racial justice and has continued to resist fully accepting the humanity of blacks." He goes on to say this has created many "degraded and oppressed people hungry for identity, meaning, and self-worth." West attributes most of the Black community's problems to "existential angst derive[d] from the lived experience of ontological wounds and emotional scars inflicted by white supremacist beliefs and images permeating U.S. society and culture."


title: Cornel West

text: In West's view, the September 11 attacks "gave white Americans a glimpse of what it means to be a black person in the United States", feeling "unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hatred for who they are". "The ugly terrorist attacks on innocent civilians on 9/11", he said, "plunged the whole country into the blues."


title: Cornel West

text: West was arrested on October 13, 2014, while protesting against the shooting of Michael Brown and participating in Ferguson October, and again on August 10, 2015, while demonstrating outside a courthouse in St. Louis on the one-year anniversary of Brown's death. The 2015 documentary film "#Bars4Justice" includes footage of West demonstrating and being arrested in Ferguson.


title: Cornel West

text: West has described himself as a "non-Marxist socialist" (partly because he does not view Marxism and Christianity as reconcilable) and serves as honorary chairman of the Democratic Socialists of America, which he has described as "the first multiracial, socialist organization close enough to my politics that I could join." He also described himself as a "radical democrat, suspicious of all forms of authority" in the "Matrix"-themed documentary "The Burly Man Chronicles".


title: Cornel West

text: West believes that "the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's ugly totalitarian regime was desirable," but that the war in Iraq was the result of "dishonest manipulation" on the part of the Bush administration. He asserts that Bush administration hawks "are not simply conservative elites and right-wing ideologues", but rather are "evangelical nihilists – drunk with power and driven by grand delusions of American domination of the world." He adds, "We are [now] experiencing the sad gangsterization of America, an unbridled grasp at power, wealth, and status." Viewing capitalism as the root cause of these alleged American lusts, West warns, "Free-market fundamentalism trivializes the concern for public interest. It puts fear and insecurity in the hearts of anxiety-ridden workers. It also makes money-driven, poll-obsessed elected officials deferential to corporate goals of profit – often at the cost of the common good."


title: Cornel West

text: West has been involved with such projects as the Million Man March and Russell Simmons's Hip-Hop Summit, and worked with such public figures as Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton, whose 2004 presidential campaign West advised.


title: Cornel West

text: In 2000, West worked as a senior advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley. When Bradley lost in the primaries, West became a prominent endorser of Ralph Nader, even speaking at some Nader rallies. Some Greens sought to draft West to run as a presidential candidate in 2004. West declined, citing his active participation in the Al Sharpton campaign. West, along with other prominent Nader 2000 supporters, signed the "Vote to Stop Bush" statement urging progressive voters in swing states to vote for John Kerry, despite strong disagreements with many of Kerry's policies.


title: Cornel West

text: In April 2002 West and Rabbi Michael Lerner performed civil disobedience by sitting in the street in front of the US State Department "in solidarity with suffering Palestinian and Israeli brothers and sisters." West said, "We must keep in touch with the humanity of both sides." In May 2007 West joined a demonstration against "injustices faced by the Palestinian people resulting from the Israeli occupation" and "to bring attention to this 40-year travesty of justice." In 2011, West called on the University of Arizona to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.


title: Cornel West

text: West also serves as co-chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives (formerly the Tikkun Community). He co-chaired the National Parenting Organization's Task Force on Parent Empowerment and participated in President Bill Clinton's National Conversation on Race. He has publicly endorsed "In These Times" magazine by calling it: "The most creative and challenging news magazine of the American left." He is also a contributing editor for "Sojourners" magazine.


title: Cornel West

text: West supports People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in its Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign, aimed at eliminating what PETA describes as KFC's inhumane treatment of chickens. West is quoted on PETA flyers: "Although most people don't know chickens as well as they know cats and dogs, chickens are interesting individuals with personalities and interests every bit as developed as the dogs and cats with whom many of us share our lives."


title: Cornel West

text: In 2008, West contributed his insights on the current global issue of modernized slavery and human trafficking in the documentary "Call+Response". West is a member of the Campaign for Peace and Democracy.


