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A bounty of goodness: Enumerating the Christian spirit at Christmas time

Despite being only 2.3 per cent of India's population, Christians have contributed much to the social, cultural and educational landscape, not to forget health, politics and music, reports Yogesh Pawar.

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It's that time of the year when the incongruous sounds of Santa on a sleigh are heard all around. Even in a suburban mall washroom Silent Night is played. I wonder how my Christian friend Kevin Braganza would react to such blasphemy. "What's to get offended?" asks the Malad resident nonchalantly as we walk out into the lobby where a giant Christmas tree with Santa's sleigh and reindeers have been displayed.

He was more excited to watch his Class III daughter Samantha (among the only three Christians in her class of 40) singing carols on a stage near the giant tree. When the children break into: "Exult, O morning stars aflame! /With all the works of God proclaim/The Child of Bethlehem who came/For love and love alone," parents from all communities take their cellphones out and get busy recording their children.

Later, in the car, Mumbai's most popular Christian voice, RJ Malishka Mendonsa's full-throated "Kasa Kaay Mumbai?" greets me. How has this community, despite being only 2.3 per cent of India's population (Census 2011), managed to touch the very core of India's soul? Whether advertising, education, fashion, healthcare, music, railways and even the defence; there are few spheres where India's Christians have not excelled and risen to the top, even distinguishing themselves globally.

Long before Europe

Many like Kolkata-based socio-cultural historian Meghana Kashyap feel Christianity could not have gone from strength to strength merely with coercive conversion like "the xenophobic right" makes it out to be. "Largest converts to Christianity have come from lower castes, tired of the exclusion heaped on them by Brahminical Hinduism. Whether pearl fishermen, leather craftsmen, toddy tappers or those who took on sanitation or funereal responsibilities, Christianity embraced all. It allowed them the liberty to openly participate in religious services and rites," she explains citing none other than the first president Dr Rajendra Prasad, who in a speech (on December 18, 1955) on the contributions of Christians, said: "Remember, St.Thomas (Jesus' apostle is said to have landed in Muziris, Kerala in AD 52) came to India when many of the countries of Europe had not yet become Christians, and so those Indian who trace their Christianity to him have a longer history and a higher ancestry than that of Christians of many of European countries. And it is really a matter of pride to us that it is so."

According to her, until the arrival of Vasco Da Gama in Kerala (1498). "Christianity wasn't seen as an alien religion imposed upon natives by outsiders. Under the fostering care of tolerant princes and locals, it developed as an assimilated religion in all respects. At the time, Christians predominantly engaged in agriculture, commerce and welfare, some even fighting as soldiers for local kings.

Largely, inculturation and socio-ecclesial spirituality marked the individuality of Indian Christianity in that era."

About 1,500km away in Jaipur, sociologist Durgaprasad Rathore echoes Kashyap. This academia on the Christian contribution to India, points out how the first batch of Jesuits arrived from Goa at the court of Mughal emperor Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri on February 20, 1580, and this saw the faith spread in the Indo-Gangetic north belt. "There are records to show they enjoyed the patronage of Akbar up until his great-grandson Aurangazeb ascended the throne."

Touching lives

Rathore traces Christianity's spread from eastern Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and then Orissa. "Bihar is home to the oldest Christian community. The first Christian establishment in the region was in 1620 by the Jesuit Simon Figueredo, under invitation/patronage of Patna's then Mughal governor, John Maquirrum Khan," he recounts.

Rathore is particularly emphatic in highlighting how Christianity has changed the face of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur. "The arrival of a Portuguese missionary duo on September 26, 1626, in Assam acted as a springboard for others to follow throwing the whole region into a tumult. The new faith came as a stimulus to poor, forgotten tribal communities, planting in them an inner self-worth, an urge to assert, transform and change. Such self-awareness made people conscious of their own collective identity beyond village, clan or tribe and gave them a more global worldview based on equality, dignity, peace and justice."

Political theologist and author of the treatise – The Future of Christian Mission in India: Toward a New Paradigm for the Third Millennium – the late Fr Augustine Kanjamala would have agreed with Rathore. His book points out how such an approach helped Christianity widen its footprint steadily post-Independence. "The 143 Catholic dioceses and 107 non-Catholic ones from Kashmir to Kanyakumari now run scores of schools, rehab centres, leprosy homes, orphanages, homes for the destitute and the dying, hospitals, dispensaries, colleges, vocational training centers, printing and visual media centres, social uplift programmes and community based initiatives preferred over others not only by Christians, but people of all faiths as being trustworthy and providing relatively better quality of service," it says. Even while the caste structure was exploding, many missionaries like William Carey were learning Indian languages. Carey first translated the Bible into Bengali in 1794 and eight years later, finished his Bengali translation of Mahabharata and Ramayana.

