Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present (Oxford History of the Christian Church)

611 Pages·2008·3.27 MB·English

by  Robert Eric Frykenberg

OXFORD HISTORY OF
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Edited by
Henry and Owen Chadwick
This page intentionally left blank
Christianity in India
From Beginnings to the Present
ROBERT ERIC FRYKENBERG
1
3
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PREFACE
ThereligionofChristisoneofthemostdynamicfactorsintheworld.
Italwaysburstsitsboundaries,howeverstrongandrigidthosebound-
ariesmaybe.ItrefusestobeconWnedtoanyonerace,class,orcaste.It
seekstoembraceall.
(VedanayagamAzariah,BishopofDornakal,1932)
Christianity has always been, in its inherent nature and especially in its
expansive phases, transcultural and migratory. Its bent, as manifest in its
historical and universal claims, has been to change with each wave of
expansion. From its initial cultural matrix in Jerusalem, each successive set
of interactions—with cultures of the Graeco-Roman (Mediterranean)
world, with Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic Europe, as also with cultures of
Persia, India, and China—has led to alterations within Christian culture
itself. Modern interactions between Western and non-Western forms of
Christianity have brought further mutations: with distinctive nuancing of
ceremonialsanddoctrines,institutionsandideals,qualitiesandstyles.Many
of the manifold variations in the content and culture of Christianity,
especially in localized forms, have yet to be fully or properly studied,
much less better understood.
This study seeks to explore and enhance historical understandings of
Christian communities, cultures, and institutions within the Indic world
fromtheirbeginningsdowntothepresent.Asoneoutofseveralmanifest-
ations of a newly emerging world Christianity, in which Christians of a
post-Christian West are a minority, it has focused upon those transcultural
interactions within Hindu and Muslim environments which have made
Christians in this part of the world distinctive. It seeks to uncover various
complexities in the proliferation of Christianity in its many forms and to
examineprocessesbywhichChristianelementsintermingledwithindigen-
ousculturesandwhichresultedindualidentities,andalsoleftimprintsupon
various cultures of India. Belief that the Apostle Thomas came to India in
ad 52, and that he left seven congregations to carry on the mission of
bringing the Gospel to India, is a hallowed part of the canon among all
ThomasChristians.Inourdaytheimpulseofthismissionismorealivethan
ever. With the rise of Pentecostalism, the fourth great wave of Christian
vi Preface
expansion in India has occurred, so that there are now ten to Wfteen times
more missionaries than ever before in India’s history. Movements to form
suchcommittedanddevoutvolunteersbeganaboutacenturyago,withthe
formation of the Indian Missionary Society and the National Missionary
Society, under the leadership of Vedanayagam Azariah.
Thisworkaimstoprovideacomprehensiveandfreshunderstandingofthe
history of Christians, Christian communities, and Christian institutions
withinthe‘Indic’world.Itisanattempttodothisbymeansofanapproach
which is at once ‘Indocentric’, integrative, and contextual—something
whichhashithertoneverbeforebeenaccomplishedwithinasinglevolume.
Such an approach must draw upon many previous research eVorts which
have focused upon the particular cultures of Christianity within various
indigenous, Indic, or ‘Indian’ frames of reference. Christianity within the
Indic world (encompassing both the Indian subcontinent and the ‘further
India’ofSouth-EastAsia1)isnot,andcanneverproperlybeseenas,simply
something alien to the cultures and societies within which it is found;
something implanted, or somehow imposed, by foreigners. In this ap-
proach, two further perspectives need to be balanced: one has to do with
the character, nature, place, or role of Christianity within that world,
especially in its inXuence and its authority among the various indigenous
cultures,peoples,andsocietiesofthesubcontinentandbeyond;anotherhas
to do with the character, nature, place, and role of many indigenous
cultures,peoples,andsocietiesintheirinXuenceandswayuponthenature
of Christianity and upon Indo-Christian communities. Each of these per-
spectives raises questions concerning: (1) what ‘indigenous’ (‘Hindu’,
Islamic, Buddhist, or other) cultural components have, at one time or
another, resided within various forms of local Christian culture within
these regions; (2) what features have made Indian or Indic Christianity
and various Christian cultures what they are, for example, within what is
called ‘the Church’, distinct from Christian cultures elsewhere; (3) why
ChristiancommunitiesinIndiahaveconsistentlyfailedtoreachoutbeyond
the bonds and bounds of birth and blood to embrace, encapsulate, and
enclose believers who come from ‘polluting’ lineages; and, Wnally (4) what
elements within Indian Christian cultures have made, may yet be making,
ormayneverbeabletomakecontributionstotheformationofanentirely
new or diVerent kind of truly ‘universal’ (‘catholic’) or world Christianity.
