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Made in India... Well, Almost!
December 17, 2003, 4:15 pm
T R Jawahar
Editor, News Today
Contextualisation. Synthesis. Adaptation. Indigenisation. Localisation. What an impressive array of innocent terminology to couch what should actually be described as 'impersonation'! Christianity in India is no longer the 'phoren' European stuff that would raise the hackles of potential converts who are averse to changing their practices that a change of faith would automatically entail. Not anymore. The religion could be practised with little or no dilution of old habits and tradition, if the converts so preferred. As a special offer to such status quoists, the market research wing of Evangelists Inc. has come up with innovative schemes that allow them to carry on almost all their current methods of worship, with but minor, very minor changes: A different God! And at a different shrine. That's all! No big deal considering one can still do japa or dhyana, perform aarati and puja and lo, even prostrate and idolise, so long as the object is Mary and not Karumari!
First, a flash-back. The Indianisation of Christianity was the original brain child of a medieval, imported faithful answering to the name Robert Di Nobili who had set shop in Madurai which town was then the thriving hub of Hindu religious activity. Faced with stiff resistance from the Hindus to his new theologies, he switched tactics. He deliberately adopted many of the Hindu practices as a ploy - he even called himself a Roman Brahmin! - to push his new religion on unsuspecting natives and to be fair to his evil ingenuity which was backed by sound knowledge of the local texts, this imposter did meet with enormous success, so much so that even the Pope ratified his acts. Not that the Pope was struck by a moral dilemma, it was just that these tactics were new, and anything new was wont to be received with cynicism. The ends erased the immorality of the means eventually and Nobili prevailed in all his ignoble glory. His localisation techniques included wearing a sacred thread with a cross dangling from it, sporting a tuft (kudumi) in typical brahminical fashion, using a forged parchment which was adequately discoloured for faking antiquity in order to prove that he was a direct descendent of Brahma and even writing of books which he, in all audacity, christened as the Fifth Veda! What a pioneer and protagonist for a true faith! And soon enough, he was thronged by followers, all calling themselves Roman Brahmins, resplendent in kudumis and kavis, but Christians, all the same. Nobili was credited to have converted over a lakh during his long innings in India besides perfecting perjury and the plagiarisation of piety with panache and for posterity. But he was and is still hailed as an apostle in all reverence, worthy of emulation!
Now cut to the present. The evil that men do liveth after them, goes an adage. For how long and at what intervals, we do not know. But Nobili's methods have found a grand resurrection now, after over three and a half centuries of his exit and the current 'Christianisation' of India is ample testimony to it. There is a surfeit of literature, books and articles that throw light on this reckless, often ridiculous, localisation drive of Christianity. But nothing can be more revealing than a letter, which again has been oft quoted by many authors and columnists, written from the Vatican City to an Archbishop in India in 1969. This letter was in response to a set of proposals from the Catholic Bishops's Conference of India seeking adaptation of Hindu religious practices for worship by the newly enrolled faithful. The Vatican put the seal of approval on several such modes of worship and even issued specific guidelines! Here are a few gems from that:
* The posture during Mass, both for the priests and the faithful, may be adapted to local usage, that is, sitting on the floor, standing and the like; footwear may be removed also.
* Genuflections may be replaced by the profound bow with the anjali hasta, folding of hands.
* Kissing of objects may be adapted to local customs, that is, touching the object with one's fingers or palm of one's hands and bringing the hands to one's eyes or forehead.
* Incense could be made use of in liturgical services.
* The vestments could be simplified. A single tunic-type chasuble with a stole (angavastra) could replace the traditional vestments of the Roman rite.
* The corporal could be replaced by a tray - Thali or Thamboola Thattu.
* Oil lamps could be used instead of candles.
* Celebrants could be welcomed in an Indian way, e.g. with a single aarti, washing of hands etc.
* In the Offertory rites, the Indian form of worship may be integrated, that is, double or triple 'aarti' of flowers, and/or incense, and/or light.
How very thorough! What chilling clarity! And armed with such a sanction it is no surprise that these 'commandments' are being implemented to the letter, with some overzealous reverends even reading between the lines, of course, to their advantage and for the advancement of the faith. Little wonder that in the Christianity of India today, we have saffron clad swamis and sprawling ashrams, bhajans and stothrams, utsavs and temple flag hoistings and even the Chariot-Ther -this, from the apostles who ridiculed the Jagannath Chariot festival at Puri for its 'barbarism' and attaching to it the infamous jargon 'juggernaut'! Tilak on forehead, flowers on hair and even Mangalsutra are no longer taboo amidst Christian women. Many new fetes have taken roots that correspond or coincide with Hindu festivals. The publicity pamphlets have locals -- brown men, women and children -- looking up to either Christ or Mary, the sinister suggestion all too self-evident. And one can expect more such innovations from the fertile minds of the enterprising evangelists for whom no opening is deemed too small for their flexible morals to squeeze through.
But in all these shenanigans the insidious intent is quite evident, shining forth like neons at night. There is lot of tall talk, giving an altruistic spin to this localisation fad, and trying to project Christianity as an Indian religion, as native as Hinduism of not more. But the motive has always been to finish off Hindu culture from inside, misrepresenting and posing themselves as one among Hindus. The religious calling to the faithful by itself is quite explicit: "To become all things to all men so that they can save some". The idea behind joining the mainstream is not to swim with the tide and enrich it but to divert the stream into a different sea. Indeed, the spirit of Nobili, enshrined in his blunt declaration, 'I shall become an Indian to save Indians', seems to now reside in every evangelist worth his name. If you can't fight them, then infiltrate their ranks! If you can't cope with them, then ape them! And if you can't convince them, then confuse them!
There is a flip side for Christianity in this evangelic euphoria which has not only endured what it could not cure of the heathen practices, but has in all zeal gone one step further to engulf them as did Nobili. That in the process, the religion has ended up acquiring all the 'vile Hindu beliefs' that it had so vehemently condemned, has been of little consequence to its practitioners. It does not seem to have worried any one that by courting these contradictions, the very fundamentals of their religion have been overturned. In their single-minded pursuit of numbers, both of churches and converts, the torch bearers of the 'true faith' have singularly burnt up all semblances of spirituality, ethics and morality that a religion is supposed to foster and have instead seamlessly adopted expediency and deceit as their gospel. Now, no one should ask why a true faith needs such a cloak to pass muster. If that is the diktat of the times, then so be it, the holy refrain seems to run. No matter, if it makes them more heathen than even the heathen!
This desi-videshi religious cocktail is indeed heady, headier than opium. Thus, it is in a fit of daze that I sign off today with the chant: Om Jesus devaya namaha! And I almost forgot. Amen!
Note: The views expressed on this site are those of the respective authors and not necessarily those of IACA. This organization is in no way anti-Christian but rather anti-conversion. For more information about us, click here.
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