title: Cornel West

text: In 2011, West addressed his frustration about some critics of the Occupy Wall Street, who remark about the movement's lack of a clear and unified message. West replied by saying:


title: Cornel West

text: It's impossible to translate the issue of the greed of Wall Street into one demand, or two demands. We're talking about a democratic awakening...you're talking about raising political consciousness so it spills over all parts of the country, so people can begin to see what's going on through a set of different lens, and then you begin to highlight what the more detailed demands would be. Because in the end we're really talking about what Martin King would call a revolution: A transfer of power from oligarchs to everyday people of all colors. And that is a step by step process.


title: Cornel West

text: On October 16, 2011, West was in Washington, DC, participating in the Occupy D.C. protests on the steps of the Supreme Court over the court's decision in the "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" case the previous year. Five days later, he was arrested during an Occupy Wall Street protest in Harlem against the New York Police Department's stop and frisk policy.


title: Cornel West

text: In 2014, West co-initiated the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, a project of the Revolutionary Communist Party USA. Later that year, he and RCP chairman Bob Avakian took part in a filmed discussion on "Religion and Revolution".


title: Cornel West

text: In August 2017, West was one of a group of interfaith, multiracial clergy who took part in a counter-protest at the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia; West averred that Antifa had saved their lives.


title: Cornel West

text: West is an outspoken supporter of Julian Assange, on one occasion saying: “[Assange] has been simply laying bare some of the crimes and lies of the American empire.”


title: Cornel West

text: West has often spoken about the lack of adequate black leadership and how it leads to doubt within black communities as to their political potential to ensure change. West publicly supported 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama. He spoke to over 1,000 of his supporters at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, on November 29, 2007.


title: Cornel West

text: West criticized Obama when he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, saying that it would be difficult for Obama to be "a war president with a peace prize". West further retracted his support for Obama in an April 2011 interview, stating that Obama is "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black muppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it." In November 2012, West said in an interview that he considered Obama a "Rockefeller Republican in blackface."


title: Cornel West

text: In 2011, West participated in a "Poverty Tour" with Tavis Smiley, his co-host on the Public Radio International program "Smiley & West". The tour became a two-part special on their radio program as well as a five-night special on the PBS television program "Tavis Smiley". They recounted their experience on the tour in their 2012 bestselling book "The Rich and the Rest of Us". The stated aim of the tour was to highlight the plight of the impoverished population of the United States prior to the 2012 presidential election, whose candidates West and Smiley stated had ignored the plight of the poor.


title: Cornel West

text: In 2014, West gave an interview criticizing Obama, calling him a "counterfeit" who posed as a progressive. West defined Obama's presidency as "a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, a national security presidency."


title: Cornel West

text: In 2015, West expressed his support for Democratic contender Bernie Sanders during an interview on "CNN Tonight". West argued that Sanders' plans to redistribute wealth from Wall Street elites to the poorest members of society would be beneficial for the African-American community. On August 24, 2015, West tweeted, "I endorse Brother @BernieSanders because he is a long-distance runner with integrity in the struggle for justice for over 50 years."


title: Cornel West

text: In July 2016, after Sanders exited the presidential race, West endorsed Green Party nominee Jill Stein and her running mate Ajamu Baraka. West, who is critical of the current US interventionist foreign policy, referred to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as a "neoliberal disaster", and accused Clinton of merely posing as a progressive.


title: Cornel West

text: Following the victory of Donald Trump, West contended in an op-ed for "The Guardian" that white working- and middle-class voters "rejected the economic neglect of neoliberal policies and the self-righteous arrogance of elites", yet "supported a candidate who appeared to blame their social misery on minorities, and who alienated Mexican immigrants, Muslims, black people, Jews, gay people, women and China in the process."


title: Hanafi

text: The Hanafi school (; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools (maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named after the 8th century Kufan scholar, Abu Hanifa, a Tabi‘i of Persian origin whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Imam Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani. It is considered one of the most widely accepted maddhab amongst Sunni Muslim community and is called the "Madhhab of Jurists" (maddhab ahl al-ray).


