Viewpoint Some seek Indian way to be
Christian
By JANINA GOMES
AThe Catholic church in India has
practiced a Western mode of worship and theology because of its colonial origin
(except in the state of Kerala in Southern India, where the Syrian mode of
worship has prevailed). But from the 19th century to the present day, there has
been a growing chorus of voices calling for a more Indian expression of the
churchs truths and beliefs, in what has now come to be popularly called
inculturation.
In Christian history in India, there have been leading
personalities such as Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya and Narayan Vaman Tilak, Sadhu
Sundar Singh and Paul Sudhakar, who all tried to find a synthesis between the
religion to which they were born and Christianity, the religion to which they
converted. Most lived in the early part of the 20th century.
All these figures contributed immensely to Indias spiritual
history. Upadhyaya also played a significant part in its cultural and political
history. It was he who helped Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian Nobel laureate
poet, to found the Indian University of Shantiniketan and continued Swami
Vivekanandas efforts to establish chairs of Hindu philosophy at Oxford
and Cambridge.
Upadhyaya, through his paper, Sandhya, gave a clarion call
to the masses to work for independence from British rule. In fact, the
awakening of national consciousness stimulated many reform movements in India,
since Indian leaders saw the need of a solid spiritual foundation on which
Indias progress and prosperity could be built. Quite a few reformers
adopted some Christian principles.
Upadhyaya, who became a Christian through his own study, was
deeply attached to all that was good in the Hindu tradition and published a
monthly, The Harmony, in which he tried to reconcile the best in
Hinduism and Christianity.
He believed that just as the Christian religion, when it spread
beyond the confines of Palestine and came face to face with the Greco-Roman
culture, gave birth to theologians who established a synthesis between Greek
thought and the Christian faith, there was a need in India for a fresh
synthesis between the non-dualist form of Indian philosophical and religious
thought and Catholic thought.
Upadhyaya believed that Hinduism and Christianity were not
mutually exclusive. The Christian religion, he argued, was essentially a way
toward union with God, a way of salvation. He felt Hinduism was a social
organization or a culture, which left it open to its members to opt for that
way of salvation that suited each best. He made an important distinction
between two aspects of Hinduism, the one consisting of rules regarding social
life, the other aspect pointing to a way of salvation. Upadhyaya felt that
Hinduism left him free to profess the creed that appealed to him and therefore
had no difficulty in declaring himself to be a Catholic Hindu or a Hindu
Catholic. His arguments in this direction did not find much favor with the
ecclesiastical authorities.
In Maharashtra state in Western India, the great Marathi poet
Narayan Vaman Tilak realized that a Hindu-Christian synthesis was simply not
possible unless the Christian religion had deep roots in Indian culture.
Tilaks love of prayer and devotion was formed by the great poet-saints of
Maharashtra.
Tilak felt the knowledge of God implanted in his mind by the
poet-saints was the best possible preparation for Christ. He was convinced that
God had prepared the mind of India for the coming of Christ through the great
Bhakti movements of popular devotion that sprang up in Hinduism. He referred to
the spiritual teaching of Indias poet-saints as our Old
Testament.
Tilaks talent as a poet enabled him to give to the
devotional life of the Marathi Christians a genuinely Indian expression. He
trained the Marathi Christians to sing bhajans (devotional hymns) and
kirtans (a combination of devotional reading, preaching and
singing).
In more recent times, there have been other theologians who have
advocated giving expression to their Christian faith in a genuinely Indian way.
Among them was George Soares Prabhu, who died in a tragic accident in Pune a
few years ago. Highly critical of what he called the imitations of the West in
the Catholic church in India, he worked for a more rooted and inculturated mode
of theology, one that would spring from the many cultures in the local church,
such as the dalit (low-caste) culture, tribal culture and urban
culture.
The churchs still very Western face has alienated many and
created the impression that Christianity is a religion of the West. The Eastern
origins of Christianity and its more oriental expressions have been ignored. It
will take a lot more of soul-searching, interreligious dialogue and a quest for
new methods of theology before a genuinely Indian Catholic church is born.
Jesuit Fr. Hans Staffner, who worked for many years on
Hindu-Christian synthesis and wrote several books on the subject, among them
Jesus Christ and the Hindu Community and The Significance of Jesus
Christ in Asia, said that a Hindu-Christian spirituality would emphasize
the interior way of going to God, rather than the outward way. It would help
believers to go into their innermost selves, where there is a desire for
boundless truth, goodness and beauty.
He felt that this synthesis would also stress Gods
immanence, as opposed to popular Western thought, which has put a rather
one-sided stress on Gods transcendence. Hindu spirituality has always
found its greatest joy and inspiration in the thought of Gods presence
within us. This emphasis on the deep inner experience would lead to greater
spontaneity in worship. Similarly, he said that with the great reverence shown
for people who have renounced all worldly possessions in Hinduism, this
synthesis would also lead to a great stress on renunciation.
Staffner argued that when a true synthesis was established of the
Christian faith and Hindu culture, it would lead to an increased study of the
spiritual treasures contained in the Hindu culture.
Staffner is not a lone voice in India. And the tussle between
those who would like to cling to the Western mode of expression in the Indian
church and those who see the need to inculturate the Indian church goes on.
Sometimes, a superficial borrowing of Hindu rituals and customs and integrating
them in worship is attempted in the church, without an in-depth study of their
real significance. Much work in this direction needs be done. Perhaps it will
take many years and much more effort before the Catholic church in India is
able to strike deep roots in Indian culture and Indian soil.
Janina Gomes is communications manager at the Indo-Italian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mumbai, India. She contributes regularly to
the Speaking Tree column of the Times of India, a column
devoted to philosophy and religion.
National Catholic Reporter, June 16,
2000
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