By Peter Minj
Siliguri, Feb 1, 2023 — In contradiction to the overwhelming popular perception, Christianity long preceded the arrival of British colonizers.
Christianity is purported to have reached the southern shores of India in 52 A.D. Despite its roots set in India almost two thousand years ago, it is still viewed as a foreign set of beliefs alien to India, and its culture. Today, Christianity is sometimes solely viewed as a legacy of the British colonial regime. That is a very narrow and a limited way of looking at it.
The book “Christianity and Indian Culture” edited by Salesian Fr. Dr. Saju Puthuserry is a collection of nine scholarly articles that challenge this limited perception of Christianity in the context of post-colonial India.
The 206 page by Salesian Publications book released on January 31, 2023 costs Rs.700/-.
The book urges one to look into, acknowledge, and consider how Christianity persisted and permeated into the local fabric of a multi-cultural and a multi-faith Indian society, towards its benefit, and in time transformed itself into a new variety of its kind.
The articles are contributed by scholars belonging to diverse disciplines like History, International Relations, Social work, Sociology, Education, Fine Arts, and others. They bring to forefront the far reaching contributions of Christianity in the fields of education, healthcare, social reform, and socio-economic up-lift of the marginalized Dalit and the Adivasi communities.
The papers in the collection were presented in the seminar, “Influence of Christianity on Indian Culture” sponsored by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), organized by Department of Philosophy in August, 2013 at Salesian College Siliguri. And few papers of the seminar were also published in Salesian Journal of Social Sciences in 2013. The primary focus of the collection remains on the role Christianity has played as an agent ushering the Indian society into modernity.
One of the key ideas which have received repeated emphasis is how the core tenets of the Christian faith: love for fellow-beings, and equality of all human beings became a basis for social introspection at first, followed by a social transformation. Thus, the Christian set of beliefs played an important role in establishment of a democratic setup. Not just that, but it continues to remain important to sustain the democratic practice by encouraging harmonious co-existence among diverse communities through service and collaboration starting from the grass-root level.
Another significant idea that has been explored is the symbiotic and bi-directional nature of interaction which occurred between the Christian missionaries and the native Indian cultures. Many Indian social reformers, who were Hindu, were ideologically influenced by Christianity, and the teachings of Christ. This inspired them to look within their faith and eliminate practices which denied individual the right to life of dignity and respect.
On the other side, the Jesuit and the Capuchin missionaries not only enriched the languages and literatures of India, but also introduced the vast array of knowledge embedded in the Indian Classical religious and other texts to the West by translating them into European languages.
One of the articles highlights how the Church attempts to integrate itself into the Indian cultural milieu with the establishment of Christian ashrams, and Christian churches borrowing the architectural patterns and designs of Hindu temples.
Written in a lucid language, the book would be useful for anyone who wants to gain an introduction to the many dimensions in which Christianity has interacted with the cultures of India.
The significance of this book increases as the secular fabric of India is constantly under attack with claims to a monolithic culture against the pluralism which has always been an essential character and trait of our country.
(Peter Minj is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Salesian College Siliguri).