title: Hanafi

text: The importance of this maddhab lies in the fact that it is not just a collection of rulings or sayings of Imam Abu Hanifa alone, but rather the rulings and sayings of the council of judges he established belong to it. It had a great excellence and advantage over the establishment of Sunni Islamic legal science. No one before Abu Hanifa preceded in such works. He was the first to solve the cases and organize them into chapters and was followed by Imam Malik ibn Anas in arranging Al-Muwatta. Since the Sahaba and the successors of the Sahaba did not put attention in establishing the science of Sharia or codifying it in chapters or organized books, but rather relied on the strength of their memorization for transmitting knowledge, Abu Hanifa feared that the next generation of the Muslim community would be misled, for not understanding the Islamic Sharia laws well. He began with "Taharah" (purification), then with "Salat" (prayer), then with other acts of "Ibadah" (worship), then "Muwamalah" (public treatment), then sealed the book with "Mawarith" (inheritance) which is what the jurists relied on him after his pass.


title: Hanafi

text: Under the patronage of the Abbasids, the Hanafi school flourished in Iraq and spread throughout the Islamic world, firmly establishing itself in Muslim Spain, Greater Khorasan and Transoxiana by the 9th-century, where it acquired the support of every rulers including Ghaznavids, Delhi Sultanate, Kazakh Sultanate and the local Samanid rulers. Turkic expansion introduced the school to the Indian subcontinent and Anatolia, and it was adopted as the chief legal school of the Ottoman and Mughal Empire. In the modern Republic of Turkey, the Hanafi jurisprudence is enshrined in Diyanet, the directorate for religious affairs, through the constitution (art. 136).


title: Hanafi

text: The Hanafi school is the maddhab with the largest number of adherents, followed by approximately one third of Sunni Muslims worldwide. It is mostly followed in Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt, the Balkans, the Levant, Central Asia, Morocco and Bangladesh, in addition to parts of Russia, China, and India. The other primary Sunni legal schools are the Maliki, Shafi`i and Hanbali schools.


title: Hanafi

text: The circumference of Islamic Sharia is very vast. However, there was no "madhhab" existed in the form current structure among the Sahaba. To them, the only sources of Sharia were the Quran and the Sunnah. If not found in these two sources, consensus used to be adopted. Furthermore, throughout history, the Companions have differed in their practice of knowledge, variation in expertising in certain religious matters, except for those on which there had consensus. The Companions did not live all in specific areas, but were engaged in establishing the Shari'ah in the conquered Muslim areas, and due to differences in knowledge, the Shari'ah took on different forms in those areas. At the end of the era of the Companions, the Tabi'is used to find solutions by adopting different ways to know and convey the Islamic Shari'ah. Therefore, it is said that the ingredients and formulas for establishing the Islamic Shari'ah were prepared by the Sahaba and the Tabi'is. At the end of the Tabi'i period, various wars and the expansion of the Islamic world felt the need to give the Shari'ah a scientific form—Fiqh—which Abu Hanifa, one of the last Tabi'in did by making a unique methodology after working 40 years. At the same time he also established the Islamic credology—Aqeeda as a individual religious science.


title: Hanafi

text: Ja'far al-Sadiq, a descendant of Muhammad and the 5th Sunni Sheikh and 6th Shi'ite Imam, was reportedly a teacher of Abu Hanifah and Malik ibn Anas who in turn was a teacher of Al-Shafi‘i, who in turn was a teacher of Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Thus all of the four great Imams of Sunni "Fiqhs" are connected to Ja'far directly and indirectly.


title: Hanafi

text: In the early history of Islam, Hanafi doctrine was not fully compiled. It was compiled in the 3rd Hijri century and has been gradually developing since then.


