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“Christians Persecuted for Faith -We Document, Defend, and Deliver Justice”
Advocating for Religious Freedom, Human Rights of Christians in India & around the World.
ICRM Special Event - Annoucement
International day of the Worlds Indigenous peoples
CHRISTIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO
INDIA’S ADIVASI AND TRIBAL COMMUNITIES
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On August 9th 2026 at 6:00 - 8:00 PM India Time IST
8:30 - 10:30 AM EST
Education: The Largest and Most Visible Contribution
Bringing schools to remote areas
Mission schools were often among the earliest regular schools in geographically isolated hill and forest regions. They used modest village facilities, itinerant teachers and boarding arrangements where settlements were dispersed. Their curriculum could include literacy, arithmetic, hygiene, crafts, music and religious instruction. Whatever their evangelical purpose, the practical effect was to create educational access where state systems were limited.
An IGNOU study unit on tribes and modernization describes missionaries as playing an “outstanding role” in spreading Western education, with Jharkhand among the best-studied cases.
A 2019 comparative study of two Jharkhand villages found substantially higher educational attainment and social capital in the village with a long-standing missionary school than in the comparison village served principally by a government school; the authors caution that local histories differ but conclude that mission education had a measurable developmental role.
Prof. Virginius Xaxa
Prof. Xaxa is an eminent academician and scholar of sociology who has been involved in developmental academics for more than 30 years. He is an alumnus of IIT, Kanpur from where he awarded his Ph.D for Agrarian Social Structure and Class Relations in North Bengal.
Prof. Xaxa commenced his career with the North‐Eastern Hill University (NEHU) and was also the also faculty at Delhi School of Economics & Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He was a Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellow at SOAS, University of London (1988) and a Fulbright Fellow at University of California Santa Cruz, USA (1998).
He held the Rajiv Gandhi Chair in Contemporary Studies at North‐Eastern Hill University, Shillong from 2006‐2008. Virginius Xaxa is at present Professor of Eminence at Tezpur University. As a researcher, he is interested in sociological concerns of plantation labourers, tribal communities, agrarian structure and development, social exclusion and marginalization and has published many books and articles.
At present, he is member of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Society and Giri Institute of Development Studies. He is also member of the Advisory Committee, University with Potential for Excellence Phase II, Central University of Hyderabad.
Prof. Xaxa has been a member of the National Advisory Council of the Government of India and Chairperson of High Level Committee for study of socio‐economic, educational and health status of the tribal communities in the country.
Freedom of Religion is a fundamental Human Right
Religious freedom is a universally acknowledged right, enshrined in numerous international covenants and declarations, such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Helsinki Accords, and others.
The first step in advancing international religious freedom is to shine a light on its abuse, including the persecution and discrimination of religious groups.
At International Christian Rescue Mission , we believe it is our responsibility to provide information regarding the status of religious freedom worldwide , with particular focus on India, so that the international community can identify and implement solutions to address challenges to religious freedom.
We support the right of all countries to speak out against human rights abuses worldwide, including threats to religious freedom.