“INDIA SHINING” REQUIRES
___Reimagining Education ___
Join us at Anderson Hall, Madras Christian College, Tambaram, Chennai. TN August 14-16, 2026
Young men and women who are being beaten up by the Delhi police are demanding the resignation of the Minister of Education. They are Mother India’s most precious resource. Developing their potential will make India a blessing to the world.
Young people are protesting because, they say, since Modiji became India’s Prime Minister, question papers of about 152 examinations have been “leaked” (i.e., sold in advance to some students.)
The Protestors are reminding the nation that democracy means accountability. The corruption of the examination system has devastated millions of diligent young people. They spent years preparing for these exams. Some of their parents sold their lands or homes to support their studies and pay the fee for these exams.
After the recent leak of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) paper, 12 distressed, wrecked students committed suicide.
The challenge is much bigger than changing the education minister. India needs a whole new education system. The Government knows that, therefore, it is shutting down 22 public schools every single day.
The challenge is: How to ensure that the daughter of an untouchable sweeper, living in a slum, gets the best possible education?
The “modern” idea that a cobbler’s child should be educated began with a history-changing sermon preached by German Reformer Martin Luther in 1530. He explained the meaning of Christ’s command, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33). Luther said that God’s will can be done on earth only if every child knows God and His will.
This insight began “universal literacy.” Lutheran pastors became village teachers. Education opened the Western mind, propelling scientific inquiry, building thoughtful civic institutions, and nurturing responsible citizens and Servant-Leaders.
Lutheran missionaries such as Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (1682-1719) and Heinrich Plütschau (1677-1752) brought this culture-reforming idea to a tiny Danish territory in Tamil Nadu. Jesuit missionaries took it to Goa. But Protestant Britain banned missions from the territories that the East India company ruled.
Colonialism was opposed to educating its subjects. The Company established only two educational institutions for Indians: 1) Calcutta Madrasa (1781), to teach Sharia Law, and 2) Banaras Sanskrit College (1791), to teach Sanskrit, Hindu philosophy and law. That changed in 1813, when William Wilberforce, an Evangelical Member of Parliament, persuaded the Parliament to lift its abominable ban on missions.
Missionaries were needed to educate India because learned Pandits refused to educate even their own daughters, let alone “Lower” caste children. Back then, India had fewer than fifty Protestant churches and chapels, mostly for the British rulers. Churches that obeyed Christ’s Great Commission to immerse nations in Truth brought modern education to India.
Educating the common man, who did not know Sanskrit, Persian or Arabic, required missionaries to fuse oral dialects to create literary languages, including Hindi. This made it possible to create and transmit literature and knowledge.
Churches did not just establish schools to teach boys and girls to read and write. They manufactured paper and developed printing that began the intellectual development of ordinary people. Typically, the vernacular Bible was the first book to be printed. Then the Bible translators went on to publish grammars, dictionaries, textbooks and reforming fiction. Missionaries championed free press in order to promote critical thinking, social reforms and civic responsibility.
Englishmen such as Charles Grant and Claudius Buchanan, who loved God and India, hated the corruption of the British Raj. Their Christian conscience resolved to reform governance. Through careful research, reflection and publications, they urged British churches and universities to send their finest young people to serve (i.e., govern) India.
In response, young men from humble and pious Christian homes dedicated their lives to become India’s civil servants. Many of them were sons of poor pastors. Their families and churches prayed that they would rule India with justice and righteousness.
Missionaries such as William Carey trained these civil servants and police officers. Back then, everyone knew that it was Jesus who had taught that rulers should be servants. Medieval monasteries had taught that humility and service were godly values. The Lutheran Reformation brought that principle of Servant-Leadership out of the monastic cloister into the public domain as “Civil Services.”
Many civil servants came with British Racism. That was obnoxious. However, (generally) racism did not rob civil servants of their moral integrity. As Philip Mason and Peter Drucker have summarized, these godly civil servants gave to India, for the first time in its long history, corruption-free, just governance. India’s “Iron Man,” Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, honored the colonial Civil Services as India’s “steel frame.”
Education shapes civilisations, not just individuals
Good civilisation is a fruit of an education that combines competence with character. Competence is still a hallmark of Indian administrative services. Sadly, however, the character has been compromised. Nehruvian Humanism and Hindutva’s cultural nationalism have sidelined the only force—the Bible—that ever gave India trustworthy governance.
For the purposes of this paper, it is enough to mention only one consequence of separating education from divine wisdom. That is, a visible decline in work ethic. Many teachers, for example, don’t teach! That makes parents lose faith in public education.
In February 2024, the Government of India reported to the Parliament that 93,263 government schools had been shut down between 2014 and 2022. That means over one crore (10 million) children are being deprived of taking the first steps in their intellectual development.
States can tax citizens and dump money into education budgets. But salaries don’t improve our poor work ethic. They attract hirelings, not shepherds such as home-schooling moms. Private education does help students get jobs. But its mission is making money, not building character or great nations.
Can we develop a model that combines academic excellence, technological innovation, ethical leadership, community participation and accountability?