Kashyap also points out how Alexander Duff, who helped found Calcutta University, had a huge influence on the reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy. "Institutions like La Martinières (1845), St Xavier's College, Calcutta (1860) and St Xavier's College, Bombay (1869) started by Christian missionaries of that era still stand the test of time. Many introduced English to first generation learners of the language, acclerating their upward mobility, helping them break down barriers of tradition," she underlines.

Catalysing change

Through the freedom struggle, on the one hand Bengali Christians like Kali Charan Banerjee and Brahmabandhab Upadhyay supported both the Swadeshi movement (1905) and the Non-Cooperation movement (1920) saying: "It is not religion, but human values and patriotism that stands first and we stand firmly with the country to demand complete Swaraj." While others like Rev Narayan Vaman Tilak (who converted in 1895) insisted that though the new converts were Christians by faith they remained culturally Maharashtrian. "Bhajans dedicated to Christ often to the accompaniment of dholaks/cymbals were made popular by Tilak and some are still sung by East Indians," says Cedric D'Silva, a Christian Studies scholar based in Talasari, on the border of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

D'Silva also points out how the 1930 Civil Disobedience Movement, which began with the Dandi March by Mahatma Gandhi found support from the Bombay Christian Movement. "Its first resolution stated that Indian Christians were one with other communities in their desire to win complete Swaraj."

Nearly 70 years post Independence, the disenfranchised continue to seek refuge in the community that continues to go beyond religion in helping them mobilise and assert themselves, says the fiesty women's rights champion and lawyer Flavia Agnes. As someone who has helped hundreds of poor, domestic abuse victims through her activist organisation Majlis, she should know. "Like me, several activists like Bryan Lobo of the Kashtakari Sanghatna that works for tribal rights in rural Thane, Lancy Lobo of the Vadodara's Centre for Culture and Development, Valerian Rodrigues – the political scientist of Ambedkar University – known for his seminal work on Babasaheb Ambedkar and Dalit rights, Senior Supreme Court advocate Colin Gonsalves whose Human Rights Law Network helped pioneer public interest litigation in India, and Dr Walter Fernandes of Guwahati's North Eastern Social Research Centre (NESRC), come to mind when it comes to who else works with distressed and needy."

Cultural contribution

Even in the socio-cultural scene, Christians played an integral role from the early 20th century with renowned composers such as Anthony Prabhu Gonsalves and John Mayer, and musicians Frank Fernand, Braz Gonsalves, Chic Chocolate, Mickey Correa, Lorna Cordeiro and Chris Perry, Pete D'Mello, George and Lucilla Pacheco, Pam Crain, Sonny Lobo, Peter Monsorate and his seven musician sons, ruling the scene in through the 1900s Mumbai and Kolkata where establishments like Golden Slipper, Prince's, Mocambo and Moulin Rouge would host revellers well past 6 am.

In Mumbai's tony Juhu suburb, Clinton Cerejo is unveiling his band's latest single Lafzon ka Kafila. The multiple awardee composer-producer of advertising and film music for 16 years is lauded for his mix of pop melody with a folksy and Indian classical flavour for movies (Jugni, Kahaani 2, Te3n and the soon-to-release 3 Storeys) and CokeStudio2. He admits how opening up of audience sensibilities created space for sounds impossible before.

"Christian children were socialised into scoffing at the desi, but today's young ones in Christian homes are speaking and listening to more Hindi, which in turn creating scope for this space."

Godfather of Indian jazz Louiz Banks is happy to see Bollywood give due space to voices like Dominique Cerejo (Clinton's wife), Marianne D'Cruz Aiman, Neuman Pinto, Caralisa Monteiro, Alyssa Mendonsa, Suzanne D'Mello, Earl D'Souza. "Most music directors of yore, whether it was C Ramchandra Madan Mohan, Shankar-Jaikishan, RD Burman, Lakshmikant-Pyarelal or Bappi Lahiri, had Christian musicians/arrangers. They also got them to sing chorus and occasionally some scat. Very rarely did someone like a Sebastian D'Souza (he fused Indian music with European harmony, cadence and obbligato, and is credited with changing the entire harmonic structure of the Hindi film song) get recognised. That's changing."

It wasn't only music, but also the world of advertising and fashion, which saw Christians at the forefront, points out Rathore. "By the time Mumbai's own Christian girl Reita Faria became the first Asian to win the Miss World pageant in 1966, the only models around were either Christians or Parsis since other communities did not see it as respectable thing for women to do. Even among contemporary models, Nina Manuel, Diandra Soares, Carol Gracias, Candice Pinto, Angela Jonsson, Sara Corner stand out." He underlines how designers like James Ferreira, Wendell Rodricks, Troy Costa are also names that have carved a niche for themselves. Not to forget actors Malaika Arora, Genelia D'souza, Ileana D'Cruz and TV personality and chef Maria Goretti and journalist Faye D'Souza.


***
Kashyap has the best parting shot. "While its true Christianity got the crucifix to this subcontinent, in India, the long arm represents the socio-political and the short, the socio-cultural."
I know my friend from Malad, Kevin would like that. A lot.

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