Why this cross is red
November 01, 2010 6:37:15 PM
Margins of faith
Author: Rowena Robinson
Publisher: Sage
Price: 695
The book seems a propaganda literature for the church, says BB Kumar
The book, Margins of Faith: Dalit and Tribal Christianity, has a
strange title; stranger still is the content of the book.
First, Christianity with Euro-American backing, a multi-billion dollar
soul-saving industry, and with its churches owning/controlling more
than 1,300 universities and 1,500 other institutions teaching theology
and church history, running about 1,500 radio/TV centres, 930 research
centres and publishing 3,000 journals in addition to another 20,000
magazines/newspapers can never be marginalised.
Second, the term 'Dalit' and 'Tribe' Christianity became necessary due
to the church's failure to bring promised change in the status of
Dalits and tribes even after conversion. After all, conversion was
often perceived as one of the ways of escaping 'caste oppression'.
The book, in general, talks of "double marginalisation of tribal
church", which includes intra-church marginalisation and that by Hindu
tribes. SM Michael's paper, 'Dalit Encounter with Christianity: Change
and Continuity', in particular, talks of five-fold discrimination
against Dalit Christians — by the state, caste Hindus, fellow Hindu
Dalits, upper Caste Christian community and Dalit Christian subgroups.
In reality, however, only Hindu tribes were subjected to
marginalisation, as the church and the British empire helped Christian
converts enormously. Senior British functionaries regarded the
converts as collaborators and helped them. Thus the problem is a
psychological one, emanating primarily from the numerical inferiority
of the converts.
The European soldiers and Christian priests, working in unison, were
enormously successful in colonising the world and proselytising
Africa, Americas, parts of Asia. But Hinduism resisted conversion,
which baffled early missionaries. Abbe JA Dubois, an 18th century
French missionary, could only convert about 200 to 300 people during
his 31 years of missionary work. Incidentally, two-thirds of the
converts were "pariahs, or beggars"! He wrote about them: "I will
declare it, with shame and confusion, that I do not remember anyone
who may be said to have embraced Christianity from conviction." No
wonder many converts, not getting expected temporal advantages,
relapsed into Paganism.
He saw no future for Christianity in India unless "intellectual
Hinduism" was countered by taking steps to diminish the influence of
Brahmins among Hindus.
For church, as the Niyogi Committee Report reveals, end justifies the
means. Purity of means is meaningless for them. Adoption of
"liberation theology" — a philosophy of direct political action — has
given new dimension to the activities of many missions. Dubious
organisations, calling themselves civil rights groups, are floated.
They act through local political forces and ideologies of divisive
significance, hoping to succeed in an India of subverted nationalism.
An official Catholic publication, India and its Missions, issued by
its American Capuchin Mission Monks (1923) discussed the "Spiritual
Advantages of Famine and Cholera". It quoted the report of the
archdiocese of Pondicherry sent to its superiors in Europe: "The
famine has brought miracles. The catechumenates are filling, baptismal
water flows in streams, and starving little tots fly in masses in
heaven."
The book uses notorious terms like Brahminism (for Hinduism) and
neo-Hindus (for tribals). It does not examine why a convert becomes
Hindu-hater? The authors of this book have no use for serious studies,
as was done by Dharampal, proving in no dubious term that exploitation
by the British empire was the root cause of poverty and illiteracy in
India. These weaknesses make the book a propaganda literature, rather
than a serious study of the subject.
--The reviewer is editor, Dialogue
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