CHURCH AND THE GOVERNMENT'S FORKED TONGUE

[Dr. John Dayal]

‘Pick our hot chestnuts from the fire, teach our children, and heal
our sick, but no Evangelisation please,’ says the government. And, of
course, nothing doing on Dalit Christians’ rights


JOHN DAYAL

The dapper Union minister, Jairam Ramesh, is a very nice person, a
gentleman. He deserves a reply. And since the princes of the Church
have not been voluble for reasons they know best, let us venture a
response.
The Times Now TV Satellite channel headlined its report on Ramesh
speaking at the Golden jubilee of Caritas India at the Convent of
Jesus and Mary, New Delhi, on Friday 20th January 2012, saying pithily
“Help us in Naxal areas but no religious mobilisation: Ramesh.”

Despite the paraphrasing, the headline does catch the sense and the
mood of what Ramesh told his audience of Cardinals and ordinary
Bishops and clergy. It also makes clear that like most people in
India, and specially politicians ranging from the Marxists at one end
and the Sangh Parivar at the far right, Ramesh too has not been able
to differentiate between the Church as a mission obeying the
commandment of Jesus Christ to serve the poor, the deprived, the sick
and the marginalised, and any service-provider running educational and
health institutions for commercial gain, and occasionally, for
political advantage.
That the government thinks of the Church not only as just a mere
service provider but a particularly naïve one at that, is clear from
the rest of what Ramesh said. It is important, therefore, to quote the
Times Now report in full:

“Union Minister Jairam Ramesh made a strong pitch for roping in
organisations like those run by Catholic Church to bring development
in Maoist-hit areas but asked them to respect the 'Lakshman Rekha' and
not engage in "religious mobilisation". "I expect Caritas to respect
the sentiment of not getting involved in religious mobilisation. That
is not the objective. The objective is to use the powers of the
organisation like yours to help us breakdown the deficit of trust
between the Government and the tribal communities. That is our
objective," he said. The Minister said he does not talk about Caritas
as a Catholic organisation but as a social organisation run by
Catholics. Focusing on the issue of Maoist influence, Ramesh said the
challenge is "how we deal with the whole issue of Maoist violence
which is spreading across large parts of tribal areas. Orissa,
Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh.
All central Indian tribal belt today is in the grip of what our Prime
Minister has described as the most serious internal security challenge
of our country." The Minister said that people in these areas are
unable to carry out their very existence in peace, normalcy and
harmony because of the growing incidents of an ideology that is
dedicated to the overthrowing all democratic institutions. he said
that organisations like Caritas and Ramakrishna Mission have a very
important role to play in such areas, "provided social organisations
respect certain 'Lakshman Rekha'". Foreseeing a possible opposition
from BJP-ruled Jharkhand for involving Caritas India in Maoist-hit
areas, Ramesh said "you must be prepared for this" and said "the
ultimate objective of course is to create an environment in which
peace returns."

Three important issues arise here. What is the nature of service the
Catholic – and Protestant -- Churches provide to the country, and
where. Does this service and these institutions instantly become focal
points of evangelisation, and thereby of proselytising. And finally,
if only as a comparative study, what is the nature of service that
institutions of the Hindu faith, such as Ramakrishna Mission, and the
Ekal and other schools run by the Sangh Parivar, provide, and do they
spread their faith in the areas they work: in affect what is the end
prod duct of their very well financed and administered educational
projects.

Looking at the Christian [I use this better term to include all those
who follow Christ. I find the terms “Catholics and Christians” a bit
of an anathema and not in keeping with the unity sought in Christ]
effort in education and health. It can be easily said that the Church
effort, or the work of the missionaries to be precise, laid the
foundations of modern medicine and modern health services in the
country, including the birthing of the institution of the Indian nurse
who is so ubiquitous across the globe today. This is with due respect
to the traditional systems of medicine practiced by the itinerant
Vaids and Hakims and Dais in rural India. Hospitals, dispensaries and
medical, dental and nursing colleges now dot the landscape, especially
in forest and village areas not easily accessible from metropolitan
and capital cities. In the mega cities and state capitals, it needs be
admitted, the Christian presence is outnumbered by commercial and
glossy hospitals and colleges set up by charitable trusts,
governmetns, and most of all, businessmen who charge huge capitation
fees, give a long berth to meritocracy and teach anyone whose family
has the money, producing doctors of great greed but little training
and talent.

Despite commercialization, in areas of Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh,
Jharkhand, even Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Orissa, the Christian
hospitals and training centres often remain the only one, specially
the only ones not charging sky high fees.
As Fr Kuriala, head of the Education Commission of the Catholic
Bishops Conference recounts, the Catholic Church has been a true
pioneer in promoting modern education in the country. In fact, the
first formal Christian educational enterprise anywhere outside Europe
was the Santa Fe School in Goa, started in 1540. Soon more Christian
Schools appeared in other parts of India: at Bassein (Vasi- 1546), at
Cochin (1549), at Punnakayil (1567), in Madurai (1595). The first ever
Girls’ School in India was opened by the missionaries in 1819 in
Kottayam. The Church also pioneered technical education in the
country, with the first trade schools coming up as early as 1842. It
may also be mentioned that a Sanskrit School was opened by the
Catholic Church in 1846 at Mannanam, Kerala. Though constituting only
1.6% of the population, the Catholic Church in India today runs 13,004
Schools (Lower Primary to XII), 243 Specialized schools, 450 Colleges,
2 Universities, 534 Formal Technical Institutions, 310 Non- Formal
Educational Institutions. Of these nearly 60 % are in the rural areas
and 40 % in the urban areas. The total number of students attending
our institutions is 69, 05,566, of whom 31,76, 466 are boys and
37,29,100 girls. For the record, of the children coming to catholic
schools, 53% are Hindus, 28% Christians, 8.6% Muslims and 10.1%
others. The numbers of the institutions run by the Protestant
Churches may be smaller, but the best of them compete well with the
Catholics. For every Loyola and Xavier college, there is a St
Stephens. In medical education, the Protestant college outnumber
those of the Catholics.