title: Hanafi

text: The Abbasid Caliphate and most of the Muslim dynasties were some of the earliest adopters of the relatively more flexible Hanafi fiqh and preferred it over the traditionalist Medina-based Fiqhs, which favored correlating all laws to Quran and Hadiths and disfavored Islamic law based on discretion of jurists. The Abbasids patronized the Hanafi school from the 2nd Hijri century onwards. The Seljuk Turkish dynasties of 5th and 6th Hijri centuries, followed by Ottomans and Mughals, adopted Hanafi Fiqh. The Turkic expansion spread Hanafi Fiqh through Central Asia and into Indian subcontinent, with the establishment of Seljuk Empire, Timurid dynasty, several Khanates, Delhi Sultanate, Bengal Sultanate and Mughal Empire. Throughout the reign of 77th Caliph and 10th Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and 5th Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir, the Hanafi-based Al-Qanun and Fatawa-e-Alamgiri served as the legal, juridical, political, and financial code of most of South Asia.


title: Hanafi

text: During the early periods of time that Islam was just being found up (mainly the first 250 years), there were around 100+ school of thoughts.


title: Hanafi

text: The genesis stage of Hanafiet is generally reckoned by islamic scholars to begin with the time of the judicial research of Abu Hanifa (d. 150 AH) and end with the death of his senior disciple Hasan bin Ziyad (d. 204 AH).


title: Hanafi

text: This stage is concerned with the foundation of the Madhhab and its establishment, the formation of principles and bases upon which orders are determined and branches arises. Abu Zuhra, a prominent 20th century Egyptian Islamic jurist suggested, "The work would have done by the Imam himself. And under his guidance, his senior students would participated in it. Abu Hanifa had a unique "discussions and debate" method to conduct on the issues until they were settled. If resolved, Abu Yusuf would have been ordered to codify it."


title: Hanafi

text: Explaining the method of Abu Hanifa in teaching his companions, Al-Muwaffaq Al-Makki says, “Abu Hanifa established his doctrine by consultation among them. He never possess the rulings arbitrarily without them. He was diligent in practicing religion and exaggerated in advising about God, His Messenger and the believers. He would pick up questions one by one and present to them. He would heared what they had and say what he had. Debates would have continued with them for a month or more until one of the sayings was settled in it. Then Judge Abu Yusuf would formulate the principle from that, thus, he formulated all the principles.” Accordingly, the students of Abu Hanifa were participants in the establishment of this jurisprudential structure, not they were just listeners, accepting what was presented to them. And Abu Yusuf was not the only one who recorded what the opinion settled on, but in the circle of Abu Hanifa there were ten blogging, headed by the four big ones: Abu Yusuf, Muhammad bin Al-Hassan Al-Shaibani, Zufar bin Al-Hudhayl, Hassan bin Ziyad al-Luluii.


title: Hanafi

text: Hanafi "usul" recognises the Quran, hadith, consensus ("ijma"), legal analogy ("qiyas"), juristic preference ("istihsan") and normative customs ("urf") as sources of the Sharia. Abu Hanifa is regarded by modern scholars as the first to formally adopt and institute "qiyas" as a method to derive Islamic law when the Quran and hadiths are silent or ambiguous in their guidance; and is noted for his general reliance on personal opinion ("ra'y").


title: Hanafi

text: Nevertheless the usage of "Ra'y" as one of the sources of their jurisprudence, the Hanafite scholars still prioritize the textual approach of the Sahaba for their jurisprudence, as careful examination by modern Islamic jurisprudence researcher Ismail Poonawala, has found that the influence of the hadiths narrated by Zubayr regarding Rajm (stoning) execution as a form of punishment towards adulterers to be within Abu Hanifa's rulings in the Hanafite school of thought for such kinds of punishments' validity and furthermore, how to implement the punishment in accordance with Muhammad's teachings due to self-confession of the accused. This Hanafite stoning law which is based on hadiths narrated by Zubayr arguably has historical and profound influence as various governments have implemented Hanafite code of law in their state laws from the late medieval to modern period:


title: Hanafi

text: The foundational texts of Hanafi madhab, credited to Abū Ḥanīfa and his students Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani, include "Al-Fiqh al-Akbar" (theological book on jurisprudence), "Al-fiqh al-absat" (general book on jurisprudence), "Kitab al-Athar" (thousands of hadiths with commentary), "Kitab al-Kharaj" and "Kitab al-Siyar" (doctrine of war against unbelievers, distribution of spoils of war among Muslims, apostasy and taxation of dhimmi).


