‘Good thoughts migrate from one religion to another’

 

Fr Francis D’Britto, who believes in the confluence of cultures in India, is a key force behind Harit Vasai, the NGO that has helped keep the builder mafia at bay. Interview by Shubha Khandekar

 

Father Francis D’Britto started out as a priest in 1972, but a range of issues from language and literature, ecology and social justice has demanded—and received—his incessant attention. With remarkable innovation and dynamism, he has integrated these varied activities into Christianity, the faith of his choice, which he continues to practise.

 

 

Christianity and Islam have been assimilated by Indian culture, which has strengthened bonds among Indians. There is a confluence, not conflict, of cultures here. In the truly syncretic tradition of the country, we transmigrate a good thought, a noble concept, a beneficial practice from one faith to another. Thus, in collaboration with the Ambika Yoga Kuteer, we have organised regular yoga lessons for the local Christians, and they have no difficulty in interpreting the Gayatri mantra in terms of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Christian brides are given a choice of solemnising their marriage by exchanging a ring or wearing a mangalsutra. We have also collaborated with the ‘swadhyayis’ of the late Pandurang Shastri Athavale for inter-religious dialogue, a regular feature of Vasai’s cultural life.

 

 

Suvarta is the chief platform we have always used for social reform and spiritual rejuvenation. Spirituality, social sensitivity and Marathi constitute the three-fold formula we have adopted at Suvarta. The magazine has slowly but steadily built up a global readership, while at the same time blending with mainstream journalism. It is a platform for discussing contemporary issues, and we try to arrive at solutions.

 

The year-long silver jubilee celebrations that concluded on October 2 witnessed the participation of stalwarts such as Dr Abhay Bang and Dr Rajendra Barve, poets Mahesh Keluskar and Aruna Dhere, writers Keshav Meshram and Arun Sadhu in talks and symposia, as massive audiences relished the literary and intellectual feast. It was a blend of literary, social and spiritual issues.

 

 

Since the Urban Land Ceiling Act was lifted in 1985, builders began to turn feed ravenously on the veritable gold mine of Vasai. A taluka of 64 small hamlets, Vasai had no civic body to resist this incursion. Unauthorised, unplanned structures began to proliferate at an alarming rate. The builder mafia, in search of land and sweet underground water, began to encroach upon the green zone. It inevitably led to land grabbing from the local peasant-farmers and drawing of sweet underground water on an unprecedented scale. Slowly but surely, the locals in these once peaceful environs began to be terrorised. The police, lawyers, press, politicians—nobody dared utter a word before the mafia.

 

Power to the people — that was our mantra to fight this terror. We mobilised people on a large scale and Vasai became national news overnight. Helpless victims plucked up the courage to rise together and resist the mafia. Women felt empowered through this non-violent agitation. There was resistance from the developers’ lobby, and they even tried to communalise the issue. But ultimately the government had to withdraw all development plans. That was our biggest triumph. We aimed at the democratisation of power and achieved it. This is in keeping with the principles of Pax Christi—an international spiritual body working on human rights, economic justice and ecology—to which Harit Vasai is affiliated.