Many of these institutions, and the smaller unnamed dispensaries are
deep in the forests. I have seen many of them, some in Kandhamal in
Orissa where they provide the only place for a healthy birthing by a
tribal woman, or assistance to a delirious patient wafting to be
taken to distant Behrampur as the district hospitals in this district
are an abomination.
Have they become focii of conversions? They have indeed converted
Indian women to give up their apprehensions on caste and creed, and
come to learn the useful and glorious profession of nursing. Once when
most of the nurses were Christians, and mostly from Kerala or the
Maharashtra area, today nursing students come from all over the
country, and most of them are Hindus. The only difference is while
once the Christian nursing schools were giving a stipend to the women
students, the private sector nursing colleges of today charge a hefty
fees. But jobs are plenty, salaries are good and the Indian woman has
shed her inhibition and defied taboos.. Bu there is no conversion to
Christianity, of course. The fact that most of the alumni in
Christians schools are Hindus – Christians almost never form the
majority other than in religious seminaries is testimony to the fact
that while the Christian schools are preferred for the value-loaded
education they important, they have never been accused to inducing
thier students to become Christians.

Let me give contrasting examples from Ramakrishna Mission Schools in
Tribal areas and the Ekal Vidyalayas. The second first. The Ekal
Vidyalayas, whose scholarship, books and pedagogy has not been audited
by any government agency, make no bones showing the sort of education
they give. A mix of mythology and history, a harking to a Hindu golden
age and heroism, the education is a hagiographic introduction to an
India that cannot be articulated as history, or even as political
geography because it speaks of a greater Hindu India which has never
existed. It belittles Buddhism and Jainism, keeps Sikhism’s as a arm
of the Hindus and cold-bloodedly converts the tribal into aggressive
Hindu believer. RK Mission’s forest schools in Chhatisgarh, which I
have visited, are more gentle, and do give some sort of a liberal
education different from the Sangh Parivar. But thier end product is
child who is no longer a tribal, but a Hindu Bengali Bhadralok! Where
is the conversion, and where indeed the hiatus from the Sarna
religion, the tribal Santhal or Oran culture?

Why does the government and Jairam see the Church as a mere service
provider? Possibly it is because Church leadership and institutional
administrators have, of late, been diffident, on the back foot. In the
face of persecution, they have fought shy of facing that they have
been attacked because they have helped empower the poor. They are not
crying out for the poor in the voice of the agitated masses.

In the mouth of the Sangh Parivar, thier mute anger against
empowerment of the poor becomes an argument against conversions. The
two terms are seem the same.

Somewhere hidden behind Jairam’s invitation of working in Naxal prone
areas is also a reference to the insinuation, if not accusation by
the BJP and BJD governments that Christians are working with Maoists.
The Maoists have no religion, if they are rally a ideologically
extremist Left. In the Mao belt, they are mostly Hindus, their
leadership Brahminical. But in Andhra and Bihar and even in Karnataka,
many are Muslims, even Christians and Buddhists. They swear by
ideology, not by faith. But in Orissa, the government seems to be
tying itself into knots trying to establish linkages between
Christians and Maoists. Many innocents have been arrested and kept in
jail without trial.

How then does the government ask the Church to work in specified Naxal
dominated areas. If it is just the states in this corridor, the Church
is already present in Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh,
Orissa and Andhra, working in villages and districts, running schools.
They are not too involved in social action. Some are lawyers and
fighting for a just wage for labourer and teacher, other work on
gender issues for the women, and against trafficking and infant
mortality. There is no major work in trade unions, unlike in Kerala
and Tamil Nadu's fisher folk’s movement.

.
In the North east, the Church has also been a victim of local
terrorism and insurrection. Many priests were killed in Manipur, many
abducted in Assam and elsewhere where they were released in private
arrangements involving large sums of money. The Church, under the
dynamic leadership of Archbishop of Guwahati Thomas Menaparampil, done
a lot for the peace process. So also for the Naga peace process where
the Baptist Church is almost single handed responsible for a return
from arms.
It is a moot question if the increased presence of missionaries will
close the deficit of confidence in the government. The Church cannot
afford to be seen as an agent or front of the government. It will lose
all legitimacy in the eyes of the people.
The government, on the other hand, cannot shirk its responsibility. It
must get its officers and its doctors to go to the villages. It must
provide the teachers and ensure that they are available to teach. It
is not the soldier alone they can send to the forest .

And it must change its response to the Christian community and the
Church.

The government has been ungrateful, to say the least. The time has now
come when we need to ask the government and the political parties if
they are willing to show in word and deed their respect for us. It is
not just their dastardly betrayal of the Dalit Christian. The
government response is yet to be given in the Supreme court where the
Dalit Christen rights is the subject of writ for half a decade. It
is also seen in the government response to the issue of justice for
victims of persecution in Orissa and the rest of the country. And
above all, it is seen in the defence of the so called freedom of
religion Acts which are possibly the greatest assault, on individual
freedom and defiance of international result ions and global norms,
other than in fundamentalist and totalitarian countries.

The Church, finally, needs to tell the government and tell Mr Jairam
Ganesh that it does not do its social work for money. It does not do
it for influence. It does certainly not do it for buying converts. It
does so in absolute obedience to the teachings of Jesus Christians to
serve the poorest of the poor, of which there are plenty in India.
[First published in the Indian Currents]