title: Hanafi

text: The Hanafi school favours the use of "istihsan", or juristic preference, a form of "ra'y" which enables jurists to opt for weaker positions if the results of "qiyas" lead to an undesirable outcome for the public interest ("maslaha"). Although "istihsan" did not initially require a scriptural basis, criticism from other schools prompted Hanafi jurists to restrict its usage to cases where it was textually supported from the 9th-century onwards.


title: Arliss Howard

text: Leslie Richard "Arliss" Howard (born October 18, 1954) is an American actor, screenwriter, and film director. He is known for his roles in the films "Full Metal Jacket" (1987), "Tequila Sunrise" (1988), "" (1997), "The Time Traveler's Wife" (2009), "Moneyball" (2011), and "Mank" (2020).


title: Arliss Howard

text: Howard was born in Independence, Missouri. He has a sister, Joy Howard, and two younger brothers, Jim and Kip. He graduated from Truman High School and Columbia College.


title: Arliss Howard

text: Howard established his career with roles in the films "Full Metal Jacket", "Men Don't Leave", "Ruby", and "Natural Born Killers". He was nominated for two CableACE Awards for his roles in the television films "Somebody Has to Shoot the Picture" and "The Man Who Captured Eichmann", winning for the former.


title: Arliss Howard

text: In 1997, he portrayed billionaire John Hammond's evil nephew Peter Ludlow in the film "" and U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun in the film "Amistad".


title: Arliss Howard

text: Howard has had a recurring role in the CBS weekly drama series "Medium" and has directed several episodes. He also starred in and directed the films "Big Bad Love" and "Dawn Anna", both co-written with James Howard, his brother. His wife, Debra Winger, starred in both films. In 2010 he played Kale Ingram, a benignly duplicitous supervisor at an American intelligence agency, in the TV series "Rubicon", which was canceled by AMC after 13 episodes. Howard appeared in the 2011 feature "Moneyball".


title: Arliss Howard

text: Howard has extensive stage credits, including a role in the 2009 revival of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" on Broadway. He has appeared in several productions at the American Repertory Theatre (ART) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, including Paula Vogel's "How I Learned to Drive", with Winger, and Bertolt Brecht's "In the Jungle of the Cities", directed by Robert Woodruff. He was also seen as Mikhail Lvovich Astrov in Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya", and Nikolai Ivanov in Chekhov's "Ivanov", with Winger playing the role of Anna.


title: Arliss Howard

text: Howard joined the cast for a CBS political drama pilot titled "Ways & Means" with Patrick Dempsey in June 2020 during the extent of paying cast pilots.


title: Arliss Howard

text: Howard is married to actress Debra Winger. He has two sons, Sam Howard (born 1987) from his previous marriage to talent agent Karen Sellars, and Gideon "Babe" Howard (born 1997) with Winger.


title: Volkswagen emissions scandal

text: The Volkswagen emissions scandal, sometimes known as Dieselgate or Emissionsgate, began in September 2015, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to German automaker Volkswagen Group. The agency had found that Volkswagen had intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to activate their emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing, which caused the vehicles' output to meet US standards during regulatory testing. However, the vehicles emitted up to 40 times more in real-world driving. Volkswagen deployed this software in about 11 million cars worldwide, including 500,000 in the United States, in model years 2009 through 2015.


title: Volkswagen emissions scandal

text: In 2014, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) commissioned a study from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) on emissions discrepancies between European and US models of vehicles, summing up the data on 15 vehicles from three sources. Among those recruited to this task was a group of five scientists at the West Virginia University Center for Alternative Fuels Engines and Emissions (CAFEE), who used a Japanese on-board emission testing system and detected additional emissions during live road tests on two out of three diesel cars.


title: Volkswagen emissions scandal

text: ICCT also purchased data from two other sources. The new road testing data and the purchased data were generated using Portable Emissions Measurement Systems (PEMS) developed by multiple individuals in the mid-late 1990s and published in May 2014.


