The census of 1911 gives the population of the country as 315,132,537. Of every hundred people in the world eighteen live in this one land. Among them there are two hundred and seventeen millions of Hindus, more than sixty-six and a half millions of Mohammedans and 3,876,196 Christians. There are ten millions of Buddhists in Burma. George Sherwood Eddy says there are four and one-half millions of mendicants or holy men. These figures are all the more startling when it is recalled that the holy men outnumber the Christians by several hundred thousand.
The caste system makes India one of the most difficult mission fields in the world. There are 2,378 principal castes and tribes, but all these are subdivided so that there are 100,000 caste divisions in India and no two of these can intermarry. The Brahmins have 886 sub-castes. Of the 144,000,000 women, in 1901, according to the Statesman's Year Book, there were 26,000,000 widows, or one in six. On account of the fact that they are not allowed to remarry and other hard social conditions their lot is pitiable indeed. Of these widows it is reported there are 115,285 under ten years of age, 19,487 under five, and 1,064 under one year of age.
India has only 3,555 newspapers and periodicals of all kinds, while the United States with less than one third the population has more than six times as many. Only about five out of each hundred people can read or write. Of 39,000,000 children of school age, 28,000,000 are growing up without schooling.
India has 5,200 missionaries, counting wives, or one to every 60,293 of the population. If wives are not counted, each worker has a parish of 93,901. The preamble of the constitution adopted by the National Missionary Society of India two years ago, states that only one third of India has been reached by missionaries and that one third only partially. There are whole districts, densely populated, where there is no missionary, and in some not even a native Christian.
In the Bombay Presidency it is reported that there are thirty districts, each with a population of over 50,000, in not one of which is there a missionary or a native worker. In Sind there are 3,000,000 people and only three mission stations in the province. "In northern Bengal," says George Sherwood Eddy, "there is only one missionary to every two million of the population."
The problem of determining the exact situation for the whole of India was so complex that the Edinburgh Conference was not able to give a definite statement regarding even the approximate number of people who are not reached, but considering all the facts it seems a fair estimate to say that there are living to-day in India at least 150,000,000 people largely untouched, none of whom can hope to know of Christ unless the force of missionaries and native workers is greatly increased.
4. Bhutan and Nepal.—These two wholly unoccupied states north of India are usually overlooked, yet Bhutan has a population of 250,000, and Nepal, which is not quite as large as Michigan, has five millions of people, or twice as many as there are in that State.
5. French Indo-China.—This portion of Asia is six times as large as New York, with a population of about sixteen and a half millions. Roman Catholics are allowed in all parts of French Indo-China. In all this region there are but two Protestant mission stations, one in Annam and one in Laos. Except in the two missions mentioned, there is not a hospital or even a physician or trained nurse in the whole territory. The attitude of the government has been unfriendly to missionary effort. Vast populations are absolutely ignorant of Christ and his gospel. No Protestant mission work is carried on in Cambodia, Cochin-China, or Tongking.
6. Japan.—Everyone who has studied the geography of Asia has been impressed with the strategic geographical position of Japan. This line of islands circling the seacoast of Asia from Siberia to southern China is truly the gateway of the Orient. The Japanese Christians and some of the missionaries have strongly advocated independence and also the union of the Christian forces.
Many think that Japan is largely evangelized, but one fact will make it clear that this is an erroneous idea. Half of the population of Japan are farmers and have scarcely been touched at all. It will be readily seen why this is so when it is stated that 60 per cent. of the missionaries are in eight cities, Tokyo alone being the headquarters of 279 of the total of 1,029 missionaries in the Empire. These figures include wives.