The size of India’s Christian population today is a highly sensitive subject.
By itself, it is now estimated as surpassing entire populations of every
1 IncludingmainlandsofBurma,Thailand,Cambodia,andMalaysia,andislandsofSriLanka
andIndonesia.
Preface vii
country of Western Europe except Germany. This population in 2005,
according to the World Christian Database, was 68.189 million. As such,
India has the seventh largest Christian population in the world—after the
USA (252 million), Brazil (166.8 million), Mexico (102 million), China
(101.9million),Russia(84.4million),andPhilippines(73.9million).2While
theseWguresmaybeopentochallenge,especiallybytheheavilypoliticized
Census of India, the fact remains that Christianity in India, with high and
increasing literacy even among its poorest adherents, now commands a
position of inXuence that can be neither denied nor ignored.
That being said, the historian is faced with the fact that Christianity in
India is anything but a single whole or a monolithic entity. A critic might
well argue, with strong justiWcation, that this volume is mislabelled—that
this is really a history about many separate Christianities, rather than about
one. The extreme complexity and multiplicity baZes and challenges any
eVorttodrawtogetheraneatsynthesisofunderstandings.Atthesametime,
since Christianity in India is far from being the alien implant or ‘colonial’
holdover that some of its foes solemnly aver, there are grounds for con-
sidering exactly how this is not true. Christianity within India is ‘Indian’.
But, whileit isindigenous insomelocalistic orparticularistic sense,yetfor
the most part, even the various forms that may be seen as very indigenous
are not manifestations that may be called ‘Indian’ in any comprehensive or
all-India sense. Writing about Christians in India or about Christianity in
IndiaisnotthesameaswritingaboutChristiansofIndia,‘IndianChristians’,
or ‘Indian Christianity’. So many and varied are the diVerent Christian
communities that the historian is faced with seemingly limitless sets of
diYculties anddilemmas indeWningthe contoursof particularphenomena
that can be Wtted within the broader concept.
As will also be seen in the chapters that follow, therefore, more often
than not Christians within India can be seen as being rooted within the
historyofdistinctethniccommunities,eachdiVerentfromthenext.These
are distinct peoples that have not or do not, as a rule, intermarry or even
interdine outside of their own community, and often do not share many
common memories or traditions. ‘Caste’ is the catch-all concept that has
long been used to capture what is a uniquely indigenous, if not Indic (or
Sanskritic)legacy,inthisparticularisticsense.‘Birth’,inSanskrit,isja¯t;and
ja¯ti, the Sanskritic term for ‘caste’, its most precise or accurate indigenous
2 Data acquired here, from the World Christian Database (Boston: Brill, 2007) and website
http://worldchristiandatabase.org,comesfromareliableandsoberCenterfortheStudyofGlobal
Christianity,atGordon-ConwellTheologicalSeminary.Admittedly,thereismuchboosterismin
promotionalstatisticsputoutbysomeChristianorganizationsthesedays;andadmittedly,some
scepticismisalwaysinorder.Nevertheless,thisresearchinstituteindicatesthatthepercentageof
ChristiansinIndiahasrisento6.7,from2.7in1995.
viii Preface
equivalent. Wherever one turns, there seems to be no escaping this phe-
nomenon or its consequences. It lies at the very bedrock of an entire
civilization and all its manifold cultures, and subcultures. The result, for
Christians, has almost always been that they have tended to carry ‘dual
identities’ or have become manifested as possessing ‘hybridized’ cultural
features;moreover,sinceallethnicitiesareranked,bydegrees,intorespect-
able and non-respectable, or polluting, categories or varnas (or ‘colours’),
various Christian communities are also Wtted into some category and
ranked, whether they like it or not. In this respect, Christianity in India
merely reXects the entire country and its multiplex antiquities and leg-
acies—which are very diYcult to escape.
Nowhere in the world today are existing non-Western forms of Chris-
tianityolderormorecomplexthaninIndia.(SomeThomasChristianslike
to tell anyone, especially Catholics, that there is as much evidence that the
Apostle came to Malabar as that Peter came to Rome.) Nowhere did
‘modern’missionarymovementsbeginanyearlier;andnowherehavethey
lastedanylonger.(Nepal,alongwithmanyaboriginalortribal(adiva¯si)areas,
is currently in the process of responding to fresh missionary initiatives.)