Yes, if we mobilize the community that Jesus created to baptize nations in truth.
Thanks to our indigenous missionary movement, today India has more than 100,000 churches. This growth reflects India’s earnest quest for development with freedom and dignity. It is a tectonic social movement that is provoking backlash: brutal persecution, unjust imprisonments, malicious press, anti-conversion laws and the ban of foreign funds for service to the poor.
Unjust persecution does intimidate some. It also exposes the oppression of our culture. Its best outcome is to birth a Spirit-empowered Church that is taking up its cross to love God and serve the victims of the darkness.
Poor, persecuted and partially intimidated churches remain the potent seed of God’s transforming kingdom. It is already embedded within local communities. The challenge is to support it to sprout and bear much fruit.
Truthpedia is an edu-technology, developed by a Chennai-based software company, RuahTech. Several prayer groups, loosely connected as the “Bless India” movement have come together to use Truthpedia to empower local churches; to help them become neighbourhood learning communities.
The Western Church brought Modern education to India. Truthpedia can enable the Indian Church to fulfill its responsibility to cultivate the Creator’s image in His new-born children.
A church in a slum or a village does not need expensive buildings to develop a child’s mind and character. What it needs are mentors who will make it possible for students to use available resources to educate themselves and each other.
Truthpedia’s aim is to mobilize tens of thousands of knowledge creators to develop an AI-driven encyclopedia. However, it will begin with offering school curricula to students, parents, pastors, teachers, and community leaders. It will train Academic Pastors (teachers) who will shepherd students to cultivate their minds and souls.
Truthpedia is being incorporated as an educational business to partner with the existing edu- ecosystem. It will take learners beyond the classroom by reconnecting education with its larger purpose: develop each child’s potential for the common good.
Some aspects of this vision are being developed in partnership with the Institute for Administrative Services Coaching (IASC) at Madras Christian College, Chennai. Together, we will harness the intellectual capital available in India. Experienced teachers are being invited to help develop an online MA in Leadership. This course is built upon the curriculum developed by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Our MA will equip students to compete for civil services, as it combines professional excellence with Christ’s spirit of self-sacrificing service.
Every church will be helped to start a micro-school for its own children. Parents will be guided to form educational communities. Truthpedia will train their teachers (Academic Pastors).
Some larger churches and Bible schools will be supported to offer online MA in leadership. These initial steps need your prayers and support. Soon Truthpedia will become a platform that enables universities, colleges, schools, educators, researchers, churches and communities to collaborate in developing India’s untapped potential.
Together, we will explore how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can enhance—not replace—human intelligence. How it can overcome intellectual laziness and develop critical thinking, discernment, creativity, wisdom, and ethical responsibility.
A large number of schools are being closed down because universal education is not an Indian value. It entered India’s political culture when Mahatma Gandhi read John Ruskin’s book, “Unto this Last.” It expounds Christ’s revolutionary teaching about God’s kingdom as recorded in Matthew 25:31-46. Ruskin’s book taught Gandhiji that true spirituality requires upliftment of all, the least and the last.
Gandhiji translated Ruskin’s book into Gujarati, re-titling it “Sarvodaya”—Upliftment of All. Gandhiji’s influence on the Congress made it possible for Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar to shape India’s Constitution in the light of the Bible’s teaching on God’s kingdom, justice and righteousness. That vision is expressed in the policies that reserve quotas for the downtrodden in higher education and jobs.
The Bible’s ideas, as articulated by Martin Luther and practiced by the missionary movement, triggered India’s nineteenth-century renaissance. In the 20th century the Bible’s care for the last and the least became the spiritual force that drove India’s Constitutional policies. The policies continue, even though their spiritual dynamism has been sidelined. Now, the low-minded “High Caste” Hindus ridicule the Church’s efforts to uplift the downtrodden. Hindutva has thrown India back on a civilisational crossroads. Christ’s followers are called to take up their cross (that is, insults, injustices and persecution) to bring light to the victims of darkness.
Civilisations are built upon ideas, not on political power and caste interests. Our times are calling Church and education leaders to come together and develop the nation’s real resource—the youth. Making India an example to the world will require us to take up our cross.
In the 19th century, a British cobbler, William Carey, began India’s renaissance because he resolved to “Expect Great Things from God and attempt Great Things for God.”
The Savior, who has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18), and who is making all things new (Revelation 21:5), can empower His body to begin India’s 21st-century renaissance. His blessings will make His children the light of the world.
Respectfully,
Vishal Mangalwadi
For the Reimagining Education Conference
August 14-16, 2026
Anderson Hall, Madras Christian College,
Tambaram, Chennai.
Conf. Mobile: +91-91368 98029
Conf. Email: 2026educonf@truthpedia.ai
Conf. Website: https://conf2026.truthpedia.ai/
Sponsorship: Please sponsor a poor pastor or student with Rs. 6,000
Click here to Register
Here is a video that explains that every single day an average of 22 Government schools are closing. https://youtu.be/GB6QDdzrfFo?si=GkT4-KIUIh_22Hom