Introduction

Despite of a lot of Cultural similarities the main difference between the two countries is the religion.

Christian Community in Pakistan

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a South Asian Country neighboring China to its north, India to its east, Afghanistan and Iran to its west and the Arabian Sea to its South. It appeared on the map in 1947 as an independent state carved out of India. Culturally,it is

very similar to India. The people of India and Pakistan have remarkably similar physical appearances and speak and understand each other's nationally spoken languages. The official language of Pakistan is Urdu. Urdu is spoken like Hindi which is the Indian national language but is written using the Arabic and Persian alphabet. One interesting fact about Indian and Pakistani people is that they can speak each other's languages but cannot read or write them the same way. Indian and Pakistani people share common tastes in music, poetry, movies, and T.V. media shows. Other common interests between both countries are sports like cricket and field hockey.

India is predominantly a Hindu country and Pakistan is predominantly a Muslim country.

The word "Pak" in the Urdu language means pure/sacred and the word "istan" means place/land.

The word Pakistan therefore means " Land of the Pure "

Pakistani Christians make up about 2.5 % of the Pakistani population or roughly 3.5 million . The demoninational makeup of this small minority currently residing in Pakistan is roughly half catholics and half protestants.

Pakistan's population is roughly 210 million. It is the 6th most populated country in the world. Size wise , Pakistan is roughly twice the size of the state of California. Approximately, 94% of the Pakistani population is Muslim.

Initially a part of India for thousands of years, Pakistan gained independence from India in 1947 at the end of the British rule. For hundreds of years millions of Hindus and the Muslims of India had lived side by side but as the yeras went by the fundamental difference in their belief systems led to tensions that elevated to a boiling point during the British rule. Eventually, leaders like Gandhi (a Hindu) and Muhammed Ali Jinnah (a Muslim) , both highly educated , came up through the political ranks and led their communities to deepen the divide between the two dominant religious communities . (The movie "Gandi" portrays a very good depiction of these two historical characters) .

The British at this point in the 1030's had ruled India for a better part of two centuries and saw that the political awareness of the masses was making it very difficult to hold on to the power. By the time, the 2nd world war ended, the British had decided to end their rule of India.

The Government of Great Britain had observed clashes among the Hindus and the Muslims, built up over a better part of

the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's and decided to break India by population. So , in 1947 , The majority areas with the Hindu population remained India but the majority areas with the Muslim population became Pakistan. The newly found Pakistan was called the " Land of the Pure " for the Muslims so that the Muslims of the newly formed country could freely practice the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad ( peace be upon Him ) and the religion that he had introduced to the world called "Islam".

As it were, when Pakistan came into existence, it still had about 6% of its population that was made up of minority religions, mostly Hindus and Christians .

The Christian community in Pakistan over the last seventy years has lived side by side with over 94% of Muslims for the most part, in peace and harmony.

Strong Christian institutions that the Christian missionaries helped establish over two hundred years in the areas of education and healthcare still serve all population segments alike. Like in Europe and North America, the denominational makeup of the Christian community in Pakistan is roughly half Catholics and half Protestants.

When Christianity was first introduced at a large scale to India during the British rule in the 18th and the 19th centuries, the missionaries at the time brought the "Good News" to the masses. However, they met with resistance for the most part as the two majority religions at the time, both Hindus and Muslims generally rejected the idea. The class system in the Hindu religion has left the lowest caste Hindu population at a great disadvantage and had adversely contributed to a devastating marginalization of these communities.

The message of Christ portrayed by the Christian missionaries through not just by their words but by their deeds, won the hearts and minds of some of the members of the lowest caste Hindu communities. They saw in these Christian missionaries that the love of God did not differentiate the high cast from the low caste .

A large majority of native Hindus and Muslims that did convert to Christianity in the beginning , belonged to the lowest caste among the Hindus and the most marginalized among the Muslims .

Which resulted in a built in disadvantage in various ways. Even though the Christian mission institutions over the last hundred years have helped several Christian families and communities in the area of education so that they can break the cycle of poverty and despair, there still remains a huge majority of Pakistani Christians that are barely making both ends meet.

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Over 70% of Pakistani Christian population still works as sanitary help , brick kiln workers , farm laborers and housekeeper on average making less than $60 a month . Essentially , their status in the present day Pakistan continues to be regarded similar to the lowest caste status that their forefathers once had . For most Pakistani Christians , the more things have changed , the more they have stayed the same .

The word " Choorah " and "paleeth" are often used to describe Pakistani Christians . Both of these words in English have a far worse meaning than being despicable .These words are actually closer to the word "Filth" in English language.

Just as the early Christian missionaries felt over a hundred years ago that the only way for those early Christians to break through the cycle of poverty and despair was the access to education , likewise , Pakistan Christian Outreach Foundation also strongly believes that education is the only way out for the poor and the most marginalized Pakistani Christian families and Communities .

Therefore , at PCOF the cause of education has been and will continue to be the centerpiece cause that drives and determines the vision , the goals and the purposes of the Foundation .