In 1987 Vishal attended the Villars Consultation on “Biblical Mandates for Relief and Development” and was one of the signatories of the Villars statement. In that same year, Vishal was able to mount a successful campaign with the support of the press and many politicians against the revival of Sati (widow burning). This experience led later to an important publication, co-authored with his wife Ruth, on William Carey and the Regeneration of India (1997).

While concentrating on critical social and economic issues, particularly as experienced in India, Vishal also engaged in a penetrating critique of wider spiritual and intellectual trends with his When the New Age Gets Old: Looking for A Greater Spirituality (1992) – a work that received rave reviews from Os Guinness. During this period, Hindutva attacks on Christian missions led Vishal to respond with his book Missionary Conspiracy: Letters to A Postmodern Hindu (1996), followed by his India: The Grand Experiment (1997). Vishal’s direct engagement with poverty and persecution in this context gave him keen insight into the socio-religious roots of the economic backwardness he encountered.

Between 1988 to 1994, Vishal was an assistant to Kanshiram, the founder of the Bahujan Samaj Party, and in 1996, he began lecturing, around the world. From 1999-2000 Vishal and Ruth, spent a year in Cambridge at the University library, researching the Bible’s role in the development of Western culture. Later that year, they were invited to the United States to make a television series on the Bible as the most influential book of the second millennium AD. This research was to form the basis for several important books in the next decade.

In 2001 Vishal published The Quest for Freedom and Dignity: Cast, Conversion & Cultural Revolution. This study zeroed in on the religious roots of India’s problems and boldly proclaimed Christianity as the solution. Vishal has returned to this topic with renewed passion and extensive research in his soon-to-be-published study Conversion: The Revolution India Needs (2023). In this work, Vishal poses the question bluntly: “Is spiritual conversion necessary to replace [a] culture of lies and corruption with truth as well as integrity, oppression and violence with an ability to wash each other’s feet”? The answer is a resounding yes, and the only kind of spiritual conversion that can produce such results is through the power of the Christian Gospel. In 2003, William Carey International University awarded him a Doctorate in Law.

In the years leading up to the pandemic, a series of consultations based on Vishal’s work were held in India, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Switzerland, Uganda, Kenya, Phoenix (AZ), and Seoul (S. Korea). Publication of Vishal’s major new study This Book Changed Everything: The Bible’s Amazing Impact on Our World (2019) added considerable momentum to the movement, and formed the immediate context for the completion of a major collaborative work, The Third Education Revolution (2021), which lays out the foundations and strategy for placing the Church, as the body of Christ, at the centre of a global revival of Christian learning and education from elementary to graduate level and beyond. Given the fundamental importance of this work, a detailed analysis of the book will be provided in a separate document. In-person consultations resumed this year in Philadelphia and focused on the nature and calling of the Church to realize God’s purpose to bless all nations through the fulfillment of the Great Commission-- especially in the realm of education.

One positive result of the lock-downs through 2020-2022, was that the TER movement spread globally and took root through hundreds of zoom chats, prayer and planning meetings, online lectures, consultations, and conferences. During this period the team worked very hard with Vishal to produce several dozen videos on YouTube.com/VishalMangalwadi and TruthMatters.tv. Daily and weekly Prayer Fellowships have now formed around the world. The central Prayer Fellowship happens on zoom on Wednesdays at 11 am (CST) Some of the TER culture warriors have now organized themselves as non-profit charities under the banner “Truth and Transformation,” registered independently in Germany, Nordic Europe, and Canada.

In India, almost a thousand Prayer Warriors have come together under the banner Bless India Project. About 30 of them have co-authored a manuscript, How the Bible Created Modern India. Others have widened the educational vision to also transform the Indian Church to become the catalyst to make healthcare and just agricultural services available to the poor. They will prepare future leaders to impact spheres such as literary, artistic, civil services, and jurisprudence.

Korean missionary entrepreneurs who hosted our international consultation in 2020 have now organized “Billon Souls Harvest.” They have translated The Third Education Revolution into Korean and embraced the vision of establishing a million micro-schools as means of disciplining nations.

Christian leaders from many nations in Africa, South America, and Orthodox and Roman Catholic Europe have come forward to participate in the program.

A YWAM-led effort, coordinating several ministries to refugees, has decided to partner with them in making local Church and technology based-Hybrid education an important component in transforming refugees into builders of great nations (like John Knox). They would like to use the curricula, training, and Learning Management System of the Wisdom Village to transform minds, lives, and nations. The movement is led by an international Board that meets on Fridays.