India, Feb. 7 -- Assume that you are a foreigner who knows very little about India. You suddenly find yourself in Kochi. Almost the first thing you will wonder is whether you are in a Christian city. The older parts of Kochi are full of beautiful churches and smaller, but still lovely, buildings all dedicated to the glory of Jesus Christ. They easily outnumber mosques and temples.

But you would be quite wrong about this being a Christian city. The majority of Kochi's population is Hindu.

Christians do constitute around 38%, which is higher than most major Indian cities (outside the North East) including Panjim which, in the north Indian imagination, is Christian-dominated, but where Christians constitute only 26% of the population. In b...