title: Volkswagen emissions scandal

text: Regulators in multiple countries began to investigate Volkswagen, and its stock price fell in value by a third in the days immediately after the news. Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned, and the head of brand development Heinz-Jakob Neusser, Audi research and development head Ulrich Hackenberg, and Porsche research and development head Wolfgang Hatz were suspended. Volkswagen announced plans in April 2016 to spend ( at April 2016 exchange rates) on rectifying the emissions issues, and planned to refit the affected vehicles as part of a recall campaign. In January 2017, Volkswagen pleaded guilty to criminal charges and signed an agreed Statement of Facts, which drew on the results of an investigation Volkswagen had itself commissioned from US lawyers Jones Day. The statement set out how engineers had developed the defeat devices, because diesel models could not pass US emissions tests without them, and deliberately sought to conceal their use. In April 2017, a US federal judge ordered Volkswagen to pay a $2.8 billion criminal fine for "rigging diesel-powered vehicles to cheat on government emissions tests". The "unprecedented" plea deal formalized the punishment which Volkswagen had agreed to. Winterkorn was charged in the United States with fraud and conspiracy on 3 May 2018. , the scandal had cost VW $33.3 billion in fines, penalties, financial settlements and buyback costs. Various government and civil actions are currently undergoing in the U.S., as well as the European Union, where most of the affected vehicles are located; while they remain legal to drive there, consumers groups and governments seek to make sure Volkswagen has compensated these owners appropriately as they had to do in the United States.


title: Volkswagen emissions scandal

text: The scandal raised awareness over the higher levels of pollution emitted by all diesel-powered vehicles from a wide range of car makers, which under real-world driving conditions exceeded legal emission limits. A study conducted by ICCT and ADAC showed the biggest deviations from Volvo, Renault, Jeep, Hyundai, Citroën and Fiat, resulting in investigations opening into other diesel emissions scandals. A discussion was sparked on the topic of software-controlled machinery being generally prone to cheating, and a way out would be to open source the software for public scrutiny.


title: Volkswagen emissions scandal

text: In general, diesel engines have better fuel efficiency than petrol engines, but they emit 20 times more nitrogen oxide () unless somehow treated, and three-way catalytic converter technology, which has been very effective at reducing in petrol engine exhaust, does not work well for them.


title: Volkswagen emissions scandal

text: To deal with this fact, in 2005 Volkswagen licensed Mercedes' urea-based "selective catalytic reduction (SCR)" system called "BlueTec" for future diesel engine development. While effective at reducing , an SCR system like Bluetec was expensive, high-maintenance and required more space than other methods, making it unsuitable for Volkswagen's compact cars such as Golf or Jetta. Some managers at Volkswagen rejected BlueTec, and preferred to develop their own inexpensive "lean trap" system. In 2007, Volkswagen canceled the licensing deal for BlueTec and announced that it would use its own pollution control technology.


title: Volkswagen emissions scandal

text: Volkswagen chose the "lean trap" system for its turbo-diesel Golf and Jetta models, but the solution did not work well as it required a fuel-rich exhaust gas in the purification process and fuel economy suffered as a result. Nonetheless, the company promoted the technological miracle of fast, cheap, and green diesel vehicles – but the impression projected to outsiders did not reflect the reality.


title: Volkswagen emissions scandal

text: In reality, the system failed to combine lower fuel consumption with compliant emissions, and Volkswagen chose around 2006 to program the Engine Control Unit (ECU) to switch from lower fuel consumption and high emissions to low-emission compliant mode when it detected an emissions test, particularly for the EA 189 engine. This caused the engine to emit levels above limits in daily operation, but comply with US standards when being tested, constituting a defeat device. In 2015 the news magazine "Der Spiegel" reported that at least 30 people at management level in Volkswagen knew about the deceit for years, which Volkswagen denied in 2015.


title: Volkswagen emissions scandal

text: Starting in the 2009 model year, Volkswagen Group began migrating its light-duty passenger vehicle's turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to a common-rail fuel injection system. This system allows for higher-precision fuel delivery using electronically controlled fuel injectors and higher injection pressure, theoretically leading to better fuel atomization, better air/fuel ratio control, and by extension, better control of emissions.


title: Volkswagen emissions scandal

text: Volkswagen described the diesel engines as being as clean as or cleaner than US and Californian requirements, while providing good fuel economy and performance.