The Meeting of Opposites?. Andrew Wingate
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higher numbers of converts by following the mission strategy of the ‘church growth’ school of Donald McGavran, where leaders considered how churches would grow best and followed that strategy – the homogenous growth principle. Baptism, believed Newbigin, was often divisive, but so was it in New Testament times. Being part of the visible Church was to be a Christian. M. M. Thomas defined the new humanity as ‘that which responds in faith and receives the liberation of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour’. This did not require baptism.
All this was part of a wider discussion about what it means to be Indian and Christian. There have been a number of initiatives to establish Indian Christian fellowships or churches independent of Western churches. Examples of these were the Indian Church of the Only Saviour (Nattu Sabai). This was formed as the ‘Hindu Church of the Lord Jesus’ in Tinnevelly in 1858, and consisted of Christians of the Nadar community who kept their caste distinctions, and abandoned baptism.16 Another was the movement in Andhra Pradesh of Subba Rao. He was virulently anti-baptism, and called himself a Hindu devotee of Christ. The Old Testament was abandoned, as he responded to a direct vision of Christ in 1942. Again it was a one-caste movement. These are just two of several such groups, none of which has been sustainable long term in any numbers. Moreover, such is the power of Hinduism, and its inclusiveness, that adherents are soon absorbed back into their former fold.
The same applies to so-called secret Christians. These are many and are of two types. Some have been secretly baptized, and are single-minded in their Christianity, usually conservative in their theology and negative to their Hindu background. But social circumstances and family realities mean they keep their baptism secret. The most famous group of these were women in Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu, whose faith was sustained often for two or three generations, until they ‘came out’ as part of the Church. The other group are the large numbers who follow Jesus through prayer, Bible reading, radio programmes, attending meetings, but are part of family Hinduism otherwise. Research shows that in Chennai there are as many such Christians as there are full members of the Church.17 Again, sustaining such a position over a period of years is difficult if not impossible.
Theological parameters have changed rapidly, under the impact of the Dalit movement, and the growing importance of other excluded groups as they have gained a voice, such as women and tribals. Dalit theology has become increasingly dominant and has led to a suspicion of all other forms of theology, including Indian Christian theology, as above, being labelled Brahminic. The studious work of K. P. Aleaz, for example, on Christianity and Advaita has, in recent years, been dismissed by such voices. The high volume of Dalit theology has been varied in its quality, but represents a strong voice of protest, about being silenced for generations. Its most famous voices include James Massey, A. P. Nirmal and M. Prabakhar. Much of it rejects all association with Hinduism in any form. But other writers, most notably Abraham Ayrookuziel, were able to bring out the creative and liberative strains within village Hinduism and its traditions, including its songs, poems and oral traditions.18 Satthinathan Clarke, not himself a Dalit, has written one of the most creative works, coming out of his doctoral thesis, where he compares Christ with the drum. This is the village instrument which a particular Dalit caste is required to play at the funerals of the high caste. He shows how this can become a symbol of liberation rather than of slavery. Recent feminist writings have talked of Dalit Christian women as being threefold discriminated against – as women, Christians and Dalits. There have been attempts to find liberating themes in the persons of goddesses in popular Hinduism, and also in figures such as Sita.
In the Dalit movement some of the distinctions across faiths can fall away, as the emphasis falls on a common identity as the excluded ones, rather than on barriers between faiths. Clearly the Christian movement as a whole has also been a factor in the reform of at least some Hindus’ attitudes to Dalits. The need to treat former untouchables with humanity and dignity has not just come out of a defensive attitude, lest they all convert to other faiths. It has also unearthed the better traditions within Hinduism, as it works at showing that such distinctions are not of the true nature of Hinduism, any more than slavery was of the nature of Christianity. But such changes were necessary for apologetic reasons also. The strong stance taken by Ram Mohan Roy against caste divisions and untouchability was an important step forward. Gandhi himself was not uninfluenced by Jesus’ teaching, particularly in the Sermon on the Mount, in many of the progressive stances he took. He would not enter any temple if it was not also open to those he had named Harijans (a name they later rejected as patronizing – those ‘blessed by God’ – as they took on their own designation, Dalit, meaning ‘crushed ones’; see note 1). Both the Arya Samaj and the Brahmo Samaj claimed at least to be inclusive of all castes, as did the Ramakrishna Mission. The Ramakrishna Mission has a strong emphasis on social work with the poor. Ramakrishna himself had a strong vision of Jesus, as one of the influences behind his formation of the mission.
Questions of mission, evangelism and conversion
Theology and practice of mission has depended in an integral way on theology of religions. The prime motivation for Christian mission in India for centuries was to save souls, and convert communities and individuals to the gospel and to membership of the Church. Whether they lived under what was seen as the tyranny of Islam, or the demonic possession of Hinduism, the task was to rescue them for the sake of their eternal destiny. This exclusivist theology was the norm among the sending agencies, of whatever faith. Numbers of believers were critical in terms of measuring the success of a mission. Tactics might change, between converting the high caste so that there would be a trickle-down effect, or converting the poor and oppressed, as this is where the numbers lay. By far the majority of Indian converts came through mass or community movements. They came by families, villages or castes. This movement was at its peak in the period from 1800 until the 1930s, but has continued at a lesser level since. It was studied very effectively by J. Pickett in his major work Christian Mass Movements in India.19 He reckoned that 50 per cent of Roman Catholics were products of such movements, and 80 per cent of Protestants, throughout India. He showed that motives are always mixed, with religious and spiritual reasons going alongside the desire to gain respect, material support and liberation from caste oppression. Duncan Forrester, in his definitive book Caste and Christianity, wisely comments on motives:
The search for material improvement or enhancement of status is seldom, if ever, the sole or even dominant motive in a mass movement. Dignity, self-respect, patrons who will treat me as an equal, and the ability to choose one’s own destiny – all these are powerful incentives to conversion.20
My own doctoral thesis, published as The Church and Conversion, would suggest the same in later movements also. Now, since Indian independence in 1947, the benefits system discriminates heavily against the Christian convert, and especially their children. Only Hindus, and later Sikhs (from 1950) and Buddhists (from 1990), could receive the benefits accorded to the scheduled castes (Dalits and tribals). Converts became ‘backward caste’ (a category between scheduled castes/Dalits and forward castes). And those from the backward castes, if they converted, were treated as forward caste.
Individuals made their own decision as to whether to take baptism within a people’s movement, usually following the lead of their family leader. But in most villages, some converted and built a church; others remained in Hinduism. The evangelistic activity of the missionaries, whether a minority from overseas, or by far the majority, Indian, was usually combined with educational and medical work, and often development work and advocacy. The theological motivation was exclusive, that people could be saved from darkness; but the nature of the darkness was complex – ignorance, illness, hopelessness, oppression, as well as the worshipping of false gods, or the chains of Islam.
But such is the fear of conversion movements that there was a major backlash in recent years from politically powerful Hindu forces. This fear may be irrational – all the statistics show that the Christian percentage in India is static – but stems from the fact that conversion is a political and demographic issue, as well as a religious, spiritual and psychological question. It has often been said that Hinduism in India is a majority faith with a minority complex. Some of this may be nothing to do with Christians, but stem from the much larger minority of Muslims, fear of foreign influence and terrorism, and nearby