Nowhere have Christian missions become larger, stronger, or more highly
developed. Yet, at the same time, nowhere have indigenous institutions,
cultures, and leadership entered into the dynamics of Christian expansion
more deeply or in greater measure. Nowhere are there some Christian
institutions that are in greater disarray. Nowhere, at the same time, has
cultural,social,andpoliticaloppositionorresistancetoChristianitybecome
more pervasive, powerful, or subtle; and nowhere today are threats to the
veryChristiansurvivalmoreserious.(Scarcelyaweekpasseswithoutsome
churchbuildingbeingdestroyedorsomeChristiansbeingkilled.)
Thisstudyonoccasionmaydepartfromconventionalparadigmsandusages.
In doing so, it may break a few stereotypes, especially when loosely and
mindlessly entrenched in our vocabulary. These, when applied to India,
maynotaccuratelyreXectwhatIndiaisorhowIndiahasbeenrepresented.
Indepartingfromconvention,thereaderisencouragedtoconsiderdistinc-
tionsthathavenotalwaysbeenclearlyspelledoutinmanyworksonIndia,
much less in works on Christians and Christianity in India. Conceptual
paradigms that need clariWcation cover a wide range, grappling with our
ways of deWning geographic categories and contexts, and then proceeding
to a reframing of socio-cultural and to theological and biblical frames of
reference. The whole purpose of resorting to somewhat diVerent usages is
to remind those who ponder such things that our conceptual frameworks
and paradigms are far from immutable and, upon occasion, need critical
revision. This can be uncomfortable.
Preface ix
To begin with, the term ‘continent’, as well as the more conventional
‘subcontinent’, Wnds lodging within these pages. When the terms Africa,
Asia, and Europa were Wrst used by the Greeks, they were concepts con-
nected with the littoral of the Mediterranean. Later, as what we call
‘continents’ expanded these three primary concepts, the original terms
becamemodiWedorqualiWedinto ‘Africa-minor’, ‘Asia-minor’(orAnato-
lia), and ‘Europa-minor’. The trouble with the way these elastic concepts
have developed lies in the fact that, within the greater island of the earth
(Africa, Asia, and Europe), the continent of Europe, especially Western
Europe,stoppedexpandingwhiletheothertwodidnot.MorethanAfrica,
which is neatly deWned by surrounding oceans, Asia as a concept has
become a monstrosity—in a number of ways. In terms of both size and of
discreteness of both physical and cultural features, India is as much a
continental projection of the Eurasian land mass as is either China or
Europe. Europe or China might have been designated, just as arbitrarily
orvalidly,as‘subcontinents’ofaGreaterEurasia.Thattheyarenot,orwere
not, in no way nulliWes the fact that ‘Greater India’ or South Asia is more
completelycutoVbywallsofmountainsandmoatsofoceansandthatitisa
discretecontinent—agiganticentityentirelydistinctfromothergeograph-
ical parts of our planet. For some, pointing out such slippery distinctions
may not matter, and may be seen as unnecessary. For others, such slippery
concepts are confusing.
On the level of cultural nomenclature also, this study attempts to make
some departures that, while not unique, need to be explained. From a
Sanskritic frame of reference, this is a ja¯ti-or varna-centred study. That is,
this is a study that focuses attention on particular kinds of ‘birth’ and on
horizontalcategoriesor‘colours’(varna)—strataofsocio-culturalstatusthat
range from white or pure to red, yellow, and black—and, particularly, on
‘colourless’ (a¯varna) or polluting, and hence polluting or ‘untouchable’
peoples. The ‘lowest’ stratum is broken into a number of substrata. Below
andbeyondthesestrataareaboriginalpeoples(adiva¯sis)—peopleswhonever
fell under the shadow of either Sanskriti or Islamic civilizations and who
retainedalargemeasureofautonomy,albeitoftenwithinwildernessplaces,
beyond the reach of cultural or political domination. Those aboriginal
peoples who came under the sway of culturally ‘higher’ and politically
powerful societies became the polluted (a¯varna) dregs of that society, and
were subjectto bondage and exclusion.Theybecame what are now called
Dalits.AllpeopleswithintheirvariousstratiWedlevelsorcategoriesofpurity
werethemselvesbrokenintoendogamous‘births’or‘castes’(ja¯tis)—people
whoprotectedtheirritualpuritybyrefusingtointermarryorinterdinewith
people not born within their own distinct community.